The First Chip in the Board
"This isn't a class reunion. Feels more like some little social club."
"As if. You ever even done something like that? A guy who doesn't even save money talking about a fund club..."
"I'm more built for investing than saving."
"As if."
"I was thinking we might as well start a fund club with this chance, but it'd get awkward if my older brother joined..."
"Oh-ho, so you're rich, are you, Police Officer?"
"Richer than a gangster, at least. I've got plenty coming to me by inheritance, don't I?"
The moment Shin Gilwoo brought in Jeong Taeseong, the two brothers started sizing each other up. I had meant to let it go if I could, but if I left them alone like this, they looked ready to keep at it until the end of time.
"You two affectionate brothers."
"Huh?"
"What?"
"Let's stop there and talk business first. Gilwoo."
"Whether it's a fund club or a hobby group, the one running it is going to be Brother Jaehyun anyway, so what's there to worry about? Come on, sit down."
At my words, Gilwoo nodded, pulled out an empty chair, and seated Jeong Taeseong.
"Before we start, I need to give you a warning."
"A warning?"
"You got one yellow card, Jaehyun."
Jeong Taeseong took a cigarette from his pocket, hooked it between his fingers, and held out the lit cigarette to me like a soccer referee showing a yellow card.
"I'm not kidding. Be careful. By tomorrow, the precinct chief will probably summon me first and start asking about you. The prosecution side probably won't be taking it lightly either."
"Good thing it's not an ejection."
"Don't do anything that draws attention for a while. Both the police and the prosecutors will be watching you."
Just as Taeseong said, my presence might have surfaced to some degree during the process of wiping out the Kim Hasa Faction. But it still wasn't something to worry about yet.
"Hey, little brother."
"What?"
"Enough with the reunion talk. Let's get to the point. Looks like our Chairman Do Jaehyun has something to say."
At Jeong Taeyang's words, everyone's eyes turned to me.
"Since football came up, let's put our current situation in order by saying the World Cup qualifiers have finished their group draw."
"What the hell. I'm the only one in the same group, but we're on different teams?"
Taeyang made a big show of it, shrugging his shoulders.
"Different teams, sure... but in the qualifiers, the top two in each group advance."
"Ahh, so if you guys take first, I advance in second? And that bastard is the referee?"
"Yes, exactly. The people's staff is the referee. He has to stay neutral."
"Hey, brothers. Sorry to interrupt, but could you make that easier to understand?"
Shin Gilwoo, who had been listening quietly until now, raised his hand.
"World Cup or group draw or whatever, can you just explain it in plain language? I honestly have no idea what you're talking about..."
"The Baekho Faction in Jung-gu that we absorbed. Chairman Jeong Taeyang's Taeyang Faction in Gangnam. And now the fallen Kim Hasa Faction in Gangbuk. Those three were the forces dividing Seoul among themselves. But just recently, a new power emerged..."
"A new power? Have we even met those guys?"
Shin Gilwoo scratched his head and looked around, as if asking whether he was the only one not following.
"We did. Don't you remember? Han Suyeong from Johwa Group, the bastard."
"Ah, the guy from the nightclub..."
"That's right."
Han Suyeong, who had met his end at the hands of Red Dog Kim Museong together with Baekho Faction boss Kim Baekho. He was the youngest son of Johwa Group Chairman Han Gangho, and an illegitimate child at that.
"Now this sounds like an interesting story. Am I allowed to hear it?"
"You should hear it. That's why we brought Chairman Jeong Taeyang here."
"Can I leave now?"
"Do you really think that's an option?"
"Damn... at this point it doesn't sound like I'm on the same boat as you guys. It sounds like we're going to end up buried in the same grave."
Taeyang was still joking around when, all at once, ring-ring-ring~
The classic ringtone of a flip phone cut through the room.
"Well now, I can't exactly ignore that."
The owner of the phone was Jeong Taeyang.
He faced Do Jaehyun, Shin Gilwoo, and Jeong Taeseong with a sly smile.
"The fourth team the chairman mentioned is calling me?"
Taeyang opened the flip phone and showed us the screen. The caller ID glowed on it.
The caller was none other than Cheon Subeom, director of planning at Johwa Group.
"Go ahead and answer."
"Should I?"
With the face of a brat who'd just gotten hold of a new toy, Taeyang pressed the call button. He even put it on speaker.
"Hello, Chairman Jeong Taeyang."
"Oh-ho, well look at this. Director Cheon Subeom, isn't it?"
"Yes. Do you have a moment to talk?"
"Now? I'm a little busy right now..."
"Really? Even so, I think you'll need to make a little time."
Through the phone speaker, Director Cheon Subeom's voice dropped slightly.
"Why is our Director Cheon suddenly putting on that voice? Hey, Director Cheon, why so scary? You know I'm easily frightened."
"...This is about business."
"Ah, business. You should've said so sooner, Director Cheon. My apologies."
"Do you remember that I mentioned before that our Johwa Group was planning to enter the entertainment business?"
"Of course I remember. When was that again, about three months ago? The time you said you intended to acquire our WH Entertainment? But then I never heard from you again, and now you're calling all of a sudden?"
Taeyang curled one corner of his mouth, winked at us with one eye, and Jeong Taeseong looked nauseous enough to cover his mouth and lower his head at the sight.
What mattered here was this: if I had not eliminated Han Suyeong at the nightclub together with Kim Baekho, WH Entertainment would already have been folded into Johwa Group's affiliates by now.
Of course, the history I knew had already shifted a little, and it would keep shifting even more from here on.
"You know Shin Gilwoo, right?"
"I do indeed. He's my younger brother. Also the representative of our WH Entertainment."
"Chairman Han Gangho of Johwa Group is a little displeased."
"Aigoo, would that old entertainer even care about such a tiny little showbiz company? And did you pay me a contract deposit, or buy shares in my company? And are you my boss, Director Cheon? Or my elder brother? Do I look like somebody who should jump when you tell me to jump and wait when you tell me to wait?"
"...WH Entertainment was supposed to go to the youngest young master. In other words, isn't it only right that Han Suyeong, the youngest young master, should become the representative director of WH Entertainment?"
"You say you'll acquire the company and then go silent for nearly a hundred days, and now it looks like you finally bothered to pull the corporate registry. We changed the representative director registration yesterday, yesterday. It should still show as being processed. And that's all you have to come at me with?"
"Chairman Jeong."
"Chairman Jeong?"
"You're going to run your mouth like this just because the Kim Hasa Faction has been gone a few days? You think there isn't a single Kim Hasa bastard left to be buried in his coffin and that means you can act this way? What, should I use this chance to go toe-to-toe with the Baekho Faction and the Taeyang Faction? Huh? You want me to give it a try?"
...
...
...
At Director Cheon Subeom's performance, packed with all the soul he had in him, everyone including Jeong Taeyang and me clamped a hand over our mouths and struggled to hold in our laughter.
"...Keh... kehk..."
Especially Shin Gilwoo looked like he was one breath away from dying of laughter.
Listening to the call now, it sounded like Johwa Group still thought Han Suyeong was nothing more than missing.
"Good grief... why has our usually gentle Director Cheon gotten so angry? You have to listen all the way to the end when someone speaks Korean."
"Jeong Taeyang. From now on, you'd better pay attention to every single word you say."
"Fuck's sake, really. How many times do I have to tell you to listen to the end when someone speaks Korean? If I'm just supposed to hand WH Entertainment over to Johwa, then what the hell am I supposed to do? Take the fall for embezzlement and breach of trust too? Damn right I need to put a front man in place before handing it over. Director Cheon. You asked if I knew a guy named Shin Gilwoo, right? I told you already, he's my younger brother. Do you understand now?"
"..."
"Damn. I was trying to keep my loyalty as a proper gangster, so even without a word from Johwa I figured they'd take it over on their own once I moved the shares and got everything arranged, but if you're going to come at me like this over that, it really does hurt my feelings."
"Haha, there seems to have been a misunderstanding."
Director Cheon Subeom's tone rose again, turning warm and conciliatory.
"What misunderstanding? Damn, I understand you just fine. Director Cheon, if you keep this up, you're really going to hurt me. You don't even bother to understand a man's sincerity, and you can just make me out to be trash like this? Huh? Do I look like the kind of man who says one thing with his mouth and another with his ass?"
"I apologize. Our group has been in a bit of a mess lately, so I haven't been able to handle Young Master Han Suyeong's matter in detail. Chairman Jeong, please calm down."
"What could possibly be messy about Johwa Group? Chairman Han isn't out there in a wheelchair giving interviews on the news. If anything, all I've heard lately is that the group is doing great."
"What people see from the outside and what happens inside are different, aren't they? I thought Chairman Jeong Taeyang had already entered Johwa Group's fence..."
"Ahem..."
"To be honest..."
Director Cheon Subeom's voice stayed gentle, but his pacing slowed a little, and it felt as though he was finally getting to the point.
"Have you seen Young Master Han Suyeong recently?"
"Me?"
"Yes. You may not have met him in person, but Young Master Han Suyeong is a VIP no matter where he goes, isn't he? I'm asking whether you received any reports that you saw Director Han Suyeong at any club or nightclub hotel in Gangnam, or anywhere else under your management."
"Well... I can't say I've heard anything like that. As you know, Director Cheon, not every second-generation rich kid who comes to play around in this district belongs to Johwa Group..."
"I see."
"Why, what's going on? Did he get caught doing drugs again? Or did the reporters catch a whiff and your club runners had to slip them some pocket money so they'd buy the CCTV footage?"
"No, that's not it..."
"Come on now. You keep talking around it like I'm inside Johwa Group's fence or whatever, but what exactly are you trying to ask me to do?"
"...Very well. I'll speak plainly."
For a while after that, Director Cheon Subeom kept talking. To summarize it briefly, a little while ago Jeong Taeyang had disappeared, and strangely enough Baekho Faction boss Kim Baekho had also gone missing, while the Kim Hasa Faction had collapsed. At first they had thought it was nothing more than Han Suyeong's personal misconduct, but now they had realized there was something wrong with Han Suyeong's whereabouts, and Johwa Group had stepped in at the corporate level.
"Hmm... then shouldn't you report it to the police?"
"It would damage the stock price. And if Young Master Han Suyeong is about to step out in earnest as a representative director with both an entertainment company and a savings bank in his hands, would that be acceptable? Chairman Han Gangho would be displeased as well."
"...That old man would indeed do that much. Honestly, this is when I really can't understand chaebol families. No matter how much they love money and stock prices, don't they worry about their own children at all?"
"Chairman Jeong..."
"Ah, sorry. I misspoke. So what would you like me to do?"
"Please help us trace Young Master Han Suyeong's whereabouts. Quietly, from the shadows, so that neither the police nor the press find out."
"And after that?"
"..."
For a moment, the sound on the call stopped.
"Let's discuss it in person. The Kim Hasa Faction has disintegrated, and in this situation where we can't trust the Baekho Faction either, isn't Chairman Jeong the only one Johwa Group can rely on?"