Chapter 46
I’m translating the chapter into HTML-formatted English prose and keeping the in-world dialogue and atmosphere intact. The source has no special system blocks here, so I’m shaping it into normal narrative paragraphs with one paragraph per spoken line.CHAPTER_TITLE: Chapter 46: The Most Dangerous Place Is the Safest Place
“What? Johwa Group? Han Suyeong has a backer?”
Shin Gilwoo and Kim Museong both stiffened.
“Do you already have a scenario in mind? If it were just the two of us, we’d move with your safety as the top priority no matter what, but if the Taeyang Faction is tangled up in this too, then we really do need to write the scenario carefully.”
“The most dangerous place is the safest place.”
“Huh? What does that mean, hyung?”
“Just something I remember. I’m not even sure where I saw it, but I know I read it in some book.”
“Soon, through Jeong Taeyang’s introduction, either Director Cheon Subeom or Director Kang Inmuk will come looking for Kim the Representative. Same for you, Gilwoo.”
Shin Gilwoo and Kim Museong nodded.
“I’m going to the safest place.”
“Huh? Hyung, don’t tell me...”
“Chairman, think it over once more. That’s a little dangerous.”
“Ah, of course I’m not planning to go alone. I’ll need a helper.”
“A helper?”
“The Mutual Savings Bank Act will be announced soon. About a week from now. Before that, Kim the Representative should clean up the illegal private lending side, and Gilwoo should expand the entertainment business at WH Entertainment as planned. And also...”
The more I thought about what was coming, the tighter the nerves coiled in my chest.
“We’ll finish off the remaining Kim Hasa Faction remnants in one shot, working with Johwa Group. Prepare both sides.”
“Understood, Chairman.”
“Okay. Gilwoo, you heard me too?”
With that, I stood up.
“Hyung, where are you going? You’re not done talking yet.”
Do Jaehyun flashed Shin Gilwoo a thin smile.
“I’m going to meet my helper.”
* * *
The headquarters of Johwa Group.
After stepping off the elevator on the fifteenth floor of Johwa Building, Cheon Subeom began walking.
“Good afternoon, Director.”
“Oh my, Director. Have you eaten?”
“Director Cheon, long time no see. You should come by more often.”
From junior staff to executives, he greeted them all one by one, meeting each person’s eyes with a smile as he headed for the office at the far end of the fifteenth-floor corridor.
Vice Chairman Han Junyeong of Johwa Group.
He was the second son of Johwa Group Chairman Han Gangho, and together with his older brother Han Jaeyeong, he was one of the conglomerate’s only two vice chairmen.
“Hoo...”
Director Cheon adjusted his tie once and drew a long breath.
Knock, knock.
“Hello, Director.”
A beautiful female secretary opened the door and greeted Director Cheon Subeom.
“Yes. You’ve worked hard.”
When you opened the door to Vice Chairman Han Junyeong’s office, a space of about eight to ten pyeong greeted you. At the far end of that space, there was yet another door fitted with a fingerprint recognition lock.
Another door inside the room.
The glass door, like the entrance to a branch office of an insurance company, gave off a strange sense of dissonance to anyone seeing it for the first time, and even to those who came often.
Some might have argued that the place was enormous by ordinary standards. But considering that executives at a conglomerate the size of Johwa Group often used offices at least twice the size of a regular employee’s, and in some cases three or four times larger, the fact remained that Han Junyeong’s office looked remarkably frugal.
That said, unlike the other executives, Han Junyeong’s vice chairman office had one visibly unusual feature. Ordinarily, an executive’s office used by a lone superior with only a secretary in attendance did not divide space quite so completely, but Han Junyeong was different.
What was even stranger was that, like a security facility, the automatic door had two smaller doors installed on either side. One led to the secretary’s office where Secretary Yoon worked, and the other to a tiny pantry.
“The vice chairman is on a call.”
Secretary Yoon stamped her fingerprint at the glass door lock and guided Cheon Subeom inside.
“Would you mind waiting in the reception room for a moment?”
“Of course. I don’t want to interrupt his work, so there’s no need to tell the vice chairman I’m waiting.”
“Thank you.”
Chairman Han Gangho and his eldest son Han Jaeyeong each had offices the size of a sports field.
But the office of Johwa Group’s second vice chairman, Han Junyeong, was only about half that size, chopped into four pieces as if it had been sliced apart.
“Still the same, I see. Secretary Yoon must have a hard time.”
“Not at all. It’s only right that I do it.”
It had been a place he had entered and left dozens of times, no, hundreds of times already, but Director Cheon Subeom still found Han Junyeong’s office uncomfortable.
The best part of this bizarrely strange yet spotless office was that there was another office inside it.
A broad, oversized desk several times larger than the desks used by ordinary employees, a comfortable chair, and a private office set up with four monitors just for Vice Chairman Han Junyeong.
The whole arrangement looked like a prosecutor’s office inside the district attorney’s building.
“What would you like to drink?”
“Ice water would be nice.”
Still, true to the title of vice chairman, they had made a reception-like space here.
“I’ll prepare it.”
Secretary Yoon bowed and went into the pantry. Director Cheon slowly looked around the office. Han Junyeong’s completely separated workspace was surrounded by frosted glass in place of walls. The vice chairman’s office, enclosed by dozens of square glass panels roughly fifty centimeters across, made it difficult to tell what he was doing right now, though it was still faintly visible if you focused.
Just like Han Junyeong himself, impossible to read.
Isn’t he dancing on the edge of a blade that’s far too dangerous?
Like a silent monologue from a musical actor, that thought slipped from Director Cheon’s lips in a very faint voice.
“...sir.”
“...Director.”
For a moment, lost in thought as he worried over his relationship with Han Junyeong, Cheon Subeom turned his head.
“Director Cheon Subeom.”
“Ah? Sorry, Secretary Yoon. Don’t mind me and go back to work.”
“Yes, Director.”
“I’ll enjoy it.”
Secretary Yoon disappeared beyond the glass door.
“...So, what if I do it and it works, Representative?”
Han Junyeong’s voice reached Cheon Subeom’s ears. The vice chairman’s office, enclosed by frosted glass walls, had no real soundproofing; if you paid attention, even the typing of his keyboard and the voice of the phone call he was having now came through without much filtration.
It was almost as if Han Junyeong were asking, Would anything change just because a man like you watched and listened to what I do?
“Interesting. I dance with the sword, and you want me to eat the rice cake? I’d probably do it better myself. I’d even cut off a pig’s head and offer it up on the memorial table... Right, Representative? You think so too, don’t you?”
At the soft, low voice drifting out from behind the glass, Cheon Subeom felt a chill rise over his whole body. That voice combined banter and courtesy, spoke in half-formal and half-casual tones, and pressed down on the other person with a friendliness that was all the more suffocating for being gentle.
It felt like a spider wrapping a delicious piece of prey in its web, something it could eat whenever it pleased.
“Yes, please handle it that way. Representative.”
At last, Han Junyeong’s call ended.
“Wait a moment. I’ll be out.”
At the sound of Han Junyeong’s voice, Cheon Subeom rose from his seat and straightened his clothes once more. Through the hazy glass, he could see Han Junyeong slipping a jacket over his shirt.
Han Junyeong, who even indoors and even when meeting subordinates maintained the same exacting politeness a lawyer would show a VIP client, was especially hard for Cheon Subeom to bear today.
“Welcome, Director Cheon.”
A kind, gentle smile.
“Don’t stand. Have a seat.”
“Thank you, Vice Chairman.”
Large, round glasses that concealed narrow eyes lifted just a little at the corners, a slightly loose white shirt, and a navy suit that suited a man’s complexion well.
“I haven’t been seeing your face much lately. I assume something important has been going on?”
To anyone who didn’t know better, he looked like the sort of bookish man who might have become a lawyer after studying nothing but books all his life.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been a bit busy.”
Every time he stood before this man, Cheon Subeom felt uneasy. There was something instinctive about him that made people uncomfortable, but it wasn’t simple anxiety.
If someone asked Cheon Subeom to define this man in one sentence, he could answer without hesitation.
“Really? Too busy to give me even a brief heads-up?”
A snake.
Not just any snake, either, but a dazzling rainbow-colored boa constrictor that could swallow an elephant in one gulp.
Someone who hid himself right now in such an unremarkable dark color, but who would, if given the chance, swallow Johwa Group whole in a single bite.
“It was the chairman’s instruction.”
“The chairman’s instruction?”
“Yes, Vice Chairman.”
“Really, it was the chairman’s instruction?”
Han Junyeong didn’t even ask what had been ordered.
“That’s right.”
“No, that can’t be right. There’s no way. The chairman isn’t the sort of man who would do that...”
Han Junyeong was focused not on the instruction itself, but on who had given it.
“No, Vice Chairman. What the chairman ordered was...”
“I know what it is.”
“...?!”
Cheon Subeom barely swallowed the groan that nearly escaped him. He knew what Chairman Han Gangho had ordered? That was something only Director Kang Inmuk and Cheon Subeom himself had known until just yesterday. And the only people on the scene at the time had been the security team under Kang Inmuk’s control.
And yet, less than twenty-four hours later, Han Junyeong knew it, sitting here quietly?
“That isn’t the chairman’s instruction.”
“......”
“I’m right, aren’t I? That wasn’t the chairman’s instruction. Am I wrong? Your opinion, Director Cheon, isn’t the same as mine, is it?”
“No... I think so too, Vice Chairman.”
“You know what I’m thinking?”
“I...”
Cheon Subeom racked his brain furiously, not even realizing his palms were damp with sweat.
Vice Chairman Han Junyeong.
When dealing with this man, every single word had to be handled as carefully as a shaman dancing on the edge of a razor-sharp blade. That was what Cheon Subeom felt in his gut.
“I’m not so clueless that I’d dare to discuss the chairman’s feelings in front of the vice chairman.”
“What?!”
Han Junyeong looked at Cheon Subeom with exaggerated surprise.
“Hahahahaha. Ah, seriously. That’s really funny. Ah... hahahahaha!”
Cheon Subeom burst into laughter, clutching his stomach, and took off his glasses. Wiping them clean with a cloth, he continued.
“That’s right. That wasn’t the chairman’s instruction. It was the heart of a father who felt sorry for that bastard bastard Han Suyeong, the mistress’s son. A final pang of guilt from a father who’s usually as iron-hard as if not a single drop of blood would come out even if you pricked him with a needle, wouldn’t you say?”
“......”
“It’s all right. You can be honest.”
“......”
“If you keep doing this, it won’t be fun. I thought of you as one of mine, Director Cheon, but maybe I was wrong?”
Han Junyeong stared silently at Cheon Subeom, who gave no answer, then put his freshly cleaned glasses back on and asked,
“Or what? Was it the eldest son of our Han family, Vice Chairman Han Jaeyeong? Were you more interested in that bastard than in me, the second son?”