Handling It All Myself
“Looks like you’ve got a plan?”
“Clear the room.”
“Yes, Director.”
Kim Museong dismissed his men and stayed behind with me for a private talk.
“I’ve thought about it a lot. To be honest, I’m not even sure whether I’ve gone insane or just been possessed by something.”
“And your conclusion?”
“I thought it over all night. And I’ve made my decision. I’m going with the chairman. May I smoke?”
I nodded, and Kim Museong offered me a cigarette and lit it for me.
“No matter how I look at it, this isn’t the kind of thing you can just shimai by forcing Baekho hyung to retire. Maybe we can keep it quiet until today, but by tomorrow the security team at Johwa Group will be looking for Director Han Suyeong. Once that happens, my name is bound to come up somehow. And if they trace it back through me, it’ll only be a matter of time before they find the chairman too.”
The test result for Kim Museong was a pass.
He was no different from the Kim Museong I had known in my previous life. But I couldn’t know whether the future I had once lived through would unfold exactly the same way this time.
No. Maybe I already knew the answer.
The future had already changed.
The moment I started running the loan-shark business in earnest had been brought forward, and the point at which I took Museong and Gilwoo in as my right and left hands had come sooner as well.
What I was curious about was something else entirely.
Did I, as someone who had experienced regression, have the right to end another person’s fate however I pleased?
Of course, Han Suyeong was a man who deserved to die.
Setting aside the fact that he had already hurt people around me in the future, including Yoon Seha, the life Han Suyeong had lived so far was so filthy it couldn’t even be described as just a thug’s life.
He had stirred up every kind of social scandal imaginable, including acts that were little different from outright crime. There was no point saying more; even my mouth would get tired.
But...
I didn’t kill people out of a sense of justice. In my past life, I had hurt others for money and taken what they had.
If I hurt someone now, it would only be to protect my own people. Nothing else.
Honestly, to say I felt no fear about ending Han Suyeong’s life with my own hands before fate said I should would be a lie.
Even so...
Han Suyeong had to die today. If Kim Museong couldn’t do it, I would finish it myself.
Because I never wanted to see one of my people die or suffer again.
“So how do you want to handle it?”
“I’ll finish Baekho hyung with my own hands. But I’d like you to take in his family. Make sure neither the chairman nor my name comes up. Just let me support them secretly enough that they can keep eating and living.”
He was soft.
Compared to the Kim Museong I had known before, there was still a fragile side to him. Maybe that was because I had met him earlier than I had in my previous life. The Kim Museong of that past life would have wiped out every single person connected to Kim Baekho, if only to eliminate any future trouble.
Still, this was fine too.
If I had changed, then it was only natural that the people around me would change as well.
“Do it that way.”
“Thank you, Chairman. Then I’ll deal with Han Suyeong by tying him to Baekho hyung, cleanly and without trouble.”
“Where and how?”
“There are two small yachts up around Goseong and Yangyang in Gangwon Province. Baekho hyung secretly bought them with gang funds after saying he’d retire and start a yacht business.”
“Right, enough. I understand. What about the fishing records office?”
“You know about that too?”
Fishing records office.
Any boat heading out before dawn had to register there before departure. They logged a simple record of how many people were aboard, who had boarded, and so on.
Whether anyone was actually watching the office or not was beside the point.
After the Gangneung armed infiltrator incident, the military had tightened East Coast security even further, and some of the A-grade infiltration points had radar and TOD thermal surveillance systems installed for round-the-clock monitoring. If they slipped up, they could leave evidence behind.
“Because you’re from that world. Make sure the handwriting at the fishing records office is Kim Baekho’s. It was only Kim Baekho and Han Suyeong on board. You understand what I mean?”
“Yes, sir. I understand.”
“Bring me one sharp one.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kim Museong pulled out his phone. A short while later, a lean man with sharp eyes came up and bowed his head.
“I’m Choi Hwangyeol, Chairman.”
“Kim, Director.”
“Yes.”
“Handle this by this morning. When Gilwoo gets here, put him on it.”
Kim Museong took the documents I handed over.
They were the loan-shark registration forms I had reported to the district office the day before, along with a stack of papers that still needed to be filed at the registry office.
“Not a difficult job. So the representative director is Shin Gilwoo?”
“Yeah. We’ll need to change the company name to something decent too, so handle that as well. How much cash can we pull in total from Yeonhui Credit Union, the Red Dog Faction, and the Baekho Faction?”
“If we liquidate everything, we should have around 4 billion won by today. On top of that, the nominee accounts and the ones registered under straw names can all be turned into cash within a month. All together, that comes to about... let me see...”
Kim Museong flipped through the ledgers and scratched his head.
“Slightly over 10 billion won. Even after fees and operating costs, we should still clear 10 billion.”
“Put 1 billion each into your personal account and Gilwoo’s personal account. Then make an investment company with the remaining 8 billion.”
“You mean as a foundation corporation?”
“Don’t try to make it into a trust company or a trustee company. Since financial real-name reporting is in place, money laundering the old way is too much trouble. It’s cleaner to just establish an investment company.”
“If we have the money, setting up an investment company isn’t hard. But what exactly are you planning to invest in? And who’s going to manage it?”
“We’re going to meet him.”
“Sir?”
“It’s about time he called.”
The moment I finished speaking, my phone rang.
It was 9:00 a.m. Exactly when the stock market opened.
“This is Mr. Do Jaehyun, correct? This is Manager Oh Handong from Ilseong Investment Securities. The reason I’m calling is...”
“Yes, that’s me. I figured you’d call the moment the market opened this morning.”
“Could you come to the branch? No, actually, I’ll go to you.”
“That’s a little difficult right now.”
“Then...”
“Let’s have lunch together.”
“Excellent. Would 11:00 work? I’m eating a little early today.”
Manager Oh Handong sounded almost feverish. Well, he had just hit a massive payday by selling put options after only one day, so of course he wanted to meet me somehow.
More than that, I had left enough of a lingering impression that it was as if I had predicted this would happen.
“Then let’s meet at Yeongdeungpo Station.”
“Yes, understood. I’ll be there on time.”
I folded the flip phone shut and flicked the cigarette I had been smoking into the ashtray.
“Who was that?”
“The man who’ll be running the investment company.”
“Huh? You’re putting around 8 billion won in the hands of one guy? Do you know some executive at a securities firm or something? At that level he’d have to be at least a branch manager. Even if he’s your acquaintance, would someone like that come running to a place like this?”
“He’s not an acquaintance. And he’s not a branch manager.”
“Then what is he?”
“A staff member.”
“Sir?”
“A rookie securities company employee who’s only been on the job for six months.”
“Ha...”
Kim Museong could only laugh, so dumbfounded that he didn’t even notice the ash from his cigarette falling onto his clothes.
“We met for the first time yesterday, didn’t we?”
“Yes.”
“After meeting me, have you seen a single thing go the way your common sense says it should?”
“...”
“You said his name was Hwangyeol?”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“Go take care of the work properly, and later when Gilwoo arrives, sit down with him over a meal and teach him the basics of simple finance, like loan-sharking and banking. He doesn’t know a thing about that side of the business.”
“Understood.”
Choi Hwangyeol bowed and left the office.
“Half the guys in the organization are basically living half-shacked up with the women in Yeongdeungpo, right?”
“Yes. They don’t know anything except booze and women, honestly. They’re just a bunch of young punks full of swagger, thinking about nothing but having fun...”
“Gather them all within 30 meters of Yeonhui Credit Union.”
“Right now?”
“Yeah. Don’t go scattering them around only to have them picked off one by one and regret it later.”
“Ah...”
Kim Museong looked as though he’d just been struck in the head with a hammer.
“Like you said, by tomorrow the Johwa Group security team will be scouring this place with their eyes burning to find Han Suyeong, won’t they? And with Baekho gone missing on top of that, do you think the old men in Gangnam and Gangbuk will sit still? Or will they try to swallow this place whole?”
“...I’ll get everything ready right away.”
Mapo Police Station.
The command office of the riot police mobile unit at Mapo Police Station, just one bridge over from Yeongdeungpo.
Captain Jeong Taeseong of the mobile unit, who had been idly reading a book, had his phone ring.
“Yes, this is Jeong Taeseong.”
“Aren’t you going to state your rank and name?”
“Who is this?”
“You’ve forgotten my voice?”
The corners of Jeong Taeseong’s mouth curled slightly.
“I thought you were dead, you bastard.”
“You remember me?”
“How could I forget you? Do Jaehyun, the joker of Korea University Law School.”
Joker.
It was a nickname I hadn’t heard in a long time. I’d been given it because I always smiled like a joker and dealt with things quickly, cleanly, and by methods no one else expected.
On the darker side, it also meant I was unpredictable like a joker, and whenever I caused trouble, it was always a major disaster.
“You didn’t even show up to the last reunion. Seems like you’ve been doing well.”
“Come see me for a bit. I’ve got plans for lunch, so that’s a little difficult, but how about coffee for a while? We can drink tonight instead. Of course, you’re the rich young heir who lives well, so you’re paying.”
“You bastard, you really haven’t changed.”
“So where are you?”
“I’m coming in now.”
I hung up and opened the door to the command office.
“Huh? H-Hey, how did you get in here?”
“How do you think? I told them I had business with the captain and came in.”
“Damn...”
Jeong Taeseong chuckled and set the book he’d been holding aside. Then he picked up the wooden practice sword propped in one corner of the office and said to me,
“Forget the coffee. How about a match for old time’s sake?”
Jeong Taeseong.
He was a strange one.
Not only was he smart, he had also taken second place in kendo at the National High School Sports Festival. His father was the Jongno Police Station chief, widely considered a likely future commissioner of the National Police Agency, and Taeseong’s older brother was an Olympic kendo gold medalist.
What I never quite understood was why Jeong Taeseong’s family disliked prosecutors so much.
“Another time.”
“Ha... You won’t even give me a chance to get revenge. This gym is amazing, too.”
“You haven’t changed at all.”
Jeong Taeseong put the practice sword away and offered me a seat.
“Sit down first. You didn’t come here for no reason, and you’re even less the type to ask me for a favor. So what’s going on?”
“I thought things might get noisy soon, so I came to warn you.”
“What’s going to get noisy? I’m not the riot squad at the National Assembly next door. Why would I have trouble?”
Jeong Taeseong asked lazily while stirring a packet of instant coffee into a steaming cup.
“Soon enough. I think I’m about to make some trouble.”
Jeong Taeseong stopped stirring.
“...What the hell did you do? No, wait. What are you planning to do?”