Chapter 144
Chapter 144
"Why don't you stop now?"
"......."
Choi Na-kyung stared down at the table, her hands clasped together.
A single mug sat there, wisps of steam still curling upward. The tea had been brewed only moments ago.
She had never once had a conversation long enough for the tea to go completely cold, but even so, no one had ever jumped straight to the point the moment the tea was served.
"I'm not sure what you mean by 'stop.'"
Choi Na-kyung slipped a finger through the mug's handle as she spoke. She lifted the warmed cup and took a sip.
A bitter tea fragrance spread through her mouth. It was slightly astringent—she might have used water that was too hot.
Her guest, however, showed no sign of touching his own cup.
"This is a company whose public image cannot exactly be called good."
He sidestepped Choi Na-kyung's question with that non-answer.
......This man had been on Ye In-su's side while he was alive.
No, in truth, most of the board had been on Ye In-su's side even now. The group had been founded in his grandfather's time and had continued ever since. It would be stranger if the people surrounding the group were not members of that family.
And, in the eyes of those people, Choi Na-kyung was apparently not "a member of the Ye family."
That made sense. She shared no blood with them, and she had never given them any blood heirs. She was simply an outsider who had been brought in as a second wife at the request of the first—an alien presence, nothing more.
The board included an old friend of Ye In-su's, and a relative of his as well. She supposed she could count herself fortunate that he had had no siblings. If he had, Choi Na-kyung could never have held this position.
"Its image may not be good, but there is no other company quite like ours."
Choi Na-kyung set her cup down as she spoke.
That was the simple truth.
Other companies within the Yujin Group might be one thing, but Yujin Electronics, the very company they were now discussing, was another matter entirely.
In a capitalist society, a company's fate depends purely on capital.
The person leading the company matters too, of course, but whether the company can actually execute everything that person directs—that comes down to "capital."
Manufacturing CPUs with performance other companies struggle to match. Releasing products with clean, simple designs that everyone finds beautiful. Marketing those products through celebrity collaborations to ensure they will sell without question.
The one thing required at every stage of that process was "money."
And the Yujin Group was a colossal enterprise whose capital few companies, not merely domestically but across the entire world, could hope to rival.
An enterprise like that does not collapse overnight over something as trivial as "image." It might collapse from a disastrous investment, but not from image alone.
"That is not what I am discussing right now."
And what you are discussing now also diverges from what I was discussing.
Choi Na-kyung did not voice the thought. She had, over the years, at least learned that she could not always say everything she wanted to say.
"I have left the majority of operations to the board. Have I ever directly commanded this company since that incident? All I have ever done is take the presentations you prepared and deliver them."
The truth was that Choi Na-kyung's personal image was not especially bad.
The rumors going around were rumors that circulated "internally." They never reached beyond the upper class. If they ever did, the Yujin Group would personally step in to find out who had spread them.
The patent-rights incident had already faded considerably from memory with time. Besides, the lawsuit had been company versus company. Even if Choi Na-kyung had pushed it out of personal feelings, the damage had ultimately been to the company's image rather than to Choi Na-kyung's personal image.
Thus, in the eyes of the public, Choi Na-kyung was someone who came across rather "well."
Comparatively young compared to the heads of other companies. Someone who was unmistakably beautiful.
Someone who, while carrying that kind of image, still sat capably at the very top of the company.
She was, in short, someone who suited the so-called "trend."
Even within the group, the presentations crafted by experts were dazzling and polished. And those presentations were delivered by a beautiful woman who happened to be the company's chairwoman.
The response was bound to be good.
It was not as though she was free of scandal. The fact that she was a second wife. The fact that this was why she had become chairwoman. The whispers that she had aimed for the position all along...... such rumors did circulate.
Choi Na-kyung scoffed whenever she heard them.
Money was not what she considered important.
Money was merely a tool.
"And if the chairwoman's image is ruined, the image of those presentations will all be ruined as well."
"......."
It is common enough: a celebrity becomes the subject of public scandal and falls, and every product associated with that celebrity becomes a target of boycotts along with them. People post proof of destroying the merchandise. Advertisers all terminate their contracts and put apology statements on their homepages.
If the same happened to the chairwoman......
Well. It might not amount to much.
Even in the worst case, even if the chairwoman went to prison, a company that already commands the market does not shake easily. No matter how many times the news outlets blare the story, people who will buy will still buy.
But that, too, depends on "the nature of the crime."
"Madam Chair, when was the last time you went to see Sara?"
"......."
It had been about a month.
"Why do you ask about that? I understood that you had agreed not to concern yourself with household matters."
When this man had approached Sara, it was Choi Na-kyung who had stepped in assertively to protect her.
No, not only this man. Everyone who approached Sara with designs on some part of her was a potential enemy to Choi Na-kyung. That was how she had judged matters, and how she had acted.
"That is correct. We decided to keep out of it. We have done our utmost to respect what you have said, Madam Chair."
And yet all the while they had treated her as nothing more than the "woman of the house" who would safely raise the company's successor.
She did not bother to say so. As before, she knew how to distinguish between what she ought to say and what she ought not to say.
......And, if she were being honest, that really was the reason Ye In-su had taken her as his second wife.
The two of them had never wanted each other.
Ye In-su had simply wanted someone to become a mother to his daughter. And Choi Na-kyung had simply wanted to become Sara's.......
"However, we recently received information that we simply could not ignore."
"Did you not say you would refrain from conducting investigations?"
"We did not conduct an investigation. It would be more accurate to say that someone has been deliberately sending us information, rather than that we dug it up ourselves."
He produced an envelope as he spoke.
It was not a particularly thick envelope. Nor was it sealed.
But the fact that nothing at all was written on it was deeply unsettling.
"......."
Choi Na-kyung took the envelope.
She opened it and examined the contents.
What lay inside were photographs.
Photos taken regularly, at the same time, day after day.
Those photographs had been densely printed across several sheets of A4 paper.
Every photo was aimed at the mansion's front gate. Photos of Sara leaving for school.
......Photos of her bringing friends into the house, and emerging together with them.
"......And what exactly is the significance of this?"
Choi Na-kyung did her best to conceal her agitation as she tossed the envelope onto the desk and asked.
It was not the fact that this man possessed such photographs that unsettled her.
What unsettled her was the fact that Sara was apparently living with her friends in the same house.
But the man across from her, whose head contained nothing but money, would surely interpret her agitation in exactly the opposite way.
"They are only photographs."
"Across all of those photographs, you appear a mere four times, Madam Chair. Considering arrivals and departures, that would seem to be two visits......."
He sighed pointedly.
"Madam Chair, is it possible that you are neglecting Sara?"
"......."
Ah.
So that was what this man had wanted to say.
"......Who did these photographs come from?"
"What would you do if I told you? Would you file charges against that person as well to ensure such photographs can never be taken again? Madam Chair, methods like that backfire when employed too often. And you are not guaranteed to win against every opponent, every time."
"......."
"Besides, we do not know the source either. We consider it safest to avoid anything 'unlawful' as much as possible in the process of ascertaining such things."
The truth, of course, was that this information simply served their purposes.
"......There are gaps between these photographs."
In the end, that feeble excuse was all Choi Na-kyung could manage.
"Are you suggesting you visited during the times not captured?"
"......Yes."
"Is that so."
He did not look especially convinced.
But at the same time, he seemed to have decided to go along with it.
He must have judged that believing her was more profitable for "money" than not believing her.
"In that case, what would you say to bringing Sara to the office sometime soon? You can clear up any misunderstandings with everyone, and show Sara around the company while you are at it. She will be working here someday, after all."
"......."
Choi Na-kyung gave no answer, merely lifting her teacup once more.