The Right Person for the Job
“Just as I told you. AK Capital is decent enough, in its own way. Loan-sharking has always carried the image of illegal moneylenders, but AK Capital follows the law. That said, that’s the limit. It can’t grow any bigger. At best, it’ll become something like a respectable savings bank, and that’ll be the end of it.”
“……”
“As you know, the Interest Rate Limitation Act is being abolished. Which means there’s no cap on interest rates anymore. Whether you’re a loan shark, a savings bank, or just a regular bank, isn’t the side with the most cash the one that comes out ahead?”
He spoke politely enough, even warmly, but Kim Museong’s roots were still in the streets, and the habits of that world still clung to his thinking.
“The president of AK Capital used to be a civil servant. A senior official at the Ministry of Finance and Economy, no less. Starting with a hundred million won and turning that into ten billion in sales in ten years. He’s an impressive man. And he’s completely family-oriented, right? You know, the kind who makes every decision around his own people.”
“……”
“At best, he’s a snake’s head. Johwa Savings Bank is a dragon, and our Manager Lee here isn’t just someone who can be the dragon’s tail. She can be the dragon’s head.”
“The world has…….”
Lee Jinhee, who had been listening quietly to Kim Museong, finally spoke up.
“It really feels like it’s improved, doesn’t it?”
“It has. Isn’t it great?”
Kim Museong poured expensive liquor into Lee Jinhee’s glass as he answered.
“Exactly. Assault, extortion, intimidation, and whatever else you want to pile on top. They call your record a set of stars, don’t they? A world where you can wear a few of those like medals and still eat well and live well. How good is that?”
“……”
“I know I’m not a doctor, and I’m not out there doing work that helps the world the way paramedics do. Loan-sharking? Honestly, it’s not the kind of job anyone brags about.”
“……”
This time, it was Kim Museong who sat there in silence and listened to Lee Jinhee.
“Still, no matter how much I made a living off sucking the blood out of ordinary people, I at least followed the law. And even while I was doing this line of work, I never used violence or took out my personal feelings on people just to torment them. So how about you, Representative Kim? How have you lived?”
“Manager Lee Jinhee…….”
Kim Museong reached into his jacket, took out a cigarette, and lit it.
“You’re going farther than I expected.”
“I haven’t even started yet.”
Matching Kim Museong’s tone, Lee Jinhee changed hers as well. Formal speech met formal speech, casual speech met casual speech, just as it had when Do Jaehyun first met Kim Museong.
What Do Jaehyun and Lee Jinhee had in common was their convictions and mindset. What was different was……
There’s no need to compare them. What kind of idiot compares a tiger to a wolf?
That was Kim Museong’s thought.
“As expected of Chairman Do Jaehyun. I see now why you like Manager Lee.”
“Representative Kim, how old are you?”
“I’m thirty-six this year.”
Kim Museong was actually thirty-four. Even he didn’t quite know why, but in those days, not only street men but also even mildly temperamental men had a habit, almost a custom, of claiming to be a year or two older when speaking to strangers.
“I’m one year older than you, then. And since it looks like you work with Jaehyun, and I’m older too, can we just drop the formalities?”
“No, we can’t.”
“I see.”
Like Kim Museong, Lee Jinhee took out a cigarette and put it between her lips.
Fwoosh.
She lit it with the lighter Do Jaehyun had given her, then set the lighter down on the table and slid it back toward Kim Museong.
“Tell Jaehyun that for me. It’s tempting, but I don’t think it’s something I’d use.”
Then, without hesitation, she got to her feet.
“Ah, and one more thing.”
Lee Jinhee fixed Kim Museong with a hard stare and said, “I don’t even know exactly what Jaehyun is doing, or what kind of work he’s doing now after leaving my side, but there’s one thing I want you to make sure you tell him.”
“……”
“No matter what a person does, no matter who they’re with, and no matter how much money they have, if they want to win someone’s heart, they have to be sincere. Not this act where they pretend there’s something grand and extraordinary about them. At the very least, the Do Jaehyun I knew was not that kind of man. But looking at you now, Mr. Kim Museong, maybe I never really knew Jaehyun at all. I hope we never have cause to meet again.”
Lee Jinhee stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray.
“You too, and Jaehyun as well.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The next morning.
“Mm…….”
For the first time in a while, Do Jaehyun woke up feeling refreshed before the alarm clock on his bedside table had a chance to ring.
“Huaaah, that was good.”
He got out of bed, stretched until his shoulders cracked, straightened the blanket, and threw open the curtains blocking the sunlight from the window.
“Huh?”
He had thought it was maybe around six in the morning, but the sun was already high overhead.
“W-what the hell?!”
He checked his phone and saw that it was already eight in the morning.
“No wonder I feel so good…….”
Do Jaehyun checked the alarm clock, which had stopped after the battery died, and gave a bitter smile.
“Mom, did you sleep well?”
He went into the living room out of habit to greet his mother, but today the room was silent. His mother, who normally had the morning news on while getting ready for work, wasn’t there, and he couldn’t hear the sounds of breakfast being prepared either.
“Is today some kind of special day…….”
Do Jaehyun looked around the house for her, but there was no sign of her anywhere.
—Son. Mom forgot to tell you yesterday. I have an academic seminar in Jeju this afternoon, so I had to leave early this morning. Don’t go looking for me, and eat the breakfast I left out. Be sure to heat up the soup before you eat.
Smiling at his mother’s careful thoughtfulness, Do Jaehyun sat down at the table. It wasn’t even his birthday, yet the table was piled high with seaweed soup and nourishing dishes, as if she had worried over her son, who had been running himself ragged lately.
Ring-ring-ring!
“Hm?”
As Do Jaehyun was finishing breakfast and heading into the shower room to wash up, his phone rang. The caller was Kim Museong.
“What is it so early in the morning?”
“Just as you said yesterday, I met with Manager Lee Jinhee.”
“Did you? How was it?”
“If I’m being honest…….”
At his words, a faint anticipation rose in Do Jaehyun without his even realizing it. So, how had Manager Lee Jinhee been? Judging by her usual personality, she probably hadn’t held back a single word with Kim Museong either.
“She was extremely rude…… and had terrible manners. I held back because of you, Chairman.”
“Haha. She’d do that and more. I told you already, just meet her casually.”
“Yes. But she didn’t even ask, did she?”
“Hm? Ask what, about Johwa Savings Bank?”
“Yes. If it were me, I’d have been curious enough to ask her, ‘Johwa Savings Bank isn’t even yours, and it doesn’t even exist yet, so how exactly are you planning to make me its representative director?’ But Manager Lee Jinhee didn’t do that.”
“She probably asked you anyway.”
“……Yes?”
“Didn’t Representative Kim just dodge the question when Manager Lee tried to test you, so you didn’t answer properly?”
For a moment, silence drifted through the phone.
“Now that you mention it, Chairman, I think you’re right.”
“You didn’t call me first thing in the morning just for that, though. What happened?”
“You told me to report anything unusual.”
“Was there anything unusual?”
“Well…….”
Kim Museong hesitated briefly, then told Do Jaehyun the truth.
“Manager Lee Jinhee seems like she’ll be difficult.”
“Why?”
“She told me to pass something on to you. And she said to give the lighter back too.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
So, what exactly had Manager Lee Jinhee wanted him to say?
“To put it simply, she said to treat people sincerely. Don’t hang around with street thugs like me. And most importantly, she said to tell you she never wants to see you again.”
“Pass.”
“Pardon?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I said she passed.”
“Passed……?”
Kim Museong’s baffled voice came through the phone speaker.
“That’s exactly right. She’s just the right amount of distance from me now, and she’s not the sort of person who’ll go around talking about me behind my back.”
“I’m not sure I follow, Chairman.”
“I’m not close enough to Manager Lee to have won her over in one shot, the way I did with Taeseong. In cases like that, it’s better to wipe out any notion of trust or confidence she may have had in me first. Then you show her again later. That what I said was true, and that I really am someone she needs.”
“The way you think still seems a little difficult for me, Chairman.”
“No matter how hard Representative Kim tried to persuade her yesterday, Manager Lee wouldn’t have come around.”
“Is that so?”
“Think about it. Why wouldn’t she have come around?”
Kim Museong replayed the previous day in his head, trying to work backward through it, but no answer came to him.
“You don’t know either, do you? How I’m planning to use Manager Lee as my stand-in and take Johwa Savings Bank into my own hands.”
“Well…….”
Even without seeing him, Do Jaehyun could picture Kim Museong giving a dry laugh.
“Of course I don’t.”
“Manager Jinhee shouldn’t know either. That way, it’ll be easier for me to persuade her again.”
“Mm…… I don’t fully understand, but I’ll take your word for it. I actually called because I was worried I’d messed up badly by following your order to treat her the way I’d normally deal with an old street boss I can’t stand. That’s a relief. Honestly, she seemed like an important person to you, so I was thinking about treating her a bit more properly, like I would one of your friends.”
“I told you not to do that. Good.”
“Thank you.”
Now the board was ripe.
What remained was naturally filling Han Suyeong’s empty seat. Of the people who would soon make up Johwa Savings Bank, Lee Jinhee was exactly the right person to outperform Han Suyeong, the man who was destined to become its owner. In any case, even in my previous life, after I took Johwa Savings Bank for myself, I put her in charge of it, and in a short time she turned it into the number one savings bank in South Korea.
But the person who would become the largest shareholder of Johwa Savings Bank would not be Lee Jinhee.
“Bulgom went to AK Capital yesterday, right?”
“Yes, I handled it cleanly, just as you ordered. Is form what makes the man, or what? That guy handled things cleaner than usual.”
“Send him again today.”
“Yes? Again today?”
“We need to collect the remaining payment. And I’ve got a gift for Manager Jinhee, too.”
“A gift? You mean cash? Or should I prepare bearer bonds or a check?”
“Just give Manager Lee one business card.”
“Which business card are you talking about?”
At this point, he had already given Kim Museong and Shin Gilwoo his business cards. Was there even another one left to give? Lee Jinhee had just told both Do Jaehyun and Kim Museong that she never wanted to see him again. In that case, even if he handed over his own card, it didn’t seem likely to move her heart.
But, as always, Do Jaehyun’s answer sheet veered far beyond Kim Museong’s expectations.
“Cheon Subeom, Strategic Planning Director of Johwa Group.”