I Know My In-Laws Best
Kim Seong-ho watched Kim Eun-mun’s face drain to a deathly white, then lifted the bid proposal submitted by DS Furniture and spoke.
“As many of the company representatives who joined today’s bidding already know, DS Furniture has held an exclusive supply contract with Ilhyeon Hotel for the past ten years. Our investigation has confirmed that they used that position to skim improper profits.”
He swept his gaze across the room and continued.
“We have also confirmed that a considerable number of hotel personnel were colluding with them.”
He raised the DS Furniture proposal even higher and shook it.
“DS Furniture tried to learn the bid prices of the other companies through employees at Ilhyeon Hotel who were close to them. Then they submitted a bid lower than those figures in an attempt to secure exclusive rights to the hotel’s cleaning supplies once again.”
“W-what are you talking about?! Do you have proof? Proof that we did any such thing?!”
President Kim Eun-mun cut in, his face contorted with shock.
As if he had been waiting for exactly that protest, Kim Seong-ho drew a recorder from his jacket.
“So this is the expected bid price from IG Optane, correct?”
The voice that poured from the speaker was unmistakably President Kim Eun-mun’s. Every head in the room turned toward him. His dark complexion went ashen blue.
“Once we win the bid this time, DS Furniture will take care of all of you. President, Executive Director—cheers~~~”
A brief clink of glasses followed, then Kim Eun-mun’s voice resumed.
“And our labor-union chairman—I’m counting on you. Keep the protests going, stage a strike, tie Director Kim’s hands and feet. You know who’s behind me, don’t you? He’ll look after everything.”
Mention of the union chairman left the entire room stunned. It was no longer a simple matter of a few colluding executives; DS Furniture had also taken the labor union into its pocket. The casual reference to “someone behind me” made it clear that the present mess involved more than just DS Furniture and the Ilhyeon Hotel union.
“Kim Seong-ho, step down!”
“Step down!”
As if on cue, the shouts outside grew louder. Heads turned instinctively toward the windows. The same chanting that had been audible since before the bidding began now sounded entirely different after the recording. It no longer seemed like workers defending their livelihood; it sounded like a carefully coordinated performance staged for DS Furniture’s greed.
Kim Seong-ho set the recorder down and looked at President Kim Eun-mun.
“President Kim. Do you have anything further to say?”
Kim Eun-mun swayed on his feet. Supported by a subordinate, he managed to force out a few words.
“How… how did you…?”
“I won’t answer how I obtained it. I’ve already told the police everything.”
“The police? You reported this to the police?”
“Of course.”
Kim Seong-ho fixed him with a hard stare.
“I have filed charges against DS Furniture for obstructing Ilhyeon Hotel’s business over the past ten years, including this latest scheme. Last year alone they inflicted more than three billion won in damages; over the past five years the total approaches fifteen billion. We intend to hold them fully liable for restitution.”
“Director Kim!”
“I’m not finished.”
He cut the man off and continued.
“The damages will be pursued civilly, and you should prepare for criminal penalties as well. Everyone involved in the harm DS Furniture has done to our hotel will be prosecuted—every last one of them. Keep that in mind.”
He glanced around the room.
“Doesn’t anyone find it strange that not a single member of the existing Ilhyeon Hotel executive team is present today?”
Only then did the bidders notice the absence. Kim Seong-ho smiled faintly at their restless glances.
“They are all under investigation and therefore unable to attend today’s bidding.”
“Investigation? What do you mean…?”
“They are undergoing the same investigation President Kim will soon face. And…”
He paused, turned his head toward the windows where the protest continued, and finished,
“It appears things have begun outside as well.”
One of the people who moved to the window looked out and shouted back to the room,
“The police are arresting the protesters!”
Bodies surged toward the glass. Kim Seong-ho turned to Kim Eun-mun, who stood frozen in place.
“Do you know why those people are being taken away right now?”
When Kim Eun-mun could only roll his eyes in silence, Kim Seong-ho smiled.
“Because they harmed the company.”
“Why are you telling me that…?”
“Because that harm was inflicted in collusion with an outside force—and that outside force is the DS Furniture you run.”
The other bidders, now far more interested in the drama than the bidding itself, looked back and forth between Kim Seong-ho and President Kim Eun-mun.
Kim Seong-ho addressed the room in a clear, carrying voice.
“From this day forward, Ilhyeon Hotel will thoroughly expose every force that tried to shake us and see that they face the full measure of the law. We will not tolerate damage to the company, nor will we tolerate any attempt to undermine our employees. I ask that all of you respect this decision.”
Kim Eun-mun made one last desperate lunge.
“Director Kim, if you truly do this, Managing Director Lee will not stand by quietly!”
“Managing Director Lee? Which Managing Director Lee, exactly, and where?”
Kim Seong-ho walked slowly toward him, the corner of his mouth lifting.
“Please tell us here, in front of everyone. Which Managing Director Lee will refuse to stay quiet?”
“Th-that’s…”
Under Kim Seong-ho’s expectant gaze, Kim Eun-mun could not open his mouth. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead while he stood rooted to the spot. Kim Seong-ho simply watched him with quiet amusement.
When the bidding ended and everyone else had left, only Kim Seong-ho, Jeong Byeong-ju, and Jo Byeong-jin remained in the conference room.
Kim Seong-ho turned to Jo Byeong-jin.
“Did Managing Director Choi get away cleanly?”
Jo Byeong-jin nodded.
“He should have left through Gimpo Airport right in the middle of the bidding.”
Jeong Byeong-ju looked at Kim Seong-ho with open curiosity.
“But why did they swallow the false information we fed Managing Director Choi so easily? Anyone with a calculator would know that 23,500 won was an impossible price.”
“Ten years.”
Kim Seong-ho met his eyes and explained why DS Furniture had trusted the rival bid estimate so completely.
“For ten years they sat comfortably and simply believed whatever information leaked out of Ilhyeon Hotel. Do you really think people like that suddenly start running the numbers themselves? I gambled that they wouldn’t—and…”
“And they really didn’t.”
Jeong Byeong-ju stared at him in disbelief.
Jo Byeong-jin, who had been looking out the window, remarked,
“It’s finally quiet outside.”
“The ringleaders are in custody, so the rest had no choice but to scatter.”
“So no more protests from now on?”
“There won’t be.”
Kim Seong-ho’s voice was absolute. He turned to Jeong Byeong-ju.
“The people who were stirring everyone up are gone, so the staff will naturally return to their posts. Sort them out and put them back to work.”
“And if some still resist, we can just fire them, right?”
“The damage they’ve already caused the company is more than enough grounds for dismissal. From now on, no more leniency.”
Jeong Byeong-ju let out a long breath.
“Whew… At first a few will refuse to listen, but once we make an example of a couple of them, the rest will fall in line.”
“Exactly. Also, keep every executive off duty until the police investigation is finished.”
Jo Byeong-jin left the window, sat opposite the other two, and shook his head as though still unable to grasp it.
“I still don’t get it. They knew we had full authority for the restructuring, yet they still decided to leak information to DS Furniture?”
“You heard him yourself—talking about the ‘backing’ of Managing Director Lee behind him.”
“Unbelievable.”
Jo Byeong-jin shook his head again. The absurdity had become reality, and Kim Seong-ho had anticipated even that and prepared for it.
Kim Seong-ho looked from one man to the other.
“The bidding went exactly as we planned. Time to move to the next stage.”
“Good. I’ll get right on it.”
Jeong Byeong-ju rose at once. Jo Byeong-jin followed. At the door he glanced back at Kim Seong-ho, who was still seated.
“Uh… your wife’s family… they’ll be all right, won’t they?”
Kim Seong-ho, legs crossed, answered with a light smile.
“Don’t worry about the in-laws. No one knows them better than I do.”
“Right… sigh, fine. We’ll proceed as planned.”
Jo Byeong-jin still found it hard to trust a man who’d been married only a short time when he claimed to know his in-laws best—but because the claim came from Kim Seong-ho, he chose to believe and follow. After everything Seong-ho had already shown them, there was no reason not to.
Once Jeong Byeong-ju and Jo Byeong-jin left to begin the next phase, Kim Seong-ho sat alone in the conference room. He idly flicked a lighter open and shut with one hand and murmured to himself,
“My wife’s family? Yes—I know them better than anyone.”
Repeating the words he had just given Jo Byeong-jin, he smiled without sound, rose, and began walking at a measured pace toward the place where he knew they would make their next move, the faces and habits of years past already clear in his mind.
Every sibling except Lee Gyeong-eun had gathered in Lee Mun-jong’s office. Summoned by Lee Jeong-eun, the brothers and sister wore expressions of pure fury and began venting about Kim Seong-ho without waiting for anyone else to speak first.
“Is that bastard completely insane?”
Lee Jeong-eun’s rage burned hotter than anyone else’s.
“Does he think Ilhyeon Hotel is his personal property? He didn’t stop at the regular staff—he filed charges against every last executive and had them all kicked out. Are we really just going to sit here and let that happen?”
“I told you he was weird ever since the Ilhyeon Watch days.”
Lee Chang-jong piled on.
“Relocating a company isn’t some children’s game… He cut off every long-standing supplier of Ilhyeon Watch. Is that the act of a sane man? Noona, they say he did almost the same thing at the hotel this time?”
“Exactly. Not only did he sever ties with companies that had traded with Ilhyeon Hotel for years, he even charged hotel employees with damaging the company after they took his side. Oppa—”
Lee Jeong-eun turned on Lee Mun-jong, who had been sitting in silence.
“Are you really going to leave him alone like this? A steward is raising a club against his master—are you just going to watch?”
Lee Mun-jong, who had been listening with a cigarette between his fingers, took a long drag, crushed it out, and regarded her with cold incomprehension.
“A steward raising a club against his master? What club? He’s saying he’ll make Ilhyeon Hotel better. You call that raising a club?”
The icy reply left Lee Jeong-eun speechless. Lee Mun-jong snorted at her, then turned to Lee Chang-jong.
“I looked at Ilhyeon Watch’s recent figures. Performance has improved dramatically. A place that was chronically in the red is now turning a profit—more than two billion won in operating profit for the quarter.”
“Hyungnim…”
Lee Mun-jong fixed the flustered younger brother with a hard stare.
“So what you’re saying is you dislike the fact that Ilhyeon Watch is making money?”
“Hyungnim, that isn’t what I—”
Lee Mun-jong cut him off with a wave of the hand and looked around at his siblings.
“If you’d gone to Father with that logic, he would have thrown you out of the room on the spot.”
Lee Jeong-eun and Lee Chang-jong both lowered their heads. They knew their arguments were weak.
Lee Mun-jong watched them for a moment, then took out another cigarette and placed it between his lips.
“That said, I don’t like leaving Son-in-law Kim in that position any more than you do.”
“Hyungnim.”
“Oppa.”
Both younger siblings jerked their heads up.
Still staring into space with the unlit cigarette in his mouth, Lee Mun-jong said,
“We do need to pull Son-in-law Kim down from that seat.”
The dark faces of Lee Chang-jong and Lee Jeong-eun brightened at once. Lee Mun-jong lit the cigarette as though he already had a plan in mind. Lee Sang-jong, who had listened in silence the entire time, merely rolled his eyes, clearly turning over thoughts of his own.
And so the four siblings united in purpose: they would drag Kim Seong-ho from his post.