Hitex Acquisition Battle (3)

The Seonkang Group secretariat was running itself ragged.

The chief of staff’s first move was to lean on the online newspapers. But they were a different breed from the traditional press. With ordinary media, the threat of pulling advertising was usually enough; online outlets, however, ran on diversified ad-revenue models, and even the threat of a shutdown barely registered.

Shut us down? Fine. We’ll file for dissolution and spin up a new company.

Closing shop was even easier than wiping a browser cache. Suing them was equally off the table. If a lawsuit ever led them to hand a paper-company account number over to the prosecution…

Absolutely not!!!

That would be pure catastrophe. Seon Kangsik personally met with the head of the Financial Supervisory Service and the Prosecutor General to keep any investigation from getting off the ground, while the secretariat burned every connection it had to force the articles down. They had barely stamped out one spark when Friday morning arrived.

A new piece went up on Money News.

The headline alone made his heart drop; he clicked. The moment he started reading, Seon Kangsik understood.

I took the bait!

His name never appeared once. According to industry sources, a group executive had funneled company money into a reckless investment and lost roughly 123 billion won. The trade, the article claimed, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had been executed through Director K of NB Securities’ IB Division, with a certain executive deeply involved…

The securities firm, the transaction route, the precise loss figure—the details were concrete enough to make his blood run cold, and at the same time maddeningly vague. Was it pointing at his own illegal activity, or could it be read as the misconduct of some other executive? The piece walked that tightrope with surgical care, constantly implying:

Curious how much more I know?

"That bastard!"

Rage boiled over, but Seon Kangsik could not simply ignore it. Nightmarish scenarios chased one another through his head.

If the money-laundering trail or the Hong Kong account info ever goes public, I'm finished.

"Call NB Securities and muzzle that bastard Kim Wonhong. Keep this off every major business paper!"

"Chairman, judging by the level of the pieces that have run so far, it doesn't look like they intend to release the core information."

It was meant to calm a man drowning in anxiety. It did nothing of the sort. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Seon Kangsik’s eyes flashed.

"Are you certain? Have you spoken to Lee Jaseung? Did you get a promise that he won't disclose the core facts?"

"N-no, sir."

"How can you be this naive? What if next time he leaks the fund routes?"

"I'm sorry, sir."

Seon Kangsik knew the truth as well as anyone. It was not even clear whether Lee Jaseung truly knew everything, or whether he would ever detonate it all. But that very uncertainty was what was driving him insane.

What if he does blow it all?

He would have to step down as chairman.

"Get out there and contain this—now! Seal everything off!"

"But then the Hitex acquisition…"

"Does that matter right now? I'm about to be investigated!"

When top management had to throw itself into crisis control, running a large-scale M&A like Hitex at the same time was nearly impossible. Every plan ground to a full stop. The hours that should have been spent meeting creditors were spent meeting Financial Supervisory Service officials; the hours that should have gone to due diligence were burned concealing records.

Seon Kangsik rubbed his temples.

I'd almost prefer Lee Jaseung just detonated everything at once.

Better to take one hard hit and build a response strategy than to burn manpower fretting over what might drop next. That was when the chief of staff made a suggestion.

"At this rate, wouldn't it be better to sit down with Lee Jaseung and settle things?"

Seon Kangsik found himself thinking the same—better to find a compromise.

"Get Lee Jaseung on the line. Tell him I'll meet whenever he wants—three in the morning, six in the morning, I don't care. I want to see him now."

"Yes, sir!"

But when they called, the answer that came back was:

An article? Which article are you referring to?

…The most brazen denial imaginable. Seon Kangsik grabbed the back of his neck.

"That son of a bitch!"

"Ah, embezzlement. Yes, I'd heard the chairman was having a difficult time with those rumors circulating lately."

Watching Lee Jaseung play dumb while talking to Seonkang Group, Cho Miyeon thought to herself:

…Anyone listening would think he genuinely knows nothing.

Despite the courteous tone, his face was thick with boredom. The whole call he kept tossing a ball up and catching it, so that pretty much said it all.

What a strange man.

Every Friday before dawn, drafting articles in the Makers office, she had become certain of one thing.

Lee Jaseung has all the evidence.

Evidence solid enough to have Seon Kangsik arrested that very day if he chose. But she was equally certain of something else.

He has zero interest in exposing corruption or delivering justice.

Every ounce of Lee Jaseung’s attention was fixed on one man—Seon Kangsik. Every strategy concentrated on him, so that Seon Kangsik would be…

…toyed with.

She had finally found the right word. The articles she wrote were nothing more than common, sensational gossip, packed with speculation—“according to industry sources”—rather than concrete charges.

At this level, investigators would have a hard time even opening a case.

But one person cared: Seon Kangsik.

"Why do it this way?"

Having just ended the call, Lee Jaseung looked at her.

"What do you mean?"

"If you want Chairman Seon Kangsik out of the acquisition, couldn't you just walk in with the evidence and blackmail him? 'I know this. So step aside.' Something like that. Why go through all this trouble?"

He nodded, conceding the point.

"Blackmail, exposure—those are the easy routes, yes."

"Is hard play more your style?"

He let out a short laugh.

"Not exactly. I just needed to take a little of the wind out of his sails."

"Whose? Chairman Seon Kangsik's?"

He only nodded; he offered nothing more. Cho Miyeon closed her mouth with a look of pure exasperation. Lee Jaseung rolled the ball across his palm and sank into thought.

A head-on collision with Seonkang Group was out of the question. The group already formed a critical pillar of the business community. Uprooting it made no sense and offered no efficiency.

That left only one method.

I have to break him in.

There was an unwritten rule in the business world.

Today I take the hit; tomorrow it could be you.

Unless two parties were mortal enemies sworn to destroy each other, you did not attack a rival’s weak points—especially not the illegal ones. So when Lee Jaseung said he would use the embezzlement, Gil Donggyu had been deeply uneasy.

Is he going to expose the embezzlement scandal? What if someone later exposes our weak points? Can we afford to make an enemy of Chairman Seon Kangsik? That's the kind of move you only use when things have gone all the way. Should I try to talk Jaseung down?

In the end, he was glad he hadn't. Lee Jaseung had chosen an entirely different approach.

I never imagined public opinion could be used like this.

Without breaking the unwritten rules of the business world, he had applied pure psychological pressure to Seon Kangsik. When the stories finally ran dry and the moment felt right, Lee Jaseung spoke.

"Time to wrap this up."

"Already?"

"Already? The board is set."

Cho Miyeon had performed her role as background noise to perfection. She had kept Seonkang Group from concentrating on the acquisition. Gil Donggyu, though, still looked unconvinced.

"But I don't see Seonkang Group dropping out of the fight anytime soon. The embezzlement story still hasn't even made the major dailies' lineups. Seonkang's doing a good job of bottling it up. On the surface, they still look like a powerful bidder."

That was how most corporations behaved. Even when something was wrong, they strained to project stability outward. Right now Seonkang Group was pouring every resource into exactly that.

"What it looks like on the surface doesn't matter."

"Then what does?"

"How it looks to the creditors."

The creditors. That was the heart of it. Lee Jaseung laid out the final piece of the strategy.

"Hyung. Put yourself in the creditors' shoes. Seonkang Group is pretty ambiguous for them too. While they're deep in acquisition talks with Seonkang, what if I suddenly go off and dump the entire embezzlement case?"

Gil Donggyu flinched.

"…Are you going to expose it?"

"I'm telling you to go plant that nuance. Creditors don't want a deal collapsing halfway through. Finding a new buyer and starting negotiations from scratch is a headache."

"Ah. Use the anxiety."

Only then did Gil Donggyu grasp the core of the strategy. Lee Jaseung had been touching only one thing, always: anxiety. By monopolizing every piece of information and releasing it selectively, he had planted dread on both sides and driven them to the edge.

And Gil Donggyu was certain.

This is going to work!

He could picture the anxiety both sides would feel with perfect clarity. A natural worry doll was always good at understanding other people's worries. If I were the creditors…

"I'd rather find a counterpart who can finish the deal cleanly than one who might collapse midstream. On that score, we're better than Seonkang Group."

"Exactly. So go to the creditors and say this."

Lee Jaseung smiled. It was time for Seonkang Group to leave the stage.

"Ask them to designate KG Group as the preferred negotiating party."

"It's over."

Seon Kangsik set the phone down and muttered the words. The call had just come from the creditors.

We're sorry. We've decided to select KG Group as the sole preferred negotiating party.

He had been pushed out. Completely shut out of the Hitex acquisition he had spent months preparing. While Seon Kangsik had been unable to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠focus on the fight, KG Group had driven the negotiations through at breakneck speed. The creditors had chosen the stable counterpart over a Seonkang Group whose embezzlement risk could detonate at any moment.

Seon Kangsik gave a hollow laugh.

I got it back exactly the way I gave it.

Just as he had once attacked Gil Donggyu to force him out of the acquisition, he now found himself in the same position. It was almost comic.

In a self-mocking voice he asked, "What about the articles?"

"They've all been taken down. And this document arrived for you, Chairman."

"From whom?"

"There was no sender information."

Seon Kangsik opened the envelope. The moment he looked inside, he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠knew instinctively who had sent it. Inside was an article—a finished one. Every piece of content that had been deliberately left out until now was present: the Hong Kong HSBC account, the illegal funding routes, the transfer dates, even the process of covering the losses.

"Heh heh heh."

A hollow laugh echoed through the office.

"Chairman?"

"He knew everything after all. Want to see it?"

The chief of staff checked the article and could not hide his shock.

"Why send this now, after everything…"

"Why do you think."

Seon Kangsik understood the message perfectly.

I stopped here because I chose to let you off.

With that document alone, Lee Jaseung could have blackmailed him. Had he demanded that Seon Kangsik withdraw from the acquisition, Seon Kangsik would have complied. Or he could have walked it straight into the prosecution and forced a full investigation.

"With this much, he could have put me behind bars…"

But Lee Jaseung had made no direct threat, no blackmail. He had simply finished the matter by knocking him out of the acquisition—and only after everything was over had he sent the document. Which made the message all the clearer.

The embezzlement scandal didn't spread further because you got lucky, or because you ran yourself ragged putting out fires. It stopped because I knew everything and chose to look the other way.

"Arrogant bastard."

To speak so casually of "letting him off" to a chairman. Seon Kangsik closed his eyes and chewed on the defeat. It was a perfect loss. He had been played from beginning to end—so thoroughly that the only feeling left was emptiness.

And the most absurd part of all: he was clearly the one who had been beaten and knocked out of the acquisition, and yet Lee Jaseung had still managed to put him in his debt!!

What kind of monster is this kid.

For more than thirty years he had fought in the business world and crushed countless rivals. He had faced chaebol families, the government, even the prosecution—but he had never once met anyone like this. Seon Kangsik clicked his tongue and muttered.

"A monster has appeared in the business world."