Who Is the Winner? (1)
"You absolute moron!" Park Do-cheol’s roar pierced through the sealed Chairman’s office, reaching the ears of the secretary sitting outside. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should enter, but remembering the Chief Secretary’s warning not to barge in, she simply sat back down, eyes darting nervously. Thanks to this, the call inside the office continued uninterrupted.
"You're insane, insane, insane! Don't you realize that what you're doing now isn't just ruining your brother, but tightening the noose around our Seth Group?"
A clear, mocking laugh drifted from the other side of the receiver.
"W-what?" Park Do-cheol was driven to the brink of madness, unable to fathom what his son was plotting.
Park Gi-su’s third wedding. Having sensed his son’s arrogant attitude during their previous call, Park Do-cheol had naturally not attended.
"What is the point! Can't you just get to the point?"
Park Gi-su seemed to enjoy his father’s desperate, frustrated shouting, giggling again before continuing.
"Y-you, you, you damn bastard! Do you intend to hand over the entire family legacy to those Japs?!"
The laughter on the other end stopped abruptly.
As the laughter resumed, Park Do-cheol felt like he was losing his mind.
"How on earth did you find out?"
A question that skipped over many details, but Park Gi-su understood his father immediately.
It was a lie. Park Gi-su had already heard from Ryu Geun-tae that YK Group was managing Seth’s shadow organization. However, he didn't reveal that fact to his father. He had followed Ryu Geun-tae’s advice: "It will be much better for the progress of things if you frame it with your own capability, Hyung-nim." As for Park Gi-ho’s aides, they had identified that Im Si-chan’s subordinates, who used to handle Seth’s dirty work, were moving in tandem with personnel from the Jongno Police Station. But because they were all currently detained in the holding cells, this crucial information had reached neither Park Gi-ho nor Park Do-cheol.
"So you were monitoring your brother in Korea from Japan..."
Park Gi-su clicked his tongue at Park Do-cheol’s lament.
The competence of his eldest son and the incompetence of his second son—realizing he had judged them completely wrong, Park Do-cheol felt his excitement drain away, leaving him cold. He began to continue the call with his head pressed against his desk.
"What... what should I do?"
Park Do-cheol, who was slumped in his chair with his head on the desk, looked like a corpse if not for the sound of his breathing. If Park Gi-su had seen this, his lips would surely have curled into a triumphant smile.
"...Tell me..."
"And the second...?"
Park Do-cheol felt even more drained thinking of his son, who was surely wearing a sinister smile on the other end of the line.
Whichever he chose, it was safe to say that 'Park Do-cheol’s Seth' was finished. But the thought of the name 'Seth' disappearing entirely made Park Do-cheol feel as if he were suffering a social death. *I have to save at least the name of Seth...* It was the only proof that he had lived in this world. He wanted to leave at least that much behind.
"Ugh... ugh..."
Park Do-cheol found himself weeping, and whether he heard it or not, a very low, barely audible laugh came from the other side of the receiver. *To think my Seth would collapse overnight... What is this...* Park Do-cheol ultimately chose the latter.
"I will designate you as the successor next Monday. So..."
A voice full of excitement came from the other end.
The call ended with those cold words, devoid of any affection. Park Do-cheol managed to pull himself up and began pressing the buttons on the phone again.
"...Tell Gi-ho to come up here."
"Father, are you serious right now?!"
Park Gi-ho’s outburst, face flushed red, was an act that should never have happened, but Park Do-cheol had already lost the energy to get angry at such things.
"Then... is there another way...?"
Park Do-cheol spoke weakly, his body practically buried in his chair. Seeing his father so uncharacteristically frail, Park Gi-ho felt emboldened.
"We have to think of a way together. Does it make any sense to hand over the succession to a brother who ruined his business in Japan? Father, let’s be blunt—do you think Seth would have grown this big if it weren't for me?"
Park Gi-ho’s words unexpectedly hit the mark. If Seth had grown without Park Gi-ho’s methods? It was certain that it would not have achieved its current level of growth. Regardless of the legality of those methods.
"Then what do you want me to do... You’ve already been branded a murderer by the media. Don't you know what will happen to Seth if I make you the successor? And what are you going to do about the fallout if you end up in prison after I make you the successor...?"
Park Do-cheol’s sigh made him look twenty years older than he had just thirty minutes ago. Park Do-cheol, who had looked to be in his early sixties thanks to good food and care, suddenly looked like an octogenarian.
"T. H. A. T. is exactly why we should think about it together!"
People appear calm when they are in a stable position. But that is a completely different issue from being in a stable position because one has a calm personality. Park Gi-ho was exactly that case. When he was certain he would be the successor, he had shown an endlessly calm demeanor, but now that the succession structure was on the verge of collapse, he began to reveal his true colors. The colors of a thug who would stop at nothing to become the successor.
"Heh... heh... heh..."
It wasn't Park Gi-ho’s laughter. Park Do-cheol, who had been smiling a weak, bitter smile, finally opened his mouth again.
"I... misjudged... my own children..."
"Father!"
Watching his son panting with rage, Park Do-cheol used his final strength to finalize his decision.
"The successor... is your brother."
At Choi Deok-bae’s words, Yoon-gi, lying in bed, turned his body to face him.
"It’s a bit strange to hear that from someone who was so obsessed with Confucian ideology."
"Isn't it because you like studying it?"
At Yoon-gi’s perfectly honest answer, Choi Deok-bae shook his head with an 'oops' expression.
"Isn't it because you like going to work?"
Choi Deok-bae almost let out a string of profanities, but seeing the playful glint in Yoon-gi’s eyes, he gave a bitter smile.
"Haha, I’m excited every time I go to work. Because it’s my company. But other office workers probably aren't."
"I see."
"You have to rest when you can. If you don't rest because you're walking on eggshells around your grandfather and end up failing, it’s the grandfather who won't get his ancestral rites, right?"
Yoon-gi nodded with a sinister smile.
"That might be true. But why did you say power is scary just now? Because of the situation at Seth?"
Choi Deok-bae nodded.
"Thinking about it, maybe Confucianism emphasizes filial piety because there is no filial piety in society."
Choi Deok-bae smacked his lips, then, deciding it had nothing to do with him, he lay down on his side just like Yoon-gi.
"Aren't you going?"
Yoon-gi asked.
"Johnson explored the basement with us back then, too."
Watching Choi Deok-bae, who had become a ghost of capitalism, Yoon-gi gave a bitter smile.
Johnson, the subordinate in the ghost world, was floating in the Seth headquarters conference room. Of the directors seated, the only one who could see Johnson was, naturally, Zero. Thanks to this, Johnson saw the directors clearly, and these scenes were transmitted to Choi Deok-bae in real-time, then appropriately reassembled and explained to Yoon-gi.
"The Chairman is late."
One of the directors spoke up first, unable to bear the strange silence.
"Well, he has a lot to deal with right now. The Chairman is such a clean man, but now that there’s a problem in the family..."
Another director replied to the one clicking his tongue.
"Anyway, it’s a huge problem. There’s not just one incident; at this rate, aren't we going to be dismantled?"
Once the words started flowing, the directors began asking and answering each other, turning it into a sort of discussion.
"Dismantled? The Chairman has solved every crisis so far. He must have a plan this time, too."
"But the issue is too big for that... He said he was going to designate a successor last time, but then that happened..."
"Come to think of it, who was he planning to make the successor back then?"
"Can't you tell even after seeing that report? The second son was posturing right next to him. It was obviously the second son."
"But with such a huge incident happening, isn't that out of the question now?"
"Who knows? Will he push through with it, or switch to the first son?"
"Maybe it was the first son from the beginning?"
"You really have no eye for this, do you?"
"What, you punk?"
Just as the well-flowing discussion was about to turn into a fight, the conference room door opened and Park Gi-ho walked in. His expression was incredibly savage. Park Gi-ho entered the conference room with twenty fierce-looking aides trailing behind him.
"Directors, the Chairman will not be able to attend today due to health issues."