Chapter 191

Chapter 191. Two Suns

"The easiest way would be to buy equity, but since we can't do that... what would be the best way to approach them?"

"Keep bringing them advertising deals. Make them understand that we're a much better sponsor than ZJ. Even if you have to pay double the modeling fee."

"Will they keep accepting advertisements just because of the money?"

After kicking Kim Chae-ryeong out, Kim Gyu-bong continued his discussion with the company presidents.

After seeing him explode at Kim Chae-ryeong, all of them looked noticeably intimidated.

The point was simple.

They were going to invest in Universe.

First, they would do all the usual forms of investment.

Use their artists as advertising models.

Provide sponsorships wherever possible.

Universe also operated something called the Full Moon Foundation, so they decided to donate there too.

"If money isn't enough, offer three times, four times, five times as much. Have you ever seen that fail?"

"Understood."

With that, Kim Gyu-bong ended the meeting and sent the presidents away.

Through the door they had left open, he saw Kim Chae-ryeong standing silently outside.

Once the presidents had completely left, she entered the office again.

"What?"

"No, Dad... I'm sorry I barged into the meeting, but if you're discussing an investment like that, you should at least hear my opinion. I'm a major shareholder of Sriver too."

Her voice was clearly more subdued than before.

"Hear your opinion? Then should I gather all the major shareholders of Shinseo Group and hold a meeting? Want me to have you removed and force you to sell all your shares?"

"What did I even do wrong...?"

"Should I tell you what I've been hearing from the broadcasting industry?"

Kim Chae-ryeong immediately shut her mouth.

"And what exactly is this terrible reputation Do Jun-hyeok supposedly has?"

"That part is true! Even when Oh Deok-su was the CEO before him, apparently Do Jun-hyeok used some kind of scheme to drive him out of the company. And at his previous company, there were drugs or something too!"

The moment Kim Gyu-bong heard that, his head started throbbing.

If every rumor circulating about him were true, then Kim Gyu-bong himself would already be a lunatic psychopath who kidnapped rival-company researchers in the 1990s and tortured them until they lost their minds.

"If you spend money on someone like that, you'll lose everything."

"Listen carefully, Chae-ryeong. Ten years ago, when you insisted on starting that damned department-store business, your net loss alone was 140 billion won. One hundred and forty billion, in money from ten years ago! If you bought Sriver stock with 140 billion won today, it'd be about the same amount of stock you own right now!"

The department-store disaster was the biggest example, but there were plenty of smaller ones too.

Kim Gyu-bong was old enough that, if Chairman Jung Jun had started having children early, he could already have grandchildren in university.

And if that were the case, Chairman Jung Jun probably could have put each grandchild in charge of an affiliate company.

Kim Gyu-bong himself had more than enough power to do the same.

If one of his affiliates refused to hand over the chairman's position even after he became the largest shareholder, he could simply create a new company from scratch and put someone in charge of that.

But Kim Chae-ryeong was far too greedy and far too shortsighted.

Just watching her gave him a headache.

How could he possibly entrust serious work to someone like that?

"If you're going to spoil things, then come do it privately like this. Stop running all over town embarrassing the entire family."

I roughly cleaned up my desk and was about to leave the office when Dae-hun stopped me.

"Where are you going when you just got to work?"

"Oh, I got invited to the Blue House. I'm heading to Jongno."

Dae-hun snorted.

"Why would the Blue House invite you? You're not some state guest."

"Just wait. I'll go there, take a bunch of proof shots, and send them to you."

I knew he wouldn't believe me.

But it was true.

I'd received a personal email from the Blue House, saying something about enhancing national prestige and asking me to visit.

There was a reason I hadn't mentioned it until the day of the invitation.

The company had been a little chaotic lately.

I'd briefly appeared on a television program called 〈Entertainment News〉 without even realizing they'd filmed me.

Leonardo Aprio had been there.

He'd starred in a noir movie called 〈Gunner: Pursuers of Fury〉 that I'd enjoyed when I was young, so I'd tried to get his autograph.

That was how I'd ended up getting caught on camera.

This was why you shouldn't run toward celebrities when you saw them.

You should avoid them.

I'd been so excited to see him that I spoke to him.

Then we even ended up taking a photo together.

And because I was standing next to him like that, I ended up on television.

Anyway, the program had perfectly captured the scene where Leonardo Aprio asked Kim Chae-ryeong to take a picture for us.

The broadcast had edited it in a fairly humiliating way.

Maybe Sriver had flexed some influence afterward, because when I searched for her, there were suddenly plenty of flattering photo articles that made Kim Chae-ryeong look like a Best Actress nominee.

[Oh~ So that Korean ajumma was a celebrity too. She was terrifying~. Race aside, she was tearing into a waiter young enough to be her son like she was hunting a rat.]

A famous American actor known for his cheerful personality left that comment under one of the articles about Kim Chae-ryeong.

After that, the humiliating 〈Entertainment News〉 footage resurfaced too, and more people started mocking her.

Sriver, or more likely Kim Chae-ryeong's side, asked people to refrain from excessive abuse.

She wasn't a celebrity, they said.

She was merely Park Jae-hyun's wife and an ordinary businesswoman.

But would people stop simply because someone asked?

Netizens knew very well how to distinguish between something that deserved criticism and something that deserved ridicule.

The insults continued.

And while Sriver wasn't exactly a politician, it was still a service-oriented company that depended on public goodwill.

They couldn't exactly start suing everyone.

Anyway, Universe was now standing right in the middle of a battle between the public and a third-generation chaebol heiress.

Like some neutral army strolling unarmed across a battlefield.

Bullets were flying everywhere.

One stray shot could easily leave us critically wounded.

No matter how large the company became, I didn't think I'd ever get used to this kind of nonsense.

"CEO Do Jun-hyeok, you've arrived. I'm Chief of Staff Kim Yong-taek."

A chief of staff who looked around Chairman Jung Jun's age came out and offered me his hand.

Had it really been that long since I stopped following political news?

I could've sworn he'd been a National Assembly member just a few years ago.

Now he was Chief of Staff.

His hair was white in scattered patches, almost like he'd deliberately gotten highlights.

"Ah, Chief of Staff Kim Yong-taek. I'm a supporter. A supporter. Could we take a photo together?"

"Really? Hahaha. I'm a fan of yours too, Mr. Do Jun-hyeok. Of course."

We took a picture together with the main Blue House building behind us.

Then I sent it to Dae-hun.

[...Where did you find a set this realistic?]

That bastard.

So full of distrust.

At least he'd never get scammed.

We moved to a reception area in one of the residence annexes.

Only then did I finally meet President Yoo Seong-woo, whom I'd only ever seen on campaign posters.

"Could I bring our members too?"

"Now? You mean go back out and bring them here?"

Kim Yong-taek said there wouldn't be any problem with bringing them.

Apparently, they'd originally debated whether to invite only me or the whole group, then decided to call me first.

I sent Dae-hun a message telling him to accept reality already and bring the members to the Blue House.

Then I put my phone back in my pocket.

"You really went through a lot coming all the way here. It's a shame. If the Blue Moon members had been men, we could've at least given them military exemptions. Truly unfortunate. Hahaha."

The president spoke cheerfully.

People said every action a politician made was a performance.

If the president was basically the king of politicians, was even this laughter an act?

Hard to tell.

"It's an incredible honor just to be invited here. Is there some sort of theme for today's reception...?"

"A theme? Nothing like that. We simply wanted to encourage you to keep up the good work."

The reception room had a long table loaded with refreshments substantial enough to count as a full meal.

Several ministers whose schedules allowed it were standing around too.

Among them was the Minister of Culture.

He approached me and greeted me.

"I'm not sure whether you were satisfied with the measures we took regarding Mr. Hong last time. We did our best."

He meant Hong Sang-hyeok, that shadowy power broker in the cultural world.

I had been satisfied.

The Ministry of Culture had taken practically every action it could at the time.

"We actually wanted to go to the Pyongyang performance too. It was just unfortunate that we were incredibly busy then. Maybe that's why Mr. Hong Sang-hyeok got angry."

"Ah~ There's absolutely no need to worry about that. We don't work by forcibly mobilizing singers or anything like that. We'll make sure nothing similar happens again."

A few more stiff exchanges like that followed.

Then the door to the reception room opened.

Dae-hun and our members quietly entered.

Every one of them looked frozen solid.

They were completely nervous.

They looked like ordinary citizens who'd just been dragged into the Central Intelligence Agency.

"Why did you take so long?"

"Ah, well, that's..."

Dae-hun answered.

"The staircase in the first-floor lobby of this annex is really pretty. So we stopped there to take some photos of Youngchae."

"Really? They said you could take pictures?"

I'd played it safe and only taken photos outside.

Maybe the president overheard our conversation.

He stepped closer and said,

"You can take as many photos as you like. Hahaha."

"H-Huh?! F-Fan...! No, supporter! I'm a supporter!"

The members were so startled by the president suddenly approaching them that they practically bowed at a 120-degree angle.

They looked ridiculously cute.

The president seemed to think so too, because he laughed even louder.

"Really? Were all of you even old enough to vote when I was elected?"

"Of course! We're all over twenty."

Who did I vote for last time again?

Well.

Good things are good.

Let's say I voted for Yoo Seong-woo.

"And you can be fans too. I have a fan club myself. Hahaha. It's called Yusamo. We have as many as five thousand members."

Yusamo?

Didn't every president in history have one of those?

He only had five thousand fans, but apparently he had several million supporters.

That was why he became president.

I was working hard to build a little connection with the president when my phone kept ringing.

Who the hell was calling while I was busy with national affairs?

The calls kept coming, so I finally checked.

I didn't recognize the number.

I was about to put my phone away again when the president said,

"You can relax here. If you get a call, answer it. If you want to leave, you're free to go whenever you'd like."

"Ah, really? It's fine, though. I don't recognize the number anyway."

The president glanced at my phone.

Then he said,

"Oh. I think answering that call would probably be good for you, Mr. Do Jun-hyeok."

"What? What do you mean...?"

Since he was looking at my phone, I raised it so he could see the incoming-call screen properly.

"That's a number I know very well."

Ah.

Then had some government official called after hearing I was coming to the Blue House?

Makes sense.

Government agents were the kind of people who wouldn't surprise me even if they secretly planted microscopic chips in citizens' phones capable of location tracking and biometric backups.

"This man is a president too. A president. I'm a president with a single five-year term, but he's a president of the market for life."

"A president? The president of the market?"

"I've known him well since my days as a lawmaker. I gave him plenty of grief with tax hikes on the wealthy. It's Chairman Kim Gyu-bong of Shinseo Group."