12 Hours After

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

Shortly after Tak Mun-su left the president’s office, I sat for a moment with my arms crossed and lost in thought. ‘Did he realize his situation a little bit now?’

The arrogant next chairman of Suyeon Group was a mouse in front of me. I grinned to think of how flustered he was in front of me. Abruptly, I picked up my cell phone right away and called Vice President Jang.

Tiriri tiriri tiriri… He soon answered the phone.

“Vice President, it’s me.”

“Why did you call me, sir?”

“I think we need to speed up the purchase of Suyeon Group a little faster. He knows that our company is buying shares in Suyeon Group.”

“Who are you talking about?

“Tak Mun-su, vice president of Suyeon Group.”

“Ah… I see. You finally met him today.”

“Yes.”

“Hmm… He knows that… then we’ll have to buy more quickly, before he gets ready for something.”

“Let’s buy them up to 4.99%, and then we’ll talk to Red Moss Investment.”

“Yes, boss.”

‘When a hostile M&A starts, the stock price has the same meaning as the height of a castle wall. The lower the price, the better the offense, but the higher the price, the better the defense. Just as it is difficult for an attacker to attack from beyond a high wall, it is difficult to build a stake by buying high-priced stocks.’

After the phone call, I thought of what Tak Mun-su had just said: ‘If you say you’ll fight to the end, I have no choice but to show you the true power of Suyeon Group.’

“The true power… What the fuck?”

‘I have forty-five billion dollars. If he collects cash from all of the affiliates of Suyeon Group, would it amount to that? I don’t know. What’s certain is that he can’t stop me. Whatever he does, I can look into his future, as well as mine. It means that no matter what defense he’s using, I can know in advance and block it. This is like an unfair chess game. I know what my opponent will do, and he doesn’t know what I’m going to do. It can’t become a fight from the beginning.

‘Then, let’s see how he will act cute.’

I leaned back in my chair, thinking about it.

——

This week, Suyeon Construction rose six percent and Suyeon Electronics rose eight percent range. It was an unusual rise in the Chinese financial crisis, as Vice President Jang, as instructed by me, bought shares in large quantities. After I bought the tight stake of 4.99%, I moved on to the next phase; this was the deal with a global investment company, Red Moss Investment.

—————————

June second, 2021…

I had a meeting with the Red Moss Investment at a hotel in Seoul. As it was a big deal, worth over two billion dollars at market price, seven percent of a company with the market capital of thirty billion dollars, key members came from Red Moss Investment’s U.S. headquarters.

“In the U.S., we have heard of Han Sang-hoon’s great fame.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.”

The negotiation, which was made up of translations, was beautiful in the language itself, but was fierce in the contents to such an extent we complained during the break.

“They’re really terrible.”

“They know that the management rights of Suyeon Electronics will go over to us if we get their stake, and they raised the price.”

“Well, we tried to pay a good price anyway.”

“They are specialists at this kind of negotiation. Let’s be patient and talk more.”

In the end, however, the first round of the negotiations ended with big differences. Red Moss Investment made a huge price hike, knowing that I was really looking for the management rights of Suyeon Electronics. Even I, who had forty-five billion dollars, was reluctant.

‘After all, they will sell it, but they are being nasty.’ I grumbled and wondered if there was anything I could do.

‘How can I fuck them? In fact, strictly speaking, they weren’t even Americans. It was a multinational company whose CEO was Indian and CTO was Swiss.

‘Do I have to explode another one to take down the stock price of Suyeon Electronics? But I’ve already done everything I could: the independent counsel, the tax investigation, and even the news that a major shareholder is dead; so, what else could I do? Ha… It’s hard to bring it down further from here. It has been down a lot because of the Chinese financial crisis in the first place.’

Now the stock price of Suyeon Electronics was going to rise, even if it stayed still. The world’s economy was getting better little by little after the crisis. In addition, Tak Mun-su could do something; a buy-in to boost its stock price. In that sense, it was a little strange. For a week after the meeting with me, he remained silent, without a peep. It was a very strange thing.

If he had really known that our company was buying shares, if he had even found out that we had set up a negotiating table with Red Moss Investment, he should have done something more, but nothing happened. If I were Tak Mun-su, I would at least have been shouting loudly at the media friendly to Suyeon Group, ‘Han Sang-hoon of Invictus Investment is going to buy Suyeon Electronics!

‘He has to do anything he can to raise the stock price… but why is he doing that? If there is a possibility, I can guess that he is now secretly securing a stake. Is he going to race with me, who has forty-five billion dollars? Is that it? Really?’

The exact circumstances were not known, but it was only drawn out of that scenario at this point.

—————————

June fourth…

A guest with ripped eyes, a hawk nose, and a red face, visited me. As old as he was, he looked like Kaiji. He was CEO Lee Won-jae.

“How are you, CEO Han?”

“How have you been?”

“I’m fine.”

He had a pretty bright face. It seemed that the article that revealed Tak Woo-kyung’s death last time became the special edition of the year, as it was finally confirmed to be true. He handed me the small bag he had brought to me and said, “It’s a small gift.”

I said as I received the bag, “What’s this…?”

“Open it and you’ll find out.”

“Wow!” I exclaimed. It was a DVD collection of all my favorite movies: Big Fish, From Hell, and Bird Man! It wasn’t just a regular DVD collection, but they were all signed.

“These are the autographs of director Tim Button, Johnny Depp, and Michael Keaton. In the old days, you told me about your favorite movies. I chose them from our affiliate, the film magazine company, and I brought them to you.”

I lifted the DVD collection and looked at it. It was just the kind of gift I liked.

“It’s a little weird to buy expensive things for the richest man in our country, so I thought you’d prefer this.” He told me the truth, knowing that I had become the richest man in our country. It was not unusual for him to know that, given the information power of Daewon Daily News.

I nodded, “Oh, I really like it. Really!”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“It’s very kind of you to give me a gift considering my tastes, CEO Lee.”

He spoke with his head down. “Thank you. I’d appreciate it more. Thanks to my last job, my father gave me an implicit response. It seems almost certain that I will be the next CEO of the Daewon Daily News.”

I said, gathering my mouth a little, “Oh, I see! Congratulations!”

He said, half folded up, almost as if he were bowing. “It’s all thanks to CEO Han. Thank you!”

“Not at all. It was all because you trusted me and followed me.”

Come to think of it, he too would have taken quite the burden to publish the article. If he had written the article, but Tak Woo-kyung had walked out of his bed alive, it would have been a disaster for him. The Daewon Daily News would have faced a massive attack from Suyeon Group, or a massive lawsuit, and CEO Lee Won-jae would have ended his career there.

I knew the future, so I pressed him to choose with the verse of the Bible, but it was a matter of whether he really lived or died. Having made such a bold bet, he deserved recognition from his father.

“If you are the next CEO of the Daewon Daily News, I would feel much better. I’ll be able to go with you when I do this or that.”

“Anytime, please call me. I’ll do what you want right away.”

When I heard that, I thought for a moment what I wanted. ‘What I want? What’s there?’

There was no such thing as that. I let it out without much thought, as if I wanted Red Moss Investment to be a little obedient.

“There’s nothing special… but Red Moss Investment’s guys in the negotiation are terrible, and I would like to see the problem solved.”

“Ah, Red Moss Investment? It is probably the second largest shareholder of Suyeon Electronics, right?”

“Yes. You know that well, don’t you?”

“Red Moss Investment is famous for hunting for a company in our country.”

“I see.”

“Red Moss Investment… But I don’t think we can help you, either. Eight years ago, they ate the Shinheung Bank and ran away. If we bring up the controversy, or even if we attack them morally, it won’t work.”

“Yes, they only look at money in the first place. They’re not ones who would blink at what the nation’s media say.”

“They only look at money… Then, do you have any method to lower the price further?”

“I’ve thought about that, too, but I’ve already used all my cards. So I decided to pay for it even if it was a little bit expensive.”

“… I see. Well, I’ll send an email to reporters and have them bring anything if anyone knows about Suyeon Group’s weakness. I owe you a favor, and I have to pay you back somehow.”

I looked at him. To be honest, I was not sure what more he could do for me. But nevertheless, I nodded. The more cards, the better.

“I’d appreciate it.”

“Yes, CEO Han.”