The Preliminary Candidate
When Lee Yun-hyeok visited Mir City Hall again, the atmosphere was rather chaotic.
In front of the civil service office and the information center on the first floor, an immense crowd of small business owners stood in an endless line, alongside members of various civic groups. Of course, reporters were there too. And the moment they saw him—
"It's Lee Yun-hyeok!"
They swarmed him the instant he appeared.
"Mr. Yun-hyeok!"
"When can we get our money?"
"Please help us!"
"Are they really reissuing the subsidies?"
Reporters shoved microphones through the crowd, shouting over one another.
"Mr. Lee Yun-hyeok! Are you going to run in the by-election?"
"Do you plan to join a political party?"
"Will you run as an independent?"
"How did you manage to uncover Baek Hyeong-guk's embezzlement?"
Normally, a by-election in a local city wouldn't attract this much attention. Especially not in a place like Mir City, which wasn't even a metropolitan municipality.
But this situation was different.
The person who had brought down Baek Hyeong-guk wasn't a city council member, a rival politician, or the prosecution. It was an unemployed, unaffiliated ordinary citizen who had single-handedly dismantled the mayor.
That was why it was such a massive story.
Perfect.
It was exactly the picture Yun-hyeok had envisioned.
"First, let me address the citizens," Yun-hyeok said, politely asking the reporters for a moment as he turned to the small business owners.
"I came here today to help speed up the city hall's administrative process."
He held up a massive box of A4 documents.
"Inside this box is my personal analysis of the data of over 3,400 small business owners registered with the Mir City Small Business Association."
Yun-hyeok continued.
"If the Mir City administrative staff simply cross-reference this, they will be able to disburse the subsidies much faster."
"Whoa!"
A wave of awe swept through the crowd.
"However, I unfortunately had no way of obtaining data on the business owners who are not members of the association. After all, I am merely an aspiring politician without any official administrative authority."
"..."
"Through this process, I realized how incredibly difficult it is for an ordinary citizen to expose the corruption of those in power and push for the right policies."
This time, Yun-hyeok looked directly at the reporters.
Camera shutters clicked furiously.
"Therefore, I..."
He spoke slowly, enunciating every word clearly.
"...intend to run for Mayor of Mir City as an independent candidate in the upcoming October by-election."
He had officially declared his candidacy.
Yun-hyeok went up to the second floor and visited the Economy Department.
There, Kim Min-cheol, who looked as if he had aged years in just a few days, was waiting for him.
"You look like you've been through a lot."
"Not at all. You're the one who did all the hard work, Mr. Yun-hyeok."
An Economy Department officer chimed in as he brought over some coffee.
"Director Kim Min-cheol has been working himself to the bone trying to scrape together the 15.3 billion won budget all by himself."
"Is that so? How much did you manage to secure?" Yun-hyeok asked.
"3.72 billion won," Kim Min-cheol replied with an embarrassed look.
"That's actually quite a lot."
He meant it. Local government budgets were strictly limited. Unless there was an external injection of funds, squeezing the internal budget to pull out that much money in such a short time required immense administrative skill.
Kim Min-cheol took a sip of barley tea and spoke to Yun-hyeok.
"Baek Hyeong-guk never once negotiated with the central government over the city's budget."
Of course he hadn't.
That fool was terrified of a simple complaint from Seongil Transport; what could he possibly do against the monsters of Yeouido or the Blue House?
"Yet you achieved it while still being an ordinary citizen. It makes me feel... rather ashamed, to be honest. How did you pull it off?"
"I was part of Representative Park Dae-man's general election campaign, after all. I had the connections, the justification, and a deep understanding of how Representative Park operates."
"..."
Though Yun-hyeok didn't explain the exact mechanics, Kim Min-cheol didn't pry further. He, too, understood how the gears of politics turned.
"And I didn't do it alone. The executives of the Small Business Association helped immensely." Yun-hyeok deflected the credit. "I heard they gathered in front of Representative Park's office to protest."
"That's correct."
"And you were the one who guided them there, weren't you?"
"Yes."
"..."
Kim Min-cheol nodded slowly.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Yun-hyeok."
"Then I trust you will distribute the funds fairly this time." Yun-hyeok handed over the data on the association's small business owners that he had personally analyzed. "It has already been delayed significantly, so you must disburse it quickly. But accurately."
"Of course."
"As you know, a by-election will be held soon since Baek Hyeong-guk resigned."
"I am aware."
"If I become mayor, the very first thing I will do is audit whether the 15.3 billion won subsidy was properly distributed."
"..."
Kim Min-cheol swallowed hard.
"Understood. In that case, I will resign after undergoing the audit."
"Resign?"
"I hold a position that carries that level of responsibility."
Well, I'm not about to let go of an administrator capable of squeezing 3.7 billion won out of a nonexistent budget. I'll see how he handles this, and then I'll keep him working hard for me. Yun-hyeok resolved inwardly.
Ji Hye-min, who had been thoroughly enjoying her August summer vacation, dropped her spoon in the middle of dinner.
Clatter.
It was because Lee Yun-hyeok had just appeared on the eight o'clock news, accompanied by a shocking headline.
"Hye-min, don't you know that man?" Her father asked, deboning a fish. "He's quite impressive for someone so young. They say he's absolutely taking Mir City by storm lately."
"Y-yes... so I've heard..."
"Didn't you go to Mir City recently, Hye-min? For that elementary school remodeling project or something?" Her mother asked, ladling out some spicy fish stew.
"Yes..."
"Wasn't he the one behind that too?"
"That's right."
Hye-min felt dazed.
To be honest, although she had constantly heard him talk about running for mayor and being an aspiring politician, it hadn't felt real until now.
To a college student like her, the concept of a "politician" was incredibly distant. The last general election had been the very first time she had ever voted in her life!
Furthermore, Yun-hyeok was a far cry from the stereotype of a politician in her head—a slightly pot-bellied man in his fifties or sixties wearing a stiff suit.
So while she believed he would become a politician someday and supported him, actually seeing it happen was different.
Declaring his candidacy already...
She realized that politics could thrust someone into the eye of a hurricane in the blink of an eye.
With a slightly anxious heart, Hye-min pulled out her phone and opened the "Politician Lee Yun-hyeok" channel.
Subscribers: 239,218
The subscriber count doubled!
Just a short while ago, it was barely at 120,000.
But the live broadcast of Baek Hyeong-guk's public dismantling had triggered this explosive growth.
Hye-min had meticulously gathered newspaper articles, news reports, and footage from Yun-hyeok's live stream to edit them beautifully. Now, alongside the news of his candidacy, the comment section was erupting like an active volcano.
Hye-min felt a wave of nervousness wash over her.
She had never expected Lee Yun-hyeok's channel to grow at such an explosive rate.
What do I do!
She was now essentially responsible for the public relations of a mayoral candidate in a city of 490,000 people.
With the election looming, she suddenly felt an immense weight of responsibility on her shoulders.
If a by-election is held on the first Wednesday of October, the election notice is posted and candidate registration opens sixty days prior.
However, at this stage, one can only register as a preliminary candidate. Official candidate registration only begins twenty days before the election. Since official campaigning is only permitted after registering as an official candidate, the real battle effectively starts twenty days prior.
Consequently, very few preliminary candidates register exactly sixty days in advance. When Yun-hyeok visited the Mir City Election Commission, he was the very first preliminary candidate to sign up.
Yun-hyeok submitted the preliminary candidate registration form, family relationship certificate, certified copy of resident registration, criminal record check report, and personal information consent form, completing his registration.
While preliminary candidates cannot campaign, they are allowed to perform one crucial task:
Opening a political fund account.
They simply need to open a special account designated for political funds and report the account number to the Election Commission.
Then, they must designate a treasurer to manage the account.
"My father has agreed to take on the role," Yun-hyeok said.
It was common to entrust the role of treasurer to a family member. Political funds were highly sensitive, making it vital to assign the task to someone absolutely trustworthy.
This was especially true for an unemployed independent candidate like Yun-hyeok.
Lee Byeong-jae, sixty-seven years old.
Though he currently ran a convenience store, he had worked in the finance department of the Gyeonggi Urban Corporation before his retirement, making him a seasoned accounting expert in his own right.
"Yes, the treasurer designation is complete."
The Election Commission employee grinned throughout the process of handling Yun-hyeok's registration. At the very end, the employee leaned in and whispered a personal remark.
"I'm a subscriber. Fight on!"
"Thank you," Yun-hyeok replied.
It was highly unprofessional for an Election Commission official, but they were only human.
The political fund account was open, but the balance was zero won.
While Yun-hyeok could transfer his personal funds into it, there was a catch.
He had to pay a deposit of fifty million won just to register as an official candidate with the Election Commission.
With Yun-hyeok's current bank balance, paying that deposit would leave him with almost nothing.
However, political fund accounts were meant to be filled by voluntary donations from citizens.
And there were some elderly folks who were exceptionally good at that. In Doma-myeon.
"I could have driven, you know," Yun-hyeok said.
He was sitting in the passenger seat of the car his father was driving toward Doma-myeon.
"Your dad just wanted to go for a drive."
"...I'll drive on the way back."
"If you say so."
His father rolled down his window slightly.
The road to Doma-myeon ran alongside a river. The breeze was cool and refreshing.
"To be honest, I didn't expect you to become famous so quickly."
"I got lucky."
"When you turned down Representative Park Dae-man's offer to be his secretary, I told you that you made the right call, didn't I? Because politics is a dirty game."
"Yes."
"I still think the same way. When I was at the Urban Corporation, seeing the higher-ups taking politicians to golf courses to entertain them, cooking the books, and pulling all kinds of nonsense... Ugh."
"..."
"Don't you ever do things like that."
"Of course not."
"Our country is in a serious state. I don't know if you're aware, but take the daycare center your niece Subin goes to, for example." his father said. "Even people who don't live in the Raymi Castle apartments come all the way there to drop off their kids. Do you know why?"
"Why?"
"Because there are no children left in the other neighborhoods."
"..."
"Since there are so few kids, daycare centers and kindergartens are shutting down, and everyone crowds into the few that remain. It's just like how all the young people flock only to Seoul. That's why people from outside the complex are coming to use a daycare center that's supposed to be for apartment residents."
His father clicked his tongue.
"So even the actual apartment residents can't get their kids in and are stuck on waiting lists. Apparently, there's been friction because of outsiders dropping off their kids. The low birth rate is ruining this country. I heard it's down to 0.68!"
"You're right."
Mir City's birth rate was slightly higher at 0.75, thanks to its larger youth population. But either way, it was still a disastrous figure.
"If you really become mayor, Yun-hyeok," his father said, "build more daycare centers. Raise Mir City's birth rate. Do something to stop this demographic collapse!"
Father.
You make it sound so easy...
I died three times because I couldn't solve that!
This nation's abnormal birth rate was the culmination of countless systemic issues. It was intricately tangled with economic, social, political, and even cultural factors.
Reversing it would be anything but simple.
"I'll do my best."
But it was also true that he had entered politics to achieve exactly that.
After all, if he failed, it was a firing squad for him.