Struggling
With a creak.
The next day, just as he had told James he would, Secretary Park went to Chairman Choi Tae-yeong's house.
Thud.
He pulled up at the front gate, parked with practiced ease, and pressed the doorbell without a trace of hesitation.
Bzzzt.
“Who is it?”
“Park Jin-tae, from the Strategic Planning Office.”
“Secretary Park?”
“I have something urgent to discuss with the chairman. It concerns a matter of immediate importance.”
“...Come in.”
“Chairman Choi Jeong-pil will be arriving soon as well.”
“Ah. He's already here.”
“That's a relief.”
Clack.
Choi Jeong-san pressed his lips into a hard line and strode through the open gate.
From this moment on, your hell begins. The Choi family.
Secretary Park bowed deeply before the chairman and apologized.
“I’m sorry for dropping by so suddenly, Chairman.”
“...You’re not the sort to do this without a reason.”
He also lowered his head to Choi Jeong-pil, who was seated nearby.
“And I apologize to Chairman Choi as well.”
“No, not at all. I was merely surprised that Secretary Park had asked to see me too.”
From the moment Park, the brother's right hand in all but name, contacted him, Choi Jeong-pil had been tense. His instincts told him this was no ordinary matter.
“...What happened to your forehead?”
The ugly stitched scar had caught his eye.
“...For the same reason I cannot tell Chairman Choi about this matter right away.”
“?”
Chairman Choi Tae-yeong did not quite understand, but decided to hear Park out first.
“Sit. First, tell me what this urgent matter is about.”
“Thank you.”
And then Park Jin-tae began to speak.
“I believe you've heard about the large fund that recently announced its intent to participate in management at our company.”
“...I have. But as far as I know, there have been no further movements.”
The overseas fund had crossed the 5 percent threshold and filed for management participation, yet had not bought additional shares afterward. That was why Chairman Choi was certain events were unfolding exactly as he had expected.
“That was what I believed as well until recently. But after closely monitoring the market and working in close coordination with domestic securities firms, we discovered something...”
Park lowered his voice as he felt their full attention settle on him.
“...a massive transfer of shares.”
“A massive transfer? Then the exchange should have picked up the transactions too!”
After all, once someone acquired more than 5 percent of a company, the law required the holding to be disclosed within five days.
“These holdings do not exceed 2 percent each.”
“Holdings?”
“It seems they’ve been quietly accumulating shares through multiple accounts. But since their movements follow the same pattern, I suspect there is a force behind them coordinating those accounts from the shadows.”
“...”
“...”
Chairman Choi Jeong-pil could feel the warning signs rising from the soles of his feet.
This is bad... My vague sense of unease was right after all...
Suppressing his shock, Chairman Choi Tae-yeong forced himself to analyze the situation as calmly as possible.
This is...
“...You mean there’s a foreign force targeting TY Telecom?”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“Do you know how much stock they hold?”
“It isn’t exact, but we estimate roughly 25 percent.”
“Hah! That is an enormous amount...”
“Father. At that level, couldn’t they really demand a share of management control?”
“But it still falls short of our family's holdings.”
Park Jin-tae immediately overturned the chairman's confidence.
“The 25 percent I mentioned is after excluding the 5 percent they already disclosed publicly.”
“!!”
“Then you mean 30 percent?”
“At the very least, yes.”
Only then did Chairman Choi realize the fire had already caught his own feet.
“If the situation is this bad, then we should be telling that bastard Jeong-san to come up with a plan! Isn't that what the slush fund I gave him is for?”
The slush fund Choi Jeong-san had been managing had not been built by his own hands alone; it had all begun with Choi Tae-yeong.
“...That's precisely why I came here without meeting Chairman Choi Jeong-san first, Chairman. He cannot handle this matter.”
“What? Why not!”
“Recently, when the finance director of one company visited and proposed an investment, Chairman Choi invested the entire amount in that account.”
“The entire amount?”
“Yes.”
“Then we should pull it out right now and redirect it into share accumulation...”
“The problem is the company Chairman Choi invested in.”
“...And what company would that be?”
Park bowed apologetically.
“Before I tell you the company's name, please hear my shameful excuse. I opposed investing in that company several times, and until the very end I delayed the transfer of funds and tried to stop Chairman Choi.”
“Enough. Just tell me what company it is! I’ll call them myself and tell them to return the money immediately!!!”
Not even the president could have made that happen.
“Duojardin, the company that caused the worst damage in the investment market recently.”
“!!!”
“D-Duojardin? The one that ran investment fraud on a global scale?”
“That’s right, Chairman Choi. That very Duojardin.”
“Then that means you’ve lost four billion dollars!?”
“Yes, Chairman. On the day it was exposed that Duojardin had deceived everyone until now, Chairman Choi threw a flowerpot at me and turned the office upside down. The scar on my forehead is the medal I earned that day.”
“...”
“...”
Even knowing the two men had already grasped the full picture, Secretary Park drove the knife in one last time.
“Thanks to the forty billion dollars in overseas slush funds vanishing into thin air, Chairman Choi Jeong-san no longer has the room to join a battle over shareholding. I would never have brought this up if I thought he would listen to me anyway, so I had no choice but to come to you, Chairman, and to Chairman Choi. Please... for the future of TY Telecom, I beg you to make a decision. The employees and families who gave their youth to TY Group are one body, sharing life and death with TY Group. Please, for their future as well... ngh...”
Secretary Park had knelt before the two men and spoken in a voice choked with feeling, but all of it was deceit.
Despair. And be broken again. Your ending is already decided.
“We don't have time for this! Jeong-pil!”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“Use every bit of spare cash TY Chemical has left, get the securities firms to buy TY Telecom shares, and make sure we can receive proxy rights later.”
“Yes. I'll begin at once.”
“Before that, Secretary Park!”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“I trust you didn't come here just to ask for help without any plan at all.”
“...”
Park Jin-tae had already guessed the blow would come back on him too.
“You did bring at least one way out of this crisis, didn't you?”
“...I've identified one place we can ask for help, based on the share ratio secured by the outside force.”
“Where?”
“The National Pension Service, which holds 7 percent of our company. With the chairman included, our side holds 30 percent, and the outside force has roughly 30 percent as well. If the NPS becomes our white knight, that should be enough to hold them off.”
“...Do you really think the government will side with us?”
Chairman Choi had been monitoring the stream of damaging articles every day as they kept breaking one after another.
“The blemishes our company has accumulated since the beginning of this year are an obstacle. But if you take the lead, I believe it is not impossible.”
“...That bastard Jeong-san really has brought an enormous pile of crap down on us.”
“This is my failure for not serving Chairman Choi properly. I apologize, Chairman.”
But Chairman Choi knew very well this was not Park's fault.
“More importantly... is there truly no saving the Duojardin investment?”
“...I’ve looked everywhere I could, through overseas investment firms and acquaintances, but there is no way to recover the money.”
More than anyone, Park had thrown himself into trying to recover that investment, but no matter how he searched, once a company had lost the market's trust and come under investigation, there was no path to getting that money back.
“Damn it. Do you know what that money was...”
“Ghk...”
When the chairman brought up the slush fund again, tears like hot chicken droppings began to fall from Park Jin-tae's eyes.
My money! My blood-soaked money!!
“...”
Chairman Choi could only assume the meaning of Park's tears came from his deep love for the company.
“...Don't worry too much. We'll find a way to protect the company.”
“Sob. Thank you, Chairman.”
Chairman Choi then gave Choi Jeong-pil further orders.
“Jeong-pil.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“Forget the group separation. We'll pretend it never happened.”
“!”
Choi Jeong-pil was shocked at the chairman's sudden order to stop the split, but he lowered his head and accepted it.
Father will protect my brother to the very end...
But the chairman's real intention was something else entirely.
“Looks like you'll have to take charge of TY Telecom too.”
“!!”
“That bastard Jeong-san... was never cut out to run a company in the first place.”
“F-Father.”
The moment TY Group's heir changed from Choi Jeong-san to Choi Jeong-pil.
“From now on, keep everything we're doing hidden from that bastard Jeong-san. Secretary Park, keep your mouth shut too.”
“B-But...”
“If word gets to him, he won't sit still. He'll probably just make a scene instead. Secretary Park, meet with the executives separately and make sure they understand that the representative director will be changed at this week’s general shareholders’ meeting.”
Park Jin-tae had originally intended to give Chairman Choi no information at all.
“...So we just keep it hidden until the moment the related agenda is announced before the shareholders' meeting?”
“You don't think our proposal will be the only one on the table, do you?”
A force that had come after them with intent would never sit quietly.
“Yes. The outside force will definitely try to form a new representative director and a new executive lineup as well. Especially the audit committee members for internal control will be added this time.”
“Tell that bastard Jeong-san to push ahead with a public tender for shares. It won't amount to much anyway, but he needs to make himself useful too.”
“Yes. Chairman Choi won't be able to think about anything else after that. I'll make sure the executives keep their mouths shut.”
“...So that's how little faith Secretary Park had in Jeong-san?”
Park could state his opinion without hesitation.
“Now that we're speaking honestly... he was seriously lacking, Chairman.”
“Hah. I should have heard that much earlier.”
“...I'm sorry, Chairman.”
“I'm not saying that to hear your apology.”
When all was said and done, the blame lay with the chairman himself for handing the company to an eldest son who was never fit for the job in the first place.
“Jeong-pil, what are you still doing here? Get out there too and buy up more shares! Go borrow from your wife's family if you have to.”
“Y-Yes.”
In the blink of an eye, Choi Jeong-pil had been named TY Group's heir, and he rushed out of the family home in a daze. Only after his second son had left did Chairman Choi give Park Jin-tae his next order.
“Secretary Park, start contacting government officials. Tell them I want to see them.”
“I will arrange meetings with the chair of the National Pension Service and people from the ruling party.”
But even as Park bent respectfully in answer, his eyes glinted with cold sharpness.
Even if they become our white knight, Chairman, it will still be impossible to save TY Group.
---
Note: This chapter contains an extensive corporate confrontation and multiple dialogue turns; the translation preserves the original sequence while rendering the prose in natural English.