A Future Brother-in-Law
“Okay, I’ll give you that. Still, you really overdid it. That was a role Manager Kang could have handled just fine. Why did the major shareholder have to step in and get himself beaten?”
There was a reason James could not reveal.
I killed the father, so I should at least take a punch from the son.
Choi Jeong-san was James’s biological father, and also the father of Choi Tae-jin and Choi Yeong-jin. Because of that, James had carried a small sense of debt toward the children he left behind, and he had decided to pay it off this way.
“It looked better if I handled it myself.”
“Better? Ho-jung kept going on and on about how I didn’t stop your brother…….”
Ho-jung had only learned that James had been hit by Choi Yeong-jin after seeing the article.
“Does he just sit at home watching the news all day? Tell him to get a job already.”
“You’re the one who told me not to let you into the secretary’s office.”
“What, you think I did that for myself? You’re drunk and coming home late all the time. You want Ho-jung to know all of that?”
“Well…….”
Colt thought that if he could be with Ho-jung, he could put up with that much.
“If you become a secretary’s office employee, you’ll end up knowing where I ate and what I ate, too. You still like that?”
“That’s not the point!”
Colt remembered the happy days he had spent with the heads of the affiliates. Company dinners that began with a meal always rolled into a second and third round.
Those nights of mine, free and happy…….
Colt loved the company-dinner culture of Korean conglomerates.
“Absolutely not!”
“I knew you’d say that, so I shut it down from the start.”
“Good job! Jimin!”
“Was that all you wanted to see me for?”
“I called you to have lunch together.”
“Sorry, but I’m having lunch with someone else. I’ve got an outside appointment.”
“You? Who would you even meet?”
James had shown little interest in the company’s affairs as usual. Plenty of people wanted to meet him, but he had turned them all down.
“I do have someone.”
“Who are you meeting?”
“...Chairman Kim Seong-oh of ST Group.”
“Ah…….”
“It’s the first time I’m meeting him since taking over TY Group. If you want to come along, you can.”
“Hurry up and go. I’ll pay my respects later at the Federation of Korean Industries.”
James’s visit to Chairman Kim Seong-oh was tied to that work as well.
“No one in the business world is going to freeze us out.”
“Heh. That’s a relief for me.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
James went into the restaurant where he had arranged to meet Chairman Kim Seong-oh, only to discover that he had to meet two more people as well.
“Introduce yourselves to each other. This is Jeong-ho.”
“Good afternoon. I’m Kim Jeong-ho, assistant manager at ST Construction.”
“A pleasure. I’m James Kane, vice president of TY Telecom.”
James knew that he was Kim Seong-oh’s eldest son, Kim Jeong-ho.
“And this one is Ju-ho.”
“Good afternoon, Vice President James. I’m Kim Ju-ho, section chief at ST Construction.”
“A pleasure. You’re the second son, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
After exchanging business cards with them, James sat down.
“You should have told me in advance. What if I hadn’t brought any cards?”
“Haha. You’re already a proper owner of a company. Surely you wouldn’t be without business cards.”
“Well, I was planning not to bring them because I thought I was only meeting you, Chairman.”
Jeong-ho and Ju-ho were looking at James again, this man who could speak so casually with their father, someone they still found difficult to deal with even now.
He’s talking to Father as an equal?
Father laughed?
Their reactions came from different angles, but the shock was the same.
“These are our sons. You’re meeting them for the first time, right?”
“Yes. They both look as dependable as their father. You must be proud.”
“Haha. If other people said that, it would sound like flattery, but when you say it, it feels sincere.”
“Compared to the children of TY Telecom’s former president, I’d say they’re practically grown men.”
“Pffft. Of all people to compare them to, why compare them to that family?”
“...You already know everything about me, don’t you?”
If the information had reached the ears of Hong Hye-ju, Choi Jeong-san’s wife, there was no way Chairman Kim Seong-oh would not know.
“You have no idea how shocked I was when I heard about it. To think you kept something like that hidden so perfectly…….”
“I’m sorry you had to hear it from someone else.”
“Heh heh.”
Chairman Kim Seong-oh did not mind hearing it through another person’s mouth.
“I never imagined you were the grandson of the late Chairman Choi Tae-yeong. I truly had no idea.”
That was because James, adopted into America as an orphan, had transformed his identity into that of a legitimate chaebol heir.
“!”
“!”
That was news to Jeong-ho and Ju-ho, who were hearing it for the first time today.
“…….”
And James could feel the weight of his consideration.
He realizes I resent Choi Jeong-san.
Chairman Kim Seong-oh was describing James not as Choi Jeong-san’s son, but as Choi Tae-yeong’s grandson.
“Thank you, Chairman.”
“That wasn’t just my own idea. Manager Ma was the one who thought it through.”
Chairman Kim Seong-oh gave the credit to Manager Ma Sang-hoon, but James knew that unless it had also been borne out of Kim Seong-oh’s warm heart, those words would never have been spoken.
“So you still haven’t met the former president yet?”
“No. The late chairman’s confidant, Manager Kim In-su, is looking for him, but all he’s managed to confirm is that he left the country on the day of the funeral.”
“Good grief…….”
James did not want to talk about Choi Jeong-san, so he changed the subject.
“We secured the maximum booth space for the Consumer Electronics Show. I’m only sorry that this is the most I can do for you.”
“Hohoho. It’s not as though I did all that much this time…….”
James was certain that Kim Seong-oh had already quietly made his move.
Kim Seong-oh had not been able to join the battle over shares, but his role in drawing broad support from the business world was nothing to dismiss.
“You helped create a favorable atmosphere in the business community, didn’t you? Thanks to that, I should be able to join the Federation of Korean Industries without any trouble.”
“So we’re already calculating things that far ahead?”
“I’m not someone who can live with owing people.”
“If you want to be a true businessman, you need to know how to wipe your mouth clean after taking a debt. If I wanted to pay back every favor, would I starve my own family? Do you think I backed out at the end for no reason?”
“I appreciate the invaluable lesson. I’ll carve it into my bones.”
Jeong-ho could only sit there and listen, unable to cut into the conversation between the two men.
How is this conversation even flowing?
Consumer Electronics Show? Joining the Federation of Korean Industries?
What do they mean, help? What debt? Backed out? Backed out of what?
James Kane being the grandson of Choi Tae-yeong, the former chairman of TY Group, was shocking enough, but the conversation that followed moved so quickly that Jeong-ho could not even begin to guess at the earlier context.
“Look at them. Isn’t it something, the way they keep darting their eyes around because they have no clue what we’re talking about?”
James understood how the two men, staring blankly at him, must have felt.
“They’re still short on information.”
“Even so, if your father is sitting in front of a conglomerate chairman having an important conversation, you’d think they could at least take notes.”
The two of them really did pull out notebooks, thinking they should write everything down, but that was not the answer.
“Honestly, look at you, making a fool of yourself in front of your future brother-in-law. Don’t you put that away!”
“…Pardon?”
“W-what did you just say……?”
This was the real reason Kim Seong-oh had introduced James to the two of them.
“He’s the man who’s going to marry Su-ji, you idiots!”
“!”
“!”
James accepted Chairman Kim Seong-oh’s words with a wry smile.
“I’m in a good relationship with Su-ji. Sorry for the late introduction.”
“What! Su-ji? Since when?”
“You’re dating Su-ji?”
Chairman Kim Seong-oh clicked his tongue and chided them for the way they spoke.
“Would you look at those two, talking down to someone older than them right out of the gate…… Did I raise you boys that way? You just start speaking informally before your future brother-in-law has even granted permission?”
We messed up.
Jeong-ho felt the blood drain from his face. Chairman Kim Seong-oh had educated his children in etiquette from a young age, and had especially stressed that they should show greater courtesy when dealing with relatives. He had meant for them never to carry themselves arrogantly just because they had ST Group at their backs.
This is the one thing Father hates most…….
Jeong-ho hurried to apologize.
“...I’m sorry. I spoke too casually.”
Ju-ho did the same.
“That was a slip of the tongue. It won’t happen again.”
James did not think their rudeness was a major issue, but he accepted the apology.
“Thank you. You can speak casually to me from now on.”
Even after hearing that, the two of them resolved never to speak down to him again.
He always said to show more respect to people below you than to people above you…….
If we get caught again, we’re done for.
“You’re older than us, so you should be treated like an older brother.”
“I’m still lacking a lot. I’ll learn from you, hyung.”
“Chairman. Why did you go out of your way to make this awkward?”
James looked back at Kim Seong-oh, exasperated, but the chairman was firm.
“Future son-in-law, stay quiet.”
“…….”
“…….”
Future son-in-law... Father has acknowledged the relationship.
How far has this already gone?
Hearing him use the term future son-in-law in front of the two of them, James understood that Kim Seong-oh had called them here to make his position clear.
“The future son-in-law isn’t that many years older than you, but he’s already a giant who hunted down a major conglomerate like TY Group and is now running it himself. He’s a different breed entirely from you two, who are just taking executive courses so you can inherit the company.”
“We’ll keep that in mind.”
“Yes, Father.”
Chairman Kim explained, one by one, the things they did not know. That James had been working with him for some time to bring down TY Group. That he had stepped back in the middle to avoid a clash with the government. And that James had also agreed to help with the Consumer Electronics Show through the network he maintained overseas. He added brief explanations so the two men could keep up with the conversation.
“...And there is one especially remarkable thing our future son-in-law did. He single-handedly ruined the overseas investment ST Group had been so ambitious about preparing.”
“What?”
“He stopped ST Group’s investment?”
The two of them could not understand why that was supposed to be impressive.
If ST Group had researched it from the ground up and decided to invest, that means it was certain…….
Jeong-ho trusted the analytical power of ST Group’s experts without reservation. Ju-ho did too.
“Father. I fear stopping ST Group’s overseas investment may have been a misstep…….”
“I already told you it was a great thing! Our investment decision would have been a mistake!”
“!”
Jeong-ho became curious about what they had been about to invest in. He also remembered how ST Group had once decided to invest in an overseas company, only to pull out later.
“May I ask which company we were planning to invest in?”
Chairman Kim Seong-oh named it casually.
“Duojardin.”
“Guhk!”
“Wasn’t that company a total disaster?”
The world’s biotech stocks had recently been in free fall. Once Duojardin’s scam was exposed, trust in other biotech firms had plummeted right along with it.
“Exactly. It has now completely collapsed and is in the process of being dismantled. The entire executive team, including CEO Tarantis, has been arrested and is on trial.”
Chairman Kim even disclosed the scale of the investment ST Group had intended to make.
“ST Group planned to invest one trillion won. At the time, every internal and external expert was certain it would be a successful investment, and not a single person had any doubt. I was one of them.”
“…….”
“…….”
It was a company people now knew had collapsed, but in the past everyone had gone on and on about what huge promise it had.
“When no one else suspected a thing, the person who went into Duojardin in person to verify the facts was none other than James Kane here. Thanks to him, ST Group escaped an enormous crisis.”
“Phew. What a relief…….”
“One trillion…….”
And then came a piece of information they had never known the reason for.
“As thanks for that, I was going to hand over a small affiliate to the group, but he told me it wasn’t necessary and to give it to Su-ji instead.”
That was the real reason the youngest, Su-ji, had been given the affiliate.
“Ah!”
“So that’s why…….”
James, as if this were already old news, brushed it off.
“Chairman, didn’t I tell you that I would buy my own company?”
“You did. And you made a fine success of it this time, too.”
Then he looked back at Jeong-ho and Ju-ho and said,
“Meanwhile, there are some people who are always watching my mouth, waiting for crumbs to fall.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Hey, future brother-in-law?”
“What?”
“No, seriously. I’ll admit it. But you really went too far. Manager Kang was perfectly capable of handling that role with you. Why did the major shareholder have to go out there and get himself beaten up?”
There had been a James-only reason that could not be disclosed.
“Since I killed the father, I figured I ought to take a punch from the son.”
Choi Jeong-san was James’s biological father, and the father of Choi Tae-jin and Choi Yeong-jin. Because of that, James felt a small debt toward the children he had left behind, and this was his way of settling it.
“If I handled it myself, the picture looked better.”
“Better? Ho-jung went on and on about how you didn’t even stop your brother…….”
Ho-jung had only realized that James had been beaten by Choi Yeong-jin after reading the article.
“Does he just sit at home watching the news? Tell him to get a job already.”
“You’re the one who said not to let him into the secretary’s office.”
“What, you think I was doing that for myself? You’re drunk and coming home late all the time. You want Ho-jung to know every bit of that?”
“Well…….”
Colt thought that if he could be with Ho-jung, he could endure that much.
“If you become a secretary’s office employee, you’ll end up knowing where I ate and what I ate, too. You’d still be happy about that?”
“That’s one thing!”
Colt recalled the happy days he had spent with the presidents of the affiliates. Company dinners that began with a meal always led to a second and third round.
My free and happy nights…….
Colt loved the company-dinner culture of Korean conglomerates.
“Absolutely not!”
“I knew that was coming, so I shut it down firmly from the start.”
“Nice! Jimin!”
“Was that all you wanted to talk about?”
“I called you to have lunch together.”
“Sorry, but I’m eating with someone else. I’ve got an outside appointment.”
“You? Who would you even be meeting?”
James had been indifferent to company affairs as always. Plenty of people wanted to meet him, but he had turned them all away.
“I do have someone.”
“Who are you meeting?”
“...Chairman Kim Seong-oh of ST Group.”
“Ah…….”
“I’m going to see him for the first time since taking over TY Group. If you want to come along, you can.”
“Hurry back. I’ll pay my respects to the Federation of Korean Industries another time.”
James was also visiting Chairman Kim Seong-oh for that same reason.
“There won’t be any move to shut us out of the business community.”
“Heh. I’m grateful for that.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
James entered the restaurant where he had arranged to meet Chairman Kim Seong-oh, only to find that he would also have to meet two more people.
“Introduce yourselves. This is Jeong-ho.”
“Good afternoon. I’m Kim Jeong-ho, assistant manager at ST Construction.”
“Pleasure to meet you. I’m James Kane, vice president of TY Telecom.”
James already knew that he was Chairman Kim Seong-oh’s eldest son, Kim Jeong-ho.
“And this is Ju-ho.”
“Good afternoon, Vice President James. I’m Kim Ju-ho, section manager at ST Construction.”
“Pleasure to meet you. You’re the second son, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
James exchanged business cards with them and sat down.
“You should have told me in advance. What were you planning to do if I hadn’t brought any?”
“Haha. You’re already a proper company owner. Surely you wouldn’t have come without cards.”
“Come on. I was planning not to bring any because I thought I was only meeting you, Chairman.”
Jeong-ho and Ju-ho were looking at James again, this man who could speak so easily with their father, someone they still found intimidating.
He’s talking to Father like an equal?
Father laughed?
They were different angles on the same shock.
“These are our sons. You’re meeting them for the first time, right?”
“Yes. They both look trustworthy, just like you, Chairman. You must be proud.”
“Haha. If someone else said that, it would sound like flattery, but when you say it, it sounds genuine.”
“Compared to the children of TY Telecom’s former president, calling them mature would be no exaggeration.”
“Pfft. Of all the families to compare them with, why that one?”
“...You already know everything about me, don’t you?”
If the information had reached Hong Hye-ju, Choi Jeong-san’s wife, there was no way Chairman Kim Seong-oh would not know.
“You have no idea how shocked I was when I heard about it. To hide something like that so completely…….”
“I’m sorry you had to hear it from someone else.”
“Heh heh.”
Even if he had heard it from someone else, Chairman Kim Seong-oh did not mind.
“To think you were the grandson of the late Chairman Choi Tae-yeong. I truly never would have guessed.”
That was because James, who had been adopted into America as an orphan, had completely transformed his status into that of a legitimate chaebol descendant.
“!”
“!”
Jeong-ho and Ju-ho were hearing this for the first time today.
“…….”
And James could feel the care in the gesture.
He knows I resent Choi Jeong-san.
Chairman Kim Seong-oh was referring to James not as Choi Jeong-san’s son, but as Choi Tae-yeong’s grandson.
“Thank you, Chairman.”
“That wasn’t my own idea. It was Manager Ma who thought it through.”
Chairman Kim Seong-oh credited Manager Ma Sang-hoon, but James knew that those words would never have come out of his mouth without Kim Seong-oh’s warmth.
“Then you still haven’t met the former president?”
“No. Manager Kim In-su, the late chairman’s confidant, is looking for him, but all he’s been able to confirm is that he left the country on the day of the funeral.”
“That’s unfortunate…….”
James did not want to speak about Choi Jeong-san, so he shifted the topic.
“We secured the maximum booth space for the Consumer Electronics Show. I only regret that this is all I can do for you.”
“Hohoho. It’s not as though I did much this time…….”
James was convinced that Kim Seong-oh had already quietly put things in motion.
He had not been able to join the struggle over the shares, but the contribution he had made by drawing broad support from the business world was not something to overlook.
“Didn’t you help create a favorable current in the business world? Thanks to that, I should be able to join the Federation of Korean Industries without any worries.”
“Are we really calculating things like that between us?”
“I can’t stand owing people.”
“To be a real businessman, you need to know how to wipe your mouth after taking a debt. If I tried to repay every favor, would I starve my own family? Do you think I stepped back at the end for no reason?”
“Thank you for the invaluable lesson. I’ll etch it into my bones.”
Jeong-ho could only listen, unable to join the conversation between the two of them.
How is this conversation even connected?
Consumer Electronics Show? Membership in the Federation of Korean Industries?
What are they talking about, help and debt and stepping back? Stepping back from what?
James Kane being the grandson of Choi Tae-yeong, former chairman of TY Group, was astonishing enough, but the conversation that followed moved so quickly that the earlier exchange had become impossible to reconstruct.
“Look at them. They don’t even know what we’re talking about, and they’re just rolling their eyes around. Isn’t it worth seeing?”
James understood the feelings of the two men, who were staring blankly at him.
“They’re still short on information.”
“Even so, if your father is sitting there in front of a conglomerate chairman having an important conversation, you’d think they’d at least take notes.”
The two of them really did fish out their notebooks, thinking they ought to write things down, but that was not the answer.
“Good grief. Look at you, making a scene in front of your future brother-in-law. Put that away already!”
“…Pardon?”
“W-what did you just say……?”
This was the true reason Kim Seong-oh had introduced James to them.
“He’s the man who’s going to marry Su-ji, you fools!”
“!”
“!”
James acknowledged Chairman Kim Seong-oh’s words with a bitter smile.
“I’m in a good relationship with Su-ji. My apologies for the late introduction.”
“What! Su-ji? Since when?”
“You’re dating Su-ji?”
Chairman Kim Seong-oh clicked his tongue and took them to task for the way they spoke.
“Just look at you, talking informally to someone older than you right away…… Did I raise you that way? You start with casual speech before your future brother-in-law has even allowed it?”
We messed up.
Jeong-ho felt the blood drain from his face. Chairman Kim Seong-oh had educated his children in manners from the time they were young, and had especially emphasized that they should remain polite when dealing with relatives. It was his way of making sure they never acted high and mighty just because they stood behind ST Group.
This is the kind of behavior Father hates most…….
Jeong-ho hurried to apologize.
“...I’m sorry. I spoke too casually.”
Ju-ho did the same.
“That was a lapse in judgment. It won’t happen again.”
James did not take their rudeness seriously, but he accepted the apology.
“Thank you. You can speak casually to me from now on.”
Even after he said that, the two of them resolved never to speak down to him again.
He always told us to be more respectful to those below us than to those above us…….
If we slip again, we’re done.
“You’re older than us, so you should be treated like an older brother.”
“I still have a lot to learn. I’ll learn from you, hyung.”
“Chairman. Why did you step in and make things awkward?”
James looked back at Kim Seong-oh in exasperation, but the chairman was unyielding.
“Future son-in-law, stay out of it.”
“…….”
“…….”
Future son-in-law... Father has acknowledged the relationship.
How far has this already gone?
Hearing that title spoken in front of the two of them, James understood that Kim Seong-oh had called them here to carve James’s position into their minds.
“The future son-in-law may not be that many years older than you, but he’s already a giant who hunted down a major conglomerate like TY Group and took over its management himself. He’s a different breed from you two, who are only taking executive training because you want to inherit the company.”
“We’ll remember that.”
“Yes, Father.”
Chairman Kim explained, one by one, the things the two men did not know: that James had been working with him for quite some time to bring down TY Group, that he had stepped aside in the middle to avoid friction with the government, and that he had also agreed to help with the Consumer Electronics Show through his overseas connections. He added concise explanations so they could follow the conversation.
“...And there is one especially remarkable thing our future son-in-law did. He single-handedly ruined the overseas investment ST Group had been so eager to pursue.”
“What?”
“He stopped ST Group’s investment?”
The two of them could not understand why that was supposed to be impressive.
If ST Group had examined it thoroughly and decided to invest, that meant it had been certain…….
Jeong-ho trusted the analytical judgment of ST Group’s experts completely. Ju-ho was the same.
“Father. I fear stopping ST Group’s overseas investment may have been a mistake…….”
“I already said it was something great! Our investment decision was the mistake!”
“!”
Jeong-ho became curious about what company they had been planning to invest in. He also recalled a past case in which ST Group had decided to invest in an overseas firm and then withdrawn later.
“May I ask which company we had been planning to invest in?”
Chairman Kim Seong-oh named it casually.
“Duojardin.”
“Guhk!”
“Wasn’t that place completely ruined?”
Recently, global biotech stocks had been unable to avoid a decline. Once Duojardin’s fraud was exposed, the credibility of other biotech firms had plunged with it.
“That’s right. It’s completely collapsed now and in the process of being dismantled. The entire executive team, including CEO Tarantis, has been arrested and is on trial.”
Chairman Kim even revealed the scale of the investment ST Group had planned.
“ST Group had planned to invest one trillion won. At the time, every internal and external expert was certain it would be a successful investment, and not a single one of us had the slightest doubt. I was one of them.”
“…….”
“…….”
It was a company people now knew had collapsed, but in the past everyone had been shouting about its enormous promise.
“When nobody suspected a thing, the person who went into Duojardin personally to verify the truth was James Kane here. Thanks to him, ST Group escaped a massive crisis.”
“Whew. What a relief…….”
“One trillion…….”
And then came information they had never understood the reason for.
“As a reward for that, I was going to hand over a small affiliate to the group, but he told me it wasn’t necessary and to give it to Su-ji instead.”
That was the true reason the youngest, Su-ji, had received the affiliate.
“Ah!”
“So that’s why…….”
James, treating the matter as old news, answered lightly.
“Chairman, didn’t I tell you I’d buy my own company?”
“You did. And this time you pulled it off beautifully.”
Then he turned back to Jeong-ho and Ju-ho and said,
“Meanwhile, there are some people who are always staring at my mouth, waiting for crumbs to fall.”
---
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