The Crown Prince of the New Military Regime (1)
‘My second uncle.’ The person who came to mind was none other than Choi Cheol-gyu. Yoon-gi had two reasons for picking him. First, in his previous life, Cheol-gyu had recognized the talent of Ryu Geun-tae. Second, he had accurately foreseen who would become the Chairman of the Samwoo Group before his regression. Although Choi Deok-bae hadn't told him, Yoon-gi judged that Cheol-gyu was the type to have sufficiently secured his own interests before any trouble could befall the Samwoo Group.
“How was my second uncle’s life within the group?”
“I wanted to hear about the time before it went under.”
“I thought as much.”
“I felt like I needed a new card to play.”
Yoon-gi dialed the rotary phone in the house.
The place Choi Cheol-gyu chose to meet Yoon-gi was, coincidentally, the very same tearoom where he had met his older brother, Choi Cheol-min, last time.
‘I just don’t understand how a man who is supposed to be an older brother can be less mature than a child.’
12:20 PM. It wasn’t Yoon-gi who suggested meeting for lunch, but Choi Cheol-gyu himself. Yoon-gi had actually suggested meeting in the evening so as not to interfere with work, but Cheol-gyu had insisted on lunch. Ten minutes until the appointment. Since he wouldn't have asked to meet just because he missed his nephew, there was surely some business to attend to. Yoon-gi had concluded that giving the other party too much time in such a situation would only be a disadvantage to himself.
‘Wait... could it be that the kid, Yoon-gi, calculated that I’d want more time and suggested meeting after work?’
That thought flashed through the mind of Choi Cheol-gyu, who had been sipping black tea while waiting.
‘It’s about time.’
With about seven minutes left, Cheol-gyu called the server to clear the cup from his table.
“Please don’t let it be known later that I had a cup of tea beforehand.”
As he handed over a thousand-won bill, the employee nodded with a smile and cleared the cup. A little while later, Yoon-gi appeared.
“Uncle, hello. It’s been a while. Have you been healthy?”
“Yes, have you been doing well too? First, sit down.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Watching Yoon-gi’s polite demeanor, Cheol-gyu was reminded of his other nephew, Choi Jung-gi. ‘Thinking back to when Yoon-gi was Jung-gi’s age...’ Comparison was simply impossible. He had wondered if Yoon-gi had been childlike when he was younger, but Yoon-gi had shown an incredibly mature side from a very early age.
‘Well, he’s often more adult-like than my older brother Choi Cheol-ho.’
If his second brother, Choi Cheol-min, was frivolous, his first brother, Choi Cheol-ho, was simple and honest. Of course, the comparison itself might be an insult to his older brother, Cheol-ho, but Cheol-gyu felt that Yoon-gi was more mature than him.
“What would you like to drink?”
“Coffee, please.”
“You don’t have to push yourself.”
“No, I drink coffee often. It helps when I study at night.”
“I see.”
Cheol-gyu ordered two coffees calmly, but he couldn't help but be amazed. If Yoon-gi had ordered milk or soda, he would have thought the boy was relaxing in front of his uncle, or simply acting like a child. ‘He knows what drink is appropriate for the setting, and he knows he’s the one who had to seek me out...’ If not for the lessons Choi Ki-hyun had given in the past, Yoon-gi might have committed the folly of asking when Cheol-gyu would visit the grandfather’s house, but there was no way Cheol-gyu could know that.
Clink, clink.
Only the sound of the two quietly sipping tea filled the space. Time was entirely on Cheol-gyu’s side. Even the time spent rolling a sip of tea in his mouth was a waste for Yoon-gi.
‘Surely he doesn’t think he can get close to me by having meetings like this several times?’
If that were the case, Cheol-gyu would be deeply disappointed in Yoon-gi. Of course, considering his age, that might be the limit of his thinking.
“My first uncle has been very restless lately.”
“Is that so?”
He answered nonchalantly and set his teacup down on the saucer, but Cheol-gyu was well aware of the situation. ‘So my second brother is struggling to get in Yoon-gi’s way.’ At the same time, he inwardly sneered at Choi Cheol-min. If he was going to move, he should have done it quietly; it meant he had let a mere child see all his movements.
“Yes. I think he’ll be scolded by Grandfather again soon. I don’t think it will be the usual level of scolding, though...”
Yoon-gi stopped there and closed his mouth. Of course, it wasn’t rare for Choi Cheol-min to be scolded by Choi Ki-hyun. Therefore, Cheol-gyu nodded and smiled softly, but his mind was furiously calculating.
‘My brother is getting scolded by Father? Is what he’s doing to Yoon-gi crossing the line this time? But there’s no way Father doesn’t know what Yoon-gi knows. If so, it means it hasn’t been implemented yet. Then, does it mean Father is involved in what Yoon-gi is doing now? No, that can’t be it.’
Yoon-gi gave Cheol-gyu enough time to calculate, and Cheol-gyu finally reached a conclusion.
‘The very thing my brother is trying to do is beyond the scope of what should be done between family members!’
He didn’t have a hunch yet as to what it was. But if Yoon-gi’s words were true, it was clear as day that his brother would completely lose his footing in the family.
‘...!’
At the same time, Cheol-gyu realized that the nephew in front of him had given him enough time to think. If the boy had spoken to him while he was still calculating, he wouldn’t have been able to reach this judgment.
‘A terrifying kid...!’
Cheol-gyu raised the white flag for now. He could never confront the nephew in front of him with a frontal attack. If he had a father with some wealth like Choi Cheol-ho, and the powerful support of the US military like Colonel Colson, he might have been able to put up a fight. But with the background of his wife’s family, who were mere local notables, he couldn’t compete with his nephew. Even if they fought over assets, the wealth of his brother, who had shared joys and sorrows with their father for a long time, was on a completely different dimension from his own.
‘This kid was born with luck, too.’
Cheol-gyu didn’t show it, quietly sipping his tea while openly calculating further. Since the other party had given him time, he at least had the right to think it through.
‘If I were a brother born a year apart from this kid, or in Choi Cheol-ho’s position, I might have been able to be greedy, but right now, I can’t think of any other options. Then...’
The conclusion was reached. It was to grant his nephew’s request while simultaneously establishing his own pillar. If his nephew showed the qualifications to succeed the Samwoo Group without wavering, he would simply make his own pillar thicker and taller. Of course, the nephew’s pillar would be thicker and taller still.
“Hmm, the coffee here really is excellent.”
Cheol-gyu, who had quietly set down his cup, looked at his nephew and continued.
“This uncle has lost.”
If the people around them had been listening to their conversation, they wouldn’t have understood at all. That was how far their brief battle of wits was from the ordinary.
“Are you satisfied with that?”
He had expected him to get to the point immediately, but at the sudden remark, Cheol-gyu raised one eyebrow for the first time in a while.
“What do you mean by that...?”
“I mean, are you satisfied with the position of President or Chairman of Samwoo Chemical?”
“Well... if the Samwoo Group continues to grow at its current pace, wouldn’t it be a position of sufficient value?”
Cheol-gyu’s only flaw. That was that his ambition was small compared to his ability. If his ambition had been as great as his ability, the theft of the Samwoo Group wouldn’t have happened.
“Will Samwoo Chemical, operated by my first uncle, really grow larger than it is now?”
It could be seen as a simple question, but Cheol-gyu immediately grasped the underlying meaning. It was more than just not taking Choi Cheol-min’s side in the family succession; it was an invitation to become his confidant.
‘In any case, there is no possibility that my brother will win against Yoon-gi. Leaving aside Yoon-gi’s issues, there’s no way Father would designate my brother as his successor.’
For Cheol-gyu to take Choi Cheol-min’s side was closer to meaning he would pull Yoon-gi down rather than pushing Cheol-min as the successor. And for this to have meaning, he would have to have the goal of becoming the successor himself. However, Cheol-gyu had judged through his calculations that there was almost no chance of him becoming the successor.
‘This kid, he’s not just asking for help in a family feud; he’s trying to pull me onto his side entirely. My assessment of this kid’s personality is that he clearly distinguishes between friend and foe...’
Although the bill related to the ‘legal reserve of inheritance,’ a concept of minimum inheritance, was proposed in ’77 and implemented in ’79, the inheritance battles of chaebols were still at a blood-spilling level until then. Even if all the assets were funneled to one child, the remaining children could do absolutely nothing.
‘Taking Cheol-min’s side is a foolish act, and standing in opposition to Yoon-gi when there’s no profit to be gained is also a stupid act. In the end, it means I have to become Yoon-gi’s confidant. Well... wouldn’t it be much better to get high-end information from around Yoon-gi than to be isolated alone at Samwoo Chemical? Brothers can be discarded easily, but confidants cannot.’
Having finished his deliberation, Cheol-gyu opened the conversation again with a deliberate groan.
“Hmm...”
“Wouldn’t it be better to choose the option where the pie grows rather than the one where it shrinks?”
“Are you saying you can do that?”
“I think the answer would have already come out with your insight, Uncle. Is my insight wrong?”
Yoon-gi brought out a very sharp point. If he answered ‘Yes,’ it wouldn’t be a problem of Yoon-gi’s insight being wrong, but rather Cheol-gyu insulting himself by saying he lacked ability, and if he answered ‘No,’ the conversation they just had would become meaningless.
“Can’t you save this uncle’s face just once?”
As the true white flag was finally raised, Yoon-gi smiled and brought up the real business.
“There is something I would like to ask of you.”
“Yes, I will help as much as I can if it’s something I can help with.”
“Good. Then, please visit our house often from now on. This isn’t the place to talk about such things.”
“Yes, that would be for the best. Then, I’ll visit this evening.”
“Yes, then I’ll see you this evening.”
After both stood up, Yoon-gi quickly ran to the counter to pay the bill.
“That will be 450 won.”
What the clerk said was the price for three cups of tea. For a moment, Cheol-gyu’s face twisted as he looked at the clerk, but he quickly regained his composure and looked at his nephew. He was embarrassed that the fact he had drunk two cups of tea had been exposed. However, Yoon-gi didn’t show it at all, bowed his head to Cheol-gyu, and left the seat.
“...”
A quiet but heavy consideration. As long as the ship named Yoon-gi did not rust, Cheol-gyu would never jump off the ship.
Yoon-gi’s room. A new person had entered this place, not his parents or Ryu Geun-tae. It was none other than Choi Cheol-gyu. Cheol-gyu had sought out Yoon-gi as soon as work was over and had been talking with him for quite a long time.
“Your plan is certainly plausible. In this situation where the military is flexing its power, it’s not a bad thing to build connections with them in advance.”
Yoon-gi didn’t tell Cheol-gyu things like the fact that P would die soon.
[I am still young. If I build a decent level of connections in advance, it will be a great help when I jump into business in earnest.]
At his nephew’s understandable plan, Cheol-gyu nodded and expressed his position to help actively. However, he threw out one question.
“But is there a need to contact JSD? I think it would be better to contact JD directly.”
JSD was a confidant of JD, who would become the emperor of the new military regime as of ’77, and he was the person who would become the crown prince of the new military regime the moment it took power. JSD was the kind of existence that would be mentioned at least once by most people in the future.
“I haven’t not thought about that, but JD is too expensive for us to contact right now. Since JD and JSD are close, just contacting JSD will be enough.”
Cheol-gyu didn’t wonder at all how Yoon-gi knew such high-level information. After all, his maternal grandfather was Colonel Colson, who had quite a bit of power in the US military.
‘If he borrows the power of the US military, there’s no way he wouldn’t know the basic power structure of the Hana-hoe.’
Instead, Cheol-gyu made an additional request to Yoon-gi.
“Yoon-gi, could you investigate JSD’s family matters?”
“Yes, please wait a few days.”
“Then, let’s talk again when that information comes out. JSD is older than I thought, so I think we need to plan well.”
“That would be good. It’s late, would you like to have a meal before you go?”
“Shall I?”
Eating at Choi Cheol-ho’s house. That meant Choi Ki-hyun would also be eating with them. Choi Ki-hyun had caught a rough sense of things after seeing Yoon-gi talking with Cheol-gyu in the room, and he didn’t ask Cheol-gyu this or that. And when Cheol-gyu left the house, the front gate opened and Choi Cheol-min entered.
“Uh...?”
Choi Cheol-min looked at his younger brother, looking puzzled.
“Cheol-gyu, what are you doing here at this hour...?”