Building Up Forces (1)
Shinyong, whom I'd only seen in photos, bowed deeply to me in greeting. "Thank you. Thanks to you, Uncle, I can go to school without being scared anymore."
"If anyone bothers you at school or anywhere else from now on, don't hold back—tell me right away. I have the means to handle it."
"Yes. I think if I'd handled things better from the start, all these people wouldn't have had to go through so much trouble."
I nearly burst out laughing at the worst possible moment. Even after everything she'd been through, her personality hadn't changed one bit. She was the one who'd suffered school violence, yet she kept looking for faults in her own actions.
After exchanging greetings with Shinyong, Kim Majin stroked her daughter's back and said, "You mentioned you only got permission to step out for a bit? Want to head back first? I have something to discuss with your uncle."
That's right! It seemed the time had come to achieve the ultimate goal I'd set when resolving this incident. After Shinyong bowed twice more in gratitude and left the headquarters office, Kim Majin brought up the matter that had brought her here.
"Shinyong already thanked you, but I want to express my gratitude once more as well. If I'd been alone, I wouldn't have known what to do and would have just transferred her to another school."
"It's nothing. Family should help each other in times of need."
"Ah, and regarding the adult guardianship application for my husband that you introduced through Attorney Kye Chan-sik—it's proceeding well, just as you mentioned. Attorney Kye said the results might come out as early as next week."
Oh? That quickly? Even for a case with no room for dispute, processing something that normally takes two or three months in just one month was impressive. Kye Chan-sik's jeongwan-yeou influence must be truly formidable—I'd nearly fallen victim to it myself.
"I'm glad those troubling matters are being resolved."
"Thanks to you, I've had a bit more peace of mind lately, so I've been thinking again about the QS EnM re-employment you mentioned before."
Oh-ho. I'd been wondering how to bring this up, and here she was offering an answer before I even asked. That alone was highly promising. If she'd intended to reject my proposal, she wouldn't have forced herself to mention something uncomfortable.
If Kim Majin took the position of QS EnM representative director at my recommendation, I could absorb Je-gyun's remaining faction into my camp in one stroke. From the rumors reaching me through various channels, the seven affiliate presidents who had clearly aligned with Kwon Je-gyun's line were now split into two groups. Three of them, including Baek Seung-guk, president of QS Movies, who were more pragmatic, seemed to be leaning toward my side. The remaining four were the problem—they apparently saw me as the younger brother who had destroyed his elder sibling. Even if they didn't believe Je-gyun could make a comeback, they figured it was only proper to side with Seong-gyun rather than me.
Chae Hee-geon, the team leader who still hadn't openly declared his allegiance while cheerfully gathering information from all sides, had relayed something just the other day. It was something Kwak Hee-yeon, president of QS Publishing—the die-hard Je-gyun loyalist who'd risen from an ordinary employee to representative director thanks to Je-gyun—had said.
"Even among brothers, there's an order. It's not right for the third son to humiliate the second son in front of all of us like that. What's more, he's been subtly disrespectful to the eldest son as well. Now that Chairman Kwon Byung-do isn't here, isn't the eldest son the father of the household?"
If this had been Kwak Hee-yeon speaking alone, it wouldn't have mattered. The problem was that Chae Hee-geon's radar had picked up quite a few people quietly agreeing with her. Their calculation seemed to be that if the affiliate presidents banded together to support Seong-gyun, he might be able to bring me to my knees. It wasn't an entirely unreasonable assessment. Excluding the affiliates still wavering, the number of companies I could count as firmly in my camp was far too small: QS Telecom, QS Resort, QS Delivery, and Law Firm Seungbaek, whose group incorporation was nearly complete. That was all—only four.
In the worst-case scenario, if most of the fifty-three QS Group affiliates decided to ostracize me collectively and side with Seong-gyun, their math would hold up. No matter how firmly I held the position of Central Management Headquarters director, the actual power to run the group would slip into Seong-gyun's hands. A hollow throne—whether the Central Management Headquarters director's seat or even the QS Group chairman's position—was never what I wanted.
That was why I needed Kim Majin now. If Je-gyun's wife appeared to take over his work, I could shed the stigma of having struck my brother out of greed. Moreover, those trying to brand me as a heartless wretch who ignored the natural order of seniority would lose the very justification they prized so highly. Ultimately, Je-gyun's followers would regroup around Kim Majin as their focal point, and by having her cooperate with me, Je-gyun's faction would fall into my grasp. This would put me on equal footing with Seong-gyun not only in controlling the Central Management Headquarters but also in the battle for affiliate support, where he had previously held the advantage.
And the most crucial brushstroke in completing this picture was about to come from Kim Majin's lips.
"Once the adult guardianship application for my husband is approved, I'll temporarily exercise all his authority, won't I? But it wouldn't do to just hold the authority without doing the work. At the same time, going to QS Food doesn't make sense because I lack the expertise there. So, as you suggested, I'd like to return to QS EnM."
Okay!
"Thank you for carefully considering my proposal and giving me a positive response. Would you be comfortable taking the representative director position rather than your original team leader role?"
"I've thought about that too. While reviewing legal documents with Attorney Kye Chan-sik, I realized the voting rights I'll be able to exercise at QS EnM are enormous—around twelve percent of the total shares. It would look strange if I held that kind of authority and just worked as an ordinary employee. No matter what I do, I'd be the highest-ranking person in the company, and I don't want to create any awkwardness in the hierarchy."
Every word Kim Majin spoke showed she'd given this serious thought. Even if she became president of QS EnM, I'd be the one making decisions on major issues, so her meticulous approach to tidying up the company after Je-gyun's departure was more than welcome.
"Then I'll add your name to the list of new representative directors to be presented at the next presidents' meeting."
Kim Majin pressed her lips together and nodded, her eyes slightly wide, as if the reality of what she'd only imagined was finally sinking in.
"Yes!"
* * *
It was just when I thought the long personnel reshuffling process had concluded with Kim Majin taking the vacant president position at QS EnM. I'd been thinking that from now on, all that remained was to suppress Seong-gyun's rebellion alongside the newly appointed members of the presidents' council—when the situation arose where I needed to recruit one more person.
Cho Dae-hyun, the team leader heading the Finance Team—the only department in the Central Management Headquarters that had remained a gray area—had finally submitted his resignation to the headquarters office. The reason stated on the resignation form was all too common and simple: "I wish to resign for personal reasons."
Yet it wasn't difficult to guess the real reason hidden between the lines. With Chairman Kwon Byung-do now unconscious and bedridden for nearly two months, Cho Dae-hyun, the loyal keeper of the vault, had sensed that it was time for him to step down. In any company, the owner's vault keeper inevitably possessed a great deal of unsavory information, and when the owner they served stepped down, they usually left the company as well. There had likely been an implicit agreement of that nature between Chairman Kwon Byung-do and Team Leader Cho Dae-hyun. This was also why I had excluded Cho Dae-hyun from my recruitment targets when taking control of the Central Management Headquarters. Moreover, Cho Dae-hyun was already past sixty, leaving no angle from which I could reasonably ask him to stay.
Thus, following the overhaul of the presidents' council, I now had to appoint a new head for the Finance Team of the Central Management Headquarters, which oversaw the group's entire ledger. It wasn't that I hadn't considered who would be suitable. Promoting someone internally from the existing Finance Team would have been the simplest approach, but the employees qualified to take on the role of the next team leader were in circumstances similar to Cho Dae-hyun's. They had spent decades serving as Chairman Kwon Byung-do's vault keeper or his assistant, and being of advanced age, they too were preparing to leave the company soon. Recruiting an outsider was equally out of the question. The Finance Team leader of the Central Management Headquarters would be someone with access to the group's ledgers down to the last won—there was no way I could place someone whose loyalty to the company and to me hadn't been verified in that position. Unlike the Audit Team leader position, which I had deliberately left vacant, leaving the Finance Team leader position unfilled entirely was not an option. The Audit Team leader could be handled directly by me as headquarters director even if absent, but I honestly lacked confidence in handling the Finance Team's work entirely on my own. While I could read ledgers if they were prepared and presented to me, the thought of personally filling in the complex entries of those ledgers had never crossed my mind.
As the two keywords—"loyalty to the company and to me" and "high understanding of Finance Team operations"—circled in my mind, a certain person's face suddenly came to mind. This person fit both conditions perfectly.
* * *
After the previous villa meeting, two massive storms—Chairman Kwon Byung-do's illness and Je-gyun's downfall—had passed, and I convened a second villa meeting. Though it was still the dead of winter outside, with water frozen solid, the atmosphere inside the Gangwon-do villa was far more cordial than before. Back then, no one had been entirely sure of each other's intentions, but now everyone clearly knew they were comrades with the same purpose. We had also achieved the minor success of completely excluding Je-gyun from the front lines of group management. Thanks to that, I didn't need to make any dramatic entrance, and now light banter was flowing against the warmth of the fireplace.
"Do you know who the richest person among those gathered here is?"
At Chae Hee-geon's question, the gazes of Shin Ho-jung, Choi Sang-seok, Seong Yun-hwan, Han Seung-woo, and Oh Il-mu all turned to me simultaneously. Even excluding the yet-to-be-liquidated Bitcoin, considering the QS Life Insurance shares I was about to acquire, I supposed I was indeed the richest here?
Then, as if he'd been waiting for this, Chae Hee-geon shook his head vigorously. "The young master? No. It's Attorney Oh Il-mu."
Caught completely off guard by the mention of his name, Oh Il-mu asked in bewilderment, "Pardon? Me?"
"Of course. You're the one who handles oil money. Aren't you on par with Mansour in the Middle East?"
For a moment, the atmosphere turned icy, as if the fireplace's warmth had suddenly diminished. Then President Shin Ho-jung exploded in irritation. "Hey, Team Leader Chae Hee-geon, please stop that. And President Choi Sang-seok! Don't laugh. Because of jokes like that, even when we try to be a little funny, our subordinates just call it old-man humor and run away!"
Shin Ho-jung's words were absolutely right. Just as Chae Hee-geon was pouting with his lips protruding after the scolding, a knock sounded at the villa door. It seemed the new villa member I'd invited had arrived.