Master of the Tightrope
“He told them to find reasons to give up?”
Lee Tak-hyeon repeated the report with an expression of pure disbelief.
Chief of Staff Hwang Do-beom understood exactly why the Chairman looked that way and answered carefully.
“Yes, sir. The Restructuring Headquarters is searching for every negative aspect of acquiring Doa Motors.”
“I knew that boy was crazy a long time ago, but he’s even crazier than I thought.”
Lee Tak-hyeon let out a short, admiring breath, the shock still plain on his face.
Hwang Do-beom watched him with open concern.
“Chairman. Shall I go speak to him myself, even now?”
“Speak to him about what?”
“To do it properly.”
“Properly? What exactly is ‘properly’?”
Pressed again, Hwang hesitated a beat before answering.
“Well… that the Restructuring Headquarters ought to be moving in the direction of actually acquiring the company. Didn’t you yourself say Doa Motors had to be taken over no matter what…?”
He watched the Chairman’s face as he spoke. The words “crazy bastard” might have left Lee Tak-hyeon’s mouth, but the man looked unmistakably pleased. Hwang never finished the sentence.
His instinct was right. Lee Tak-hyeon was thoroughly satisfied with Kim Seong-ho’s decision.
“If you absolutely must acquire Doa Motors, the fastest way is to dig up every reason not to acquire it.”
Hwang did not understand the logic. Yet the Chairman’s clear satisfaction told him one thing for certain: Kim Seong-ho was walking the correct path.
I thought the order was absurd…
When Hwang first heard the instruction Seong-ho had given the Restructuring Headquarters, he had nearly jumped out of his skin. The order ran completely opposite to the Chairman’s known wishes; he had been sure Seong-ho had stepped onto the wrong road. Instead, the one who had misjudged the road was himself. The realization left him quietly stunned.
And watching Kim Seong-ho move in perfect step with Lee Tak-hyeon’s true intent, he could only imagine the deep satisfaction the Chairman must be feeling.
“When is the meeting with the government about the Doa Motors acquisition scheduled?”
Hwang snapped out of his thoughts and answered promptly.
“After the presidential inauguration, the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs will chair a gathering of the five major groups. The acquisition is expected to come up there.”
“Good.”
Lee Tak-hyeon nodded once, then issued the order.
“Send Director Kim to that meeting.”
“To a meeting chaired by the Economic Deputy Prime Minister?”
Hwang’s eyes widened.
Lee Tak-hyeon looked almost amused as he continued.
“Given the level of the occasion, we should raise his rank a little, don’t you think? Announce the presidential appointments immediately and hold the inauguration right away. It is, after all, a meeting run by the Economic Deputy Prime Minister—he ought to show up wearing a President’s title.”
Hwang hesitated, looking at the Chairman.
This would not be a room for mere group chairmen, but for men of nearly equivalent weight. The real power-holders of each conglomerate would attend; critical decisions might even be made on the spot. Sending Kim Seong-ho into that setting felt, for a fleeting second, like a mistake.
“Chairman. Wouldn’t it be better to send Vice Chairman Lee instead of Director Kim? It would match the rank of the other groups and look more appropriate.”
“And what exactly is the Vice Chairman going to accomplish there?”
Lee Tak-hyeon shook his head.
“The man who makes the decisions should go and speak for himself. Stop talking and just do what I told you.”
There was no room for further opinion. Hwang fell silent, yet a quiet doubt lingered: was sending Kim Seong-ho truly wise?
In Hwang’s eyes, the Chairman kept placing Seong-ho on a tightrope again and again. What he could not see was the prize waiting at the far end of that rope. And if anyone alive was a master of walking the tightrope, it was Kim Seong-ho. He had spent an entire lifetime doing nothing else.
Contrary to Hwang’s worries, Seong-ho welcomed the Chairman’s decision the moment he heard it.
“Perfect.”
He summoned Jo Byeong-jin at once.
“Come with me to Doa Motors.”
Jo Byeong-jin nodded.
“Got it. I’ll call headquarters and set up a time. The creditor-appointed management team is running the place temporarily, and they’re not having an easy time of it. If we ask for a meeting, they’ll make time that doesn’t exist. From their position, the sooner the company is handed over, the better.”
“No. Not headquarters.”
Seong-ho shook his head and unfolded a daily newspaper across the desk so Jo could see it clearly. A large photograph showed Doa Motors union members with fists raised high.
“You want to go there?”
Jo stared from the photo to Seong-ho and back again, unable to believe what he was hearing. They were proposing to walk into the middle of a full-blown strike.
Seong-ho looked down at the picture.
“They’re calling for us this loudly—we ought to answer. Set it up as soon as possible and let me know. The sooner the better.”
“Uh… I think you might be misunderstanding something. If we show up there, those people are not going to leave us alone.”
The people the striking unionists hated most in the world were anyone from the Ilhyeon Group. At this very moment they probably hated Ilhyeon more than the northern regime that had started a war. Walking straight into that was enough to give Jo cognitive dissonance.
“Ah!”
Understanding seemed to dawn. He looked at Seong-ho with sudden confidence.
“You want to go in under the radar, without the Ilhyeon nameplate. Just to see the strike with your own eyes instead of through the media. That’s it, right?”
“No.”
Seong-ho shook his head.
“We’re going to visit officially. We’re going to listen to what they have to say. So get ready.”
“An official visit…”
Jo left the office looking like a man whose soul had left his body. He sat down with the eyes of a cow being led to slaughter and placed the call to Doa Motors.
“Loosen up that face.”
Seong-ho spoke to Jo, who was gripping the steering wheel. Jo’s lower lip jutted out; he did not bother answering.
“I told you it’s fine. You don’t need to worry.”
“Don’t worry?”
Jo glanced sideways while still driving.
“How am I supposed to not worry? The people where we’re going have decided they want us dead the second they see us.”
“Why would they kill us?”
“Because then we can’t take over the company and it can go to the German firm they want.”
Jo faced forward again.
“To them we’re the enemy. Something that has to disappear. And we’re walking right up to them on our own two feet. You think they’ll just leave us alone? The moment they spot us they’ll try to kill us.”
“You think so too, huh?”
Jo turned his head.
“Oh, so you actually know? I thought you didn’t.”
“Of course I know. I read the papers and watch the news. And you and the rest of headquarters report to me constantly—how could I not know?”
“Then why did you ask why they would kill us?”
“I meant they may want to kill us, but they can’t. Something like that.”
Jo looked at him as if he had grown a second head. He could not keep staring while driving, yet pure bewilderment still poured from his eyes.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You’ll understand when we get there. They cannot kill us. Absolutely not…”
Seong-ho watched Doa Motors’ Gwangmyeong plant draw closer through the window.
“…if they want to get what they’re after. So stop worrying.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking abou—”
Something slammed into the windshield.
Thwack!
“What the—?”
Jo flinched and slowed the car. Before he could identify the mess, more objects struck.
Thwack! Thwack!
He finally recognized what was exploding against the glass.
“Are those raw eggs?”
Thwack! Thwack!
Eggs smashed across the windshield, the driver’s and passenger windows, the rear glass—every surface. Not only the glass: the roof, the tires, the hood. As if on a signal, a coordinated barrage coated the entire car. Then the voices rose.
“Ilhyeon Group, get out!”
“Get out!”
“Doa Motors rejects the Ilhyeon Group!”
“Rejects them!”
“We will choose our own company with our own hands!”
“Choose it!”
“Ilhyeon Group, keep your hands off Doa Motors!”
“Keep them off!”
A leader’s chant, answered by the crowd in thunderous unison. The roar shook the car’s interior. Jo looked at Seong-ho.
“And you still claim these people aren’t trying to kill us?”
“Yelling and throwing eggs isn’t the same as killing us.”
“Hey! That’s—”
Jo cut himself off and shook his head. One look at Seong-ho’s face told him the man was not joking.
“Are you seriously okay?”
“Stop worrying and drive slowly inside. They’ll quiet down. Eggs don’t sprout from the ground or fall from the sky—sooner or later they run out.”
Thwack! Thwack!
The barrage had already thinned, just as Seong-ho predicted. Still, the windshield was nearly opaque. Jo exhaled a short breath, wiped a clear spot, and crept forward.
As the car advanced, the union members farther back grew frantic.
“Stop them! Don’t let the Ilhyeon people inside!”
At the shout they surged toward the vehicle, but police who had been watching the scene blocked them. Jo hunched over the wheel, driving with extreme caution.
“They could have stopped them earlier.”
“If we get out of the car we might get hit with eggs.”
“What?”
Jo looked over while still inching ahead.
“I’m telling you in advance so you don’t jump when it happens. The moment we step out, eggs will fly. Don’t dodge—just take them.”
“Just take them?”
Jo already grimaced at the stench of rotten egg seeping into the cabin. If it smelled this bad from outside hits, a direct hit would leave the reek clinging for a week no matter how many showers he took.
Seong-ho pointed ahead.
“Park there. When we get out, I’ll go first. You follow a little later—you’ll catch fewer that way.”
Jo steered where he was told, stopped the car, and turned to Seong-ho.
“If I get hit less, that just means you get hit more.”
“That’s my job. Otherwise your complaining will reach all the way back to Seoul.”
Seong-ho grinned, clapped Jo’s shoulder, and opened the door.
“Count to ten after I get out, then follow. I’m going first.”
He stepped onto the ground.
“That’s an Ilhyeon Group man!”
Eggs flew as if the throwers had just spotted their parents’ murderer.
Thwack! Thwack!
They burst against his face, body, and head. Seong-ho stood motionless and took every one of them. Someone had deliberately spoiled the eggs; the stench was foul beyond words. Yet he never once wrinkled his nose. He simply stood there and endured the barrage for a long while.
“That one’s Ilhyeon too!”
When Jo finally climbed out, some of the eggs that had been reserved for Seong-ho shifted toward him. He threw up his hands to shield his face, but the rest of his body had no defense. Eggs exploded across him; the smell made him gag.
“Ugh!”
Only when the egg rain finally began to ease did Doa Motors officials appear and push the throwing union members back.
“That’s enough. These gentlemen are guests.”
“Guests? What guests? Ilhyeon Group, get the hell out!”
The eggs had stopped, but the curses aimed at Seong-ho did not. Still, the physical assault was over. The official approached the two egg-soaked men.
“I apologize. I am… Han Yu-cheol, temporary managing director of Doa Motors appointed by the creditors…”
The reek rolling off Seong-ho’s clothes made it hard for Han to finish the introduction in one breath. Seong-ho himself, however, looked completely unbothered.
“A pleasure to meet you. I am Kim Seong-ho, Head of the Restructuring Headquarters of the Ilhyeon Group.”
“The Headquarters Director himself came?”
Han Yu-cheol stared in genuine surprise. He had been told someone from Ilhyeon was coming; he had never imagined it would be the director himself.
Seong-ho glanced past the police line at the union members still screaming his name, then spoke calmly.
“I didn’t come for anything complicated today. I simply want to speak with the union representatives. I’d appreciate it if you could arrange a meeting.”
Han’s face filled with open confusion at the completely unexpected request.