Happy Virus
James was meeting Park Jin-tae at the place they had agreed on in advance. It was a secluded private room in a quiet bar, and the two of them had ordered drinks without even touching them. They hadn’t come here to drink, after all.
“Chief Park. Is it really all right for you to meet me like this?”
“You don’t need to worry about that anymore.”
Park Jin-tae reported everything that had happened so far: Choi Jeong-san’s abrupt change in posture after confirming the date, and the matter of sending Kim, the old retainer of Chairman Choi Tae-yeong, overseas.
“I do like the fact that Choi Jeong-san is letting his guard down.”
“In the meantime, we should begin our work.”
Thud.
Park Jin-tae set a thick report on the table, but James reached for the bottle instead.
“Why the rush? Let’s have a drink first and start in good time.”
“Yes, sir.”
Clear liquor filled their small glasses, and they lightly clinked them together.
Clink.
“To a ruinous downfall.”
“…To it.”
James drained his glass in one easy motion, then began flipping through the report.
From it, he could see the key points of the TY Telecom stake-acquisition operation that lay ahead.
“Start with less than one percent this year, and don’t go above two percent by the final stage?”
“If you acquire more than one percent, the company will begin watching closely. And once you exceed two percent, you’re legally treated as a major shareholder. That’s why this year we need to acquire a dispersed holding below one percent.”
“So eye and ear cover alone won’t be enough, then.”
“Yes. If we slowly heat the water, he’ll be a frog boiled alive before he knows it.”
If they began as recorded in the report, he could steadily buy up shares through the many nominee accounts he controlled. At the final stage, all they would need was an over-the-counter transfer of ownership. By pooling the holdings in those nominee accounts, they could secure more than thirty percent of the shares.
“So the question now is the necessary capital?”
“As you said, the urgent matter is dispersing the funds that will become the source of the share purchases. We need to spread that money into the nominee accounts in advance before we can begin buying.”
“Cool. That’s always possible.”
But money alone made it difficult to own a major corporation.
“And please look at the next page of the report.”
“…Huh. All of this has to be done beforehand?”
The report sorted the politicians active in Korea by their affiliations and the people who could be approached through them. It also contained information on Korean media companies.
“To conduct business in Korea, politics and the media are essential.”
There were parts James still couldn’t fully grasp.
“No matter how properly you buy the shares, if the government starts looking for fault, everything can fall apart. And you have to understand Korean sentiment. The public will boil over at the idea of a traditional domestic company falling into foreign hands. If it were me, I would definitely proceed that way.”
With the frame of a reckless foreigner gobbling up companies, and the justification of protecting a traditional Korean firm, it wouldn’t be difficult to create favorable public opinion toward TY Telecom. Once that favorable opinion existed, the next step would be even easier: move the telecom subscribers and the self-proclaimed patriots they usually dismissed as sheep and cattle to launch a share-purchase movement.
“Then which part should come first?”
“The media.”
But the media had not been part of James’s original plan.
“…Hmm. I doubt it’ll be effective.”
“If we start through the media, the political circles will follow on their own. It’s killing two birds with one stone.”
“Ah!”
Only then did James understand why the media had to come first.
“Because of voting?”
“Yes. That’s exactly why the media must come first. Once public opinion is formed, you can move things forward with ease without spending much on politicians. Politicians are nothing but hyenas chasing votes.”
“……”
James began to think he had been too complacent.
Owning a company through a stake war means variables from beginning to end.
To eliminate those variables, capable and trustworthy people, along with new information, were essential.
I’m glad you’re the one handling that role...
Park Jin-tae was working for his own downfall. He, too, was included among the people James had mentioned.
“The last page is a little beyond what I can handle myself.”
Rustle.
Only after seeing the contents of the final page did James understand why it was beyond Park Jin-tae’s capability.
“…The tacit consent of the business world.”
TY Group was one of the largest companies in the country in terms of market capitalization. It was not merely large, either. TY Group had been conducting business for a very long time and was an old chaebol family. Chairman Choi Tae-yeong, the founder of TY Group and a first-generation chaebol figure, was still alive. With both tradition and scale, TY Group also maintained considerable connections with other companies.
“If the business world dislikes a foreigner who barges into the domestic market, then things can get difficult. They’re outside the scope of what I can control, because they have nothing to do with public opinion shaping through the media or the influence of politicians.”
“So that’s why I needed to build ties with EST Group.”
“Shallow ties will do more harm than good. If they’re not firmly on our side, it would be better to keep the information hidden.”
“Ah. I’ll handle this part myself. Chairman Kim Seong-oh is very fond of me, after all.”
James thought back to the day he and Su-ji had finished their date and returned home.
* * *
“Hiiing. This is a shame. We’re already home.”
Su-ji was feeling as deeply disappointed as she had been excited for their official date. The sight of her home in the distance looked especially irritating today.
“If we’d met secretly like usual, I would’ve stopped by your place for a bit too...”
“Oh? Should we go now?”
“No way! If I’m late on the first day, Dad will scold me!”
“But you said the chairman wouldn’t know, anyway?”
“…He’ll know now, won’t he? Mom definitely told him everything.”
“Heh. Looks like you’re right.”
“Why?”
“Look there.”
Su-ji turned in the direction James pointed from inside the car and saw her father and mother standing in front of the house.
“Ah, how did Dad—”
“I kept in touch with your mother regularly. And I sent a text a little while ago saying we’d arrive soon.”
“What?!”
“I figured they’d worry. It’s their daughter’s first date with a man, after all.”
“Ugh. This still feels wrong!”
Su-ji couldn’t quite meet Chairman Kim Seong-oh’s eyes, but the car came to a stop right in front of him.
Vrrr.
James shut off the engine, got out quickly, and bowed.
“Good evening, Chairman.”
“……”
Up to that point, Chairman Kim Seong-oh had looked thoroughly displeased.
So you’ve finally...
In truth, Chairman Kim still did not trust James very much. Moreover, he had never given permission for James to meet his daughter.
In the end... in the end...
But something in his heart had begun to shift. James, with whom he had formed a brief connection, was starting to feel like someone precious in his life.
James... James Kane is...
He felt like the closest friend in the world, and like a benefactor whose immense kindness he owed back. It was a feeling that made no sense to his mind. But Chairman Kim believed it was right to follow instinctive feeling rather than logic.
...It was fate that you and I would end up like this.
“...Ho-ho-ho. You didn’t stay out a little longer.”
His wife, startled by her husband’s words, stared at him blankly.
“Dad...”
Su-ji, too, could only gape. It was a sentence so unreal it was hard to believe it had come out of her father’s mouth.
“That would have been improper. I knew full well that Chairman and Madam would worry, so I couldn’t be late.”
“Ho-ho. So this is Korean etiquette after living in America for so long?”
“It isn’t etiquette. It’s only natural. She’s precious not just to me, but to my family as well.”
“……”
Su-ji turned to James with a stunned look. It didn’t seem like the sort of thing he should be saying in front of the two people who believed this was their first date.
If you say something like that when the mood is this good...
It could cool the favorable atmosphere in an instant.
“Ho-ho-ho. If you cherish Su-ji that much, then I’m the one who should thank you.”
“…Dad?”
“Honey?”
Su-ji and Hwang Ji-hye could not understand what was happening.
“I should have hurried a bit more, but I seem to have been too late. I’ll be on my way now.”
“Get home safely.”
“Have a good night, Chairman.”
“Let’s see each other again.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
James brought his hands forward from where he had hidden them behind his back, bowed respectfully, and drove off.
“…Honey. Weren’t you furious when you came out of the study earlier?”
She had expected her husband to explode at the news that Su-ji had gone on a date, swearing he would never let it stand. But the gap between that earlier scene and what had just happened was far too wide.
“What’s wrong with you? What’s so bad about a young man and woman meeting in a healthy way?”
“So you were only pretending to be angry at me?”
Su-ji joined in on the conversation.
“Dad. Can I keep seeing that person? Really?”
“…Well. As you like.”
“!!!”
James’s magic was creating miracles.
* * *
James remembered Chairman Kim Seong-oh’s reaction that day and said, “He can’t reject me.”
There was no way for Chairman Kim Seong-oh to escape James’s magic.
“If I build connections with business figures through Chairman Kim of EST Group, that should do it.”
Park Jin-tae had already heard that James was on good terms with Kim Seong-oh, so he didn’t find it strange, but he still thought that simple acquaintance wouldn’t be enough.
“Knowing their faces isn’t enough. It has to be to the point where they’d actively step in if a stake battle with TY Telecom breaks out...”
He meant that introductions through Chairman Kim alone wouldn’t help much.
What good is it if I only know their faces?
Of course, James had not meant mere face-saving acquaintance.
“The entrepreneurs I’m building ties with overseas might also help us expand into the United States. Give-and-take is the basic rule.”
James would help by connecting the people of the Las Vegas VIP Club with Korean business figures, and the business figures would repay that help by backing James when he won the TY Telecom stake battle.
And there’s more than that.
The means by which James could help them were not limited to the Las Vegas VIP Club. As the world’s only mage, James could assist their companies in astonishing ways.
If that still isn’t enough, then I’ll have to end things with True Marionette by taking over their bodies and minds.
The magic he had used on Chairman Kim this time was not Marionette Magic, but a mind magic one tier below it. It was James’s own original spell, not recorded in the spellbook left behind by his master, and he had created it after watching a dog follow a person.
Williams-Beuren syndrome.
Puppies, as they grew accustomed to humans, displayed a unique kind of sociability. There was a human condition similar to that. It was Williams-Beuren syndrome. A puppy simply showed high sociability and followed humans, but in a human being, it was a kind of condition that allowed intimacy even toward strangers he had never met. James had created a mind magic that forcibly induced this syndrome in a person, and he could limit its target to himself. Once caught by this spell, the person would trust James and feel a deep bond with him, like a puppy raised by his side.
James named that magic, which he had conceived on his own, Happy Virus.