60. This place is really good.
“How did you get this number?”
– I asked the young man, apologizing if I offended him.
“hahahaha, but what’s the deal, it was just a fling with your son, not even work.”
– I said, “Look, let’s not do that, let’s meet and talk about it, because it’s just too steamy for me to let it pass like this.
“Mr. Seo, I’ve forgotten all about it. Honestly, I’ve been back home for a long time, and I’m a little embarrassed that this happened.”
– Honestly, aren’t you feeling embarrassed right now too, Mr. Kang? I think it’s better to have a meeting between the people who are responsible for this kind of thing and sort it out.
“…”
Mr. Kang, you’ve definitely recognized me.
You call me Mr. Chairman.
It’s also quite low-key,
I thought I would look bad if I continued to refuse, so I agreed to meet him the next evening.
The next evening.
I went to the place Mr. Seo said, and it was a quiet high-end Japanese restaurant.
At the entrance, I was told that I had an appointment with Mr. Seo, and a staff member led me to a room in the back.
“Mr. Seo?”
“hahahaha, nice to meet you, please sit this way.”
I recognized him from afar at the opening of Pangyo Department Store a few years ago.
He’s over 60 years old, but unlike his son, he’s in great shape and is known for always being well-groomed.
But why do you want me to sit at the head table?
Is it a burden?
“No, I can’t sit at the head table.”
“Ha! This is so inconvenient in Korea. This wouldn’t happen in the United States, where you’re the president.”
“…”
Well, that was conceded.
In the end, we both said no, and Mr. Seo sat down.
I didn’t want to sit at the head table in front of someone who looked like my father, no matter how bad the relationship was.
We greeted each other appropriately and touched the food that was served, and I was struck by how beautiful this house was.
The decor is completely self-contained so you don’t have to pay attention to the outside, the atmosphere is great, and the food is really good.
I’ll have to get a business card on the way out.
“How’s the food?”
“Yes, it’s delicious.”
“hahahaha! It’s an in-the-know place, it’s quiet, and the food is famously good. They don’t take reservations without a referral, but I’ll tell the owner, so if you like it, you should come back often.”
“Ah! Thank you, I’ll have to try it often.”
“hahahahaha! If the chairman likes it, I like it too.”
Mr. Seo, this guy really knows how to do sales.
After all, that’s how he built his company.
“Come on, let’s have a drink.”
“Sure.”
After a few drinks in a row, Mr. Seo got down to business.
“I heard that you were very rude to the chairman yesterday. I don’t know how to apologize for that.”
“No, the young people were just being naughty, and it’s not for you to apologize.”
“This guy suddenly asks me if I know Karma Investments, which is quite embarrassing.”
“Do you know my company by any chance, given what you’re calling me?”
“hahahaha! Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t look you up, but I was intrigued by your acquisition of Daesung and other Korean apparel companies. Your acquisition of Daesung was a big deal in our industry.”
“Is it?”
“Yes. It’s a company that you used to work for in sales, and how exciting is that, plus JD Style, plus Sungchang, which is a big adult apparel company? It’s kind of quieted down now, but at the time, whenever we got together, people in the industry would gossip about the identity of the chairman.”
Yikes, it was the stuff of fantasy novels.
“And I had some contacts in the U.S., so I asked some more about a company called Karma Investments, which is probably when they acquired Sungchang, and they said it was a hot topic in the U.S. investment community, founded by a Korean, Alex Kang, and they said it was growing like crazy in a couple years.”
“Is that all you know?”
“At the time, I was just curious, so I was like, “Wow, he’s a great guy,” and then yesterday, the asshole asked me again.”
“…”
“So what happened is, I asked you if you knew about karma, and you said——. Ha!”
Mr. Seo gulped down his soju to quench his thirst and spoke again.
“He was blabbering on and on about something that didn’t even make sense, about how the industry should order a burial. I was drunk and gibbering, so I got annoyed and called out to him, but—. I’m really sorry about this.”
“What?”
Why did I suddenly stop being nice and start apologizing?
“We live separately, so I called her right away, but for some reason she didn’t want to come to Cigar, and her voice was much different than usual. I had a feeling, so I told her to come unconditionally. I invited her to my house and questioned her, and she told me the truth about what happened during the day: she met a man she was dating before she met Gyu-man at the Mercedes dealership, and he was very rude to the chairman.”
“I see.”
“It was ridiculous, but I thought it was in order to get to know the chairman properly, so I called my lawyer in the United States. He’s a California lawyer, and he’s very competent, so I thought he might be able to tell me more, and he said he was very knowledgeable, not only about Karma Investments, but also about you.”
“What? Who?”
Why would an American lawyer know me so well?
“The lawyer is very famous in Korea for people with money. You know him, right? Jeffrey Chang?”
“Huh? Jeffrey? Jeffrey’s brother?”
No, why is my brother here?
“hahahaha, you know him well.”
“No, did you do business with Jeffrey?”
“He’s not the only one, I’ve told you before, most of the tycoons and people with money in this country are considered essential to get things done in the US.”
“Oh!”
This guy’s even bigger than I thought, huh?
“So what did Jeffrey say to you?”
“Well, he asked me what I wanted to talk to you about first, so I told him I’d been having some trouble with my son, and he said—.”
“Said what?”
“He said that you’re one of the top tycoons in American investing right now, that you’re a major shareholder in several IT companies with a market capitalization of over $100 billion, and that you’re not on the list of the richest people in Korea because you’re not ranked, and that if you were ranked properly, all the 100 richest people combined wouldn’t have your fortune.”
Is that true?
I thought about it and realized it was probably close.
“He also said that he and Mr. Jeffrey Zhang are like brothers personally, and that if I can’t solve his son’s problem, he’ll have no choice but to cut off business with me.”
“…”
Man, this guy was going off on a tangent.
Still, it felt good.
I felt like I’d always thought of him like a brother.
By the way, did Mr. Seo have that much money?
It wouldn’t take much to make a deal with Jeffrey’s brother.
He was well known in the industry, and he had made a fortune selling his stake to a Hong Kong company, but he hadn’t made a deal with Jeffrey.
“I think Jeffrey went a little overboard. I’ll call him and tell him it’s all worked out, so he won’t have to worry about Mr. Seo anymore.”
“hahahahaha, thank you. That’ll take the wind out of my sails. I felt like I had touched Warren Buffett.”
“Oh, you’re welcome. Warren Buffett is still a long way off.”
“This is so embarrassing. I’ve been raising him like he’s my only son, and he’s so—.”
Mr. Suh now switched gears to a very lamentable version.
“He’s only a few years younger than you, Mr. Chairman, but I don’t know why he’s become such an ugly bastard.”
“…”
“I’ve been a bad father to my children because I’ve been out in the business world since I was a young man, so to make up for it, I’ve done everything they’ve asked me to do and given them all the pocket money they’ve asked for, not realizing that’s the way to ruin them.”
“No, what—.”
“Especially Gyu-man, who said that he was an only son and that his mother and I should come over more. Then, one day, he woke up and became what they call a two-year-old b*tch.”
“…”
Why are you begging me to do something about it?
Despite his embarrassment, Mr. Seo continued to bemoan his child until he sobered up.
“I thought it would be better if he got married, so I had him marry a girl I liked. I thought she’d bring a dog like you to a club or something, but she didn’t, did she?”
“Yeah—.”
He’s not that good of a player.
She honestly kicked me and said that, objectively, she had a good family, a good personality, and her appearance was pretty enough to make guys look back at her along the way.
“His work reputation at work is good, and his personality is good according to people around him, so I readily agreed to marry him. However, he says he can’t change my habits, and after a few months of silence, he starts cheating on me, drinking, and getting into accidents again.”
“Man, that must be hard.”
“Eh, what’s the point of talking about it, let’s just get drunk. Cheers!”
“Cheers!”
This is getting weird.
“Kyaa!”
“Kyaa!”
“The bottom line is, I made a decision yesterday.”
“Resolved what?”
“I’m going to take back all the money I gave you.”
“What?”
“You’re a money-grubbing bastard. When he runs out of money, he’ll change his mind.”
“But you’ll still have to give him half of his legal inheritance afterwards?””Oh, you know that, Mr. Chairman?”
“Yes, somehow—.”
How should I know?
I know because Mr. Hong told me about his children when we were in Daejeon.
“They say that unless you’ve committed adultery or have a court ruling against you, you have to give one-twentieth of your legal inheritance to your heirs,” he said.
“That’s right.”
“Anyway, I’m going to cut off the money flow, at least while I’m alive. After I’m dead, I don’t care if they sue me or not, I’m dead.”
Huh? How am I supposed to make a living playing?
Not that it’s any of my concern.
“Only Gyu-man will secretly give my daughter-in-law money to live on. Tell her she’ll get help from her family.”
Sure.
“Honestly, I don’t even know how long my daughter-in-law will last, she’s such a nice kid, it’s so—.”
“Well, they’re adults, they’ll figure it out.”
“Of course they do, and it’s a relief to get this off my chest in front of the chairman.”
“…”
Was this the meeting today?
I don’t know what I’m doing.
By the way, this place is really good.
What’s with all the snacks that keep coming in?
“I’m just saying that—.”
“Yes, feel free to tell me.”
“Do you have any intention of taking over Oriental?”
“What? The East?”
What’s this, a man scratching his own leg?
Did this guy come here to sell me a company?