A Perfect Alibi
But Kim In-su’s return to Korea no longer meant anything.
After all, my information had already been exposed.
James had laid everything bare with his own mouth, so Kim’s return was no longer a threat. Besides, Choi Tae-yeong was dead, and Choi Jeong-san was no longer of this world either.
“Show him in quickly.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kim In-su entered with a somber expression.
“Second Young Master... I’m terribly late.”
“Oh, no. Not at all. You were overseas, so there was nothing you could do.”
Kim had left his father’s side about a year ago, and Choi Jeong-pil already knew he had gone abroad and wouldn’t be able to return for some time.
“The moment I heard the Chairman had passed away, I rushed back immediately... ngh.”
Choi Jeong-pil was genuinely glad to see him home.
“I’d actually just been in desperate need of you, Mr. Kim. So please don’t trouble yourself over it.”
There was something he wanted to ask Kim to do.
“Is there something I can help with? Just leave it to me.”
“...My older brother has disappeared.”
“Pardon?”
“Normally I would have asked Secretary Park Jin-tae, but as fate would have it, I can’t get in touch with him either.”
“!”
A warning siren seemed to go off in Kim In-su’s head.
“Then... even for the Chairman’s funeral...?”
“Yes. I held the funeral by myself, without my brother.”
“Hah!”
“I understand this is your area of expertise, Mr. Kim. Please find the two of them.”
“Of course. I’ll—”
Kim answered firmly, but then his eyes fell on the others in the living room, and he met James’s gaze. His face brightened with recognition, and he greeted him warmly.
“Ah, so this is where I finally get to meet you.”
Choi Jeong-pil was about to introduce James to Kim, assuming he must be ignorant of the situation in Korea after being away so long.
“Mr. Kim, this is—”
“I know who he is, sir. The eldest son’s son, isn’t he?”
“You knew?”
“Yes. I’ve known since before I left Korea.”
“!!”
It was information James himself had only learned a month ago, yet Kim had figured it out more than a year earlier.
“How...”
“I think we’ll need to talk to him first about that part.”
Since Choi Jeong-san had asked for the handling of his illegitimate child, Kim had not been able to reveal the truth so carelessly.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Kim In-su.”
“Yes. I heard you were the Chairman’s right-hand man.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. Let’s just say I was the errand boy.”
Kim had learned through the media that James had emerged by taking over TY Telecom, and he had also guessed what came after that.
“The late Chairman must have been proud. Isn’t that right?”
“...I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Kim regarded James’s takeover of TY Group as a brilliant move that had wiped away all the bad press surrounding TY Telecom and turned the tide in an instant.
“I never imagined the Chairman would hand the company over to a grandson hidden from the outside world.”
“In fact, Grandpa did acknowledge me.”
“Then did you also meet the eldest son?”
He clearly assumed father and son must have reunited while Kim was away.
“No. I haven’t even seen his face yet.”
“Oh...”
“I thought I’d at least run into him at the funeral, but he vanished without a trace.”
“How unfortunate...”
Kim seemed to think for a moment.
“Then perhaps there’s nothing else you learned from Secretary Park Jin-tae?”
It was a probing question, meant to see whether James knew he had been under surveillance.
“Let’s see. Not long after I acquired TY Telecom, I submitted my resignation to the company. I didn’t think to stop after I’d finished handing off my work to another employee.”
“......”
Kim relaxed, certain now that James knew nothing about the work he himself had been doing.
The fewer people who know, the better.
“The eldest son wanted to keep your existence hidden. That’s why I had to leave Korea, too.”
“!”
James already knew it, but for Choi Jeong-pil it was a secret he was hearing for the first time.
“The eldest son said it would be a disaster if the Chairman found out, so he sent me overseas as well.”
“Sigh. That does sound exactly like something he’d do.”
“In any case...”
Kim turned to James and offered him a bow. James had become the rightful heir, the one who had inherited everything that TY Group was.
“Though it’s late, congratulations on inheriting the group.”
“Thank you.”
With that greeting finished, Kim returned to the matter at hand.
“Second Young Master. Would it be possible to hear about the situation before the eldest son disappeared?”
“If I put it simply...”
“And please leave out the incidents the media already covered, as well as any woman trouble.”
There was no need to revisit Tae-jin’s drug scandal or Choi Jeong-san’s affairs.
“When the fight over overseas equity began, my brother went back to the main house. I don’t know the exact details of what happened there, but given my father’s temper...”
“He probably got beaten so badly he broke something.”
“Yes. And then Father told us my brother had left the house, after which he could no longer be reached.”
“Ah...”
Kim could easily picture Park Jin-tae and Choi Jeong-san plotting what to do next.
“So the slush fund is the problem.”
“What?”
“There was a slush fund the Chairman had entrusted to the eldest son. By now it should have accumulated to roughly four billion dollars. Even if the two of them fled, they won’t exactly be short on money.”
But Choi Jeong-pil had information Kim could not have learned from the media alone.
“...Mr. Kim. There is no slush fund anymore.”
“Of course there wouldn’t be if the two of them ran off with it...”
“That’s not what I mean. Park Jin-tae came to the main house and confessed everything. I was even called there to hear it.”
“......”
Choi Jeong-pil explained the details of the slush fund that Kim In-su did not know.
“At the time, the slush fund was being discussed as capital to secure equity after the overseas fund’s announcement of management participation. Park revealed that my brother had ignored his advice and decided to invest overseas, destroying the entire slush fund...”
“Ghk!”
“Father then locked my brother up after catching him.”
“...You mean it’s all gone? All four billion dollars?”
“Yes.”
“What on earth did he invest in to lose that much money!”
“Duojardin.”
“!!”
That was one place where even if someone said he’d blown it all, you had no choice but to believe it. It had been all over the news abroad, and even now the investors who had poured money into it were still voicing their outrage.
“Of all the rotten luck...”
“As a result, the overseas fund and the shareholder alliance beat us in the equity battle, and our nephew James here took the company. He’s become the sturdy pillar holding our family up.”
“That much is at least a relief. Thank you again, James.”
“Think nothing of it...”
Choi Jeong-pil had nothing more to tell him.
“That’s everything. There’s no new information beyond this.”
“......”
With the information he had gathered so far, Kim began to infer the movements of Choi Jeong-san and Park Jin-tae.
Choi Jeong-san must have been beaten senseless by the Chairman after blowing the slush fund. And Park Jin-tae is the only person Choi Jeong-san can truly trust. Could Choi Jeong-san have accepted the company being handed over to an illegitimate son?
Kim In-su was certain he could not.
Setting aside the illegitimate-son problem, losing the entire slush fund was a colossal blunder. On top of that, the eldest-grandson issue had already been building, and his own affair had piled on as well. With no chance of being forgiven by the Chairman, escape would have been his only option. And Park Jin-tae is the kind of man who can’t refuse Choi Jeong-san’s orders...
Every factor was pushing Choi Jeong-san outward, away from the family.
“Hoo. I should start with the off-site officetel Park Jin-tae was managing. It’s the only place the eldest son could go.”
At Kim’s words, Choi Jeong-pil spoke with his usual grim expression.
“If he hid there and even skipped Father’s funeral, then I don’t think I can ever acknowledge him as my brother again.”
“He may have fled overseas. Given that even Park Jin-tae, who has deep connections abroad, has vanished, that possibility is more likely.”
“Even so, he should have at least come to Father’s funeral! That’s basic human decency!”
“I’ll look into it, sir. Please calm yourself.”
“Sigh. I’m not angry at you, Mr. Kim. It seems I was taking my temper out on you for no reason.”
Thanks to Kim’s visit, James did not have to linger long at Choi Jeong-pil’s house. When Kim left, James went with him.
“Come visit again, nephew.”
“I’ll see you later.”
The next farewell came from Ho-jung.
“Oppa. We’ll meet separately.”
“Don’t you work? It’s been ages since you graduated from college, so why are you still loafing around?”
Being able to jab at someone’s sore spot so easily was proof of how close they were.
“I’m actually planning to get a job soon, you know?”
“Where?”
“I was thinking of dropping my résumé at TY Telecom’s secretarial office. Wouldn’t that be amazing? You and me, seeing each other every single day.”
“......”
It seemed Ho-jung wanted to stay close to Colt a little longer.
“Rejected at the document screening stage. You’ll be placed on the blacklist.”
“What?!”
Before Ho-jung could cling any closer, James hurriedly said his goodbyes.
“I should be going. Take care.”
“Don’t you dare move!”
But one obscure word from James was enough to make Ho-jung clamp her mouth shut.
“Colt.”
“!”
That was the affectionate nickname Ho-jung used for Colt, and it was also the way James casually addressed Colt himself.
“Honestly, if I open my mouth...”
“Ah, just go already! Go!”
Ho-jung clearly wanted James out of the house as fast as possible. This was not the time to reveal her relationship with Colt.
After leaving Choi Jeong-pil’s house, James met Kim In-su outside. He had come out with him because he wanted to talk to him alone.
“Was there an off-site officetel Park Jin-tae was managing?”
“Yes. It’s an officetel registered under another person’s name, used to handle off-book affairs such as slush-fund management. That kind of arrangement is necessary if you want to respond to a sudden search and seizure by prosecutors.”
James already knew the details, though, because Park Jin-tae had reported them all. In truth, he had known where the officetel was and what records were kept inside even before Park ever spoke.
“Ah... thorough, as expected.”
“Yes. Anyway, if we start there, I think we’ll be able to track where the two of them went.”
“You’ll have your hands full.”
“Not at all. It’s my job.”
“By the way... aren’t you short on operating funds? Grandpa’s gone now, and Chairman Choi Jeong-pil has stepped down as well, so there’s no one left to cover the costs.”
“Haha. You’ve already thought that far ahead?”
“I’ve got a position in the company now, so I keep seeing things like that.”
James took out the corporate card he had been given and handed it over. It was a way to keep track of where Kim went and what he did.
“Use this for now. If you need anything else, contact me right away.”
“Thank you. In fact, I had one more request.”
“Go ahead.”
“May I have vehicle support?”
“Coincidentally, there are still company cars left behind by the previous executives when they resigned. I’ll make arrangements so you can use one.”
When Choi Jeong-san, his second son Choi Yeong-jin, and other directors whose terms had expired were forced out, the corporate vehicles they had been using were left behind. Choi Jeong-san’s car was now being used by Colt, but the car Choi Yeong-jin had used was still available.
“Thank you. I’ll make sure to find them and report back.”
“I appreciate it.”
What James wanted was not for Kim’s work to fail, but for it to succeed.
That way, the fact that the two of them fled overseas will come to light.
No matter how capable Kim In-su was, he still wouldn’t be able to prove they had died. Of course, even if he did uncover their deaths, there would be no way to link James to the incident. James had been at the office that day.
So from here on out, your job will be to make my alibi even more perfect.