Chairman Do It All Himself, Chapter 39
“Oh? Now here’s talent Jo Hwa Group would be eager to poach. Take this, Jaehyun.”
Strategic Planning Director Cheon Subeom drew out a business card and handed it to Do Jaehyun.
“If anything comes up related to Director Han Suyeong, contact me through here. Honestly, I’d like to headhunt you on the spot, but if I did that, things would get awkward with Chairman Jeong. Think of me as an older brother you’re close to, and call anytime if you’ve got something rough going on or just feel like having a drink.”
“...Please keep me informed about Director Han Suyeong as well.”
Security Director Kang Inmuk also handed over his card without the slightest hesitation.
“Understood.”
Seeing this, Do Jaehyun was reminded once again that in South Korea, connections and a good name still mattered above almost everything else.
“Jaehyun. In Korean society, it’s all about connections.”
“School ties, local ties, and blood ties?”
“You punk. You went to Hankuk University Law School, so you’ve got school ties and local ties in spades, but no blood ties. By your logic, how the hell did your brother make it to department head? Because I’ve got a great degree? Or brilliant friends? Or maybe our parents are conglomerate owners?”
“None of the above, really.”
“Honest bastard... For a guy like me, with no school ties, no local ties, and no blood ties, there’s only one connection I can actually hold on to. You know what that is?”
“What is it?”
“Smoking.”
“You should quit first.”
“Why give up something this good? You’d quit, if you were me?”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
“Anyway, never mind the rest. The Hankuk University Law School name is genuinely enviable. Let’s go. Time to work.”
Jeong Taeyang’s words from back when Do Jaehyun had worked at the credit union came back to him. And as the man had said then, the Hankuk University Law School name had been a huge advantage for him in the past, the present, and the future.
“Jaehyun.”
“Yes, hyung.”
But degree or no degree, there were limits to what he could stomach. Of all things, pretending to be Jeong Taeyang’s underling was the part that grated on him the most.
“Tell these directors something. Tell them exactly how much hell we went through to find Johwa Group’s youngest son, Director Han Suyeong.”
“Yes, hyung. Understood.”
“Good. I’m counting on you.”
Jeong Taeyang lit a cigarette with the expression of a man who’d just had ten years of indigestion relieved all at once. Cheon Subeom and Kang Inmuk couldn’t possibly have guessed it, but Jeong Taeyang had come here today with no preparation whatsoever.
The only thing Jeong Taeyang had prepared was Do Jaehyun, and just as he had predicted, Do Jaehyun was calmly taking control of the conversation and turning it in his favor.
It wasn’t that Jeong Taeyang had truly come empty-handed. He had placed absolute trust in Do Jaehyun, and that trust had come from hard-earned experience.
When he had first met him, Do Jaehyun had been a strange bastard who looked down on the former boss of the Kim Hasa Faction and Jeong Taeyang himself like they were no more than Sun Wukong sitting in the Buddha’s palm, while directing the entire operation and shaping events exactly as he wanted.
So in the same way that he himself had been led here by Do Jaehyun, Cheon Subeom and Kang Inmuk would never be able to see Do Jaehyun’s true nature, blinded as they were by his young age and his Hankuk University Law School pedigree.
Unless it’s Chairman Han Gangho of Johwa Group, the rest of those overconfident half-wits don’t stand a chance.
“When I began investigating Director Han Suyeong at the chairman’s order, what I found was not much different from what Johwa Group had already uncovered. In fact, I did not expect Director Kang Inmuk to dig so deeply and thoroughly even without knowing the details on our side.”
As Do Jaehyun began speaking, Jeong Taeyang, cigarette between his fingers and whiskey on his tongue, let his smile deepen. He knew better than anyone that this was Jaehyun’s particular style of speech: he would begin with praise, take control of the conversation, apply carrot and stick in just the right measure, and lead the other side to the answer he wanted.
“Unlike Johwa Group, we combed through everything, from the clubs and nightclubs Director Han Suyeong ran through Taeyang Faction to the tenpro places as well. We grilled the girls and even the touts until there wasn’t a loose thread left. It made things a little difficult because we couldn’t mention Director Han Suyeong’s name directly, but...”
Deliberately trailing off, Do Jaehyun slowly raised the tension in the room.
“In the end, the person my Taeyang Planning team focused on was not Director Han Suyeong.”
“Someone else?”
“Yes. I wasn’t able to prepare a photo separately, but...”
“That’s fine. The background and the name will be enough.”
“Who is it?”
The reactions from Cheon Subeom and Kang Inmuk, who had been listening silently until now, became much more engaged. It was only natural; a new lead had appeared where Johwa Group had found none.
“Kim Museong.”
“Kim Museong?”
“Who’s that?”
When Kang Inmuk had shown a photo of Kim Baekho, the boss of the Baekho Faction, Kim Museong had not been in the picture. That was precisely why Cheon Subeom and Kang Inmuk had no choice but to sink deeper into Do Jaehyun’s carefully laid words.
“There’s a branch organization under the Baekho Faction called the Red Dog Faction. Kim Museong is its boss. Their base is in Yeongdeungpo, and what they mainly do is run girls and loan-sharking.”
“Hmm... What does that have to do with Young Master Han Suyeong? We were told Johwa Group was preparing a savings bank in anticipation of revisions to the Mutual Credit Cooperative Act, as one of the affiliates Director Han Suyeong was supposed to oversee. But the Red Dog Faction? There’s no way they’d be in business with a place like that.”
“Exactly as Director Cheon said. Based on what the security office and the protection team investigated, the agreement between Director Han Suyeong and Kim Baekho would have been related to entertainment, not finance.”
“I’ll tell you only the facts as they are. That said, what I’m about to say may be a little unpleasant. Will that be all right?”
“Go on.”
“I’m listening.”
Whatever Do Jaehyun said, it was gentler than Jeong Taeyang by comparison. So Cheon Subeom and Kang Inmuk readily gave their consent.
“You two are social elites. Director Han Suyeong is the same. That’s why I suspect you don’t really know how this side works.”
“You’re right, Jaehyun.”
“Hmm... Go on.”
“Chairman, is this all right?”
As if weighing his words, Do Jaehyun asked Jeong Taeyang for permission, and Jeong Taeyang took a sip of whiskey, pretending to struggle with a matter he did not understand in the slightest.
“Pour me another.”
Quick on the uptake, Cheon Subeom hurriedly refilled Jeong Taeyang’s empty glass, while Kang Inmuk silently took a cigarette from inside his jacket and offered it to Do Jaehyun.
“Want one?”
For a moment, the pace eased.
But they all knew. Kang Inmuk and Cheon Subeom were silently exchanging thoughts with their eyes. From their perspective, Do Jaehyun and Jeong Taeyang probably looked like they were considering how much they were willing to reveal.
“Jaehyun.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“Tell them everything. Like Director Cheon said, we’re basically family.” Jeong Taeyang took a drag, then let out a low exhale. “Honestly, where else would we ever find a sponsor... no, a backer better than Johwa Group?”
In truth, Jeong Taeyang was enjoying the whole thing like theater, trusting Do Jaehyun without a shred of preparation or contingency in mind. But neither Cheon Subeom nor Kang Inmuk could see that.
“Understood, Chairman.”
All of their attention was fixed on Do Jaehyun.
“This was a top-secret matter inside our Taeyang Faction, so most of the members still don’t know the exact details. And this is also a personal matter for me.”
“A personal matter for you, Jaehyun?”
“Yes, Director.”
“How can a personal matter be related to the organization?”
“Director Cheon. For now, why don’t you hear him out before deciding?”
Kang Inmuk cut Cheon Subeom off.
“Not long ago, my nephew was kidnapped. It was a major incident that even made the news...”
“Ah? That one.”
“...You mean the Kim Hasa Faction incident that happened in Yangpyeong?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
When you feed someone false information, there are two things that matter most.
First, stuffing in facts that never existed just to steer them where you want is something only amateurs do.
Second, instead of mixing in lies, it is better to tell only the facts while leaving out just enough that the other person naturally reaches the wrong conclusion.
Blend those two together, and the listener will think for themselves, build their own scenario, and unconsciously complete the picture in their own mind.
Once that happened, he would not need to keep talking until his throat went dry. They would trust their own scenario completely and interpret every shred of information in a way that benefited them, filtering reality through the script they had written for themselves.
And even if someone, or even they themselves, later learned the real facts and the hidden truth, it would be hard for them to admit their scenario was wrong. They would fight to turn their own version into truth instead of accepting the truth and the facts.
That was human selfishness.
“In fact, no one knows that I work under Chairman Jeong Taeyang. Not my family, not my friends. Until recently, I was just doing debt collection work at a mutual credit company, and I haven’t been out of that job for very long. But even before that, I’d sometimes help Chairman Jeong with work, using the field I studied, and since there wasn’t much future in keeping a job anyway, I stepped into this line of work.”
Calmly, Do Jaehyun explained everything from how he had left his job to how he had come to know Jeong Taeyang. Of course, the truth and the lies were mixed together in just the right proportions: anything that could be checked immediately was given honestly, while the parts of his relationship with Jeong Taeyang that could not be verified and were ultimately unimportant were left as carefully chosen falsehoods.
“Then an incident broke out between the Kim Hasa Faction and our Taeyang Faction. Coincidentally, it was around the same time Director Han Suyeong went missing.”
“What incident was that?”
“...”
Cheon Subeom showed curiosity, while Kang Inmuk shot open hostility straight at Jeong Taeyang.
“A civil war broke out inside the Baekho Faction. It was the clash between Kim Museong, the boss of the Red Dog Faction I mentioned earlier, and Kim Baekho. And unfortunately for us, after I left the company, I was put to work on Taeyang Faction’s finances and legal matters under Chairman Jeong Taeyang’s orders. I also started handling the loan-sharking business Taeyang Faction was planning to expand into.”
“That makes more sense now.”
Unlike Kang Inmuk, Cheon Subeom had worked in planning and was already building his own theory from the small bait Do Jaehyun had cast.
“The Baekho Faction and the Red Dog Faction must have thought Do Jaehyun was the one controlling Taeyang Faction’s money, and they kidnapped your nephew to gain the upper hand in the war against Taeyang Faction.”
“Exactly.”
“Yes, that would make sense. The Yangpyeong incident, as reported in the news, wouldn’t add up if it were just Do Jaehyun and his friend handling it alone.”
Kang Inmuk, unwilling to lose to Cheon Subeom, dropped the silent-mask act he had been maintaining and poured out his own self-made scenario like a seasoned storyteller.
“When the Kim Hasa Faction collapsed in Yangpyeong, Chairman Jeong’s younger brother, Captain Jeong Taeseong of the riot police, must have secretly helped, along with Taeyang Faction’s men. Isn’t that right?”
“That’s right, Director Kang.”
“Hold on, Director Kang. I think the pieces are almost fitting together now.”
This time, Cheon Subeom cut Kang Inmuk off.
“Do Jaehyun.”
“Yes.”
“Then where is Director Han Suyeong now?”