You Messed With My Boy?
Today, the most devastating scandal since the reorganization of the prosecution service has come to light. A lawyer and former prosecutor has been found, through an investigation by the Corruption Investigation Office, to have been fabricating cases in collusion with sitting chief prosecutors…
The ringleader is former Chief Prosecutor Jo Dong-jo, who, after opening a private practice, allegedly took money from a wide range of unsavory interest groups and conspired with chief prosecutors to manufacture crimes. In response, the Prosecutor General has denied the affair, claiming it is a plot by someone seeking to undermine the authority of the Prosecutor's Office…
A legal broker fabricating cases and pinning crimes on the innocent—an unprecedented scandal that had the live news in an uproar.
"So it was those bastards."
He hadn't even known who had been trying to kill him. Now Jung Jinwoo was watching their faces on television.
"In a word, shall we call them amateurs throwing their weight around without the faintest idea who they're dealing with?"
"I beg your pardon?"
The puppet masters who pulled the strings of prosecutors and judges, who bent politicians and the press to their will—and he was calling them amateurs?
Jung Jinwoo stared at Ko Yoon-seok in astonishment.
Ko Yoon-seok was simply smiling with that good-natured face of his.
"They think they're the only ones holding other people's weaknesses… which is precisely what makes them so pitiful. American intelligence knows the movements of every person in this country's power structure down to the last detail. Whether they had an affair… who they took bribes from and how they spent them… even who they met and what they ate for lunch."
"Is… is that even possible?"
"It used to be difficult. These days, thanks to artificial intelligence, it's become almost comfortable."
It was a staggering thing to hear.
Weren't they allies? Friends? Why would America…?
"Everyone does it. Our country does it as well, or so they say… we simply lack the capacity."
"Then I… as well…?"
"Yes, of course you've been exposed too, Chairman. You met with Jerome Musso… did you imagine they wouldn't notice? But it's still only surface-level information. They'll know little more than that you're someone extremely important."
It was extraordinary.
"Don't be too concerned. For as much as they look into us, we look into them."
And that was another thing that made no sense at all.
JW Corporation was watching every move the American power players made? If that ever came to light, it would mean war.
Jung Jinwoo was so floored he couldn't find his next sentence.
"Everyone does it. They know we're watching. They may not know how deep we go. But once you get far enough in… this world is one where everyone already knows as much as they need to know, and sees as much as they need to see. The idea that people who hold nation-level power would simply sit still and do nothing—that's what's actually absurd."
"Th-then we know every move our own country's power players make as well?"
At Jung Jinwoo's question, Vice Chairman Ko Yoon-seok tilted his head, as if the answer ought to have been obvious.
"Isn't that a given? That's how we were able to strike before they moved. How else would the CIO have known about the crimes of a legal broker named Jo Dong-jo? We delivered it to them."
"Come again?"
"If you don't handle this yourself, we'll go over your head. We'll even throw in the evidence of the bribes you took for burying that conglomerate embezzlement case last time… that sort of thing."
"Ghk—!"
He had known they possessed tremendous power, but what Ko Yoon-seok had just described left Jung Jinwoo reeling.
"So then… Vice Chairman, you're saying you threatened the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General?"
"Come now… no. A real professional doesn't work that way. Why would we step forward ourselves? We arranged it so the American ambassador would deliver the words, with perfect elegance. That the corruption in Korea's prosecution service was grave… words steeped in concern for an ally. I mentioned him, didn't I? Senator Todd Baylon. He takes an active hand in helping with most of what happens here in Korea. The gentleman owed your father a debt, once upon a time…"
Ah, Father… just what kind of life did you live?
Gathering gangsters and putting them through finishing school. Handling men at the very summit of power as if they were children. And on top of it all, a fortune beyond reckoning, scattered across the globe.
"Ah, and on that note. Once Director Oh Gong-tae's reliability is more firmly established, I was thinking of handing him the intelligence analysis role as well. Or, to be precise, of putting the artificial intelligence he's currently training to use. It seemed to me it would be far more effective with him close at hand."
So that was why Vice Chairman Ko Yoon-seok had said he would watch and wait, back when he first tried to bring Oh Gong-tae in.
"Very well… go ahead. Provided he agrees to it himself."
"He will. It's endlessly interesting, you see."
It was staggering, but it was far too late to tell him to stop.
The enemies that kept appearing were only growing stronger, and there was no telling when they might be exposed to a danger beyond anything they could imagine.
The elevator chimed, and the doors slid open. The man standing in front of them started and stared at Jung Jinwoo.
Jung Jinwoo was no less startled, though he did his best to look as if he weren't.
"Y-you? What are you doing here…"
It was Jo Seong-gi, fresh from his meeting with Director Hwang Seong-sik.
Jung Jinwoo said nothing. He simply looked at Jo Seong-gi, his expression curt.
They weren't anything to each other anymore. There was nothing to say. This was the man who had treated him as a stranger over a paltry inheritance.
"So you won't even pretend to know me now?"
"We're strangers, remember? Mind your manners…"
"What did you just say?"
"We're not brothers. We're strangers, as you said. Don't you think it's inappropriate to talk down to me like that, Mr. Jo Seong-gi?"
"Mr. Jo Seong-gi?"
They had played together as very small children, but most of what Jung Jinwoo remembered was being hit. After the inheritance, there hadn't even been lingering affection left. He had considered them worse than strangers.
And now, with immense wealth and power in his hands, even the act of holding a personal grudge against Jo Seong-gi felt like a waste of time too precious to spend. What was there to gain from staying shackled to a worthless past?
That was all Jo Seong-gi was to Jung Jinwoo. Someone who soured his mood to look at—an inconvenient memory from the past, too tedious even to keep an eye on.
"So you work here, do you… Not bad, for a two-year college graduate. You'd need a prestigious university to get in the door at a place like this…"
He was talking without the faintest idea of the life Jung Jinwoo had lived these past three years. Cheap, petty words, too tiresome even to answer. Jung Jinwoo only wished the elevator would reach the first floor.
"Do you know who I just met? Hahaha…"
Had he always been this talkative? Jung Jinwoo seemed to be hearing more words from Jo Seong-gi now than he had in the twenty-seven years they'd lived together.
"JW Corporation. I just came from meeting a giant among giants."
At the words giant among giants, Jung Jinwoo's eyes turned toward him.
There was someone like that at JW Corporation?
"You get it now, don't you? One word from me and someone like you is gone. Keep running your mouth like that! I don't know what strings you pulled to get in, but the second I mention you only finished a two-year college, you're finished."
Jung Jinwoo could not, for the life of him, understand this man. He had declared with his own mouth that they were strangers, that the connection was cut—and now what did he want? Would that twisted personality of his uncoil if Jinwoo went back to speaking politely and looking up to him like before? He was probably the sort who'd bristle if Jinwoo actually went back to calling him hyung and using respectful speech. No wonder people would call him a psychopath.
A sigh escaped him on its own.
He hadn't realized the man was this pathetic.
"What? Now that you've had a second to think, you scared? Don't get cocky. No matter what you do from now on, I'll be the one stepping on you… the likes of you, daring to stand in front of me…"
The elevator settled at the first floor with a final chime, and the doors opened in the middle of Jo Seong-gi's sentence.
"Try living a little more productively… and stop wasting yourself on things that don't matter."
Jung Jinwoo left the words behind him and stepped out of the elevator.
"Th-that son of a bitch actually…"
Jo Seong-gi was trembling.
Most ordinary people, meeting Jo Seong-gi, shrank under the force of his presence. And that same Jo Seong-gi had just been dismissed by the man he had believed would be his lackey forever.
He had never once thought himself lacking in family, education, wealth, or power. He was a being who deserved to be worshipped like the shining sun, and Jo Min-gi was supposed to stay crushed like a bug in the darkness.
"Doesn't know his place… Fine. I'll make sure he pays for getting out of line."
Jo Seong-gi pulled out his phone and sent a text to Hwang Seong-sik.
Hadn't Hwang Seong-sik, just a little while ago, talked as if Jo Seong-gi were a man of such tremendous influence that taking his money was only natural? Now they would find out whether that was true.
A knock sounded at the door.
"Come in."
At Choi Tae-min's word the door opened, and a gentleman in an expensive suit poked his smiling face through the gap.
"Hwang Seong-sik, Director of JW Development. I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by to introduce myself, now that you've moved in."
"Aigoo, please, come in. I should have been the one to call on you first… Come, sit down. What kind of tea do you like?"
"Just coffee for me…"
Once Hwang Seong-sik had settled on the sofa, Choi Tae-min drew a cup from the bean-to-cup machine and brought it over.
No secretary? How undignified.
To Hwang Seong-sik, the sight of a CEO fetching his own coffee was deeply unfamiliar. He knew it was unreasonable to expect ceremony from IT people, but still.
"I hope it's to your taste."
Choi Tae-min set the coffee down and dropped into the seat across from him.
"Lovely aroma. Exactly my style. Hahaha."
He hadn't even properly tasted it. The pleasant words came first.
"I'm sorry I didn't come to you first. I meant to get things in order and then pay my respects."
"Not at all. It's just as well that I came to you."
Smiling with every appearance of warmth, Hwang Seong-sik studied Choi Tae-min.
The most important skill an executive at the director level could possess was the ability to size a person up at speed. Ordinarily, five minutes of conversation was enough to take a man's measure—but the Choi Tae-min sitting in front of him looked readable at a glance.
To Hwang Seong-sik, who had spent his career dealing with the most seasoned operators alive, Choi Tae-min had the look of a naive fool he could dribble around with ease.
The judgment settled. He started working him at once.
"I can't tell you how pleased I was when Kiseong IT moved into our building. Kiseong IT—that's the finest IT company in the country, isn't it? Number one. Number one!"
"Aigoo, no, no. Number one? Hahaha. Still, thank you for thinking so highly of us."
"I heard Kiseong IT is packed with brilliant people… all SKY graduates, isn't that right?"
"Haha… some from SKY, some not. You know how it is."
"There's a Manager Jung Jinwoo here who seemed to have come out of a two-year college…"
"I'm sorry? Manager Jung Jinwoo? No, that young man is a Seyeon University graduate… and we don't look at academic credentials at this company. We even have high school dropouts."
"I'm sorry—high school dropouts?"
Oh Gong-tae had been a high school dropout himself—though he'd finished everything in two years, so maybe that counted as graduating.
"Obsessing over pedigrees is what companies that aren't confident in their IT do. We are not that kind of company."
Hwang Seong-sik, who had been planning to report a two-year college graduate for faking a four-year degree at a company that only hired four-year men, revised his approach on the spot.
"Ah—while we're on the subject, I should mention it… that Manager Jung Jinwoo. I've run into him in the elevator a few times, and the man is a bit… it's awkward to put this into words, but…"
"I'm sorry? Did our Manager Jung commit some discourtesy toward you, Director Hwang…?"
"Different companies or not… honestly. I'm embarrassed just saying it."
"I'm not sure I follow…"
"No sense of hierarchy. None at all. Talks down to people, curses them out… in thirty years of corporate life, I have never seen an employee that lawless."
"Our Jung Jinwoo?"
"Yes… the truth is, the reason I came to see you today is that young man. The rumor has gone all the way around the directors at JW Corporation. They're saying Kiseong IT has some ill-mannered, hierarchy-deaf, thuggish punk on the payroll… and they're raising hell, saying if you don't fire him, they'll walk."
A sharp crack. The handle of the mug Choi Tae-min had been gripping snapped clean off and went clattering across the floor.
Hwang Seong-sik stared at him, startled. Where did a man with arms that thin even find that kind of strength?
There was a principle Choi Tae-min had kept through every war he'd ever fought—on the ground, at sea, and in the air.
He worked in the computer industry, but people were precious, and employees were more precious still.
Choi Tae-min's face had gone a deep, furious red.
"You said Hwang Seong-sik, Director of JW Development, is that right? I'll say this once, since it's the first time. You badmouth my boy in front of me again, you and I are going to go a round."
Where did this man get the nerve to insult his boy? And of all people—the lucky charm who had lifted the company's annual revenue…
It had only been a month, but he already knew what kind of man Jung Jinwoo was. He was not a man who would ever treat another person with casual disrespect.
"Th-that's not what I— even if the young ones act up, we adults should work it out smoothly…"
"He had a reason!"
Choi Tae-min's eyes flew wide, and he glared at Hwang Seong-sik as if he meant to eat him alive.
"If he got cursed out, it's because he deserved to get cursed out… Looking at the stunt you're pulling here right now… I can see exactly why. Sorry to come at you like this when we've just met, but…"
Choi Tae-min cut himself off and clenched his fist.
"If you don't get the hell out of here this instant… a couple of those front teeth are going to go flying."
"W-wait—"
Hwang Seong-sik was on his feet and backing away before he realized he had moved. Choi Tae-min's face was twisted with a fury that looked ready to lunge at any second.
Choi Tae-min spat the last of it at Hwang Seong-sik, who stood frozen in the doorway, chewing every word.
"He's… he's insane…"
Too afraid of getting hit to even get a curse out, Hwang Seong-sik yanked the door open and bolted.