More Than Just Passing the Test
On the drive back to the company, Section Chief Jeong Byeong-ju shook his head as if exhausted.
"Aigoo. I thought I'd die of discomfort. Why go that far, honestly······."
"To them, we're basically saviors."
"Saviors?"
Jeong Byeong-ju glanced sideways at Kim Seong-ho, as if wondering what that was supposed to mean.
Then his eyes fell on the diary Seong-ho was staring at so intently, and he asked,
"Assistant Manager Kim, why are you staring at a blank diary like that?"
"Gyeong-eun drew a little cat at the edge of the paper here. The shape changes just a bit on every page, and looking at it calms me down. So I'm just looking."
"Gyeong-eun······. You mean the young lady?"
"Yes."
Section Chief Jeong nodded without suspicion and turned his gaze back to the road ahead.
"Must be nice. I was like that during the newlywed days too—my wife looked so pretty no matter what······. But now······. Ugh. There isn't a lioness like that lioness. When she roars once, heaven and earth shake. Ah, last time she······."
Once he heard Seong-ho was looking at a drawing Gyeong-eun had made, Jeong Byeong-ju lost all further interest in the diary.
Watching the section chief lose himself in reminiscences of his own honeymoon, Seong-ho smiled and returned his gaze to the diary.
What looked like blank pages to Jeong Byeong-ju was, in Seong-ho's eyes, filled solid with writing.
The Jisan Group vanished from the world, leaving behind a record financial loss of 800 billion won. We, who had been pursuing the acquisition of Jisan Cement, could not escape the damage either. The 50 billion won put down as a deposit evaporated into thin air, and······.
Seong-ho finished reviewing the passages related to the Jisan Group and closed the diary.
The Jisan Group is definitely going under, so if we acquire them, our side will take damage no matter what······.
Seong-ho already knew that Chairman Lee Tak-hyeon had tossed the Jisan Cement matter to Strategic Planning Team 2 specifically to test him.
He also knew that if Ilhyeon Group succeeded in an acquisition on favorable terms, he would safely pass his first trial as a son-in-law.
Years of watching from Lee Tak-hyeon's side had stacked that understanding carefully inside his head.
But Seong-ho was not satisfied with merely passing the test.
Knowing the Jisan Group would collapse, he was confident he could do more than shave a mere 10 or 20 billion off the price and call it a day.
To that end, he first intended to delay the acquisition negotiations.
And once delayed, what to do next—he was already mapping it out in his head on the drive back to the company.
When Kim Seong-ho and Jeong Byeong-ju arrived at the office, Team Leader Yun Gi-seok summoned every member of Team 2 to the conference room.
Then he turned a curious face toward Jeong Byeong-ju and asked,
"How was it, seeing it in person?"
Section Chief Jeong answered with a weary expression.
"Nothing special. The plant and the employees both looked fine."
"Their faces? Looked okay?"
"Yes. Fine. Didn't feel like hastily hired actors."
"Really? So it was fine?"
Yun Gi-seok nodded and looked around at his team.
"We've checked in person and confirmed there's nothing wrong, so let's proceed with the acquisition right away."
The team members all showed signs of agreement with Yun's decision.
Watching them, Seong-ho suddenly remembered something he had briefly forgotten.
Right. This isn't the twenty-first century yet.
In the era Seong-ho had lived in before coming here, acquisition negotiations required an extremely complicated process.
Both seller and buyer typically put forward agents and conducted talks through them.
Law firms were brought in for legal review, of course, and financial firms such as securities houses for valuation, plus accounting firm staff numbering in the hundreds, all swarming over the deal.
Even a fast acquisition took months; for large projects, quiet coordination could stretch for over a year before the real negotiations even began.
But the present was not an age of such complex procedures.
It was an age when the buyer simply named a price, or the seller countered, and the deal was done.
Due diligence, too, was often handled in the same rough-and-ready fashion as now.
While Seong-ho was still absorbing the fact that this was not the twenty-first century, Yun Gi-seok spoke to the team.
"Upstairs wants the deposit handled under 100 billion, so let's push the acquisition process at that level. Total acquisition price is 180 billion, and for every 10 billion we shave off, there's a 5-million-won bonus, so work hard and let's all have a warm winter."
At the mention of a 5-million-won bonus, every face in the room lit up.
In an era when the annual-salary system was only just taking hold, a 5-million-won bonus hit them as a very large sum indeed.
Once more reminded that this was not the twenty-first century, Seong-ho decided a simple method could delay the negotiations and raised his hand.
Yun Gi-seok confirmed the raised hand and turned to him.
"Yes, Assistant Manager Kim. Something to say?"
"In my view, it might be better to put the contract off a little."
"Put the contract off? Why?"
Seong-ho recalled that in this era, an emotional approach worked better than a purely rational one.
So he packed his argument into a simple reason.
"This deal isn't something we charged into first saying we'd buy Jisan Cement. They approached us asking if we wouldn't take it. In that case, if we bounce them once or twice, they'll get desperate and lower the price themselves. Same as buying goods at the market."
The team members nodded at Seong-ho's words.
He made it even easier for them to grasp.
"Jisan Cement is the core of the Jisan Group. The fact that they're offering to sell something that central means there's a high probability the group has a problem serious enough to force them to sell its heart."
"That's right. Otherwise the Jisan Group would never come to us first asking if we'd buy the company."
"So let's hold out a little. Until they get desperate and lower the price on their own."
"So instead of us cutting the price, we make them come to us with a lower price first?"
"Exactly. Even if they arrive with a lower price, we still get one more chance to cut it further—so it's even better for us, isn't it?"
Yun Gi-seok nodded at Seong-ho's words and looked around at the team.
"I think that's a pretty good approach. What about the rest of you? If we cut first and Jisan accepts, we only get one cut. But if they cut first and come in, we can cut one more time."
"Make them show their hand first, you mean?"
"Right."
Having understood Seong-ho's point, Yun Gi-seok looked at him with a gaze that said not bad at all.
The other team members seemed equally pleased with the idea; all of them nodded in agreement.
"I think it's good."
"Since Jisan came to us hat in hand, let's wait them out."
"Agreed. That seems best."
Once everyone concurred, Yun turned his gaze back to Seong-ho.
"But Assistant Manager Kim."
He thought the idea was solid, yet one concern still niggled at him.
"Won't upstairs say something?"
Seong-ho knew exactly which "upstairs" Yun meant. He smiled as he answered.
"Don't worry about that. I'll handle upstairs myself."
He spoke with confidence and turned a smiling expression on Yun Gi-seok.
Team Leader Yun, faced with that look, found himself unable to ask anything like "Are you sure you can?"
The sheer self-assurance in the expression somehow made further questions impossible.
Still half-doubtful, Yun nodded in acceptance and instructed Section Chief Jeong Byeong-ju to send a document to the Jisan side indicating that the acquisition was proving difficult.
Seong-ho allowed himself a faint smile at the order and pictured, in his mind, what would soon unfold in Pyeongchang-dong.
"Hey, you. Have you lost your mind?"
Lee Sang-jong—second son of Chairman Lee Tak-hyeon and President of Ilhyeon Construction—strode up to Kim Seong-ho, who was eating dinner after work.
He jabbed a finger at Seong-ho and shouted,
"What's so 'difficult' about acquiring Jisan Cement?"
Seong-ho looked up from his meal.
"You've arrived, hyung-nim."
"Oppa. What is it this time?"
Lee Gyeong-eun, who had been eating with Seong-ho, set down her spoon and rose at the sight of Sang-jong's unprovoked fury.
Sang-jong twisted his face at her and waved a dismissive hand.
"I've got nothing to say to you, so stay out of it."
"No. Talk to me. What exactly is this about?"
"Hey!"
Sang-jong startled at the volume of his own voice and glanced toward the study.
He was worried the sound might have reached Lee Tak-hyeon inside.
After checking the study direction for a moment, he lowered his voice again.
"I've got nothing to discuss with you, so back off."
At the growling face Sang-jong presented, Seong-ho set down his own spoon and stood.
He rested a hand on Gyeong-eun's shoulder and smiled.
"It's all right, Gyeong-eun. You finish eating. I'll talk with hyung-nim and come back in a bit to eat."
"I'm coming too. I need to hear why Oppa's acting like this."
Afraid that if left alone Sang-jong might do something to Seong-ho, Gyeong-eun insisted on going along.
Just then Chief of Staff Hwang Do-beom appeared where Seong-ho and Sang-jong stood.
"The Chairman asks what the commotion is and says to come in."
Ordinarily Sang-jong would have brushed it off as nothing, but now his face said this was perfect timing. He jabbed a finger at Seong-ho.
"Fine. Since it's come to this, let's talk in front of Father about just how big a mistake you've made. Hyung-nim. Let's go."
Sang-jong strode ahead. Hwang Do-beom shot Seong-ho a look that said to hurry and followed after him.
"Seong-ho. What's going on?"
With even Chairman Lee Tak-hyeon summoning them, Gyeong-eun looked at Seong-ho with worried eyes.
Seong-ho gave her a bright smile.
"Nothing bad will happen to me, so don't worry. If eating alone feels lonely, just wait a little until I come out. I'll be right back."
He reassured her and walked toward Lee Tak-hyeon's study.
Gyeong-eun bowed her head in greeting at the study door and quietly watched Seong-ho go inside.