Exposing the Abuse (1)
Kim Sung-gwun wore a puzzled look.
“Why would you think that?”
I explained the reason to him.
“First, the National Pension Service will give up its voting rights.”
“What do you mean by that?”
I thought of the chairman’s youngest son from Hanjeong Group, whom I had met the last time around.
Ironically, the key to this merger proposal was practically in his hands. At this point, I was the only one who knew it.
This was a duel fought for money. If you didn’t devour the other side, you got devoured yourself. So I intended to use every weapon available.
“You’ll understand the details if you watch closely.”
“All right. And the second reason?”
“Hedge funds and KSGI aren’t the only ones interested in this.”
His brow tightened slightly.
“You’re saying there’s another power involved?”
I gave neither a yes nor a no.
“What I’m interested in is what happens after the merger falls apart.”
What did KSGI and Elliott want?
Obviously, to scuttle the merger between Hanjeong Mulsan and HJ Logistics.
Then what came next?
For the moment, it would look as if they had made money by pushing the stock price higher and pocketing the spread, but a stock that rises because of a fight always falls once the fight ends.
Someone might think they could just sell before the merger, but KSGI and Elliott were the “price makers” who had helped create the current valuation in the first place.
The moment they even hinted at pulling out, the stock would collapse.
Since it was difficult to unload such a large stake in a short period, they had to push the price up first just to have a market to sell into.
If they followed the same playbook as before, they would seize a few board seats, sell off non-core assets, push for the listing of unlisted affiliates, and demand higher dividends.
That was exactly as far as he had thought it through.
But I had no intention of stopping there. To do that, I needed to join forces with KSGI and Elliott.
“If the merger collapses, Hanjeong Mulsan’s stock will drop sharply. That’s when the real work begins, if you ask me.”
Kim Sung-gwun looked at me with suspicion.
“Just who the hell are you?”
“You’ll know when the time comes.”
Even if I told him now, he would have a hard time believing me.
Convincing him would have to wait until I had shown my worth.
Rather than answer more questions, I checked the time and rose from my seat.
“Looks like twenty minutes are up. Thanks for making time for me. Let’s speak again later.”
Ju Hyeon-jin was riding out to Gyeonggi Province by car to inspect the HJ Food factory.
Under normal circumstances, he would have sent someone else, but this was a period of open conflict over the holding company merger plan. As the chairman’s youngest son and the vice chairman’s younger brother, he had to at least pretend to be working hard.
He was on the phone with a friend inside the car.
“The National Pension Service is going to vote our way anyway. Father met a VIP directly at that last business leaders’ luncheon and made the request himself. The whole group is out there buttering up lawmakers from both parties too—more investment, more factories, more hiring, more political donations, the whole damn package. Frankly, what are they going to do if the president or some lawmaker doesn’t back us? From their perspective, wouldn’t they rather side with a chaebol that does everything they ask than with some hedge fund that won’t listen? If the National Pension Service votes yes, the shareholder meeting is basically over before it starts.”
“But there are still the minority shareholders’ votes, aren’t there?”
Ju Hyeon-jin snorted.
“Heh. Minority shareholders? What the hell are they going to do if they vote no? The bastards who are opposing it now are probably just planning to ride the stock up and dump it later anyway. They’re shareholders in name only—just a bunch of ants. Even if ants swarm together, they’re still just a swarm of ants, right? If those hedge funds hadn’t stuck their noses in, we wouldn’t even have to care what those vermin think.”
“By the way, what are you going to do about that bastard?”
“Ah! That piece of shit?”
“From what I’ve gathered, he doesn’t seem to have any real connection to Vice Chairman Yang Ja-eun. He filed that report on the Primus Fund mess before it blew up, got chewed out for it, and apparently got pissed enough to explode the whole thing on his own. Vice Chairman Yang Ja-eun just used it.”
“Really?”
“And it doesn’t seem like he has much to do with Sung Yoon-ah, either.”
“Are you serious?”
Ju Hyeon-jin thought back to what Han Miru had done that day.
Knowing full well that he was the chairman’s son, the bastard had shown no fear at all. No—he had even cursed at him and raised his voice in front of his friends.
So Ju Hyeon-jin had assumed there was something there.
So all that was just bluffing?
The thought that he had been insulted by such a worthless nobody made his blood boil.
I should’ve just crushed him right there.
He was grinding his teeth in fury when the car suddenly slammed to a stop, pitching him forward.
Startled, Ju Hyeon-jin immediately kicked the back of the driver’s seat.
Thud!
“You fucking idiot! Can’t you drive properly?”
The middle-aged driver hurriedly ducked his head.
“I-I’m sorry. A car cut in front of us all of a sudden.”
“And how many times do I have to tell you to just hit it? Who told you to brake? I told you to ram the bastard! Do my words mean nothing to you?”
“I’m sorry, Director.”
If he really did ram it, then Ju Hyeon-jin would turn around and scream that he had caused an accident.
The last time there had been a minor fender-bender, he had tormented the driver for days, accusing him of trying to kill him and threatening to file attempted murder charges.
On top of that, he had deducted the repair costs from his salary.
The car started moving again, but Ju Hyeon-jin was still too angry to let it go and kept kicking the headrest behind the driver’s seat.
“Goddamn it, why do you always do something you need to apologize for? Are you so stupid you never learned a damn thing, even at your age? Is your head just rotten? Is that why your kid’s brain is slow and your wife ran off?”
“……I’m sorry.”
“One more stunt like that and you’re done. If you don’t want to end up on the street begging with your kid, then drive properly. Understand?”
“Y-yes, sir.”
Ju Hyeon-jin stared at the driver for a moment.
“Why the hell are you making that face? Don’t tell me you’re offended by what I said?”
The driver forced a smile.
“Hah. N-not at all.”
“Good. Smile a little. You look better when you smile.”
Ju Hyeon-jin went back to his call with his friend.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Kim the driver was screwing up the driving, so I just gave him a little reminder to do it right.”
When he returned from inspecting the food factory in the provinces, it was already past eleven.
The car Ju Hyeon-jin was riding in arrived at the underground parking lot of a luxury villa in Cheongdam-dong.
Parked in a neat line there, alongside the Mercedes S-Class he used for work, were imported cars like Ferraris, McLarens, and Porsches.
The driver pulled up as close as possible to the shared entrance and got out first to open the door.
“You worked hard, Director.”
Just as Ju Hyeon-jin was about to go inside, he stopped and took a wallet from his inner pocket, then held out several fifty-thousand-won bills.
“It’s late, so take a taxi home. Use whatever’s left to buy some chicken for your kid.”
His hand was pointed downward rather than forward.
It meant the driver should bow as low as possible and accept the money respectfully.
The driver bent deeply at the waist and took it with both hands.
“Thank you, Director.”
“I might need to leave early tomorrow, so come by and wait from six.”
“Understood. Have a good night.”
The driver stayed bowed until Ju Hyeon-jin had completely disappeared, then straightened up and parked the car.
When he checked the time, he was relieved to see it was still before the last bus.
He headed for a nearby bus stop so he could go home, but his legs felt weak all of a sudden. His whole body was shaking, making it hard to walk properly.
When he had first gotten the job as a chaebol family driver through an acquaintance, he had been thrilled out of his mind. But within days, the abuse began.
The physical abuse was tolerable, since it was only a light smack on the head or a kick now and then. The verbal abuse, however, was unbearable.
What had started as casual, muttered insults soon turned into the very term used to address him.
As the days went by, the abuse only got worse.
At first, he thought it was because he had done something wrong, so he tried to work harder and do better. But at some point, he realized it was pointless.
Ju Hyeon-jin’s only goal was to humiliate him.
Before long, he could no longer meet Director Ju’s eyes. So whenever he stood in front of him, he always kept his head bowed.
Whenever he was on the verge of quitting because he couldn’t bear it anymore, Ju Hyeon-jin would wave around tips worth hundreds of thousands of won.
No matter how vicious the insults got, all he could do was grit his teeth and endure them.
He wasn’t educated. He didn’t have any real experience. If he quit this job, there was no guarantee he would find anything better.
His wife had left home, and his son had Down syndrome.
His pride as a human being had been gone for a long time.
And yet...
Is this really the kind of life I’m supposed to keep living?
Sometimes, in a fit of anger, he felt like driving straight into a river or off a cliff.
Then what would Ju Hyeon-jin do? Would he keep cursing and kicking, or would he beg for his life?
The only reason he couldn’t do it was the son waiting for him at home.
If he died, who would take care of his boy?
Deep at the bottom of his despair, a seething rage had taken root.
He could not let this go on as it was. Ju Hyeon-jin had to pay for insulting his son.
But...
Could I really do it?
And even if he did, could he actually hurt Ju Hyeon-jin in any meaningful way?
While he was still wrestling with that thought, someone appeared in front of him.
“Hello. You’re Kim Seung-do, right?”
The driver eyed him warily.
The man looked to be in his mid-twenties.
“Who are you?”
I stopped him when he said he had to get home before the last bus left and led him into a nearby café.
The middle-aged driver in his suit had a slightly gaunt face and wore glasses. His back was bent, his shoulders sagged, and the eyes behind those lenses looked dull and unfocused.
He looked exhausted, the kind of worn-down tiredness that comes from driving late into the night.
He took a sip of coffee and looked at me, probably wondering what on earth I had come looking for him for.
“My name is Han Miru.”
When he heard my name, he seemed to think of something and muttered under his breath.
“That bastard...”
“Pardon?”
He had definitely just cursed at me, hadn’t he?
He seemed startled at having said it out loud himself and quickly waved his hand.
“Ah! I’m sorry. I’ve been hearing so much swearing lately that it just slipped out.”
...
Just how much had that bastard been cursing at me in the car?
Trying to change the subject, he asked, “So, what is it you want?”
“Nothing complicated. I wanted to ask you about Director Ju Hyeon-jin.”
He looked at me suspiciously.
“What about him?”
“I heard there are rumors that he often insults and hits the people around him. I was wondering if anything like that has actually happened.”
His hand trembled slightly.
“Are you a reporter?”
“No.”
“Then why are you asking?”
“I’m just curious.”
He said firmly, “I don’t know where you heard that nonsense, but none of that is true. If you came here to talk about something useless, I’m leaving.”
He must have thought I was testing him.
One careless word here could spell disaster for him.
“If you’re thinking of exposing Director Ju Hyeon-jin’s abuse of power, I’d advise you not to do it.”
My words made him pause as he was about to stand.
“What did you say?”
Compared to his father, Chairman Ju Min-jae, and his older brother, Vice Chairman Ju Cheol-jin, Ju Hyeon-jin was not especially well known to the public.
But there would come one incident that would thrust his name into the spotlight and burn those three syllables into the minds of the entire nation all at once.
It was the case of his repeated abuse—verbal and physical—of his driver over the course of several years.