Not the One Who Listens, but the One Who Creates
“What the hell is going on here?”
The moment he cleared the gate, Lee Mun-jong hurried through the airport lobby and fired the question at the US branch president of Ilhyeon Electronics, who had come to meet him.
Fatigue was written all over Lee Mun-jong’s face from how hard he had rushed, but the shock came first. He demanded answers, and the branch president bowed his head with a look of pure mortification.
“It’s my incompetence, sir.”
“Spare me the useless talk and give me a real answer. Why is the Chairman so furious?”
His heart was racing, and all he got was an empty reply. Lee Mun-jong’s expression soured. He opened the car door himself and climbed in. Looking every bit like a man who had committed a crime, the branch president hung his head and followed him into the vehicle.
As Lee Mun-jong’s car pulled away, more than a dozen black sedans fell in behind it. Every one of them belonged to people who, like him, had been summoned by Lee Tak-hyeon.
Inside the car, Lee Mun-jong knotted his necktie as he spoke to the branch president.
“Worst Product Award at the electronics show, or something like that? I heard we won some kind of prize. Is that what this is about?”
“That isn’t all of it, sir.”
“If that isn’t all of it, then what else is there? What kind of bizarre award did we take home that the Chairman is this angry?”
Lee Mun-jong stopped tying his necktie and turned to look at him. The branch president lowered his head a fraction and relayed everything that had happened after the awards ceremony—the highlight of the entire show.
Ilhyeon Electronics, winner of the Worst Product Award, had become the laughingstock of the exhibition. The host spent a full ten minutes mocking how ridiculous Ilhyeon Electronics’ products were. Spectators and industry people alike clapped and jeered at the company’s goods.
With that spectacle unfolding right in front of Lee Tak-hyeon, every Ilhyeon Group executive present went pale. Chief of Staff Hwang Do-beom urged the Chairman to leave his seat, but Lee Tak-hyeon stayed until the ridicule was finished and listened to every word. Only after the ceremony ended did he rise.
Every Ilhyeon Group executive present tensed at his reaction. Yet Lee Tak-hyeon showed nothing. As planned, he moved from the awards to the showrooms downtown. After touring all five of them, he returned to the hotel—and through Hwang Do-beom, he summoned Lee Mun-jong and every other senior executive of the Group from Korea to Los Angeles.
At the news that Lee Tak-hyeon had shown no reaction at all, Lee Mun-jong’s hands went slack.
“This is…”
“Is something wrong, sir?”
“Where’s Seong-ho? Where is Director Kim?”
“He’s at the convention center right now, overseeing the wrap-up work.”
“Has he completely lost his mind? He’s overseeing wrap-up work in a situation like this?”
Lee Mun-jong yanked the necktie from around his throat.
“Turn the car around. Convention center.”
“Not the hotel, sir? The convention center?”
“That’s right.”
He flung the necktie onto the floor of the car and shouted.
“I need to see that bastard before I see the Chairman, so turn this car around right now!”
The branch president did not dare ask why. He ordered the driver to head for the convention center. As Lee Mun-jong’s car changed course, the long line of vehicles behind it all swung around and followed.
Arriving at the convention center in the middle of teardown, Lee Mun-jong made straight for the Ilhyeon Electronics booth where Kim Seong-ho was said to be. The moment he spotted him in the distance, he bellowed.
“Hey, you! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
Everyone packing up the booth froze at the sudden roar and turned toward the voice. Kim Seong-ho looked that way as well and bowed his head.
“Vice Chairman. You’ve arrived.”
“What kind of bastard are you, to cause a disaster like this?!”
Kim Seong-ho lightly took Lee Mun-jong by the arm and spoke in a low voice.
“Let’s step inside and talk first.”
“Step inside? For what?”
There were too many eyes on them. When Kim Seong-ho tried to draw him aside, Lee Mun-jong shook off his hand. Then he raised his voice loud enough for every Ilhyeon Group employee near the booth—and every reporter and rival-company executive still left in the hall—to hear.
“There’s a limit to how much mud you can throw on the company name! How are you going to take responsibility for this?”
“Vice Chairman, that is—”
“And of all times, it was a venue the Chairman himself attended! You pulled a stunt that let our competitors laugh in our faces, and you still call yourself Head of the Restructuring Headquarters?!”
Kim Seong-ho endured the tirade for a long while before he finally opened his mouth.
“Vice Chairman. That part, at least, I find unfair.”
“Unfair? What’s unfair about it? You created this mess and you have the nerve to call it unfair?”
Realizing he would not be able to move Lee Mun-jong elsewhere, Kim Seong-ho released his arm and spoke plainly.
“I did not direct the entire electronics show. And I did not lead the development of the new products Ilhyeon Electronics launched, either.”
“If it wasn’t you, then who did?”
“There is someone who used to be at Ilhyeon Electronics and has since moved on, isn’t there? This has nothing to do with me.”
“Someone who moved on?”
Lee Mun-jong was about to snap that he could not possibly know every person who had transferred—then he stopped. Among the many who had left, there was one name he would know.
“Brother-in-law Cha?”
Kim Seong-ho nodded slowly and answered.
“My only crime is that I accompanied the Chairman. The product that won the Worst Product Award, and every single item on display here—I am seeing them all for the first time.”
But Lee Mun-jong jabbed a finger at him.
“In the end, you were the overall person in charge of running the show! So don’t think you’re free of this. I’ll pin responsibility on you one way or another!”
With that, Lee Mun-jong turned on his heel.
“Let’s go.”
Just as he had arrived, he led the Group’s senior executives away from the booth.
“He raced straight here from the airport just to yell at you once? Dragging that whole crowd with him?”
Jo Byeong-jin sidled up, watching Lee Mun-jong’s receding back with open curiosity. Kim Seong-ho gave a short laugh at the remark and asked,
“Well? Is everything back in Korea going as expected?”
At the question, Jo Byeong-jin pulled his gaze from Lee Mun-jong and answered in a low voice.
“Yeah. Exactly the way you said.”
He checked their surroundings, then steered Kim Seong-ho to a quieter spot. Still worried about nearby ears, he leaned in close and spoke in the softest whisper.
“Vice Chairman Lee has been going around asking about you in connection with the Big Deal for Ilhyeon Power. He’s been stirring up everyone—Restructuring Headquarters staff, people from Ilhyeon Power, even the semiconductor division at Mirae Electronics. Looks like he’s hunting for any story that you and Mirae Electronics cut some kind of private deal over handing over Ilhyeon Power.”
“Not hunting for one. Manufacturing one.”
“Manufacturing one?”
Kim Seong-ho’s mouth curved as he thought of Lee Mun-jong.
“I know that man better than anyone alive. He’s more than capable of fabricating a rumor.”
Jo Byeong-jin stared at him, startled. The idea of manufacturing a rumor had not sounded ordinary. Kim Seong-ho clapped him lightly on the back.
“No need to worry. I moved first precisely because I knew he would.”
“So that’s what this was?”
Only then did Jo Byeong-jin understand Kim Seong-ho’s choice.
“In plain terms, it’s one step back for ten steps forward. And because I’m taking that one step with my own feet, I don’t take any real damage—and I get to decide where I fall back to.”
“So Vice Chairman Lee ends up swinging at empty air.”
“Exactly.”
Kim Seong-ho slapped his palm against Jo Byeong-jin’s and said,
“So let’s finish this cleanly.”
“Right. First we wrap things up here, and then…”
The Ilhyeon Group employees who had frozen during Lee Mun-jong’s visit began moving busily again. Jo Byeong-jin returned to the staff to push the teardown forward. Kim Seong-ho told him to take care of it, then stood quietly watching the booth being dismantled. A smile touched his lips as he murmured to himself.
“It’ll look like a retreat. But no one will realize that it isn’t a retreat at all—it’s an advance.”
No one would know that the place Kim Seong-ho was moving to was not behind him, but ahead. Only Kim Seong-ho in the entire world knew that truth—and in his hand was a leather-bound diary.
On Lee Tak-hyeon’s emergency summons, the Group’s senior executives poured into Los Angeles one after another. Caught by the sudden call, the reporters could not even return to Korea; they waited in the United States, determined to cover on the spot why Chairman Lee Tak-hyeon had convened them and what was said in that room. Their antennas were locked on the grand conference hall of the hotel where the meeting would be held.
“Vice Chairman.”
On his way to the conference hall under Lee Tak-hyeon’s summons, Lee Mun-jong slowed at the sound of his name. His secretary hurried up to him and spoke in a low voice.
“We’ve made every preparation so that we can move the moment we return to Seoul.”
The secretary glanced around, then continued even more quietly.
“The day after Director Kim Seong-ho returns, a Mirae Group contact is scheduled to seek him out. We’ve also secured a Restructuring Headquarters employee who will testify that they discussed Ilhyeon Power at that meeting. And also—”
“Enough.”
Lee Mun-jong cut off the secretary’s stream of words. He frowned and gave a sharp look. The secretary lifted his head and checked their surroundings. Without realizing it, they had already reached the conference hall doors.
“I understand. So the moment we’re back in Seoul, we can start immediately?”
“Yes, sir. We can start at once.”
“Good.”
Lee Mun-jong nodded and opened the conference hall door.
“Proceed as planned.”
He gave the order and stepped inside. The presidents of the Ilhyeon Group affiliates sat waiting with dark faces. They greeted Vice Chairman Lee Mun-jong from their seats as he entered. He returned the greeting with a slight nod and walked slowly to his place. For a moment he looked across at Kim Seong-ho seated opposite him, then his eyes moved to the wall of stacked appliances.
“Hyung-nim. What is all that?”
Lee Mun-jong pointed at the appliances and asked Hwang Do-beom, who sat beside him.
“Did Director Kim haul those in because he’s planning another strange stunt?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“The Chairman ordered them brought here.”
“The Chairman ordered it?”
Lee Mun-jong stared at the appliances piled against the wall, unsettled. He could not look away, trying to read what Lee Tak-hyeon meant by having them placed in the conference room.
He was still staring when Lee Tak-hyeon entered. Lee Mun-jong stopped looking at the appliances, rose from his seat, and bowed. Lee Tak-hyeon nodded as he took in each of the presidents one by one. His gaze lingered for a moment on Kim Seong-ho at the far end, then he gestured.
“Everyone, sit.”
Lee Tak-hyeon sat first; the presidents followed one after another. He turned his head toward Hwang Do-beom.
“From this moment on, turn on a recorder. Record everything.”
At the order, Lee Mun-jong and every president in the room looked startled. Lee Tak-hyeon had always been a man who ruthlessly prevented any leak of meeting contents. For that same man to order a recording himself left the presidents stunned.
Whether he had been warned in advance or not, Hwang Do-beom showed no fluster. He took out a recorder and set it on the table. Once Lee Tak-hyeon confirmed that the record button was pressed, he explained to the presidents why he had made them produce a recorder.
“I ordered this meeting recorded for one reason only. My words could be twisted, so I want every word of this session on tape. Understand that.”
The presidents could not even manage a proper answer; they simply lowered their eyes. Anxiety settled over the room—what was he about to say that made him fear it might be distorted?
Whether he sensed that unease or not, Lee Tak-hyeon raised his hand and pointed at the wall opposite him, stacked high with appliances.