The Old Man's Decision
Seven in the morning.
Park Han-soo opened the newspaper first, as he always did. Reading the economy section before anything else, skimming the finance pages, and only then turning to society—it was a habit forty years in the making.
Rustle—
Bottom of the Taesung Ilbo's front page. An article tagged EXCLUSIVE caught his eye.
Park Han-soo's hand stopped.
According to the article, before the Goryeo Economic Daily published its piece branding Shinsung Savings Bank as distressed, the upper ranks of its editorial department had dictated both the direction and the tone of the story. The article had not been written from a reporter's own investigation—it had been handed down from above. The Goryeo Economic Daily was a Jung Sung Group affiliate, and the date the piece ran aligned precisely with the period when Jung Sung Construction was pushing to acquire Shinsung Savings Bank.
[A financial authority official stated that if the allegations prove true, the conduct could constitute market manipulation.]
That sentence sat at the end of the article.
"...So it was you."
Park Han-soo murmured without lifting his eyes from the paper.
He had known. Jung Hyun-il storming out in a fury, and the article breaking days later—the timing was too clean. He had suspected. He had simply lacked the proof.
Thud—
Park Han-soo flung the newspaper onto the table and wiped his face with a dry hand. The longer he turned the article over in his mind, the more vividly the bank run came back to him.
The people lining up in front of the head office before dawn. The depositors clutching their number tickets, faces tight with anxiety. He'd heard that even a merchant from the traditional market in Eunpyeong had stood clutching his passbook to his chest at the branch, asking whether this place would be shutting its doors too.
It was these bastards who had put those people in that line.
"You said you'd save ordinary people's finance."
Park Han-soo's voice dropped low. The man who never stopped talking about lending to the common folk had used that very same mouth to order his affiliate newspaper to drive depositors into a panic. He had killed my bank—and then shoved a buyout offer across the table.
"Yes. I almost handed it over to a man like that."
Park Han-soo's hand trembled. To stop the bank run, he had been prepared to hand Shinsung to Jung Sung Construction. If Kim Jong-soo hadn't come and put out the fire...
His gaze drifted slowly to the wall, where a number of photographs hung. One of them drew his eye.
"..."
December 1998. A photo from the opening day of the Eunpyeong branch.
It was the alley where the commercial banks had pulled out after the IMF crisis, and everyone said he'd gone mad for hanging a shingle there. In the photo he stood with four employees. His suit was creased and his face was tanned dark—but he was smiling.
"...That's right. That's what it was."
Park Han-soo stared at the photograph for a long while.
'We're not building something new, Chairman. We're putting your bank back the way you first built it.'
The words that young-looking man had said to him just days ago came back to him.
"Now I have to decide."
Having said it aloud to no one, Park Han-soo returned to his desk and lifted the telephone receiver.
Smack—
The Taesung Ilbo hit the desk.
"How did this happen!"
The chairman's office at Jung Sung Group. Chairman Jung Min-woong pointed a finger at the newspaper, shouting at his son Jung Hyun-il, whose head hung low.
"Jung Sung Construction's name is plastered across the front page of the Taesung Ilbo. It says you used our affiliate press to induce a bank run! I let you have your way, and now you pull a stunt like this?"
Jung Hyun-il could not answer. There was no denying it. He was the one who had given the orders to the Goryeo Economic Daily.
"...Let me explain the circumstances."
"Circumstances? I don't need them."
Jung Min-woong slammed his palm on the desk.
"The Finance Ministry hasn't picked up the phone since this morning. Neither has the Financial Supervisory Service! The people I was talking to just days ago now hang up the moment the word Jung Sung comes out of my mouth! Do you understand what that means?"
Jung Min-woong crossed the room and stood over Jung Hyun-il.
"Shinsung is gone. There's no one left in the government willing to stamp a seal for us. And this situation—you built it!"
"Father, the other side is an underground lender from Jongno. Striking them first was the fastest way to—"
"And that's how you made this mess?"
Jung Min-woong's voice filled the entire office.
"You wanted to swallow one savings bank, so you mobilized our newspaper to whip up a bank run? Did your head simply not turn to what would happen if you got caught?"
"..."
"Once the regulators put the name Jung Sung on their watch list, it won't end with Shinsung. Construction permits, redevelopment reviews, project finance approvals—everything we have tied to the government goes up in flames."
Jung Hyun-il's mouth went rigid. It wasn't that he hadn't thought that far. Honestly—he'd simply believed he wouldn't get caught.
"The other papers are already chasing follow-up stories. Day after tomorrow, it's Jung Sung Group splashed across every front page! To eat one bank, you've put the entire group on top of a bonfire!"
Jung Min-woong planted himself in front of his son and looked down at his eyes as if driving a nail from above.
"Step down as president of the construction company."
Jung Hyun-il's eyes wavered.
"...Father."
"Your talents end there. I can't hand you the foundation of this group. Step down."
"Father!"
Jung Hyun-il raised his head and raised his voice for the first time.
"Give me one more chance. I can fix this. If I explain things to the government and handle the press coverage properly—"
"A chance?"
Jung Min-woong cut him off, as though he could no longer bear to listen.
"Do you still not grasp what's happened because of what you did? Fix it? If you could have fixed it, would we be in this state to begin with?"
Jung Hyun-il's shoulders curled inward.
"Stay hidden somewhere until things quiet down. And stay out of my sight!"
Jung Hyun-il's mouth opened, then closed. In his father's eyes, contempt was layered atop the fury. He bowed his head deep.
Knock knock—
Just then came the knock, and the door opened as the planning director stepped into the room.
"Chairman."
Jung Min-woong's eyes snapped around, sharp as a blade.
"...What is it? We're in the middle of something. It can wait."
"This needs to be reported and addressed right now, sir."
"What is it?"
Director Park swallowed once, then went on.
"The prosecutors... it appears they've opened an investigation into the Goryeo Economic Daily matter."
The office went silent in an instant, and Jung Min-woong's gaze turned slowly back to his son.
"Director Park."
"Yes, Chairman."
"Get this fool out of here immediately! Unless the boy has decided to burn this company down...! And assemble the legal team at once—start the response meeting now!"
Jung Hyun-il had no choice but to bow his head once more.
"Representative Kang."
Ribbon Capital's office. I was sitting across from Chairman Kim Jong-soo. Two cups of coffee sat on the table between us, but Kim Jong-soo had called me over without so much as touching his.
"Yes, Chairman."
"Give it to me straight."
Kim Jong-soo crossed his arms and looked at me.
"That Taesung Ilbo article. It was your handiwork, wasn't it?"
"What makes you think that?"
"Ha, look at this sly one."
Kim Jong-soo snorted.
"The timing's too clean. I've been turning it over in my head—by now Jung Sung should be trying to snatch Yoon In-chul away and squeeze me. And right at that moment, that article breaks. You're telling me that's coincidence?"
The old pedigree of the Bukchon King Ant was alive and well, as ever.
"I secured an insider inside the Goryeo Economic Daily's editorial department. We caught evidence that the bank run article wasn't reporter-driven but handed down from the top, and I passed it to the Taesung Ilbo."
"..."
"I judged that Jung Sung Construction would move the government to cut you out, Chairman. With an underground lender from Jongno acquiring a savings bank, the frame alone would make approval too uncomfortable for the regulators."
Kim Jong-soo's eyes shifted.
"So you set it off before they could?"
"Exactly. Before Jung Sung could move the government, I flipped the board so the government would move against Jung Sung first. The authorities can't very well approve an acquisition by a company that used its own newspaper to engineer a bank run."
Kim Jong-soo studied me in silence for a long moment. Then, slowly, he nodded.
"So what happens to Jung Sung Construction now?"
"I'd say they're out of the Shinsung acquisition entirely. Their government channels are severed. On top of that, word is the prosecutors have begun investigating the Goryeo Economic Daily affair."
"The prosecutors too?"
"If they trace how the article was handed down, it will inevitably reach the upper ranks of Jung Sung Construction. It could qualify as market manipulation."
Kim Jong-soo leaned back in his chair.
"Then all that's left is Chairman Park Han-soo's decision."
"That's right."
With Jung Sung out of the picture, Kim Jong-soo's consortium was the only remaining candidate. Even if Park Han-soo refused, the deadline for the recommended voluntary sale would simply run out—and in the end, the authorities would push through a forced sale. And by then, neither the price nor the terms would bend to what Park Han-soo wanted.
The answer had already narrowed to one.
"By your reckoning, the call should be coming."
"I'm certain of it—though you never really know, with people. The older I get, the less I seem to know."
"Ha, that's the kind of talk that ought to come out of a man past fifty."
Kim Jong-soo was just opening his mouth to say something more when—
Bzzzt—
A vibration hummed from the inside pocket of Kim Jong-soo's suit jacket. He drew out his phone and checked the screen.
His eyes widened once.
"...One moment."
Kim Jong-soo answered the call.
"Yes... yes, this is Kim Jong-soo."
Kim Jong-soo's expression began to change. The stiffness melted from his face, wrinkles settled at the corners of his eyes, and slowly, the corners of his mouth began to rise.
"...Yes. Understood. Thank you, Chairman."
Hanging up, Kim Jong-soo looked at me. The hand gripping the phone was trembling, ever so slightly.
"It's done."
"Sir?"
"Shinsung Savings Bank. It's going to be ours."
Even hearing it, I didn't react right away. It was exactly what I'd expected. But expecting a thing and hearing it spoken aloud are two different creatures. Something loosened in my chest, and a cool current ran down my spine.
"Chairman Park Han-soo called you himself?"
"He did."
Kim Jong-soo nodded.
"Said he wanted to negotiate terms, and asked to meet. His voice was resolute. You could feel that this was a decision made after all the agonizing was done."
Kim Jong-soo smiled as he looked at me.
"Representative Kang."
"Yes."
"Thank you."
It was a short remark, but for just a moment, something different from his usual Myeongdong moneylender's grin flickered at the corners of Kim Jong-soo's eyes.
"Honestly, when you first brought me the consortium structure, I was only half convinced. Bring in Yoon In-chul, raise a proper banner, build a picture the regulators could accept. It sounded plausible enough, but I wondered whether it would actually work."
Kim Jong-soo sat back down.
"But it worked. Everything unfolded exactly as you drew it."
"That's because you put forty billion won on the table during the bank run, Chairman. Without that, Chairman Park Han-soo wouldn't have sat down at the table at all."
"Ha."
Kim Jong-soo gave a dry laugh.
"Stop flattering an old man and just tell me I did well."
Only then did I laugh.
"You did very well."
"Enough of that, you rascal."
Kim Jong-soo waved his hand and laughed out loud. It was a face he rarely showed in the ordinary course of things.
Watching that laugh, I added one more remark.
"Chairman."
"What."
"Project finance exposure below thirty percent. You have to keep that promise."
Kim Jong-soo's laughter cut off—and a moment later, the biggest laugh I'd heard from him yet burst out.
"HAHAHA!"
Kim Jong-soo slapped his knee, roaring.
"Even in a moment like this, it's business with you?"
"A promise is a promise."
"Of course I'll keep it! What I say, I keep—every time."
Still laughing, Kim Jong-soo rose from his seat.
"Right. Then I'd better go see Chairman Park. That man sways like a reed in the wind—his mind could change again for all I know."
Kim Jong-soo opened the door and glanced back once on his way out.
"Having a man like you on my side—it's a real comfort, you know."
At those words, I smiled brightly and bowed my head.