A Question of Trust
The warm, easy mood in the room went flat, and the air seemed to settle into ice.
"First, I have a question."
"Go ahead."
Even Jeong Taeyang, who had been lounging on the sofa as if he might slide all the way down into it, straightened up and stubbed out his cigarette.
"Do you remember what I asked you to do last time, Chairman Jeong?"
"I heard Vice Chairman Han Suyeong went missing. You mean that? Or not?"
At the words missing, Kang Inmuk clenched his fist and glared at Jeong Taeyang. Cheon Subeom checked him with a glance, then nodded toward Taeyang.
"Yes. We still can't say he's definitively missing, but it's true that our youngest master can't be reached."
"Still no contact?"
"...That's correct."
"I see. Then it sounds like this meeting was called because of that."
"... "
"Ha. That stings a bit. I'm not a subcontractor for Johwa Group. If you dragged me here because you wanted to ask why Taeyang Planning still hasn't found Vice Chairman Han Suyeong, that's going to make me a little uncomfortable too."
"Jeong Taeyang."
That was when Kang Inmuk, who had remained silent until then, finally spoke. His voice sounded like a wolf growling over prey, thick with killing intent.
"I'm not the same as Vice Chairman Cheon. I don't have the stomach to sit in front of some gangster bastard and grin like an idiot."
"... "
"... "
Jeong Taeyang's expression changed, and so did Cheon Subeom's.
"So get it through your head, and answer me honestly when I ask you something."
Kang Inmuk's voice sank lower and lower.
"Understood?"
"Vice Chairman Kang Inmuk. I'm the one in charge of this matter."
Cheon Subeom cut in, restraining Kang Inmuk as he began to bark at Taeyang.
"...I don't care about that. I'll handle it the way the chairman ordered."
"This is getting uncomfortable for us, Vice Chairman Kang."
At that, Jeong Taeyang took out another cigarette with an irritated look, put it to his mouth, and lit it.
"Ha... damn it. Vice Chairman Cheon. This place is seriously annoying. And..."
The tension between Cheon Subeom and Kang Inmuk shifted.
"Kang Inmuk really did grow up."
Jeong Taeyang took the cigarette from his mouth and handed it to Do Jaehyun, then pulled out yet another one and put it to his lips. Smoke spread thickly through the spacious living room.
"Jaehyun. It's pissing me off. Want one more?"
"I'm fine, hyung."
The sudden turn from Jeong Taeyang tangled up the thought process of Cheon Subeom and Kang Inmuk, who had been locked in a silent power struggle.
"Vice Chairman Cheon Subeom."
Having seized control in an instant, Jeong Taeyang called to him, exhaling smoke toward Kang Inmuk.
"Got any whiskey? If possible, I'd like something strong."
"... "
"Jeong Taeyang, you bastard..."
"Inmuk."
Kang Inmuk, who looked ready to swing at Taeyang's face any second, froze.
"Your right arm. So you can still throw punches after all?"
"... "
"I almost didn't recognize you. I thought I had the wrong guy, since the weakling who bawled his eyes out the first time he got stabbed was standing there as Johwa Group's security chief."
"Jeong Taeyang. You son of a..."
At last, Kang Inmuk couldn't take it anymore and threw a punch at Jeong Taeyang. Cheon Subeom shut his eyes tight at the sudden explosion of chaos, while I watched the two of them in silence.
Thwack.
"Still the same."
For all the noise, Kang Inmuk's fist was caught tightly in Jeong Taeyang's huge left hand.
"Want me to make sure you can't even lift a spoon this time? I was young back then and just hacked at you carelessly, but now I'm confident I'd do a much better job. How about it?"
Before anyone had noticed, a sashimi knife nearly thirty centimeters long had appeared in Jeong Taeyang's right hand.
"I'm confident I'd do a better job. Want me to?"
That was Jeong Taeyang's specialty.
He smiled as he watched reckless upstarts run wild without knowing how dangerous a tiger could be, then bared his teeth and swallowed them whole in a heartbeat.
The reason Kang Inmuk, who had once been a rising kickboxing star, abruptly switched to taekwondo and went on to win a gold medal sat right at Jeong Taeyang's feet.
During those wild, reckless years, it was Jeong Taeyang who had wrecked Kang Inmuk's right arm.
"As it happens, I was just gifted a bottle of thirty-year-old Scottish Macallan. That all right with you?"
Cheon Subeom curled one corner of his mouth in a thin smile and, as if mocking the back of Kang Inmuk's head, asked Jeong Taeyang.
"Sounds good. Inmuk, you were just saved by Vice Chairman Cheon Subeom."
"Jeong Taeyang..."
"Jaehyun."
"Yes, hyung."
"If Vice Chairman Kang here pulls this crap one more time, you don't need to worry about my face."
"Yes, hyung."
Playing the role of some gang underling for no reason, I thought of Gong Hyeongtae, the Bulgom.
"Seems Vice Chairman Kang Inmuk got a little worked up worrying about young master Han Suyeong. Come on now, have a drink, all of you. I'll pour."
"I'll pass."
"Right, can't have an office worker drinking on the job. Pour mine full."
Jeong Taeyang was determined to twist Kang Inmuk's guts until the very end.
"The mood is too heavy. Smile. Smile. Vice Chairman Kang, I'm not that clueless high school punk Jeong Taeyang anymore. From here on out, let's show each other a little respect and live that way. When we were young, I made a few mistakes with you..."
Jeong Taeyang took a small sip of whiskey, savoring it like a sommelier, and with his particular thug's cadence, he twisted the knife again.
"I was wrong, all right? Let's have a drink together next time."
"You..."
"Come on now, Vice Chairman Kang Inmuk. I don't know what history the two of you have, but as Chairman Jeong said, settle it separately later. You're not forgetting why we're all here, are you?"
"... "
"Okay. Then I'll take it that Vice Chairman Kang Inmuk agrees too. Let's talk business properly first. To be honest, I'm also in a bind since Vice Chairman Han Suyeong is missing, and the WH Entertainment acquisition has run into serious business trouble."
"Understood. The WH Entertainment matter will proceed as planned on our side once Vice Chairman Han Suyeong returns."
"Vice Chairman Cheon Subeom."
"Yes."
"This may be a little awkward to say, but I'm also a businessman, so may I be frank?"
"Go ahead."
"I'd like it if Vice Chairman Han Suyeong could take over WH Entertainment too, but what happens if that gets delayed?"
"... "
"... "
At Jeong Taeyang's question, which clearly meant what would happen if Han Suyeong was dead or never came back, the expressions on Kang Inmuk and Cheon Subeom both hardened.
"...We'll compensate you according to the contract."
"Jaehyun."
"Yes, hyung."
"Is this called compensation or damages? As I understand it, every single word matters when you write up a contract."
"Damages are for losses caused by illegal acts. Compensation is for lawful causes, like state land acquisition for redevelopment or highway construction."
"As expected of our Jaehyun. That's why educated people are different. When you go to work tomorrow, take a good look at the contract."
Jeong Taeyang provoked Vice Chairman Cheon and Kang Inmuk again, but by now they had built up some resistance to him, and neither of them was rattled anymore.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I was only speaking from a business standpoint, so please be generous with me. These days with the IMF and all, we're scraping by too..."
"It's all right. Chairman Jeong, WH Entertainment is important too, but in Johwa Group we have no choice but to prioritize Vice Chairman Han Suyeong's matter. So..."
"Ah, don't worry. I won't go off on another tangent. Right, what happened to Vice Chairman Han Suyeong?"
"Vice Chairman Kang Inmuk will explain that part."
"So this is why you came here, Vice Chairman Kang?"
"That's right. Vice Chairman Kang Inmuk, please."
Only then did Kang Inmuk, who had been standing behind Cheon Subeom like a security team leader, finally sit down beside him.
"Vice Chairman Kang Inmuk. Young master Han Suyeong comes first. We should share our side's information first."
After shooting a brief glare at me and Jeong Taeyang, Kang Inmuk finally opened his heavy mouth at Cheon Subeom's urging.
"Evening of May 2, 1998. The exact time hasn't been confirmed, but our headquarters intelligence team and security team estimate it at roughly around 8 p.m. At that time, Vice Chairman Han Suyeong was..."
Kang Inmuk pulled a photograph from the inside pocket of his jacket. In it, Kim Baekho, the boss of the Baekho Faction, was drinking with his men at Helios Nightclub.
"He was with Kim Baekho of the Baekho Faction. Chairman Jeong... you know him well too. Kim Baekho of the Baekho Faction..."
"I know him very well. I should've ground that son of a bitch up with my own hands."
Jeong Taeyang took the photo from Kang Inmuk and held it in one hand while lifting his whiskey glass with the other.
"Jaehyun, take a look at this too."
"Yes, hyung."
Jeong Taeyang naturally handed the photo to me, and Kang Inmuk kept talking about Han Suyeong.
"That day, young master Han Suyeong was with Kim Baekho. The reason was that during the process of newly acquiring WH Entertainment, he was using Kim Baekho's entertainment industry connections..."
Jeong Taeyang and I nodded along at the right moments, asked a few questions, and even played into Kang Inmuk's explanation.
But what I was paying attention to wasn't Kang Inmuk. It was the photo.
What mattered here was the date the photo had been developed. And the people inside it. One of the people in the photo might know something about Han Suyeong's disappearance, and even knowing the date it was taken would let me guess how far Johwa Group had managed to get in uncovering the truth behind it.
Hmm...
The development date on the photo was March 3, 1998.
That meant Johwa Group still hadn't gotten a clear bead on it. Then again, not just Johwa Group, but anyone who knew even a little about the Baekho Faction would know it wasn't the kind of organization that could fall apart this easily.
The Baekho Faction, which had collapsed in an instant after Jeong Taeyang and I appeared.
Not only that, but the Kim Hasa Faction, a nationwide organization that had once split Seoul three ways together with Jeong Taeyang's Taeyang Faction and Kim Baekho's Baekho Faction, had also fallen.
Coincidentally, all of it had happened within just a few days of Han Suyeong's disappearance, so Johwa Group would naturally have its eyes fixed on Jeong Taeyang.
"...And that's how it happened."
Kang Inmuk finally finished his passionate explanation of Han Suyeong's disappearance.
"Vice Chairman Kang Inmuk."
"Yes."
"May I keep this photo?"
At Do Jaehyun's unexpected question, both Cheon Subeom and Kang Inmuk turned their eyes to Jeong Taeyang, and Taeyang nodded as if he'd been waiting for exactly that.
"There's a reason I brought our Jaehyun here. Vice Chairman Cheon Subeom asked me to handle Vice Chairman Han Suyeong's disappearance, so do you think I'd do the job carelessly?"
"Then..."
Cheon Subeom's face lit up.
"I handed it over to Jaehyun here, who handles every assignment cleanly."
"...You didn't handle it yourself, Chairman Jeong? You left it to this friend here?"
Unlike Cheon Subeom, Kang Inmuk made no attempt to hide his displeasure.
"Don't you have to hear the whole sentence before you judge it? And don't judge a person by the outside. Our Jaehyun may have started this line of work because he suddenly needed money, but he's my little brother's best friend."
"What do you mean?"
"You know Vice Chairman Cheon, don't you? Jeong Taeseong is my half-brother."
"...I don't know him that well."
"Don't know him? You know everything perfectly well."
Jeong Taeyang let out a quiet laugh and went on, and at last the ball had been passed to Do Jaehyun.
"Vice Chairman Cheon. This Jaehyun here is my younger brother's college classmate. A graduate of Korea University Law School. You think I'd hand work over to just anybody? Hm?"