Young-hoon Meets Chairman Choi
Young-hoon and Park Dae-ri kept up their KakaoTalk banter through the rest of the afternoon. With the effects of the herbal powder making themselves plain for all to see, Young-hoon's expectations only grew.
Before he knew it, quitting time was approaching. Young-hoon was due to meet his cousin's husband at seven in the evening. On a normal day, the drive from Yeouido to Jongno took barely an hour — but his appointment coincided exactly with the end of the workday. Seoul's rush-hour congestion was world-famous, and no one could predict how the roads might behave. He needed to be on the move at least an hour and a half ahead of time.
So Young-hoon had already cleared it with Manager Kim to leave thirty minutes early. All that remained was to slip out of the office naturally, without the other teams noticing — but it seemed Assistant Manager Hwang from Marketing Team 2 had caught on. The man winked at him.
'That lunatic. What kind of grown man winks at another man?'
Young-hoon drove his secondhand compact toward Uncheonggak in Jongno. Apparently leaving thirty minutes early had been the right call — he pulled up at 6:55. The autumnal equinox had come and gone, and dusk had settled so thickly that anyone more than a few steps away was just a shadow. As Young-hoon stepped out of his car, someone approached and spoke.
"You need to change a great many things about yourself, my friend, but I'd say the car comes first. That little thing's been out of production for what, twenty years?"
The figure emerging from the darkness was none other than Chairman Jang.
"Good evening, Chairman. A car only needs sturdy wheels — who cares what it looks like? It's just a way to get from A to B."
"You're not wrong, exactly, but then why do you suppose people buy good cars in the first place? Some of them want to show off, sure. But far more of them do it for safety, and you'd do well to remember that. You matter a great deal to me, you see."
Chairman Jang turned and gave an instruction to the secretary trailing behind him.
"Secretary Byun, look into cars for him as well."
"Understood, Chairman!"
Listening to the exchange between the Chairman and his secretary, Young-hoon raised his guard in advance.
"Chairman, if it's for me, please don't bother. I'm a salaried worker — I can't be driving an expensive car. If I rolled around in one, people would start asking questions."
"What kind of nonsense is that? Are you worried they'll suspect you bought it with bribe money?"
"Yes, exactly."
"Enough of that. Let's go inside. That Choi character says he's been waiting and is practically vibrating."
When Young-hoon and Chairman Jang opened the door to the reserved room, Ki-jin was there — and beside him sat a hulking, bandit-looking man in his seventies, wearing an expression of barely contained fury. True to form, the words he spat at Chairman Jang were anything but gracious.
"Hey, you bastard! Couldn't you have gotten here sooner?"
"What kind of idiotic complaint is that? Weren't we meeting at seven sharp? Have you got no eyes? Do you not know what time it is? Shall I tell you?"
"I've been sitting here for half an hour already! What kind of person shows up at precisely the stroke of seven?"
Young-hoon was utterly flustered. Watching the two most legendary Cash Kings in Korea squabble like schoolchildren, he had no idea what to do with himself. Ignoring him entirely, Chairman Jang brushed off Chairman Choi's complaint.
"Spare me the theatrics… Young-hoon, say hello. That's the Choi character I told you about."
Young-hoon greeted Chairman Choi with all the formality he could muster.
"It's an honor to meet you. My name is Kim Young-hoon."
"Ah, I heard about you from Executive Director Lee. I'm Choi Min-yong — I run a modest little business in Jongno. You're Executive Director Lee's cousin's husband, yes?"
"That's right, sir."
"Well then, let's not stand around talking. Sit, sit."
Chairman Jang settled into an empty seat and steered Young-hoon into the one beside him. Just then, Madam Kim — whom they had met the previous week — came in and teased the Chairman.
"Why, Chairman Jang, you look far more lively than when I saw you last week. You haven't been off eating a few five-hundred-year-old wild ginseng roots somewhere, have you?"
Chairman Jang beamed at the compliment.
"Oh? Does it show? You can tell I've had my ginseng, Madam Kim?"
"Of course I can. At this rate I could call you oppa."
"Hehehehe… Is that a fact?"
Chairman Choi's mood soured slightly as Madam Kim showered Chairman Jang with praise.
"Hey! You bastard, Jang! Tonight's meal is on you. Madam Kim, how do I look?"
"Chairman Choi, you look ten years younger than when I saw you a month ago."
"Didn't I say so? So the stuff really does work. Madam Kim, you remember the food I ordered? Bring that out. No alcohol needed! Understood?"
"Of course. I'll see to it personally."
Once Madam Kim had taken the order and stepped out, Chairman Choi — in a hurry about something — peppered Young-hoon with questions. More than anything, he seemed desperate to know where the elixir had come from. Young-hoon gave him precisely the same answer he had given Chairman Jang. The old man, starved for details, pressed and pressed about the elixir's effects, but Young-hoon only shared what he actually knew.
Just then, a pre-meal tea arrived to whet their appetites. Young-hoon saw his chance to test the Magic Seasoning.
"One moment, please, Chairmen."
"Hm?"
"What is it?"
"Please don't drink that yet. I have some herbal powder I obtained from the Taoist Master of Mount Taebaek. Supposedly if you stir it into tea, the flavor improves. Let's try it that way."
The two chairmen and Ki-jin handed over their teacups as instructed. Young-hoon blended a tiny amount of the Magic Seasoning into the pre-meal tea and passed the cups back around. The moment they took their first sip, the whole table froze in astonishment.
"Was this tea always this good? It just melts across the tongue."
"Good heavens! This isn't tea — it's a tonic! A health tonic!"
"Chairmen, this is my first time drinking it too, and honestly — it's delicious."
Chairman Jang, struck by a sudden thought, buzzed for Madam Kim on the intercom and ordered the tea again from scratch. When the fresh pot arrived and he tasted it, it was simply… ordinary tea. Which meant the herbal powder Young-hoon had brought was an elixir in its own right. Excitement flared anew around the table.
"Isn't this the legendary elixir the immortals stir into their tea? Drink the elixir AND this powder, and wouldn't you ascend on the spot? In any case — in seventy years of living, meeting you has been the greatest stroke of luck of my life."
Young-hoon deflected the praise with an embarrassed laugh.
"Oh, come on, Chairman Jang. Since when am I some kind of lucky charm? Don't tease me."
"I'm telling you it's true, my boy. What do you think, Choi?"
"I think the same as that old fool Jang. This powder tastes like something the immortals sip. Absolute perfection. Any way you could get us more of it?"
"I'll reach out to my contacts in the countryside. I don't have a lot of it, but I should be able to source a certain amount. The Master said that taking it once a day, stirred into tea or coffee, carries you effortlessly through the whole day — so it should be good for the body, too."
Chairman Choi let anticipation show on his face, then spoke up carefully.
"Then… could it possibly…?"
"I'm afraid that's probably asking too much. Though I did try mixing it in one night as an experiment, and nothing seemed amiss?"
Whether his hopes had been dashed or not, Chairman Choi smacked his lips.
"Well, it may not do what I was hoping for, but restoring one's vitality is nothing to sneeze at. And if it tastes this good, what more could I ask?"
Amid the warm, convivial conversation, the meal began. Young-hoon drew a bottle of wine from his bag. At the sight of it, Chairman Choi could not calm his pounding heart. The label was dirt-cheap — but he knew what the contents held: an elixir beyond the ages. The thought that this miracle would soon be in his hands brought a sudden burst of laughter bubbling up.
"Hehehehe."
But at that moment, his nemesis — that damned Jang — cut in with a smirk.
"Hold on! Before we drink this wine… Choi, I trust you've prepared the payment for it?"
Chairman Choi drew his wallet from his pocket with perfect confidence and laid out three checks.
"There — look for yourself, you old Jang! One hundred billion won apiece, three hundred billion in total. Right?"
"I'm sorry — what did you say? Three hundred billion won?"
Young-hoon, startled, asked Chairman Choi to repeat himself. Even Ki-jin had never dreamed the man would actually show up with three hundred billion won in hand. Chairman Jang had tossed the figure out as a joke, and Chairman Choi had simply taken it at face value.
Seeing Young-hoon's shock, Chairman Jang smoothed things over with practiced grace.
"What, is three hundred billion too little? I told that Choi character to prepare the price of the elixir — one hundred billion per bottle. As Executive Director Lee well knows, does that man ever waste money? He prepared it because he judged the value himself to be worth about that much."
Chairman Choi agreed.
"That's right, what Jang said. This old man had new life breathed into him — what's a bit of money compared to that? You can't take it with you when you die anyway, and I have more than enough wealth to spend this much a hundred times over. So don't look so shocked."
To Young-hoon, a sum like one hundred billion won had only ever existed in the pages of his university accounting textbook. It was an astronomical figure — the amount he would have to earn and save, spending not a single won, for two thousand years of his current salary. However vast the chairmen's fortunes might be, in the trillions, this simply felt wrong.
"I understand what you're saying, Chairman Choi, but one hundred billion won per bottle is an amount I can barely even imagine."
"Then how much would satisfy you? Go on, name a figure."
"They say value is judged by the buyer, not the seller. So whatever price you place on that value, Chairman, would be the standard for the purchase."
Chairman Choi privately believed the elixir was worth at least one hundred billion a bottle, no matter how he ran the numbers. But as the saying goes — a mother-in-law's rice cakes must be cheap to taste sweet — and he wanted to buy low.
"Honestly, the way I see it, the elixir is worth closer to two hundred billion a bottle — well beyond your asking price. But a man feels better buying a bargain, doesn't he? So let's call it one hundred billion and be done. And that old fool Jang bought his at a mere fifty billion a bottle, didn't you?"
Chairman Jang had a strange feeling about the way things were drifting. Sensing that things could spiral if he didn't pin them down quickly, he drove in the nail.