Chapter 266
Chapter 266
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Senile Old Man
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To live up to my reputation as a senile old geezer, I decided to do something I’d never done before.
Kim Jung-kil couldn’t hide his bewilderment after hearing my instructions.
“You mean you want to hire young female secretaries?”
Bringing young women close to a man of power was a surefire way to stir up trouble.
Whether it was the power holder himself or the women doing the stirring.
You didn’t need to dig into history—just look at the power players around you.
Of course, Lee Sung-jun was doing this precisely to create that noise.
“Yeah.”
“But, Your Excellency, bringing in women like that will only disrupt discipline in the Prime Minister’s Office.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
I instructed Jung-kil to select female secretaries to work in the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Oh, and not just any ordinary girls, of course.”
I had him pick out stunning twenty-year-olds who could’ve been beer ad models.
Jung-kil worried after seeing the looks of the girls I chose.
“I’m concerned these girls’ exceptional beauty might cause problems.”
I gave the girls simple errands and had them coming and going nearby.
It wasn’t long before word spread through the Prime Minister’s Office that beautiful young women had appeared, and soon rumors circulated that Lee Sung-jun had truly gone senile.
“Unseemly as it is to say, maybe the Prime Minister’s wits have dulled. What’s he planning to do with these young girls who have nothing but their looks?”
The opposition openly pointed fingers, saying Lee Sung-jun had taken in concubines.
“He’s drunk on power. And isn’t chasing skirts the first thing power-drunk leaders indulge in?”
Jung-kil, aware of these looks, made sure I was never alone with the female secretaries.
He always had male secretaries present whenever they were around.
I could see him bending over backward to keep me from catching any flak.
But that wasn’t what I wanted.
I brushed off Jung-kil’s consideration.
“Let our female secretaries come into the office alone. They’re secretaries in name, at least.”
“B-but, Your Excellency, if you do that, your reputation...”
“You know what I want, don’t you?”
Jung-kil reluctantly accepted the order.
“Understood.”
The moment the girls started freely entering and exiting my office, the weird rumors spread like wildfire.
Stories that Lee Sung-jun was forcing himself on them in the office were tame by comparison.
Word even went around that he was enjoying 3Ps and 4Ps with them.
“Who knew? This Lee Sung-jun’s still got some stamina.”
I burst out laughing at the rumors.
A power holder and young women around him.
It brilliantly stimulated people’s basest imaginations.
Right away, suspicion abroad thickened into doubts that Lee Sung-jun had really lost it.
To reinforce that image, whenever I attended events, I kept the secretaries glued to my side.
“Don’t stay far off—stick close. That way you can hand me notes on time.”
“Yes, Prime Minister.”
Just seeing me parading around with female secretaries made Lee Sung-jun the epitome of a lecherous old fool.
Naturally, I felt no special emotions toward the girls.
Sure, their pretty faces stirred a moment of lust now and then, but it was fleeting.
That’s what I thought, but the girls saw things differently.
One of them actually tried to seduce me, convinced I favored her.
A gorgeous twenty-year-old tempting a seventy-year-old man.
It defied common sense, but power made the impossible possible.
Honestly, my heart did stir when the young girl came on to me, but I couldn’t give in to base desires.
I kicked out the girl who was practically desperate to bare her ass in my office.
“Did Miss Ye-jin make some mistake?”
“She broke a flowerpot I cherished.”
I didn’t cite sexual reasons.
To maintain the senile old man concept, I naturally needed another excuse.
The spot left by the ousted girl was filled by a new secretary.
“Your Excellency, do we really need to hire another girl this time?”
Jung-kil always brought it up, knowing the gossip that erupted every time we brought one in.
“A senile old man needs girls close by.”
That said, I held back from brain-dead moves like Gaddafi’s all-female bodyguard unit.
‘If I go that far, what will the people below think of me?’
Balance was key in everything.
‘To add a bit more color here, I should try a different approach.’
I showed up late to a summit.
No special reason.
Just did.
“The Prime Minister of Korea will be thirty minutes late?”
“Yes. We appreciate your understanding.”
I openly started using Vladimir Putin’s tardiness tactic.
At first, people thought Lee Sung-jun had just slipped up, but once they realized it was mind games, they showed their dismay.
“Is the Korean Prime Minister really senile? What kind of rudeness is this to our president?”
It was something you absolutely shouldn’t do.
But since Korea was the world’s second superpower, I could get away with it.
Every action of mine was calculated.
From then on, “Sung-jun Time” became a thing in diplomatic circles.
Of course, it was meant to mock me.
I only revealed my true feelings to Jung-kil, who knew everything.
“Jung-kil.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
“How’s the atmosphere in the Secretariat? The girls getting too uppity?”
“Some of them are acting out, banking on your favor.”
Give people even a scrap of power, and they puff up their cheeks.
It’d be weirder if twenty-year-old girls who’d tasted power didn’t strut around.
“Overlook it. Isn’t that why we brought them in?”
The more they strutted, the stronger the suspicion that something was going on between them and me.
“Understood.”
I fine-tuned my concept appropriately.
When people suspected Lee Sung-jun had truly gone senile, I’d go on a national address to show my vigor, command the armed forces, and restore my dignity.
And when doubts crept in, I’d parade with the girls again to earn the senile old geezer label.
“Prime Minister, you’re not really... right?”
Even my wife started suspecting an affair from all the young girls at my side.
“After all these years with this Lee Sung-jun, don’t you know me? Do I seem the type?”
“Of course not, Prime Minister.”
If even family suspected, it was solid.
Now, to anyone’s eyes, I was a senile old man.
Image work done, I figured.
I called in Kim Jung-kil and ordered the female secretaries dismissed.
“We can stop with the girls now. Find them decent jobs somewhere.”
“Yes?”
Jung-kil was startled by the sudden whim.
“Surprised, huh.”
“I figured if you were putting on an act, you’d keep it up longer.”
There was nothing stopping me if I wanted to.
Having cute young girls around wasn’t half bad, honestly.
More than that, even.
Truth be told, keeping those beauties nearby much longer might’ve made me cave to the desires I’d been suppressing.
I, and this Lee Sung-jun too, were men who wavered at a pretty face.
But I didn’t want to admit that to Jung-kil.
To my closest confidant, I wanted to always appear the ideal leader.
“What’s the point of playing house with girls forever? Anyway, handle it that way.”
Jung-kil gladly accepted the order.
“Understood.”
Even after Jung-kil sent the girls packing, the suspicious stares didn’t fade easily.
People thought Lee Sung-jun had stashed his ‘concubines’ in cushy spots to dodge scrutiny.
That wrapped up the female secretaries issue.
Sung-jun Time was the exception.
Whenever I had a gap, or whenever it seemed forgotten, I pulled a Sung-jun Time.
Main targets: leaders of ‘unfriendly nations.’
By unfriendly nations, I meant those on the opposite side of the Third World—the First World.
Of course, I never said it outright.
Even using senility as an excuse, calling the First World ‘unfriendly’ would cast doubt on Korea’s entire foreign policy.
I tightrope-walked like this, playing chicken with the U.S. Lyndon Johnson administration.
“That old coot Lee Sung-jun—has he really lost it?”
Each time, I showed different faces.
“I fully understand America’s position. You’re entitled to think that way.”
I’d hold rational talks as a reasonable statesman,
“Then if America plays it that way, we’ll pull out our retaliation options. Got it?”
Then turn into a Kim Jong-un lookalike madman in a flash.
No matter how you sliced it, I looked like a bipolar case or a doddering old fool.
America treaded carefully with my antics.
“Want to discuss our auto tariffs?”
“Yes, the U.S. Commerce Department passed that along.”
Given the Democratic administrations’ style so far, a surprise attack wouldn’t have been out of character.
The only reason they acted cautious was one: fear I’d go berserk like in the treasury bond incident and test the waters first.
They’d gauge my response level here, then ramp up if it stayed appropriate.
“Push our position as far as you can.”
MAD strategies work only if used sparingly—yap like North Korea 365 days a year, and no one’s scared.
In normal times, I needed to show rational dialogue.
But sticking purely to talks was tricky too.
‘Time to prop up one of our dove politicians to rein me in.’
I decided to put a politician upfront to check my ‘runaway’ tendencies.