Settling the Debt
“Then dispose of them and bring the money back. And Kim In-su, the managing director, will contact you. There are four officetels in total, including this one and the others outside. Sell them all.”
“Yes, Vice President.”
Having ordered the officetels to be sold, James thought back to the buildings he had seen in TY Telecom’s asset list before.
“Wait. Don’t we also own a few apartments and officetels?”
“Yes. We have five apartments and seven officetels.”
James was sure the real estate the company owned had been put to work for the company’s benefit.
“So they’re being used as dormitories for employees?”
“…No. They were all used individually by the former CEO and the executives.”
In that case, there was no reason to keep them any longer.
“Sell all the apartments and officetels the company doesn’t need...”
But there was no need to sell them, either. A flicker of inspiration struck James.
“Those four officetels we just identified shouldn’t be sold outside. TY Telecom will take them over. And along with the houses we currently hold, let’s convert everything into employee dormitories. The officetels are small, so that’s fine, but the apartments are spacious, so we should probably limit them to employees with children. Make it for employees without homes, and exclude executives. Ah, and before that, the place needs a fresh renovation. Bring in a contractor, clean the interiors, and have them repaired so they feel like new homes.”
“!”
Department head Kang Dong-hwi brightened at the realization that there would be a chance for him as well.
“Then how much will the rent be...”
“The rent is free. You’ll only pay the maintenance fee. The company is doing this as part of employee welfare.”
“The competition will be intense.”
Including the four officetels to be added this time, there would be eleven officetels and five apartments, for a total of sixteen dormitories. Even so, considering employee demand, it still wouldn’t be enough. Housing prices in Seoul had risen so steeply that even employees at a large corporation could not easily afford to own a place. Thanks to that, even Kang Dong-hwi still hadn’t escaped the jeonse system after getting married.
“Hmm... let’s buy ten more apartments of a suitable size. That should not satisfy everyone, but it should at least ease some of the burden.”
“Thank you, Vice President.”
James thought that settled the company’s housing problem. But a few days later, he received a call from Manager Kang.
Vice President. There’s been a problem.
“What kind of problem?”
Following James’s instructions, Kang Dong-hwi had been checking the company-owned housing, arranging cleaning and repairs as he went. He had also held out a fair bit of hope that he might end up living in one of those homes himself. But there was someone living in the company apartment with the largest floor space.
“Hey! What did you just say?”
“Th-the company plans to use this as a dormitory...”
“What? So you’re telling me to get out of here right now? Huh!”
“S-sir, that’s not what I meant...”
The people Kang Dong-hwi had run into at the apartment were the wife of President Choi Jeong-san and their son, Choi Yeong-jin. After leaving the family home, this was the place they had chosen for themselves.
“Manager Kang. Even if Grandpa has passed away, you can’t just...”
Kang knew the title Choi Yeong-jin used to address him was wrong, but there was something else he needed to correct first.
“It doesn’t seem like something you should be bringing up so casually when you didn’t even attend the funeral.”
“Hey! What did you just say?”
“I...”
Kang Dong-hwi wondered how long he was expected to keep lowering himself to people like this. They were no longer part of the TY Group.
“Am I wrong?”
“W-what?”
“How old are you to talk to me like that? And I’m a department head now, the head of strategy!”
Kang no longer felt the need to show them any respect.
“And you too, madam! The chairman has passed away, and the eldest daughter-in-law doesn’t even show her face?”
“Y-you! Son! Kick that bastard out right now!”
“I was thinking the same thing, Mother.”
Kang Dong-hwi had no intention of backing down.
“Madam! If you were going to get divorced, then at least sort things out properly! What a filthy mess is this? Why are you living in a company apartment?”
They were preparing for a divorce, but they had no shame about going back to the family home.
“Agh! Shut that bastard up and kill him right now!”
After a scuffle with Choi Yeong-jin that ended with Kang Dong-hwi being thrown out of the apartment, he called James.
“Vice President. There’s been a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“There was someone living in the apartment I went to check last.”
“Ha. Looks like Choi Jeong-san still had a woman he hadn’t managed to get rid of?”
“...”
Kang Dong-hwi decided it wasn’t wrong and answered.
“Yes. There was one woman and one man living there.”
“Oh? So Choi Jeong-san is gone and you’ve brought in another man instead? Honestly, these people are always worse than you’d imagine.”
“...No, it was Hong Hye-ju, the wife of former President Choi Jeong-san, and his second son, Choi Yeong-jin.”
“...What are they doing there?”
“I’d only thought President Choi Jeong-san used the place occasionally, but it seems he shared it with his family.”
“Send me the apartment location. I’ll go.”
“Yes, Vice President.”
Kang Dong-hwi sent the location by text, and within minutes James appeared in front of the apartment.
“Were you nearby?”
“Ah. I was just passing through the area.”
He had been resting at home and teleported over.
“Let’s go up.”
“Yes, Vice President.”
The moment James faced Choi Jeong-san’s family was drawing near.
Dong.
The doorbell rang, but there was no movement inside. They had no intention of opening the door.
“Looks like they’re not going to open it...”
“Do you have a key card?”
“I brought a spare key.”
He had rung the bell out of courtesy, not because he couldn’t get in. Earlier, he had already opened the door with a key card when he assumed nobody was home.
“Open it.”
Click.
At James’s order, Kang Dong-hwi unlocked the door with the key card, but he could see that the second lock, the interior latch, was still fastened.
Clack.
“...What should we do?”
“Step aside.”
James drove the edge of his hand down through the narrow gap.
Crack. Thud.
Though it was a metal latch, it could not withstand James’s knife-hand and broke apart.
“Whoa. You’re tough.”
“Colt is even tougher than I am.”
Kang Dong-hwi nodded as he thought of Colt’s massive frame and muscle.
“Start recording now. Don’t interfere.”
“Huh? Yes. Understood.”
Then a cry like a scream rang out from inside the house.
“You crazy bastards! How dare you break in here without permission!”
“We’re calling the police!”
James walked through the wide-open door and stepped into the living room.
“This property belongs to our company. You’re the ones trespassing. Please leave.”
“You, you... some nobody who rolled around outside thinks he can barge in here and...”
Hong Hye-ju knew who James was.
“Well, you’d know me even if you didn’t recognize my face, wouldn’t you?”
James had only revealed to the internal board members that he was Chairman Choi Tae-yeong’s grandson and Choi Jeong-san’s biological son, but Hong Hye-ju was the wife of the former president, and she had kept in contact with the existing board as well.
“How dare the bastard of some woman who sold her body...”
“Say everything you want to say.”
James had nothing to lose.
“Wow. This place is big and nice. We’ll have to renovate it properly and use it as employee housing.”
“You bastard...”
Choi Yeong-jin glared at James and clenched his fist, but James only smiled faintly and answered.
“With that white hand of yours, I doubt it would even hurt if you tried to hit me...”
“Then take a hit, bastard!”
Before Kang Dong-hwi could step in, Choi Yeong-jin swung a punch. James just watched the slow, lazy blow coming toward him.
Thud!
It really doesn’t hurt.
The bastard’s fist brushed the left side of his face, but James simply offered his right cheek and waited.
Thud!
Then he went rolling across the floor. Blood was even spurting from James’s mouth.
“Puh. Oh man. I’m dying.”
“Vice President. Are you all right?”
James checked whether Kang Dong-hwi was holding the phone properly before asking,
“Did you get it on video?”
“Huh? Yes, I did.”
“Stop recording.”
“Ah. Yes.”
Beep.
As soon as the recording ended, James wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and got to his feet.
“Let’s go now.”
“...We’re just leaving?”
“Come on. Should people like us really be throwing punches and fighting?”
Then, before Hong Hye-ju and Choi Yeong-jin could say another word, he left the house.
“Those guys just...”
“They came here with a plan.”
And a few days later, the two of them had to receive a visit from the police.
“Mr. Choi Yeong-jin. You have been formally charged with assault. Please accompany us to the station.”
“...”
“If you refuse, we’ll return with a warrant next time. We’ve already submitted video evidence of you assaulting the victim, and the victim’s medical report has been secured.”
“Then come back with a warrant, bastard!”
And on the next visit, they had to face reporters along with the real warrant.
“Mr. Choi Yeong-jin, you are under arrest for assault. Here is the warrant you wanted. Take a look.”
“Let’s go... but the reporters...”
“Mr. Choi Yeong-jin, did you assault Vice President James?”
“...”
“Did you bear a grudge against Vice President James Kane, who acquired TY Telecom?”
“...”
The next day, the image of Choi Yeong-jin boarding the police car with his head bowed took up a small corner of the newspaper.
Colt only pulled James aside to pick a fight with him once things had settled down.
“Hey. Why did you have to go that far and make things bigger?”
“Thanks to me, they were easy to throw out. I even sorted out the shares.”
At the meeting held for the civil settlement, James proposed two things. One was that they leave the apartment they were currently living in immediately. The other was that Choi Yeong-jin dispose of the 1.5 percent stake he held in TY Telecom.
After all, the apartment was not theirs in the first place, and he hadn’t demanded that they hand over the shares to him, only that they sell them off. So the matter could be wrapped up neatly.
“You got hit, you say?”
“Do you really think it would hurt if that guy hit me?”
“...No, it wouldn’t.”
Colt was the one who understood James’s level best.
“I handled the medical report with magic.”
“Ah... I wondered why it came out as an eight-week diagnosis.”
Because James had used magic to make his body look seriously injured, the report ended up being an eight-week diagnosis.
“And through this whole incident, the existing TY Group management will have seen things differently too.”
“There weren’t any factions friendly to the chairman’s family to begin with, were there?”
“I mean inside the company.”
“Ah.”
“Some of the internal directors still had feelings toward the chairman’s family.”
The board’s loyalty had begun to shift the moment it became clear that every member of Choi Jeong-san’s family had skipped Chairman Choi Tae-yeong’s funeral. In this incident, Tae-jin’s drug abuse had already shown his true colors, and now Choi Yeong-jin had also laid hands on James, proving that both of them were complete trash. On top of that, they had been revealed to be illegally occupying a company-owned apartment, so now no one on the board could even bring up the Choi family’s name.
“From now on, nobody will be able to suggest bringing the chairman’s family back into the company.”
James had once again solved several problems at once while handling a single issue.
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