A cold deluge crashed down upon Seo Gwang-ho.
Seo Gwang-ho, who had been lying in a comfortable bed, was tied to a cold steel chair.
A faint fishy smell lingered in the air.
An indoor fishing center?
Huh?
But this couldn't be happening.
His bodyguards had definitely come.
Seo Gwang-ho was bewildered by the suddenly changed situation.
As if he still hadn't woken from sleep,
As if he couldn't believe this situation,
the confused Seo Gwang-ho continued to look around.
“Stop looking around. You’re making me dizzy.”
Seo Gwang-ho looked toward the source of the voice.
Standing there was a man who didn't suit this situation at all.
Young, handsome.
A man who looked like he couldn't do anything rough.
“It’s last-will time.”
“Huh?”
“Write your will. We’ll deliver your last words.”
Seo Gwang-ho still hadn't grasped the situation.
He had no idea where this was or what was going on.
“Huh?”
Seo Gwang-ho was looking at me with a stupid expression.
“Is this a joke right now? A dream?”
“No. I’m in a very serious state. I do my best in everything.”
Only then did Seo Gwang-ho shout, as if something had dawned on him.
He seemed to have recognized reality.
“You. Are you a kidnapper?”
“I'm almost hurt that you recognized me so much slower than I expected.”
There was a reason Seo Gwang-ho was so slow to grasp the situation.
It was because he had firmly believed he would never be kidnapped.
A house like a fortress and bodyguards from special forces.
Because he had been certain that he would absolutely never be kidnapped.
But the reality was that he had been captured.
Tied up tight.
“Do you know what you're doing?”
He immediately screamed.
“I do.”
In contrast, my voice was extremely calm and composed.
“The bodyguards won't stay still. They’re probably looking for me right now… Ah!! There they come. Hey, over here, it's this guy. This bastard.”
Seo Gwang-ho shouted while seated in the chair.
The bodyguards ran over.
And greeted me.
“Obsidian Unit. Mission complete.”
“Yeah, good work. Get plenty of rest for a few days.”
They saluted me again and disappeared.
Seo Gwang-ho's gaze turned ice-cold as he witnessed that spectacle.
The belief that the bodyguards would save him vanished before his eyes.
They were bodyguards he had trusted.
Because they were from the special forces,
Because their protection skills were said to be outstanding, Seo Gwang-ho had hired them despite their expensive salaries.
Yet to be backstabbed like this.
It was despairing.
“Wait, didn’t you investigate who the bodyguards by your side were?”
I pointed out Seo Gwang-ho's complacency.
“I did. I checked their IDs and resumes thoroughly. There was no problem. Those bastards betrayed me.”
And Seo Gwang-ho was eager to make excuses.
“What are you talking about? They didn't betray you. From the beginning until now, they've always been on my side. They entered as your bodyguards to catch you.”
He wanted to believe it wasn't true, but the situation spoke the truth.
Seo Gwang-ho's shoulders slumped as he confirmed the cruel truth.
He seemed to have recognized reality, at least somewhat.
That it would be hard to get out of here.
He didn't want to admit it, but he had to.
Seo Gwang-ho had never bowed his head to anyone,
Not even to politicians,
Not even to the President, but now the situation was different.
He had to bow to this man.
He had lived his whole life that way.
He calculated everything.
He calculated what was profitable and acted accordingly.
He went where there was more profit.
There was no conviction, justice, society, or community in that.
Only profit existed.
“Untie me. I'll give you what you need. Money? Women? Just say it. I'll give you whatever you want.”
Seo Gwang-ho seemed to have come to his senses.
He returned to being a businessman at the negotiating table.
He was trying to negotiate terms to make a deal in front of me.
Then it was only right to play along.
“I want money. A lot of money.”
“Uwahahaha. So it was money after all. I'll give it. Will 1 billion won do?”
Seo Gwang-ho laughed refreshingly.
The look in his eyes as he watched me was greedy.
Did he think I was the same kind of person after all?
“What can you do with 1 billion won? Buy snacks or something?”
“Right. I didn't think 1 billion would cut it. I'll give you 3 billion.”
Seo Gwang-ho spoke as if showing great magnanimity.
“Your scale is too small, Chairman. Go higher.”
“Ahem… 3.5 billion. No more. It's tough. Moving that much cash is difficult.”
He spoke in a tone that someone like me wouldn't understand, as if teaching me.
“You don't have to give it in cash, though?”
“Huh?”
Seo Gwang-ho was slightly surprised.
“Land is fine, buildings are fine too. Put them on the table.”
“If I give you that, you'll be caught immediately. You need laundered money, don't you?”
“I'm not going to receive it. Not me—you're going to donate it to the Association of Bereaved Families of Independence Merit. So it doesn't need to be laundered. Buildings are fine, land is fine, goods are fine too. Now, show me your sincerity.”
Seo Gwang-ho was flustered by the unexpected situation.
He could give money.
Of course it was a waste, but he could earn more.
But donating to the Association of Bereaved Families of Independence Merit was an entirely different matter.
Japan, his main base, would be very displeased.
In Japan, they had long been trying to eliminate these organizations.
The Liberation Association, the Association of Bereaved Families of Independence Merit, Justice and Memory Solidarity, the Korean Atomic Bomb Victims' Association, and so on.
In fact, using Cheonghwahoe, they had lowered support funds and obstructed the operations those organizations conducted.
Through various methods, they blocked or scaled down their operations.
But donating to an organization they had tried to eliminate?
And Seo Gwang-ho, of all people?
Seo Gwang-ho himself?
The relationship with Japan he had built up until now would collapse in an instant.
This was unacceptable.
It was a deal where the future disappeared.
It wasn't simply a matter of losing some money.
“That seems difficult. I'll raise it to 4 billion won instead.”
“It seems our chairman was raised in a sheltered life and doesn't know the score. You've been kidnapped right now. You're tied up. You're being threatened. So act like someone who's been kidnapped. If you're too brazen, it makes me want to use violence. So act accordingly.”
I spoke while looking into Seo Gwang-ho's eyes, in a very low voice.
At those words, Seo Gwang-ho seemed a bit frightened.
Even so, he didn't back down.
Greed overcame fear.
“What did I do so wrong!! Huh? I'm asking what I did so wrong!!”
He began to shout even louder.
Did he think it was now a dead end?
Did he think that if he lost momentum, it was over?
“Oh, you've done too many wrongs. How many people has the chairman killed?”
“Did I kill them? They died on their own, so why are you blaming me?”
Seo Gwang-ho shouted as if protesting.
“You drove them to the edge of a cliff. You pushed them from there. How many people have you killed, how many careers have you ended, how many lives have you made people give up with that mighty pen of yours.”
“No. It's a misunderstanding. They have to solve their own problems. Why is that my problem? We simply reported the facts as they were.”
Seo Gwang-ho was brazen.
“Hmm. Good. As expected of the chairman. Then this current problem is also the chairman's problem, so the chairman can solve it himself.”
“What?”
I looked at the tied-up Seo Gwang-ho.
“The fact that you're tied up here right now is also the chairman's problem, so you should be able to solve it alone, right? It's your problem, after all. Ah! But it wouldn't be fun to just have you tied up here, so I'll push you into the water along with the chair, while you're tied up. Let's see if the chairman can solve the problem himself. Thrilling and nice, isn't it.”
“What are you talking about!! What? Push me into the water? You little shit! How fucking rude!! Aren't you going to untie this? Untie me quickly. If you don't want to rot in prison for the rest of your life, untie me quickly.”
“Sigh. Chairman. If you threaten me like that, I can't untie you even if I'm scared. And I tied you up with so much effort; would I have tied you up if I was going to untie you? Think before you speak.”
Even when tempted with money and threatened with prison, my attitude didn't change.
Eventually, Seo Gwang-ho changed his stance upon recognizing reality.
“Fine. Fuck. I'll give it. I'll give it to you. I'll give you a building. Is that enough? Take it and get lost.”
“In Gangnam?”
“Yes, Gangnam. I'll even process the paperwork right away.”
“Okay. But that's a bit weak, isn't it? Make a donation too.”
“What?”
“What good is just a building? There's no money to use right away. Make a donation too. And I think it'd be nice if you recorded a video?”
“What video?”
“I acknowledge my inappropriate collusion with Japan in the past, and I apologize to all those who were hurt by it. As a sign of apology, I donate my entire fortune to the Association of Bereaved Families of Independence Merit. Like that.”
“I can't do that. If I film that, I'm really finished.”
“If you don't film it, you're finished now, though?”
Seo Gwang-ho looked at me with slightly fearful eyes.
“Are you really planning to kill me?”
“No? I'm just planning to erase you.”
Seo Gwang-ho's voice trembled.
“Erase me? How is that different?”
“It's different. I won't give you the noble dignity of death. You'll simply disappear. You'll have nothing. No life, no death, no assets, no grave. You'll just vanish.”
Seo Gwang-ho's face grew pale.
He seemed to realize my words were not a lie.
“Please save me. I'll do anything. Really. I'll give you my entire fortune. Just spare my life.”
This was what Cheonghwahoe always heard at the end.
They shout loudly, but in the end, they say they'll do anything.
And if you release them, they obviously start thinking of backstabbing you first.
“I'm really useful. I have a lot of connections, I know a lot of information, and I have dirt on everyone from politicians to celebrities. I can really be useful to you.”
“Hehehe. If I release you, you'll come for my head first. Don't you think I'm too naive?”
“No. Really, no. I won't even report it. So please save me.”
Tears welled up in Seo Gwang-ho's eyes.
Snot ran out.
He seemed to sense that he would really disappear.
“Please, I'm begging you. Save me.”
“Say in your will that you will donate your entire fortune to the Association of Bereaved Families of Independence Merit. Show me how sincere your apology is.”
“Please, anything but that..”
Seo Gwang-ho bowed his head with his bound body.
“Let's do the paperwork first.”
Seo Gwang-ho didn't want to, but he had no choice.
He thought it was the only way to survive.
He had to do something.
We already had a complete grasp of Seo Gwang-ho's assets.
We had prepared things so that he could donate his entire fortune with just a few signatures.
The legal team moved.
It wasn't a transaction.
It was a donation.
It could proceed much faster and more simply.
Of course, someone would try to interfere with the donation.
They would nitpick with legal procedures, formalities, doubts, and so on, to stop what we were trying to do.
It didn't matter.
Then we just had to call that guy over too.
Everyone becomes docile when they meet here at the fishing center.
The paperwork was finished.
Seo Gwang-ho looked at me with expectant eyes.
And I shattered those expectations at once.
“Then try solving your own problem now.”
I pushed the chair with the bound Seo Gwang-ho straight into the fishing center.
Seo Gwang-ho's mouth seemed to be trying to say something, but I didn't wait to hear it.
Now I only needed to check whether Seo Gwang-ho could solve the problem on his own, as he himself had said.
********
Cheonghwahoe was a truly peculiar organization.
It was a group where all kinds of people gathered, but
there was one particularly noticeable characteristic among them.
It was that the number of 'Neul-gong' was enormous.
Civil servants are largely divided into two types.
Those who enter through the civil service exam and sit in their positions for a long time are called 'Neulsang gongmuwon' (permanent civil servants), shortened to 'Neul-gong'.
Those who were scholars, activists, businessmen, lawyers, and so on, and became civil servants because their expertise was needed are said to have 'become civil servants by chance' (eojjeodaga gongmuwon), and are called 'Eo-gong'.
So Eo-gong share the fate of changing regimes, mayors, and local government heads.
People the winners want to work with,
people who share policy direction, enter as Eo-gong.
Eo-gong change easily.
They change depending on public opinion, on policy, and depending on elections.
That is why their tenure is very short.
As short as a few months.
At the very longest, five years.
To the Neul-gong who sat in the same place for decades, the Eo-gong were like passing breezes.
Even if their rank was high, they were people who would leave anyway.
It was always the career bureaucracy that ran agencies and organizations.
Regimes changed, ministers changed, superiors changed, but the career officials remained.
They were the people who held the actual work in their hands.
And an oddly large number of those career officials belonged to the Cheonghwa Association.
There was one reason.
The Cheonghwa Association gave them solid guarantees.
Not blatant bribes.
It simply paid allowances and transportation fees under the pretext of attending various academic conferences and research groups,
and handed out gift certificates, vouchers, lodging coupons, and the like.
It was too ambiguous to punish under the regulations.
Conversely, the Cheonghwa Association did not demand anything from its members.
Only, when a proposal favorable to Japan was submitted, it provided compensation accordingly.
A visit to Japan under the pretext of overseas training.
A business trip in the name of “observing advanced administration.”
Exchange programs with Japanese academia.
International seminars where family members could accompany them.
Connections to private research institutes in preparation for life after retirement.
That much was enough.
As expected of career officials who had passed the difficult civil service examinations, they learned quickly.
How to receive rewards,
and exactly where the line was that would not become a problem.
It was a great help to their miserly civil servant salaries.
They came to enjoy luxuries they had never known before.
And they competed to draft proposals favorable to Japan.
The wording was neutral, the sentences dry.
If the working-level staff reviewed three or four options, only two appeared in the final proposal.
The options favorable to Korea were deleted, and only the options favorable to Japan were submitted.
Option 1, favorable to Japan.
Option 2, less favorable to Japan.
The newly appointed political appointees did not know that fact.
They did not know there were options favorable to Korea.
If they disliked both Options 1 and 2 and asked whether there was no other way, the career officials instead looked down on them.
“You don’t seem to know because you haven’t handled the practical work, but this is the standard way to proceed.”
“Realistically, friction with Japan would be a heavy burden.”
“We must consider how the international community will view this.”
“By convention, this is the safest course.”
The political appointee reluctantly signs off, forced into it against his will.
The career officials pressure the appointee and seize victory.
When the news gets out, the appointee is pummeled by public opinion and resigns.
Then the era of the career officials begins again.
Seo Gwang-ho was very good at shaping that public opinion.
He turned even trivial matters into major issues and forced resignations.
Anyone he did not like, he cut down without exception.
If they cooperated moderately, he spared them.
This was where the true power of the Cheonghwa Association lay.
Without revealing itself, without shouting,
it made things move in a way where no one took responsibility.
The Cheonghwa Association did not even need an enormous number of members.
As long as it had a few people who could cut off the proposals brought in by the working-level staff and issue orders, it could control the civil servant group sufficiently.
But a new wind blew through that world of career officials.
No, a crack appeared.
Members of the Cheonghwa Association vanished.
The core of the Cheonghwa Association, its leaders, went missing.
The culprit was not identified.
There were no traces.
The investigation made little progress.
On the internet, the phrase “punishment of pro-Japanese collaborators” began to circulate.
More and more people began cheering for the culprit.
The career officials were flustered.
They had never once thought of themselves as pro-Japanese collaborators.
They had merely made realistic choices.
They had considered the international situation and made the best judgment for the organization.
Of course, it was also true that in the process, they themselves had gained a little, just a very little, benefit.
But they had believed it was a choice made for everyone.
Even so, this time had to pass.
One must take shelter from a sudden downpour.
The culprit seemed to know the Cheonghwa Association extremely well.
That was why they had to be even more careful.
Extremely, extremely careful.
The career officials learned quickly once again.
They cast aside pro-Japanese sentiment and donned the shield called the Republic of Korea.
Just as, when the Japanese occupation ended some eighty years ago,
the pro-Japanese collaborators who had cried out for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
maintained their status by cooperating with America.
Just as they had continued to live well and prosper.
No one knew whether the Cheonghwa Association, whether the career officials, had truly changed.
But the atmosphere changed.
An unmistakable air of caution settled in.
At the very least, no proposals that sold the country to Japan were submitted.
Everyone was careful.
The Cheonghwa Association had only lowered its head for a while in order to survive.
But it was waiting for the moment when it could rise again at any time.
It was only waiting for people’s interest to fade.