The Party Affairs Meeting
Over the past year and a half, there was one person whose reputation had undergone a constant, relentless reevaluation among his peers.
That person was Hong Gi-beom.
At the time of his defeat in the by-election, the established politicians of the Jayu Party had treated him like an absolute idiot who had been utterly crushed by an independent rookie. They mocked him as a fool who had gambled his entire political career on an unproven variable—a mere YouTube editor—only to have his hands severed in the process.
And so, Hong Gi-beom had left the party.
Yet, while he was living quietly in political exile, doing absolutely nothing, his political weight somehow kept rising.
What? Lee Yun-hyeok personally met with government ministers and established a regulatory sandbox?
Gi-beom, my boy, that guy was never meant to be a mere local government leader in the first place.
What? Lee Yun-hyeok created Mir Childcare 365, expanded it to other municipalities, and got the provincial office to put Mir City in charge of it, meaning Mir City is essentially running a province-wide project right now?
Gi-beom, if you lost to a monster like that by a margin of sixty-five to twenty, you actually fought incredibly well.
What? Lee Yun-hyeok founded a political party? One hundred and twenty thousand members at the time of its founding! And what was that about digital democracy?!
My god!
Hong Gi-beom!
You were fighting a literal monster in Mir City back then! How on earth did you even manage to secure twenty percent of the vote?
Eventually, the Jayu Party had even tried to recruit Hong Gi-beom back into their ranks.
'Dirty bastards. It was hell working with you, and I hope I never see your faces again!'
Hong Gi-beom had completely cut ties with the Jayu Party and joined the National Sovereignty Responsibility Party—the Responsibility Party.
Just as those around him had reevaluated him, Hong Gi-beom himself had undergone a massive shift in perspective.
Particularly regarding Lee Yun-hyeok.
That man is no ordinary politician. He is closer to a revolutionary.
The idea of splitting the existing political landscape into three was nothing new, but when it came to actual feasibility, had there ever been a more promising attempt than this?
'I need to stick to Lee Yun-hyeok like glue!'
Fortunately, Yun-hyeok didn't seem to harbor any ill feelings toward Hong Gi-beom.
Hong Gi-beom joined the Responsibility Party, and proving that class is permanent, he applied as a candidate for the provincial council and successfully won the support of the party's voting members.
And today was the party affairs meeting, where the candidates, supreme council members, and key working-level officials gathered.
Click.
Hong Gi-beom stepped into the conference room.
And his eyes locked with someone.
"Oh!"
It was Ji Hye-min.
Seeing her again triggered an instant wave of PTSD.
The terrifying memory of her single-handedly crashing his campaign rally, utterly destroying his political career, and casually walking away rushed back to him.
"..."
"Ah, hello."
The two exchanged brief, awkward greetings.
A moment later, the party affairs meeting officially began.
Time was running incredibly short before the local elections.
A newly formed party lacked local infrastructure, suffered from a shortage of campaign staff, and had a very shallow pool of candidates.
Therefore, the logical choice would be to pour all available resources into a single race: the Gyeonggi Province gubernatorial election.
"That is exactly what the Hanmin Party and the Jayu Party are expecting us to do," Yun-hyeok said.
"But we cannot do that. We must challenge them in every region where we have established a provincial or municipal party chapter."
The Responsibility Party currently possessed five regional chapters.
The first was Seoul.
According to domestic political party laws, a party must establish its central headquarters in Seoul to be officially registered.
The second was Mir City.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Chapter's local committee was based in Mir City. It was placed there intentionally to solidify Mir City as the party's concrete support base.
And the third, fourth, and fifth chapters were located in Incheon, Daejeon, and Gangwon Province (specifically Wonju City).
While they planned to expand their chapters nationwide into the Yeongnam and Honam regions in the future, for now, they had to wage battles in these five territories.
"Since our candidate pool is small, we must boldly forfeit any elections where our chances of winning are slim," Yun-hyeok continued.
A prime example was the Seoul mayoral race.
Unless Yun-hyeok ran personally, winning there was realistically impossible.
Fielding a mediocre candidate only to suffer a crushing defeat would destroy morale, damage the party's brand, and incur a massive opportunity cost.
After all, that same candidate might have actually won a race for a local municipal leader elsewhere.
"Instead, we will strategically deploy our limited candidates to the right places to secure as many administrative offices and legislative seats as possible. That is our goal for this local election."
The meeting immediately transitioned into strategic planning.
"We must secure Mir City at all costs."
Over the past year and a half, Yun-hyeok had personally laid the groundwork in Mir City.
If Kim Min-cheol could claim the mayoral seat and they could secure a majority in the city council, Mir City could officially be declared the Responsibility Party's stronghold.
Just as the Hanmin Party relied on Honam and the Jayu Party on Yeongnam, the Responsibility Party needed to use Mir City as a springboard to establish eastern Gyeonggi Province as their base and expand outward.
"And then there is the Gyeonggi Province Assembly," Yun-hyeok said.
"It is vital. In fact, it is far more important than the local municipal councils."
Even among local politicians, there was a clear hierarchy between city councilors and provincial assemblymen. Although the provincial assembly was not legally a superior body to the city councils, it held voting rights over a vastly larger budget and possessed an overwhelmingly larger number of seats.
This was especially true for Gyeonggi Province, the nation's largest metropolitan municipality with a population of fourteen million.
It boasted a budget of approximately forty trillion won and a legislature of one hundred and fifty-six seats.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly was a critical strategic battleground for the two major parties, carrying the weight of a mini-general election.
"The Hanmin Party and the Jayu Party will also focus heavily on the provincial assembly elections. If you become Governor, Representative, they will need a way to keep you in check," Jeong Hyeong-seok noted.
"Exactly. But by that very same logic, we must secure as many provincial assembly seats as possible," Kim Min-cheol added.
"That is the only way you will have the political leverage to push your policies forward once you become Governor."
During his time in Mir City, Lee Yun-hyeok had been completely alone, forced to fight the political heavyweights within the city hall from day one. In the city council, he hadn't had a single ally besides Jeong Hyeong-seok.
"Things must be different at the provincial office compared to how they were at Mir City Hall."
"At least twelve seats," Hong Gi-beom chimed in.
"We must secure at least twelve seats in the provincial assembly, no matter what."
This was because twelve seats was the threshold required to form an official negotiation bloc.
Once a party became a negotiation bloc, they gained immense leverage in electing the assembly leadership and scheduling legislative agendas.
They could hold official talks with other blocs and appoint committee whips.
"Since our party is currently causing a massive sensation, we can expect to win a significant number of proportional representation seats."
There were fifteen proportional representation seats in the provincial assembly.
Securing all of them would be enough to form a negotiation bloc on its own. However, the concrete support bases of the two established parties would not crumble easily. Furthermore, as a brand-new party, many moderates still viewed them with skepticism.
Therefore, even by optimistic estimates, it was realistic to expect the Responsibility Party to secure only about five of those fifteen proportional representation seats.
"We will have to win the rest in the local constituencies."
The meeting room instantly erupted into a flurry of voices.
"Factoring in potential losses, we must aim to secure at least ten constituency seats."
"It won't be easy."
"In Mir City, we can realistically hope to sweep up to three seats."
"The provincial voters won't hand over that much power to a brand-new party so easily."
Even though it was a local legislative election rather than a general election, it was historically incredibly difficult for a newly formed party to secure enough seats to establish a negotiation bloc.
However...
"Out of the one hundred and fifty-six seats in the provincial assembly..."
Yun-hyeok's expectations were set far higher.
"I want us to take at least fifty seats."
"..."
A heavy silence fell over the conference room.
"Fifty... seats?"
Those with sharp political instincts, like Kim Min-cheol, Jeong Hyeong-seok, and Hong Gi-beom, were utterly dumbfounded.
"Representative... of course, that would be ideal, but realistically... that is a bit..."
All three wore deeply skeptical expressions.
On the other hand, Jo Hyeon-seo was brimming with optimism.
"I think we can do it!"
He pointed toward Yun-hyeok.
"Our Representative is going to be out there campaigning alongside them as the gubernatorial candidate, right? With him on the trail, fifty seats will be a piece of cake."
"..."
Kim Min-cheol closed his eyes tightly.
He, too, believed that Lee Yun-hyeok's personal brand was extraordinary. But still...
"The Representative must focus entirely on his own gubernatorial race," Kim Min-cheol said.
"Setting Choi Gwang-seop aside, Han Gi-jeong is by no means an easy opponent. You do not have the luxury of running around providing cover fire for fifty different provincial assembly candidates."
He was absolutely right.
Yun-hyeok could not afford to expend too much energy on supporting provincial candidates.
Even if they somehow secured fifty seats in the assembly, if Yun-hyeok lost the gubernatorial race, the Responsibility Party would face a devastating crisis.
And yet...
"The truth is, most citizens have very little interest in the provincial assembly elections," Yun-hyeok said.
"They simply vote for whoever is nominated by the party they support."
Why had it become that way?
Because there were no "standout figures." Most provincial assembly candidates had low public recognition and were entirely colorless and odorless.
But looking at it from another angle...
"It means that if we field candidates with strong personal branding, they will instantly capture the spotlight."
"That sounds even harder than having you support them on the campaign trail..." Jeong Hyeong-seok said, his face clouded with worry.
How on earth could a mere provincial assembly candidate build a powerful personal brand?
Moreover, because Yun-hyeok's new party had such a shallow candidate pool, wouldn't most of their candidates be complete rookies?
But...
"That is precisely why branding them is possible," Yun-hyeok replied.
He had a fresh, unconventional strategy in mind.
"Let's dig deep into two of Gyeonggi Province's most critical agendas."
"Critical agendas?"
"One is the division of Gyeonggi Province."
This was an incredibly old, highly sensitive issue with a long history in Gyeonggi Province.
The proposal to split the province into North Gyeonggi and South Gyeonggi.
"And the other is the issue of education."
Major cities and newly developed districts like Yongin, Suwon, and Seongnam were packed with highly competitive school districts and passionate parents.
Education was easily the most sensitive topic in the entire country.
And in local elections, voters didn't just elect local government heads and council members—they also elected the Superintendent of Education.
Kang Se-jin, the former Director of the Education Bureau at the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, was currently on pins and needles.
While the emergence of the National Sovereignty Responsibility Party was a threat to both the Hanmin and Jayu parties, to Kang Se-jin, it felt like a bolt from the blue.
Who was Lee Yun-hyeok?
Back when he was technically unemployed, he had stopped the closure of Doma Elementary School and rescued at-risk youth, including the famous drug-running teenager Kim Si-jun. He had even passed municipal ordinances back then.
Then, after becoming Mayor, he had pushed forward the Smart Farm Innovation Valley and demanded the reopening of the closed Hawol Middle School right alongside it.
Kang Se-jin had inwardly sneered, wondering if the man would try to build a university next—only for Yun-hyeok to utilize the 80th Infantry Division as a pseudo-university, earning the passionate support of Mir City's parents.
The guy was suspiciously obsessed with education policy. No, considering what he had pulled off with Mir Childcare 365, he was deeply invested in childcare as well.
"Aren't politicians supposed to focus on adults who actually have the right to vote...?"
He couldn't wrap his head around it, but the reality was undeniable.
Now that such a man had founded a political party, there was absolutely no way he would stay out of the Superintendent of Education race.
"This is deeply concerning."
He was terrified of what position the Responsibility Party would take regarding the superintendent election.
In theory, the Superintendent of Education was supposed to be politically neutral and unaffiliated with any party, but the reality was far from it.
The two major parties waged proxy wars by using highly sophisticated and subtle methods to prop up either a "progressive superintendent" or a "conservative superintendent."
They didn't just covertly provide manpower and funding; they also contacted candidates aligned with their ideologies behind closed doors to orchestrate a "unified candidacy." They would even host primary-like events under the guise of civic group sponsorships.
Naturally, that exact process had taken place for this local election as well, and Kang Se-jin had emerged as the unified candidate for the conservative camp.
The unified candidate for the progressive camp was Lim So-young.
To be honest, Kang Se-jin was confident he could beat her in a head-to-head matchup.
But what if the Responsibility Party decided to throw their weight behind Lim So-young?
If Lee Yun-hyeok went out in public and said even a single line like, "Not as the representative of the Responsibility Party, nor as a politician, but simply as a resident of Gyeonggi Province, I find myself leaning toward Candidate Lim So-young's policies," the approval ratings would shift overnight.
Or, the Responsibility Party might field their own endorsed candidate.
If they introduced someone with the branding of a "moderate superintendent candidate," Kang Se-jin could find himself dragged into a highly dangerous three-way battle.
"Lee Yun-hyeok..."
Fretting in his office, Kang Se-jin finally grabbed his coat and stood up.
"I need to meet with Lee Yun-hyeok."
He had to figure out what the man was planning.
If possible, he even wanted to plead his case.
You got your way with Doma Elementary, Hawol Middle, and even building soundproofing inside a military base! You did whatever you wanted!
So please, just let me have the Superintendent seat!