SURE 23

—Continue straight for more than 1 kilometer.

The navigation system’s guidance entered one ear and exited as a different voice.

Shin Taeyoon, who had asked why I was asking him for help. Shin Taeyoon, who had said let’s meet in the morning. Shin Taeyoon, who had said he wanted to give me everything. The morning he spoke of had dawned. Should I call him? Or should I handle the urgent matter first? My usual way of always prioritizing work was being shattered by Shin Taeyoon.

“Mr. CEO. Look over there. There are a lot of cars, aren’t there? It looks like they’ve opened both factory warehouses, too. I think they’re loading rice. Does rice usually arrive this early?”

“…”

“Mr. CEO?”

“…Huh?”

“Look, over there.”

Where Manager Han was pointing, several black sedans and one particularly conspicuous white sedan were neatly parked. Judging by the company CI wrapped on the black cars, those were corporate vehicles. As we got closer to the factory, the CI wrapped on the cars became clearer. Manager Han, who had leaned out to get a better look, turned to me in surprise.

“Did you arrange for Shinyoon F&B to come, too?”

I wanted to ask the same thing. As soon as I parked and got out, the white car captivated me. From the license plate to the model, it was a car I couldn’t possibly not know. After all, I had sat in the driver’s seat of this very car and even driven it for a short time.

‘No, we’ll be seeing each other in the morning. On a bright and sunny Monday morning.’

Was this what he meant? It felt like I’d been hit on the back of the head. I looked up at the sky, and just as he’d said, the weather was perfectly sunny without a single cloud. The fact that I had even debated contacting him was now pointless. The coffee in my stomach threatened to come back up.

“Let’s get out for now. The conversation inside is likely to be long, so Manager Han, you just focus on recording.”

“Yes. Ha, this wasn’t in the plan. Why are they suddenly getting involved? This is like going to catch a mouse and having a tiger show up.”

“We’ll find out when we go in.”

I’ll have to see for myself whether Shinyoon F&B is an ally or an enemy. In front of the wide-open warehouse, men in suits and the pale-faced factory owner were in a standoff. A foreign worker who had been driving a forklift was watching, holding onto the open warehouse door from the other side. It was the warehouse that I had tried and failed to open.

The sacks of rice piled in the open warehouse were different from the usual Nonghyup sacks I was used to. Fitting for Shin Taeyoon’s sarcastic remark about holding an Olympics, I could see the various languages written on the sacks even from a distance. My head ached just thinking about how much imported rice was in there. Manager Han’s incredulous scoff pierced my ear. As she walked past me, the sound of her heels felt like a sentence being passed.

“Mr. CEO! All the rice inside is imported!”

The confirmation, which had echoed through the vast warehouse and escaped outside, struck me squarely in the chest. Subconsciously, I had hoped that what Shin Taeyoon said was a lie. Even while preparing for this situation, I had prayed that it wouldn’t be true.

“What brings Shinyoon F&B here?”

I asked instead of a greeting, looking around at the Shinyoon F&B employees. Their gazes also turned to me. Manager Han stood ramrod straight and began her role as a monitor. The factory owner, upon spotting me, saw his ashen complexion brighten.

“Mr. Lee! I was just about to call you! Hey, these people just showed up without any notice and threatened me to open the warehouse, then started taking pictures however they pleased! Isn’t this trespassing?!”

I looked down at the factory owner. The factory owner, as if his brazen attitude of constant lying had never existed, was fidgeting nervously because of the big-company employees in front of him.

“Ah, are you Mr. Lee Jungwoon, the CEO of JW Food?”

I took the business card the man held out. He was a deputy general manager from Shinyoon F&B’s corporate strategy team. I offered my own card in return. He glanced at my card before tucking it into his pocket.

“We don’t have much time, so to put it briefly, we’ve heard that Haesung Foods has been engaged in illegal activities while exclusively supplying products to JW Food. Is that correct?”

“Illegal?! Hey, this gentleman doesn’t even know what he’s talking about, just throwing the word ‘law’ around!”

The man didn’t even glance at the frantic factory owner and waited for my answer. Without even being able to gather my scattered disappointment from the asphalt floor, I asked the factory owner.

“How much did you make off of it?”

“Wh-what?”

“I’m talking about the names written on your bank statements. They’re not Anseong or Boryeong rice, are they? They’re ship brokers. Considering the amount that came in, you must have been dumping it.”

“You son of a bitch, you’re really saying some…”

“So. Was the golf you played after silencing your employees fun?”

The moment I pointed at the foreign worker, he grabbed me by the collar. Even though the short factory owner was pulling at my collar, I held my ground until my head was snapped to the side. A stinging pain erupted on my cheek, and it began to burn hotly.

…Ah, was I just hit? The taste of blood that burst in my mouth was metallic. Manager Han let out a roar similar to a scream and came running in her heels. She’s going to fall like that.

“Mr. Lee, do you know how long we’ve known each other, and now what? What’s this and that? I helped a parentless bastard out with all I had, and not only do you repay kindness with evil, but you’re trying to kick me out first thing in the morning? Hey, you bastard!”

“Mr. CEO! Hey, what do you think you’re doing right now!”

I lifted my head. There were five phones pointed in this direction. I waved a hand at the fuming Manager Han to show I was okay, then gripped the wrist holding my collar and forced it off. I held onto his wrist tightly to prevent him from pretending to fall, and looked at the man who was a deputy general manager.

“An answer won’t be necessary, I see.”

The man shrugged.

“Thank you for the confirmation. After the contract between JW Food and Haesung Foods is terminated, we intend to acquire Haesung Foods and make it Shinyoon F&B’s Dangjin Plant 1. Ah, is your cheek okay? The actions of the Haesung Foods CEO just now constitute assault and battery, so if you require evidence and testimony, we will be happy to assist you.”

“Who gave you permission! Where do you get off barging in like gangsters and talking about taking away the company I built! You lightning-struck bastards! Call the police!”

No one caught the factory owner, who looked like he was about to fall backward, clutching the back of his neck. A 25-seater bus pulled up behind the factory owner, who was lying on the ground crying that he was dying. It was the factory’s shuttle bus. Grandmothers, foreign workers, and finally, the office accountant got off through the open door. They, who were walking in a group, saw us and looked surprised.

“Goodness? Isn’t that Jungwoon? Jungwoon!”

“That looks like the good-for-nothing owner. What’s this? Huh? Why are there so many cars?”

“What’s wrong with that guy’s face? Why does he look like he got beat up!”

Perhaps not wanting to show a disgraceful side in front of his employees, the factory owner jumped to his feet and tried to sway public opinion, but the grandmothers, who were more favorable to me than to their company’s CEO, actually chastised the owner, saying they knew he’d do something like this one day.

“He’s crazy. How could he! Hit a person! Assault! is a crime! First, you lie about the origin, and now you even! Hit someone! Mr. CEO, should we go to the hospital? This will get you at least a two-week diagnosis! Let’s go get a medical certificate.”

Manager Han, adjusting the volume of her thunderous shouts, displayed outstanding acting skills. Thanks to her, I became the center of attention. Should I pretend to be in pain to play along? But I couldn’t keep up the act. When everyone’s eyes fell on me, my gaze was fixed on Shin Taeyoon, who was walking out of the office. Dressed in a pinstripe suit, his face was a mixture of languidness and boredom.

“Are you done yet? What’s taking so long.”

He lightly chided his employees, then raised his head, and the moment his eyes met mine, the languidness vanished. I stared at Shin Taeyoon, whom I was facing on a bright Monday morning. As our eyes met with his bloodshot ones, my stomach churned.

“Were you hit?”

Shin Taeyoon reached out a hand and fiddled with the area near my busted lip, his eyebrows furrowing. I grabbed his hand and pulled it down.

“I’m fine.”

“I’m not fine.”

“It’s enough that I’m fine.”

“Yeah, well I’m not fine.”

He turned his back and smiled.

“Where did they say the legal team was?”

The deputy general manager of the corporate strategy team scratched his head. Last time it was the audit team, and now it had progressed to the legal team. I finally understood Shin Taeyoon’s method of wanting to give everything. When he did something, he didn’t dawdle; he pushed through all at once, forcefully… in a way that it had no choice but to succeed. The factory owner’s bloodless face glared up at Shin Taeyoon.

“They said they just passed the Mannam’s Rest Stop an hour ago. They should be arriving soon.”

He commanded nonchalantly.

“Tell them to floor it and get here in 10 minutes.”

“Well… I understand.”

The factory workers, unable to do anything, were busy just watching. The foreign worker who had opened the warehouse approached and stood between me and the factory owner.

“The owner didn’t pay me last month’s salary.”

At that, the factory owner, his lips now blue, shot up.

“I told you I’d pay it in installments by the end of this month!”

“There are a lot of people he hasn’t paid.”

Starting with that, the other foreign workers who had gotten off the bus also chimed in one by one to voice their complaints. The grandmothers who came over were more concerned about me, stroking my hand and back, than they were about complaining. Why… I don’t know why it felt so similar to my aunt’s touch when she comforted me as a child… A corner of my heart felt a pang, and I turned my head away, afraid I would show my agitation.

“Let go of that hand.”

Shin Taeyoon, with a smiling face, separated me from them.

“As for the overdue wages, don’t whine to me. Settle it with your own abilities, okay?”

The foreign workers, perhaps expecting a helping hand, looked at each other in bewilderment. He mercilessly cut and severed the relationship. And yet, he didn’t let go of the wrist he had grasped. In the distance, black cars were approaching in a line, kicking up dust. Shin Taeyoon glanced their way with disinterest, then gestured with his chin toward the open office door.

“The legal team has arrived, so shall we continue our discussion inside? We’re busy, so let’s get this over with quickly. Will JW Food be handling this directly without a lawyer?”

“Yes. I will be assisting the CEO. I have all the necessary documents.”

Manager Han stepped forward confidently. Shin Taeyoon looked her up and down, then shrugged and headed toward the office as if it were his own company. As the deputy general manager and other employees who had rushed here since dawn for the acquisition followed, the factory employees, intimidated by the aura of the assembled group, turned their sharp gazes on the factory owner.

“What is all this about! Are we getting fired? Answer me, you bastard! Are we getting fired?!”

“Jungwoon. Can’t you talk to them nicely? We’re old and have nowhere else to go, and we spend our days here to live out the rest of our lives. If we get fired now, how are we supposed to live?”

“Jungwoon, can’t you just bear with it this once? We’ll make sure that good-for-nothing is kept in line. Huh?”

I didn’t look at the people clinging to me. I couldn’t say, even as an empty phrase, that I felt good. Still, one must draw the line when it needs to be drawn. I quietly composed myself and addressed the factory owner.

“Let’s go inside.”

“Jungwoon, I, I was wrong. Huh? So can’t you let me keep the factory? Mr. Lee, huh? You know I have to marry off my son. You know that too, Mr. Lee. I, I’ll leave on my own two feet as soon as I marry off my son. Huh? Just this once, Mr. Lee, bear with it and let it go. You’re fundamentally different from those big-company bastards, Mr. Lee. You’re a good person, Jungwoon.”

I pushed away the factory owner who was clinging to me desperately. The cheek he had hit throbbed. Why was his own situation so important, yet he hadn’t considered our situation, the one of us who trusted and did business only with this factory?

The longer the period people are connected as acquaintances, the more they tend to turn a blind eye to many things. This is because a belief that they will handle most things well on their own is ingrained in the relationship. That’s why, in this situation, I had taken a step back and waited. I had tried to ruminate on the trust we had built over the years, pleading with him not to do it. But what is this?

The factory owner didn’t just break our connection. It was about time he realized that the biggest thing he broke was trust.

“You made me a promise. That there would be no problem with the deliveries. And I believed you.”

“That was only for two months. I was trying to pay the salaries! I have to pay the employees’ salaries for the factory to run, don’t I? The price of rice has gone up a lot. Did you think I wanted to betray Mr. Lee’s trust and do that?”

It was an excuse that hovered somewhere between persuasion and appeasement. It was nonsense spewed out carelessly, not because he was genuinely sorry, but because he wanted to put an end to the situation.

“Yes, Jungwoon. Just let it go this once. For our sake.”

“We’ll form a patrol and make sure he doesn’t pull any funny business.”

“Mothers, did you know the owner was using imported rice?”

I asked, looking around at the grandmothers. I deliberately made eye contact with each one. The gazes of the grandmothers, who had been supporting the owner and wishing for a second chance, subtly avoided mine.

A wave of sorrow hit my throat. Ah… Ah, this one really. This one really hurts a bit. It’s a pain on a different level from being slapped across the face.

“You shouldn’t be like that either. Huh? If you do that, you’ll become the same kind of bastard as that good-for-nothing.”