I’d Rather Live as a Villain

I’d Rather Live as a Villain – Part 3

(No Regrets)

“The personnel authority of Mulsan is beyond my control.”

“I will become the most persuasive candidate.”

I’m not sure if I have the capability, but Executive Kang Moon-jung confessed her ambitions to me candidly. The moment I accept this deal, inevitably, I must play the role of her Zhuge Liang, her kingmaker.

“In what way do you mean you’ll become the most persuasive candidate?”

“Assuming this contract actually materializes, I would become a temporary contract worker, but externally, I’d be part of Daeyoung’s ownership.”

The Director waited silently for my next words.

“Someone like me can’t remain in the group’s secretarial office, where the owner plays the role of a shadow to the VIPs, can I?”

As if it were obvious, the Director nodded in agreement.

“It’s clear you have discernment, but I can’t continue to serve you here in distribution. Personally, it would be the best for me, but realistically, it’s impossible.”

“That’s true.”

“The core electronics of the group? Unthinkable. It’s crucial who among you, the Director, and the Vice President, enters electronics to determine the succession structure. Vice President Kang Young-jin in chemicals? That’s nonsensical. A sports business club owner related to me? The media exposure would be excessive, wouldn’t it?”

“…”

“Right now, don’t you need the spotlight focused on you, Director? You’re not trying to turn me into a male Cinderella. I joined Mulsan on my own merit. It’s not a key business sector of Daeyoung, so there won’t be much spotlight on me.”

And the most crucial part.

“Whichever subsidiary of Daeyoung I’m assigned to, the fact that I’m a parachuted executive is unavoidable. Aren’t you planning to use me as a weapon? Then you should place me somewhere I could at least potentially be a weapon, not your weakness.”

“Mulsan is that place?”

“If you haven’t thought of anywhere else, Director.”

He smiled lightly.

“Your head must have been aching these past few days over this, hasn’t it?”

“It’s a matter involving ten billion won.”

I too shared a light laugh.

“What will you do with ten billion won once you have it?”

“It’s an amount that doesn’t require any action on my part.”

“Resources? Hmm… I can’t promise anything. But I’ll do my best.”

“Your promise is enough, sir. You’re someone who always keeps their word.”

“Don’t make me feel obligated with such roundabout talk.”

Sighing as if a great burden had been lifted, the executive spoke.

“Set up a new account. Choose the best product for holding a large sum of money. I’ll send 5 billion won as soon as I get the account number. And this weekend, since there’s no need to look for me, why don’t you visit your mother?”

“My mother?”

“Won’t you be busier than now in the future? It wouldn’t be right for your only son’s marriage news to be heard through the media.”

“The order should be the chairman first, then the senior chairman, shouldn’t it? Whether this contract proceeds or not ultimately depends on those two. I’ll set up the account once I have their permission.”

“And if you don’t get permission?”

“Then I suppose… I’ll have to look for another job as a consequence of coveting a fortune beyond my reach.”

“You must have had a lot to consider.”

“To be honest, I haven’t worried much about that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I know you well, sir. You’re not someone who would climb a mountain without a plan to conquer it.”

I was certain of that part.

“I may not know what it is, but I’m aware that I’m the solution you’ve found after contemplating how to reach the summit.”

***

The day in Pyeongchang-dong starts at 7 a.m.

It’s also when my tension begins.

The owner’s family breakfast starts before the day is fully bright.

We, the secretaries from the group’s secretarial office, must wait on the ‘L’-shaped sofa set up on one side of the living room until the owner’s VIPs begin their meal.

Our work starts then.

In the early morning, we greet the owner’s VIPs with their subdued expressions.

Reading their moods from those dry expressions is also an essential part of our job, though it’s not in the manual.

We always keep an ear open to the kitchen where the owner’s VIPs are dining, browsing the group-related news on our phones or tablets, exchanging news, and checking the daily schedules of the VIPs we serve.

“Have you arrived?”

The director serving the chairman has come to work, even though none of the VIPs have shown themselves yet.

“Ah, Deputy Manager Yoon. Did you have a good weekend?”

“Yes.”

“Was there anything unusual over the weekend?”

“No calls received.”

“You must have had a good rest for once.”

But at that moment, another shadow moved behind the open front door.

“Huh? Team Leader.”

It was clear that he had come with the director, judging by the timing of his entrance.

Though under the group’s secretariat, the real control tower was the Strategic Planning Team.

And there was Team Leader Son Jung-hyun, entering behind the director.

“It’s been a while, Deputy Director Yoon.”

“Yes.”

I couldn’t dare ask what brought him to Pyeongchang-dong.

We aren’t the kind to express our doubts and curiosities outwardly.

That’s how we were trained.

Team Leader Son’s arrival in Pyeongchang-dong made me more nervous.

It meant that the chairman had summoned him.

“You’re here.”

Madam Koo Young-sook.

She emerged from the living room, wrapping her shawl around her shoulders.

It was a sign that the chairman’s morning preparations were complete.

All of us in the secretariat stood up and bowed to Madam as she passed.

She knew about Team Leader Son’s visit to Pyeongchang-dong beforehand, it seemed, as she offered a gentle smile before heading straight to the kitchen where breakfast was being prepared.

Shortly after, almost simultaneously, Chairman and Executive Director Kang Moon-jung appeared, having finished their morning preparations, coming down the indoor staircase that led from the second floor.

They, too, seemed unfazed by Team Leader Son’s visit to Pyeongchang-dong, casually making their way to the living room sofa.

The 7 AM news was already on.

As soon as the Chairman and Executive Director Kang sat down on the living room sofa, Madam Koo Young-sook came out of the kitchen with a tray carrying two cups of herbal tonic and two glasses of green juice.

Just as my duty was to arrive at the Pyeongchang-dong residence by 7 AM to wait for the Executive Director, Madam Koo’s day began with preparing the Chairman and Executive Director’s morning herbal tonic and green juice.

Like medicine taken on schedule, the Chairman and Executive Director Kang swallowed their tonic and juice in turn.

Today, as usual, Executive Director Kang left more than half of his green juice, while the Chairman grimaced but finished his cup to the last drop.

“Ugh…”

The Chairman shuddered momentarily as he endured the bitter taste of the green juice.

“Shall we bring him out?”

“Yes, Chairman.”

As soon as the Chairman’s order was given, the director rose from his seat and headed to the study to attend to the great Chairman Kang Ki-young, who starts his mornings earlier than anyone else in the Pyeongchang-dong family home.

Great Chairman Kang Ki-young.

A figure who has become the epitome of second-generation corporate management.

The man who founded the Daeyeong Republic in this country, South Korea.

Even though it’s been over five years since he stepped down from the chairmanship and retired from the front lines of management, people still equate Daeyeong Group with great Chairman Kang Ki-young.

Daeyeong Electronics is still synonymous with the name of great Chairman Kang Ki-young, and Daeyeong’s stock prices fluctuate with his health status.

The only person who can make Executive Director Kang Moon-jung stutter.

A person who, if he so wishes, can easily wipe her mind blank.

A person who can effortlessly overturn billion-won scale business decisions made at the general shareholders’ meeting over breakfast as if flipping the palm of his hand.

His presence was now coming into the living room, with the help of the wheelchair that the director was pushing from behind.

A thin blanket was laid over the great Chairman’s knees.

Though he needed the assistance of a wheelchair due to mobility issues, his upright posture, piercing gaze that seemed to scan one’s very soul, and skin so radiant it belied his ninety years, all indicated that he would remain the embodiment of Daeyeong for many more years.

The great Chairman slowly raised his right hand.

At the same time, the director escorting him to the kitchen stopped in his tracks, halting the great Chairman’s wheelchair as well.

It was right in front of me.

“Is it you?”

For a moment, time seemed to stand still.

In reality, everyone stopped what they were doing and began to tense up.

“Come see me later.”

Those were his words to me.

Three years and three months.

It was the first time the great Chairman had spoken to me since I started working in Pyeongchang-dong three years and three months ago.

***

The thirty minutes I spent waiting for the owner and the VIPs to finish their breakfast felt as long as the three years and three months I had been serving the Executive Director.

They are usually slow eaters, but today, their meal seemed to progress even more slowly.

The great Chairman took a sip of water, swished it around like a mouthwash, and swallowed.

As soon as he moved away from the table in his wheelchair, the director headed to the kitchen.

The moment the director took hold of the wheelchair’s handles, the Chairman, the Executive Director, and Madam Gu Young-sook also finished their meals and rose from their seats.

In the grand chairman’s study.

I had only known of this room’s existence for the past three years and three months, but today was the first time I actually stepped inside.

Before I knew it, Team Leader Son Jeong-hyun, who had taken over the grand chairman’s wheelchair handle from the director, escorted the chairman into the study. After handing over a thin envelope of documents to the chairman, he stepped out.

There was no chair allowed for me in the study.

Just two chairs.

One was the grand chairman Kang Man-ho’s seat, and the other was Executive Kang Moon-jung’s.

I took my place next to where Executive Kang Moon-jung sat, then stepped back to establish my own position.

The grand chairman took out his reading glasses from atop the office desk and put them on.

He then opened the envelope of documents that Team Leader Son had handed over and took out its contents.

“Your name is… Yoon Tae-sik.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

It seemed the documents Team Leader Son had passed on contained information about me.

“You joined the company through Mulsan.”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“You’re the same age as Moon-jung?”

“Yes.”

“You have just your mother in the family.”

“Yes.”

“Your father passed away when you were in middle school?”

“Yes.”

“Your mother must have had a hard time selling kimbap alone to put her child through college.”

“…Yes. That was the case.”

The grand chairman couldn’t take his eyes off the documents prepared by Team Leader Son, and Executive Kang Moon-jung couldn’t take his eyes off his grandfather.

Amidst all this, the only person who spared me a glance was Chairman Kang Man-ho himself.

“You studied Spanish at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“A four-year scholarship admission. Should I understand it was a choice made because of the scholarship?”

“I chose the university because of the scholarship, but the major was my own will.”

Like during the interview, I tried my best to appear confident and assertive, but I couldn’t help the tremor that seeped into the end of my speech.

That wasn’t my will.

“Willpower?”

At some point, the gaze of Chairman Kang Man-ho, the father of the executive, had been fixed on me.

“My father worked as a navigator until he passed away.”

The senior chairman briefly lifted his gaze from the documents he was reviewing, peering at me over his reading glasses.

Perhaps the reason he looked at me at that moment wasn’t because of the story about my father.

After all, I had already used that story once during my job interview at Daeyoung Corporation.

There’s no way that story would be missing from the documents prepared by Team Leader Son.

But why did he suddenly take his eyes off the documents and start staring intently at me?

However, I couldn’t afford to harbor such doubts for long.

I had to continue the story.

“He mainly sailed on deep-sea fishing vessels for tuna, under a Taiwanese company. Whenever he went fishing, he wouldn’t return home for at least two to three months, sometimes over a year. Each time he came back, he would bring different foreign currencies and stamps as gifts. Collecting them one by one, I grew a fantasy of seeing a broader world. That’s why I majored in languages at university, and it led me to join Daeyoung Corporation.”

“You wanted to see a broader world?”

“Yes.”

“So, having observed it up close for the past three years, how does it feel? Isn’t just watching unsatisfactory?”

As I hesitated to answer, the senior chairman spoke again.

“You’ve collected foreign money, foreign stamps?”

“Yes.”

“How much of our country’s money, our country’s stamps have you collected?”

Suddenly, my mind went blank.

The senior chairman, who had smirked at me, returned to reading the documents.

Then he said,

“A fantasy of seeing a broader world?”

“…”

“Do you even know what’s truly important, or are you just spouting fantasies? Do you know what happens to a guy who gets an opportunity without understanding that?”

Before I knew it, Chairman Kang Man-ho’s gaze had returned to the senior chairman.

“It’s all just a facade.”

It was the moment when the figure of 10 billion won, promised by Executive Kang Moon-jung, flashed before my eyes.

“290 million won.”

The moment the specific amount of 290 million won left my lips, both the senior chairman and Chairman Kang Man-ho looked at me again.

This time, even Executive Kang Moon-jung, who had been fixated on the senior chairman, turned to look at me.

“In the past eight years since I joined Daeyoung Corporation, the total Korean money I’ve saved up is 290 million won.”

“……”

“No matter what, it was impossible to save more than 1.8 million won a month. For three years, at 1.8 million won per month. On the day the promotion to assistant manager was announced, I switched to a 2.5 million won car, thinking I’d get one once I became a manager. And since I started assisting Executive Kang Moon-jung, I’ve been putting in 3.2 million. Stocks, cryptocurrency, real estate. I’ve never tried any of them. I’ve never had the illusion that such things could make my life prosperous.”

“Hmm……”

As soon as I finished speaking, an awkward silence began.

How long did I wait in that heavy silence until the chairman finished checking the documents?

The chairman carelessly covered the documents he was looking at on his desk and placed his reading glasses on top of them.

“How much is the foreign currency your father secured for you worth now, based on the current exchange rate?”

“I’m not sure. But at the time, I exchanged it all for 250 euros.”

“At the time? Exchanged?”

“In college, I sold everything to add even a little to my study abroad expenses.”

“250 euros would be……”

“I’m not exactly sure, but it would be about 360,000 won based on the current exchange rate.”

“What, it’s not a lot of money, and it was a gift from your late father, and you sold it?”

“I used it for something that was really important to me at the time, so I have no regrets.”

The chairman observed my eyes for quite a long time.

So, I couldn’t avoid it.

“Moon-jung, you may stop coming to work now.”

“Yes, grandfather.”

“As you leave, tell Team Leader Son outside to come in.”