You Are Needed for the Balance
Lee Sang-jong kept his eyes fixed on Kim Seong-ho as he walked slowly over to the sofa.
He dropped heavily into the seat and spoke toward Seong-ho.
"Fine. Let's hear it. Tell me how unloading my shares is supposed to be for my own good."
Unlike when he had first stormed into the office, Sang-jong now seemed willing to listen. Seong-ho smiled at the change.
Still watching him, Seong-ho began in a calm, measured voice.
"Does the stock market look healthy to you right now?"
"You're saying it doesn't?"
"Yes. I think it looks very bad."
"Not just bad—very bad?"
Sang-jong frowned and stared at him.
"That's not what the people at Ilhyeon Securities told me."
"What did they say?"
Sang-jong cast his mind back to the explanations he had received from Ilhyeon Securities before answering.
"They said the market is unstable because of the Dubo crisis, but once that gets resolved the market can rise again… and it's actually climbing right now."
"And if it doesn't get resolved?"
"What?"
"Did they never mention what happens if it fails to resolve?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I take it you never heard the downside scenario."
When Sang-jong only blinked, Seong-ho smiled as if he had expected exactly that.
"Hyung-nim. Think about why the Chairman is pushing restructuring so hard. If this were going to resolve and the market were going to stabilize and recover on its own, why would we be doing any of this?"
Seong-ho opened his hands and continued.
"The Ilhyeon Construction shares you hold were given to you by the Chairman. If you put those up as collateral to play the market, what do you think he'll say?"
"I just have to make money!"
"Right. You just have to make money."
Seong-ho immediately agreed with Sang-jong's outburst.
"But have you thought about what happens if you don't?"
Sang-jong had no answer.
He was no fool. He had already considered the scenario Seong-ho described, and he had calculated what it would cost him if it came to pass. Even so, he had made his choice for a reason.
"You think I haven't thought about that?"
After a long silence, Sang-jong spoke again, his expression thick with resentment.
"I lost three hundred billion and got kicked out of my seat. The only way back is to recover the money."
"And nothing recovers money faster in the short term than the stock market, right?"
"Exactly."
Sang-jong glared at Seong-ho.
"Other people might not get it, but a guy like you should know exactly what I mean."
"I do. I've made a great deal of money in stocks myself."
Sang-jong's brow tightened slightly. He had not expected Seong-ho to admit so readily that he had profited from the market.
But that was not the only thing that caught him off guard.
"Which is exactly why I'm telling you this. Everything the Ilhyeon Securities people said to you is nonsense. The market is about to collapse, and you are going to take massive losses."
Seong-ho's next words were equally unexpected.
Speaking in a voice that had grown a little calmer, he continued to press the startled Sang-jong.
"Hyung-nim. If I'm wrong, I will personally cover whatever profit you would have made. So pull out now. The situation is not good."
Sang-jong looked down at the contract in his hand.
The figure written there was fifty billion won.
That was not the amount he had set as his target. His goal was to recover the full three hundred billion, so fifty billion felt like pocket change.
Even so, his resolve began to waver.
"Why… why are you trying to stop me from taking a loss?"
He asked the question while still staring at the contract.
Seong-ho answered him only in his mind.
Because you can't fall yet. I need you here to keep the balance against Lee Mun-jong. That's why I'm keeping you alive.
Burying the real reason deep in his chest, Seong-ho spoke only the words Sang-jong would want to hear.
"Hyung-nim. Losing three hundred billion on the Dubo investment is not a fatal problem. These things happen in business all the time. And because Dubo deliberately set out to deceive you, given enough time the Chairman will forgive you. But putting Ilhyeon Construction shares up as collateral is something the Chairman will never forgive. And if you actually lose those shares…"
"I'll never set foot in the company again…"
"Exactly."
Seong-ho smiled gently as Sang-jong's gaze lifted from the contract to him.
"Hyung-nim. We're family, aren't we? When family is about to walk into danger, you help them. That's why I'm moving so desperately to save you."
"Family? You and me?"
A sneer filled Sang-jong's face.
Thud.
Without wiping the sneer away, he tossed the contract onto the table in front of Seong-ho and stood.
"Don't forget your promise to cover the money."
"Of course, hyung-nim."
Seong-ho rose with him.
Sang-jong turned without so much as a glance and left the office without a word of farewell.
Seong-ho followed him out to see him off.
"Take care on the way home, hyung-nim."
Watching Sang-jong's retreating back, Seong-ho lifted his head and let a deep smile spread across his face.
Just then Jo Byeong-jin approached.
"Seong-ho. Word is the presidents of the affiliates, including the president of Ilhyeon Food, are holding a gathering at Ilhyeon Fashion."
Still smiling, Seong-ho turned toward him.
"Perfect. We'll start with the ones gathered at Ilhyeon Fashion."
Byeong-jin nodded, said he understood, and gathered the Restructuring Headquarters staff.
Seong-ho glanced once more toward the door, then turned and walked back into his office. Expectation for everything that was about to unfold filled his face.
Even under direct orders from the Restructuring Headquarters, the affiliates dragged their feet.
Most had failed to submit any plan for how they would bring their debt ratios under control by year-end, and the majority simply assumed time would somehow solve everything, responding to headquarters with half-hearted foot-dragging.
When the pattern continued, the Restructuring Headquarters decided to act itself.
"What is going on here?"
An Ilhyeon Food employee stared in confusion as a wave of Restructuring Headquarters staff suddenly poured in.
Byeong-jin shoved the flustered employee aside and issued orders to his own people.
"Box up every related document and take it back to headquarters. Don't leave so much as a single sheet of paper or a pen behind."
"What do you think you're doing?"
The employee who had been pushed aside came at Byeong-jin again.
Moments later the president of Ilhyeon Food himself stormed into the office where Byeong-jin and the Restructuring Headquarters staff had taken over.
"Who the hell are you? What do you think you're doing here?!"
Confirming the man was the president of Ilhyeon Food, Byeong-jin walked straight toward him.
"Good afternoon. I'm Jo Byeong-jin of the Restructuring Headquarters. On the Head's orders I've come to collect five years of Ilhyeon Food's ledgers."
The president of Ilhyeon Food slapped the business card out of Byeong-jin's hand with the back of his own.
He jabbed a finger at Byeong-jin and shouted.
"I don't care who you are! What right do you have to walk out with our company's books?"
Byeong-jin calmly picked up the fallen card and brushed the dust from it.
"You already know the answer. Every affiliate of the Ilhyeon Group is required to obey the Restructuring Headquarters."
"Obey?"
"We clearly instructed you to submit a debt-resolution plan by last week. Not a single document reached us. So we are stepping in ourselves to restructure Ilhyeon Food's liabilities—assuming, of course, that Ilhyeon Food is still a company worth keeping inside the group. If it is not, we will move toward sale or liquidation."
"You…"
When the president of Ilhyeon Food looked ready to lunge, security staff immediately stepped between them to shield Byeong-jin.
From behind the grim-faced security men, Byeong-jin addressed the president.
"Headquarters gave you time and waited. Ilhyeon Food is the one that failed to comply. From this moment the restructuring of Ilhyeon Food will be carried out directly by headquarters. Take that as final."
Having delivered the notice, Byeong-jin turned back to his own staff.
"We'll sort everything once we're back at headquarters. For now just focus on packing it up."
He urged them to sweep the documents into boxes as quickly as possible.
The Restructuring Headquarters staff stuffed everything they could grab into the boxes they had brought. As soon as a box was full, its carrier began filing out of the building one by one.
They had flooded in like a rising tide; they left even faster than a receding one.
The employees of Ilhyeon Food could only stand and watch, helpless, as the headquarters team came and went.
The same scene repeated the next day at Ilhyeon Housing.
And the day after that at Ilhyeon Shipbuilding…
One by one, the Restructuring Headquarters paid visits to the affiliates that had rebelled and run to Chairman Lee Tak-hyeon and Vice Chairman Lee Mun-jong for help.
Once the Restructuring Headquarters took direct action, matters moved quickly.
"It looks like the right call is to restructure Ilhyeon Food out of the group entirely."
Deputy Head Mun Yong-nam handed Seong-ho the results of the analysis of the documents Byeong-jin had seized.
Seong-ho examined the materials while listening to the report.
"Operating profit relative to sales is extremely low. Even allowing for the nature of the food business, it does not fit a corporate culture that prioritizes growth."
"Three percent of sales… that is certainly low."
"And three percent is the best-case figure under ordinary market conditions. If the exchange rate rises and raw-material costs spike, the company will almost certainly post large losses."
Seong-ho nodded after reviewing Mun Yong-nam's analysis.
"All right. We'll move toward selling Ilhyeon Food. What's next?"
Deputy Head Lee Gyeong-deuk answered.
"Next is Ilhyeon Housing. Regarding Ilhyeon Housing…"
Seong-ho gathered the two deputy heads and the team-leader level of the Restructuring Headquarters to decide the fates of the companies Byeong-jin had raided.
Under Mun Yong-nam's direction the ledgers were dissected in minute detail; under Lee Gyeong-deuk's direction the future prospects of each affiliate were examined.
With those results in hand, Seong-ho chose one of three options for each company:
Sell it, liquidate it, or keep it.
Once Seong-ho rendered judgment, that judgment became the company's future.
After hearing Mun Yong-nam's analysis and Lee Gyeong-deuk's market assessment, Seong-ho decided the fate of Ilhyeon Housing.
"We'll liquidate Ilhyeon Housing. Put the housing stock and commercial properties on the market and find a single buyer to take over the existing property-management clients."
"What about a sale?"
Lee Gyeong-deuk offered his own view carefully.
"They hold quite a lot of assets. An outright package sale might not be a bad approach."
"Precisely because the assets are numerous, a clean sale is unlikely to go smoothly."
Seong-ho shook his head, recalling how much trouble they had gone through in the previous life trying—and failing—to sell Ilhyeon Housing.
"We liquidate Ilhyeon Housing and clear it. Next."
"Yes. Next is Ilhyeon Shipbuilding."
The meeting on affiliate restructuring stretched late into the night.
The following day the Restructuring Headquarters formally notified each affiliate of its decision.
Some, like Ilhyeon Machinery, breathed sighs of relief. Most, however, sank into shock and grief.
The majority of the companies the headquarters had decided to handle directly were the weak ones, and the outcomes were sale or liquidation.
The presidents of those companies, starting with Ilhyeon Food, rose up in fierce protest.
But protest did not reverse a single decision of the Restructuring Headquarters.
Faced with an unyielding verdict, the presidents of Ilhyeon Food and the rest eventually made their way to Ilhyeon Fashion.
Unlike Head of Restructuring Headquarters Kim Seong-ho, Executive Director Lee Jeong-eun of Ilhyeon Fashion was always ready to listen to their complaints. They laid out their grievances about the unfairness of the headquarters' decisions, and she accepted every one of them.
Then, gathering all that resentment close to her heart, she set out for Pyeongchang-dong.