Chapter 17. Please Step on Him Hard as You Leave
Truthfully, I should have recommended Mullae-dong.
I had already purchased the Daeyoung Precision site, and before long, I planned to combine it with Seongjin Logistics and construct a building.
What if Seongun’s mixed-use shopping mall was also built in Mullae-dong?
Forget the increase in my building’s value.
An enormous number of people would flood into Mullae-dong.
But I had decided to report only the truth.
I had no intention of breaking the principles I had followed for ten years as a commercial district analyst just to make money or win someone’s favor.
“Mullae-dong isn’t a place where we can simply build one mixed-use shopping mall and be done with it. We won’t make money unless the entire area is redeveloped. That’s the problem. We would need to purchase the entire Mullae-dong 4-ga metalworking district. All thirty thousand pyeong.”
I had already expressed this concern to the director.
We could build the shopping mall.
But the project itself wouldn’t be profitable.
Not unless we redeveloped the entire area.
Maybe that statement gave the director some hope.
He had been sitting with his lips tightly closed, but now he asked,
“If we purchased all thirty thousand pyeong, what kind of picture could we create?”
“We would build a massive mixed-use district combining housing and businesses. We would need to create the infrastructure ourselves.”
“Isn’t that too excessive?”
“The publicity created during the initial marketing stage would only last for a while. People coming from outside the district aren’t guaranteed long-term customers. That’s why I’m saying this. If we want a mixed-use shopping mall in Mullae-dong, we have to redevelop all thirty thousand pyeong.”
The scale of the Mullae-dong project had suddenly become enormous.
A deep silence filled the conference room.
Changing an entire district.
It would be a massive project requiring the full power of the group.
“This would be both an incredible opportunity and a fatal risk for Seongun. If it succeeds, the profits would be astronomical. If it fails, the damage would be impossible to handle.”
My briefing was neither positive nor negative.
The director asked,
“So you oppose it because the risk is too large?”
“No. The Commercial District Analysis Team’s job is simply to produce analytical results based on thorough investigation. Supporting or opposing the project is not our authority.”
The decision belonged to management.
Employees shouldn’t be the ones expected to bear business risk.
The owners were the ones receiving the profit too.
So I handed the decision to them.
Even the director seemed burdened by the enormous scale and risk shown on the Mullae-dong slide.
While everyone was lost in thought, I quickly changed the screen.
“Next is the Yangjae-dong Freight Terminal site.”
A luxurious concept image and overwhelming profitability indicators appeared.
They weren’t much different from what Kim Seokhun had shown earlier.
The Future Strategy Office Head, who had been sitting stiffly, brightened slightly.
With Mullae-dong practically eliminated, he probably felt relieved that Yangjae-dong still remained.
This was bad.
In a moment, he would probably start looking at me like I was insane.
Without meaning to, I had raised his expectations.
“If we look only at commercial value and scale, Yangjae-dong has more than enough potential to become Seongun’s greatest landmark. However...”
I changed the screen.
A map appeared, covered in tightly clustered red dots.
“If Mullae-dong is a grenade with the safety pin still intact, then the Yangjae-dong Freight Terminal is a massive landmine that will explode the moment you touch it. It is a location we should never become involved with.”
Everyone froze again.
Nobody seemed capable of asking what I meant.
“Please focus on these points. Baekje-era tombs and residential sites discovered in Umyeon-dong, Seocho-dong, and Bangbae-dong. And this large early Baekje archaeological belt connecting Pungnaptoseong Fortress and Mongchontoseong Fortress. The intersection running through the center of that belt is the Yangjae-dong Freight Terminal.”
Everyone understood what I meant.
Still, nobody could speak.
“There is an extremely high probability that large-scale early Baekje remains, including building foundations, are buried there. If something important like a gilt-bronze crown appears during construction, the area could be designated a nationally protected historic site and all work would stop. We wouldn’t be earning one trillion won. We could lose more than one trillion won.”
A disaster.
Not tens of billions.
More than one trillion won in losses.
That could threaten the entire group.
Everyone looked even more stunned than they had after discovering Kim Seokhun’s false report.
The director pressed a hand against his forehead and sighed.
The Future Strategy Office Head looked equally shocked.
According to Kim Seokhun’s earlier report, the Future Strategy Office had already chosen Yangjae-dong.
That meant they must have completed a considerable amount of investigation.
“Relics...? What are you talking about? The Freight Terminal has already been constructed. How could something like that possibly...?”
The Future Strategy Office Head asked in disbelief.
Without wavering, I displayed an old newspaper clipping.
“This is an interview article containing testimony from a worker who participated directly in the construction of the Freight Terminal. He testified that unidentified pottery fragments poured out during excavation, but the contractor poured cement over them in the middle of the night.”
The Future Strategy Office Head looked deeply shocked.
I could understand.
The decision made by the Future Strategy Office, supposedly filled with the most capable employees in headquarters, had just collapsed in an instant.
“Are you certain?”
“I’m personally convinced, but I recommend conducting a non-destructive inspection to be absolutely certain.”
“Manager Kang Jinhyeok... I don’t think we can reach such a definite conclusion based on a single interview article. Back then, companies often made false accusations to sabotage competitors...”
“That’s true. And it was also common for companies to hide cultural relics so they could keep construction going.”
Maybe I had been a little too stubborn.
The Future Strategy Office Head lost his words and looked toward the director for help.
“Ahem. If you’re that certain, I assume there’s another reason?”
“Thank you, Director.”
I bowed lightly and displayed the final evidence.
This was information I had obtained after meeting Reporter Mun Daegi at an old café in Munsan on Sunday.
“This material came directly from the reporter who wrote the article. These are copies of the bank records of five of the thirteen workers who were on-site. The sender was confirmed to be a subcontractor working under Hanshin Construction.”
Proof of hush money paid by the subcontractor’s owner.
Evidence nobody could easily refute.
Heavy silence filled the conference room.
While everyone stared blankly at the screen, I checked the smartphone resting beneath the podium.
It was over.
All the red entries covering the diary app had disappeared.
That meant the company would no longer choose Yangjae-dong while ignoring the relics.
And with that, the meeting ended.
Now it was time to see Kim Seokhun off.
I hoped he would step hard on every piece of criticism laid beneath his departing feet.
After finishing the briefing that had shocked everyone, I returned to my desk and got back to work.
My part was over.
Yangjae-dong would never be chosen.
What about Mullae-dong?
For the sake of my building, I hoped they would choose it, but that probably wouldn’t happen either.
Well, even without redevelopment, my building wouldn’t lose value.
So it didn’t matter much.
Peaceful.
Kim Seokhun had his head buried against his desk and hadn’t moved at all.
Even after lunch, he remained exactly the same.
He probably couldn’t think of any way out.
And since the diary entry hadn’t changed, that probably meant there really was no way out.
After several hours without moving, the thing that finally made him raise his head was an alert from the company intranet.
