Seoyun Loves Whales
In the car on his way to work, Chairman Jang Taeguk of Haewon Group found himself thinking about his granddaughter.
More precisely, about what his granddaughter had said.
It was hard to believe that Seoha had actually understood something and was talking about semiconductors.
Jang Taeguk didn't overestimate his granddaughter enough to think that a five-year-old could grasp DRAM supply and demand, let alone analyze the capital expenditure plans of global memory makers.
It could well have been something she'd overheard somewhere. Children that age, after all, always want to show off big words the moment they hear an adult say them.
And yet that candy analogy was disturbingly accurate…
That was why the chairman kept turning the conversation over in his mind. Seoha's words sounded like a child's, but they cut straight to the heart of the matter.
In the end, semiconductors are governed by supply and demand too. The number of suppliers is limited, but if even one of them expands supply beyond what anyone predicted…
Seoha had asked what would happen if everyone thought the same way and built more factories alike.
And then she'd asked what would happen if that assumption turned out to be wrong.
Jang Taeguk leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes.
A familiar sense of dread washed over him.
1997.
The year Haewon Group was driven to the very brink of collapse, surviving only after hacking off a limb or two.
Back then, every single business the group had expanded into came with a plausible-sounding justification. Cargo volumes really were growing by the day, construction really was booming, and the overseas semiconductor plants really were essential for securing production capacity.
Wasn't that semiconductor plant in China — the money-guzzling white elephant that had endangered the group's very survival during the IMF crisis — now a cash cow contributing a significant share of Haewon Electronics' profits?
We endured back then, and now it earns. But if we hadn't endured…
Had Haewon surrendered to the IMF and abandoned its electronics business, that Chinese semiconductor plant would have gone down in Korean economic history as nothing more than a line recording one foolish investment.
The point was whether the group could survive.
In truth, as its endurance through the IMF maelstrom proved, Haewon Group had always been run with considerable discipline. Its debt ratio was so low that the likes of Daewon Group or Handu Group — conglomerates that had collapsed entirely from cooking the books — couldn't hold a candle to it.
That was why Haewon survived the IMF crisis, recovered its strength so quickly afterward, and was even able to reach into finance.
Jang Taeguk opened his eyes.
Outside the window, the busy morning streets of Seoul streamed past.
"Chairman, we've arrived."
The car turned into the underground parking garage of the headquarters building. Instead of answering, Jang Taeguk straightened his tie.
Naturally, he had no intention of overturning a multi-trillion-won investment plan on the strength of one remark from his granddaughter. Haewon Electronics' current performance was good. Memory chips were making money, and the demand outlook wasn't bad either.
In an industry where scale itself was cost competitiveness, halting alone while everyone else invested carried its own risks. Folding a plan worth trillions because of one sentence from a five-year-old would be the bigger problem.
And yet, Jang Taeguk sensed a faint warning signal. The instinct that had kept Haewon Group on solid ground all these years was whispering to him.
After settling into his office and clearing the morning's reports, he spoke to his secretary.
"Tell Strategic Planning to come up."
"Yes, Chairman."
A dozen minutes later, the Head of the Strategic Planning Office entered with a face slightly stiffened by the summons — a call that had never been on the schedule.
Jang Taeguk accepted a brief bow and got straight to the point.
"There's the Electronics expansion plan."
"Yes."
"The one covering 2007 through 2009."
"Yes, Chairman. You mean the mid- to long-term production capacity expansion plan?"
"That's the one. Bring it back to me."
The director hesitated for a moment. The document had already been reviewed any number of times. It had the chairman's own signature on it. And now he wanted it brought back?
"Which part of it, sir…?"
"We're adding to the review items."
Jang Taeguk tapped the desk lightly with a finger.
"Let's take another look at it. Attach every competitor's expansion plan as well. There'll be updated figures since the last pass, won't there? Which company is expanding, when, and by how much. Don't just bring me the public announcements — recheck the actual likelihood of execution. And cross-check it against government policy, especially."
"Yes, Chairman. Understood."
"Borrowing too… let's have a look at the borrowing as well."
The executive's pen never stopped moving.
"Direct procurement at Electronics, group-level consolidated debt, the foreign currency share. Bring me the maturity structure too, all of it again."
"Yes."
"And rebuild the cash flow projections from scratch."
Jang Taeguk continued.
"Not for the good times — run it for when prices fall."
"Yes, Chairman. I'll divide up new scenarios and bring the revised review up to you."
The director of Strategic Planning bowed his head.
This was, in effect, an order to flip the expansion plan — built entirely on the assumption of a boom — and examine it from the opposite direction.
"Are you considering adjusting the scale of the investment, sir?"
Jang Taeguk shook his head.
"You rascal, don't reverse-engineer the report to fit what I said. Do the work properly for once. Understood?"
"Yes, Chairman. My apologies."
"Good. Don't touch anything yet. And keep your mouth shut — if word gets out for no reason, it'll only dent my boy's morale over at Electronics."
"Yes, Chairman. I'll begin at once."
On the way home from kindergarten, Mom didn't head straight back to the house.
"I'm going to look at one book on the way home."
The car stopped not at a department store, but at a fairly large bookstore near the house. One side of the first floor sold stationery and small household goods, and toward the back the shelves stretched on in long rows. Mom headed in the direction of the art books, dropping us off at the children's corner along the way.
"Stay here. Don't wander off."
"Okay."
"Okayyy."
Seoyun answered a beat later than Seoha.
Mom took a few steps, then came back.
"Seoyun, stay with your sister."
"Okay."
"Seoha, keep an eye on her."
"Yes, Mom."
Only then did Mom head off to the art section, apparently reassured.
Seoha walked slowly between the low shelves. They were mostly books for toddlers — animal picture books, counting primers, coloring books, sticker albums. Naturally, there was nothing she particularly wanted to buy, but she couldn't exactly take Seoyun anywhere else either. Still, browsing the covers wasn't so bad.
At some point she picked up a book crammed with pictures of cars and machines.
Seoyun, standing beside her, peeked over.
"What's that?"
"Cars."
"I wanna see too."
Seoyun pressed close and turned a few pages along with her, but quickly lost interest and drifted off toward the shelf across the aisle.
Hmm. Apparently cars were definitively not Seoyun's taste.
The shelf Seoyun had headed for was full of picture books packed with animals. She pulled out a dinosaur book, looked at it a little, put it back down, then picked up a fairy tale with flashy illustrations.
Just then Seoyun came back. In her hands was a thin book with a rabbit on the cover.
"Unnie, look at this."
"A bunny."
"Yeah."
When Seoha nodded, Seoyun seemed satisfied and hugged her book to her chest. Then she glanced at the book Seoha was holding and pointed at it with a finger.
"That one?"
"A book with a princess in it."
"I wanna see that too."
"You've got your bunny book."
Seoyun looked back and forth between the book in her hands and Seoha's. After a moment's thought, she slotted the bunny book back in its place and pulled out another volume from the same series.
"This one."
"That's pretty much the same as mine, though?"
"Yeah."
Seoha stared at her steadily. Apparently, if it looked fine for Seoha to read it, she wanted a look too.
"Do you actually like this?"
"Yeah."
"You don't even know what it's about."
"It's pretty."
So she meant she liked the cover.
Into princesses, is she?
She hadn't shown the slightest interest in princesses until now, but maybe this was the age when the princess phase started creeping in.
Then, a few pages in, Seoyun's gaze wandered elsewhere. At the end of the low shelf stood an enormous picture book with a great whale painted across it.
Seoyun set down the book she'd been looking at and went straight to it.
"Whale."
This time her face had forgotten entirely what Seoha was holding. With her small hands she pulled the book out and stared at the cover for a long while.
"You like that one better?"
"Yeah."
"Then take that one."
"And unnie?"
"This one."
Seoha held up the car book she'd chosen first.
Seoyun glanced once at the car book, then once down at her whale book. This time she seemed to have no intention of trading.
"I want the whale."
"Fine."
With the two of them each holding a book, Mom happened to come back, arms full of a thick exhibition catalog and several other volumes.
"All done choosing?"
"Yes."
"Me too."
Seoyun held the whale book up high.
Mom smiled.
"Seoyun likes whales?"
"Yeah. They're super big."
"That's right. They are super big."
On the way out after paying, Mom bought each of them a little bag of snacks from the first floor.
In the car heading home, Seoyun talked about whales for ages.
"Whales are big."
"Yeah."
"Bigger than unnie."
"Of course."
"Bigger than Mommy too."
Mom laughed from the driver's seat up front.
"Much bigger than Mommy."
"Bigger than Daddy?"
"Yep."
Only after confirming even that did she finally quiet down.
While Seoha was leafing through her new car book, thinking thoughts like, What should I buy when I get my license? A Lamborghini? A Bugatti? Though I hear sports cars have an uncomfortable ride…
something bumped gently against her side.
It was Seoyun's head.
After chattering away so animatedly just minutes before, she'd somehow closed her eyes and drifted off, breathing a soft little snore — the whale picture book still lying open on her lap.
When the car turned a corner, the small body tipped toward Seoha. She set her book aside and caught Seoyun's head as it toppled, easing it to rest against her shoulder.
"Seoyun fell asleep?"
Mom asked from the front.
"Yes."
"I suppose she was worn out from running around all day."
"She's a complete baby, I'm telling you. Can't be helped."
Feeling mischievous for no particular reason, Seoha gave Seoyun's cheek a light poke. The soft, squishy feel of it improved her mood a little.
I only let this slide because you're cute, Jang Seoyun…