I headed straight to the division director's office without stopping by my own.
I didn't want to interrupt Jongil and Ilman while they were busy gathering information.
Besides, if I went back to the office, Associate Choi Iseul would probably bombard me with questions, and that would be troublesome.
But the biggest reason was that I wanted to see the division director as quickly as possible.
If the diary was correct, this meeting would be enormously helpful, both in resolving the current situation and in everything I planned to do afterward.
I really had been shocked.
To think he's actually the chairman's son.
As far as I knew, the chairman had two sons who were in charge of Seongun Distribution and Seongun Construction, as well as a daughter who supposedly had no interest in management.
An illegitimate child.
The kind of person who frequently appeared in stories about chaebol families.
It seemed the chairman had managed to keep his existence a perfect secret.
Now, what am I supposed to do with this information?
My future self had told me everything.
And he had done so through a red diary entry written in an unusually dark shade.
[XX/XX. The decision has been made to dismiss me.
It's all because I got caught up in this damned political mess.
The media is flooded with articles accusing me, the person in charge of the Creative Village project, of using advance information to engage in real estate speculation.
People who saw this as an opportunity began crawling out of the woodwork.
But instead of attacking me, they went after the division director, tearing him apart.
I had no idea the division director was the chairman's secret son.
In the end, I was the only person who could take the fall.]
There was no date.
Judging by the entries I had seen so far, it probably described something that would happen in a couple of months.
Directly beneath it was another entry that contained an even more interesting outpouring of anger.
[XX/XX. I've left the company where I spent ten years of my life.
The division director even cried as he explained why he absolutely had to rise to the position of president.
It's fine. I suffered some losses, but I still have enough money left to support myself.
Deputy Manager Geum Seokcheol, who came to see me off, asked a strange question about whether I'd lost the succession battle.
I wanted to tell him that the person he thought I was is actually the division director.
But I've decided to ignore him for now.
My relationship with Seongun ends here, and I have mountains of work to do.
I need to repair the damage to my assets.
Fuck.]
The two entries conveyed more helplessness than anger.
Looking at them, I was beginning to think that red diary entries weren't necessarily bad in every respect.
They contained an enormous amount of information.
Not only had I discovered the division director's secret identity, but I had also learned about our dear Deputy Manager Geum's rather adorable misunderstanding.
Knock, knock.
I knocked and entered the division director's office.
"Good afternoon. I'm Kang Jinhyeok."
"Ah! Team Leader Kang! Come in and have a seat!"
The division director looked up at me with an anxious expression.
Perhaps it was because I'd contacted him saying I had something urgent to report.
He started asking questions almost as soon as I sat down.
"What's happened? I heard you received the list from the Franchise Operations Team and immediately went somewhere."
"Yes. I've just returned from the Gaon Charcoal Grill Balsan branch. It looked like the store most likely to close first."
"You can tell that just by looking at the documents?"
"I wouldn't say I was certain. I suppose I've developed fairly good instincts after doing the same work for so long."
I slowly sipped the lemon tea on the table, putting on an air of complete composure.
I couldn't let him get too excited just yet.
After all, today's revelations would come one after another, each more explosive than the last.
"Hmm. I see. So what did you find when you got there? Since you asked to see me so urgently, I assume it isn't good news."
"The landlord has been blocking the access road and interfering with the restaurant's business. He started doing it just when the restaurant was beginning to become successful."
The division director's eyebrows rose slightly.
Only slightly, as though he were wondering why I'd come to him with such a minor issue.
"Couldn't the Legal Team handle a dispute like that?"
"The Franchise Operations Team already asked them to review it. Unfortunately, every action the landlord is taking falls just short of being illegal. The Legal Team concluded that there was nothing they could do."
I slowly set down my teacup.
It's about time I started explaining.
And I would begin by saying something I didn't mean in the slightest.
"It's not a major problem. We can simply give up. We can't let the company suffer because of a single franchise branch."
The division director's eyebrows rose a little higher.
"There's no way Team Leader Kang would simply give up. What you're really saying is that the company will have to accept some losses, isn't it?"
He understood that immediately?
I'd deliberately taken a roundabout approach, yet he'd seen straight through it.
Perhaps he'd always been this perceptive.
But now that I knew he was the chairman's son, even his ordinary abilities seemed somewhat more impressive.
"That's right. I have no intention of giving up this time either. However, I also want to prevent the company from suffering any damage. That's why I've come to you."
"Hmm. Go on."
"The landlord is extremely cunning. And behind him is someone who may be rather difficult for us to handle."
"Who?"
"A five-term city councilman. He's been serving in Gangseo-gu for twenty years."
The division director began tapping his fingers against the table.
He probably didn't want to get involved in politics.
"...A city councilman."
"Yes. I'm reporting this because we may end up provoking something they desperately want to keep hidden. If things go badly, they might attack the company."
The fingers tapping against the table stopped.
"...Let's hear the details."
"If they use the media against us, I expect they'll accuse Seongun of obstructing local development. Whether the accusation is true or not, it could do considerable damage. We might even see banners calling for a boycott of Seongun all over Gangseo-gu. Both men have fairly good reputations in the area."
"You're saying people like that are doing all this just to get their hands on a single building?"
The division director tilted his head, finding the situation rather strange.
It was a perfectly natural reaction.
After all, I was the only one who had read the future diary.
"Behind the Gaon Charcoal Grill building are several old properties that are practically landlocked. But if the restaurant building is demolished, an access road connecting those properties to a ten-lane boulevard can be constructed. That would increase the value of the land they've purchased by several dozen times."
"They've already bought the land?"
"Yes. They bought it through a company registered under the landlord's son's name. I believe it's a way to increase the old man's wealth and channel money into the city councilman's political funds."
"Good grief. Now I understand why you described this as something they desperately want to keep hidden. But you investigated all of that in a single day?"
That's a difficult question to answer.
And it wasn't even particularly important.
Instead of telling him that having access to future records made everything easy, I gave him an explanation he could believe.
"Anyone can obtain property registry records, and a councilman's official activities are all public information. Finding information about people who have spent so many years in the same area isn't particularly difficult. The real problem is that their influence is greater than I initially expected."
"You've certainly been busy. But Team Leader Kang, even if he's serving his fifth term, a single city councilman can't do much against Seongun."
Excellent.
That was exactly the kind of statement I needed to begin setting off the bombs I'd prepared.
I had wondered about the same thing.
The diary had shown me devastating attacks against both Seongun and myself.
Those weren't the sort of things an ordinary city councilman could accomplish alone.
"There's a strong possibility that someone higher up is involved. Dirty money usually flows upward, after all. What if there's a member of the National Assembly with influence over party nominations? Or someone powerful enough to be seeking control of the party itself?"
Someone at that level would certainly have the power to cause Seongun serious trouble.
The division director swallowed.
Getting tangled up with a high-ranking politician was something any business executive would find uncomfortable.
But given the circumstances, that was the most likely explanation for who stood behind these men.
This is something the division director needs to handle.
After all, he was the one who wanted to climb to a higher position, not me.
And so, without feeling even slightly guilty, I began carefully steering him in the direction I wanted.
"However, I don't think the situation is necessarily hopeless yet, Division Director."
"Yet?"
"Yes. If we don't make a move, they won't make one either. Aren't both sides equally reluctant to enter into a direct confrontation?"
We needed to prevent whoever was standing behind those men from getting involved.
Otherwise, the future recorded in the diary might become reality.
For now, what lay before us was a perfectly still lake.
If nobody threw anything into it, nothing would emerge.
But what if we were the first to throw a stone?
The dark creatures hiding beneath the surface would rush toward us all at once.
After all, they always stuck together.
We mustn't throw the first stone.
That was the trigger for the misfortunes I had identified in the future diary.
There was only one solution.
We simply had to plant the fear that a stone might be thrown at any moment.
And we only needed to point them in the direction of Gangseo-gu, Seoul.
That was exactly what I wanted the division director to do.
After listening to my explanation, he slowly nodded.
"You want me to feed false information to the person behind them."
"That's right. People who accept dirty money only care about one thing: the freshness of the food inside the box. Even the slightest suspicion that the food has gone bad will terrify them."
"In other words, you want to frighten them before they accept the box? Make them believe the apples grown in Gangseo-gu are rotten?"
Did he major in Korean literature or something?
I was slightly impressed by his rather clever metaphor and sound judgment.
Then I gave him another piece of good news.
"That information won't actually be false. Their wrongdoing will be exposed before long. And when that happens, you'll have established a connection with an influential politician. Isn't that the kind of relationship that might prove extremely useful someday?"
The division director scratched his chin, looking as though something about my explanation bothered him.
"Team Leader Kang, by any chance..."
I had a pretty good idea what he wanted to ask.
'Are you saying all this because you know who I really am?'
Something along those lines.
After all, the title of division director alone wasn't enough to give someone easy access to high-ranking politicians.
But I knew.
I knew exactly whose son he was.
"Is something wrong? Is this too difficult a request? You're the only person I can ask, apart from the president..."
"Ahem. No, it's fine. I'll take care of that part. Is there anything else you need?"
I love that predictable line.
He had probably asked out of habit.
But there really was something else I needed.
"There's one more thing I'd like you to arrange in secret."
"...What?"
The division director stared blankly into my eyes, clearly not expecting another request.
"I'd like you to secure 200 million won under the Mutual Growth Support Fund. We can't have the restaurant owner giving up before we've even started."
The division director froze for a moment.
Then he rubbed his forehead and asked,
"You're asking a mere division director to withdraw company funds without anyone knowing?"
Oh, come on. There's no need to be so dramatic.
I was almost tempted to tell him that I knew exactly who he was.
"If this ends successfully, you'll be one step closer to what you want. If I were in your position, I'd even put up my own money..."
"W-What are you talking about? What exactly do you think I want...?"
I answered with a gentle smile.
"To rise beyond the presidency of Seongun Development and reach an even higher position. Isn't that your goal, Division Director? Just as before, this case will help you considerably. After all, Seongun Development has been enjoying one success after another since you arrived."
Strictly speaking, those successes were all thanks to my efforts.
The division director was simply fortunate enough to have arrived at the right time.
But he probably understood that much already, so there was no need to point it out.
What surprised me more was that the division director was an even greater man than I had imagined.
I couldn't speak for anything else yet.
But the size of his wide-open mouth was certainly impressive.
