3 p.m.
Even though it was not yet time to leave work, Gwon Sang-yeol was preparing to do so.
He could not concentrate on his work even while sitting in the office.
Not that he had anything to do in the first place.
More than anything, the thought that his daughter might return home made him increasingly restless.
His daughter had not come home since their argument that day.
He had even called the hospital, but all he received in response was that she had not shown up for work there either.
Her cellphone was turned off.
He could not reach her.
He was worried about his unreachable daughter, but
more than that, he wanted to get her signature on the contract as quickly as possible.
It would be disastrous if Taerim happened to change its mind.
He had to resolve the situation before that happened.
If necessary,
he would have to force her to sign.
That was how urgent the matter was.
There was no reason for Gwon Ju-a to come to the office.
So he thought it would be best to go home and wait.
She might come by to collect her clothes, as she had last time.
The house was their only point of contact.
He went down to the parking lot to drive home.
As he was walking toward his car, a van came to an abrupt stop in front of Gwon Sang-yeol.
Rattle.
The door opened, and a hand reached out.
Before Gwon Sang-yeol even had time to be surprised, he was pulled into the van.
The moment he got inside, a hood was put over his head.
His hands were bound, leaving him unable to move.
His thigh began to sting.
And Gwon Sang-yeol lost consciousness.
.
.
.
Gwon Sang-yeol vaguely came to.
Even before opening his eyes, he sensed that something was wrong.
The floor was swaying, the air smelled of salt, and he could hear the sound of waves.
No way.
Gwon Sang-yeol struggled to open his eyes.
The first thing he saw was the horizon.
Huh?
He looked around again.
Blue ocean stretched in every direction.
Perhaps the sun was about to set; the sun was sinking over one side of the sea.
Gwon Sang-yeol was on a boat.
He had been brought here by boat, to some place he did not know.
“Are you feeling a little better now, Father?”
Someone spoke to him from beside him.
It was a man he had never seen before.
“You really should take better care of your health, Father. That anesthetic was supposed to last an hour, but it took you two hours to wake up. Thanks to you, our shift has gotten longer too. We were supposed to wrap things up and go home, but since the anesthesia wore off late, I’m going to have to work overtime. I should get overtime pay for this, but I’ll let it go today. But, Father, shouldn’t you see a doctor? If it takes you this long to wake up, your liver or kidneys might be in bad shape… Well, does it even matter anymore?”
The strange man beside him was saying something, but Gwon Sang-yeol could not hear a word.
He was simply too bewildered by the situation.
And normally, when someone was abducted like this, the kidnappers would curse at them and threaten them, wouldn’t they?
A kidnapper who called him Father and worried about his health?
There was genuine concern and anxiety in the man’s voice.
None of it made the slightest sense.
He had been dragged into a van from a parking lot as though he were being kidnapped, and when he opened his eyes, he was in the middle of the sea.
No matter how he thought about it, Gwon Sang-yeol was not someone who should be treated this way.
He had never done anything to deserve it.
“Perhaps you’ve mistaken me for someone else, but I’m not the kind of person who should be in a place like this. I’ve never borrowed money. I don’t have any money either. I was wearing a hood, so I didn’t see anything. I really didn’t see anything. So if you just let me go, I’ll live quietly for the rest of my life.”
Gwon Sang-yeol spoke with his eyes squeezed shut.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“What?”
Gwon Sang-yeol still kept his eyes closed.
“I said you don’t have to go that far. The conclusion has already been decided, and we’re just errand boys. We don’t have the authority to make decisions. I’m sorry it turned out this way.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean that Father is going to die today.”
“Whaaat?”
Gwon Sang-yeol jumped in fright.
His closed eyes flew open on their own.
“Couldn’t you have mistaken me for someone else? I haven’t done anything like that. Really. I’ve lived an honest life. I’ve obeyed the law.”
Gwon Sang-yeol spoke with an expression that looked as though he might burst into tears at any moment.
“You were trying to join forces with Taerim, weren’t you?”
“What could nobodies like us possibly do joining forces with Taerim? We were just trying to get a few crumbs from Taerim… even a subcontract would have been enough. That’s not a crime, is it?”
Gwon Sang-yeol explained himself at length, but the man listening seemed utterly uninterested in his circumstances.
“Haha. It isn’t a crime. But there are people who don’t like it.”
“People who don’t like it?”
Gwon Sang-yeol looked at the man as though he were hearing this for the first time.
“People who have been working on Taerim. People who have been preparing to swallow Taerim whole. But you’re trying to marry your daughter into the Taerim family, and now their plans are about to fall apart.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
“I’m saying that the roadmap Yun Tae-gyeom put together was pretty good. If the marriage actually takes place and things proceed according to the roadmap, Taerim will grow and its acquisition price will rise. Their plans have been thrown off, and now they’re going to have to spend more money, aren’t they? So they decided to call off the marriage. But the biggest obstacle is you, Father. The person involved said she didn’t want it, but you kept forcing the issue. So they have to eliminate you. Don’t you agree?”
“No…”
Gwon Sang-yeol was truly terrified.
The man in front of him was kind.
He did not draw a knife or swear at him.
His tone was gentle and familiar.
He consistently called him Father and even spoke politely.
It was as if they were old acquaintances.
He treated Gwon Sang-yeol as though he did not want to do this, but had no choice because it was his job.
And yet, he showed no hesitation or revulsion at the prospect of killing Gwon Sang-yeol.
That was what made Gwon Sang-yeol unbearably afraid.
“I understand things from Father’s perspective, but from our client’s point of view, you’re the biggest problem. I explained it so kindly because you reminded me of my own father.”
In truth, there were no people working on Taerim.
They had simply made up that story to frighten Gwon Sang-yeol.
They thought telling him simply not to go through with the marriage would not work, so they had invented something on the other side.
They had merely created an imaginary enemy.
Gwon Sang-yeol was normally coolheaded,
quick to analyze situations and devise solutions accordingly,
but after being driven into a corner like this, his mind was not functioning properly.
No, more than anything, he found the situation itself difficult to comprehend.
Once he had actually been abducted, his entire body and mind had stiffened.
“I won’t make her get married.”
Gwon Sang-yeol declared it as though making a vow.
“It’s already too late. Our client is already displeased. I told you earlier, didn’t I? I’m just an errand boy. I have no authority to make decisions.”
“I absolutely won’t make her do it. No matter what happens, I won’t make her do it.”
“I’m telling you, it’s too late. But there’s something I’m really curious about. It didn’t have to be Taerim, did it? Your daughter was perfectly capable of living her own life. Why did you go so far when she hated it so much?”
“That…”
After hesitating briefly, Gwon Sang-yeol began to speak.
Thinking this was the end.
Thinking of it as his last will, or perhaps a confession, he began to talk.
If he died here, this man was the only person who would hear his words.
He thought it would be all right to tell him this much.
“I didn’t mean for things to turn out this way. The Taerim family… There may be some talk about them, but they’re still a chaebol family, aren’t they? If she married into that family, she could live her whole life without hardship, couldn’t she? After living as long as I have, I realized that dreams and ideals are all useless. This is a world where you need money even to have a dream. So I wanted to send my daughter somewhere she could live without hardship. But… when she kept saying she hated the idea, I became stubborn at some point. So I ended up forcing her a little. I really did it for my daughter.”
Even in his final moments, Gwon Sang-yeol was gaslighting himself.
For his own sake.
He did not want to become a father who died after forcing his daughter into marriage.
So he deceived himself.
“Hahaha. That’s interesting. It’s different from the information we had, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. We thought it was because of the consulting contract.”
A look of bewilderment crossed Gwon Sang-yeol’s face.
“That… that was only secondary. It wasn’t the absolute reason. I… I just wanted to work. I wanted to prove that I wasn’t an inadequate man. I wanted to show that the fixer of the Strategy Team was still going strong. I’m capable of more than this. I could do better. I was angry because it felt as though the world didn’t recognize me. I think I took it out on Ju-a. Now that I think about it, I’m sorry.”
As he spoke, tears began to fall from Gwon Sang-yeol’s eyes.
Perhaps it was only while speaking that he finally remembered what he had truly wanted.
It seemed that what Gwon Sang-yeol wanted was not money.
An opportunity to display his talents.
An opportunity to work.
Perhaps that was what he had needed.
Perhaps too much had built up inside him, because he soon began sobbing loudly.
“Haah. At this rate, I’ll be getting off work even later.”
The man was not moved in the slightest by Gwon Sang-yeol’s tears.
He merely found them bothersome.
“If you see Ju-a, please tell her that I was truly sorry.”
It was just as Gwon Sang-yeol seemed to make a death flag, as though he had made some sort of resolve,
when a loud bang rang out and the boat rocked.
Before they knew it, another boat had pulled alongside theirs.
The man panicked.
Several people climbed aboard, and in an instant, they subdued him.
Warm hands enveloped Gwon Sang-yeol.
“Are you Mr. Gwon Sang-yeol? We’ve come to rescue you.”
“What? Yes. Thank you.”
Gwon Sang-yeol’s tears would not stop.
.
.
.
At a samgyeopsal restaurant in Incheon.
“Here, have a drink.”
Kang Pal-chun, formerly the head of a Samhaphoe branch,
was sitting across from me.
“Our Kang Pal-chun was quite the actor, wasn’t he?”
At my words, Kang Pal-chun laughed in response.
Kang Pal-chun had also become an entirely different person after attending the Training Center.
He had been avoiding the Daehun Faction and the Samhaphoe, but then he simply went to find Daehun.
He explained his circumstances.
Daehun told him to go to the Training Center,
and after leaving the Training Center, Kang Pal-chun swore his loyalty and entered Daehun’s fold.
“Thank you. Frightening some milquetoast like that? I could do it while sitting around peeling tangerines.”
“You worked hard. I’ll be counting on you from now on too.”
“Just leave it to me. I’ll see it through even if I have to grind my bones to dust.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t make you do anything like grinding your bones. Our work intensity is rather lax.”
Everything from Gwon Sang-yeol’s abduction to his rescue had been a carefully planned production.
I did not know whether this would be enough to change Gwon Sang-yeol.
From a father who forced his own thoughts on his daughter.
From a father who viewed his daughter as a condition in his own dealings,
into a father who worried about and contemplated his daughter’s life.
I did not know whether he could become a father who sincerely wished for his daughter’s happiness.
It would be nice if he did, but if he did not, there was nothing we could do.
This was all that thugs like us could do.
And no matter how strained his relationship with Gwon Ju-a had become, he was still her father.
We could not hurt him physically.
If Gwon Sang-yeol were injured, Gwon Ju-a would be distressed as well.
Still, this should at least be enough to stop him from forcing her into marriage.
This was enough.
********
Taerim Financial Center.
As soon as the conference room door closed,
the already heavy atmosphere grew even heavier.
Chairman Yun Jae-hong opened his mouth heavily.
“So what happened?”
“… All the Southeast Asian funds have pulled out.”
The head of the Strategy Headquarters carefully began to speak.
“The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and even China. We received redemption requests from all our major partnerships. On top of that, the Chinese side notified us that they would be investigating the management of the funds.”
Silence descended over the conference room.
Chairman Yun Jae-hong closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them and asked,
“What’s the reason?”
“Unknown rumors have taken control of the market. At first, they were merely inquiries, but the moment China announced that it would investigate, those rumors became facts.”
“What rumors?”
“There are several. ‘Taerim is facing a liquidity crisis,’ ‘Taerim has been exposed to political risk,’ ‘There has been embezzlement,’ ‘The Financial Supervisory Service is planning an investigation’—baseless rumors like that.”
“How did you manage risk so poorly that such absurd rumors could spread? Weren’t you managing anything?”
Chairman Yun Jae-hong’s roar erupted.
Everyone lowered their heads in the face of his fury and remained silent.
That was when it happened.
“This isn’t a failure to manage risk. We created the risk ourselves.”
Yun Tae-jun, Yun Tae-gyeom’s older brother and his strongest rival in the succession struggle, spoke up.
All eyes turned toward him.
“As far as I know, there was an investment offer worth an enormous sum, and it was rejected, wasn’t it? Because of a woman.”
“You gave up a 100-trillion investment in exchange for giving up marrying a woman you’d only seen once?”
The meeting room stirred at the mention of 100 trillion.
It was an astronomical figure, impossible to ignore.
Faint voices asking, “Is that really true?” could be heard here and there.
“Impressive, little brother. I never knew you were such a romantic. You gave up 100 trillion for a woman. You’ll be popular with the ladies if you go on a morning show.”
Yoon Tae-jun’s mocking voice struck Yoon Tae-gyeom hard in the meeting room.
Chairman Yoon Jae-hong, who had been wearing his glasses, lowered them slightly and looked at Yoon Tae-gyeom.
Under that gaze, he could not move, like prey caught by a snake.
“Is it true?”
“······There are some complicated circumstances involved.”
He barely managed to summon the strength to make an excuse.
“I’m not asking about the circumstances. I’m asking whether it happened.”
“The conditions were complicated, and I thought they might actually have a negative impact on Taerim, so I refused.”
Yoon Tae-gyeom somehow managed to piece together an excuse.
“That’s not the information I heard. It was 100 trillion with no conditions whatsoever, wasn’t it? There wasn’t even any compensation for losses.”
“Hic.”
At his brother’s words, Yoon Tae-gyeom was startled and began to hiccup.
“Our little brother kicked away 100 trillion for love. What should I call this? Should I say it’s admirable? Or should I say he’s crazy? Either way, it’s unprecedented.”
At Yoon Tae-jun’s continued taunting, Chairman Yoon Jae-hong stopped him.
“That’s enough. Stop it. This isn’t the time to argue over that. We need to solve this problem first. Director Kim, how large is the exit?”
“Three hundred billion just today. We need to arrange another two hundred billion by tomorrow.”
“We can handle that much. Let them all exit. Our priority is to show that we’re still standing.”
“We can’t.”
The head of the Finance Division openly contradicted the chairman.
“Why not?”
“Because of the way funds are being managed between the affiliates.”
Chairman Yoon Jae-hong’s eyes narrowed.
“Explain in detail.”
“The funds being managed by Taerim Asset Management have been routed through Taerim Capital and invested in projects belonging to Taerim Construction.”
The instant he heard those words, everyone in the conference room thought, Oh no.
It was a matter of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
“Officially, they were bridge loans and short-term liquidity adjustments, but in reality, it’s a circular structure.”
Yoon Tae-jun asked,
“Can’t we just let them exit? Are we really that incapable?”
“If we do, Taerim Capital will collapse first. Then Taerim Construction. And if Construction starts to shake, every project we have in Southeast Asia will be suspended.”
“A breach of the PF agreements.”
Someone whispered.
“Yes. The banks won’t sit still.”
“So if we let them exit, the other affiliates will go under one after another, but if we hold on to the money, it’ll look like we’re admitting to the rumors surrounding us. Our credit will hit rock bottom.”
“I’m sorry.”
The head of the Finance Division lowered his head.
Chairman Yoon Jae-hong’s eyes turned toward Yoon Tae-gyeom.
“How are you going to solve this?”
“······”
Even enduring the gaze of his father, Chairman Yoon Jae-hong, was too much for Yoon Tae-gyeom.
In truth, Yoon Tae-gyeom had no idea what to do either.
This wasn’t simply a matter of failing to secure a 100-trillion investment.
Someone had accurately grasped Taerim’s structure and was systematically attacking it.
There was no way out in sight.
Why had he done it?
He regretted it.
That man had stirred up a strange sense of rivalry in him.
He had made an enormous mistake simply because he didn’t want to lose.
He had thought emotions were unnecessary,
but at the most crucial moment, he had been tripped up by those very emotions.
By an emotion he could not decide whether to call envy
or jealousy.
The sheer absurdity of the amount had also made him lose all sense of reality.
He had never imagined that bastard actually possessed that kind of money.
If he truly had that much money,
then his influence would have been even greater.
He must have been holding tremendous power, but Yoon Tae-gyeom had overlooked that.
It was as though something had covered his eyes.
“Clearly, this matter is going to be difficult to simply brush aside.”
Chairman Yoon Jae-hong’s words seemed to crash down like thunder.
“Go to him. Beg him. Beg, crawl, lick the soles of his feet—whatever it takes, put everything back where it was. And bring back the 100 trillion as well.”
Chairman Yoon Jae-hong left the conference room after saying only that.
.
.
.
After the meeting ended, Yoon Tae-gyeom returned to his office.
He could not control the anger surging inside him.
Gripping a golf club, he smashed everything in the room to pieces.
He was not normally this kind of person.
He knew all too well that destroying things like this helped no one.
If anything, it only caused losses.
It was something he would never have done, but today, he could not endure it.
He simply could not bear it.
He felt so humiliated and ashamed that he thought he was going mad.
By the time not a single object remained intact in the room, Yoon Tae-gyeom collapsed onto the sofa and ordered his secretary,
“Call the emergency response team.”
The secretary’s face turned pale.
“That··· requires the chairman’s permission.”
A flowerpot flew past the secretary’s face.
Crash.
The flowerpot shattered against the wall, spraying fragments in every direction.
“Call them, you bastard. Are you ignoring me too?”
“No, sir. I’ll call them.”
The Emergency Response Room.
It was an organization used only when something truly urgent occurred at Taerim.
A blade reserved for matters that needed to be “cleaned up.”
Killing that bastard would not solve the problem.
But he could not kneel before that bastard and crawl between his legs.
That could never happen.
Then all he had to do was make that bastard disappear.
In any case, he could not go on living beneath the same sky as that man.
If someone had to be “cleaned up,” it had to be him.
Yoon Tae-gyeom was smiling with a grotesque expression on his face.
His eyes looked less like those of a human being than those of an evil spirit.