[Breaking News - Assemblyman Kim Seongtae Received Bribe Money from Construction Company!]
[Breaking News - Tip-Off Claims Deputy Leader Lee Yeongchan Was Entertained by Construction Company!]
[A Bolt from the Blue... Is the Minguk Party Convention Slowly Turning into a Mud Fight?]
[Six Sitting Assemblymen Including Kim Seongtae Reported to Have Numerous Unsavory Ties with Construction Companies. Most Are Figures from Candidate Park Hyeonseop’s Camp]
[Kim Seongtae: “A Petty Political Smear! I Have Lived with Not a Speck of Shame Before Heaven!”]
[Lee Yeongchan: “Someone Is Turning the Party Convention, a Family Affair, into a Battlefield. Have They No Shame?”]
[Candidate Park Hyeonseop Remains Silent... Posts “Justice Will Prevail” on SNS]
The Seoul-Gyeonggi party convention was the most important of all.
Two days before it was scheduled to take place, a string of breaking news reports erupted, setting all of South Korea ablaze.
The tip-off, dubbed the “Construction List,” claimed that a considerable number of National Assembly members had received bribes from construction companies.
In truth, collusion between power and construction firms was nothing uncommon, but this disclosure was different.
The vast majority of the lawmakers named were aides playing key roles in Park Hyeonseop’s camp, and their number exceeded ten.
[Seoul Greenbelt Lifted Ten Years Ago... Was There a Reason After All?]
[Eight Redevelopment Projects in Gangnam’s Three Districts Also Under Suspicion!]
[Were There Deals for Nominations Too?! Significant Portion of Tip-Off Concerns Candidate Nominations!]
The material reported to the media laid bare, in meticulous detail, the secret of why those in power inevitably became rich.
Buy a patch of empty wasteland, and as if by magic, its greenbelt designation would be lifted. Buy a crumbling apartment, and redevelopment approval would strike like lightning.
Naturally, this was not something that could be accomplished by the power of lawmakers from one side alone, and in the tip-offs that followed, the names of lawmakers from both parties appeared evenly throughout.
[Candidate Lee Chanho Remains Silent on Suspicions of “Political Smear”!]
[An Ambitious Phrase in the Dead of Night... Posts “Justice Will Prevail” on SNS. Aimed at Candidate Park Hyeonseop’s “Justice Will Prevail”?]
Yet even amid this chaos, there was one quiet place.
Perhaps only upright people had gathered there, but among the lawmakers named, not a single figure from Lee Chanho’s camp could be found.
Naturally, every media outlet suspected that Lee Chanho was behind the tip-off, and the two candidates, Lee Chanho and Park Hyeonseop, were baring their claws at each other by posting “Justice Will Prevail” on SNS.
But though the world had grown so turbulent, I had no time to pay attention to such news.
[A Chaotic Party Convention... After the Exposé, Support for the Two Candidates Narrows to a 5%p Gap]
[Is Public Sentiment Turning? For the First Time, the Two Candidates Narrow to Within the Margin of Error]
At last, light was beginning to show at the end of the long undersea tunnel that had seemed endless.
Park Hyeonseop, whose leadership had already been called into question due to scandals involving his close aides, had seen his support rating plummet to within the margin of error because of this construction scandal.
“...”
But this was not the end. It was only the beginning.
Over the remaining week, that approval rating had to be dragged down even further, and Lee Chanho had to be placed in a position of clear superiority.
Lee Chanho, who would hold nomination rights firmly in his grasp, had to be given enough power that the other lawmakers would not dare utter a sound against the pension reform bill... enough power that if they wanted to receive the next nomination, they would have no choice but to support pension reform.
“...”
Thinking that, I fiddled with the documents inside my bag.
There was still one shot left. The news that had broken in the world was only about construction corruption; the list of those who had taken bribes from me had not yet been released.
Could this be the final shot?
“Upsy-daisy—”
Just as I was lost in those thoughts, a familiar face sat down in front of me as naturally as could be.
“D-Director?”
Director Park Seongcheol.
“Why so startled? Did you see a ghost or something?”
“N-No, it’s not that. How did you get here?”
“I asked Manager Oh where you were headed, and he said you’d probably be here. But Team Leader Lee, you’ve really got it easy. From what I hear, you come up to Seoul on business trips more often than you go to work at the Jeonju headquarters.”
“N-No, sir. But what brings you here...?”
“What brings me here? I happened to have an appointment here today too, so I stopped by on my way. Looks like we’re both waiting for guests, so let’s have a cup of tea.”
I pressed down hard on the documents in my bag.
Damn it... Today was an incredibly important day. The day I had to hand my list over to someone from Lee Chanho’s camp.
Whether he knew how I felt or not, Director Park Seongcheol chuckled and placed a carrier bag in front of me. Judging by his outfit, it looked as though he was going on yet another golf trip somewhere, but why did it have to be today of all days?
“By the way, politics has been in quite the uproar lately, hasn’t it?”
“...Pardon?”
“That Construction List or whatever it’s called. In any case, I’ve never seen a single one of those people in power invest honestly. If you invest using inside information like that, who couldn’t make money?”
“Ah, yes. Haha...”
“Or they could at least share a little. I saw on the news that the moment Choi Seongpil bought an apartment, redevelopment approval came down. Park Changjin bought land, and it was immediately selected as a highway site, with the greenbelt lifted too, wasn’t it? Tsk, tsk. How nice would it have been if they’d shared such premium information with our division too?”
“Indeed. Haha...”
Unlike my anxious heart, he took a sip of tea and went on saying such carefree things.
“But these days, the stock market is a mess too, isn’t it?”
“Yes. The international situation is changing so quickly that it’s impossible to predict anything.”
“I saw the news, and it was something else. They said the pension fund’s returns had been so good lately that the projected depletion date was pushed back thirty years, but in just the past week it’s been pulled forward by five years?”
“That’s how it always is. Unless a fundamental solution comes out, it’ll always be like a rubber band.”
“Yes, that’s true. But I wonder what that fundamental solution would be.”
“Well, there probably isn’t anything except reducing expenditures.”
“Right, that’s what has to be done. It’s one of the great regrets of my life, not being able to cut that while I was still in office. Reducing expenditures by ten percent is far more efficient than raising returns by ten percent.”
“Still, Director, you did your best. I believe the rest is our responsibility.”
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I feel a little more at ease. Haha... But tell me, Team Leader Lee. Who is Meilin?”
“...Pardon?”
“Director Meilin? Executive Director? Advisor? I mean, this woman whose title changes however she pleases. She was taking home a salary far higher than Representative Ming of Changcheng Fund. Who exactly is this investment genius?”
I could not say a word.
Only then did I realize it. The carrier Director Park had brought was not a travel bag...
“Want to open the bag?”
“Director...”
“No, never mind. You probably know Changcheng’s financial statements better than I do anyway. You’re the one who selected the entrusted manager, Team Leader Lee. In any case, what I’m really curious about isn’t who that woman is...”
He looked at me.
Then, with a face I had never seen before—one with not a trace of a smile—he asked me.
“What are you? No, what is your objective?”
“...”
“A smart fellow like you wouldn’t be stupid enough to embezzle money like this. And someone with your investment instincts wouldn’t go through the trouble of staying attached to the pension fund either... What in the world is your goal?”
I did not make some foolish excuse and deny it.
His eyes already knew everything.
“There is no answer.”
“What?”
“Stocks can’t keep rising like this forever. The obligation to support the elderly that the low-birthrate generation must shoulder remains unchanged, and we can’t put off our homework while intoxicated by the euphoria of the present.”
“You’re saying we should reduce expenditures? You saw very well what happened to me, didn’t you?”
“So I tried responding a little more skillfully. Having learned a lesson...?”
Director Park, whose face had been stiff, burst into laughter.
“The lesson you learned was merely to win over politicians? Then that person called Meilin or Maple or whatever must have been your lobbyist.”
“Thanks to her, I made it this far. Now there’s only one last thing left to do.”
The director smiled bitterly.
“And by that last thing, do you mean pressing the self-destruct button?”
“Yes. In exchange, I received a promise from the ruling party and the Blue House. That they will pass the pension reform bill no matter what.”
“You certainly are skillful. I was wondering why the bastards who cut me loose so mercilessly were suddenly talking about pension reform these days.”
There seemed to be no need to explain at length whom I had contacted or what my plans were. He already seemed to know everything.
“But tell me, Team Leader Lee. Even if you’re better than me, you still aren’t quite skillful enough. You left out one very important thing.”
“...Pardon?”
“That self-destruct button. If you press it, fragments are bound to fly onto others too. To put it bluntly, the story is that a mere team leader selected an entrusted manager, siphoned off money, and lobbied politicians. Who in the world would believe that?”
“That’s...”
“Don’t think you can gloss over it. If they didn’t know, they were incompetent. If they did know, they were accomplices. Those are Minister Park Hyeonseop’s own famous words. After suffering this kind of attack, do you think he’ll leave your superiors alone?”
I was at a loss for words.
It was not that I hadn’t considered it. Once this broke, it would become the biggest scandal in the history of the National Pension Service. How could there not be even a single innocent victim?
The person in the greatest danger would be Manager Oh, who had trusted me completely and actively recommended me for personnel matters. Even if he truly had known nothing about my plan, he would not be able to avoid the “charge of incompetence.”
“Will you still do it? Even though several innocent people will get hurt?”
After a long silence, I spoke.
“...I’m sorry, Director. But I still have to do it.”
“I see. Then take this.”
I accepted the unidentified documents he held out to me. When I checked them, my mind went blank.
“Director... what is this?”
“They say even a sheet of paper is lighter when two people lift it together. Don’t torment the people currently doing their jobs well. Sell me out instead.”
“...Pardon?”
“However you look at it, this is the most plausible. The one who gave you, a mere team leader, authority to select entrusted managers was, as it happens, me. Let’s say I, the former division director, put you up to it, and that you built relationships with politicians under my protection.”
The words would not come easily.
“Director, if we do that, you’ll be in danger too.”
“I know, you punk. You think I’d be safe? Open the carrier. I prepared materials to hand over if the prosecution investigates. If they seize this as is, the prosecution will see only the two of us as suspects. Then the current director, Manager Oh, and everyone else will become victims, so it’ll be easier for them to get out.”
“D-Director...”
“We’ll talk about the rest later. Looks like your guest has arrived.”
I looked where he was pointing and saw Lee Chanho’s chief of staff had arrived.
“To tell the truth, after retiring, I traveled all over the world, so I was just starting to get bored. I’ve never been to prison before. I wonder what kind of place it is? Huhuhu. Still, will the Blue House pardon me before the president leaves office?”
Saying that, he quietly stepped away.
After he left, Lee Chanho’s chief of staff approached me and said,
“Mr. Sejun. I’m Chief Kim. I heard you had some material to urgently pass along to the Prime Minister... What is it?”