A Dreamlike Reality — 2

"Ah, I wish I'd been born the son of some conglomerate chairman."

"Quit the useless talk and move this."

That was what I heard ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠most often from the friend I'd grown close to at the orphanage where I was raised.

They were the things we said while envying the rich people who showed up in TV dramas and on the news. I won't pretend I never harbored the same feeling myself....

"Hey! Don't you want to end up like that?"

"Of course I do. But what changes just because I say it? Better to actually try to get into a major company."

I worked to make good on words I had tossed off in passing. I endured the unfairness of money, survived being looked down on for being an orphan, and in the end I was content merely to have become the Chairman's secretary.

A house, and a room I could furnish as my own, instead of sleeping with my body folded in among everyone else. A life where I didn't have to worry about what I would eat tomorrow. All I had ever wanted was an ordinary life like that....

"Are you joking with me right now?"

"I'm sorry, but no one knows better than you that this isn't the time for jokes, Representative."

The unreal situation I was standing in had taken my peaceful everyday life, and the wish I had held on to, both at once.

"I told you not to call me the representative."

My stomach began to churn. Honestly, I wanted to heave everything up just to feel a little easier — but unfortunately, between the packed schedule and an empty stomach, there was nothing left in me to bring up.

"They said the directors who can gather are already in a meeting."

True to form for the people in this country with the keenest noses for money, they had assembled to talk even at this late hour.

"What will you do? Will you go?"

"Give me ten minutes alone."

"Representative, the time—"

"Ten minutes is enough!"

I shouted it and, without waiting for an answer, stepped into the restroom inside the chairman's office.

"Haa...."

I steadied my ragged breathing and sank straight down onto the floor.

"What am I supposed to do...."

I resented the Chairman's will — the thing that had shoved me into this — and, beyond that, the Chairman himself.

But not a single thing changed, and the reality that everyone would now be looking only at me settled over me like a weight.

Ding!

The smartphone beside me, where I sat clutching at my hair, chimed. The phone I had only just received — a model that had not even launched.

"An update?"

It had not even been released. There was no way a new version could have come out....

I took the smartphone from my pocket and checked. On the black screen floated the same message window the voice had just announced.

With everyone seeming to stare at me, the machine's cold little window struck me as so absurd that a hollow laugh escaped.

"Fine. Why not. It can't hurt."

From the documents I had gone over with the Chairman, it was obvious this would be nothing more than a function for checking one's health, so I set my finger to the screen.

"What? What in the world is this...."

"What?"

The screen seemed to flare for an instant — and then, as if the cold sweat, the tension, and the anxiety of a moment ago had all been a lie, the trembling in my body stopped, and the calm I knew from ordinary life ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠settled over me.

"You... what did you just do?"

"You can hold a conversation? No — before that. What are you?"

The AI that had introduced itself as Makina soon brought a brightly smiling emoticon up on the screen.

"Oh, really? Then go on, tell me. When I walk in on those directors, what exactly am I supposed to do?"

A hollow laugh slipped out of me. In all the time I had served the Chairman, I had never once seen a function like this. I had never even heard it mentioned.

Someone's toying with me. Has to be. Even in a situation like this.

But as if to make a mockery of my suspicion, the screen soon filled with the profiles of the directors who appeared to be present.

"So?"

They say that when a person is shocked badly enough, the words simply will not come. For the first time in my life, I understood what that meant.

"Representative, you really do need to go now."

Whether my ten minutes were up, Chief Lim's voice came from outside the restroom door.

"Ah... yes. Understood."

I got up off the floor and went to the sink, and just as Makina had said, the water that came out was warm — exactly warm enough.

"You're trying to help me. Right?"

"All right. Then let's try it. You shoved me into this, so you'd better help me with everything you've got."

Right now I needed even a single ally. I didn't care if that ally was some thing of unknown identity that had introduced itself as an AI.

I finished washing my face and changed my clothes.

"This isn't the brand I used to wear."

"When the Chairman took you with him back then, didn't you have three suits tailored?"

"Yes. I did."

Not long after I joined the company, he had watched me going around in the same suit day after day.

He had taken my hand and marched straight to a custom tailor. The memory rose, and a laugh escaped me before I knew it. The price had been so daunting that I had accepted only one of them.

"Representative?"

"Chief, our Chairman was a truly good man."

"Yes. He was."

"And I will not let anyone else ruin what he built."

What expression had I been wearing? I couldn't have said. What I did know was that it was resolute enough to draw from Chief Lim a look of surprise, and a smile, that he had never once shown me before.

"I'm telling you, you can't hold a board meeting until every seat is filled!"

"And that matters right now? The Chairman is dead. The Chairman!"

A complete mess.

They didn't even notice me come in. The directors were shouting at one another, jabbing fingers, pounding the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠table — emotions running hot.

"Can you get all of them to focus this way?"

My conversation with Makina was something no one else could hear, or see. I had no idea how it was done, but it explained why even I — who had followed at the Chairman's heels all that time — had never known.

"Huh?"

Regardless of my will, my arm moved — and then slammed down hard on the table.

Damn it... I never asked for it to go this far.

With the bang, the eyes of the directors who had been talking their fill snapped to me all at once. They took a moment to work out who I was, and then their faces twisted into pure disbelief.

"What? Isn't that the Chairman's secretary? Do you have any idea where you are, acting like that!"

Director Lim Jiha. She held the smallest stake, and so she had to stay in the other directors' good graces — and from among those sneering at me, she took the lead and shouted.

"You're out of line, Director Lim."

"What?"

But I couldn't back down here either. Makina had said as much, and as much as I hated to admit it, I was the only one with the authority to get this situation under control.

"Under the Chairman's will, I currently bear the responsibilities of the representative. In other words, I am obligated to bring this board to order."

"Ha! A former secretary, and the nerve of him!"

"Or are you saying, Director, that you refuse to follow the Chairman's final words?"

"What? What did you say?!"

Director Lim was still raising her voice, but the force from before was gone. Anyone in the company would already have seen the Chairman's will.

"You would do well to consider what effect anything you say from this moment will have on the board meeting to be formally convened, and to answer with care."

To refuse to recognize me was to refuse the Chairman's will — to lose the fight over justification. And Director Jo Sangmin, who understood that better than anyone in the room, watched in silence, his mouth shut.

"I— I didn't mean it that way...."

Director Lim Jiha could hardly fail to grasp how much that justification mattered, and she knew that losing it here could cost her the directorship she had only just secured. Cold sweat beading, she stumbled over her words, and I did not let the opening slip.

At my words, everyone went quiet, and not one director was laughing at me anymore. Say what they liked, in the end their own profits would grow only if this situation was resolved.

The unexpected circumstances had thrown them into confusion, nothing more. These were elites who could smell money better than anyone. And against elites like that, the only moment I could press was now, while they were still off balance.

"So, as soon as day breaks, I will hold a press conference. We will show that there is nothing wrong with our group. And we will show the one who carried out this attack that we are not shaken — that we are moving forward."

Having come this far, there was no turning back. I had Makina to thank for it, but as I was now, I had to show a chairman's leadership.

"We'll stop here. After I've spoken with the owner family, I will formally convene the board. Will you help me?"

Eyes that wavered. Of course they wavered. If Makina had not kept steadying me, I could never have done it.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Director Jo Sangmin, who had watched without a word, began to applaud, and as the others glanced at one another the sound swelled until it filled the room. That applause meant consent. Director Lim Jiha, who had been sweating cold only moments ago, clapped so hard I almost worried her hands would swell.

"Thank you. Directors, I know you're busy, so please head back for now. The moment the schedule is set, you will be the first to hear of it."

With that, I left the conference room.

Makina's voice, quiet until then, reached me, and only then did I let the tension go and breathe out a long sigh.

"Yeah. This ought to do, for now."

"Splendidly done."

Chief Lim, who had followed me out, smiled and held out some water.

"Thank you."

It was ordinary water, but in the moment it slid down my throat it felt cooler than any water in the world.

"First, I'll call the press conference, as you said."

"Yes, please. Oh — by any chance, who's in the secretarial office right now?"

"Sir? Everyone is coming back in as we reach them, but at the moment only Secretary Choi Yura, who was on night duty, is there."

"Then I have something to ask of Yura. Don't come with me, Chief — please get the press conference ready."

"Will you be all right?"

"Yes. Don't worry."

I gave him an easy smile. He must have had no shortage of questions about how a man who had been shaking like a leaf a little while ago had suddenly become like this, but fortunately Chief Lim asked nothing more.

"All right. Let's go."

I was walking a corridor I knew by heart, but the man who had walked it yesterday and the man walking it today were entirely different people.

"Makina."

"Just one thing."

"Why did the Chairman put my name in his will?"