Turning the Enemy Commander into an Ally (1)

Junggyeongbon consists largely of the division head’s office, along with its subordinate teams and research institutes. The division head position is concurrently held by Chairman Kwon Byung-do, so it remains outside my reach for now. There are five permanent teams under Junggyeongbon: the Audit Team, Legal Team, Security Team, Finance Team, and PR Team.

Of these, I already command the Audit Team outright. I serve as its leader, and my one-man operations have been so clean that the team is firmly under my control. The Legal Team has its own leader, but Oh Il-mu’s influence remains strong. Its work also overlaps heavily with the Audit Team, so it can be considered part of my line.

The Security Team wields formidable physical combat power and would prove decisive if any disturbance broke out inside QS Tower, yet it rarely involves itself in the group’s decision-making. Even when its strength becomes necessary, the team’s de facto leader is none other than Mr. Bloodbath, Secretariat Chief Han Seung-woo. Like the Legal Team, it operates under the control of one of my people.

The Finance Team appears most important yet requires the least attention. Team Leader Cho Dae-hyun has shown zero interest in the succession struggle, both now and in the future. His loyalty is reserved solely for Chairman Kwon Byung-do; the prevailing view is that he would submit his resignation the moment the chairmanship passes to anyone else. Chairman Kwon Byung-do himself seems unlikely to leave Cho Dae-hyun, who has doubled as his personal vault keeper for decades, in a company that is no longer his. Therefore, once I am confirmed as the successor, the Finance Team is an organization I can simply install a new leader in and claim outright.

This leaves the PR Team, QS Economic Research Institute, Social Trends Research Institute, and Future Technology Research Institute inside Junggyeongbon. The three research institutes are closer to academic bodies than corporate ones; there is little point in trying to seize control of them. They are staffed with professor-level talents whose life’s goal is to publish a single paper that will endure in history rather than generate profit. No matter who seizes the next throne, these institutes are unlikely to rebel so long as research funding continues to flow.

The remaining organization, however, is the PR Team—an urgent target that is proving far from simple to capture. Because the PR Team serves as the group’s loudspeaker, it ranks among the company’s most powerful institutions. Words and writing sometimes carry greater force than money or guns. That power was demonstrated once again recently.

Traditionally supportive of Seong-gyun in the succession race, the PR Team leader has been flooding the media with press releases touting Kwon Seong-gyun’s achievements during his tenure as president of QS Electronics: how much net profit the company increased, how much social contribution it made with those profits, and how the recent special dividend originated from those same earnings. Thanks to the public opinion thus manufactured, Kwon Seong-gyun, who had been demoted to standing advisor, was able to return to the representative director’s seat.

The problem is not limited to the PR Team leader using that enormous power to back Kwon Seong-gyun. PR Team Leader Chae Hee-geon genuinely dislikes me. We pass each other in QS Tower, yet beyond a perfunctory nod we have never exchanged a single greeting. Even if Seong-gyun did not exist, Chae Hee-geon would have supported Je-gyun as the next successor; he would never lend his strength to me. If Je-gyun were also gone, he would be the type to advocate bringing in a professional manager from outside or abolishing the group chairman position altogether in favor of independent management for each affiliate.

I can understand why Chae Hee-geon behaves this way. He was the person who worked hardest to clean up the messes left by the old troublemaker Kwon Ho-gyun. In his mind, my true nature is that of a drunkard dancing with a knife; no matter how flawless my recent performance has been, he will never trust me.

Then should I remove Chae Hee-geon from the PR Team leader position and install someone else to seize control of the team? That, too, looks difficult. The PR Team is currently locked down by Chae Hee-geon. If I purge him, the backlash from the team members below him will be severe. Not only the leader but the rank-and-file members of the PR Team also exhausted themselves cleaning up Kwon Ho-gyun’s past scandals. Naturally, they dislike me as well. Seizing the PR Team by sidelining Chae Hee-geon is effectively impossible. Even if Chairman Kwon Byung-do himself pushed with full resolve, overhauling an entire team inside Junggyeongbon and replacing it with new personnel in a short period would be an arduous task.

In that case, winning Chae Hee-geon over remains the fastest shortcut to controlling both the PR Team and, by extension, Junggyeongbon.

How do I turn this enemy commander into an ally?

Unfortunately, the method I used to bring Secretariat Chief Han Seung-woo to my side cannot be applied to Team Leader Chae Hee-geon. In the future I know, there is no incident in which Chae Hee-geon receives personal help from me and feels grateful. Perhaps because he is the complete opposite character from Han Seung-woo, attempting to recruit him the same way was misguided from the start.

Secretariat Chief Han Seung-woo rose to an executive post at QS Group headquarters despite being a high-school graduate, thanks to his loyalty and exceptional handling of covert matters. In contrast, Team Leader Chae Hee-geon graduated from Korea’s top university’s journalism and communications department, earned a master’s in journalism from a U.S. state university, and joined QS directly. He never passed through contract positions; he entered the headquarters PR Team immediately, served in several affiliate executive roles, and reached his current post as Junggyeongbon PR Team leader. In the future I remember, Seong-gyun later appointed him president of the sizable affiliate QS EnM, clearly with the intent of checking Je-gyun.

In short, Team Leader Chae Hee-geon is the quintessential elite who has followed the conventional success track without deviation. Consequently, his personal disposition differs sharply from Han Seung-woo’s. The loyalty that Han Seung-woo wears like a passive skill holds no value to Chae Hee-geon. He always calculates which choice will be most advantageous to himself. In unkind terms, he could be called an opportunist. His open support for Kwon Seong-gyun in the succession race is simply him placing a large bet on the card with the highest probability—nothing more, nothing less.

Yet two years have passed since I took over Kwon Ho-gyun’s body. Objectively speaking, is not the person with the greatest chance of claiming the next chairmanship me? This is not empty arrogance. First, among Chairman Kwon Byung-do’s three sons, I am the only one who wields direct influence inside QS Group headquarters—Junggyeongbon. That alone might be dismissed as “the chairman’s son is doing decent work.” But I have already secured a stack of cards that are not yet public.

- Even though they are smaller affiliates, both QS Resort and QS Delivery stand firmly in my line.

- QS Telecom, one of the group’s three pillars, has begun to be evaluated on par with QS Electronics in the IT industry after winning consecutive massive government projects, and it is on my side.

- I will secure de facto control of QS Life Insurance, the group’s holding company, within the next few months.

Even when influence over affiliates is measured separately, I cannot be said to lag behind either Kwon Seong-gyun or Kwon Je-gyun. Moreover, I have already recruited the person at the very top of the Secretariat—the chairman’s inner sanctum, an area considered sacrosanct within the group. On top of that, I possess the experience of having seen the future and the ability to preview court verdicts. Although the reason is still unclear, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Chairman Kwon Byung-do’s favor toward me has also increased noticeably of late.

If the opportunist Chae Hee-geon were to learn all these facts, he would kick Kwon Seong-gyun aside without hesitation and bow his head before me at once. Of course, that does not mean I can simply write all of this down and email it to him. Setting aside the damage to his pride, I must not appear ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to be begging for his favor. Team Leader Chae Hee-geon must naturally come to recognize the influence I have secured behind the scenes, and through that realization he must kneel to me of his own accord. An apology for having supported Kwon Seong-gyun all this time would be a welcome bonus.

Buzz—

While I was pondering how to make Chae Hee-geon submit, my phone vibrated inside my jacket pocket. A message had arrived.

It was Reporter Yu Ju-yeon of Geoseong Ilbo. The Park Da-hyun incident. Even though it had nothing to do with my duties, the case had been so noisy that I knew the rough outline.

Headlines such as “Rainy Girls’ Da-hyun Remains Silent for Third Day Amid School Violence Allegations, SNS Accounts Collectively Closed,” “Da-hyun’s Agency: ‘We Know Nothing,’” and “QS Group: ‘Currently Verifying Facts’” were pouring out. In summary, Park Da-hyun, a member of the girl group Rainy Girls, had allegedly committed school violence a year earlier, and the victim had exposed the details.

The reason QS Group was mentioned in this typical entertainment-industry scandal and why a message begging me for information had arrived was simple: Park Da-hyun had been selected as the model for the QS Group television commercial that began airing last month. I had heard that even inside the PR Team there had been considerable opposition to using an idol as the face of a group image commercial rather than a product ad. Yet Team Leader Chae Hee-geon had pushed the selection through, insisting that the group needed to shed its outdated and rigid image.

Until now I had given the matter little thought. It was our group’s commercial, so I saw it often enough, and each time my eyes had been pleased—that was all. Park Da-hyun had risen to top-star status on looks alone, without any notable backstory or hit songs, so there was nothing unpleasant about seeing her on screen. That, however, was from the perspective of the Audit Team leader. With the school-violence exposé now erupting, the PR Team—especially Team Leader Chae Hee-geon—must be in agony.

Then a thought struck me. What if I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠resolved this incident myself? If, in the process, I could demonstrate my power to Team Leader Chae Hee-geon? Linking two seemingly unrelated events might allow me to solve the company’s problem while simultaneously achieving my own objective.

First, I summarized the case in my mind and called up the future verdict I would see.

A chuckle escaped me. It was a very simple case. In this incident the defendant was Miss K, who claimed to have been assaulted by Park Da-hyun, while the victim of defamation was Park Da-hyun herself. All that was needed was to prove that the false accusation was, in fact, false.

Yet another verdict I had not anticipated followed immediately after. It had been a long time since I had seen a blank verdict paper.