Power & Sex, and... 53
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When I woke up, the house was quiet. The living room was still a mess from last night, with beer bottles lined up like soldiers—I must've drunk more than I thought. Since I had an early schedule, I left a note on the kitchen table and headed to my officetel.
Back at the officetel, I changed clothes and went straight to the office instead of the hotel for the breakfast meeting. Of course, I called Assemblyman Park Seong-hwan first, telling him an urgent matter had come up at the office and I couldn't make it, asking him to apologize to the others on my behalf.
Truth be told, those breakfast meetings are just empty rituals with no real substance. What kind of business gets done over morning food? It's all fake compliments and posturing like they're big-shot politicians. Politics is smiling at your opponent while gripping a knife behind your back, waiting for the perfect moment to stab. That's the reality.
"Don't you have a breakfast meeting today, sir?"
"No value for my money there."
"Please play along a bit. If you dismiss them too openly, you'll make enemies."
"My nose is already numb from my own troubles—do I have time to flirt over breakfast?"
"Have you at least eaten something this morning?"
"If you're that worried, boil some water for cup ramen and I'd be grateful."
Chief Kim looked genuinely displeased that I'd skipped the meeting and come to the office. He might have a point. Even in this cutthroat political world, you should avoid ruffling feathers and making unnecessary enemies. But the assemblyman he supported had zero interest in that stuff, so I could imagine how frustrating it must be for him as the chief aide responsible for everything.
Anyway, I brushed off his burning frustration as his problem and sat down at my laptop. I wrote a post on the party bulletin board outlining the current state of our party and my views on how it needed to change moving forward. I left the judgment up to the party members.
I grabbed the laptop and asked Chief Kim to come with me as I left the office. He followed without knowing why. I drove in silence, and he stared straight ahead without a word until we were about to cross into Seoul's outskirts.
"Where are we headed, sir?"
"Just out for some air."
"Assemblyman!"
"Ah, come on. Why so sensitive? You're not some rookie in this game."
"Where exactly, then?"
"Inje."
"Inje in Gangwon Province?"
"Yep."
"Why go all that way?"
"To see our division commander."
"Then let me drive."
Only then did Chief Kim relax, his face softening as he offered to take the wheel. But I had no intention of handing it over. I got off at Chuncheon JC and headed toward Hongcheon, but no tailing cars followed. After cruising the national highway with nothing behind me, I pulled into a nearby restaurant and booked a private room.
"Let's eat first."
The food came out, and after a quick meal, I set the laptop on the table and played the CD Do Cheol-rak had given me.
"What's this?"
Chief Kim stared at the people on the screen in shock, glancing at me wide-eyed, but I said nothing, just watched. After nearly an hour glued to the monitor, he looked at me with a hollow expression when it ended.
"I figured there was some dirt, but this is... really..."
He trailed off, unable to continue.
"This isn't all. There are five more discs."
"How many assemblymen are involved?"
"Most of the so-called senior figures."
"......"
"That's why I couldn't figure out how to handle it and wanted to consult you privately."
"We can't just let it slide. This is deceiving the public—the voters who elected them."
"If we blow it open, the party will implode."
"......"
That was exactly why I couldn't decide. The simplest way to deal with these guys was to release the videos and let the public see their true faces. But most were our party's heavyweights. If they got booted, the party would disintegrate, and I didn't have the confidence to clean up the mess.
I needed a way to keep them contained within the party while stripping their influence. That way, the party's public image would hold, and we could reform from there. But there was no one in the party with the political weight and savvy to discuss this. The few who had both were starring in these videos.
"How's Assemblyman Seo Jeong-ho involved? He's just a first-termer."
"Surprised me too. Probably like those old Agency for National Security Planning scholarship cases from the '80s and '90s."
"Without this CD, we'd have been in deep trouble ahead. Where'd it come from?"
"Better if you don't know. You know it's not because I don't trust you, right?"
Yeah. If I didn't trust Chief Kim, I wouldn't have brought him here to show him. But knowing the source could put him in danger, and I couldn't deny that. I'd felt the risk myself—checking the rearview the whole way, dodging his questions about Inje.
I ejected the CD, pocketed it, and stood. Since we were this far, might as well go to Inje, meet the division commander, and establish an alibi.
An hour later, we reached the sentry post of my old unit. I showed my assemblyman ID and requested a meeting with the division commander. Waiting briefly, a jeep sped up from afar. A major hopped out, saluting sharply. "Sir!"
"Oh, Company Commander! Sir!"
"Huh? Lieutenant Park?"
"Yes, sir. Park Maru. How'd you end up here, Company Commander?"
"Ah, an assemblyman came to see the division commander. Wait, Lieutenant Park?"
"Yes. Here to pay respects to the division commander."
"Oh man, sir! Loyalty!"
Turned out my old company commander from service days was now the division commander's aide. Five years since discharge, so he'd just pinned major recently. Once he realized I was the assemblyman visiting the commander, the dynamic shifted from old superior-subordinate to assemblyman-military officer. He saluted again, half-jokingly.
"Company Commander, looks like you're riding high these days."
"Why's that?"
"You've been gunning for division commander's aide forever. And using honorifics on your old subordinate?"
"He's an assemblyman now."
"No need to treat me like one."
"Still..."
"Let's go. Gotta trash your unit's chow hall today."
No division commander remembers lowly officers, especially years after discharge. No one expects that. He led me to the commander's office, where the division commander stood to greet me. But?
"Hey! Blockhead Park!"
I stifled a laugh.
The commander spotted me, pointed, called me "blockhead," and gawked in disbelief.
"Sir! Lieutenant Park Maru, here to greet the division commander!"
"You, blockhead—are you really an assemblyman?"
"Yes, sir!"
"This is insane. I gotta treat you like one, but of all people, you?"
"Commander, please..."
"Forget it. If that blockhead complains I didn't show respect, I'll just resign. Almost got stripped of my uniform back then anyway—what's to fear?"
"Come on, sir. That was over five years ago—why drag it up?"
"Drag it up? I still get a stiff neck thinking about how you nearly cost me my uniform."
The company commander tried to intervene, but the division commander clutched his neck, sinking into his chair as memories resurfaced. Fair enough—I'd pulled some blockhead stunts back then. Mostly that rifle incident hunting deer.
It wouldn't have been a big deal with a hunting rifle, but come winter, I'd drag the platoon out to hunt deer to feed them properly. That got me hauled before the commander more than once. Without my hometown senior's pull, I'd have rotted in the stockade multiple times. No wonder his reaction now.
And there was that division sports day—I felt bad for the commander just spectating, so I dragged him into soccer. Went all out, gave him a rough tackle, sprained his ankle bad enough for crutches. Still, no stockade, smooth discharge—thanks to standing in the right lines. Army truth: connections matter. Proved it from assignment on.
"Anyway, Assemblyman Park, everything's great, but why come all this way?"
"I'm on the National Defense Committee but know zilch about defense policy. Thought I'd ask for recommendations on who to learn from."
"You're on Defense? Korea's army is doomed. Gonna have frontline troops hunting deer?"
"Sir, back then rations sucked, so I was just trying to feed my platoon."
True, even I found it absurd being on Defense. As the commander said, if I didn't propose deer hunts for troop nutrition in committee, that'd be a win. I'm clueless on policy.