Seoul, Yeouido.
Taerim Insurance meeting room.
I attended the meeting, which was unusual.
I don't usually step in personally,
but this seemed like something I had to handle myself.
It was that urgent, that important.
I could trust Aena, who was serving as Taerim Insurance's CEO, well enough,
but even so, it felt like I needed to take direct command.
I had told the President it was no big deal,
and it was something we could overcome,
but if mishandled, it was a dangerous matter that could leave the nation of Korea isolated.
It was important.
So it had to be handled carefully and swiftly.
There were no issues with logistics yet.
The ships arriving now already had their insurance processed beforehand.
The problem was the ships that would arrive from now on.
The shipping companies were refusing those very ships because of insurance.
We needed to hurry for these ships to enter normally.
Once the insurance was approved, there would be no further problems.
If we hurried a little, the ships could come in as scheduled.
The door opened.
Aena and I entered the meeting room.
Roughly thirty executives were seated inside.
Their expressions were peculiar.
'What's with that kid?'
'An intern? Why is an intern in here?'
'Is he someone the CEO's been bringing around lately?'
I could feel their gazes, mixed with distrust and contempt.
But there was no time to worry about that.
We had to move quickly.
"We will now begin the emergency countermeasures meeting."
Aena started the meeting.
But no one listened.
No one turned to look at Aena.
Some yawned,
some looked at their phones,
and someone was still glaring at me.
What the hell?
Had Aena been working in this kind of environment all along?
While being ignored by the executives?
Come to think of it, Aena was a money laundering expert, not a business executive.
She was simply the only person among those related to money and finance whom I could trust, so I had left it to her.
Her monthly performance reports weren't bad, so I hadn't paid much attention, but it seemed the hazing was severe.
From the executives' perspective, she was more than worthy of being ignored.
A CEO who changed along with the change in the company's majority shareholder.
A woman, and a foreigner.
Someone who knew nothing about the Korean way of doing business.
They saw her as a temporary CEO passing through.
Still, this was too much.
"Aena? Has the atmosphere here always been like this?"
I whispered quietly.
"I'm sorry. I thought as long as performance was good, it would be fine, so I left it alone. Attitude has nothing to do with performance. When the term expires, I just wouldn't renew the contract..."
"Goodness. You must have had a hard time. You should have said something."
"No. I'm sorry."
As we whispered like that,
some snickered.
"Did she bring her boyfriend?"
"What are they whispering about?"
Wow... this is infuriating.
These gentlemen were old enough to know better, yet they were incredibly petty.
"Today's agenda is..."
As Aena tried to proceed and resume the meeting, someone cut her off.
"Before we start, shouldn't you introduce the person sitting next to you?"
"That's right. There has never been an outsider attending an executive meeting of Taerim."
"If he's your boyfriend, take him home."
"Introduce yourself."
Their words pissed me off instantly.
I was already busy.
I had a lot to do,
and these bastards couldn't read the room, just sitting there trying to assert dominance.
I cracked my neck side to side.
Crack.
The sound of bones popping echoed through the quiet meeting room.
All eyes focused on me.
I leaned back and put my feet on the table.
I assumed the most arrogant posture possible.
"Me? Majority shareholder."
At the words "majority shareholder," the executives' momentum faltered—slightly, very slightly.
"Even a majority shareholder can't do this. Exercise your authority through a general shareholders' meeting."
He spoke to me as if scolding me.
What a disgusting sight.
"I put Aena in as CEO through the shareholders' meeting, but you bastards won't fucking listen? Then shouldn't I step in?"
"What nonsense. That's overstepping your authority. This is a place only for executives and employees."
Ah. Fuck, this is infuriating.
I wanted to fire them on the spot, but even that was a waste of time.
I didn't have time to argue with these bastards here.
The Philippines and China were all ready; only we were fucking around like this.
The Korean people, a nation of speed, were frozen in place.
I picked up the phone.
"Scott. I'll give you five minutes. Make every bastard sitting here kneel. Exactly five minutes."
The moment the call ended, Scott and the Obsidian Unit entered.
Expressionless men in black suits came in and headed toward the executives.
"Huh. What? Get away from me."
"Security!! Security!!! Where are they!!"
"How dare you barge in here. Get out!"
The executives screamed like madmen, but the Obsidian Unit began subduing them without a word.
Grab them, pin them down, kick the back of their knees—done.
The executives collapsed helplessly.
Thirty executives knelt in a row on the meeting room floor.
"Don't get up. If you get up now, you'll live as a cripple for life."
At Scott's words, the executives fell silent.
They just don't listen when you talk.
Some executives looked bewildered,
others looked aggrieved.
But they remained kneeling.
No one rose up defiantly.
"Four minutes thirty seconds. Oh~ you get better every time."
"It's nothing."
Having lightly praised Scott, I perched on the desk.
I put one foot on the chair.
Swinging my leg idly.
Before me, over thirty executives knelt.
"You asked earlier, right? Who I am. Told me to introduce myself. Anyone here who knows me? Raise your hand."
"Earlier you said... majority shareholder."
Someone answered cautiously.
"Majority shareholder my ass. I'm a gangster."
At the word "gangster," some looked surprised.
"When your company was acquired, it was bought by a gangster company. You never heard that?"
Come to think of it, such rumors had circulated.
But after the acquisition, there had been no sign of that, and when a female CEO arrived, the executives had been obsessed with power struggles and turf wars.
But a gangster?
The majority shareholder is a gangster?
"You bastards don't listen to nice words. You only come to your senses and listen after getting beaten, right?"
At my words, everyone merely hung their heads without answering or reacting.
Are they thinking if they just endure for a moment, it'll pass?
These bastards forgot my personality.. fuck, this is our first meeting.
In times like this, you just beat them up first.
"Bastards who were goofing off while the CEO was speaking earlier. Bastards on your phones. All of you, bang your heads."
But everyone merely blinked, staring blankly at me.
They didn't understand.
They never imagined being ordered to bang their heads in an executive meeting—something not even done in the military.
Of course, they never thought it would be them either.
"Scott. That bastard, that bastard, and that bastard. Cut their fingers off."
I pointed at two or three executives who had been on their phones while Aena was speaking.
"Yes."
Scott answered and pulled a knife from inside his jacket.
A blade honed to a terrifying gleam chilled the meeting room.
Only then did the executives realize.
This wasn't something passing by.
It wasn't a bluff.
They could really be cut.
The designated executives jumped in surprise and immediately banged their heads.
In proper form.
The remaining executives weren't comfortable either.
The meeting room had become a place filled with terror.
They couldn't leave either.
The Obsidian Unit was guarding the back.
Beside them, Scott stood holding a knife.
In front, I sat on the desk.
"You guys are lucky. Our company has excellent benefits."
"Shall I tell you about our company's benefits?"
"There's no resignation at our company. It's a job for life. You get paid until you die."
"We don't fire people either. Usually they die before that happens."
"We're simple. Performance? KPI? OKP? None of that matters. If you're loyal, we go together; if you betray, that's where it ends."
"Your job? No, your life. Your life ends."
"If we mess up at work. Self-criticism? Warning? Pay cut? We don't do those. What would we even use them for? We pay with our lives."
"But right now, is your behavior loyalty? Or betrayal?"
No one answered.
They just trembled.
"I'll give you one last chance. From now on, those who will work hard without talking back, fall out to the right and bang your heads. Execute."
"Execute!!!!"
At my words, the old foxes became privates stiff with military discipline.
Without exception, everyone fell out to the right and banged their heads.
"Can you do well from now on?"
"Yes, we can!!"
To my drill instructor-like tone came an owl-like chorus.
"I can't hear you. Can you do well from now on?"
"YES, WE CAN!!!!!!!"
A shout loud enough to blow the roof off burst out.
Satisfying.
Now that's more like it.
"Alright. Let's begin the meeting."
The meeting began with the executives' heads pressed to the floor.
*******
8 AM, Busan Port.
The wind was blowing unusually hard today.
The winter sea always had wind.
But today's wind didn't look ordinary.
Checking the anemometer, it was fluctuating between 15–16 meters per second.
If it exceeds 20 meters per second, crane operations are halted.
To that extent, today was not a good day for work.
That also meant it was the perfect day for mistakes.
[Operation Start]
A message was sent to the crane operator along with a short vibration.
There was no sender number either.
The crane operator glanced once at the phone mounted in the cockpit,
then grabbed the lever as if nothing had happened.
.
.
.
A few days ago, someone had come to Park Gichun, who operated gantry cranes at Busan Port.
"It's nothing much. Just knock over a few containers for us."
"No one will get hurt."
"The punishment will be a salary cut at most."
"You know it too, operator. Accidents can happen anytime."
"You have to pay for your wife's hospital bills, and you have to see your daughter married."
"Retirement? You can retire."
"We'll sufficiently guarantee that much for you."
"Really, you just need to knock over a few containers."
"No one will get hurt, I told you."
"You don't need to worry."
"300 million won for knocking over a few containers. Not bad, right?"
"If you load the container onto the ship and drop it into the sea, 500 million."
"That makes a better picture."
"500 million. Not bad, right?"
The clandestine proposal offered by the mysterious man.
Park asked the reason, but the man didn't answer.
He just told him to decide whether to do it or not.
Honestly, he didn't want to do it.
Even if he wasn't the best at Busan Port, he had a fair amount of pride in his crane work.
It was grueling work moving containers while looking through a glass floor all day,
but he worked with a sense of reward commensurate with that.
He lived thinking he was someone who helped this country's exports.
But to ask him to make a mistake on purpose.
To ask him to drop containers into the sea.
He tried to refuse firmly, saying it was absurd.
But even that wasn't easy.
Retirement wasn't far off.
He had to retire in a year.
Once retired, there would be no more income.
He would have to find another job,
or live off his savings, but he had no savings.
He only had debt.
A lot of money had gone to hospital bills because of his wife lying in the hospital.
Moreover, thinking of his daughter who was about to get married, he desperately needed money.
He wanted to send his daughter off with a proper dowry, though he had done nothing for her.
That thought gripped Park Gichun.
He was desperate for money.
But 300 million for knocking over a few containers.
500 million for dropping them into the sea.
It was too sweet.
No one would get hurt.
The insurance would compensate for the goods.
No one would suffer losses.
He persuaded himself like that.
That no one would be harmed.
Thinking that way, he felt a little better.
In the end, he decided to do it.
He received 100 million won in cash as a down payment.
He put it in a shopping bag and stored it safely at home.
.
.
.
Today's work order came down.
The wind was blowing hard.
It was the perfect condition to pass off as a mistake.
Park Gichun climbed onto the gantry crane.
He loaded containers onto the ship.
Neatly and tidily.
He moved the containers more carefully than usual.
And the outermost one.
That is, at the ship's outermost edge, the part touching the sea, he placed the container slightly to the side.
By about 10cm.
It should have caught on the twistlock.
But it didn’t.
If a container was set down properly, the twistlock would engage and secure the containers to each other.
But Bak Gichun didn’t do that.
He deliberately set it down just slightly off to the side.
It was so subtle that no one could tell from the outside.
And after that, it was easy.
He just had to move the containers normally, as usual.
At this rate, if he stacked three? Maybe four more, the wind would topple them toward the sea.
All he had to do was put on a surprised face and say he was sorry.
Say it had been hard to work today because the wind was so strong.
Maybe even shed a few tears.
He was moving the containers while rehearsing the expression he would need to make when it happened,
when the door to the crane operator’s cab suddenly opened.
People he had never seen before came barging in.
What kind of lunatic climbs onto a crane in the middle of work?
A curse burst out of him.
“Who the hell are you, barging into a crane during operat—”
“We’re the police. Mr. Bak Gichun. You are under arrest on charges of carrying out purposes under Article 4 of the National Security Act and espionage under Article 98 of the Criminal Act. You have the right to appoint an attorney, and the right to refuse to make statements that may be used against you. If you believe the reason for your arrest is unjust, you may request a review of the legality of the arrest…”
Bak Gichun was stunned by a situation he had never imagined.
A spy? Arrest? A lawyer? Words he had never once encountered in his life were now laid out before him.
“What? A spy?”
“Don’t move. Cuff him.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cold handcuffs snapped around Bak Gichun’s wrists.
“Pursuant to the warrant, your phone and personal belongings will be seized as evidence.”
And just like that, Bak Gichun was dragged down from the crane.
.
.
.
“But how did you know?”
Hwang Onyu and I were watching Bak Gichun being arrested from one side of Busan Port.
Bak Gichun was dragged out, and people began to gather.
The gantry crane operation was immediately halted.
“Know what? That old guy took money?”
“Yeah.”
“Wasn’t it obvious?”
“What was?”
“What the Japanese bastards are aiming for is the aging workforce. But would it work if someone in their twenties or thirties caused the accident?”
“It wouldn’t, would it?”
“Then of course it would be someone older, someone close to retirement. And among them, wouldn’t the most likely candidate be someone who urgently needed money?”
“True!”
“I picked out a few people and dug into them, and he popped up right away.”
“Oh—pretty good. I’m seeing you in a new light.”
“Isn’t this something even an elementary school graduate could guess?”
Hwang Onyu stared at me strangely as I stated the obvious like it was obvious.
“Then one more thing. How did you know he’d knock over the outermost container?”
“Because it makes for the best picture.”
“Picture?”
“If they’re going to use this, they’ll be filming it from somewhere. Which looks better: a container dropping onto the ground with a thud, or one falling into the sea and throwing up a huge splash? Which one looks more impactful?”
“Obviously the splash?”
“So it had to be the outside.”
A brief silence.
Hwang Onyu spoke slowly.
“Then we can breathe easy for now?”
“Breathe easy?”
“Is there something else?”
I smiled faintly.
“If they gave us something, we ought to pay them back. Isn’t that just the proper thing to do as human beings?”
Seeing my smile, Hwang Onyu turned his gaze away as if he had seen something he shouldn’t have.
Busan Port was still filled with nothing but a fierce wind.