Declaration of War
“...I’m counting on you, Director Park.”
“And there’s one thing I think we should clear up, sir.”
“...What is it?”
“If I remember correctly, I warned you that it was dangerous to come out with those women. So why did you leave the hotel with them?”
“......”
Because of that, the photographers had caught him on camera with his mistresses.
“If it weren’t for those photos, sir, you wouldn’t have had anything to worry about.”
“That’s... well, one of them wanted to go shopping...”
“You should have paid her off and ended it there!”
“Ahem.”
In truth, Choi Jeong-san’s deviation from his usual, if questionable, rendezvous with his kept women had taken place under Park Jin-tae’s design.
“If you manage to sweet-talk the boss, you’ll get a handbag worth a few million won. Side income.”
-Oh! Really?
“He’s not a small-minded man, so keep him in a good mood and take what you can get.”
-Is that really all right? You said before that I wasn’t supposed to go out with the boss.
Park Jin-tae had told her not to leave with Choi Jeong-san, but he had known perfectly well that she would never obey that order, so he had always taken special care to warn the women. Today, however, he was overturning the very instruction he had drilled into them.
“I’ll book a hotel near a luxury-brand store. The rest is up to you. I’ll act like I know nothing.”
-Thank you, Director. Hehe.
It had only been possible in the first place because Park was the one managing the kept women.
“And I plan to clean up every woman you’ve met up until now as well.”
“All of them? Even Hye-ran and Jin-hee? Their photos weren’t even taken.”
“We can’t leave any risk factors behind. I’ll make sure those women are properly silenced.”
He could not allow Choi Jeong-san to find out that Park had left those separate instructions.
“Tch. Then how am I supposed to have any fun? Can’t I at least keep one, like Jin-hee?”
“If we handle it this way, you’ll have something to say to Madam as well.”
Gulp.
At the thought of the wife waiting for him at home, Choi Jeong-san nodded.
“R-right. I should get rid of them all.”
Having settled the matter of the kept women for now, Park Jin-tae turned to the company’s share price problem, which had been triggered by the scandal.
“This article has pushed our stock down again.”
“Damn it.”
Since the drop had started from within, from himself rather than an external cause, Choi Jeong-san could not take out his temper on Park Jin-tae as usual.
“No matter how many articles we suppress, we can’t stop them all. The press is going to be noisy for a while, so there’s no way to prevent further losses.”
“How far do you think it’ll fall?”
“When the issue surrounding the eldest son first surfaced, our market cap fell to the five-trillion-won range. Now it’s reached the high four-trillion range.”
It meant it could still fall further.
“The chairman’s anger is going to be severe.”
“......”
Now was not the time to think about the wife waiting for him at home. He had no face to show his father at the family estate.
“Should I go once things quiet down a little?”
“...The chairman called directly. He’s summoned you to the family estate.”
“...Fuck.”
Win or lose, he had to go before his father and beg.
“You need to go today.”
“Let’s go. Fine. Let’s go die.”
Before that, Park still had one last report.
“Lastly, I’d like to report on the additional funds being spent to control the prosecutors and the press.”
“Those money-grubbing bastards...”
That was rich coming from Choi Jeong-san, who had been greedily eyeing even his illegitimate son’s money.
“There’s no overseas slush fund left from the last Duojardin investment.”
Park deliberately brought up the overseas slush fund Choi already knew about, as if to rub it in again.
This is all your fault!
“Ahem. Well, that’s money coming back in, so skip it.”
“But there was still some room left in the officetel fund set aside for external control, and it’s being used to bury this incident.”
“Don’t hold back. Spend it all. Duojardin is definitely going to be a huge success anyway.”
“...Yes, sir.”
* * *
At the same time, problems were quietly beginning to surface at Duojardin, the company Choi Jeong-san trusted without question. The press had caught a scent.
“Mr. Robert. You worked as a researcher at Duojardin?”
A former researcher who had worked at Duojardin requested a meeting with a journalist.
“Yes. I worked for five years in Duojardin’s New Product Development Team and Kit Research Lab. Then I was fired after reporting to my superiors that our diagnostic kit development was being misrepresented to the outside world. I was also threatened that if I said anything with legal trouble in mind, I should be prepared for the company’s legal response.”
“What do you mean by being misrepresented to the outside world?”
At the time, the journalist had no idea how important an event Robert’s interview would prove to be.
“Our disease-diagnosis kit is not yet at a level high enough to even think about commercializing it.”
“That’s hard to believe. Haven’t related experts and investors already placed firm trust in it? In particular, even a former president and a giant in the financial world have spoken in interviews expressing confidence in Duojardin’s new product.”
Because he had worked on the practical side, the researcher did not know how things were unfolding outside.
“I can’t say for certain why they’ve placed their faith in the diagnostic kit. But I am the one who knows everything about it. All I can say is that I myself can’t trust it.”
“People outside will assume this is a retaliatory disclosure from a man fired by Duojardin. As the company warned, legal problems could arise.”
This kind of interview was not unprecedented. A few employees who had been dismissed from Duojardin had already conducted smear interviews of that sort. But, as the journalist had said, they were all being dismissed as people fabricating lies out of personal grudges.
“I was the head of the research lab in charge of developing Duojardin’s diagnostic kit. There isn’t a single product under development at Duojardin that hasn’t passed through my hands.”
“!”
The words of an ordinary researcher and those of a lab director carried very different weight.
“Everything the dismissed staff from the lab have said in their interviews is true. Duojardin’s disease-diagnosis kit is not especially superior even compared with kits already on the market, and it is impossible for it to diagnose more than one hundred diseases. The proposed two-hundred-disease kit doesn’t even need mentioning. I never even began development on it in the first place. I never instructed the researchers working with me to develop anything of the sort, either.”
“Mr. Robert, are you certain that nothing you just said is false?”
“Not a single word of it is a lie. This material I brought from Duojardin proves it.”
He held up a USB drive.
“That material is...”
“It contains Duojardin’s true diagnostic-kit performance data, hidden until now.”
It was the key evidence that would put an end to the Duojardin frenzy sweeping through investors.
* * *
James was training alone in the garden.
Swish.
After a fluid chain of motion, a sharp kick followed. The imposing force that had started in his lower abdomen surged down his thigh, flowed through his calf, and burst out through his foot in an instant.
Paang!
The explosive kick finished off the opponent James had sketched in his imagination.
Whoosh.
James ducked past a sword strike from another enemy behind him, closed the distance, and snapped up a palm strike.
Clang.
He could not feel the impact, but he was certain the other man’s jaw had been reduced to powder.
Then, in a single leap, he launched light kicks to both sides.
Paang. Paang!
The chests of the two men approaching from either side caved in, rendering them helpless.
“Phew.”
James had been fighting four opponents he had designated as enemies, and now that he had finished them all off, he let out a comfortable breath.
“Is winter almost here?”
James could feel the hot weather had shifted into something cool, almost chilly, and he knew the time was drawing near.
The time to bring TY Telecom down is coming.
He looked forward to the day when a year would pass and TY Telecom’s shareholders’ meeting would be held. The declaration of war had already been made.
* * *
Choi Jeong-pil, the second son of TY Group, hurried into Choi Jeong-san’s office.
“Hyung! What the hell have you been doing to let it get this bad?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You still haven’t even seen the disclosure? A large overseas fund has acquired more than 5% of TY Telecom’s shares! And they say the purpose is to participate in management...”
“You came all the way here for something like that? What can you even do with five percent? You’ll end up wasting your time for nothing, so get back to the company!”
James’s declaration of war had been carried out through the Vatican sovereign wealth fund. It had acquired more than 5% of the shares, and in the disclosure it stated clearly that the purpose of the investment was not ordinary profit-taking but participation in TY Telecom’s management.
“Does Father know about this too?”
“...And if the chairman does? You think you can shove me aside and come back to TY Telecom?”
With the string of incidents this year already leaving his position as TY Telecom president on shaky ground, Choi Jeong-san found his brother Choi Jeong-pil’s visit especially irritating.
“Hyung, I came because I was worried about the company...”
“Worry about your own company. Don’t you dare pretend you’re concerned about TY Telecom just so you can stick a foot in the door.”
“TY Telecom is being hit by a massive consumer boycott. You call that fine?”
It was the result of Tae-jin’s drug scandal and Choi Jeong-san’s adultery articles. To consumers and ordinary citizens alike, TY Telecom had become the very image of a corrupt, filthy chaebol family.
“TY Chemical is taking an enormous hit too because of everything that’s happened!”
“Hah. The holding company’s troubles are none of my concern? That’s your real motive, isn’t it.”
“......”
As Choi Jeong-pil stared at him in disbelief, Choi Jeong-san added,
“So what you’re really saying is, just don’t hurt your company. Fine. Fine.”
“Hyung! I came to help...”
“Say another word and I’ll have you dragged out.”
“......”
“I’ll handle my own business. So shut up and get lost.”
Under his brother’s sharply guarded gaze, Choi Jeong-pil could no longer bring himself to insist on helping. But he still needed to confirm the danger.
“Then let me ask you just one thing, hyung.”
“...Make it quick.”
“If this turns into a fight over shares, can we win?”
“It’s only five percent so far. What can they even do with that? I’ve got seven percent myself. Father holds twenty percent!”
“They’ve declared war! That means we need to find out what shares those overseas investment firms are holding too!”
“It’s all scattered around, isn’t it? How are you supposed to gather that together?”
Everything Choi Jeong-san knew had come from Park Jin-tae, and that was the sum total of his information.
“Hyung! A giant sovereign wealth fund is in motion here! You think they’d jump in with just five percent without thinking? It means they already secured other shares! Besides, the stock has been falling too sharply lately...”
“Cut the nonsense! I’ve already checked everything. Stop writing your little novel and get out!”
In the end, Choi Jeong-pil had to leave the office without confirming anything.
I need to see Father.
And he headed for the family estate.
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