The Top Scorer's Gambit
After Ho-gyun made his confident declaration and left the chairman’s office, Chairman Kwon Byung-do stared down at the envelopes containing the bar exam questions resting on the table. Ho-gyun had gone so far as to say that if he failed the bar exam, he would hand over all his shares and future support to the chairman, leaving these envelopes behind. That was something the third son he knew would never have said. If anything, the boy would have run away because he hated studying; he had no taste for risk. He was simply a chaebol heir who was content with his birthright and found pleasure in squandering money day after day—a wastrel. That was how Chairman Kwon Byung-do had always viewed Ho-gyun.
Yet even when told he might no longer be able to live that way, the boy had accepted the bet and put everything on the line. Had he assumed the chairman would never actually cut off his financial support? What would he have done if he really had been cast out? On top of that, Ho-gyun had mentioned wanting to start his own business once the bar exam was over. The same boy who loved playing around was finally saying he wanted to work in earnest?
Tap. Tap-tap.
Chairman Kwon Byung-do gathered the document envelopes, his brow furrowing for a moment. Then the image of his own father—Ho-gyun’s grandfather and the founder of the QS Group, the late Chairman Kwon Seong-wook—rose in his mind. Could “that matter” have manifested in this generation through the third son, Ho-gyun?
The bar exam date arrived. While others said the five-day exam period left them drained of blood, I finished the test in a relaxed and leisurely frame of mind. Thanks to my ability to see court rulings and the legal knowledge I had accumulated over the years, passing was a given. My real concern was the opposite: what if my law school grades had been terrible, yet I performed too well on the bar exam and drew suspicious glances?
The time until the results were announced was the last period of leisure granted to me. Once the passing results came out, Chairman Kwon Byung-do’s trust in me would gradually begin to form. Using that as a foundation, I would need to insert myself into the QS Group succession structure that currently excluded me entirely. The first step would be establishing a law firm—my very first business venture. By delivering strong operational results in a short time through my ability to see court rulings, I would demonstrate my business capabilities. After that, I would convert the firm into a full-fledged law firm and take on cases arising from the QS Group. One characteristic of legal work is that it involves handling confidential information. The internal group information accumulated while handling retained cases would become an enormous advantage for me during the process of restructuring the succession.
Until then, I decided to enjoy life as the chaebol heir with assets exceeding ten billion won. Starting the day after the exam ended, I drove a luxury sports car around high-end department stores, shopping, and dined at upscale restaurants and hotel restaurants that charged hundreds of thousands of won per meal. I gradually grew accustomed to liquor that cost more than a Shin Saimdang bill per glass rather than per bottle. The pleasure of spending money, something I had never experienced before, was incredibly addictive.
It wasn’t necessarily because the items I bought or the food I ate were of high quality. This might have been because I still didn’t understand the true value of luxury goods, but honestly, clothes purchased at luxury stores weren’t particularly prettier or more comfortable. The same went for high-end restaurants. Even if I didn’t show it outwardly, there were a few times I forced myself to eat food that tasted bad. The pleasure of spending money didn’t seem to lie in the quality difference of the products I purchased. Rather, it was the atmosphere of places where large sums were spent and the way people treated me when I spent that money that felt different.
The stores I used to frequent as Kang Min-chan before the accident provided service for random, anonymous members of the public. They were somewhat noisy, and to them, I was just one customer among many. In contrast, the places I visited these days offered customized service for each and every guest who came. At luxury stores, from the moment I entered until I finished paying, a staff member who knew the detailed information of every product would follow me around. Restaurants were the same. There was no need to look for a call bell. A waiter dedicated to a single table waited on me until I finished my meal. Luxury stores adjusted the flow of customers so their paths never overlapped, and restaurant tables were spaced far enough apart not to disturb each other’s conversations. There were quite a few places that had only one table per private room.
Besides that, for the first time in my life, I bought everything I wanted without worrying about money. Instead of repairing my cracked phone screen, I replaced it with a newly released model whose price had dropped. Without considering installment payments, I bought an unlocked phone and activated my existing number on it. I considered buying a new car, but the supercar in the parking lot was an upgraded version of the car I had wanted, so I decided to keep driving it. However, the exterior tuning in rainbow colors felt like it was screaming “look at me,” so I removed all the cumbersome decorations and repainted it a solid color. Household appliances like the washing machine, dryer, induction stove, and TV were still functional, but since I didn’t like their designs at all, I bought new ones. I replaced my computer with the latest laptop that was lightweight and easy to carry while maintaining high specifications.
Even though I went on a spending spree with the momentum of someone who had won the lottery, my newly acquired assets worth over ten billion won showed no signs of decreasing. On the contrary, as if mocking me for worrying about my total assets, dividends from the stocks I held were newly deposited, slightly increasing my cash assets. This must have been why the old Ho-gyun had said he didn’t even know how much money he had. So this is what it means to be a chaebol. Money overflows, yet the day comes when you can’t think of anything else you want to buy.
That was when I had been enjoying about two months of leisurely and happy time. In early March, when many people begin new lives through university admissions or employment, good news flew my way as well.
Buzz. Buzz-buzz.
The vibration of my newly purchased phone rang. Checking the caller ID, it was Chairman Kwon Byung-do.
“Yes, Father.”
- What the hell is going on?
“Pardon?”
- I’m talking about the bar exam. Huh? The bar exam had been held in January, with results scheduled for announcement at the end of April. There was still more than a month and a half left.
“I thought I did well on the exam. Is there some kind of problem?”
- Is that so? We’ll talk about the details in person. Come to the headquarters chairman’s office right now.
Chairman Kwon Byung-do was an extremely busy man. From political and business figures to executives of QS Group affiliates, countless people were waiting eagerly just to share a meal or a cup of tea with him. The fact that he was making time to speak face-to-face meant this was no ordinary matter.
“Yes, Father.”
Leaving the penthouse, I headed straight for the QS Group headquarters building. The head of the chairman’s secretariat was waiting for me in front of the building.
“You’ve arrived, Young Master.”
Oh. It must be cold, yet he came out without even wearing a coat just to show courtesy. Moreover, he had his hands pressed to his thighs and was bowing at a perfect 90-degree angle. Before the accident, when I lived as Kang Min-chan, he had been my direct superior who ordered me around to clean up this mess and that mess—yet receiving such respectful treatment from that person felt novel.
“Yes, Secretariat Head. Hello.”
Only after my reply did the secretariat head straighten his back.
“Yes. The Chairman is waiting for you.”
While riding the elevator that went directly to the chairman’s office after passing through the lobby, I casually asked something I had been curious about.
“By the way, Secretariat Head, do you happen to know why Father called me?”
“No. However, I do know that Advisor Oh Il-mu is currently in the chairman’s office with him.”
Oh Il-mu. A familiar name. He was a senior figure in the legal world, far above me in seniority. A former judge who had been recruited by the QS Group and worked as head of the legal team for decades, he had stepped back from frontline duties around the time Ho-gyun and I graduated from law school and now served as legal advisor. He was the one who had helped Ho-gyun get into law school despite his poor grades, and he wielded considerable influence in the legal community.
After greeting the secretariat head who had guided me to the door of the chairman’s office, I entered. Clap-clap-clap-clap. Suddenly, the sound of applause rang out. Looking toward the source, Chairman Kwon Byung-do was beaming with a pleased smile. His attitude toward me was completely different from the last time we met, when he had pointed his finger accusingly.
“Have a seat.”
“Yes, Father.”
Only after sitting on the sofa as instructed by Chairman Kwon Byung-do was I able to hear from Advisor Oh Il-mu what was going on.
“Young Master, you know that the scoring for this year’s bar exam has been completed, correct?”
“Yes. I assumed it would have been finished according to the schedule. I’m still waiting since the results haven’t been announced yet.”
“I heard about the results through the grapevine. Even though I didn’t specifically ask about you, Young Master, your name came up anyway.”
“Pardon? What kind of story?”
“They said the highest scorer on this year’s bar exam is you, Young Master. I was so surprised that I was just about to deliver the good news to the Chairman.”
Oh no! I had expected to do well, but to actually come out on top… Even though there were many questions I knew and court rulings appeared before my eyes, I probably should have deliberately gotten a few wrong.
“Thank you for bringing me the good news.”
“Indeed. It’s wonderful news, but I’m having a hard time believing it myself. I understand your law school grades weren’t particularly good either. How exactly did you study?”
This was where I needed to give a good answer. The most truthful response—that I had already placed second once before and that court rulings appeared before my eyes the moment I saw the exam questions—was out of the question. They wouldn’t believe it anyway, and I couldn’t plant seeds of doubt with unnecessary remarks.
“Actually, I studied very hard all this time. In law school, the professors made us do a lot of time-consuming things that weren’t helpful, so I didn’t pay much attention to my grades. But the bar exam is truly a test of real ability, isn’t it? I’m the type who performs well under pressure.”
Phew. Fortunately, the suspicion seemed to have disappeared from Advisor Oh Il-mu’s face. Chairman Kwon Byung-do, on the other hand, even burst into laughter, as if my answer had pleased him quite a bit. After all, what father would dislike hearing that his child studied well?
“Hahaha! Look at that. He may love to play around, but the smart head in our family isn’t going anywhere!”
With Chairman Kwon Byung-do reacting this way, Advisor Oh Il-mu no longer seemed inclined to press further.
“It seems the Chairman is right. Haha. Young Master, what are your thoughts on your future career path? With the top score, you could aim for any of the prosecutor, law clerk, or big firm positions.”
The “prosecutor, law clerk, big firm” that Advisor Oh Il-mu had just mentioned referred to the three major career paths that law school graduates aspired to.
- Prosecutors investigate and indict criminals while working at the prosecutor’s office, just as I had done before the accident.
- Law clerks are a type of judge’s assistant who work at the court, and becoming a law clerk is almost the only route for law school graduates to become judges.
- “Big firm” usually refers to the top six large law firms among Korea’s numerous legal companies. There is a significant gap not only in salary but also in future development potential between the top six firms and those below them.
After graduating from law school and passing the bar exam, taking one’s first step into one of these “prosecutor, law clerk, big firm” paths meant walking the royal road of the legal world from the very beginning. However, my interest lay in a much higher place than the royal road of the legal world. A prosecutor or judge’s career history wouldn’t be of much help in taking the QS Group into my own hands. Rather, I needed to demonstrate my business capabilities to Chairman Kwon Byung-do, who was sitting right in front of me, and to the world.
“I want to start my own business in the future. I plan to begin with a small law office, but I’m confident I can grow it into a first-rate law firm before long.”