One Who Must Never Become the Head
Lee Tak-hyeon gazed quietly at the closed study door before turning to Chief of Staff Hwang Do-beom.
"So this prosecutor handling the Jisan Group case is a friend of his?"
"Yes, sir. I received a report that they met for drinks not long ago."
"They had drinks together, and then the Jisan Group investigation began?"
Lee Tak-hyeon tapped his fingers against the desk. He turned his head toward Hwang Do-beom and asked,
"Did he say there was nothing unusual about it?"
Hwang Do-beom nodded and answered.
"Yes. I was told nothing stood out. They went into a barbecue restaurant together, spent about an hour eating and drinking, and then parted ways. They didn't drink enough to get drunk, and there was no idle talk during the meeting."
"Is that so?"
Even after Hwang Do-beom's report, Lee Tak-hyeon did not drop his suspicious gaze. No matter how he turned it over in his mind, something about the whole affair felt deeply off.
Hwang Do-beom followed Lee Tak-hyeon's eyes to the study door, then carefully asked,
"Do you suspect that Assistant Manager Kim leaked information to Prosecutor Park?"
At the question, Lee Tak-hyeon looked up at Hwang Do-beom again.
"Did Strategic Planning know anything about the Jisan Group matter?"
"I don't believe so. Even the parties in the financial sector are reacting as if this came out of nowhere. The Chief of Staff's office only caught it because we had been watching Jisan Group continuously. Without that, it would have been impossible to know."
"Then the idea that Kim, my son-in-law, tipped off Prosecutor Park doesn't add up, does it?"
"That... is true."
Hearing Lee Tak-hyeon's words, Hwang Do-beom finally realized that the suspicion that Kim Seong-ho had informed Park Dae-su simply did not hold water.
Lee Tak-hyeon withdrew his gaze from Hwang Do-beom and spoke.
"And yet this explanation that doesn't add up somehow feels persuasive to me."
"Pardon? You find it persuasive, sir?"
"Yes. Something is clearly strange here."
Lee Tak-hyeon tapped his fingers on the desk again, thinking, then said,
"About the Daeguk Fertilizer matter. I think I'll hand that over as well. To see whether my instincts are right or wrong."
Hwang Do-beom's face filled with shock.
"You're going to entrust Daeguk Fertilizer to him? Isn't that the group's absolute top priority—something we must acquire no matter what?"
"Yes. A company we must acquire at all costs. It was one of the early companies my father founded."
One of the earliest companies Lee Tak-hyeon's father had established when he built Ilhyeon Enterprises was Daeguk Fertilizer. After the war, anticipating the growth potential of the fertilizer business, he had founded it with ambition, and he had always held Daeguk Fertilizer especially dear. Just as he had predicted, the fertilizer industry flourished, and when Ilhyeon transformed into a group, Daeguk Fertilizer had shouldered one of the pillars that made Ilhyeon prosper.
But everything changed when the military regime took power. The military government forcibly nationalized Daeguk Fertilizer and wrested it from the Ilhyeon Group's hands.
And now that same Daeguk Fertilizer was coming back onto the market. Among the various companies held by the Industrial Bank of Korea, it had been selected as a target for sale, with bidding scheduled to proceed. Naturally, the Ilhyeon Group had designated the Daeguk Fertilizer bid as its highest priority. Lee Tak-hyeon believed that reclaiming a company founded by his father, the founder of the Ilhyeon Group, was more important than anything else. Within the group, some even wondered whether Lee Tak-hyeon himself would take personal charge. Because the acquisition was non-negotiable, the price was likely to be set higher than expected, and the only person in the Ilhyeon Group who could take responsibility for such a high price was Lee Tak-hyeon himself. That was why talk had circulated that the group chairman might move on it personally.
And now he was saying he intended to entrust it to Kim Seong-ho. From Hwang Do-beom's perspective, shock was inevitable. Hwang Do-beom stared at Lee Tak-hyeon with an expression of disbelief and asked once more.
"Chairman, are you serious? Entrusting the Daeguk Fertilizer bid to Assistant Manager Kim..."
"I'm not entrusting it to Kim, my son-in-law. I'm entrusting it to Strategic Planning."
"That... isn't that the same thing?"
Hwang Do-beom looked at Lee Tak-hyeon as if to say that handing it to Strategic Planning and handing it to Kim Seong-ho were no different at all.
Lee Tak-hyeon stopped tapping the desk, clasped his hands together, and swiveled his chair toward the window. Gazing out at the sunlit courtyard beyond the glass, he spoke in a calm voice.
"You're right, Chief Hwang. In truth, they are more or less the same. But there is a difference."
"A difference... sir?"
"Yes. If I handed it to Kim, he would take the lead and run the bid himself. If I hand it to Strategic Planning, he can't do that. I want to see how much of his ability he can display as a mere team member rather than the head. That's why I'm giving it to Strategic Planning. Pass that along on my behalf."
At those words, Hwang Do-beom understood exactly what Lee Tak-hyeon was thinking. Kim Seong-ho was an existence who must never become the head—who must never be allowed to become the head. That was why he was not entrusting the work to Kim Seong-ho himself, but to the team where Kim Seong-ho sat, so he could observe how the man moved as one of its members.
Even so, a worry remained.
"And if the price runs too high, or if we fail to win the bid... what then?"
Hwang Do-beom asked, his face full of concern.
Still looking out the window, Lee Tak-hyeon answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
"If the price is far too high, lift every watch on Kim. Then send him off to America or Britain under the pretext of studying. Let him wander around out there for about ten years, and when we call him back... he'll have become someone completely unrelated to the company."
Lee Tak-hyeon spoke with perfect calm about packing his son-in-law off abroad under the excuse of education. And his words did not stop there.
"If we fail the bid..."
He turned his head from the courtyard and fixed his eyes on Hwang Do-beom. Then, in a hard tone, he said,
"Clean out every single person in Strategic Planning. Not just the team where Kim sits—wipe out Strategic Planning itself."
Hwang Do-beom thought that obliterating the entire Strategic Planning office was excessive. But within the Ilhyeon Group, Lee Tak-hyeon's word was law, so he could offer no other opinion.
"Yes, sir. Understood."
Hearing the answer, Lee Tak-hyeon turned his gaze back to the window and continued.
"Failing the bid is the same as having no ability. If talentless people are gathered in the place that decides the group's major and minor affairs, cleaning them out is only right. Kim has even less reason to remain... Wipe out Strategic Planning, and demote Kim to warehouse manager at some provincial logistics depot. Stamp the order so that he is never brought back to Seoul."
Hwang Do-beom felt a heavy weight settle in his chest. Being sent abroad would have been the kinder option. At least there would have been the hope of returning someday. Provincial demotion was another matter entirely. The thought that Kim Seong-ho might come to regret marrying the daughter of the Ilhyeon Group left Hwang Do-beom's chest tight.
Had Kim Seong-ho overheard this conversation, however, he would have cheered. The Daeguk Fertilizer acquisition, like the Jisan Cement affair, had taken place not long after his marriage, so he remembered every detail clearly. Moreover, in Kim Seong-ho's hands was the diary that recorded everything. He would be walking onto a battlefield he could not possibly lose—so of course he would have welcomed the assignment with both arms open.
But Hwang Do-beom, knowing none of that, could only look with pity toward the door through which Kim Seong-ho had left.
And so a new test was laid upon Kim Seong-ho.
"Seong-ho, I'm sorry."
Lee Gyeong-eun watched Kim Seong-ho carefully from the passenger seat.
"If you don't like it even now, we can just go home. I mean it."
Kim Seong-ho gently took her hand, smiled, and said,
"I'm fine."
"Really?"
"Of course. Truly."
Kim Seong-ho filled his face with a smile and nodded.
"If anything, I think today's gathering is going to be a lot of fun. Honestly."
Lee Gyeong-eun studied his face closely. In the past, Kim Seong-ho had never been able to hide a lie, and she was trying to read whether this was one. But the Kim Seong-ho who had been ground down and forged inside the Ilhyeon Group was no longer the man he used to be. And his claim that he was looking forward to it was not a lie at all.
Confirming that he meant it, Lee Gyeong-eun leaned back against the car seat with a relieved, bright expression.
"Then I'm really glad. After that first time meeting my friends didn't end well, I've been so nervous about this."
Before they married, Lee Gyeong-eun had introduced Kim Seong-ho to her friends. They were people she had known since childhood, and of course most of their parents held important positions in South Korea. In their eyes, Kim Seong-ho could only look shabby. They treated him with a subtle contempt, and a few even quietly asked Lee Gyeong-eun why she would marry someone like him. She had distanced herself from those friends, and after that she never brought Kim Seong-ho to their gatherings again—not because she was ashamed of him, but because she did not want to put him in an uncomfortable situation.
"I was worried today's friends might make you uncomfortable too."
"I know you're thinking of me. Of course I do."
Kim Seong-ho patted her hand and smiled.
"I don't want you growing distant from your friends because of me either. I'm going to today's gathering because I genuinely want to. So you don't have to worry so much."
"Thank you."
Lee Gyeong-eun thanked him and squeezed the hand she held. Kim Seong-ho glanced at her briefly and recalled the experiences of his previous life. She had insisted these friends were truly fine people, yet even at that gathering he had been looked down upon. Remembering it, Kim Seong-ho wore a deep smile. Just as he had told Lee Gyeong-eun, since returning he had been counting the days until today. The memory of being slighted at the golf outing that would take place today remained vivid. That was why he had waited for a day when he could pay it back.
This time will be different.
The thick smile at the corners of Kim Seong-ho's mouth showed no sign of fading. In his previous life, he had gone to that golf outing having held a club only a couple of times. And the contempt he had endured there was burned into his mind as if it had happened yesterday, even though decades had passed.
No matter how long you've been playing golf, it won't be as long as I have. Today I'm going to play with you properly.
Kim Seong-ho cracked his knuckles and waited for the moment he would stand on the course. Unlike his previous life, he now carried decades of experience. Moreover, the North Seoul CC they were heading to was, by present standards, a brand-new course that had been open less than a year—yet to Kim Seong-ho it was an utterly familiar field whose threshold he had worn smooth with visits.
I could play it with my eyes closed. I'll grind them underfoot thoroughly, packing in every scrap of humiliation from my last life.
Eager to deliver the revenge of his previous life, Kim Seong-ho hoped they would reach North Seoul CC soon. As if sensing his mood, the car poured out a lively engine note and raced toward North Seoul CC.