The Legacy of Chairman Cha Wonseok II
"You went to my family's place? You should have told me something like that beforehand."
"Don't misunderstand."
He couldn't decide whether he ought to thank her or lose his temper over her doing whatever she pleased.
"I only did it for myself."
Click. Truth.
"What?"
"If people criticize you, Mr. Choi, that's no different from them criticizing me. Real or fake, so long as my in-laws are comfortable, there's nothing left to feel uneasy about."
"..."
He couldn't find another word. What Cha Jiyeon had just said—that she had moved Choi Seonggi's parents into an expensive apartment for her own sake—was the truth.
A narcissist?
"Shouldn't you be thanking me first?"
"Thank you. I'm grateful enough to get the shivers."
"Why put it like that?"
"You said you did it for yourself."
"That too, but... what does it matter? I like that attitude. Keeping your distance, treating this strictly as a business relationship."
Right. A narcissist. Every man in the world already liked her, so men must have seemed dull. And because she was an achievement-hungry alpha girl, she had even gone through a sham marriage to climb into the marketing director's seat at Gwangmyeong Electronics.
"Anyway, The Meeting is extremely important. Something like twenty percent of the business that happens in this country gets brokered and carried out there. I told you, didn't I? Think twice before you speak, and if you can help it, don't speak at all."
"Yes, yes... I'll do exactly as commanded."
Cha Jiyeon, at the wheel, stole a glance at Choi Seonggi in the passenger seat.
"Why does that sound like sarcasm?"
"Because it is sarcasm. You never consider anyone else's position. You just do whatever you want."
"Then what am I supposed to do? We do what we agreed to do. We're not a real couple."
"Mother wants you to come to the house with me next weekend. Why did you have to go and manufacture a situation like this..."
"Let's go! We just have to go. They seemed like good people. I'd like to see them too."
"What?"
This time it was Choi Seonggi who turned to stare at Cha Jiyeon in surprise. Once she said she would go, he had nothing left to say.
What on earth is this woman?
She did as she pleased, and yet she was strangely easy to warm to. Even knowing it was all for her own sake, he couldn't bring himself to hate her.
"Then why aren't you bringing Terry Park along?"
"Oh! I like driving. Nothing's more fun than putting everything into the calculation and watching the variables move. Working out how to answer those variables in real time is interesting, too."
Cha Jiyeon was unquestionably an unusual woman. Plenty of people liked to drive, but a woman who took pleasure in controlling every last thing was rare. Just as Choi Seonggi had guessed, she was an alpha girl through and through.
"There will definitely be people looking to pick a fight today. Be careful. Especially Park Mingi... if you see him, avoid him."
"Why avoid each other when we're the same kind of people? If they want to start something, let them."
"I'm saying it because you're not the same kind. That man isn't a person. And if you fight, you'll be thrown out of The Meeting. Do you have any idea how hard that seat was to get... I waited ten years to get into this gathering."
How great could this gathering really be?
"Understood. You just want me to sit there quietly and not move, right?"
"Yes. And if you can help it, don't even talk."
"Fine."
Choi Seonggi answered as he reclined his seat. Cha Jiyeon glanced at him, then turned her eyes back to the road.
A dozen or so tables had been set in the banquet hall of a five-star hotel, each large enough for seven or eight. Light refreshments, champagne, and drinks were laid out like a buffet.
Classical music played so softly it was barely there, and people at the same table could talk without raising their voices. The tables themselves stood far enough apart that eavesdropping from one to the next was difficult.
"Behave yourself. I'm going to make the rounds and say hello!"
She left Choi Seonggi in an empty seat and circulated among the other tables. He swept his gaze over the room. The chairmen of the first and second generations were mostly absent. These were the children of chaebol houses—the second and third generations.
The tables had been arranged around the seats of the next generation of executives: Lee Hwichan of Saengsong, Choi Seongwon of SG, Geum Seongwoo of MG, Jeong Museon of Hyeon-gi, and the rest. Men outnumbered women, roughly six to four. Choi Seonggi fetched a bottle of beer and sat down.
There was an old saying for someone left sitting with nothing to do—a sack of barley dragged in and set in the corner. He looked exactly like that. At the table where he sat, everyone was talking to the person beside them.
"Noh Jeonghak! Is that news actually true? Yujin Semiconductor is landing the T-Solar semiconductor order?"
"Keep it down! If word gets out, we're in trouble!"
"What word? It's already in the news. Just tell us straight!"
The men on either side of the one called Noh Jeonghak pressed him, excited.
"You bastards hear everything fast. The decision should come down next week, I think!"
"So we just load up on Yujin Semiconductor stock?"
"Then why did you file a disclosure that you're selling shares? If the owner dumps stock, how's the price supposed to rise?"
"Why else would I sell? I have to buy lithography equipment, don't I? That's how we produce T-Solar semiconductors."
"Whoa, fuck, Yujin Semiconductor is a jackpot. How likely is the contract?"
"About ninety-nine percent."
As he said it, the man called Noh Jeonghak crossed his legs and tipped his head back.
"Then how are you going to live with the regret? Once that contract's signed, the stock will multiply several times over."
"Can't be helped. Guess I shouldn't have become vice president! If I were still a director, I could've sat on the shares and sold them for a killing..."
A short breath of laughter escaped Choi Seonggi before he could stop it.
FALSE
Every word Noh Jeonghak just spoke.
A textbook disclosure scam: leak false information, run the share price up, and let the major shareholder dump his stock. Hold on. Used properly, this could make him a fortune.
"And who are you, laughing? Hoseok, you know this guy?"
"Beats me. First time I've seen him. Who are you?"
Whether the smile had rubbed them the wrong way or not, Noh Jeonghak and the man beside him—Hoseok—turned their attention on Choi Seonggi.
"Choi Seonggi. First time here."
"And which company are you with?"
"The company..."
He was going to have to trade on the Gwangmyeong Group name after all.
"Gwangmyeong Group."
"Gwangmyeong? Everyone there's a Cha... Oh, I know. Cha Jiyeon's husband! Right?"
Could you say that a little more quietly?
The moment the man called Hoseok blurted it out in surprise, every eye nearby swung toward Choi Seonggi.
"Right? The man Cha Jiyeon ambush-married. They said he was a bewitching man... that's you?"
"And what's a bewitching man supposed to be?"
"He stole the heart of Cha Jiyeon, a beauty beyond compare, and ambush-married her. That's what makes him a bewitching man."
Those seated across from him turned to look. Those behind him crowded around in front, pressing in for a look at his face.
Choi Seonggi swept his hair back with one hand and smiled at them one by one. The women, especially.
"The looks are fine, but he's way too greasy!"
"He actually thinks he's handsome! Total mood killer."
"The face isn't bad... what a shame."
The women's chatter reached him.
These women...
He'd only played along because they were dying for a look.
"It's a sham marriage!"
Someone said it from behind him, then dropped into the seat beside Choi Seonggi.
"Right?"
He had a neat seven-to-three side part and the face of a model student who looked like he got good grades.
"Right about what?"
"It is a sham marriage, isn't it? You faked the wedding for Chairman Cha Wonseok's inheritance, didn't you?"
Who the hell is this guy?
Choi Seonggi stared blankly at the man in front of him.
"Ah, I'm Oh Jeonggyu of Segi Group! Cha Jiyeon must have told you about me?"
"Did she? I don't remember hearing it... I'm Choi Seonggi!"
The man called Oh Jeonggyu offered his hand, so Seonggi took it for the moment.
"I'm older than you, and you're speaking casually?"
"You went casual first, so I figured you wanted to be friends. I don't particularly enjoy being talked down to unless we're friends. Shall we both speak politely?"
"What?"
"We're friends, aren't we?"
Just then someone dropped into the empty seat on Choi Seonggi's other side.
"And who are you supposed to be?"
"Who am I? For heaven's sake, you've never heard of Kim Hyeokjin, second son of Bitan Group, the management genius of the century?"
He looked a little more put-together than Oh Jeonggyu beside him. This one was in love with himself.
"Watch yourself! There's more than one or two of them gunning for you. At least a few dozen men have lived with eyes only for Cha Jiyeon. You showed up out of nowhere and took her, so they're all pissed."
"And how exactly am I supposed to watch myself?"
"They might screw you over out of nowhere. Trip you up. A sudden ambush. A deliberate car accident. That sort of thing."
"Thanks. Kind of you to spell all that out. But tell them not to loiter in front of me if they can help it. Flail around half-assed and they'll get hurt. Badly."
"Haha... you've got some nerve. That bluff might work on the others, but it won't work on Park Mingi. Oh! Speak of the devil—here he comes."
Choi Seonggi turned the way Kim Hyeokjin had nodded, and it was like watching Grand Prince Suyang make his entrance in the film The Face Reader. A tall, heavily built man came walking in, and the moment people noticed him they edged backward. A bleak aura. Killing intent concealed like a hidden blade. Off him drifted the sticky reek of blood, the kind you could smell only in a hell painting where men lived and died in gore.
"So you're the one!"
The man called Park Mingi dropped into the seat across from Choi Seonggi.
"And who are you?"
"What? You?"
Killing intent flashed in those narrow, slit eyes.
"Want to live a long time? Then watch that mouth."
"Sure. You watch yours first, and I will too."
"You little bastard..."
The chair crashed over as Park Mingi shot to his feet.
"Mingi! Hold it! This is The Meeting. Fight here and you're expelled."
Oh Jeonggyu, who had been beside Choi Seonggi, stood to restrain him. Noh Jeonghak and the men next to him quietly got up and fled to another table, and when Seonggi looked around, Kim Hyeokjin had vanished too. None of them wanted to be caught in an incident.
"You don't even know who you're dealing with, running your mouth like that. Keep up the empty bravado and you might die."
Park Mingi dropped back into his chair with a metallic clack, lit a cigarette with his lighter, and glared at Choi Seonggi as he spoke.
"That's my line... You're the one running your mouth without knowing who you're dealing with."
Park Mingi's face twisted at Choi Seonggi's words.
"Where does this bastard get off..."
It happened far too suddenly. Park Mingi hurled the gold-plated lighter in his hand straight at Choi Seonggi.
"Aaaah!"
Thinking the lighter was coming for him, Oh Jeonggyu screamed and jammed his head under the table. When nothing happened, he cautiously raised it to take in the situation.
The gold-plated lighter Park Mingi had thrown was in Choi Seonggi's hand.
"Looks expensive. You gave it to me, so of course I had to take it!"
It wouldn't have killed him, but it would have split skin or cracked bone somewhere. Choi Seonggi slipped the gold-plated lighter into his pocket as if nothing had happened.
Park Mingi had frozen too, shock written across his face. He had never imagined anyone could catch a lighter thrown at full strength from so close. The distance was barely ten feet, but catching something hurled that hard by hand should have been impossible no matter how sharp your reflexes—even for an athlete.
"Well, something fun just happened. I'm Luna Kim. Nice to meet you."
Choi Seonggi turned and found a strikingly pretty woman dropping into the seat beside him. Some people ran from trouble. Others chased it because it was entertaining. He glanced at her, let out a thin, silent smirk, and stood.
"Thing is, though..."
Then he walked slowly toward Park Mingi. Everyone around them stared at Choi Seonggi in astonishment. They knew exactly how far past the line Park Mingi was, and they had just watched Choi Seonggi catch the lighter he had thrown, so they watched whatever came next with curiosity tangled up in fear.
When Choi Seonggi came to stand beside him, Park Mingi stayed seated and glared up through half-lidded eyes, his face full of bluster. What could the likes of you possibly do?
The hand moved like lightning. A sharp snap, and the cigarette that had been in Park Mingi's mouth was pinched between Choi Seonggi's fingers.
"This is a no-smoking area. Manners matter, don't they?"
With that, he dropped the cigarette butt into the water glass in front of Park Mingi. Then he turned and walked slowly toward the door.
"Haaah..."
"Ohh..."
Small sighs and murmurs spread through the room—admiration, tinged with relief, for the man who had cleaned the situation up so neatly.
"That oppa is seriously cool. They said it was a sham marriage, right? Mind if I take him?"
Luna Kim watched Choi Seonggi's retreating back, eyes bright with a sunny smile.