Investment Proposal (2)
Hwang Seok-jae.
Born into an ordinary family on the outskirts of Seoul, he had been bright from an early age.
He grew up without much to spare, so instead of chasing risky ways to make money, he decided that playing it safe was the surest bet and prepared himself diligently for a career in public corporations or the financial sector.
Rather than searching for excitement, he believed that if he built a stable career and solid financial expertise, he could remain at a good company for a long time.
By the time he was around forty, he had become the leader of the finance team, handling budgets and risk assessments for major projects. His standing within the company had risen sharply, and he felt he had reached the summit of his life.
But he had run forward with his eyes fixed only on what lay ahead, and never noticed what sort of presence he had become inside his own home.
Only after he reached retirement age and left the company did he realize too late that a father without a high salary or performance bonuses meant nothing at all to his children.
To a breadwinner who no longer brought in money, his family paid almost no attention.
When Hwang Seok-jae stayed home, his life amounted to little more than sitting in a cramped room watching television or eating his meals, with barely any conversation with his wife and hardly ever even crossing paths with his children.
So one day, feeling as though he might sink into depression, he began dressing in a suit every morning and leaving the house as if he still had somewhere to go.
In truth, he had nowhere at all to be.
He would wander into the neighborhood library and flip through newspapers, or spend time staring blankly in a corner of a cafe with his briefcase set beside him.
Around lunchtime, with no one to meet, he would eat alone at a soup restaurant, and in the afternoon he would sit on a park bench and think wistfully about the company he had left behind.
Today was no different.
He had been driving aimlessly around Seoul in a luxury sedan, only to stop at a restaurant he had once told himself he ought to visit someday so he could handle lunch there.
Then, all at once, he noticed a young woman passing by.
Her eyes were fixed on her phone, her head bent low as she concentrated on something.
His daughter looked like that at home.
Whether her father was there or not, she went about her own business exactly like that.
Where had things gone wrong?
Where had he···
Thud!
Startled, he snapped back to his senses and cursed himself for having drifted so far away in his own head.
Without meaning to, he realized his foot had gone slack on the brake.
“Dammit, you idiot.”
He threw open the car door and got out, then immediately bowed his head.
“Oh, I’m terribly sorry. I was lost in thought and I just···”
All he could think about was calling the insurance company and getting the accident sorted out quickly, but as he stood there blankly before the agent arrived, boredom set in.
Then he realized that even if he handled the accident in a hurry, he had nowhere else to go, and so he spoke to the young man who had been hit.
Normally, he would never have done such a thing.
He had never blended in well with younger new employees, and he felt awkward making conversation.
But today, strangely enough, it didn’t feel awkward at all.
As he wondered why he had never managed to speak so easily before, he was stunned to learn that this young man was actually the owner of a small fabric factory.
And even more surprising, he had recently received an investment proposal···
“You received an investment offer?”
“Yes. But for a small company like ours, we don’t really have anyone who can properly analyze that sort of advanced financial relationship. We do have an accounting manager, though···”
His heart began to pound.
The thought came to him that he might still have some use left in him.
“Then··· how about I help a little?”
“You’d help? Sir?”
At that word, sir, Seok-jae flinched.
Once again, he became aware of his age, and of the fact that he was a retired man with no job.
“Haha, well, if you don’t need me, that’s fine.”
Flustered by his own sudden embarrassment, Seung-hyun quickly waved his hands.
“No, no. I’d be very grateful.”
“Really?”
“Of course. I honestly don’t even know who I should be asking for advice, so there’s no reason to refuse help from someone with such outstanding experience.”
“Haha, my experience isn’t anything all that amazing, but··· I can help.”
Just then, the insurance company car arrived, and an employee wearing an insurance vest got out.
Seung-hyun immediately took a business card from his breast pocket and handed it to the middle-aged man.
“I’m Jung Seung-hyun, the representative of Haesol Textile. Would you be able to come by the company tomorrow or so and help us out?”
“Gladly. Very gladly. I’m Hwang Seok-jae.”
With a faint smile, Seung-hyun thought that, just as he had been worrying over the investment proposal he had received recently, he had somehow run into someone who could help him like this. It felt oddly fortunate.
*
At 7:30 in the morning, a luxury apartment complex in Banpo, Seoul.
Hwang Seok-jae, dressed in a dark suit and a carefully pressed white shirt, adjusted his tie one last time in front of the mirror.
His hair was streaked with gray, but the neatly groomed appearance gave him a straighter, more upright air than his age would suggest.
“You’re heading out early again. Where are you off to today?”
His wife, sprawled on the living room sofa and absorbed in her smartphone, asked without much interest.
For a moment, a complicated feeling crossed Seok-jae’s face, but he only smiled it off and answered lightly.
“Ah··· just going out for some fresh air.”
“Fine. I’m going to Shinsegae for lunch with Jiyun’s mom today, so figure out your own lunch.”
With her eyes still fixed on the screen, she tossed the words out carelessly, and Seok-jae lowered his head for a moment as though a lump had risen in his throat.
Once, she had comforted him with words like, You’ll make things easier for us too when you quit your job. But after his retirement, it seemed as if she had grown indifferent.
“Right··· have a good day.”
He knew it all too well.
Now that the expectations and respect once directed at him had vanished, his family had come to see that a “head of the household who doesn’t bring in money” no longer meant anything.
“Haa··· life really is···”
He stepped out quietly, closed the door, and rode the elevator down, and his mood had become pleasantly light.
He had dressed in a suit and gone out every morning even though there was no company to go to, but today there was at least a clear destination.
After hesitating a few times beneath the sign for Haesol Textile, Seok-jae finally steeled himself and went inside.
“Good morning··· may I ask if President Jung Seung-hyun is···”
Even though it was early, the employees were already bustling about, and the sounds of machines and conversation drifted in from all around.
For a small company, the exterior was surprisingly neat and well kept, and Seok-jae found himself a little taken aback.
“Hello, are you here as a visitor? What can I help you with?”
Just then, Lee A-young, who was coming out into the hallway, greeted him.
At that moment, Seok-jae felt a strange, ticklish sensation. He was so much older, and yet here he was just another “guest” at the company.
“Ah, I··· President Jung told me to come by yesterday··· My name is Hwang Seok-jae.”
Lee A-young’s eyes lit up as she nodded at once.
“Oh! I heard about you. Hwang Seok-jae. Welcome. President Jung told me to guide you when you arrived.”
Seok-jae was shown to what looked like a waiting room and looked around inside and out, thinking that for a small company it was fairly well organized.
The filing shelves and document boxes were neat, and the employees’ voices carried a hopeful energy.
He did not realize that this strange vitality was slowly kindling the dead embers in his own heart.
Guided to the president’s office, he found that no one was there yet.
At Lee A-young’s words, “He’ll be here soon, so please have a seat for a moment,” he sat on the sofa with an awkward expression, looking around the office.
It wasn’t the biggest company in Korea, but he had worked at a firm with sales in the hundreds of billions, so this compact little office felt somehow novel to him.
“Ah, you’re here? I was just in the materials warehouse for a moment···”
“Not at all. It’s only natural that you’d be working.”
“Please sit. Would you like some coffee?”
“I’d appreciate that.”
Seung-hyun smiled, switched on the kettle, and opened a packet of instant coffee.
He was wearing a suit, but he also had a field jacket thrown on over it, and though he was young, he gave off the impression of someone unadorned and completely sincere about his work.
“To introduce myself properly, I’m Jung Seung-hyun, and I run this small factory called Haesol Textile. I inherited it from my father.”
“Ah, yes. I’m Hwang Seok-jae.”
He had no intention of lowering his speech just because the other man was younger.
Having spent years in large corporations, he had long experience dealing with owners’ families younger than himself in a strict top-down hierarchy, and on matters like this he was even more exacting.
“And this is my certificate of employment history.”
“Haha, how embarrassing. Asking the man who’s offering to help for something like this.”
The truth was that after Seung-hyun had asked him for help, he had also asked whether he could bring an employment certificate from his previous company to today’s meeting.
He knew it might well be unpleasant, but from Seung-hyun’s perspective, when a person he had only stumbled upon so coincidentally offered to help so readily, he could not help but suspect a con artist.
His father had been hurt before by trusting people’s goodwill and moving forward with work.
So for Seung-hyun, even if it meant creating a somewhat uncomfortable situation, he wanted to handle things decisively and properly.
“Not at all. I had this certificate prepared before I retired, but I never had anywhere suitable to use it, so I’m actually glad I can hand it over now and feel like it’s finally useful.”
He smiled brightly, but Seung-hyun did not believe the words entirely.
His father had always said that office workers lived their lives wearing one more mask at all times.
So you must never believe everything other people say.
And yet, after saying that, why had his father trusted people so completely?
Was it because he himself was not that careful, and hoped that at least his son would not be like him?
“Thank you for saying that.”
“Not at all. If this leads to a job, that’s great, and even if it doesn’t, if I can at least give you advice, it helps that you know exactly who I am.”
Seung-hyun bowed his head in gratitude, then got straight to the point.
“As I mentioned before, we received an investment proposal. It wasn’t formal, just a verbal feeler, but it seemed sincere. To be precise, the situation is this···”
Seung-hyun explained in detail what sort of impact the Art Fabric developed by Haesol Textile had been having.
Then he showed Seok-jae a sample of the Art Fabric kept in the president’s office.
“So this is the sample. Wow, it really is different.”
However much he had spent his life working, his standards in old age were much higher than those of the average person.
His average salary and bonuses, along with the Banpo-dong house he had lived in for years, had often supported even his occasional purchase of expensive luxury goods from department stores without strain.
The luxury items his wife had bought and the furniture throughout the house were all quite expensive, so he could tell at once that the fabric sample he was looking at now held considerable value.
And seeing it, he became certain.
It was true that Haesol Textile had received an investment proposal.
“To begin with, we’re growing rather quickly, but the problem is that I know nothing about investment or finance. Under those circumstances, an investment proposal came in, and I wasn’t sure whether I should seriously consider it and approach the matter carefully, or ignore it and just keep doing what I’m doing.”
Seok-jae nodded, then asked, “When it comes to deciding on an investment, the most important thing is the representative’s management philosophy and goals. If you think, For now I just need enough to eat and I don’t want any interference from anyone else, then you shouldn’t take the investment. If you want money but hate cooperation and sharing profits, that’s no different from a thief’s mindset. But if you’re looking toward a larger vision and want to become a better, bigger company, then investment is indispensable.”
A vision larger than what they had now.
For that reason alone, it was clear that for Seung-hyun, investment was more important than anything else, a genuine opportunity.
“I see. My goal is this. To move Haesol Textile beyond being a simple subcontractor and develop materials that can lead the world···”
Seung-hyun broke off there.
Seeing that, Seok-jae tilted his head.
“Develop, and then?”
Seung-hyun thought about it.
He had inherited a company on the brink of collapse and gotten through the crisis by selling off fabric piled in the warehouse as inventory.
Then, by some stroke of luck, he had developed Art Fabric and come this far···
What did I really want?
Not his father’s dream, but his own.
That was···
“To create a brand with my own name on it. No, to create our brand. That’s my dream.”
Seok-jae smiled at the young man’s grand vision.
“Good. I understand. But who exactly is offering the investment? Is it a VC?”
“A VC?”
“Ah, venture capital is usually abbreviated as VC.”
“I see. It wasn’t a VC. It was a senior executive from a corporation. From the LVMH Group···”
When he heard that, Hwang Seok-jae was greatly startled.
“The LVMH Group? Do you mean the world’s top luxury conglomerate, LVMH, formed by the merger of Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennessy?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Blinking as though trying to determine whether this was real, Hwang Seok-jae came to understand that the young man in front of him was no ordinary person.
Thinking that he might be witnessing the birth of a Korean luxury manufacturer on the world stage, he opened his mouth with a trembling heart.
“I want to help you. No, I want to join Haesol Textile. If I were to join this company, I’m certain I could make a major financial contribution to Haesol Textile becoming a global company.”
“What?”
“I don’t expect to keep receiving the same salary I used to get right away. Paying me as much as the factory workers would be enough.”
Still not understanding, Seung-hyun asked, “Would that really be all right with you?”
He still wanted to prove that he was alive.
He wanted to show that beneath the gray hair and the old face was still a human being whose heart beat hard and fast.
Before he died, if he could help raise this small company into a world-class one, he felt he would have no regrets even in death.
“Yes. If I can help you realize your dream from beside you.”