A Knife Beneath the Tightrope
An employee rushed into the conference room in a flurry.
“Chief. The results are in.”
Jo Byeong-jin, who had been fidgeting even while seated, turned sharply toward the man who had just barreled in.
“So? How did it go?”
“Failed bid! They say it’s a failed bid.”
“What? Really? It actually failed?”
Jo Byeong-jin shot up from his chair.
Right after him, Jeong Byeong-ju pressed the employee.
“The reason? What’s the reason?”
“Well… the reason is……”
The employee glanced sideways at Kim Seong-ho, then repeated word for word what the staff waiting at the bidding site had told him.
“They say no acquisition candidate meeting the creditors’ standards emerged.”
“Creditors’ standards? What kind of standards are we talking about that no one qualified?”
Still on his feet, Jo Byeong-jin fired the question at the employee. The man only looked flustered, clearly out of his depth, and said nothing more.
Watching him, Deputy Head Lee Gyeong-deuk answered in his place.
“Why even ask? Obviously it means no one hit the right price.”
Jo Byeong-jin seemed to find that convincing enough and nodded.
Jeong Byeong-ju tugged Jo Byeong-jin’s sleeve until he sat down again, then turned back to the employee.
“Did everyone who was expected to bid actually participate?”
The employee pivoted toward Jeong Byeong-ju and answered.
“Yes. The German firm, along with Seonu, Dugyeong—every company we anticipated took part.”
“Every single one of them showed up and still no one hit the price? Does that even make sense?”
Everyone gathered in the room, Jeong Byeong-ju included, looked toward Kim Seong-ho, their faces openly asking how they were supposed to read the situation.
“Understood. You can go now.”
Kim Seong-ho thanked the messenger and then turned to the team leaders still staring at him.
“All right. Now that we have the result, let’s move.”
“Are we going to jump in at the lowered price after the failed bid?”
“First, why don’t we find out exactly what each company wrote down?”
“I’ll take Dugyeong.”
“Then I’ll handle Seonu.”
At the mere word “move,” the team leaders began sorting out their own assignments without anyone needing to issue orders. They had stayed out of this round, but everyone assumed they would naturally enter the next one.
Kim Seong-ho’s decision, however, was completely unexpected.
“Effective immediately, the Restructuring Headquarters will close out all work related to the Doa Motors acquisition. Every team is to shift to recovering the emergency funds we lent last year against collateral.”
The team leaders froze, startled by the sudden directive. Kim Seong-ho ignored their reaction and continued without pause.
“Start with the companies that look weakest and review their repayment plans. One thing to be careful about: we must never be the ones who first ask whether they will settle the loan by surrendering the collateral. Make them bring it up. That way no one can paint us as loan sharks.”
They had all expected a day like this ever since they had begun extending emergency capital against collateral. Because of that, the team leaders were able to accept Kim Seong-ho’s decision with relative calm.
Half the borrowers were already so deep in trouble that repayment looked impossible. The other half, even if they could scrape the money together, looked at the collapsed value of their collateral and decided it was cleaner simply to hand over the assets and wipe the debt. The verification process would inevitably flow toward taking possession of those assets—and the Restructuring Headquarters had already been quietly preparing for exactly that outcome. So the collateral-collection work itself was no surprise.
What shocked them was the Doa Motors bid.
“Chief. Are we completely abandoning the Doa Motors acquisition?”
“A failed bid means the price just dropped, doesn’t it? That’s the moment we should be more aggressive, not the moment we pull out. Walking away now means we’re skipping this round too, right?”
Kim Seong-ho looked at the flustered team leaders.
“I never said we were abandoning it.”
“What? But you just ordered us to end all Doa Motors work.”
Jeong Byeong-ju turned to Jo Byeong-jin beside him with a look that asked whether he had misheard. Jo Byeong-jin’s eyes confirmed he had heard the same thing. Every other team leader in the room wore the identical expression of baffled doubt as they stared at Kim Seong-ho.
Kim Seong-ho smiled under their collective gaze.
“The failed bid has given me certainty. There’s no longer any need to waste resources in unnecessary places, so I ordered the withdrawal.”
“Then……”
“The Doa Motors acquisition will be handled by Team Leader Jo and me alone. Everyone else is free to stand down.”
“Just the two of you?”
Jo Byeong-jin’s face drained of color. The rest of the team leaders looked back and forth between Kim Seong-ho and Jo Byeong-jin in open astonishment.
“What? The two of them are going to handle the entire Doa Motors acquisition?”
“Yes. He said the failed bid made everything certain enough that the two of them would be sufficient.”
“Is that bastard insane?”
Lately Hwang Do-beom had begun to notice that Chairman Lee Tak-hyeon was calling Kim Seong-ho a “madman” far more often. And honestly, even from Hwang Do-beom’s own perspective, most of Kim Seong-ho’s choices were unhinged enough to earn the label. No one else would ever have chosen the paths he took; only Kim Seong-ho in the entire world seemed capable of operating that way. Hearing “madman” was almost inevitable.
Yet Lee Tak-hyeon’s version of the word carried a different weight.
“How much confidence does this guy have to pull a stunt like this?”
It was pure admiration.
Lee Tak-hyeon drummed his fingers on the sofa armrest.
“Normally, no matter how sure you are, you don’t go this far…… But pulling every single person out and saying just the two of them will do it? That’s the same as holding the answer key that proves the creditors and the government have no alternative left but us.”
The corners of Lee Tak-hyeon’s mouth lifted in open appreciation. He gave Hwang Do-beom his orders.
“If anyone from the government contacts us, do not take the call. Even if it’s the president himself. If you do answer, tell them full authority has been handed to the Restructuring Headquarters and they should speak with them.”
“You intend to concentrate all the power behind him?”
“You give power when you still can.”
“Chairman…… what if—just hypothetically—”
Hwang Do-beom hesitated, afraid that voicing the fear might make it real. Lee Tak-hyeon looked up at him and smiled.
“I know what you’re worried about. You’re afraid of what happens if he acts this confident and still fails to deliver the result he wants, aren’t you?”
“……Yes. Exactly.”
Hwang Do-beom nodded, still wearing the same anxious expression.
“He pulled every employee who was already working the case and announced he would handle it with only two people. If that goes wrong…… Doa Motors is a company we absolutely have to acquire—”
“Then Chief Kim will take responsibility, won’t he?”
“Responsibility?”
“Yes.”
The fingers drumming the armrest pressed harder.
“You once said something, didn’t you? That watching Chief Kim felt like watching a man walking a tightrope. I see it now too. Only this time, just to make the audience sweat, he stuck a knife underneath as well.”
Hwang Do-beom’s face went white.
“What happens to the acrobat who sticks a knife in the ground and then falls off the wire?”
Lee Tak-hyeon’s hand stopped moving. The smile vanished from his face as he looked at Hwang Do-beom.
“I’m curious how much more joyfully he’ll dance on that rope with a knife waiting below. Pour every scrap of power we have behind him. We stay in the audience and watch.”
“Yes, sir. Understood.”
Hwang Do-beom bowed his head in acknowledgment. Lee Tak-hyeon moved on to another question.
“That’s settled, then…… Is she still shut up in the house?”
Hwang Do-beom immediately understood he meant Jang Eun-ah—Lee Chang-jong’s wife and Lee Tak-hyeon’s third daughter-in-law. He raised his head slowly and began the report the chairman wanted.
“She still hasn’t made any decision and hasn’t taken a single step outside the house.”
“She’s not dead, is she?”
“No. According to the housekeeper who looks after the place, she’s perfectly alive and well inside.”
Hwang Do-beom answered so quickly it was clear he had harbored the same suspicion. Lee Tak-hyeon nodded, looking almost relieved.
“Good. Alive is enough. She’s still family. If she dies, every bit of household strife and the child’s story will come pouring out and it will be a headache. If she’s going to die, better she do it after she’s already left our household.”
At the implication that Lee Tak-hyeon would not care once Jang Eun-ah was out of the family, Hwang Do-beom’s expression grew complicated. Lee Tak-hyeon did not look at him; he simply clasped his hands together.
“Still, we can’t force her out. If she decides to dig in and fight to the death, that becomes a headache of its own.”
He thought for a moment, then spoke slowly.
“For now, just keep watching. Don’t provoke her. Don’t pressure her. Give her time until she chooses on her own. Whatever she decides, she has to make the choice herself or it will get noisy later.”
“Understood.”
“That doesn’t mean stop watching. If anything happens, contact me immediately. Clear?”
“Yes, sir. Understood.”
Hwang Do-beom raised his voice slightly to show he would follow the order. Satisfied, Lee Tak-hyeon unclasped his hands. Then, with an intrigued gleam in his eyes, he turned his gaze toward the direction where Kim Seong-ho was busy unraveling the Doa Motors affair.
“Hey. How are the two of us supposed to handle the Doa Motors acquisition?”
“We’re not the ones handling it.”
With Deputy Head Lee Gyeong-deuk and the rest of the staff gone, only Kim Seong-ho and Jo Byeong-jin remained in the conference room. When no one else was around, Jo Byeong-jin spoke to Kim Seong-ho with casual ease, and Kim Seong-ho found the familiarity even more comfortable.
“They’re the ones who have to move. We just sit still and react once they start moving. No need for anyone else. You and I are enough.”
“‘They’ meaning…… Modu Bank?”
“Modu Bank, the rest of the creditors, the Doa Motors union—all of them.”
At those words Jo Byeong-jin stopped pacing and looked a little more at ease. He chewed over what Kim Seong-ho had said.
“You’re saying they’re going to come crawling to us on their own…… Is that really true? There are still other parties willing to buy Doa Motors. Wouldn’t the creditors rather talk to them than to us?”
“Are there, though? Are they really still in the game?”
“Huh?”
Jo Byeong-jin was left momentarily speechless by the question.
Knock-knock.
The secretary entered after a brief knock.
“Chief. The Ministry of Finance and Economy just called. They want you to come in today.”
Jo Byeong-jin’s brows knotted as he turned on the secretary. His voice was thick with irritation.
“Are you kidding me? What time is it already, and they’re telling him to come in? And they didn’t even make an appointment—they just call on the day of? Where the hell did they learn that kind of dogshit manners?”
He raised a hand toward Kim Seong-ho.
“Chief Kim, don’t worry about this. I’ll handle it.”
“And how exactly does Team Leader Jo plan to handle it?”
Knowing full well why the Ministry had called, Kim Seong-ho asked with a smile. Jo Byeong-jin kept his hand raised, stood up, and answered.
“There’s no need for you to go yourself just because some bastards with dogshit manners call on the afternoon of the same day and order you in. I’ll go in your place.”
“You, Team Leader Jo? Will that be all right?”
“Of course it will. Don’t worry. I’ll go in there and make it crystal clear that this same-day-summons nonsense is no way to request a meeting with the Chief. These civil-servant bastards sit on our tax money and then tell people to come and go? I’ll fix their attitude properly.”
“Team Leader Jo is going in my place. Think that’s going to be fine?”
Kim Seong-ho directed the question not at Jo Byeong-jin but at the secretary. The secretary looked distinctly uncomfortable.
“Well…… I don’t think Team Leader Jo should go.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because the person the Ministry wants the Chief to meet is someone Team Leader Jo would not normally be able to see.”
“Someone I can’t normally meet? Who?”
Jo Byeong-jin scowled at the secretary.
“……The Vice Minister?”
“No.”
The secretary shook her head. Jo Byeong-jin tilted his head. A director-general under the Vice Minister was someone he could meet without issue. If it was someone above the Vice Minister and yet not the Vice Minister himself, then for a moment he could not think who would be summoning Kim Seong-ho.
Then a single title flashed through his mind.
“Don’t tell me…… the Deputy Prime Minister?”
His voice was uncertain. The secretary nodded.
“Yes. The Deputy Prime Minister said he doesn’t mind if it’s late—he absolutely wants to see the Chief today.”
Jo Byeong-jin’s mouth fell open.