Chapter 28

Chapter 28. Kwon Jaegwan Goes Berserk (1)

“You fucking idiot! You’re the head of PR, and you couldn’t even stop one damn article?”

Crash!

Kwon Jaegwan fumed as he swept the stationery off his desk and hurled it to the floor.

That still wasn’t enough to cool his anger.

He grabbed a flowerpot and smashed it down as well.

Crash!

A white porcelain jar worth several million won shattered helplessly across the floor.

How long do we have to keep watching this lunatic act like this?

The executives gathered inside the vice president’s office all prayed that his rage wouldn’t turn toward them.

Mun Byeonggeol in particular had no small share of responsibility for what had happened.

He kept his head lowered and waited for Kwon Jaegwan to calm down.

Kwon Jaegwan pulled an iron from his golf bag and began smashing the paintings and sculptures hanging around the room like a madman.

“Aaaaargh!”

Finally, he let out a roar like a wild beast.

Thud.

After putting on a one-man show for nearly five minutes, Kwon Jaegwan seemed to exhaust himself and collapsed onto the sofa.

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“For now, we think it would be best if you were admitted to Handong Medical Center...”

“What? You want me hospitalized?”

“We’re trying to steer public opinion toward the idea that this was an overuse of psychotropic medication caused by a chronic illness.”

“What the fuck? What exactly is wrong with me? If anything, I’m worried because I’m too healthy.”

Kwon Jaegwan propped his feet up on the table in front of the sofa and put a cigarette between his lips.

The secretary standing beside him immediately lit it.

“We’ve already coordinated everything with Handong Medical Center. For now, you should be admitted to a VIP room...”

“If I’m lying in there, can I dodge the police and everything else?”

“Pardon?”

“I’m asking whether I can avoid getting arrested.”

“We’ll do everything we can to prevent your arrest.”

“Bullshit. What can someone like you even do?”

Mun Byeonggeol’s insides boiled.

Executives at conglomerates basically left their pride and dignity at home before coming to work.

It wasn’t as if this was his first time seeing Kwon Jaegwan behave like a thug.

But no matter how many years passed, it was impossible to get used to being treated like this by someone more than ten years younger than him.

“Oh? Your face is getting ugly. What, you don’t like it?”

“Of course not, Vice President.”

Rustle.

Kwon Jaegwan unfolded the social affairs page of Daehan Daily, the paper that had first broken the story.

“This bitch right here.”

He jabbed a finger at Seol Yubin’s name.

“Yes?”

“She’s the granddaughter of the head of Taesan Law Firm?”

“Yes.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Do you know how much money I pour into Taesan?”

Mun Byeonggeol could only lower his head.

“Find another law firm right now.”

“Vice President, that isn’t under my authority...”

“Tell Park Gukjong. Tell him to switch law firms. What am I, some kind of sucker? The daughter of that family tears me apart in the newspaper while her father’s firm defends me?”

Park Gukjong was the chairman’s chief secretary and also held the rank of vice president.

“I’ll pass that along.”

“Even if I get admitted, you’re not saying I have to stay trapped in there the entire time, right?”

“Pardon? What do you mean?”

Kwon Jaegwan abruptly stood and lightly slapped Mun Byeonggeol on the shoulder a few times.

“I’m still young and full of energy. How long do you think I can survive inside one cramped hospital room?”

“The situation is very bad right now...”

The grin on Kwon Jaegwan’s face instantly disappeared.

“And who made the situation bad?”

“...”

You did, you lunatic. Who else?

Mun Byeonggeol screamed internally.

“When problems happen, I pay you to cover them. The master has his job, and the servant has his. That’s how the world works.”

“You still need to be admitted first...”

“Who said I wouldn’t?”

“Then what exactly are you planning...?”

Kwon Jaegwan held out two fingers and beckoned to the secretary behind him.

The secretary immediately pulled out another cigarette and slipped it between his fingers.

Click, click, hiss.

Phewww.

Kwon Jaegwan blew the smoke directly into Mun Byeonggeol’s face.

“I’m a very busy man, you know.”

“Are you saying you plan to sneak out of the hospital?”

Kwon Jaegwan grinned.

“That’s far too risky. Reporters will definitely camp outside the room for at least a few days...”

“I’ll handle that.”

A bad feeling crept over Mun Byeonggeol.

Is he about to make things even worse?

Kwon Jaegwan crooked a finger.

The secretary hurriedly brought over his phone and handed it to him.

Being personal secretary to a lunatic like this had to be one of the harshest jobs in existence.

How were you supposed to keep up with someone whose mood changed more than a dozen times a day?

“Yeah, it’s me. ...Right, right. ...Can I come out? Of course I can, you idiot. ...Save me a seat. ...I’m not bailing, so stop worrying. ...Fine, later.”

The moment the call ended, Kwon Jaegwan tossed the phone back to his secretary.

“What are you all staring at? Is there a show going on? Get out.”

Mun Byeonggeol still couldn’t make himself leave.

“Vice President, you absolutely have to be admitted today.”

“Damn, you talk too much. I said I’ll handle it.”

When Harok got home and turned on the television, news channels were still continuously covering Kwon Jaegwan’s drug scandal.

KTN reporter Jo Seongmin’s voice came through the screen.

“This is a luxury club in Gangnam that Vice President Kwon Jaegwan was known to visit frequently... When this reporter attempted to enter, security guards came out and blocked the way...”

“I’m a reporter. I’m here to cover the story.”

Jo Seongmin tried to force his way inside physically, but there was no getting past guards built like professional athletes.

Tsk, tsk. He’s suffering.

Harok knew Jo Seongmin fairly well.

They were the same entry year at different companies and had spent so many nights together at crime scenes that they felt almost like comrades.

Reporters often worked more at their beats than inside their own offices, so sometimes they ended up becoming closer to rival-company reporters than their own coworkers.

Harok and Jo Seongmin were exactly that kind of case.

Judging from the broadcasts, the Kwon Jaegwan story would probably continue for another day or two.

If Harok could break one more thing during that window, he might be able to make Kwon Jaegwan completely unrecoverable.

Harok knew very well that in his previous life, Kwon Jaegwan eventually drove his company into the ground.

He himself became a regular visitor to prosecutors’ offices over embezzlement, breach of trust, and other crimes.

The part that caught Harok’s attention now was offshore tax evasion.

In Korea, offshore tax evasion was generally a serious crime that could easily lead to detention.

Kwon Jaegwan had been using overseas paper companies for a long time to create enormous slush funds.

According to Harok’s memories from his previous life, both the Korea Customs Service and National Tax Service had spent years collecting evidence against him.

Meaning that even now, the Customs Service was probably already examining Kwon Jaegwan’s accounts and following the money.

Harok needed someone who could tell him about that now.

Opportunities didn’t come often.

Even in his previous life, by the time Kwon Jaegwan became a major figure, police and prosecutors spent ages trying to bring him down.

It took more than a year just to indict him.

The trial was still ongoing when Harok regressed.

Kwon Jaegwan’s crimes had been obvious, but the layered defensive wall of lawyers surrounding him wasn’t easy to break.

Right now, he was only the heir to Handong Group.

He hadn’t become chairman yet.

Wouldn’t it benefit Handong Group’s employees as well if Harok used this opportunity to knock him out early?

In his previous life, Handong Group had practically collapsed under Kwon Jaegwan’s reckless management.

How do I approach someone in Customs and get them to talk about this?

Harok thought for a while.

Then he suddenly remembered a favor he had done for Gu Wonung about a year earlier.

Right.

Hadn’t Wonung’s brother-in-law worked at the Korea Customs Service?

Harok remembered the name being Myeong Jaesik.

When Myeong Jaesik had been booked after a traffic accident and unfairly blamed as the at-fault driver, Gu Wonung asked Harok for help.

Harok immediately called him.

“Yes, Senior.”

“Wonung?”

“What brings a culture department reporter to me?”

This bastard.

Now that Harok was no longer his direct senior, he was already joking around.

Well, they were both getting older together.

“What? I need to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“Your brother-in-law still works at Customs?”

“Yes.”

“When I helped him before, he was in the Foreign Exchange Management Division. Is he still there?”

“I think so.”

Bingo.

Jackpot.

“I need to meet your brother-in-law. Can you talk to him for me?”

“You don’t even need me to. If you tell him you want to meet, he’ll come running barefoot. He owes you a huge debt.”

“Come on, debt is a bit much. That was years ago. It feels awkward to suddenly call him.”

“Then I’ll give him a heads-up first. But what is this about?”

Harok almost said it was connected to Kwon Jaegwan before remembering he was officially a culture department reporter now.

“There’s something I’m working on. I’ll explain later. Just help me set it up first.”

“Got it, Senior.”

This is why you should help people when you can.

That favor had been a real headache.

It had happened while Harok was drowning in another major case.

Gu Wonung had only recently finished his trainee period back then and timidly came to Harok with a personal request involving his brother-in-law.

He had said he was too scared to ask the Chief directly.

Harok had stepped in willingly.

The other driver in the accident just happened to be a former prosecutor who now worked as an attorney at a major law firm.

The police had sided with the lawyer from the beginning.

But once Harok entered the case, everything changed dramatically.

In the end, Myeong Jaesik was cleared of the unfair blame, and the accident was handled properly.

First, Harok needed to make sure the Kwon Jaegwan story didn’t die out.

As the world became faster and more stimulation-driven, news consumption changed the same way.

Nobody wanted to stare at a single article for long anymore.

Something new had to keep pouring out.

That was the only way to hold people’s attention.

Give it a month and even something like Kwon Jaegwan’s drug scandal would disappear beneath newer headlines.

Harok couldn’t allow that.

He immediately called Yubin.

“What brings you to call this late?”

“You asleep?”

“I was searching articles.”

“Anything new on Kwon Jaegwan?”

“Not much yet. The broadcasts are mentioning that he was once caught smoking marijuana in the US, but that’s about it...”

“There’s no way that bastard only did that much wrong.”

Harok let his emotions show without realizing it.

Normally, no matter the case, he tried to remain cold and objective.

Even Yubin sounded slightly surprised.

“Senior, do you really hate Kwon Jaegwan that much?”

“Hate him? Imagine someone this incompetent being responsible for the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people.”

“How many chaebol heirs like that do we have in this country? With you, Kwon Jaegwan is kind of a trig—”

Yubin almost said trigger button, then swallowed the rest because it felt too rude.

“What? A trigger?”

“N-No.”

“Anyway, I’m not going to sit back and watch Kwon Jaegwan wriggle out of this like an eel.”

“I agree. But since he suddenly got hospitalized today, it looks like they’re going with the chronic illness excuse.”

“Being sick doesn’t mean you can just take illegal drugs whenever you feel like it.”

“That’s true.”

“So here’s what I’m thinking...”

Harok wanted to use this opportunity to drag the old abuse-of-power assault case back into the spotlight too.

It had only been three years.

The statute of limitations hadn’t expired.

“You want to bring up the assault case again?”

“We need to drag out anything we can so the Kwon Jaegwan issue doesn’t get buried.”

“It happened three years ago. Will it really have much impact now?”

“Not by itself. But right now Kwon Jaegwan is the country’s biggest villain. Anything connected to him can become news depending on how you frame it.”

“Like writing, ‘It was recently revealed that...’?”

It was one of the most basic principles of journalism.

Proximity mattered in any story.

Whether it was physical distance or time.

People were most likely to read about something that happened recently and close to them.

That was why reporters often used tricks like the phrase it was belatedly revealed.

Or they wrote that someone had recently disclosed an incident that had actually happened long ago.

The event itself might be old.

But the fact that it was being raised as an issue was new.

For example, the assault story could be written as:

[It was belatedly revealed that Kwon Jaegwan assaulted his driver with a baseball bat three years ago.]

The best outcome would be if the driver’s son, who had also been assaulted, formally reported Kwon Jaegwan to the police.

The filing itself would then become the new event, avoiding the proximity problem entirely.

“The driver’s son is Ahn Yonghyeon. I’ll give you his number. Contact him.”

“It was killed three years ago too. Do you think we’ll be able to publish it now?”

“Worry about that later. If we can’t use it, we’ll throw it to another outlet.”

For a reporter, handing a story idea to another journalist was never easy.

But Harok said it as though it were nothing.

Yubin could feel indirectly just how deep Harok’s hostility toward Kwon Jaegwan really was.