The Bad Guys
Managing Director Kim had played a round of golf last Saturday with Vice President Nam Young-soo of the group's holding company, deliberately setting the tee time to make a request about his promotion.
When they paused for a moment in the shade house midway through the round and he gingerly brought up the matter of his advancement to Executive Director, Vice President Nam — who had been pretending to give it careful thought — told him to have 200 million won in cash ready.
He intended to present it as an offering to his own superior, but in truth, he would swallow the money himself.
Of course, if his promotion to Executive Director were guaranteed, he would have been more than willing to deliver not just 200 million won but 500 million.
The truth was, he had already used his connections to find out that his promotion this year would be no easy feat. So, clutching at straws, he was reaching out to Vice President Nam, the man in charge of executive appointments across the entire group.
Telling himself it was money written off anyway made it sting all the more all of a sudden.
He needed to come up with 200 million won, and he figured if he asked President Jung, who was golfing with him, the man would readily oblige.
Sure enough, after the round ended and Vice President Nam headed home, he casually laid out his predicament to President Jung of Gyeongin Distribution — and the man promised without hesitation that he would raise the 200 million won if he could get his hands on just 500 of the latest-model TVs.
So that morning, he had called in Deputy Head Cho and ordered him to submit the delivery approval form — and the man had dug in his heels.
Knowing full well that moments like these called for pressing hard, Managing Director Kim deliberately raised his voice and bore down on Cho.
By now, Deputy Head Cho would surely be pushing the delivery approval form through before noon.
With the thought that he would have his 200 million won from President Jung in about a week, a smile crept across his face unbidden.
When Deputy Head Cho returned to the office, Hong Dae-ri was — for once — actually at his desk.
If word of the fake delivery reached Hong Dae-ri, the man would throw a royal fit, that much was certain.
How to handle him, how to coax and cajole him into going along — no good idea came to mind.
But he had made a promise to Managing Director Kim, so the approval form had to be drafted and submitted before noon no matter what.
"Hong Dae-ri, got a minute in the meeting room?"
Once they were seated across from each other at the meeting room table, Deputy Head Cho eased into it.
"I just came back from the Managing Director's office. Sounds like good news is coming your father-in-law's way?"
"Oh, that? The 30th of last month was my uncle's birthday, so we had a family dinner, and it was decided there that he's being promoted to Vice Chairman. Word of that has already reached Managing Director Kim's ears? Wow, that man... keeps his antennas up high, doesn't he."
Worried Hong Dae-ri might get the wrong idea, Deputy Head Cho quickly steered the conversation elsewhere.
"Ah, well, I must have just happened to overhear. Don't worry about it. So, anything wearing you down these days?"
"That Kim Dae-ri punk's been awfully quiet lately, hasn't he? I was going to stomp him flat if he climbed up one more time."
"Ah, why waste your energy on minnows like that? A man who's meant to swim in big water."
"Fair enough. No reason to even share the same air with dirt-spoon punks like him. Does that punk have more money than me? A better degree? Faster promotions? No point bothering with someone who's got nothing."
The moment Deputy Head Cho decided it was time to land the decisive blow, his heart began pounding hard.
"Thing is, we've got a real headache on our hands. Managing Director Kim wants us to run one more fake delivery through President Jung of Gyeongin Distribution, and we can't exactly refuse... It's trouble."
Hong Dae-ri grasped at once that this was what Deputy Head Cho had been dying to tell him.
He had gotten along well with Cho so far, and he regarded the man as someone he'd take along with him once he himself rose into the executive ranks. Still, watching Deputy Head Cho thrash around in the swamp called Managing Director Kim stirred a flicker of pity in him.
"You know as well as I do, Team Leader — President Jung of Gyeongin Distribution is a leech. Once he latches on, he'll suck you dry until you wither and then pull one big job on you for sure. Like I told you before, if things go south, it's 10,000% certain you'll take the fall alone. Me, I'll just say I went along because you ordered it — though honestly, I don't even need that excuse. Would they really cut me loose? So if you don't carve yourself an escape hatch, Team Leader, you're going to get hurt. Guaranteed."
Deputy Head Cho couldn't stand Hong Dae-ri's usual conduct, but perhaps because they'd been rubbing shoulders for a year now, the man did occasionally offer words that looked out for his interests.
"Thanks, Hong Dae-ri. I won't forget this favor."
"So what is it this time? Not phones, surely — 500 TVs, maybe?"
"Huh? How did you know it was 500 TVs, Hong Dae-ri?"
"He asked me for the same favor a while back, and I shut him down flat. He even offered me a million won in gift certificates. I nearly laughed in his face. I just smiled and let it go."
"Well, President Jung doesn't know who you really are, so I suppose that figures."
"500 latest-model TVs, under 1 billion won, at a 29.9% discount — right?"
"Yeah, that's—"
"This once and never again. That's it. I just need to submit the approval form by noon, yes?"
"Right. Thank you, Hong Dae-ri."
"By the way, I'll be resting at home tomorrow and the day after, so handle things yourself, Team Leader."
"Got it. Just trust me. I'll take care of everything. In return, get that approval form in by noon."
Meanwhile, at that very moment, Young-hoon was on the phone with President Jung of Seoul Distribution.
The two of them talked at least once or twice a day, so he picked up without a second thought — but the conversation turned out to be dead serious.
"Kim Dae-ri, the phones aren't selling at all right now. Somebody dumped phones into the electronics market again over the weekend! Back in late October some punk dumped a load and prices tanked, and just when things were finally recovering, here comes another dump — the phone market is a total mess right now. The Seoul-area dealership council has stepped up and said they won't sit still this time, and I think this problem's about to get ugly. Kim Dae-ri, you've got nothing to do with this mess, right?"
"Of course not. If I were going to dump phones, I'd do it through your dealership, wouldn't I, President? But you've had no part in it, so how could I dump through you? Among the dealerships I handle, there's no one but you and President Kim of Namseoul Distribution who'd even be capable of it. And you know better than anyone I don't do dirty business like that. But this really is trouble, isn't it? Peak phone season is right around the corner and the prices are in shambles — what are we supposed to do?"
"Well, I didn't buy any phones at the end of last month anyway, so our losses are light — but I hear it's no joke for the other dealerships. If someone gets their hands on the dumped phones and checks the serial numbers, it should be easy enough to trace which dealership did the dumping. The dealers' federation has stepped in, so they'll track down the culprit soon enough. Looks like the year-end is about to get messy."
"They'd better find the dealership that did the dumping fast. This is a real problem."
"I'm barely out of pocket on this, so as long as you're in the clear, Kim Dae-ri, that's all I care about. Come over for lunch one of these days. I've dug up a place that does a great budae-jjigae — the taste is solid."
"Yes, sir. I'll drop by one day this week for sure."
Apparently having overheard Young-hoon's end of the call, Park Dae-ri sent him a KakaoTalk message.
Young-hoon and Park Dae-ri regrouped in the break room, each cradling a cup of coffee, and got down to a grim conversation.
"Hey, Kim Dae-ri. You getting complaints from your dealerships too?"
"Yeah. President Jung of Seoul Distribution. You too?"
"Same here — been taking it from the Yeongdeungpo Plaza president all morning."
"Then the rumor's spread all across downtown Seoul... This is bad."
"I'd bet anything Gyeongin Distribution took the shipment from this fake delivery and tossed it onto the market again. Can't that man hold on to it a while before dumping it? I don't get it — what's the rush, why cough it up the second it lands? Sounds like Hwang Dae-ri in Marketing Team 2 is getting hammered with complaints too."
"Don't they know that when the prices wobble in the electronics market, they wobble nationwide? This shock's going to last a good while... We're already getting shredded by Samjung Electronics, and now one slimy loach is shaking up the entire market."
Park Dae-ri continued, his eyes dark with worry.
"You think that punk Hong Dae-ri actually knows about this?"
"My gut says someone higher up is involved. Hong Dae-ri is the bullet shield, Deputy Head Cho is the muscle, and I've got a feeling the man sitting at the very top is Managing Director Kim. You've seen it yourself, haven't you? These days Deputy Head Cho flits in and out of the Managing Director's office like a mouse through a straw mat."
"Then this is serious... If it blows up, it's obvious only Deputy Head Cho is going to take the big hit."
"That's my read too. Managing Director Kim is an old fox — he'll weasel out somehow, guaranteed. And Hong Dae-ri's one of the Royal Family, so they'll go easy on him. One way or another, the only man left bleeding is Deputy Head Cho. His personality may be a dumpster fire, but the man was razor-sharp at his job. Looks like he's headed home, doesn't it?"
"I think so too... Eh, he'll manage somehow. Let's head back. Someone will start yapping about us not working."
When Young-hoon and Park Dae-ri returned to the office, Hong Dae-ri was — remarkably — hard at work. Glancing sideways, it looked like he was filling out a delivery approval form.
Young-hoon fired off an urgent KakaoTalk to Park Dae-ri.
Approaching Hong Dae-ri on the pretext of having a work question, Park Dae-ri exchanged a few words with him, then sauntered back to his own desk. Almost instantly, a message landed.
Having wrapped up the exchange with Park Dae-ri, Young-hoon tried to throw himself into his work, but his mind refused to settle.
President Jung of Gyeongin Distribution would without question spit the TVs he'd received through the fake delivery straight into the electronics market. That would make it three consecutive strikes from a single dealership.
Tails would get caught — there was no way around it. And when that happened, everything Marketing Team 3 had achieved would come crashing down in a heap.
The very fact that Deputy Head Cho was taking this reckless gamble, knowing full well how it would end, was proof in itself that there was a force above him he couldn't defy. Managing Director Kim — or someone even higher — had to be pulling the strings.
A grim premonition crept over him: the year-end was going to run red with blood.
But the arrow had already left the bowstring. The bullet had already left the barrel.
If this fake delivery went wrong, a massive audit would land squarely on Marketing Team 3 — that much was certain. He needed to prepare for that moment, thoroughly and well in advance.
The audit team would be grasping at any loophole they could find. Starting now, he had to go carefully through every piece of work he'd handled and root out anything left incomplete.
And this wasn't a problem for Marketing Team 3 alone. At the very least, an audit would sweep the metropolitan-area marketing teams; at worst, it could stretch to every marketing team across the country.
That meant a great many people were going to get hurt.
This was, unmistakably, a catastrophic accident in the making. Unless countermeasures were laid down now, a colossal tsunami was going to sweep everyone away.