The Article Drops
"Is the Chairman in?"
Jung Sung Group headquarters, outside the chairman's office.
The moment Jung Hyun-il received the call from the secretary's office, he knew exactly what was coming. When his father summoned him, it was always one of two things: he was in a good mood, or he wanted to wring someone's neck.
"Yes, I'll report to the Chairman at once."
One look at the secretary's expression told him it wasn't the former.
Knock knock—
"Chairman, Jung Hyun-il, CEO of Jung Sung Construction, is here."
"Tell him to come in."
The father's voice drifted out from within, and Jung Hyun-il took a deep breath before opening the door.
Jung Min-woong sat at his desk, buried in paperwork. Despite his son's entrance, he didn't so much as glance up. Standing at his side was Director Park of the Strategic Planning Office — and the instant Jung Hyun-il saw him, everything fell into place.
"Sit."
Jung Min-woong spoke without lifting his eyes from the documents.
"Father, what seems to be the—"
"Yoon In-chul slipped away, I hear?"
Jung Min-woong's gaze finally rose. He looked at his son with the same eyes he'd been reading with — flat, cold, assessing.
"You made contact with that professor yourself. You were the one brimming with confidence about recruiting him, weren't you?"
"Yes. In terms of his career and government network, he was the optimal candidate—"
"And that 'optimal' candidate went somewhere else?"
Jung Min-woong set the documents down on the desk.
"……We're still looking into the circumstances."
"Circumstances?"
Jung Min-woong's voice climbed.
"What circumstances do you need? You failed to manage him. That's all there is to it!"
Jung Hyun-il's shoulders stiffened almost imperceptibly.
"How many days has it been since you made the offer to Yoon In-chul? And in that window, someone else swooped in and took him right out from under you. Where were you? What exactly were you doing?"
"The government channels are fully operational, and working-level meetings with Park Han-soo's side are ongoing. As for Yoon In-chul, that was an unforeseen variable—"
"A variable? You're good with excuses, I'll give you that."
Jung Min-woong shot to his feet.
"When did I hand you the Shinsung acquisition? Half a year — it's been nearly half a year! And what have you done in six months? You couldn't butter up one old man. You couldn't hold on to one professor!"
His father's furious voice filled the chairman's office wall to wall, and Jung Hyun-il had nothing to say.
"And now someone else has moved in on your territory? Do you even know who it is?"
"……We haven't confirmed it yet."
"You haven't confirmed it?"
Jung Min-woong slammed his hand down on the desk.
"You don't even know who you're up against, and you're telling me you're 'managing' things? I gave you one job. Shinsung. One! If you can't even handle that, say so right now. I'll give it to someone who can!"
Jung Hyun-il's fists clenched at his sides.
But his mouth stayed shut. Talking back in this room had never once gone well for him.
Jung Min-woong exhaled roughly.
"One week. If it's not resolved within a week, it goes to Director Park."
At those words, Jung Hyun-il's eyes flicked back to Director Park. The man stood there without a single change in expression.
"Get out. I can't stand the sight of you. Next time you walk through that door, either bring me results or hand in your resignation as CEO of Jung Sung Construction. Decide which, and then come."
Jung Min-woong waved him off. Jung Hyun-il swallowed his fury, bowed his head, and turned away.
The moment he stepped out of the chairman's office, Director Park followed him into the corridor.
Jung Hyun-il didn't slow his stride. Director Park fell in beside him.
"……Director Park."
Jung Hyun-il's voice was low.
"I believe I told you to stay out of this."
"I've stayed out of nothing, sir. Reporting to the Chairman is my job — and it was the Chairman's instruction."
Director Park's answer came without a beat of hesitation.
"……"
Jung Hyun-il stopped walking and turned to face him. Director Park neither bowed his head nor averted his eyes.
He had never been his man to begin with. That hadn't changed — not now, not ever.
"Fine."
Jung Hyun-il nodded. He was smiling, but it wasn't a smile.
"Let's see how long you can keep that stiff little neck upright in front of me."
Director Park offered no reply.
Jung Hyun-il turned and walked toward the elevator.
When he emerged into the first-floor lobby, a black sedan was waiting. He opened the rear door and slid in, and the Vice President in the passenger seat turned around.
"Sir, we found out who it was."
"You did?"
"Yes. It's the Bukchon Investment Consortium, apparently."
Jung Hyun-il burst out laughing. Bukchon — so the moneylender from Myeongdong who'd been drooling over Shinsung all this time was the one who'd crossed him.
"Kim Jong-soo? The so-called King Ant of Bukchon?"
"Yes. Yoon In-chul has sided with that very Kim Jong-soo."
Jung Hyun-il's expression transformed. The face that had shriveled in front of his father mere minutes ago was gone. The corners of his mouth were curling upward. The rage he'd been suppressing during the dressing-down was already giving way to a returning surge of confidence.
"The sheer nerve of the man. A loan shark wants to buy a savings bank?"
Jung Hyun-il leaned forward.
"Set up a meeting with the director-level official handling this file on the government side. Both the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Financial Services Commission."
"You're going after the regulators, sir?"
"Of course. A curb-market moneylender acquiring a mutual savings bank — you think a single civil servant in this country would stamp his seal on that?"
The Vice President's eyes went wide.
"Apply a little pressure the right way, and they'll push Kim Jong-soo out on their own. Then the only one left standing is us."
Jung Hyun-il leaned back against the seat, smiling.
"Father gave me a week. If the opponent is a loan shark, the game just got easier. Get that meeting within four days."
"You've confirmed it?"
Ribon Capital's office. The moment Jung Tae-sung walked in, I asked.
"Yes, fully confirmed."
Jung Tae-sung said, taking his seat.
"We've secured an inside source at the Goryeo Economic Daily."
The truth was, I had instructed Jung Tae-sung days ago to establish a line into the Goryeo Economic Daily capable of acquiring internal information — so that suspicion of the bank run being orchestrated by Jung Hyun-il's side could be converted into certainty.
"What kind of line?"
"A deputy managing editor in the news division. Someone positioned to see how stories are assigned and how directives flow down from the desk."
A good line indeed. Not a reporter, but someone in the editorial hierarchy — which meant he could see exactly where a story had originated.
"He's an ambitious sort, so it cost us. He asked for fifty million won."
"Good work. Fifty million is a bargain."
An internal line into a chaebol-affiliated newspaper was worth far more than that. Jung Tae-sung knew it too — that was no doubt why he'd named the figure up front.
"So what did we get?"
Jung Tae-sung straightened in his chair.
"The Shinsung Savings Bank article that ran right before the bank run was not written from the reporter's own reporting. It came down from above — with the angle and the tone specified."
"From above — you mean the desk editor?"
"Higher than that, reportedly."
Higher than the desk.
The Goryeo Economic Daily was a Jung Sung Group outlet. With Jung Sung as its owner, editorial independence was a word that existed only on its business card. The only person who could dictate a story's direction above the desk was the newspaper's president, and within the group, only one or two people had the authority to issue such an order to an affiliate head.
The documents Jung Tae-sung handed over contained internal memos and materials only an insider could have obtained. Legally speaking, they looked like more than sufficient evidence of deep editorial interference.
"This is solid."
I nodded.
"Jung Hyun-il gave the order directly. The bank run was no accident of panic. It was a board he built deliberately — pressure designed to break Park Han-soo's negotiating leverage."
Jung Tae-sung concurred. Everything was laid bare in the materials he'd brought.
The evidence was airtight.
"Well done. Thanks to you, we have proof in hand — and now that the attack is coming, we finally have our rebuttal."
"Attack, sir?"
"Yes. Professor Yoon In-chul has contacted us — he's officially joining the consortium."
Yesterday, Yoon In-chul had called Kim Jong-soo. He was in.
The consortium structure was now complete. Yoon In-chul would serve as the institutional face, Chairman Kim Jong-soo would supply the capital — and behind them, SJ Holdings would draw the blueprint.
"Yoon In-chul turned down Jung Sung's offer. If Jung Hyun-il probes around, the name Bukchon Investment Consortium will surface quickly, and from there it's one or two steps to Chairman Kim Jong-soo himself."
"I agree. In fact, he very likely already knows."
Jung Hyun-il. The man's pride was colossal — and his pride moved faster than his brain. Losing Yoon In-chul alone would already have lit the fuse. But what would he do when he learned his new rival was a former curb-market moneylender?
First, he would sneer.
And the moment he sneered, he'd reach for the easiest card in his hand.
"Director Jung."
"Yes, sir."
"Jung Hyun-il knows by now that Kim Jong-soo is his competitor. Which means he'll attack. What's the easiest move for him?"
Jung Tae-sung considered the question for a moment before answering.
"……If I were him, I'd move the government. A curb-market moneylender acquiring a savings bank is a frame that makes approval politically toxic — for the Finance Ministry and the FSC alike."
I smiled and nodded.
That was exactly my read.
"Because if he uses the government to exclude Chairman Kim Jong-soo's side, he becomes the sole bidder. Even if Park Han-soo hates it, he'd have no other choice. That's the structure he'd build — the easiest and most certain route."
"Then we should prepare a defense—"
"Not a defense. A counterattack."
Jung Tae-sung's face registered surprise.
"A counterattack, sir?"
"Yes. If he moves the government, then we move the government too."
Jung Tae-sung's expression turned peculiar — half bewilderment at how we could possibly move the machinery of the state, half an active search for the answer.
"We simply give the government a reason it cannot exclude Jung Sung Construction. Don't you think?"
"……"
"I'll need to use that information you brought me."
"The information I brought, sir…?"
"The Goryeo Economic Daily insider."
Jung Tae-sung's eyes shifted. He was finally grasping what I meant.
"A Jung Sung Group affiliate deliberately ran an article right before the bank run, with the directive coming down from the very top. Do you understand what that is?"
I held Jung Tae-sung's gaze as I continued.
"It's a chaebol weaponizing its own newspaper to stoke depositor panic — all to drive a competitor out of a savings bank acquisition. They induced a bank run."
Jung Tae-sung nodded slowly.
"We leak it to a rival paper. One that would love nothing more than to bleed the Goryeo Economic Daily."
"There's the Taeseong Ilbo, sir."
"Make the approach. The headline practically writes itself: Jung Sung Construction Used Affiliated Media to Induce Bank Run in Savings Bank Takeover Bid?"
I curled the corner of my mouth into a grin.
An upscale Japanese restaurant in Gangnam. Inside a private room, two men sat facing each other.
Jung Hyun-il, and the Finance Ministry director whose portfolio covered savings banks and the FSC.
Exquisite dishes were arranged neatly across the table, and one bottle of sake already stood empty. The mood was agreeable — for now.
"Honestly — a moneylender buying a savings bank? Does that make any sense to you?"
Jung Hyun-il raised his cup, laughing.
"Thirty years running loanshark operations out of Myeongdong. He wants to change the sign on the door, that's all. You think the inside changes with it?"
The director set down his cup and nodded.
"Frankly, when the report crossed my desk, I did find it strange. Kim Jong-soo is certainly well known, but the man's finances are murky at best."
"Murky is an understatement. Every won behind that consortium is curb-market money, dressed up as an investment vehicle."
Jung Hyun-il pushed one step further.
"You know better than anyone where savings banks stand in public opinion right now. They're the people's bank — ordinary working families. Put a loan shark at the helm, and if it blows up, do you think the officials who approved it can survive the fallout?"
The director's expression shifted almost imperceptibly.
The officials who approved it. No stranger to the weight those words carried.
"Well. It wouldn't be easy, certainly."
"It isn't a matter of easy. It's impossible."
Jung Hyun-il poured the man more sake as he spoke.
"Jung Sung is a different animal entirely. Yes, we're built on construction, but we have seasoned finance professionals on staff, and our management normalization plan is concrete. Above all, our reason for needing a savings bank is crystal clear — we intend to preserve the consumer-finance mandate while cleaning up real estate project loan health. We have no use for a money-laundering window."
The director chuckled lightly.
"If the CEO himself is making the rounds, I suppose you're serious."
"Dead serious. My father is personally overseeing it as well."
At the mention of Jung Min-woong's name, the director's expression shifted once more. He was no stranger to the weight that name carried, either.
"Well, this isn't something I can decide on my own, but… all the same, Jung Sung is a far more trustworthy bet than a moneylender."
The director raised his cup to his lips — and at that very moment—
Bzzzt—
A vibration pulsed from inside the director's suit jacket. With a brief gesture of apology, he drew out his phone and checked the screen.
Two seconds. Three at most.
But in those three seconds, the director's face changed entirely. The looseness the sake had spread across his features hardened in an instant.
Jung Hyun-il felt a flicker of unease.
"Is something the matter?"
The director didn't answer. He rose from his seat.
"As of today, the Director and CEO Jung have not met."
Jung Hyun-il's hand froze mid-motion.
"Director?"
"My apologies, but I must be going."
"Director!"
The man left those words behind him and walked out without so much as a backward glance.
When the door closed, only Jung Hyun-il remained.
He couldn't make sense of it. A man who had been nodding along two minutes ago had turned pale at a single text message and fled as if the room were on fire.
Then—
The door to the adjoining room burst open.
It was the Vice President. He'd clearly been waiting on standby, but he was breathing hard as if he'd sprinted the whole way. His face was drained of all color.
"Sir."
"What is it?"
"The Taeseong Ilbo just ran an exclusive."
Jung Hyun-il's eyes narrowed.
"An exclusive?"
"Yes."
The Vice President's voice was trembling.
"That we used the Goryeo Economic Daily to induce a bank run on Shinsung Savings Bank."
Jung Hyun-il didn't move.
Why the director had read a text and bolted. What we never met today truly meant. Everything began snapping into place, piece by piece.
"……"
The sake cup clenched in Jung Hyun-il's hand hurtled toward the wall.
CRASH—!
Shards scattered across the floor.
"You sons of bitches!"
Jung Hyun-il shrieked, rage erupting past all control.