Time to Leave
Hwang Do-beom stepped into the study, took one look at the smoke-choked room, and opened a window to let the haze escape before approaching Lee Tak-hyeon.
“Chairman. What did Director Kim have to say?”
“He said we shouldn’t give either of them a thing.”
“Not support either side?”
Hwang Do-beom’s face registered genuine surprise.
Lee Tak-hyeon glanced at that expression and the corner of his mouth lifted.
“And do you know what else the boy said?”
“What was that, sir?”
“He said that if we’re giving money in order to buy help, there’s no need—because both sides will end up coming to us for help anyway.”
“What on earth…?”
Hwang Do-beom looked as if he couldn’t believe his ears.
Lee Tak-hyeon laughed again at the sight of him.
“Exactly. I wore the same face you’re wearing right now.”
Finished speaking, Lee Tak-hyeon rose from his seat.
He put a cigarette between his lips and walked toward the window Hwang Do-beom had opened.
Warm sunlight and a cool breeze drifted in through the open frame, driving out the tobacco smell and leaving a clean, bracing feeling in their place.
Lee Tak-hyeon gazed out at the courtyard, where green leaves had burst into full, vigorous life. Still looking through the glass, he asked Hwang Do-beom,
“How is the country’s economy looking right now?”
Lee Tak-hyeon received weekly reports through the secretariat; there was no chance he didn’t already know. Hwang Do-beom understood that the question was asking for his own subjective assessment. He walked closer as he answered.
“The chaos that started with the Dubo Group and the Bumi Group looks as if it’s settling down for the moment, so on the surface things appear all right, but…”
“Hoo… You’re saying underneath is a different story?”
Lee Tak-hyeon exhaled a stream of smoke out the window, then turned his head to look at Hwang Do-beom.
Hwang Do-beom lowered his head slightly and spoke in a faintly troubled voice.
“I can’t be certain, sir.”
“You know I didn’t ask you because I wanted certainty. Just talk. How does it look to you?”
At that, Hwang Do-beom raised his head again and spoke carefully.
“I don’t believe internal problems alone will bring the Republic of Korea down. But if an external shock hits us…”
His voice trailed off.
He considered the possibility extremely remote.
Lee Tak-hyeon, however, found that remote possibility interesting.
“Just say it. If trouble blows in from outside, what do you think would happen?”
“…The banking sector, starting with Jae-i Bank, is blocking loan extensions and cleaning up bad assets. But attracting foreign capital is still difficult. Interest rates aren’t falling—they keep climbing—and the exchange rate is anything but stable. People are already saying it could break a thousand won any day now.”
Hwang Do-beom paused, let out a long breath, and looked at Lee Tak-hyeon.
“In a situation like that, if a crisis arrived from overseas… I think the whole thing could collapse like dominoes.”
“Good. That’s what I wanted to hear.”
Lee Tak-hyeon actually looked satisfied. He turned his face back to the window.
“How much of my slush fund is sitting in domestic banks?”
At the question, Hwang Do-beom started and glanced sharply toward the study door.
He hurried to the Chairman’s side, shut the window, and said in a low, careful voice,
“Chairman. Someone might overhear…”
“It’s stuffy. Leave the window open.”
Lee Tak-hyeon reopened the window Hwang Do-beom had just closed, blew smoke outside, and said,
“It’s fine. Just talk. I want to hear it right now.”
Hwang Do-beom was momentarily flustered by the order to discuss the matter here in the study.
Anything involving the slush funds was ordinarily top secret; conversations took place in the underground vault room, and the related documents were kept there as well. More than that, Lee Tak-hyeon almost never uttered the words “slush fund” aloud. The more you said them, the greater the chance they would reach the wrong ears—that had always been his creed.
Today, however, he had brought the subject up in the open study with the window wide. Hwang Do-beom could not help being startled.
After a brief moment of confusion at something that had never happened before, he recovered and answered in the softest voice he could manage.
“At present, five hundred billion at Jae-i Bank, four hundred seventy billion at Dou Bank…”
“Just give me the total.”
Lee Tak-hyeon sounded as if even listening in pieces was a nuisance.
“…A total of two trillion seven hundred billion is on deposit with domestic banks. And in bonds—”
“That’s enough.”
Still looking out the window, Lee Tak-hyeon cut him off as if he had no interest in the rest, then issued an order.
“Start drawing the domestic-bank slush funds out little by little and move them to the Swiss banks.”
“All of it, sir?!”
“Yes. Every last won.”
Lee Tak-hyeon turned from the window and looked at Hwang Do-beom.
“If the wave Director Kim talks about really hits the country, what do you think happens to the money I have parked in Korean banks?”
“Chairman… are you saying you actually believe the wave Director Kim mentioned is coming?”
Lee Tak-hyeon held out the spent cigarette butt; Hwang Do-beom brought the ashtray.
“After the war this country never stopped. It grew without a pause, and it even joined the OECD—the club of advanced nations. But how long can that growth keep going? The world I’ve lived in has never been that easy. Sooner or later the moment always comes when it bends. Like this cigarette butt—one day there’s nothing left to burn. That’s the world I’ve known.”
Hwang Do-beom looked down at the butt while he listened.
If the cigarette was the Republic of Korea, then the country was already down to nothing but the filter.
The shock still showed on Hwang Do-beom’s face. Lee Tak-hyeon gave him another order.
“If a bank goes under, the money can vanish completely.”
“Would a bank really go under…? Isn’t that the absolute worst case?”
Still staring at the butt, Hwang Do-beom asked in a voice as shaken as his expression.
“Even if the banks don’t fail, if the wave Director Kim spoke of hits, mergers among them will be unavoidable. Once that happens, the money I’ve hidden inside those banks could come to light. I’d be left with a choice: expose the money to the world and take the pointing fingers, or simply give it up.”
As the scenario took shape in his mind, Lee Tak-hyeon gave a small shake of his head.
“That must never be allowed to happen.”
His mouth set hard; the absolute refusal to face such a situation was plain.
Sensing that resolve, Hwang Do-beom asked carefully,
“Then… by when should I have it all moved, Chairman?”
The sums were enormous; they could not be shifted in a single stroke. Spread across multiple banks, the process itself was far from simple.
“Match the pace of the slush-fund cleanup to Director Kim.”
“Sir?”
Hwang Do-beom had expected a date. The unexpected answer left him, for a moment, unable to grasp what Lee Tak-hyeon meant.
Lee Tak-hyeon closed the window, laid a hand on Hwang Do-beom’s shoulder, and said,
“Have every last bit of the slush fund moved by the time he finishes the restructuring. The day Director Kim completes the restructuring will be the day just before the big wave hits the country.”
Only then did Hwang Do-beom understand. He stared at Lee Tak-hyeon with startled eyes.
He realized the Chairman trusted Kim Seong-ho even more deeply than he had thought.
He’s not doing this just in case Seong-ho happens to be right. He’s simply… believing him.
Hwang Do-beom never said it aloud and never acknowledged it, but he now understood exactly how much faith Lee Tak-hyeon had placed in Kim Seong-ho.
The noisy Sunday meal finally ended, and Kim Seong-ho returned to their room with Lee Gyeong-eun.
She had not spoken a single word the entire way. Kim Seong-ho found it strange and asked,
“Did something happen?”
At his gentle question Lee Gyeong-eun nearly burst into tears.
Seeing her face crumple, Kim Seong-ho took her hand.
“Did someone say something while I was in the study? One of your brothers or sisters-in-law?”
“No, it’s not that…”
After a brief hesitation she told him everything that had been said at the table.
At first Kim Seong-ho listened with a serious expression, but as the story continued the gravity faded from his face. When she finished he patted her hand and said,
“I thought it was something serious. It’s nothing. Your mother’s never liked me for a single day—why would today be different?”
“But this was too much. Father called you in himself, and she still found a way to blame you.”
“She can see it that way. From her point of view, the second brother and sister-in-law were driven out of the company because of me.”
“They brought it on themselves by causing disasters—how is that your fault? Honestly, Seong-ho, your heart is too big. That’s your problem.”
Kim Seong-ho only smiled without answering.
Driving the two of them out of the company had been Lee Tak-hyeon’s decision, and the actions that forced that decision had been theirs. But the one who had engineered the entire situation was Kim Seong-ho. Lee Gyeong-eun, knowing none of that, shook her head hard.
“You didn’t do anything wrong. My brothers, my sister—even Mother—they all know it. They just have no one else to blame for the scolding Father gave them, so they dump it on you.”
She wrinkled her nose, deciding the whole thing was nothing but pointless provocation.
“They were kicked out of the company, but it’s not forever. Father will call them back eventually, and they know it—that’s why they’re keeping quiet. The real problem is Mother. She simply doesn’t like you, so she picks fights for the fun of it.”
Talking it out with Kim Seong-ho had already eased her heart. She pressed her lips together as if reaching a decision, then spoke slowly.
“I don’t think we can stay. Let’s move out.”
“Move out?”
“Yes. If we keep living here, you’ll dry up and die.”
Unlike her worry, Kim Seong-ho felt nothing of the sort. Compared with everything he had endured in the past life, the present was barely a beginning. But she was not him. Her face hardened with resolve as she looked at him.
“Let’s live on our own. And like my brothers and sisters, we’ll only come to Pyeongchang-dong once a week—and skip it whenever we have a business trip or work.”
“Won’t you miss them?”
“I’ll be fine.”
She even clenched a fist for emphasis.
“I hate watching you take this kind of stress. Let’s go out and enjoy our newlywed life together. All right?”
The way she thought of him first sent a warm current through Kim Seong-ho’s chest.
“All right. Let’s do that.”
He nodded and agreed to everything she had said.
I’ve already earned the Chairman’s trust. Living separately won’t be a problem now.
He no longer believed that distance would undo the trust he had built. In that case, leaving—just as Gyeong-eun wanted—was a good choice.
Then a useful way to exploit the situation occurred to him.
“But don’t mention it right away. Wait until I say it’s time. We’ll tell them then.”
“We leave when you say it’s all right?”
“Yes. Is that okay?”
Lee Gyeong-eun nodded slowly.
“Of course that’s fine. But can you tell me why?”
Kim Seong-ho smiled faintly.
“If we leave, Father and Mother will be lonely. So before we go I want to find someone to take our place and look after them here in Pyeongchang-dong.”
“Find another family to move into Pyeongchang-dong in our place?”
“Yes. Once one of your brothers or sisters-in-law is ready to move in, then we’ll leave. That seems like the proper way to do it.”
At his words Lee Gyeong-eun threw her arms around him, clearly moved.
“I don’t understand why Mother hates a man like you. Where else would she find a son-in-law like Seong-ho…? Thank you—for thinking of my parents too.”
“It’s nothing. This is part of what I’m supposed to do.”
Kim Seong-ho held her and stroked her back.
While he embraced Lee Gyeong-eun, a meaningful smile rose on his face.