A Different Caliber
“Please, have a seat here.”
Kim Seong-ho led Cha Yeong-su into the family rest area.
“Would you like some coffee, hyung-nim?”
“No. I’m fine.”
Cha Yeong-su still wore the awkward expression he had carried for some time. Even alone with Seong-ho, he could not meet his brother-in-law’s eyes and kept staring at the floor.
Seong-ho took two bottles of juice from the refrigerator and sat across from him.
“Have this at least.”
“Ah… thank you.”
Yeong-su accepted the bottle but simply held it, gaze still fixed on the ground.
Seong-ho studied him for a moment, then spoke first.
“Hyung-nim. Is there something you wanted to say to me?”
“Well… I…”
Unable to get the words out properly, Yeong-su slowly raised his head. His eyes held a mixture of apology and shame. He managed an awkward smile toward Seong-ho and finally opened his mouth.
“I… have a favor I’d like to ask of you…”
Seong-ho tilted his head, unable to guess what favor Yeong-su could possibly need from him.
“A favor from me?”
“It’s…”
Even with the invitation to speak, Yeong-su hesitated. Only after squeezing his eyes shut could he begin.
“It’s about that time when we were all gathered together.”
“When Gyeong-eun was moved to a general ward, you mean?”
“Yes. Then.”
Yeong-su turned the juice bottle over and over in his hands as he spoke.
“Do you remember what Father said to your sister-in-law then?”
“That she was to raise Ilhyeon Card’s membership to ten million?”
“That’s it…”
Yeong-su gripped the bottle tightly and at last came to the point.
“As you know, Ilhyeon Card currently has eight million members. And even that number is mostly inflated by pulling in capital-finance customers. Pushing it to ten million… you understand that won’t be easy, don’t you?”
Listening, Seong-ho roughly understood why Yeong-su had stayed behind to speak with him. And in that moment a way to use this opportunity surfaced in his mind.
Unaware that Seong-ho’s thoughts had already moved elsewhere, Yeong-su pressed on.
“So my wife and I talked it over at length, and the conclusion we reached was… you’re attending the Blue House–hosted Big Deal as our group’s representative, aren’t you? We were hoping you could acquire another group’s card company while you’re there…”
Seong-ho regarded him steadily.
You didn’t talk it over. You received a one-sided order.
He did not need to see it to know that Lee Jeong-eun had issued the command and that Yeong-su now sat before him carrying out that command. He had known exactly what kind of person Jeong-eun was since his previous life. He also knew how deeply uncomfortable Yeong-su was with the order.
“I’m sorry to spring a request like this on you… but no matter how hard I think, I can’t find any decent way to get to ten million members…”
“Is that how you see it as well, hyung-nim?”
“Hm?”
“Do you truly believe the only way to increase membership is by acquiring another card company?”
At Seong-ho’s words, Yeong-su’s head dropped.
He already knew. The method they were pursuing was nothing more than leaning on someone else without effort of their own.
Seong-ho turned his gaze toward the door that led to the hospital room.
Completely different.
Lee Gyeong-eun had chosen an entirely different path from Lee Jeong-eun. She had conceived her own way to climb higher and then thrown everything into making it happen. Jeong-eun simply wanted to ride someone else’s strength for an easy ascent.
Feeling once more the gulf between the two sisters’ calibers, Seong-ho looked back at Yeong-su.
Knowing full well how shameful Jeong-eun’s method was, Yeong-su still could not lift his head properly.
Seong-ho spoke to him slowly.
“Acquiring another card company or a consumer-finance firm to pad the numbers is one possible approach. But do you think the Chairman wouldn’t see through it?”
“He’d certainly come down hard…”
“Isn’t that a given?”
Yeong-su nodded as if he had known all along.
In a low voice Seong-ho continued.
“Wouldn’t it be better to grow the membership on our own instead?”
“On our own?”
Yeong-su seemed to weigh the idea for a moment, then shook his head.
“If it were that easy to grow, why would I be asking you for help? With the Korean economy scraping the bottom, existing members are canceling left and right. Creating new ones ourselves is… impossible. Using this Big Deal to acquire another card company is faster and easier.”
“Is it, though? Is acquiring another card company really easier than growing the membership?”
Seong-ho began by shaking his head to underline the difficulty, then explained.
“The economy is in bad shape and a new administration has just taken office. Do you think that new government is simply going to throw up its hands and say, ‘My, the economy’s terrible,’ and do nothing?”
“They… wouldn’t, would they?”
“Exactly. That’s why they’re pushing the Big Deal as part of the corporate restructuring.”
Yeong-su nodded. A president just beginning his term was hardly going to sit idle while the ruined economy remained as it was—not the way a lame-duck president at the end of his term might.
“Nothing outside has changed. The only thing that has changed is us. So the solution is simple, isn’t it?”
“How?”
“Stimulate domestic demand.”
“Stimulate domestic demand?”
Yeong-su’s eyes widened as he stared at Seong-ho.
Seong-ho reached for the juice bottle still sitting unopened in Yeong-su’s hand, twisted off the cap, and handed it back.
“The best way to revive the economy right now is to stimulate domestic demand—to make people spend money.”
“Make people spend…”
Yeong-su softly echoed the words and dropped his gaze to the bottle again.
Seong-ho watched him and went on.
“They’ll cut interest rates and inject money into the market. First they’ll try to revive the shattered domestic market, then use that momentum to lift the collapsed economy. So when people start spending, how do you think they’ll do it? Will they still walk around with pockets stuffed full of cash the way they used to?”
“…Card usage will jump.”
Yeong-su spoke the thought the moment it formed.
A faint smile touched Seong-ho’s lips.
“Do you think the other groups don’t know this? Even if the new government demands they put their card businesses on the Big Deal table, do you think they’ll hand them over?”
“They won’t…”
“And yet you want me to bring one back for you. How am I supposed to do that? You have to twist a child’s wrist just to take the candy in his hand. How am I supposed to wrest away a card company that will soon be a golden goose?”
“You’re right. That makes sense. But…”
Even if the new government intended to normalize the Korean economy through domestic-demand stimulus, that was still a matter for the future. Until then they would have to endure Lee Tak-hyeon’s censure for failing to reach ten million members—and there was no guarantee that the day of recovery would automatically deliver those ten million.
Yeong-su could only stare at the juice bottle, thinking of a bright future whose road might still prove rough.
Seong-ho dangled the bait.
“Ten million members. Sitting still and saying ‘Please join us’ will never produce that number, it’s true.”
Yeong-su, who had been looking down at the bottle, raised his head.
Seong-ho uncapped his own juice, drained it in one go, and continued.
“Even at the market they set out free samples of fruit for people to try before they buy. Why should a card company be any different? To us, cardholders are customers buying a product, aren’t they?”
“So you’re saying we should give gifts for signing up?”
“Gifts are part of it… Until now Ilhyeon Card has only issued cards to people who came in and asked for one. We change that a little.”
“Change it… how?”
“We go to the customers first. We hit the streets and recruit them ourselves.”
“Hmm…”
“Instead of waiting for customers to come to us, Ilhyeon Card goes where the customers are. Then we cast bait and lock them in.”
Seong-ho held up the empty juice bottle as if it itself were the bait and waved it in front of Yeong-su.
“Marketing costs will be high in the short term. But if the customers we secure start using their cards under the new government’s policies…”
“…it won’t be a losing proposition.”
Understanding at last, Yeong-su nodded.
Confirming that the bait had been taken, Seong-ho set the empty bottle on the table.
He should know what to do now.
With this much said, Yeong-su would move on his own. And from the experience of his previous life, Seong-ho knew exactly what results that independent action would eventually produce.
He watched Yeong-su sink into thought and smiled without a word.
For some time now the health-screening center had been crowded with people.
The reason was not an influx of patients seeking checkups.
Men in suits had been streaming into the one place that still held occupants—the VIP suite.
Nurse Yang watched the procession heading for the VIP suite and spoke to the head nurse beside her.
“There seem to be more people in suits in this hospital than patients or doctors.”
The head nurse followed her gaze toward the receding figures and nodded.
“Of course there are. But you have to understand.”
“Understand? Why?”
The head nurse jerked her chin toward the room the men had entered.
“You know who’s hospitalized in there, right?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then you also know who her husband is?”
“I do. He’s the head of the Ilhyeon Group’s Restructuring Headquarters.”
“Exactly.”
The head nurse fixed Nurse Yang with a look that asked whether she understood now.
Nurse Yang only blinked, still lost.
The head nurse gave a short laugh and handed over the chart she had been reviewing.
“Never mind. Stop thinking and just take the VIP vital checks to the center director.”
Nurse Yang hugged the chart and grumbled.
“I guess VIPs really are special. For any other patient a phone call saying ‘no abnormalities’ would be enough, but the director has to see the VIP chart with his own eyes. So our workload just keeps growing. What a pain…”
“Enough useless talk. Go on. The director will be waiting.”
“Yes. I’ll be right back.”
Chart in hand, Nurse Yang headed for the center director’s office.
The head nurse watched her go, then turned toward the VIP suite and muttered to herself.
“Claims he can’t leave his sick wife’s side, yet he summons his staff to the hospital. Impressive, I’ll give him that. If my husband did that, I’d carry him around on my back…”
She gazed at the VIP suite with open envy.
Inside that same suite, in the family rest area that was the object of the head nurse’s envy, a discussion of the Big Deal was in full swing.
“In my view, we should be able to bring in at least electronics, automobiles, and petrochemicals.”
Jeong Byeong-ju pulled a document from the stack of papers on the table and held it out to Seong-ho.
“This is internal material from the Seonwoo Group.”
Seong-ho accepted the papers and examined the contents while he listened.
“Inside Seonwoo they’re saying they may have to give up either automobiles or electronics. What you’re looking at are the summarized financial statements for both.”
“Three hundred billion in losses last year alone?”
“Yes. Automobiles alone ran three hundred billion in the red, and electronics more than fifty billion. It seems Seonwoo Motors couldn’t escape the fallout from Doa Motors either. Seonwoo Electronics is simply feeling the recession.”
“Seonwoo Motors… Seonwoo Electronics…”
Seong-ho murmured to himself over the papers. Jo Byeong-jin picked up where Jeong Byeong-ju had left off.
“If talk like that is already circulating inside Seonwoo, isn’t it worth a try? If we take Seonwoo Motors as well, Ilhyeon will have a domestic monopoly. Taking Seonwoo Electronics would be a major boost for the home-appliance sector too—not a bad option. Director, let’s go for it.”
Having added his support, Jo Byeong-jin watched Seong-ho’s face carefully. Jeong Byeong-ju, who had made the original proposal, was watching just as closely.
A single word from Seong-ho could restructure not only the Ilhyeon Group but entire industries of the Republic of Korea.
After thinking in silence for a while, Seong-ho tossed the papers he had been reading onto the table and rose from his seat.
Jo Byeong-jin, Jeong Byeong-ju, and the Restructuring Headquarters staff who had accompanied them all stood with him.
Seong-ho looked back at Jo Byeong-jin and the others.
“I’ll discuss this with the Chairman, so let’s leave the matter here for now.”
“You’ll speak with the Chairman?”
“Whether it’s Seonwoo Motors or Seonwoo Electronics, neither is a small deal.”
They all nodded. Seong-ho glanced down at the documents piled on the table.
“In any case, I understand what you’re saying. That will be all for today. We’ll continue after I’ve spoken with the Chairman.”
Jo Byeong-jin and the others said they would return the day after next and left the hospital room one by one.
Once everyone had gone, Seong-ho laid a hand on the leather-bound diary that lay on the table.
He opened it and checked the results of the Big Deal as they had unfolded in his previous life.