Chapter 768. Sequence 3

“Looks like I should go.”

Junmin stood up while putting on his top hat. Park Sunggoo, who sat opposite him, put down his fork.

“What is it?”

“The prodigal son has gotten himself together, so I should make a visit.”

“Who is it to make Lee Junmin skip a meal when he places so much importance on having meals on time?”

“Han Maru. Do you remember him?”

“I do. He’s a smart kid after all. I get calls from him from time to time, and recently, I got a call from him after he got discharged.”

“So he might act dumb, but he still contacts everyone he should.”

“According to his words, he can’t lose a connection to someone in the legal field. He told that to me straight.”

“He knows your personality. You’ve taken a liking to him, haven’t you?”

“Do you think I’m someone who would pick up unnecessary calls?”

After wiping his mouth with a napkin, Sunggoo also stood up.

“You’re standing up too?”

“I don’t have a hobby of eating by myself in a place like this. Rather than that, it’s fortunate that you didn’t call Kang Seoyeon. If you said you’re leaving in the middle of a meal when she was here, I wouldn’t have been able to bear the consequences.”

“That makes me feel chilly just by thinking about it. She would have lectured me about my lack of sociability using all sorts of incomprehensible psychology jargon.”

“Seoyeon loves to bully you after all.”

They paid for their meals before leaving. Junmin went out to the streets and was about to reach his hand out to grab a taxi when a black sedan honked its horn and stopped in front of him. It was Sunggoo’s car.

“Let me see that guy’s face after all this while too. I’m curious as to how that smartypants grew up.”

“I’m going to senior Yoon’s house right now.”

“That’s even better. I should say hello to him as well. Hop in.”

He got in the car and closed the door. A photo of his friend and his daughter swayed under the rearview mirror.

“Did Minjeong return to Korea from Europe?”

“She did, but I’m not so sure she will stay. She’s one mischievous lady who loves going outside, so she might leave soon.”

“You have it difficult, supporting your daughter’s lifestyle while working hard.”

“At least I’m still a father. I’m much better than a certain man in his fifties who has parties with some dogs at home. Don’t you think it’s about time you finish playing house with your dogs?”

“Maybe it’s because I’ve been living for so long with them, but I find it awkward to find people at home now. Maybe I’m destined to grow old and die like this.”

“I’m kinda scared because you might have named one of those numerous dogs Jung Haejoo.”

“I think there was one.”

Sunggoo clicked his tongue and shook his head. For the past 20 years, this fellow had praised marriage endlessly and still put blind faith in the greatness of marriage. It was an open secret that Kang Seoyeon was behind his actions by lecturing about how marriage is the salvation of this world.

“Poor Seoyeon. At her age, it wouldn’t have been strange for her to have married five times, but she’s getting old by herself because she fell for a certain twisted person.”

“If you’re pitying Seoyeon so much, you can have her as your second.”

“Excuse me, president Lee Junmin. You shouldn’t say something like that in front of a lawyer. I think you’re forgetting who’s the attorney of the JA business.”

“It’s because you know that I’m only saying it as a joke.”

Junmin opened the window. A heat that could not be cooled off by the AC alone kept circling around in his head. It must be some sort of disorder for him to become emotional from just hearing the name Jung Haejoo. Junmin wished for that disorder to be with him until his death. It was proof that he still remembered her after all.

“The YM family is becoming noisy these days,” Sunggoo said as he turned the wheel to the right.

“What happened?”

“The chairman, who looked like a man of steel, has fallen from the mainline of work, and there has been a lot of noise ever since his son took over his role. The power structure is quite solid, but they do have a lot of subsidiaries after all. The people who would become falling leaves if people with shares shake the tree will probably play it safe, but the ones who already earned enough aren’t afraid of that. A problem was also raised with circular investment when it’s supposed to be glossed over.”

“Whether it’s SC, DK, or YM, I don’t think I’ve made any of them my enemies, so I don’t think I would care as long as they maintain their familial power.”

“For JA Production, sure. But the shift in shares in YM is a little bit interesting. Though, that only applies to me.”

“Shift in shares?”

“The YM Living shares that the chairman held are going over to something interesting. They’re shifting the shares in order to reform the ruling structure, and it’s Logistics that’s buying all the shares in Living at a cheap price.”

“Logistics you say….”

“The shares held by Logistics, which the first son has a tight rule over, have increased while changing the investment structure, and now, YM’s circular investment will be centered around Logistics. What I want to say is that it’s not a simple shift in axis. Apparently, there will be a big investment in one of the thick branches of Logistics.”

“Now I get why you’re talking about YM. It’s Soul Entertainment, isn’t it?”

“It’s the place where the grandson of the chairman is. They also possess the biggest music streaming site in the country. I heard that there’s not a single place that is not submissive to them in the music industry. An unknown singer can be made into a shooting star just by giving them a small promotion and putting them on the front page.”

“They approached a few of us too. Their condition was 11:0[1], on top of contract cancellation fees as well as taxes to take one of my own.”

“He’s on the offense, alright.”

Junmin closed the window. His head cooled down due to talking about work.

“I did meet him once a long time ago. He was a white-collar man back then, but somehow, he ended up working in this field.”

“You met Hong Janghae? And way before too?”

“Geunsoo. You’ve met him a few times too, haven’t you?”

“Geunsoo… Hong Geunsoo. Don’t tell me he’s the father?”

“He is. And he’s no ordinary man. I haven’t seen him since he switched jobs, but just his business skills make me impressed. The fact that he monopolized the music market first was really big. If I was raising idols, I would have gone to see him several times.”

“I just thought he was a gentle-looking man when I met him before.”

“From what Geunsoo told me, his nice-looking impression isn’t all there is to him. I can’t tell you the details, but he’s definitely not someone I would share a drink with.”

“If you are saying such a thing, I guess his character must be rock-bottom. You’re someone who would accept a drink from your archenemies after all.”

Junmin thought about the figure of Hong Janghae which had been completed with the help of what Geunsoo told him. When they first met, he thought that he was a typical father who was opposed to his son going down a rocky path. It was when he talked to Geunsoo that he found out that he wasn’t. While Geunsoo just described him as a ‘strict father’, he intuitively realized that there was more to him than just that after seeing him mention his father’s name with viciousness in his eyes. From how Geunsoo hid everything about his father when he was usually open about anything, Junmin was sure that the father was far from being decent.

“Whether it’s the previous chairman of YM or the new succeeding one, I think their faith in Hong Janghae is very immense. You can just see that from how he’s the one taking care of the chairman’s grandson.”

“I don’t care what they’re up to. I just have to take care of my own people. I will have to meet him if they keep bothering my people, but he’s not that stupid, so I’m sure he’ll stop soon.”

The car arrived at Moonjoong’s house. He saw Maru’s car right in front of the front gate. Behind that was Sooil’s car.

“It’s been a while since I came here. I wonder if the senior still remembers me.”

“I’m sure he remembers you as ‘Junmin’s friend little Park who can drink a little’ or something along those lines. Let’s go in for now.”

He opened the door. The two people watching TV on the sofa both stood up, welcoming them in. In front of them was a table set up for drinking.

“Did you already have a drink?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Yes, the first round is over already. But what brings you here, lawyer Park?”

Maru stood in front of Sunggoo.

“Well, things just happened. You’ve become quite manly.”

“It’s been four years. I should have gone to find you way before.”

“A call is more than enough. I was in Europe too after all. Rather than that, I never imagined the actor my daughter really likes would be here.”

Sunggoo reached his hand out to Sooil.

“Should I call you Yoo Sooil or Lee Jaeho?”

“I’m not sure if the Lee family still considers me as a member anymore. I didn’t know I would see you here.”

“You should show up at my house once in a while. And meet my daughter while you’re at it. When you were young, you were always following me, calling me ahjussi, but now that you’re grown up, you don’t even show any interest in me, huh. Is that how it is now that you are successful?”

“No way.”

Sooil led them to the drinking table in front of the sofa. Maru, who was standing afar, asked in a small voice,

“So lawyer Park and Sooil turned out to know each other.”

Junmin said that they were pretty close.

“Is senior asleep?”

“Yes. He was drinking until just a while ago, and he went to his room to sleep after feeling tired.”

“Looks like I should say hello tomorrow morning.”

Junmin took off his top hat and put it on the ground. As soon as he put it down, Dalgoo’s pups ran over and bit on the hat’s shade. This was the fourth time already, so Junmin gave up on it. He just threw the hat so that they could play with it.

“Allow me to pour you a drink. First, lawyer Park.”

“Are you okay with pouring one for me before your president?”

Sunggoo reached his glass out with a smile.

“I know the president has a wide heart.”

“That’s right, rather than the owner of a company who’s half out of business, you should look good to lawyer Park who still visits the Supreme Court and the high court like his own house.”

“My words exactly.”

Maru joked around before pouring the drink into Sunggoo’s glass. Maru had become a lot cheesier ever since he came back from the military. His calculative and rational analytic skills were the same as ever, but his expressions and speech had become a lot more flexible as though he had some leisure now. He looked like someone who was happy to have put down his burdens.

Junmin also grabbed his glass.

“Let’s have a light drink first.”

He quenched his thirst with some soju. The liquor that brushed the back of his tongue while he swallowed was very sweet. The guy who said he would go to the military looking like a totally defeated soldier was making jokes with a leisurely attitude, so he felt energetic to see that. Maru was someone who always caught his nerves. Considering his value alone, he was way below Sooil in terms of worth since a long time ago, but the strange sense of expectation that he would do something big one day made Junmin keep him by his side. It was probably when he accepted the 300 million won deal that his expectations started growing.

He was neither dragged by nor suppressed by money. He was free from the gravity of money but was hung up on something else. Junmin saw that as a shackle. Though, it might have been something important to Maru.

Ever since he got discharged, Maru had become a balloon. At first, he was rather weirded out since the man who looked like an anchor at the bottom of the ocean had turned into someone that would fly away in a breeze, but he soon found out that his nature hadn’t changed. The thing that dragged him down must have disappeared. Or, Maru had decided to leave that behind.

“We should talk about work,” Junmin said as soon as he put down the glass.

“President, this is just the first glass.”

“There’s no better time to talk about work than the first glass.”

He saw Sooil slowly backing away, but he decided not to mind for today. His objective was the ever-grinning Maru in front of him.

“You had enough rest, haven't you?” Junmin said.

[1] Meaning the ones who will go to Soul will get paid 10% more than when they were in JA.