Chairman Cha Wonseok's Legacy, Part 5
"While you're at it, Secretary Na, why don't you move out to Yangpyeong too? Your siblings have all moved out, haven't they?"
"You think I should?"
"What are you going to do, rattling around an empty place by yourself? And it's a monthly rental, isn't it?"
"Understood. I'll think it over."
In any ordinary arrangement between employer and employee, an invitation to live together would be refused no matter how much money changed hands. With Choi Seonggi, though, something strange happened: being around him was simply fun. Pleasant. Stand at his side and you found yourself looking forward to whatever might happen next.
"You told Madam Go to clear out the room next to mine on the second floor, right?"
"Yes... I even passed along that we'd be building a pizza oven, and that there'd be pizzas to bake."
"Yeah? And what did she say to that?"
"That her workload had just exploded."
"Give it time... She'll come around before long."
Choi Seonggi was reading the medical chart and the file Dr. Yang Hwichan had given him on Cha Yohan. An ordinary physician would have handed over nothing but the clinical record. This one had been meticulous enough to include a detailed personal history as well.
"Uncle— I mean, Mr. Yohan, you all right back there?"
Cha Yohan kept his head bowed and gave a small nod, as if to say he was fine.
"Let's see... Something's off here. Is this right?"
Seonggi muttered it as he flipped through the pages, sounding genuinely surprised.
"What is it?"
"IQ of 167. Silver medal at the Math Olympiad. Early graduation from a school for the gifted at sixteen... applying the uncertainty principle to economic theory, stock investing through game theory, an investment model built on chart analysis...?"
"What does all that mean?"
"This isn't an idiot. This is a genius! Did the doctor write it down wrong? He's published five papers, and every one of them is about stocks, investing, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence."
"Come on, that can't be..."
"Look. It's written right here. Good grief — he graduated university at eighteen."
It was hard to believe.
"One hundred sixty-eight."
A mutter drifted up from the back seat.
"Sorry, what was that?"
"It's not an IQ of 167. It's 168. And the Math Olympiad was a gold medal! I solved problem six with the zeta function! They graded it wrong."
The voice was young, tight with a grievance that had been packed down for a long time. Hearing it alone, you would have thought he was a middle schooler.
"Uncle..."
"I'm not Uncle. Cha Yohan. Dad is Cha Wonseok! Mom is Yoo Jiyoung!"
"Mr. Yohan!"
Nothing came back.
There was no point poking at him any further and setting him off. Choi Seonggi met Na Dohyung's eyes and gave a small shake of his head. Better to ride in silence.
Someone so young, and so extraordinary... It's a terrible shame he's been shut away in a hospital room.
The doctor's words came back to him. They hadn't been empty courtesy after all.
"What are the two of you earning?"
The moment he brought Cha Yohan home, neither Madam Go nor Manager Shim looked particularly pleased. Both of them had worn themselves out in service to Chairman Cha Wonseok. One more ordinary person under the roof would already have been a burden, and Yohan, plainly anything but ordinary at a glance, made the strain show in their eyes.
"He paid us three million won a month. It was a live-in post, mind you, so room and board came with it. We were more than grateful for that much."
"And why are you leaving out the four insurances?"
"He enrolled us in those too, and — oh, what was it — we never had to fret over taxes or any of that. Anyway, three million landed like clockwork every single month."
"I see."
Choi Seonggi went quiet for a moment, as if turning something over.
"All we need is the paycheck coming in steady. A little pocket money for the grandkids now and then, clothes for the children — that's plenty."
Madam Go said it carefully, taking his silence for worry over what their wages would cost him.
"Then from now on... I'll pay you ten million won a month."
"Pardon?"
"What did you say?"
When the work turned hard, nothing healed like money. He had made up his mind the moment he heard Cha Wonseok's will, and again the moment he came to live at the Yangpyeong mansion. The vault the chairman had left behind had already made him filthy rich. This much was nothing.
"What? You don't like it?"
The two of them, still stunned, only blinked at him.
"You mustn't do that."
"Sorry?"
"A wage goes up by a hundred thousand won, two hundred thousand. You don't suddenly more than triple it."
"Why on earth not? The man's offering the money..."
Manager Shim's protest did nothing. Madam Go's face had set hard with certainty.
"When a person changes all at once, something's about to go wrong. This Yangpyeong mansion is heaven for the two of us. We can take the work at an easy pace, live quietly out here among the trees, and still collect a paycheck right on time. So there's no need for you to pay us that much."
"Madam Go! Why are you deciding that on your own?"
"Hush, you old fool! Do you really think it's right, at our age, with nowhere else to go, to be treated above our station? With that money he could hire three young people. If it were you, would you keep a fat old woman like me, or a young, pretty girl?"
"Well... when you put it that way."
"All I do is cook, clean, and laundry... Why keep a plump old grandmother when you could hire a real cook, a cleaning professional, and a live-in helper?"
"True enough... Even I'd take a licensed gardener, a driver certified on tractors and excavators, and a strong young fellow."
"Get greedy about money and you won't keep the job for long. While the sums are small, people let them pass. The moment real money starts going out, human nature kicks in and they begin to begrudge it. Do it your way and we won't last. So no. It won't do."
He hadn't expected a reaction like this. Madam Go was shaking her head, and Manager Shim was nodding along as if she had a point.
"Before long I'll be setting up a company office here, at least for a while. There'll be more people, and more work."
"Even then, it's only one more spoon on the table."
"Then let's do it this way. Your salary will be five million won, and I'll set the other five million aside in an account every month. When you retire, I'll give it to you all at once. Think of it as severance. You might fall seriously ill someday, or need a lump sum."
At that, Madam Go and Manager Shim looked at each other.
"You looked after Grandfather so well, so I'm raising your pay. And I'm asking you to look after me and my people from here on, too. So don't feel burdened. Madam Go, in particular, you'll need to pick up a bit of Italian cooking — pizza, pasta, that sort of thing. Manager Shim, I'll leave the pizza oven to you."
Both of them fought a smile, their mouths twitching as if joy were trying to get out.
"Thank you, Boss. We'll work hard."
"Thank you kindly, Boss."
Madam Go and Manager Shim bowed their heads.
"I'll be counting on you."
Choi Seonggi bowed to them in return. He had found an enormous treasure, and he had resolved to carry out Chairman Cha Wonseok's will. Anyone tied to the chairman was someone he meant to look after.
Once the greetings were done, he went upstairs.
Na Dohyung and Cha Yohan were sitting in the study. Yohan was using a laptop, and when Na saw Seonggi he covered his mouth with one finger. Don't say a word.
Only then did Seonggi get a proper look at Cha Yohan's face. Bent over the screen in concentration, he was strikingly handsome. Hunched and thin, he had seemed small; in truth he looked close to six feet. Dress him well and turn him loose on the streets of Gangnam, and women would be asking for his number. His features were that clean.
"Uncle, what are you doing?"
"Not Uncle. Cha Yohan. Call me Yohan."
He answered without once lifting his eyes from the laptop. At moments like this, he was no different from anyone else.
Seonggi drifted closer and glanced at the screen. Numbers, and a graph of red and blue lines breaking up and down.
"Mr. Yohan said he wanted the brokerage terminal open. The HTS."
Secretary Na Dohyung explained the situation in a low voice.
"Unc— Mr. Yohan! Do you like the hospital better, or here?"
"..."
"If you don't like it here, shall we go back to the hospital?"
"No. I don't want that. It's quiet here. I like it. There are trees and grass, and the air is clean."
"So you'd like to live here?"
"Yeah."
He answered, but his eyes stayed on the laptop.
"If you're going to live here, there are a few rules. First: no loud noises."
"Acknowledged."
"Second: three times a day, you walk the garden out front. Manager Shim will help you with the walks."
"Acknowledged."
"You have to take the medicine you were prescribed, on time."
"Except the sleeping pills."
"All right. We'll leave the sleeping pills out. In exchange, you sleep quietly at night."
"Yeah."
"Be this good about listening, and I'll give you the pizza you like, Mr. Yohan."
At the word pizza, Cha Yohan lifted his head and looked at Choi Seonggi.
"Really?"
"Really. What kind do you like?"
"All of them! Italian pizza, Chicago pizza, New York pizza — I like every pizza!"
"Then I'll let you have a bit of everything. The ones that are bad for you, though, only once in a great while."
"Acknowledged!"
There was a little more force in it this time.
"Is there anything you want to do? Anyone you want to see?"
"I want to ride the Gyro Drop."
"Once you're a bit healthier, Mr. Yohan, I'll take you."
"When?"
"Hmm. About a month from now."
"Acknowledged!"
"No one you miss?"
"No!"
Seonggi had been certain the word Mom would come out. He would have to dig into Chairman Cha Wonseok's past either way, and he was desperately curious about Cha Yohan's mother. Give him a single thread and he could find her. Why had the chairman given Yohan his own surname, then never entered him in the family register as his son? Most likely he hadn't wanted the family to learn Yohan existed. Or he hadn't dared put the boy forward, not knowing what Cha Jinpyo might do.
"A puppy."
"Sorry?"
"I like puppies. People, not so much."
Animals — dogs especially — were said to do a great deal for a person's peace of mind, and for recovery.
"I'll think about a puppy. The others who live here get a say, too."
At this rate, Madam Go might end up putting out dog food as well.
"Anything else you need?"
"This laptop is garbage! Buy me a desktop!"
"If you've got specs in mind, say so. Secretary Na here will get it for you."
"Acknowledged!"
"Nothing else now, right?"
At that, the head that had turned back to the laptop swung toward Choi Seonggi.
"Money. Give me money!"
"If you need something, just say so. Secretary Na will buy all of it."
"No... Cha Yohan has to use it! Give the money to me!"
He had heard of small children, and of old people with dementia, who fixated on money. He assumed Cha Yohan was showing something similar.
"All right."
Choi Seonggi took out his wallet and drew three ten-thousand-won bills. He almost never used cash, so that was all he had.
"Secretary Na, if you've got cash, empty it out!"
Na Dohyung opened his wallet. It was stuffed with thousand-won notes, ten-thousand-won notes, and fifty-thousand-won notes.
"Why are you carrying this much cash?"
"I run all sorts of errands, and now and then a place won't take a card."
"Let me borrow this."
Seonggi pulled out a thick wad of thousand-won bills and held it out to Cha Yohan.
"Here, Mr. Yohan..."
He had heard that people with dementia loved money without truly understanding what it was worth. If any money would do, a stack of thousand-won bills ought to please him. But Cha Yohan only stared straight at him.
"You won't take it? This is the money you asked for."
In that instant Yohan's eyes and mouth twisted.
"You think I'm an idiot?"
The words came out in perfect, precise diction. Somewhere inside them, faintly, rode Chairman Cha Wonseok's voice. A chill went through Seonggi. He gathered himself.
"This is money too! And why do you even need money, Mr. Yohan?"
"I need it! I need it to play with stocks!"
At that, Seonggi handed the thousand-won bills back to Na Dohyung.
"All right! So playing at the stock market is fun, is that it? Would a million won or so do it? Secretary Na, put the money in your account!"
If he can say what he wants this clearly, there's no need to keep up the polite speech just because he's a patient. Or an uncle.
"A hundred million!"
"What?"
At the figure, Choi Seonggi and Na Dohyung turned their heads at the same time.
"You need a hundred million for it to be fun."
Cha Yohan said it with his eyes wide open, looking straight at Seonggi. There wasn't a flicker of hesitation in him — an upright, unmistakable certainty.
"A hundred million won, to fool around with? As a game? I'm losing my mind."
Seonggi was spending freely these days, but every won of it meant something. Once this stretch was over, there shouldn't be any large sums going out for a while. And now he was supposed to hand a hundred million to some half-lucid kid and tell him to play with it? That was no different from throwing the money away. Who threw away a hundred million?
Cha Yohan kept staring at him, relentless and unbending. He had no intention of backing down.
Fine. It's the first time. Fine...
"Haaaaah..."
Choi Seonggi steadied his breath, then spoke.
"All right. I'll give it to you. A hundred million."
"Acknowledged!"
Only then did Cha Yohan's eyes return to the laptop screen.