Petty Evil (1)
If the seat I was occupying referred to this chair, then Seong-gyun was talking about the position of Central Management Headquarters Director—the one he had spent his entire life coveting, only to watch it slip away.
“Aside from the heavy workload, it’s quite nice.”
At my reply, Seong-gyun clenched his teeth and added, “Don’t think today’s events mean I’ve accepted you as Central Management Headquarters Director.”
Pfft.
Kwon Seong-gyun must still have been bothered by how he had emphasized that personnel and audit authority now rested with me when he ordered Bang Changho transferred to the Jincheon factory. I hadn’t given it a second thought, yet here he was, his own guilty conscience making him uneasy. What exactly was he trying to steal from me? The Central Management Headquarters Director position? Or the future chairman’s seat? Either way, it was absurd. I had no intention of letting Kwon Seong-gyun take anything from me.
In the first place, whether Seong-gyun acknowledged it or not made no difference to the Central Management Headquarters Director role. It was nonsensical for the president of a single subsidiary to even comment on whether he accepted the head of the Central Management Headquarters, which oversaw every affiliate. Yet the fact that he could say something so shameless to my face suggested he was steeling his own resolve to drag me down.
Seong-gyun still had no idea he had played right into my scenario. Truthfully, I could have crushed Bang Jiseon and Bang Changho on my own without any trouble. The reason I had deliberately summoned Seong-gyun was different. I needed to sweep away that filth, but I didn’t want to get my own hands dirty.
As even Bang Jiseon’s immature mind could guess, the personnel pressure Seong-gyun had applied to Bang Changho was hardly a clean move. Cleaning up would inevitably leave some dust on someone’s hands, but if that someone happened to be my future enemy, wasn’t that killing two birds with one stone? Summoned to QS Tower for that very purpose, Seong-gyun had performed the role of duster admirably, even without any specific instructions from me. Thanks to him, I could remain seated in the dignified position of Central Management Headquarters Director, offering only principled responses while still applying sufficient pressure to the Bang father and daughter.
Seong-gyun had tossed out a declaration of war he could never win, then stood at the office door staring at me with a sullen expression. He had no idea that the main spectacle of today’s meeting had been him fulfilling his duty as a cleaning tool rather than Bang Jiseon. Still, there was no need to enlighten him. I would simply answer the question I had been asked.
“Yeah. It’s comfortable.”
“You should have realized from the start how comfortable this seat was. Once you’re kicked out, you’ll miss it terribly. Keep it clean. I’ll be the one sitting here next.”
With that, he turned and strode out of the office.
Puhat.
What was that supposed to mean? After being shaken down so thoroughly by me, he still thought he could push me out and take this seat? I might consider letting him sit as a figurehead director once I was installed as chairman, but with that defiant attitude, compromise was off the table. I had hoped that watching Je-gyun’s life end after challenging me would teach him something, but if he insisted on walking the same path, I would simply leave the gates of hell wide open for him at the end.
That said, he probably wasn’t underestimating me the way he used to. Kwon Seong-gyun must have prepared some kind of trump card. I wondered what it was.
The next day, Bang Changho came to the director’s office in person, carrying a handwritten apology letter from his daughter Bang Jiseon. Three A4 pages were densely filled with small handwriting. There were no correction marks or erasures, and not a single spelling mistake. She must have rewritten it from the beginning until she produced a perfect result. To bring something like this in less than a day, she had probably spent the entire night wrestling with pen and paper. Of course, it had gone through Bang Changho’s review, but the content was reasonably well-structured as an apology. It began with an expression of regret, listed her major wrongdoings, repeatedly apologized for failing to consider Shinyong’s feelings at the time, and ended with another apology and a promise to do anything if it would help Shinyong forgive her. There was no attempt to justify her actions. It was a well-written letter, and several lines stood out.
— I’m sorry. You never did anything wrong to me, yet I did so many things to you that no human being should ever do to another.
— I was so jealous of you. You’re prettier than me, you study better, and your family is better off. At some point that jealousy turned into an inferiority complex. Looking back now, I realize how pathetic I am. I wish I could have turned that jealousy into motivation to work harder instead.
Not a single sentence blamed Shinyong. Every line was filled with self-reproach and apology. Since Bang Changho had already stated that Bang Jiseon would never attend Daeheon Foreign Language High School again, there was little risk of further harm to Shinyong. Judging from what Kim Majin had said and the notebook detailing the incidents, Shinyong did not seem to want bloody revenge. It looked like the matter could be wrapped up here.
Compared to Bang Jiseon’s crimes, ending it with withdrawal from school and an apology letter felt as unsatisfying as drinking flat cola. Still, since Shinyong would be all right from now on, there was no need to drag the case out. For me, there was no great harm in not pursuing Bang Jiseon to the very end when she lacked the power to throw even a single grain of sand in my path. More importantly, my reason for not prolonging this incident was the previewed judgment document I had already seen regarding Bang Jiseon’s legal punishment.
[Order. The juvenile shall be committed to a juvenile detention center for one year and nine months.]
It was a ruling sending her to a juvenile detention center rather than a juvenile prison, meaning no criminal record. People always said there should be no sanctuary in the application of the law, yet it seemed minors were still treated as nobility, at least under criminal law. If Bang Jiseon was afraid of juvenile detention, sending her there wouldn’t have been a bad idea, but since she claimed to be mentally prepared, the whole thing still felt like flat cola. Considering the additional harm that might be inflicted on Shinyong if the conflict escalated to extremes, settling it at an appropriate level seemed wiser.
Besides, rescuing Shinyong from school violence was only a secondary objective for me. My primary goal had always been to bring Kim Majin over to my side. Thinking about it pragmatically, even if I could increase Bang Jiseon’s sentence through effort, I had other things to do, and the payoff would be too small for the work required.
Just as I was considering showing mercy because the opponent was so insignificant, an unexpected twist occurred.
Bzzzz. Bzzzzz.
While I was reading Bang Jiseon’s apology letter, the phone I had left face-down on the desk began vibrating violently. Phones didn’t change their ringtone to match the caller’s mood, yet the sound somehow felt urgent enough that I had to answer immediately. Checking the caller ID, I saw it was Shinyong’s mother, Kim Majin.
“Yes, sister-in-law.”
— Ah, young master, hello. I have something urgent I need to tell you.
“I was actually planning to meet you anyway to report on how Shinyong’s school violence case was wrapping up. What’s the matter?”
When I asked for the main point, Kim Majin’s voice began to tremble.
— Well, you see… I’m right in front of QS Tower where you are. Would it be all right if I came up to speak with you? You told me not to let Shinyong know yet, but as her mother I felt too frustrated and ended up talking to her about it a little. And then…
From the way her words trailed off, I sensed something was seriously wrong.
“Of course. Come on up.”
Not even five minutes later, Kim Majin sat before me, her face deathly pale. Unlike her usual demeanor, she finished the brief greeting and immediately held out her phone.
“Could you take a look at this? It’s a message Shinyong received from a classmate.”
As I accepted the phone from Kim Majin, I had a bad feeling. If it was someone from Shinyong’s class, wasn’t it likely also Bang Jiseon’s class? There was a high chance this was from one of the group that had bullied Shinyong alongside Bang Jiseon. My guess was confirmed from the very first line.
Haa.
It was fortunate Kim Majin had brought this. I had almost been fooled by the apology letter. As expected, the letter had not been written sincerely by Bang Jiseon; Bang Changho had dictated it and she had merely written the words. Bang Jiseon’s message did not end there. Several photos were attached below. They were pictures taken of Shinyong in her underwear while she was changing into her gym clothes. Shinyong had apparently tried to resist actively this time; one of the photos showed her reaching out to stop the filming. Bang Jiseon’s final comment attached to the end was particularly outrageous.
This crazy bitch. Really?
Any thought of showing mercy because Bang Jiseon was insignificant vanished completely. When someone insignificant was also evil, there was truly no answer. At this point, even for the greater good of cutting off the bud of societal evil, I would have to punish her severely with my own hands.
The student who had received these photos from Bang Jiseon and forwarded them to Shinyong seemed uneasy as well and ended the message in a trembling voice.
After reading the entire message and returning the phone to Kim Majin, a new previewed judgment document regarding Bang Jiseon appeared before me.
[Order. The defendant shall be sentenced to a short term of three years and six months and a long term of seven years imprisonment.]
It was a ruling ordering her to serve time in a juvenile prison rather than the juvenile detention center she had so casually dismissed.
“I’m sorry. I met this student yesterday myself and didn’t expect her to go this far. I will definitely send her to prison.”
Despite my firm assurance, Kim Majin could not hide her anxiety.
“I believe you’ll handle it well, young master, but won’t it take time to send her to prison? What if those photos actually get leaked in the meantime? What will happen to our Shinyong?”