Chapter 15: A Father’s Warning

I sprang from my chair, knelt on the floor and bowed my head.

“I’m sorry Father, please forgive me just this once.”

A daughter whose ambition outstrips her ability.

Early on she was pushed out of the line of succession, limited by being a daughter, limited by the tradition of marrying out, but she was always waiting for an opportunity.

Now she’s gone a step further, trying to create that opportunity.

Push her husband into politics, seize political power.

He must have thought it wouldn’t matter if her husband didn’t become president.

By influencing politics and eliminating Soonyang’s successors one by one she must have believed an opportunity would surely come.

It’s obvious that her foolish son-in-law, seduced by his clever wife, would have resigned from the prosecutor’s office.

“Be content with what you have now and do your best. If the department store’s performance drops even a little, I’ll replace everything. You’re not the complete owner yet.”

Jin Seo-yoon’s knees trembled at her father’s final warning, she couldn’t get up.

* * *

His face flushed red, lips twitching, my uncle left the study without looking back.

Something’s not right.

After making sure no one was in the living room I crept towards the door of Chairman Jin’s study.

Sure enough a loud voice erupted.

A scary and determined old man, the nickname Iron Face suits him well.

He seemed determined to leave only the department store to his daughter.

From her perspective it must be unfair to see her much more foolish brothers taking their places in the core affiliates.

She has the same blood but can’t even dream of getting her fair share, so she came up with this trick. It’s hard to judge her management skills yet, but her cunning is pretty good.

I need to change my mind on this.

I was going to make my aunt kneel and pluck out my uncle’s eyes but I can put that off for a while.

For now it’s better to have these outcasts by my side and use them as much as possible.

I quickly left as I heard a chair scraping against the floor.

Pretending to roll around on the living room sofa I glanced over and saw my aunt leaving the house, just as listless as my uncle.

Chairman Jin emerged next and I jumped up from the sofa.

“Oh, our Do-jun. Were you bored?”

“No I was reading.”

“Good, that’s a good habit. Always keep books close.”

“Yes.”

As Chairman Jin stroked my head a secretary rushed through the front door into the living room, bowed his head and handed him a thick envelope.

“Chairman, this is what you asked for earlier.”

“Alright, is the purchase complete?”

“Yes, we’ve finished transferring the registration.”

“Good work, what about the construction?”

“It starts tomorrow morning. As for the horses, two will be moved from Jeju as soon as the ranch is complete and we’ve ordered two Thoroughbreds. You’ll be able to see them at the ranch in six months.”

“Good work.”

The secretary bowed and left, Chairman Jin opened the envelope with a bright smile.

The thick documents were clearly the ranch’s registration, along with a few photos and blueprints.

The photos were of the horses ordered from Arabia and the blueprints were of the ranch.

“What do you think? Isn’t this one handsome?”

I didn’t care if the horses were handsome or not, but I clapped my hands and pretended to be excited. What I was really curious about was whether all 50,000 pyeong were there and whose name was on the registration.

Grandfather and I looked at the horse photos for a while and finally he unfolded the registration documents.

“Do-jun.”

“Yes Grandfather?”

“This is the land deed you wanted, a total of 80,000 pyeong.”

Oho! It increased by 30,000 pyeong.

“I remember you saying it was 50,000 pyeong last time?”

“You little rascal, you remember the numbers too. Haha.”

I think I understood the meaning of his laughter. How important is it to remember exact numbers in business management?

“There were multiple landowners so it didn’t come out to exactly 50,000 pyeong. So it increased to 80,000.”

I was already calculating how much the land compensation for 80,000 pyeong would be so I started to smile.

“Do you like it that much?”

Seeing me unable to hide my smile, Chairman Jin also looked pleased.

I liked it because of the land but he probably thought I liked it because of the ranch and horses.

Now I need to secure it properly. Even if it’s in my name if Chairman Jin holds the registration documents he can sell it as he pleases.

The documents are the guarantee, I need to have them.

I put down the horse photos and kept fiddling with the registration documents, pretending to read them with interest.

“You wouldn’t understand it even if you looked at it.”

“But it’s mine so I like it. Hehe.”

“What? Hahaha. Look at this kid, taking care of the land deed first?”

Land deed? Not a chance. I’m taking care of a savings account worth over 16 billion won. A savings account that matures in two or three years.

Right now a 31-pyeong Eunma Apartment costs only 75 million won. This is enough money to buy over 200 of those apartments. And this money is my seed money.

Chairman Jin stroked my head and said.

“You’ll lose it if you misplace it so I’ll keep it safe for you.”

I made a sullen face as I looked at the hand he held out. Of course I didn’t hand over the documents. I need to hear what I want to hear.

Seeing my expression he chuckled again.

“You really don’t want to lose your things huh? Haha.”

He probably took my actions as greed or possessiveness. Luckily my grandfather likes that kind of possessiveness.

“Alright then you keep it. Put it in your desk drawer and don’t lose it. If you lose it this ranch isn’t yours. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Grandfather. Thank you.”

I jumped up from the sofa and… it’s really a pain, but I hugged Grandfather.

He did give me a gift of 16 billion won, I should at least act cute right?

* * *

After a week of acting cute at Grandfather’s mansion I returned home and my mother greeted me with a stiff expression.

“Do-jun. Let me see what your grandfather gave you.”

So it seemed. It was too easy.

He wouldn’t just entrust a child with the registration papers.

The interesting thing is that he told my mother, not my father, about giving me the land. Does he trust his unwelcome daughter-in-law a little more than his untrustworthy son?

I handed the envelope to my mother.

She hurriedly took it, looked at the photos and documents for a while and then put them down.

I couldn’t read my mother’s expression.

The cold treatment I’d been receiving, the 180-degree different attention and a gift. Although it’s just a wasteland, it’s the first property the Chairman has ever given.

She seems a bit uneasy about being happy.

“Do-jun. I’ll keep this for you so you don’t lose it.”

When you’re young, it’s only right that your mom keeps your allowance money.

“Yes, do that.”

“And your grandfather told me, don’t brag about the ranch to your other cousins. Understand?”

“I understand. Don’t worry.”

My mother seemed relieved knowing my prudence.

I watched her carefully and carefully opened my mouth.

“Mother.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Do you… have any money?”

At the sudden mention of money my mother’s eyes widened.

“Money? Why? Are you out of allowance? No, you don’t use your allowance. Tell me if you want something. I’ll buy it for you.”

Since I’m a child she naturally thinks it’s just about allowance but the money I’m talking about is on a different level.

“No, it’s not that I need allowance, I think I’ll need a lot of money.”

“A lot of money? How much?”

Now my mother’s eyes turned to curiosity.

“When I was at Grandfather’s house I heard something. Ilsan… where is that?”

“Ilsan? I don’t know either. Why?”

As expected, she knows nothing about the world.

Well it doesn’t matter. I didn’t expect much anyway. I just hoped my kind mother had a secret stash somewhere.

All I have to do is drop a hint.

“I don’t know much but I heard that Ilsan will soon turn into a city. So the land prices will go up.”

“What? Who said that? Your grandfather?”

“N-No. The men at Grandfather’s company were talking about it.”

She’s not naive enough to not understand what I mean. Also she’s not so foolish as to blow all the generous living expenses her father-in-law sends her.

With the interest rates at 15% a year she must have saved up quite a bit of money. How she uses that money is her choice.

Slightly flustered but with a gleam in her eyes my mother fell into thought as I went up to my room. I threw myself on the bed and went over what I had to do but there’s nothing special.

I’m too young.

If I were in my twenties how much more could I prepare? I picked up a book, putting aside my regret.

There’s nothing like reading to suppress an impatient mind. No, there’s not much else to do in this era besides reading.

I spent the winter break with books as my companions and a new era, the Sixth Republic, began.

On February 25th Roh Tae-woo was inaugurated as the 13th president and soon the 13th National Assembly election campaign began.

* * *

Chairman Jin Yang-cheol was a more resourceful man than I had imagined.

One of the things that surprised me most was how he used the National Assembly elections as an advertisement for Soonyang Electronics.

As the election approached all the candidates in every district rode around in trucks, shouting until their voices gave out to get votes.

Chairman Jin was preparing for the ’88 Seoul Olympics boom by producing ultra-expensive TVs and VTRs for watching and recording the games. He quickly made prototypes and began distributing them to all candidates under the guise of ‘rentals’.

It was a huge 33-inch TV with separate surround speakers and a woofer for stereo sound, equipped with a PIP (Picture In Picture) function to watch two channels at once for the first time.

It was an ultra-expensive TV that cost 2.6 million won when a new college graduate’s monthly salary was about 330,000 won.

And a 450,000 won VTR that boasted incredible technology, a wireless remote control.

These two products rode on the candidates’ trucks and traveled all over the country.

Voters were more interested in the electronics than the candidates’ desperate pledges.

It was a clever way to test the prototypes and advertise at the same time. Inquiries poured in from neighborhoods where the campaign trucks passed through and TV news covering this huge curiosity put the final touch on the advertisement.

Compared to this advertising effect my uncle’s election to the National Assembly wasn’t even newsworthy.

It would be a cataclysm if Soonyang’s son-in-law lost in Suwon, which is even called Soonyang City.

But even such an obvious event should be celebrated.

I thought the celebration party would be held at Grandfather’s mansion but it was held at the Soonyang Hotel’s Grand Ballroom.

Since even senior members of the National Assembly were attending they probably avoided the house. It was to prevent any noise from the media capturing the nation’s representatives visiting a chaebol’s house.

My father and mother’s expressions improved a bit when they heard the celebration was at a hotel.

Unlike at home, they wouldn’t be treated like housekeepers at a hotel.