Not Letting the Past Hold You Back
Truthfully, even while planning this press conference, I had considered having statements from the franchise owners directly harmed by Seong-gyun. That idea only deepened when I saw the morning articles attacking my past also included interviews with victims. I knew that if the QS Electronics franchise owners told their own stories, it would stir far greater emotional resonance than my own revelations.
The problem was time. I had only decided two days ago to drown Seong-gyun in water and honey through this conference. Two days was far too short to prepare such a large-scale event with over a hundred reporters. There was no way I could also conduct pre-interviews with the franchise owners, write their scripts, rehearse them, and get them ready to speak in front of the press. So I had settled for simply having them appear behind me as I exposed Seong-gyun's unfair practices.
Then a reporter specifically asked to hear from the victims. Fine. Not everything going according to plan made things more interesting anyway. The press conference had already achieved its initial goal. I had transformed from a troublemaker into a righteous figure who would not overlook injustice even within his own family, while Seong-gyun, who had tried to trap me, was now branded a tyrant boss. If the franchise owners added one more heartfelt line, the already accomplished objective would gain even more momentum. Even if their statements were a bit clumsy, it would not matter much. After all, they had no reason to say anything that would harm me.
I paused for a beat, then looked at reporter Song A-reum and replied, "We did not ask the franchise owners to make separate statements when preparing this conference. However, since someone wishes to hear from them, if any franchise owners present here have something to say about the harm they suffered from QS Electronics, I will pass them the microphone."
The franchise owners behind me exchanged quick glances, hesitating to step forward. It was a shame, but it could not be helped. I knew how daunting it was to speak unprepared in front of a hundred reporters and a dozen cameras. Their accounts could always be released later through written press materials. Just as I was about to deliver the closing remarks, a voice spoke up.
"Um, excuse me."
One of the women behind me raised her hand awkwardly beside her face. She wore a plain, solid-colored blouse and skirt, as I had requested—no flashy clothing. "Yes, do you have something to say?"
She nodded firmly, and I stepped away from the podium to hand her the microphone.
"I... I'm a mother raising two children without a husband. Ah, I'm so nervous I can barely speak. I'm sorry."
Her voice truly trembled pitifully. I smiled at her, meeting her eyes to signal that she could say whatever she wanted. After swallowing dryly, she continued.
"Our family of three depends entirely on the one QS Electronics franchise I barely managed to open with my late husband's life insurance money. Two years ago, QS Electronics suddenly demanded 1.5 million won a year or they would terminate the franchise agreement. The interior, the existing customers—everything was tailored to QS Electronics. If the contract ended, we would have no way to survive. So I had no choice but to agree to pay."
When she choked up from the pressure and sorrow, Song A-reum threw her a helpful question. "In exchange for the franchise fees, did QS Electronics provide any special services to the stores?"
"No. Nothing like that at all. In fact, sales dropped even further than before. I wondered if it was because I was running the store poorly, but I heard the same thing happened to other franchises. People said it was because QS Electronics products performed worse than competitors' budget models that came out later."
I nodded from behind the podium. What she had heard was correct. About two years ago—right when QS Electronics began collecting franchise fees—the R&D budget had been drastically cut in favor of cash reserves, so of course product performance suffered.
"So how did the franchise owners respond?" Song A-reum asked.
"Respond? We couldn't do anything. We are QS Electronics franchises—we cannot just sell other companies' products. We kept requesting budget models, but we must have heard 'under development' dozens, no, hundreds of times. At this rate, my children and I will starve to death. Team Leader Kwon Ho-gyun said he would get the fees we already paid returned, so that is the only thing keeping us going right now."
"You mean the 3 million won in franchise fees paid over two years?"
Tears finally welled in the woman's voice. "Yes. That might be pocket change to a conglomerate president, but for our family it is money we could stretch for several months if we are careful. I'm sorry. I did not come here to show you all this crying. I will step down now."
Wow. At this point, not preparing the franchise owners' statements in advance had been a stroke of genius. Their raw, unpolished words carried genuine emotion that perfectly matched the universal sentiment of struggling to make ends meet. The press conference ended, and just as I expected, Seong-gyun's and my positions had completely reversed. No follow-up articles criticizing my past appeared. Instead, articles poured out praising my integrity as the audit team leader. Like the flip side of the same coin, articles condemning Seong-gyun's tyrannical behavior followed one after another.
My fan club comments returned as well. Below are the comments under a photo of me during the press conference.
The aftermath of the press conference was bigger than I had anticipated. When signs of a boycott against QS Electronics appeared, Kwon Seong-gyun issued a public apology and stepped down as president. Of course, that was only for show—his title simply changed to standing advisor. The fact that the former president remained in the company under a different title meant his actual authority over QS Electronics had not changed much. Still, it felt incredibly satisfying. The media power he had mobilized to crush me had backfired on him instead.
Perhaps because of the woman's testimony, follow-up articles began mentioning the cuts to QS Electronics' R&D budget. Several personal broadcasting channels even aired comparisons between competitors' budget phones and QS Electronics' premium models. I did not know much about electronics, but the conclusion was that there was no performance difference between the two products despite a price gap of more than three times. Since this was not harmful to me and would damage Seong-gyun, I let it pass with a smile.
After weeks of such criticism directed at QS Electronics, they finally raised the white flag. An official statement was released in the name of the acting president acknowledging past shortcomings in research and development and promising to reduce the group's cash reserves to actively invest in research and recruit talent. Needless to say, the person most pleased by this statement was Chairman Kwon Byung-do—the very man who had ordered my surgery.
Seong-gyun was even barred from attending the father-son dinners until the chairman issued his next command, just as Je-gyun had been when he was expelled from QS Telecom. I could not help but chuckle. He had tried to splash filth on me and ended up drenched in it himself.
Apparently frightened by the pressure I could exert through Seungbaek, QS Electronics signaled their intention to voluntarily return all franchise fees collected so far. When that promise was fulfilled, the franchise owners expressed their gratitude to me one after another. Naturally, my position as audit team leader became even more secure. To the outside world, the matter appeared resolved.
But one major task remained for me. I was now looking again at the Hanbit Ilbo article that had exposed Kwon Ho-gyun's past misdeeds. Though reading it repeatedly was not good for my mental health, there was something I needed to confirm. The part I was focusing on was roughly in the middle of the article, where interviews with people harmed by Ho-gyun appeared.
How had the Hanbit Ilbo reporter been able to so precisely identify who Ho-gyun had victimized? There seemed to be only one possible route. Kwon Seong-gyun. Then how had Seong-gyun known? Through the QS Group legal team? That was unlikely. The legal team lawyers might have gone out to settle Ho-gyun's accidents, but they were not the ones holding the list of settlement payments made on his behalf. I had even asked Oh Il-mu just in case, but he said he had never seen such documents while serving as head of the legal team.
Sitting in the audit team office at QS Tower, I looked up at the ceiling. The only place that held that list was the top floor—the Chairman's Secretariat. And the only person who could take that list out of the secretariat was one man. Secretariat Chief Han Seung-woo.
What should I do with him? On a basic level, since he had helped Seong-gyun try to feed me filth, it would be best to remove him and install my own person in his place. But was that even possible? This was a man who had maintained the chairman's trust for nearly twenty years and held the secretariat chief position. Even if only for management purposes, he was the only person outside the Kwon family granted access to the rooftop of QS Tower. If removing him from the company was impossible, then what I needed to do was clear. I had to bring Secretariat Chief Han Seung-woo over to my side. I had to turn him into someone who would never side with Seong-gyun or Je-gyun again, someone who would work with me to strike at them instead. The information on the Kwon family that he had accumulated over decades as secretariat chief would far exceed my imagination. After all, had not Ho-gyun's list of past misdeeds come from the secretariat? If he became completely mine, every piece of information he possessed would become my weapon. But how?