Press Conference 3
Crazy bastard.
The words nearly tore out of me. I swallowed them at the last instant and looked at Park Namil, but there was nothing on his face to suggest he thought he had misspoken.
"You're laying your true intentions out from the very start."
"Of course. I've never cared for talking in circles."
"Then do you actually believe you belong in this seat?"
The counterquestion seemed to displease him. His brow creased for a moment, then the smile slid back into place, and he held an envelope out to me.
"What is this?"
"I'd rather not play it the way they do in dramas, but the more I thought about it, the more this seemed the most efficient choice. The wisest one, too."
A drama? What was he even saying?
"Twenty billion won."
"What?"
"If it isn't enough, just say so. I'm prepared to give you more."
Startled, I looked inside. Two checks lay in the envelope, each made out for ten billion won.
These are not counterfeit bills.
That was Makina's voice. Which meant this wasn't some piece of theater staged to fool me.
"I've produced results solid enough to hand even this much to a man like you. And yet I can't fathom why you're still sitting there — you, who never did anything but play errand boy for Grandfather."
"Well. You might not be wrong."
On the surface, Park Namil lacked for nothing. The money itself was only being offered because he had decided from the start that cash was what I wanted.
Remarkably arrogant. As expected, that man is trash.
Makina's opinion didn't seem to differ much from mine.
What do you want me to do?
I recommend a simple provocation.
The line she suggested rose in my head, and honestly, if Care hadn't been there, I couldn't even imagine what my face would have done.
You must trust me completely.
Haah. Fine. I don't know anymore.
I slid the checks back into the envelope, drew a long breath, and met Park Namil's eyes head-on.
"Is this really all there is?"
"What?"
"Then I'm disappointed. To think you'd dare try to buy the chairmanship of High Group with money — and with a sum this paltry, no less."
"Has this bastard lost his mind..."
The smile that had seemed impossible to crack twisted out of shape. Through narrowed eyes, a gaze thick with killing intent fixed on me.
Hmm... Shaken by something this small. As expected, the chairman's seat doesn't suit him.
Suit him or not, I'm the one about to die.
Oh, you needn't worry. Men like him get even angrier at the thought of having lost their temper at someone like you. He'll quiet down soon enough.
Makina wasn't wrong. His face stayed warped, but he neither said nor did anything to me.
"So... that's how you're going to play it."
The expression settled back into place. Park Namil took the envelope he had given me, tucked it inside his jacket, and rose from his seat.
"You should have just taken the money and gotten lost. Instead you'll be thrown out begging like a dog."
"...We'll see."
"No. That's exactly how it will go. Because I'll make it so."
Anyone listening would have heard the venom in it. But whether it was Makina's Care or not, I wasn't particularly angry — or afraid.
"See you soon."
He said it like a warning, opened the door, and walked out.
"Hoo... finally, a little—"
"Hey. Have you lost your mind?"
I had been about to breathe when Lee Sieun caught the door before it could shut, stormed in, and slammed her phone and bag down on the desk as she shouted at me.
"W-why? What's the matter?"
"What's the matter~? What's the matter?!"
As if my answer were absurd, she closed the distance until our foreheads nearly touched.
"I told you to be careful. When did I ever tell you to provoke him? What were you thinking? Seriously?! Do you have any idea how insane that bastard is?!"
She's only like this because she's still worried. You don't need to take it too hard.
What a rough way of worrying.
From the moment she came in, Sieun kept raking her hands through her hair. Only when a staff member came running at the commotion did she finally calm down.
"I really thought you might actually be a clever one..."
As if she had given up, she placed an order, then dropped into the seat across from me and pressed a hand to her head, looking exhausted.
"Wouldn't it have been better, though? More like a chairman?"
"So that's how you see it... Must be nice, being that positive."
"By the way, when did you get here?"
"I mean... I just happened to be passing by...?"
She followed you in secret because she was worried about you, Chairman. She was listening outside the door for the entire conversation.
How did you know?
I checked the vehicle's travel logs, the café's CCTV, and the like.
It was information gathering I could still only call extraordinary, and I couldn't help being startled.
Sieun went on twirling a lock of hair and making excuses, still flustered. But I already had Makina's account, and those excuses were cute enough that I almost didn't mind them.
"Yes. I see. Understood."
"That face does not look like someone who understands at all."
She was still wearing a sulky look, as if something didn't sit right with her, but my answer seemed to satisfy her all the same.
"Still... landing a hit on that guy felt good. Really cleared my chest."
She said it with a laugh, and of every smile I had seen from her, this one held the most genuine feeling.
"So you do know how to smile like that."
"What? How do you usually see me?"
She took the joke with a playful grin. It wasn't the sharp woman from yesterday. It was a smile that put the air at ease.
Cute...
And when that bright smile met her beauty, I found myself drawn to her before I knew it — the kind of smile that seemed to carry a spell.
"Ugh, fine. It's already happened. What can you do."
As if that settled it, Sieun held out her phone.
"Put your number in. Not your work number — your personal one."
"Sorry?"
"From the way you handled that guy, it looks like we're going to be in the same boat from here on. We ought to be able to reach each other, shouldn't we?"
She isn't wrong. Forming a personal rapport will also benefit you, Chairman.
Makina advised me to get closer, and I didn't see a downside, so I gave Sieun my number.
"And from now on, if I call, you pick up. No exceptions."
"What?"
"Listening to you, I'm worried you're going to cause another accident. So if something comes up, I'll call — and every time I do, you answer. Got it?"
She said it with a bright little smile, her face still radiant, then slipped the phone into her bag and stood.
"Get up. Didn't you come to check on the funeral preparations?"
"Yes... that's right. I should."
Only then did I remember today's schedule, the one Park Namil had driven clean out of my head.
"President Sieun, thank you for today."
"...When it's just the two of us, call me something easier."
"Sorry?"
"I don't particularly like being called President. Outside of official settings, just speak comfortably."
"...Aren't you older than me?"
"So what? The age gap isn't even that big. Between the two of us."
I was twenty-seven. Lee Sieun was twenty-eight. Count nothing but the years, and there was only a single year between us.
"Well, if that's what you want... got it, Sieun-noona."
"...Have you dated a lot?"
"No. I was working. I didn't even have time to date."
"...Is that so?"
Her face seemed to color a little. Together we left the café, arrived at the funeral hall, and were deep in checking the preparations when, before I knew it, the sun was going down.
A hotel in Seoul. I, Lee Sieun, reached the room with exhaustion written across my face and threw myself onto the bed the moment the door shut behind me.
"Haah. I'm tired. I'm so tired."
After the café, we had walked the funeral hall together and checked the preparations, and I had dragged my worn-out body back to a hotel near the venue.
"I let my words come out harsher than I meant..."
Among the family, there probably wasn't anyone else who could talk to Park Namil like that. From childhood his hunger for power and his possessiveness had been monstrous. His personality was filthy, but his results were real, so no one had been able to touch him.
"And yet he provoked a man like that to his face..."
The look on Park Namil's face as he walked out after hearing Jinwoo's taunt was the most satisfying expression I had seen in anything recent — and at the same time, the thought that an incident had just been made left me rattled.
"I thought he was the sort of person who only ever did as much as he had to."
His name, now sitting in my phone. There had been no particular need to take his number before. If something came up, I could always reach Grandfather directly. Not anymore.
"What should I save it as?"
I agonized over the name for a long while. Then a good idea brushed through my mind, and my fingers moved fast.
Idiot. Even I had to admit it — a satisfying bit of naming sense, perfectly suited to him. I was smiling over it, pleased with myself, when the clock on my phone pointed to eleven at night.
"I should sleep. Right away."
People would start pouring in early tomorrow morning. If I wanted to be in any condition to receive them, I needed to sleep now.
"Still... nothing will happen tomorrow, right...?"
I stepped into the bathroom for a shower, muttering out of unease, and let out a small laugh. But mixed in with it, just as at our first meeting, was a strange sense of anticipation.
"Well. I'll know once tomorrow comes."
Quietly looking forward to whatever face he might show me next, I settled into bed and slept in peace.