Not a Pro-Business Man
News of the special tax audits targeting the five major conglomerates broke across the media.
Photographs of suited men storming the headquarters of the top five groups and carting off documents seized the public’s attention.
“Aren’t these guys just pure scum?”
A man smoking a cigarette shook the newspaper at his coworker as he stared at the photos.
“The country’s on its knees and ordinary people are going hungry, and these bastards are out there embezzling and dodging taxes? The heads of the chaebols?”
“They all need to be thrown in prison.”
His coworker’s voice was just as heated.
“Even the kids are scraping together money to pay off the national debt, and these so-called conglomerates are only looking out for themselves… On top of that, they fire their employees left and right and still manage to skim off how much? A hundred billion? Two hundred billion?”
“These kinds of people deserve to go under completely.”
That sentiment spread through the streets with startling speed. Corruption blooming in a time of national crisis was more than enough to make people the target of public fury. The volume of condemnation climbed by the day—loud enough that some even began calling for government-led breakups of the conglomerates, the way things had been done under the old military regimes.
And Ilhyeon was far from exempt.
“Father… please save me…”
“Who told you anyone was going to eat you alive?”
Lee Tak-hyeon frowned and scolded him at Lee Sang-jong’s pleading.
Sang-jong kept the same tearful expression and begged all the harder.
“I really don’t want to go in there. Father… please…?”
Tak-hyeon clicked his tongue, clearly disgusted by the sight.
“Tsk tsk. A man well past forty making that face in front of his own children.”
He looked past Sang-jong at the grandsons standing behind him.
Sang-jong’s wife, Oh Min-yeong, was pleading with Chu Suk-ja.
“Mother, he can’t go to prison. It’s getting colder by the day—how is their father supposed to survive in a freezing place like that? Please?”
When Min-yeong clutched Suk-ja’s legs and begged, Suk-ja turned her head toward Tak-hyeon.
“Are you seriously planning to throw the second son in prison?”
Sensing that his mother was taking his side, Sang-jong scrambled over to her.
“Mom, you know me. If I go in there, I won’t make it.”
“You fool! Your children are watching—pull yourself together!”
Suk-ja looked at the son who had abandoned every shred of dignity in front of his own boys with something close to pity. She understood exactly why he was falling apart like this.
Even after she told him to mind his pride, Sang-jong only clung tighter.
“Mom, you know my knee’s bad. If I go in there I might not walk out again. Do you want to raise the kids without a father?”
Min-yeong already had Suk-ja’s left leg; Sang-jong wrapped himself around the right. Suk-ja patted both of their backs and looked once more at her husband.
Whether his son and daughter-in-law groveled or not, Tak-hyeon wore an expression of pure indifference as he read the paper. The headline blared that executives whose embezzlement had been uncovered in the special audits would be summoned for questioning as soon as possible. Beneath the giant letters ran a list of the businessmen scheduled for summons.
…… President Lee Sang-jong of Ilhyeon Construction
Sang-jong’s name was right there on the list.
Even after all that begging, Tak-hyeon gave no reaction at all. The frustration finally boiled over; Sang-jong shot to his feet and shouted at the empty air.
“Why do I have to be investigated?! The Vice Chairman’s my older brother and the Chairman’s my father—why the hell am I the one who has to go in?!”
“You idiot! How dare you act like this in front of your father?”
Suk-ja scolded him in shock and hurriedly checked Tak-hyeon’s face. Sang-jong, however, was past listening; he turned the shouting straight at his father.
“If someone’s going to prison it should be you! Why are you using me as a human shield?!”
He jabbed a finger at the newspaper still in Tak-hyeon’s hands and raised his voice even higher.
“Look at that list—they’re all Chairmen! They’re summoning the people who actually run the groups! So why… why is Ilhyeon the only one sending a mere affiliate President?!”
He locked eyes with Tak-hyeon.
“You threw me out there instead of yourself, didn’t you? So they can drag me away in your place.”
Tak-hyeon said nothing.
Min-yeong, still clutching Suk-ja’s leg, carefully read the room and then asked in a small voice,
“Father… is it true? Is he really going in instead of you?”
“What kind of nonsense is this?!”
Slap!
Tak-hyeon slammed the newspaper onto the table and roared.
“I sit here quietly and the two of you start saying whatever comes into your heads.”
He glared at Min-yeong once, then pointed a rigid finger at Sang-jong.
“You haven’t even been questioned yet and you’re already talking about prison! And if you did something wrong, then you take the punishment—how the hell does that become me throwing you to the wolves?!”
Under the blast of his father’s voice, Sang-jong’s tone wilted.
“W-well… the papers are writing it like I’m going to get real prison time… That’s all. And I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“If you didn’t do anything wrong, walk in there with your head high and walk out again. Why are you sitting here screaming about dying?!”
Sang-jong’s mouth snapped shut. The way Tak-hyeon put it—just go get investigated and come back—made it clear that further begging would be useless.
Lips pressed tight, he motioned for Min-yeong, still on the floor, to stand.
“…Let’s go.”
He waved the children who had been standing silently behind him as well, then climbed the stairs to the second floor first. Caught between Suk-ja and Tak-hyeon, Min-yeong looked at her mother-in-law with even more desperate eyes than when she had been begging for her husband’s life. When Suk-ja turned away, Min-yeong lowered her head and followed her husband upstairs with dragging steps.
Only after Sang-jong, Min-yeong, and the grandchildren had all disappeared upstairs did Suk-ja lift her gaze again. She spoke to Tak-hyeon, who had already gone back to his paper.
“Are you really just going to leave the second son like that?”
“What did you even hear?”
Thud.
Tak-hyeon lowered the newspaper.
“The investigation hasn’t even started. They’re calling in the President of Ilhyeon Construction because there’s a problem at Ilhyeon Construction. What’s there to ‘leave’ or not leave?”
“What exactly is the problem at Ilhyeon Construction?”
“How would I know?”
Clearly expecting more nagging, he stood.
“Ask the people doing the investigating. Jumping ahead and fretting about whether he’s guilty or how it will turn out is pointless. Tsk.”
Wearing an expression of pure irritation, he turned and headed for his study.
Not long after the study door closed, a muffled scream drifted faintly to Suk-ja’s ears.
“…I did it. Please… just leave the children…”
She knew exactly what that sound was. The first time it had happened she had rushed upstairs in alarm and scolded Sang-jong, warning him never to do it while his father was in the house.
“How furious must he be to act like that?”
Understanding the rage that made the noise carry all the way to Tak-hyeon’s study, she called for a maid.
“Run the vacuum around the study for a while.”
She gave the order so the sounds from the second floor would not reach her husband’s ears, then bit her lip and muttered to herself.
“If that bastard hadn’t cooperated, the second son wouldn’t be in this mess…!”
In Suk-ja’s mind, the reason Sang-jong was facing a summons was entirely Kim Seong-ho’s fault. She had already heard that Seong-ho had met with the National Tax Service director and actively assisted the investigation—assistance that had led straight to her second son’s name on the list. Hatred for Seong-ho only burned hotter in her chest.
After completing the special tax audits of the five major groups, the National Tax Service compiled the materials and filed formal charges with the prosecution. What had begun as mere reference interviews of group officials suddenly became a matter of whether the top executives themselves would be arrested.
Under that cloud of dread, the Blue House convened the second round of Big Deal talks.
Jo Byeong-jin, following Kim Seong-ho back into the Blue House annex, surveyed the gathering of aides from the five conglomerates with open fascination at how sharply the mood had shifted since last time.
“Well… our Chairman has a meeting scheduled this month in Moscow with the Russian Minister of Trade and Industry.”
A Seonwoo Group official spoke carefully to the presidential secretary.
The KF Group aide jumped in next.
“Our Chairman is currently unwell. He’s still recovering from complications of surgery two years ago and has been advised to limit outside activities, so he likely won’t be able to appear for this summons.”
The moment KF made the refusal so blatant, the Mirae and DN Group aides piled on, insisting they too would be unable to comply with any summons.
After listening for a long while, the secretary turned to Byeong-jin—who was, as usual, eating an apple—and asked,
“Does Ilhyeon have anything to add?”
“Us?”
Byeong-jin pulled the half-eaten slice from his mouth.
“Well… next week President Lee Sang-jong of Ilhyeon Construction will appear before the prosecutors in person.”
“Is that so?”
The secretary nodded as if taking note, then slowly swept his gaze across the other four groups’ aides surrounding him.
“Talking to me about the summonses won’t do you any good.”
“Secretary, why not? Can’t you put in a word with the prosecutors and the Tax Service? Frankly, if you speak up, they’ll listen.”
Hearing the Seonwoo aide, Byeong-jin snorted inwardly. He understood the desperation of a drowning man clutching at straws, but placing that much hope in a secretary sitting among the entourage was ridiculous.
The secretary seemed to feel the same way.
“This is a summons for the Chairman of Seonwoo Group. Do you honestly think I have any power over something like that? If you truly want this resolved, you need to move someone far above me.”
“Who? The Senior Secretary for Economic Affairs?”
“Or the Deputy Prime Minister?”
The KF and DN aides fired off the questions at once. Byeong-jin stuffed the rest of the apple into his mouth, sneered, and turned away. Whether they were pretending not to know or simply refused to believe it, he had no desire to listen to any more of their circling talk.
Inside the main conference room of the annex, Kim Seong-ho was feeling exactly the same.
“Deputy Prime Minister, isn’t this going too far?”
The head of Seonwoo Group’s headquarters spoke to Economic Deputy Prime Minister Hwang Jang-chul as if the entire affair were a personal injustice.
“Embezzlement? Why on earth would our Chairman need to embezzle anything?”
“Embezzlement is the least of it.”
KF Group cut in.
“We’re facing slush-fund allegations! Why would we even create a slush fund?”
KF’s chief of staff stretched a hand toward Hwang as if ready to leap from his seat.
“Deputy Prime Minister, what is going on here? The Chairman told me not to come today, but I was so frustrated I came anyway. Frustrated! You at least owe us a clear explanation!”
The conversation was almost identical to the one happening among the aides outside, yet the atmosphere was entirely different. Where the aides had been pleading, this room had become a stage for righteous indignation.
Hwang Jang-chul looked around at the four group representatives who seemed to be taking turns speaking, then answered with clear irritation.
“I did not invite all of you to the Blue House just to listen to this. This is not the important issue right now, is it?”
“To us it is!”
The Seonwoo headquarters chief raised his voice even louder. The other groups’ men bristled, eyes sharp, clearly intending to pressure the Deputy Prime Minister into submission.
Watching from the side, Seong-ho slowly shook his head.
They’re going to get themselves killed acting like that.
From the experience of his previous life, Seong-ho knew Hwang Jang-chul’s temperament all too well. The diary had recorded it clearly.
…Deputy Prime Minister Hwang Jang-chul swung his blade as if he would dismantle any company that refused to obey him. Several conglomerates that openly defied him suffered catastrophic damage; only after they finally prostrated themselves at his feet and apologized were they allowed to keep their corporate existence. He was absolutely not a pro-business man. Our Ilhyeon as well…
Recalling the entry, Seong-ho took a quiet step back and watched Hwang and the four groups’ representatives.
Bang!
When Hwang finally exploded, Seong-ho clicked his tongue under his breath.