Chapter 2: Toy

Toy Mr. Kim went into the fitting room with a grin.

Soon the Madam’s coy voice leaked from the fitting room.

“Oh stop it! That tickles.”

The store employees started giggling and the female secretary’s cheeks flushed red with embarrassment.

The situation was becoming increasingly bizarre.

The coquettish voice from the fitting room disappeared, replaced by more sensual moans.

“Hmm… Ah-! Ugh…….”

The fitting room, made of thin plywood, began to shake and creak slightly.

This crazy old hag! No way!

But it was clear that the horny old hag and the young toy were banging in that narrow fitting room.

I finally understood why the Madam had suddenly visited a department store of another group.

Normally if a luxury brand had a new release, they’d be summoned to her residence. The company would load all the outfits into a car and display them in the living room of the huge house, then the Madam in her gown would make her selections right there.

The reason for today’s visit to the department store was to enjoy a thrilling moment.

She must have had a sudden lewd thought to enjoy a different kind of sex in a public place with her new toy boy. Now she was turning that fantasy into reality.

Damn it, on my wife’s birthday I have to stand guard over this filthy scene!

***

The Soonyang Group.

Its annual sales approached 400 trillion won, with operating profits exceeding 30 trillion won.

The combined market capitalization of its listed affiliates also surpassed the national budget, reaching 440.7 trillion won. Soonyang Group’s share in the KOSPI was also at 27%.

From automobiles and electronics to telecommunications, heavy industry, chemicals, distribution, fashion, and food, there was no industry where the group’s influence didn’t reach.

They even dominated the neighborhood வணிகம் with their convenience stores, tteokbokki, and kimbap restaurants. At this point, it was long said that the Korean economy and the Soonyang Group were a shared destiny.

But the Soonyang Group started with two poor brothers who learned gold and silver smithing.

In the early 1920s during the Japanese occupation, the two brothers Jin Sun-cheol and Jin Yang-cheol were born. They supported their family by learning metalworking at a Japanese-run goldsmith.

Jin Sun-cheol, with his skillful hands and Jin Yang-cheol with his quick wits and sharp calculations made for a truly fantastic duo.

When Jin Sun-cheol became capable of intricate metalworking, he began skimming trace amounts of gold dust. His younger brother Jin Yang-cheol developed a route to sell it.

They were looking for farmland with the money they’d saved when Korea was liberated.

If the two had bought land before liberation, today’s Soonyang Group probably wouldn’t exist and they would have lived out their lives as ordinary farmers.

But upon hearing the news of the disposal of enemy property that began with liberation, Jin Yang-cheol abandoned his dream of becoming a landowner.

‘Enemy property’ refers to the assets left behind by the Japanese after liberation.

The US military and the South Korean government disposed of this property to the private sector. A representative example was enemy housing.

Houses where Japanese people lived were naturally spacious, high-end homes so they were very popular.

But Jin Yang-cheol acquired not a house but a warehouse.

It was the Joseon Rice Granary.

Instead of farming and growing rice, he started storing it.

When he acquired the Joseon Rice Granary, which stored up to 1.5 million ‘seoks’ of rice, the exact inventory was unknown.

When liberation came, Koreans raided the warehouse and took the rice. The fleeing Japanese also burned the inventory ledgers to avoid getting caught for secretly selling rice during that time.

That was the rice Jin Yang-cheol was after.

The brothers quickly sold off the rice before the South Korean government could determine the exact quantity, amassing a huge fortune.

With that money, they bought up more enemy houses and businesses and that became the foundation of the Soonyang Group.

After that, Jin Yang-cheol, with his sharp business acumen and quick judgment, borrowed US government aid funds from the government at a low interest rate and all but monopolized the relief supply of sugar.

His brother began accumulating the technical skills to lay the groundwork for heavy industry, based on the machinery company he had acquired.

With the two brothers’ fantastic combination play, the Soonyang Group grew rapidly. But just as power isn’t shared between father and son, there was no way brothers would share money amicably.

When a technician and a businessman fought over the asset of a company, the outcome was already decided.

Jin Yang-cheol, who handled all the accounting for the Soonyang Group, manipulated the accounts of the company run by his brother Jin Sun-cheol. Jin Sun-cheol was then arrested as a target of the military regime’s crackdown on illicit fortunes and sent to prison.

After that, Jin Yang-cheol took over as chairman of the Soonyang Group, ending the brothers’ feud.

Jin Sun-cheol died in prison without ever clearing his name. His children were forgotten, no one even knew where they lived now.

Chairman Jin Yang-cheol grew Soonyang Group into Korea’s leading company and passed away at the age of 78.

He left behind four sons, one daughter and 12 grandchildren. The current chairman of the Soonyang Group is Jin Yang-cheol’s eldest son Jin Young-gi (76 years old).

The Vice-chairman is Jin Young-gi’s eldest son Jin Young-jun (50 years old). I am one of seven chiefs of staff in the Future Strategy Planning Headquarters that assists the Vice-chairman.

I hold a fairly important position but as you may have guessed, my main job is to quietly handle all the dirty work of the chairman’s family—so-called outhouse cleaning or shit shoveling.

But don’t look down on me.

Though I’m no different from a servant now, all 70,000 Soonyang employees envy my position and duties.

They are even lower-ranking servants—no, slaves.

They will live as slaves and one day be chased out under the name of retirement, but at least I have a chance to be promoted from servant to butler.

And I will become a butler no matter what.

Even though I graduated from a regional university, I caught their eye with a presentation on human resource management at a competition hosted by the Soonyang Group.

When I received the acceptance letter from the Soonyang Group, my father threw a small party, inviting all our relatives.

Since I was born and went to college in the provinces, I expected to be assigned to a regional branch… But, lo and behold!

I was assigned to the Future Strategy Planning Headquarters, known as the control tower of the vast Soonyang Group.

My father, struggling to make ends meet, threw another party.

“Soonyang Group is something else. They can spot talent even if he’s from the sticks. Do you all know? The Future Strategy place is where all the geniuses gather. Can’t even show your face there if you didn’t graduate from Seoul University, you know?”, he said.

Unable to hide his delighted expression, my father got completely drunk, boasting to our relatives without end.

But on my first day of work, I realized.

Why a regional college graduate like me was brought into the control tower…

Even a control tower needs its cleaners.

The work was too much for those with good academic backgrounds and their pride. So they handpicked people who would be grateful for any work. That was the General Affairs Office of the Future Strategy Planning Headquarters.

My first assigned task was…

“Hey! Can’t you tell the difference between grass and weeds? And be sure to pull out the dandelions. Those things spread in an instant!”

The one giving me this scolding was not a team leader, a chief of staff, or a department head but the gardener of the chairman’s mansion.

The gardener, trimming the garden, kept nagging the three new employees of the General Affairs Team. I had to pull weeds in a suit and dress shoes, sweating profusely.

In the end, my two fellow regional college graduate colleagues couldn’t last half a year and quit.

But I gritted my teeth.

Until I could move from doing physical labor to using my head, I studied harder than a high school senior and didn’t avoid any menial tasks.

When I could perfectly understand the English spoken by the study abroad types with their fancy specs and when the mountain of business proposals started to make sense at a glance, I also started using my head for work.

Only then did people’s attitudes change.

They started to mix a look of caution into their usual condescending expressions.

I realized the unique weapon I had that they didn’t.

I frequented the chairman’s family’s house like my own.

There was no one among the royal family who didn’t know my name, Yoon Hyun-woo. When they needed something, I was always the one they called. Also, few knew the hidden true face of the royal family as well as I did.

Eight years after joining the company, I became a chief of staff. Now, 12 years in, I am one of the few close associates who can sit next to the Vice-chairman when he wants to have chicken gizzards and a glass of soju at a street stall.

I’m forty, my goal to transform from a servant to a butler within the next 10 years isn’t a pipe dream.

And…

Finally the moment came when I realized I was on the list of butler candidates.

“Chief of staff Yoon. You need to go on a business trip. It’s sudden but please prepare.”

“Yes, Vice-chairman. But I don’t know the details.”

“Moldova.”

It’s a slush fund issue.

I’d never handled the money directly but I knew the numbers revealed in the paperwork inside and out.

“Ah, I understand.”

“The prosecution will start investigating the overseas outflow of funds. They’ll begin in a week. Open the account, withdraw the full amount, and transfer it to their account.”

“Me, sir?”

I couldn’t believe it. Not just quietly delivering documents but getting my hands on an astronomical sum of money.

The money stashed in Moldova was in the billions. Just the amount I remembered was close to 1 billion dollars. Over 1 trillion won. This money in my name?

“I may not trust my wife, but I trust you, Hyun-woo. You’re the only one who can handle that fund for now.”

The Vice-chairman stared at me then smiled faintly.

“Why? Thinking of running off with the money? Change it to your name, hide out in some tiny European corner, you can live like a king.”

“No way, sir. Your joke is a bit much.”

“Anyway, after withdrawing it, take a good rest. When I give the order, transfer it to my account in the Virgin Islands. We decided to conclude the prosecution’s investigation with the missing funds.”

“Understood. I’ll be on my way then.”

“Oh, don’t tell anyone. Not even your family. Just say it’s a business trip. Don’t mention Moldova, you know that, right?”

“Of course.”

When I came out of the Vice-chairman’s office, the flower-like secretary handed me an envelope.

“Everything you need for the trip is in there. Ah, I’m so envious. Moldova!”

“Want to come along? I always welcome you…”

“Pfft. Dream on. I don’t fly first class. Unless it’s a private jet.”

Right. She’s a woman who flies around with the Vice-chairman in a private jet.

Wake up, Hyun-woo.

The next day, I confidently boarded a Korean Air first-class flight to Moldova.