Chapter 169: An Offer for My Brother

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. It’s not entirely your fault that you had to quit the company. I told them to be careful, but what can you do? Everyone was just trying to avoid sticking their necks out.”

My mother wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand what was going on and was thus hesitant.

I also blinked, looking back and forth between their faces.

“Oh, it’s nothing much.”

He said it was nothing much, but the details were actually quite ridiculous.

Since I had no interest in our father’s media company anyway, he naturally brought my older brother, Sang-joon, into the fold.

He judged that Sang-joon, with his keen interest in music and love for art, was a better fit. This industry isn’t exactly easy, you know?

Our father, believing that learning from the bottom up was the proper way, instructed everyone to give Sang-joon a hard time, but nobody followed his orders.

Instead of learning the ropes, everyone just tiptoed around him, treating him like royalty. He spent his days loitering around like a spectator before going home.

Only those who have been placed on standby duty know how agonizing it is to go to work and not actually do anything, just killing time.

Seeing my older brother looking so dejected made me feel uneasy.

How much despair must he have felt when he realized he lacked the talent while studying his beloved music? How miserable must he have been, just spacing out at work and then ending his day?

It might sound like a luxury to ordinary people, but everyone finds their own situation to be the most difficult.

A pang of sympathy struck me as I looked at my brother’s dispirited figure.

“Father, Mother, can I talk to my brother for a bit? Is that alright?”

I winked at my brother, who looked up in surprise, and moved to a corner table.

“Hey, how about this?”

“What is it?”

“Talent agencies for singers are all the rage these days. You know SM Entertainment went public, right?”

“Did you invest in them?”

Sang-joon asked, his eyes wide.

“No. Entertainment stocks are a dead end. The scale is too small. Only people in that industry invest in them. It’ll be about ten years before they’re recognized for their value.”

A world where celebrities act like nobles. A profession every teenager dreams of. An era where it’s not strange to see cheap knock-off girl groups performing at university festivals, relying solely on sex appeal.

A truly bizarre world where the profession of celebrity is passed down through generations, where the term ‘celebrity second generation’ rolls off the tongue as naturally as ‘chaebol second generation’.

Entertainment stocks will skyrocket when that kind of world arrives. But not yet.

“That’s not what I wanted to say. How about you try getting into that kind of business, brother?”

“A talent agency? Me? No way.”

Seeing him shake his head vigorously, I had to resist the urge to smack him upside the head.

“You like music, right? Of course, liking something doesn’t mean you’re good at it, but wouldn’t music be better than the video stuff Father does?”

“Do-jun, I appreciate you thinking of me, but it’s not something just anyone can do. First of all, I don’t know anything about management. Discovering new talent, training them… getting them to debut on TV…. It’s impossible.”

His answer was almost admirable.

If someone with no ability had eagerly agreed to jump in, I might have stopped him.

“Learn.”

“Huh?”

“You need to learn the job. Did you think I was going to just set up a company for you?”

“N-not exactly….”

“You pick a place you really want to work. A small company that hasn’t succeeded yet, with only a few artists. But a company you see potential in. Get a job there.”

“So, I should pick a company first?”

“Work your butt off and learn the ropes. Drive the singers around, buy them sanitary pads. Get yelled at by temperamental idols. That’s how you start.”

“…….”

“Don’t use our family name to get the job. Get hired based on your own merits. You have a foreign education, too. Your salary doesn’t need to be high, right? Persist until you get hired.”

Would he even have that much drive?

But if he was just trying to skip the hard work, he’d be better off being an idle person for the rest of his life. I could give him plenty for living expenses and allowance.

“Then, when you gain confidence, tell me. I’ll set up a company for you. Show me the confidence and ability to make it bigger than SM, and I’ll invest however much money it takes. What do you say?”

“I’ll think about it.”

Is this guy kidding me?

Is he trying to imitate a chaebol third-generation who only wants success and hates hard work?

Seeing my distorted expression, Sang-joon quickly spoke up.

“Hey! I’m saying I’ll think about it because of the hard work. You have to do that much to learn the job. But I’m also thinking about whether I can even grow an entertainment company, whether I have the capacity to manage it. I don’t want to be an idiot who wastes money your little brother gave him, money that’s not even Mom and Dad’s.”

Oh, he can even say something this thoughtful!

“Don’t think about it.”

“What?”

“Just learn for now. You’ll gain confidence and develop abilities as you learn. It’s more idiotic to make a decision based on thinking alone when you don’t even know the field. Don’t you think?”

Sang-joon, who had no response to my words, opened his mouth after a moment of silence.

“Don’t tell Father. Then the word will leak out somewhere again. I don’t want to hear, and shouldn’t hear, ‘so-and-so’s son’ or ‘so-and-so’s grandson’ anymore.”

“Okay. Let’s keep it our little secret. Alright?”

They’re family, I should support him even if he fails a few times.

I should invest billions in the company Sang-joon chooses and ask them to properly train him.

He can’t just waste years only working as a road manager, can he?

* * *

“How does it feel? To be a part of a conglomerate at the age of twenty-four… how many subsidiaries are there? More than ten?”

“Nine in HW Group, four in Soonyang Financial. Those are just the main ones, I’m not even sure how many subsidiaries there are.”

“Oh? You’re showing off a little too much, aren’t you? Heh.”

I returned home and shared a beer with my father.

“Both Grandfather and Uncle Se-hyun are masters at splitting up companies and attaching them here and there. Honestly, I don’t have the bandwidth to even pay attention to the subsidiaries.”

“You’re showing off again. Hey! I have a lot of companies too. But I still manage everything, even the small production studios. You have to pay attention.”

“Father.”

I called out to my father softly with a slight smile.

“What?”

“Our scales are different, aren’t they? The number one life insurance company in the country, an automobile company with a 32% domestic market share, a construction company ranked 6th. Should I go on?”

“Alright, alright. This son of mine…. Still showing off till the end, heh.”

Whether I inherited it or used shortcuts, my father couldn’t hide his pride that his young son had built a massive corporation.

But clothes that don’t fit properly will cause problems. There was a strange lingering feeling in my father’s laughter.

“Have your uncles contacted you?”

“Not yet…. They’ll probably contact you, Father, believing they can control both me and Miracle, the major shareholders.”

“That’s possible. What do you want me to do?”

“Tell them not to interfere until I finish my studies.”

“Huh? Studies? What are you talking about? You graduate in February next year, there are only a couple of months left. What’s going to happen in the meantime?”

“No. I’m thinking of going to graduate school.”

My father said with a bewildered expression.

“You, who barely went to school, are going to graduate school? Why? Are you thinking of studying business administration or economics? Or even accounting?”

“It’s not that.”

I cautiously said, gauging my father’s reaction.

“Grandfather’s getting up there in age. Once I graduate, my draft notice will come out soon, and I’ll have to go to the military. What if something bad happens to Grandfather in the meantime? I want to postpone my service and stay by his side while he’s still alive.”

“The military?”

My father’s face turned even more bewildered.

“You’re going to the military? The group would have taken care of it… right?”

“Huh? What do you mean by ‘taken care of’?”

“Hold on a second.”

My father took out his cell phone.

“Ah, Hyung-nim, it’s Yoon-ki. Yes, yes. Are you doing well?”

My father spent a good amount of time exchanging pleasantries with someone on the phone.

“I have something to ask. What’s the status of Do-jun’s military service? Yes. Yes. Ah… that accident? Yes…. I see. Ah, no. I haven’t received any notifications. Yes…. Yes. Anyway, I understand. Thank you, Hyung-nim. Let’s get together sometime. For soju… hahaha.”

My father smiled after ending the call.

“Of course. They just forgot to contact us.”

“Who were you talking to?”

“Huh? Oh…! Chief of staff Lee Hak-jae. I was asking what happened with your military service….”

Could it be?

I found it a bit strange. Neither Sang-joon nor my other cousins had served in the military. Even recalling back, none of them were in public service, they were all definitely exempt.

I also assumed I would be exempt, but since I hadn’t graduated yet and had never taken a leave of absence, I couldn’t be sure. I just assumed they would handle it when the draft notice came.

Moreover, the best way for my uncles to separate Grandfather and me was for me to go to the military, so I was worried they might pull some strings.

Going to graduate school was just a contingency plan….

“You’ve already received an exemption. It was apparently pretty straightforward. They processed it using the medical records from the major car accident you had a while back…. So, there’s no need to go to graduate school to postpone your draft notice.”

“I see.”

I nodded, pretending to be nonchalant.

“Even if it’s not about the military, do you have any other thoughts about studying more? Like studying abroad?”

“No. People study either for success or because they enjoy it…. I’m neither. I’ve already succeeded, and I don’t like studying.”

“Then again! What should I do? When your brothers bother me?”

“Tell them you’ll remain neutral for the time being.”

“That’s what I should do for now, right?”

“Yes.”

My father finished the rest of his beer.

“Alright. Tell me anytime if you need anything.”

“I will. Oh, and about Sang-joon?”

“Hmm? Sang-joon?”

“Yes. He said he wants to try to do things on his own, so don’t push him to find a job for a while. He’s an adult, after all.”

My father, who had been staring at me, patted my shoulder.

“I must have saved my country three or four times in my past life. To have such a lucky son. Alright, I’ll pretend not to know.”

I simply smiled at my father without saying anything more.

It’s not that you saved the country in your past life, Father. It’s that you had a son who was wrongfully killed. Thanks to that, you’ve stumbled upon some good fortune.

* * *

The Korean national football team, with the World Cup just around the corner, was performing poorly, having been eliminated in the group stage of the Sydney Olympics and finishing third in the Asian Cup.

Finally, coach Huh Jung-mo was fired, and Guus Hiddink, who had led his team to a 5-0 victory against South Korea in the group stage of the 1998 France World Cup, was officially appointed as the head coach of the South Korean national football team on January 1, 2001.

“Do you like soccer?”

“It’s alright, I guess. I just watch the national team games? That’s about it.”

Executive Director Jang Do-hyung showed interest while watching the interview of Coach Hiddink’s inauguration, but what’s more boring than sports when you already know the outcome?

When it comes to being anticlimactic, it’s worse than movie spoilers.

When I showed no particular interest, Jang Do-hyung changed the subject.

“It’s the first day of the new year, why are you here instead of being at home?”

“I figured the executives would come to give New Year’s greetings.”

“You could just receive them.”

“Oh, it’s incredibly uncomfortable. It’s hard enough having those who are like my children give me New Year’s greetings, but receiving greetings from those old enough to be my father is even more excruciating.”

“So, am I not old enough to be your father, making it comfortable for you? What’s the reason you asked me to come see you on the first day of the new year?”

“To give you a boost, Executive Director.”

“Pardon?”

“Go to the company tomorrow and casually mention that I had a private meeting with you on the first day of the new year.”

“Ah…!”

Understanding the meaning of ‘giving a boost,’ Executive Director Jang gave a slight smile. That’s what he wants, it seems – to perceive this as the first step of a new power player.