“All right.”
Security guards came in and checked every corner of the room for bugs or cameras. After confirming that there was nothing, the bodyguards were sent outside.
Close encounters were better with fewer listening ears.
He drank a glass of cool water.
“I heard that you met Senator Seol.”
“Yes. He was a very nice man.”
“He has a pulpit. How did you convince him?”
“I agree, but do I need to convince you?”
Seol Gyeong-taek was in a position that I felt sorry for, not me. Because the amount I would invest for the development of the Republic of Korea was an amount that ordinary people could not earn even in their lifetime.
“You mean the same thing.”
“He was a person who sincerely thought about the future of Korea. What do you think of Chairman Sung Yo-han? Do you really believe that the Yusan Union has a future?”
Growth and distribution have been concerns of politicians since ancient times. In order to grow, we had to take risks, and there was no growth only through distribution.
Seol Gyeong-taek was a person who focused on growth, and Yoo-san Lee was a person who focused on distribution. It was not difficult to share the assets someone had already accumulated.
It would take quite a while for the barn called the Republic of Korea to be empty, so the country would not perish while they were in power, but it was clear that the burden would be passed on to the next generation.
The new generation, who were accustomed to accepting the latest culture, rather than simply having to live as before, had to earn foreign currency to maintain the quality of life.
“What do you think, Mr. Kim?”
Perhaps the question was burdensome, Sung Yo-han answered back. He could have accused me of not asking first, but I didn’t want to.
Because it was Yohan Sung who took the risk by riding the same boat as Yusan.
“I believe that Congressman Seol Gyeong-taek has the future of Korea. It is difficult to disclose, but there are projects that are being carried out with his proposal.”
“Can you elaborate?”
“Before that, I would like to hear Chairman Sung’s position. Do you think that Lee Yu-san’s Republic of Korea has a future?”
“That’s a tough question.”
He paused for a while.
“For Korea to move into the future, trade between countries must be active. Because of its high dependence on resources and food, there is a limit to growth only with domestic demand.”
“You’re in a position to break down barriers.”
“I believe that we should invest in technologies that can be sold overseas. It is easy to improve the quality of life, but it is difficult to lower it.”
“Then, wouldn’t Congressman Seol Gyeong-taek’s direction be right?”
He smiled and nodded his head in response.
“More than that, I saw you salvage treasure from a shipwreck this time. You photographed very well in the interview.”
“Did you see that too?”
Thanks to the terrestrial news broadcasting it again and again, it seemed that everyone in the know now knew it. It was not a pleasant thing to become famous not only in the United States but also in Korea.
‘It’s better to have a lot of money but not be known…’
Fame came at a cost.
However, it was clear that this level of fame would soon fade from public attention. So it was better to wait quietly for it to pass.
“Treasure ship? I thought of a book I read as a child and my heart was pounding. President Kim, do you usually work as a treasure hunter?”
“I was lucky.”
“Did your ancestors really tell you the place?”
“Yes. I am very grateful to my grandfather.”
“It really does happen.”
Sung Yohan let out an exclamation.
I could see curiosity in his expression.
“Looks like you’re almost done eating. How about a drink at a bar I know?”
“Is it famous?”
“It’s not famous because it’s a membership club. You can’t enter without being introduced, so one security is certain.”
If it was a membership club, it would be talking about Dorim, Lee Yu-san’s favorite place. He was not complacent enough to stick his head into the enemy’s stronghold.
“I like famous places.”
“Well, I’m in too much of a hurry to invite you. Then why don’t you go somewhere famous?”
“great.”
If it was more comfortable that way, it would have been better to talk openly there.
***
I had a private conversation with Sung Yo-han in a quiet lounge bar attached to a 5-star hotel. Unlike the first place, his speaking level has risen a little higher.
“I also think that Congressman Seol Gyeong-taek is the lumber that will lead the future of Korea rather than Congressman Lee Yu-san. What do you think of President Kim?”
“Since you thought so, wouldn’t you have stood in line?”
They ordered wine, poured it on each other, and clinked glasses. As the alcohol flowed in, my mouth became loose and the story spilled out.
‘I wonder if the location was too burdensome.’
Rather than the place I designated, it was the law that the inner feelings came out in a place I knew well.
After talking happily for a while, Chairman Sung Yo-han’s cell phone started ringing. he apologized to me
“This is my wife’s call. I’ll answer it for a moment.”
“Take it easy.”
He started calling his wife.
“Yes. It’s me. Not yet. I’ll go in before it’s too late. Okay. I love you too.”
He hit the phone lightly on his lips and hung up.
“I’m sorry. Please come home quickly.”
“It’s okay. It’s nice to see.”
It was 11:00 before I knew it, so I was able to find my father at home.
“It’s late at night, so why don’t you go inside.”
“Thank you for your understanding. It was a lot of fun sharing today.”
“I enjoyed it too.”
The conversation I had with him for two hours was mainly about leisure. We asked how they discovered the wreck and what activities they do often.
He was quite the leisure fanatic, traveling around the world whenever he had the chance to go on vacation and taking part in activities, including skydiving.
His photo album contains dozens of photos taken while skydiving.
“If we get a chance later, let’s go skydiving together. Skydiving in Jirisan Mountain in winter is also quite cool.”
“I’ll think about it.”
I’ve never skydived before, but if I went with someone close to an expert, I thought I wouldn’t have to worry. Now, if you check the last one, today’s work is over.
“Can we meet again?”
He made eye contact with me and held out his hand. I used my saved eye of trust to find the right timing.
‘Use the eyes of trust.’
[Reliability 48%]
‘what? this.’
Instead of holding hands, I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand.
His confidence level was still 48%.
‘If I hadn’t had eyes of trust, I would have been completely fooled.’
It meant that he was a man who would tell Yu-san about our trend whenever the opportunity came. I thought I had communicated well until just now, but I felt betrayed.
When I didn’t hold his hand, he reached out a little closer. Instead of holding hands, he leaned back on his chair and narrowed his brows.
“Why is that?”
“You’re shaking.”
he flinched slightly.
“Today’s conversation was enjoyable, but neither I nor Congressman Seol are leisurely people. Allies are allies. Enemies are enemies.
“…what are you talking about?”
“Please contact me when you’ve made up your mind. I don’t want to waste time looking at it.”
“·······.”
Sung Yohan’s expression hardened.
“If it was someone else, there would have been no second chance. Since it’s Chairman Sung, I’m giving you one more chance in particular. I hope you make the right choice.”
I got up from my seat and grabbed his hand that was lingering in the air. Sung Yo-han kept his mouth firmly shut with a hard face.
whispered low in his ear.
“Today’s work will not be done.”
I tapped him on the shoulder twice and left the place.
‘I did it as if I saw it in a movie, wouldn’t it make me feel bad?’
What to do if you feel bad
The saddest person was not me, but Sung Yo-han.
***
After returning home, Sung Yo-han’s head was complicated.
‘I thought I hid it well.’
In the first meeting, he was reluctant to mention Mt. Lee, and in the second meeting, he appealed that he wanted to join Seol Kyung-taek’s line.
During the conversation, the atmosphere was also friendly, and it was clear that the words were well communicated. If it was acting, he must have been a fairly good actor.
I thought it over, but I couldn’t say it clearly.
‘How the hell did he notice?’
I thought it was just a lucky one, but there was a sharper corner than it looked.
‘If this happens, it might be difficult to hold hands with Congressman Lee Yu-san and Seol Kyung-taek at the same time.’
With a high probability, it was clear that the two would collide in the next presidential election. At the time, it was clear that investing in both sides would not save a penny.
Because it was a politician who was busy taking care of the people who only lined up for him.
‘It’s not as bad as I thought.’
During the conversation, he thought that Kim Jae-gu had passed on to him. However, at the end of the last, he revealed his true color.
He was a man with a sharp pioneering eye that could see through the hearts of others. He even saw through to the fact that St. John was shaking at once.
‘There’s a reason Seol Kyung-taek chose him.’
There was a reason why Kim Jae-gu was given a large sum of money to attack the coalition. If it was his insight, I could have trusted him.
I liked Seol Kyung-taek, who shouted his dreams for the future, more than the Kong-garu family who tried to clean up Dokgo-jin after Hwang Yong-nam was arrested.
However, in the coalition, I couldn’t get out of my feet. When running a company, there were times when we inevitably did things that deviated from the boundaries of the law.
Sung Yo-han tried to walk as far as possible, but he could trip and fall as much as he wanted. In particular, there was no way to avoid a targeted tax investigation.
Above all, he was in the Yusan Union.
‘There’s no way to get out safely without doing something to Ho-jin Lim.’
As long as he had the Seoul Metropolitan Police Commissioner as his son-in-law and was in the Yusan Union, there was no way he could escape without bloodshed.
‘I have to gamble big once.’
He closed his eyes and was lost in thought.
What will I do if my father dies
‘President Sung Yo-han. You were more quick-witted than I thought.’
At the second drinking party, I expected it because I thought I could communicate well, but when I used the eyes of trust, I got an unexpected result.
Also, people couldn’t tell just by looking at their appearance.
‘I’m still lacking in people’s eyes.’
If it wasn’t for the eyes of trust, it wouldn’t be strange if he was already stabbed in the back of the head. Just being able to avoid land mines was enough to make the skill useful.
The streets on New Year’s Eve night were full of people. Seeing people reveling and drinking brought to mind the faces of my friends.
[go away. You swindler bastard.]
[Jaegu. buy me food Do you have a lot of money from embezzlement?]
When I called to borrow money, the faces of the thugs at the door came to mind. My heart ached because I thought I couldn’t give you that much trust.
Now, there are few friends left who could be called classmates. Instead, the relationship with Lim Han-ul, who was with the startup club in college, deepened.
‘child. You must be busy.’
Im Han-ul has been an insider since his college days. There were always people around him, and he himself met a lot of people while walking around.
So it was clear that time would be full at the end of the year as well. The company will also have a year-end party.
‘I’ll have to arrange a party for the employees too.’
Did you say that the boss who only gives a corporate card and leaves is the best? The people dispatched from Titanium Security also needed a break. In order to minimize the gap in security, I had no choice but to shorten the Christmas vacation, so I would have to take a shot at the end of the year.
‘Should I ask for advice and make a phone call?’
It was a good excuse to call Im Hanul. I knew Noh Yu-ri and Park Min-seok, so if there was a company dinner, it would be nice to attend.
I called him.
“Uh. Hanul. I’m Jaegu. Do you have time at the end of the year?”
***
The end of the year to end the year.
Many American companies take long vacations, but Korean companies did not. Office workers gathered in groups of threes and threes and drank under the name of a dinner party instead of a vacation.
Among them, there were people who really liked it, and there were people who were forced to fill their positions. The night in Seoul was full of such people.
There was silence in Dokgo-jin’s mansion, a little away from the noisy downtown area. Normally, I would have gathered my sons and had a barbecue in the yard, but this year was not the mood.
His two children were under arrest, and Dokgo-jin himself was facing a police investigation. It wasn’t uncommon for rich people to engage in prostitution, so I was still not arrested, but I was anxious to think that something might happen sooner or later.
He recently received a report that a secret safe deposit box in Switzerland had been robbed. The safe side said that the return was carried out according to a legitimate procedure. The man in the CCTV was similar to himself even when he saw it.
‘Maybe I can’t catch the tail.’
There was no way that humans who were sophisticated enough to perform full-body plastic surgery could have saved him. The only thing the evidence knew was Mt. Yu, so there was a high probability that this incident was related to him.
‘How hard I rolled for my bastard. How dare you abandon me?’
I couldn’t die alone. He decided to explode the well-hidden file in the corner of the study. However, if he exploded it, Yu-san and himself would have to go to prison.
Prostitution should have been fined if possible, and lived for a few months at most, but if the murder charge was revealed, a few years was not enough.
‘Maybe I should stay in prison until I die.’
Unlike foreign countries, priestly prisons for wealthy people were not active, so solitary confinement was the most that could be expected.
It was clear that life in prison would be monotonous and boring if there was no one to come and pick up money from the outside.
Fortunately, he had enough shares in Dokgo Group, and he knew someone who would buy it at a high price. However, there was no option to sell the stake to him, who was blocked.
‘A group needs a history.’
If there were noblemen in the Joseon Dynasty, there were chaebols in the 21st century. Money was status, and status had to be hereditary. Only then can history continue and Dokgo-jin’s own name be engraved in the history of Dokgo.
The history of the Dokgo group would pass through Dokgojin, Dokgogap, and Dokgohyeok.
smart-. Someone knocked on the door.
“May I come in?”
It was the voice of Dokgo Gap.
“Come in.”