Crispy Outside, Soft Inside: Gil Donggyu (2)
Gil Donggyu leaned back into the sofa and recrossed his thick legs. Then he fixed a calm gaze on Lee Jaseung.
Say yes. Say yes. Say yes. Say yes.
He chanted it like a spell, but the answer that came back was—
“No.”
Gasp!
“That would be a bit difficult.”
Gulp!
He skillfully masked his agitation and lifted the teacup in front of him. His floundering heart escaped only as a heavy hum.
“Hmm.”
What now? Was seven hundred billion a little steep? Honestly, if someone suddenly threw that number at me I’d think they were insane. Should I drop it a little? Three hundred fifty billion… still looks bad, doesn’t it?
“Then there’s nothing to be done. Thanks for hearing me out.”
In the end Gil Donggyu rose with an air of cool indifference.
Lee Jaseung watched him through narrowed eyes, then asked,
“Hyung.”
“Yeah?”
“Suppose I give you seven hundred billion. With that money alone, could you beat Seonkang Group?”
Gil Donggyu quietly planted his backside back in the chair.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s a bidding war. Seonkang Group knows your financial muscle, but you don’t know Seonkang’s limit. Your absolute maximum after squeezing every last drop is three trillion, right?”
“……”
“If they spend just a hundred billion more than three trillion, Seonkang takes it. They can see exactly how much you’ll mobilize, while you can’t even guess how much they’ll spend. You lose this one for sure. I have no reason to jump into a losing game.”
He’d already taken a slap to the face; now the facts were being hammered in like nails.
Just as Gil Donggyu was about to boil over, Lee Jaseung dangled a carrot.
“If you think about it, this is actually an opportunity for you.”
“An opportunity?”
“A chance to beat Seon Kangsik.”
“Beat Seon Kangsik… Sounds nice. But is that even possible in this situation?”
Gil Donggyu’s voice was thick with self-mockery.
This time Lee Jaseung cracked the whip.
“So you’re just going to give up?”
“I don’t have a choice. Honestly, negative rumors about me are already circulating in the financial sector. Without you I have no way of raising seven hundred billion at once.”
“What will people think when you get pushed aside by Chairman Seon Kangsik? ‘Ah, Gil Donggyu is still just a third-generation chaebol kid. He got promoted to CEO of KG Electronics, but he still isn’t ready to play at the chairman level.’”
“Watch your mouth.”
Gil Donggyu’s pride was scraped raw and his face twisted; Lee Jaseung tossed the carrot again.
“That’s exactly why this is the chance. You have to beat Seon Kangsik and prove it. ‘I’m cut out to be chairman too.’”
“Cut out to be chairman?”
“The timing’s perfect, isn’t it? It overlaps with your promotion. As CEO of KG Electronics you’re the official heir. Right before the KG Group succession is announced, you topple a senior chairman. And you prove it.”
Lee Jaseung whispered sweetly,
“That you’re qualified to stand on the front lines of management.”
Wobble, wobble.
The carrot swayed right in front of his eyes.
Little by little, life returned to Gil Donggyu’s gaze.
Prove my qualifications?
It was a chance to show his presence as a manager at the very turning point that would seal the KG Group succession.
Not just another third-generation heir—
but a man qualified to command the group.
“How?”
“There is one way.”
I’m listening!
Gil Donggyu leaned forward.
“What way?”
“Bring KG Group in. You persuade the chairman.”
“But Father—”
Lee Jaseung cut cleanly through the excuse.
“Listen to me first. You want Hitex. Your capital has a clear ceiling. The consortium collapsed. You can’t persuade the KG Group chairman. Don’t you see the essence of the problem?”
He ticked each point off on his fingers.
“Every single one of those problems exists because you’re trying to acquire Hitex alone.”
“……”
Lee Jaseung was right.
The moment KG Group entered the picture, every problem would vanish.
Because the support would be massive.
But Father is in no state to listen… Does Jaseung have another method? He wouldn’t speak with this much confidence otherwise. Should I just ask him to help?
After a long, expressionless silence, Gil Donggyu finally opened up a little.
“Father still carries a deep wound from having to let Hitex go during the IMF crisis. I’ve kept trying to persuade him, but he won’t hear it.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That to stay competitive in smartphones we need semiconductors.”
“No wonder it didn’t work.”
…This bastard.
“So you’re saying you have a way to persuade Father?”
“Of course.”
“And you’ll only tell me after I sign a contract.”
“Naturally.”
In the Yuseong Steel acquisition, Han Juhyeong had paid Lee Jaseung twenty billion won.
Compared to then, the scale of this deal is far larger, and Jaseung’s ‘market price’ has risen a lot. Still, if KG Group joins, my own four hundred billion is as good as locked in. I can afford to be a little generous, right?
“Performance fees included, around fifty billion?”
“No.”
Gil Donggyu’s heart plummeted.
He wants more?
Then Lee Jaseung spoke.
“Money isn’t enough. With Yuseong Steel I was a related party of Yuseong Group, so I took cash and walked away. This is different.”
“Different how?”
“Ten percent equity. On the condition that I also invest seven hundred billion, of course.”
“Ten percent?”
The stake the creditors were selling was thirty percent in total.
He wants ten percent of that? Then I’m left with only twenty.
No—twenty percent still makes me the clear largest shareholder. No problem taking control of Hitex.
But I can’t completely ignore the ten percent Jaseung would hold…
Ten percent was no small number.
It carried the right to convene an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting and to dismiss directors, and if necessary he could ally with minority shareholders and act.
In other words, he wouldn’t run the company day-to-day, but he could still wield influence.
Gil Donggyu tried a bold counter-offer.
“How about seven percent?”
“Hyung. Pulling KG Group in, reviving a dying engine, and beating Seonkang Group in the acquisition war—can you do that alone?”
As if to soothe him, Lee Jaseung offered an innocent smile.
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of doing anything with that ten percent. I don’t do bad things to my clients. You’re Platinum, after all. Only five people hold that rank.”
“……”
…Somehow that sounds like ‘if you don’t become my client I’ll do bad things.’
“Well? Shall we sign?”
Gil Donggyu left Makers and climbed into his car.
His secretary glanced at him. Because—
Thrum-thrum-thrum-thrum-thrum
—the seat back was vibrating.
After a long bout of leg-shaking, Gil Donggyu let out a heavy sigh.
Only after leaving Makers did his mind snap clear.
I feel like I was under a spell.
He’d been shaken this way and that until he finally agreed to the contract. There hadn’t even been room to doubt; he’d simply been swept along by Lee Jaseung’s logic.
The ten percent Lee Jaseung demanded was worth one trillion won.
Yet the actual investment was only seven hundred billion.
In effect he was paying three hundred billion as a consulting fee.
Is this consulting worth that much?
The truth was, KG Electronics’ smartphone business was in serious trouble.
Caught between Seosung Electronics and the A-Phone, KG Electronics’ market share kept shrinking and profitability was scraping the floor.
He was convinced the breakthrough had to come from semiconductors.
If he acquired Hitex he could source memory in-house and dramatically improve cost competitiveness.
If things went well, they could grow into a comprehensive electronics company spanning home appliances, smartphones, and semiconductors.
More important than that is insurance for the future.
Even if the all-in smartphone bet failed, as long as they had semiconductors they would never completely lose their grip on the industries of tomorrow.
Hitex was necessary.
That much he believed without a shred of doubt.
The goal was clear, and if Lee Jaseung alone knew the only path to that goal—
Then the price is worth paying.
After all, Lee Jaseung’s ability was impossible to deny.
The natural-gas futures play, the Facenote short, and then Han Juhyeong’s acquisition war.
Right. There had been Han Juhyeong’s acquisition.
Han Juhyeong had beaten his rival by a razor-thin margin of exactly ten billion won.
Could Lee Jaseung uncover Seonkang Group’s bid this time too? What if I also beat Seonkang by a hundred billion?
Gil Donggyu was still a little pissed about the consortium collapsing because of Seonkang.
Could I land one solid punch myself?
The moment he took Hitex by a mere hundred-billion-won margin over Seonkang Group—
Chairman Seon Kangsik’s face would be filled with blank shock and rage.
Economic papers and broadcasters would rain down headlines.
‘Gambler Gil Donggyu’
‘KG Group’s next-generation leader who toppled a chairman’
He would be praised inside the group and ascend to the CEO seat with his head held high…
“Heh heh heh.”
Caught chuckling to himself, Gil Donggyu felt his secretary’s gaze and immediately straightened his face.
“What is it?”
“……We’ve arrived.”
Gil Donggyu nodded.
The instant he stepped out of the car, his resolve hardened completely.
He would finalize the contract within the week.
Let’s see Chairman Seon Kangsik eat some crow for once.
The Hitex acquisition battle had become a minor topic of conversation even in chaebol circles.
“I heard Gil Donggyu jumped in and got stomped by Seonkang Group?”
“That’s Seonkang’s chairman for you. He immediately leaned on the consortium? Completely choked off their funding.”
“Was the consortium really dismantled by one push from Seonkang? More like Gil Donggyu’s side never had a chance. Everyone bailed because they couldn’t see a path to victory from the start.”
Seonkang Group had its chairman personally directing the charge, while Gil Donggyu was running it as a private individual.
Not just in capital, but in every process—persuading the creditors, dealing with government agencies, calming the unions—he was bound to fall behind.
“Honestly it was a long shot. They call it a pilot project, but there’s zero group support. How do you persuade creditors when you’re only borrowing the KG Group name?”
“KG Group is pretty ruthless. How can they refuse support all the way to the end?”
“Of course they can. During the IMF crisis they sold a hundred percent of the shares for three trillion. Now they have to buy back only thirty percent for three trillion. With Chairman Gil’s personality, paying a premium to repurchase a company he already let go once would be an insult to his pride.”
Everyone thought the same thing.
Gil Donggyu is out of the acquisition race now.
Right then, fresh news arrived.
“Did you hear? Gil Donggyu brought Lee Jaseung on as an advisor!”
“Huh? Why Lee Jaseung? Is he investing?”
“No, not investing—consulting. Strategic advisor for the Hitex acquisition.”
“Ah!”
Makers had become famous recently for its investments, but Lee Jaseung had originally debuted as a consultant.
“Gil Donggyu asked for consulting…?”
There was a subtle nuance behind those words.
Wasn’t that the kind of consulting only problem third-generation heirs requested?
People like Han Juhyeong or Seo Minjae.
“Gil Donggyu doesn’t have succession issues… Wait! Come to think of it, his promotion to KG Electronics CEO is right around the corner, isn’t it?”
“He’s about to be named official heir and he wants to beat the chairman of Seonkang Group? He really did inherit Chairman Gil’s pride.”
Somehow they could feel Gil Donggyu’s resolve.
The consortium had been dismantled, but he wasn’t going to step aside quietly.
At the same time they felt puzzled.
“What public M&A track record does Makers even have so far?”
“Just the Yuseong Steel acquisition, right? The case where Han Juhyeong won by a hundred-billion-won margin.”
A hundred-billion-won margin.
It was a famous case, but also the only case. One deal made it hard to tell skill from luck.
And the opponent this time was far too powerful.
“I heard Seonkang Group hired McKinsey for this one.”
“Whoa, McKinsey consulting? They’re serious.”
“Exactly. Seonkang is bringing global firepower, and Gil Donggyu and Lee Jaseung are going to face them alone? In an acquisition war, connections and experience are absolute.”
“But what if they uncover the bid price again? What if they take it by another hundred-billion margin like last time?”
“Would Seonkang fall for that so easily? And even if you know the bid, you still need the money.”
“True.”
Gil Donggyu was KG Group but received no support, and Lee Jaseung didn’t have that much capital under management.
“In the end Seonkang has the advantage this time over Lee Jaseung…”
The person saying those words felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
This setup.
He’d seen it somewhere before.
“Wasn’t it the same during the natural-gas war? Everyone said Seonkang had the advantage then too, and Lee Jaseung cleaned them out.”
“You think it’ll happen again?”
“Nah. No way. An acquisition is a completely different genre. This time it’s consulting, not investing.”
“So who wins?”
In that instant people’s eyes sparkled.
The meaning of those words was simple.
Another dopamine-soaked festival of pure entertainment had arrived for the chaebol world.
“It’s round two!”
This work is a work of fiction. All characters, groups, place names, and events appearing in the story are entirely fictional and have no connection to any real entities. Specialized knowledge described has also been restructured and adapted to fit the narrative and may differ from actual information.