A Different Play for a Different Stage
The next morning.
I had just finished a shower and was stepping out, toweling my wet hair, when the doorbell rang.
Ding-dong—
I opened the door to my lodgings with a towel still draped around my neck.
Outside stood Jung Tae-sung, Park Jin-hyuk, and Choi Sung-hoon.
"Ah, you're here. Come on in."
"……Perhaps I should have come a little later. I hope we haven't disturbed your rest."
Taking in my dripping figure, Jung Tae-sung put on a look of sheepish apology.
"Not at all. I'm the one who called you at this hour. Have a seat on the sofa."
At my words, the three of them filed into the living room and settled in, while I headed into the bedroom to throw on some clothes.
When I returned, having roughly dried my hair, all three were poring over the stack of A4 pages I had organized through the night, passing them around the table. The only sound in the room was the rustle of turning paper.
I sat down on the sofa across from them.
"Has everyone had a look?"
"Um…… did you compile all of this yourself, sir?"
Jung Tae-sung asked cautiously, disbelief written across his face.
"I did. Is there something wrong with the content?"
"No. It's not that anything's wrong…… you did sleep, didn't you?"
"Nope. I got so absorbed in writing it that I lost track of time. It was actually fun."
At my answer, Jung Tae-sung found himself at a loss for words and simply clicked his tongue.
The documents contained my analysis of Shinei's proposal that I had laid out on the whiteboard yesterday, the toxic clauses hidden beneath it, and even Nakamura's three-stage merger roadmap.
"It's astonishing that you analyzed and organized something this extensive overnight, and alone at that. In particular, the insight you showed in connecting the governance trap to the raw material sourcing…… it rivals anything a top M&A specialist could produce."
At Jung Tae-sung's admiration, Park Jin-hyuk, seated beside him, nodded gravely.
"I agree. Especially the raw material sourcing section. It's unsettlingly accurate."
"That's thanks to Director Park."
"Sorry? Thanks to me?"
"When we met Nakamura Kenji and heard his proposal, you were the one who immediately asked him about raw material supply. If it weren't for that question, I wouldn't have dug into that part so deeply."
It was the truth.
During yesterday's meeting, when Park Jin-hyuk—the engineer, not Jung Tae-sung—had abruptly raised that point, I'd caught the subtle shift in Nakamura's expression. That fleeting moment of unease had been the seed from which this entire analysis grew.
At my words, Park Jin-hyuk gave a wry smile and spoke up.
"I don't pretend to understand the logic of management or capital, but I do know how this industry works. I know exactly how the major players quietly devour smaller companies with promising technology."
"By tightening the leash through raw material supply, I take it?"
"Exactly. Just as you wrote there, sir. First they monopolize the raw materials under the sweet pretext of quality assurance. Then, once the joint venture has found its footing, they start raising prices or throttling delivery schedules. The venture can't turn a profit. Eventually, they come crawling, hands clasped, begging to survive—handing over their technology or surrendering the whole company. It's a textbook hunting method."
I nodded.
The moment a manufacturer fails to diversify its supply chain and becomes dependent on a single supplier, its fate passes into another's hands.
Ironically, it was exactly the method I intended to use to strangle my own relatives with my Super-Eul strategy.
I couldn't exactly object to having it done to me, could I?
"In any case, that's my analysis. What do the rest of you think? If there's anything to add, speak up now."
At my words, Jung Tae-sung pointed to a single page in the stack.
"It's an analysis approaching perfection, but there is one more point to consider: a safeguard on our exit conditions. We need an explicit put option clause allowing us to sell our shares back at fair value if the joint venture collapses. A financial penalty to keep them from harboring any funny ideas."
"Excellent point. We'll add it."
From there, Park Jin-hyuk laid out a concrete defense strategy regarding the seconded technical personnel, and Choi Sung-hoon reported the intelligence he'd gathered on the ground in Japan.
For about an hour, we put our heads together and completed our response strategy to Shinei's proposal.
"Good. Let's leave the review there."
I straightened the papers on the table with a crisp tap and looked at the three of them.
"You all remember we have dinner with the Shinei side this evening?"
Three heads nodded, faces grim with resolve.
"That's where I'll brief you on the position we take and how we move. This time, we'll need a slightly different play than yesterday's."
At my words, every gaze fixed on my lips.
That evening. An exclusive kaiseki restaurant in Kita-Shinchi, Osaka.
Jung Tae-sung, Park Jin-hyuk, and I stepped into the restaurant.
Choi Sung-hoon had been introduced to them as our driver, so it was better that he wait outside.
"Right this way, please."
A member of the restaurant's staff bowed politely to the three of us and led the way.
"Ever been to a place like this?"
"No. I only ever attended Managing Director Kim Seok-jun—places like this are a first for me."
"M-me too……"
So we chatted as we followed our guide.
The private room we were shown to was luxurious enough to make one wonder whether this was really a restaurant at all.
One entire wall was floor-to-ceiling glass, offering an unobstructed view of a immaculately manicured Japanese garden, and the only sound was the occasional, meditative knock of a bamboo chute striking stone.
"Welcome, gentlemen."
As we entered the room, Nakamura Kenji came forward to greet us.
Shinei's negotiating team consisted of President Nakamura Kenji himself and the managing director overseeing the practical side of the talks.
"Thank you for having us."
"Not at all. Since you've come all the way to Osaka, I simply wished to treat you to Osaka cuisine. Shall we sit?"
At Nakamura's invitation, the three of us took our seats across from him.
"Now then—tonight, let's forget all about business and simply enjoy Osaka."
The moment Nakamura finished speaking, dishes and bottles arrived in a lavish procession, covering the table end to end.
Even for someone raised in a chaebol household like me, it was a banquet unlike anything I had witnessed in my previous life.
"Is life in Japan treating you well?"
After the sake had made a few rounds and the atmosphere had warmed, Nakamura filled Jung Tae-sung's cup and asked in a tone laced with laughter.
Jung Tae-sung accepted the drink with an easy smile.
"Hardly comfortable—I'm here on business, after all. I've been running all over the place. Exhausting, frankly."
"Is that so? I suppose you have many people to see while you're here."
Look at this guy.
I ate quietly, smirking to myself.
He was still probing. He must have received a report by now about our contact with Otsu Kogyo, and this was his gambit—pretending ignorance to ferret out our next move.
After all, I had made sure he overheard it outright at our first meeting. There was no way he didn't know.
Following the script I had drafted for him that morning, Jung Tae-sung tossed out the bait with practiced ease.
"Yes, tomorrow we're off to Kobe. The schedule is relentless."
Nakamura's hand froze mid-motion.
Kobe.
A port city thirty minutes from Osaka by rail. And it was home to one company that Nakamura Kenji knew all too well.
"Kobe, you say…… you don't mean KBC Chemical, by any chance?"
KBC Chemical.
Roughly the same size as Shinei, geographically close, with overlapping flagship product lines—it was a rival company, like the neighborhood enemy next door, clashing with them over every little thing.
Shinei kept its eyes fixed upward, chasing the major industry players, but its real rival had always been KBC. They were locked in a relationship where Shinei had to climb while constantly watching its flank.
Jung Tae-sung shook his head with perfect composure.
"No comment on that. It would hardly be courteous to the other party—and besides, we agreed tonight would be business-free, didn't we?"
In truth, unlike the Otsu Kogyo gambit, this was one hundred percent bluffing.
We had never so much as contacted KBC.
But it didn't matter.
Jung Tae-sung offered no confirmation, and for Nakamura, unverifiable fear is always the more terrifying kind.
Even without you, alternatives are lined up waiting.
Planting that message—that was the core of today's strategy.
"Honestly, I came thinking of this week as half business trip, half vacation, but I'm busier here than I am in Korea. Hahaha!"
Jung Tae-sung laughed heartily and steered the mood himself.
Nakamura forced a laugh in return, but the corners of his mouth were trembling almost imperceptibly.
Otsu Kogyo, and now KBC. He must have felt like a man with enemies closing in from every side.
"Ah, good heavens—all this fine drink on an empty stomach, and I'm full already. Would you excuse me to the washroom for a moment……?"
As Jung Tae-sung rose with a courteous bow, the quick-witted Park Jin-hyuk set down his napkin and stood to follow.
"I'll come along with you, sir."
At those words, Nakamura shot a hasty glance at the managing director beside him.
The man sprang up at once and bowed deeply to the two of them.
"Allow me to show you the way. This way, please."
The pretext was courtesy—one never let guests wander off alone—but his real intent was obvious: to monitor what the two men discussed, and whether they might place a call to someone else.
Slide—click.
The door closed shut, leaving only Nakamura Kenji and me in the room.
Silence.
Nakamura fiddled with his sake cup, lost in deep thought.
The name KBC had evidently landed hard—his usual poker face had cracked, and his agitation showed through clearly. He seemed entirely oblivious to my presence; to him, I was just a young aide minding the luggage.
"You must be troubled."
I set down my chopsticks and addressed him in Japanese.
Nakamura Kenji's head snapped up in shock. Round, startled eyes turned toward me.
"……You speak Japanese?"
He couldn't hide his flustered state. It wasn't merely passable, either—my accent and pronunciation were every bit as flawless as a native's.
"Ah, it's a family tradition. My elders had something of an obsession with languages, so they lined up private tutors for me from the time I was small."
I smiled easily, as if it were nothing.
But Nakamura's expression did not soften. It wasn't just the Japanese anymore.
An aide dares to address me—a man seated at the head of the table?
Displeasure and suspicion warred in his eyes.
I met that gaze head-on, refusing to look away. It was time to remove the mask.
"I'd advise you to come to the negotiation table with your true feelings laid bare."
"……What is that supposed to mean?"
Nakamura's brow furrowed. I straightened my posture and drove in—calm, but sharp as an awl.
"Expanding into Korea is a matter of survival for Shinei, yes—but you're also determined that even after the entry, Shinhwa Weltech is never allowed to take control. That's the two-faced agenda I'm talking about."
"……!"
"As long as you hide that ambition, nothing will move forward. Because to my eyes, it's all perfectly visible."
Nakamura Kenji's pupils wavered violently.
"Allow me to introduce myself properly. Kang Seon-woo—CEO of SJ Holdings, and the owner of Shinhwa Weltech. The man who decides whether this deal happens at all."