“Hello. Sir. I’m Jo Taehyeon of the ‘Procurement Office,’ where we do anything the client wants.”
A man in a fitted striped suit entered the office with a smile.
Even at a glance, the atmosphere in the office must have looked bad,
but the man acted as though that sort of atmosphere was nothing at all, paying it little mind.
Either he was incredibly oblivious,
or he seemed to think he could change an atmosphere like this easily enough.
It was probably the latter.
He gave off the scent of a seasoned gambler who had been through everything.
“Whatever may have happened, let me first apologize to those who were inconvenienced because of us.”
As soon as Jo Taehyeon came in, he bowed ninety degrees and apologized first.
Then he placed the plastic bags in his hands on the table.
“I thought the mood might be stiff, so I brought some food. Seems like I made the right call. Even if you fight later, please eat something first. I didn’t know what everyone liked, so I prepared everything, though I’m not sure if I missed anything.”
At that sight, the atmosphere, which had been as sharp as a blade, seemed to soften a little.
.
.
.
Jo Taehyeon had come from what people commonly called a private investigation agency.
Until high school, he had not studied, not played sports, and not done anything bad.
He had truly been living a life in which he did nothing at all.
The only thing he knew how to do was hang around and chat with his friends.
Perhaps because he was at least good at that, there were quite a few people around Taehyeon.
Whether it was the studious type, the delinquent type, or even the school outcast, Taehyeon would approach them warmly, strike up a conversation, and become friends with them.
When that Taehyeon graduated high school and was thrown into society, there was absolutely nothing he could do.
It wasn’t as if he could write “has lots of friends” on his résumé.
“Good social skills” was not an advantage in modern society.
That was when a friend called him.
“What are you doing these days?”
“Just fooling around. I’m going crazy from how much I have to read the room. I’m thinking maybe I should just go somewhere and learn a trade.”
“Then how about our office? We’re hiring lately.”
“What kind of company is it?”
“We’re a company that provides private services.”
“Private services?”
“Forget it. Just come by once. Seeing it once is better than hearing me explain it ten times. And regardless of that, we should see each other’s faces. We should knock back a drink.”
“Sounds good.”
With nothing else to do, and curious about what private services meant, he went to his friend’s office.
They called it private service, concierge service, but it was no different from a private investigation agency or an errand agency.
They were just calling an errand agency private service among themselves.
It was similar to calling a pyramid scheme multi-level marketing, secondhand reselling resale consulting, or a housekeeper a house-care director.
He went to the office and met a person called the manager.
They went to a nearby Chinese restaurant, where he was treated to sweet-and-sour pork and jajangmyeon.
With his unique sociability, he even became friendly with the manager.
“Hahahaha. I like you. Join us right away. We may look like this, but we’re a company with some name value that deals only with the upper class.”
“It’s a bit burdensome to decide right away. I’ll think about it.”
“Then how about doing a part-time job?”
“A part-time job?”
“Yeah. It’s a job walking dogs here in Buam-dong. Want to try it?”
“A dog-walking job?”
“An elderly couple lives there, and Buam-dong is full of crazy slopes. It’s hard for the grandfather and grandmother to walk the dogs with those knees of theirs. The dogs run around like mad, you see. So they hire part-timers. It’s hard to take a car out just to walk the dogs, and recently they said driving had become difficult too, so they returned their licenses. They said they just take taxis when they need to go somewhere. People like that still want to walk the dogs they think of as their children, but since they can’t go out themselves, they hire part-timers to walk them.”
“Wow, that’s amazing. I think that’s the first time I’ve heard of a job like that.”
“That kind of request falls into a very, extremely normal category, and if you stay here, you’ll get all sorts of truly bizarre requests. Anyway, are you going to do it?”
“Yes. Of course. Where else would I find such a sweet gig? I like dogs, and they’re saying they’ll pay me just to take them for walks.”
“Then I’ll give you the contact information and address, so call them tomorrow and go visit.”
“Yes.”
And so he went to the house in Buam-dong.
They said it was a wealthy neighborhood, and among rows of high walls that made it impossible to see inside the houses, he saw one house that was not particularly large.
‘That’s it.’
When he entered the house, there was a small garden, and behind it stood a two-story home.
In that house lived a curt grandfather and grandmother,
and two retrievers called Janggun and Bori.
Jo Taehyeon went to that house every day to walk the dogs, and he would also help the grandfather and grandmother with household chores they found difficult.
Then one day.
The day he stopped by as usual to take Janggun and Bori out for a walk,
there was someone he had never seen before.
“Chairman, the negotiations are all finished. You just need to go over next week and sign.”
“The conditions?”
“We had one hundred percent of our conditions reflected. They must have been in a hurry too, because they accepted all of our terms.”
“You worked hard. When is the press announcement?”
“We plan to release it immediately on the day you sign, Chairman.”
“Understood.”
“Then I’ll contact you again.”
“Very well. You may go.”
A few days later, that grandfather appeared on TV signing and shaking hands.
[Next news. Dongsam Coretech of South Korea, known as a hidden powerhouse in global power infrastructure, has announced that it has signed a supply contract for a large-scale “Power Grid Modernization Project” led by the U.S. government. The scale of the contract amounts to five billion dollars over the next ten years, roughly seven trillion won, making it Dongsam Coretech’s largest contract to date. As news of the contract spread, Dongsam Coretech’s stock price soared and hit the upper limit. Experts analyzed that there is still significant room for the stock price to rise. The key items secured by Dongsam Coretech are···]
Huh?
The man who had come that day and talked about signing and whatnot was standing behind the grandfather too.
The conversation the two had that day had been about today’s announcement, and because of that announcement, Dongsam Coretech’s stock price had shot all the way to the moon.
If he had known in advance—no, if he had bought Dongsam Coretech stock in advance, how much could Jo Taehyeon have made?
After that incident, Taehyeon came to realize the importance of information.
He realized that every single word that came out of a person’s mouth, every term, every gesture, was all information.
Even a single phrase like, “Ugh, I’m so tired I could die,” contained information.
It could mean exactly what it said, that the person had done something exhausting and was tired, or it could be said jokingly over something trivial.
Perhaps it was something said out of emotional lethargy built up over a long period, or perhaps it was said because the current conversation was unpleasant and the person wanted to end it.
In any case, all words had meaning.
The key was how to interpret that meaning and how accurately to analyze it.
After that day, Taehyeon deliberately met many people,
recorded their conversations, listened to them again, and analyzed them.
Fortunately, the private service where Jo Taehyeon worked had many opportunities to meet all kinds of people.
He spoke with various people about many different fields.
Most of it was useless chatter about personal matters, but occasionally there were words that carried the nuance of information.
He dug into those pieces of information again and again.
Very rarely, they would turn out to be right, but most of them were nonsense or nothing important.
Even so, Taehyeon found that work fun.
It felt like putting together a puzzle, and it also felt like designing the future.
It was so much fun.
As that repeated, at some point, he began to grasp the other person’s intent.
Though they had not said it in words, he began to see the meaning of what they were saying with their bodies, their eyes, their nuances.
He began to sense nonverbal communication—communication through gestures, posture, gaze, eyes, and the like, rather than words.
From then on, it was easy.
Because he could see the other person’s intent.
And so he scratched the places they itched.
He procured the items they needed, connected them with the people they needed, and dug up the information they needed.
Jo Taehyeon would act after receiving a request, but even without a request, if he thought something was needed, he would move first.
This time, too, when he heard the words Daehun Faction and construction company from somewhere, he put his head to work.
Because gangsters entering the construction business was common.
He took the sale of Daeyeon Development and personally went to the Daehun Faction to pass on the information.
He did not even take an information fee.
But Jo Taehyeon knew.
If things went well, they would never just let it pass.
And even if they did not, it did not matter.
He had made a new connection through this opportunity.
At the very least, he was making himself known.
He arranged a meeting with President Kim Changsu, whom he had met once or twice at gatherings at some point.
He had not mentioned the word gangster in case it interfered with the conversation, but had that been the problem?
.
.
.
Jo Taehyeon took the food out onto the table in front of the sofa.
“This is all my fault. I’ll be the one to take the beating, so please have something to eat first. But it’s really dry in here. Is there no humidifier?”
Pretending to look for a humidifier, Jo Taehyeon went toward President Kim Changsu, who was standing blankly in front of the window.
In a low voice that no one else could hear, he whispered.
“It’s been a while, President. But how did it end up like this?”
“······”
Seeing Kim Changsu unable to say anything, Jo Taehyeon seemed to notice something.
“President, you’re hiding something, aren’t you?”
“Huh?”
“Just looking at you, it seems like you were trying to force something while hiding something and got caught.”
“No... I...”
“I know. I know. But you have to pick your audience when you do that. Do those people look like ordinary thugs to you? They aren’t. He’s the king of our gangsters.”
“That... young... that... person is?”
Kim Changsu hurriedly covered his mouth and corrected his words, afraid he would make a slip of the tongue.
Kim Changsu had become afraid to speak.
The sashimi knife in front of his eyes was still vivid.
“He controls half of our country, including Seoul, and though he could control the rest too, he leaves it alone because there’s no need. They haven’t said it in so many words either, but they’ve practically all sworn loyalty to him.”
“Is that true?”
“Even so, Chairman Seo Daehun is known for being a gentleman. He’s famous for avoiding putting his hands on people as much as possible, but if Chairman Seo Daehun is angry enough to call his men like that, then I think he must be truly furious.”
“I-is that so?”
“So tell me. What happened? I need to know if we’re going to negotiate, whether you get beaten or cursed at.”
At Jo Taehyeon’s words, Kim Changsu quietly told him what had happened in the room.
After hearing the story, Jo Taehyeon looked at President Kim Changsu with a troubled expression and spoke.
“He has reason to be angry. This time, you went too far, President.”
“What does he do when he gets angry? Usually?”
“I don’t know either. I’ve never seen Chairman Seo Daehun angry. But one thing is certain: if Chairman Seo Daehun marks you, it won’t be easy to live.”
“You said he was a gentleman. But he’d act that petty?”
“Do you think the chairman would specifically point someone out and tell them to crush that person? Just like in the army, when a division commander only has to point a finger and they’ll level a mountain on their own, they saw Chairman Seo Daehun get angry. Do you think the guys under him will stay still? Especially when the Daehun Faction is a place where loyalty to Chairman Seo Daehun is so strong it’s practically like some half-insane religion.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that in advance?”
“I thought you would sell at the standard price as usual, so I figured there wouldn’t be any problem. You’re someone who normally sells honestly.”
“···..”
“In any case, you are going to sell Daeyeon Development, aren’t you?”
“Right?”
“Then since everyone is gathered, let’s settle it cleanly here. I’ll help you.”
“Sh-should we?”
“One hundred billion isn’t the proper price, is it?”
“······”
.
.
.
After finishing his conversation with President Kim Changsu, Jo Taehyeon apologized to Daehun.
“Chairman, once again, I sincerely apologize. I spoke with President Kim Changsu, and it seems President Kim Changsu’s greed went too far. Since everything here at the private equity fund is directly tied to performance through the sale price, I think he crossed the line out of a desire to receive even a little more money. I apologize on his behalf. And President Kim Changsu says he apologizes as well.”
When Jo Taehyeon looked at President Kim Changsu, President Kim Changsu bowed his head and apologized.
“I’m sorry. I think I was blinded by performance and made a poor judgment. I’m sorry for displeasing you, Chairman.”
“Hah··· Why are you apologizing like that? Then I can’t get angry. That paltry sum isn’t the issue for me. If you’d asked for it, I could have given it to you. But the process was extremely unpleasant. Am I a con man? Huh?”
As time passed, the heated atmosphere settled slightly, and after eating the food set out before him, Daehun felt his anger ease a little.
“Yes. You are absolutely right, Chairman. President Kim Changsu is reflecting deeply on what he did. If you would be generous enough to overlook our rashness, something like this will never happen again.”
“Ah… Am I supposed to let myself get fooled again?”
“In return, Chairman, you should gain something as well. We’ve changed the terms.”
“How?”
“We’ve discounted the 10 billion won by 50%, to 5 billion. It’s a price that should be absolutely impossible, but because of the great trouble we caused you, Chairman, President Kim Changsu made a very difficult decision. I believe you’ll be fully satisfied as well.”
“That must be the list price.”
“… You may think of it as the cost price.”
“Fine. If I came to buy something, I should buy it and leave. I can’t go empty-handed. But we also called our boys over and spent some money putting on this show. They need to eat, too. You should at least take care of that much, right?”
“Of course. That’s…”
“Let’s do it for 2 billion.”
“Pardon?”
“Subtract a bit for the boys’ transportation and meals, round off the odds and ends, and let’s do it for 2 billion.”
Jo Taehyeon looked at President Kim Changsu.
President Kim Changsu shook his head.
It seemed 2 billion was absolutely out of the question.
But Jo Taehyeon’s answer was different.
“Yes, sir. I’ll prepare it that way.”
“Then I’ll leave trusting only you.”
“I’ll draw up the documents and come see you. Please get home safely.”
After Seo Daehun and his group left and the door closed, only then did Kim Changsu and Jo Taehyeon let out the breaths they had been holding.
“Haa… I thought I was going to suffocate.”
Jo Taehyeon picked up the glass on the table and gulped it down.
“Khaa… And, President, how could you shake your head there?”
“But 2 billion really isn’t possible.”
“You still haven’t come to your senses. Are you going to nitpick over things like that even here?”
“It really can’t be 2 billion.”
“You bought Daeyeon Development for 190 billion or so and already squeezed more than 300 billion out of it, but you’re risking your life over 3 billion?”
“Huh? How did you know that?”
“Why wouldn’t I? Even if you sold it for 5 billion, if they did due diligence and decided they’d been ripped off, instead of money, you might have had to cough up an arm or a leg. How are you going to survive being that ignorant of how the world works? I just banked one life for you, President. You should be grateful to me.”
“……”
“Still… 2 billion is…”
“I’ll bring you another company. This time, just do it for 2 billion. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life on crutches.”
“I’ll do it. For 2 billion.”
********
[Do you have any more Ascend? We’d like to receive additional stock. - Beijing]
[The response is too good. Is 10 million possible? We can transfer payment immediately. - Shanghai]
[Order for 5 million. - Guangzhou]
‘These bastards are having the time of their lives, aren’t they?’
The messenger chimed at all hours.
Do these bastards not know about nine-to-six?
No manners. None at all.
I turned off the notifications for the messenger window.
I don’t know how these bastards are selling Ascend, but sales have increased tremendously.
Do these guys not use dead drops?
Are they meeting people and selling directly?
Do they want to get caught and executed?
Is it okay to sell this recklessly?
No matter how large China’s population is, this isn’t an amount that should be used up this quickly and easily.
I was worried.
Ah. Of course, I was worried about myself.
As for those bastards, I couldn’t care less what happened to them.
I had run into a truly big problem.
There was no stock.
There was no such thing as inventory at all.
The warehouse was completely empty.
If I ran the factory, roughly a little over a million candies came out in a day.
If we produced for a week, my inventory would be full.
Then I’d put those candies into my inventory and cross over to China.
Usually, a round trip took a little over ten days.
Then, while I was gone, enough had already been produced to fill my inventory and still have some left over.
Then I’d put more into my inventory and go again.
In the meantime, the candies kept being produced.
After coming back, I’d load up again and go, then load up and go again, repeating it endlessly.
There had been no problem at all.
But once we started sending them by container, the story changed.
The stock vanished in chunks.
Production wasn’t enough.
We were running full capacity twenty-four hours a day, even through the night, but it was nowhere near enough to meet the orders.
We were building a factory, but there was still quite some time left before it would be completed.
On top of that, Edward seemed to be having trouble with development.
I had at least attached Sin Junggi, who was said to be smart, to him, but I didn’t know if they would create any synergy.
So until Edward found a method and the factory was completed, we had no choice but to continue suffering from shortages.
That was why I was worried.
I should buy Edward some chicken and beer so he can research comfortably.
******
Ma Shueling, the boss of Beijing’s large gang, the Heishi Bang (Black Stone Gang), was smoking with an uneasy expression.
Recently, Ascend had been sweeping across China.
For a piece of candy the size of a fingernail, it commanded the enormous price of ten thousand won each.
Even so, it was selling like hotcakes.
SNS was overflowing with testimonials saying that with a single Ascend, people could find the selves they had lost.
Here, there, everywhere—it was all Ascend testimonials.
When people gathered, all they talked about was Ascend.
In this situation, if one could just sell Ascend, one could rake in money.
A rosy path would open up.
But they couldn’t get their hands on that Ascend.
He had ordered his subordinates to look into it from every angle, but all they managed to obtain were a few pieces of Ascend.
Today, too, he had called a meeting to find a way to acquire Ascend.
“So you’re saying we can’t get whatever this Ascend thing is?”
“I apologize. We’ll find a way to obtain it as quickly as possible.”
“And can you obtain it?”
“… We’ll do our utmost to find a way.”
“We’re not trying to get a few pieces to eat ourselves. We need to secure a route for sales. I’m asking whether that’s possible.”
“To be honest, it won’t be easy. We can’t figure out how it’s coming in. Normally, if something becomes this trendy, we would have caught signs of how it entered before then, but there’s nothing like that at all.”
“What, are you saying they brought it in inside a magic pouch?”
“I don’t know.”
“So you want to just sit and watch? When Ascend is doing that well?”
“We’ll find out quickly.”
One subordinate who had been listening carefully spoke up.
“But, Boss. Can’t we just make it ourselves?”
“What?”
“Honestly, candy like that shouldn’t take long to make, right? Can’t we just make it and sell it ourselves? Then we’d save on costs and be able to make it without restrictions. Naturally, we’d earn even more money, too.”
“Huh? Why didn’t we think of that? But can we make it?”
“This is China. The country of knockoffs, where anything can be made exactly the same. We even make cell phones, so some candy like this will be easy.”
“Is that so? Then proceed.”
A satisfied smile spread across Ma Shueling’s face.