Chapter 407: Troubled (2)

Hwang Jeong-Hu roared in pure rage at his eldest son. “Are you finished running your damn mouth, boy?!”

Despite knowing his father was enraged, Hwang Min-Jae didn't back down. Not even an inch. In fact, he glared right back at Hwang Jeong-Hu.

“Did you really ask me that, Father?” Hwang Min-Jae smirked right back at his father. “No, I still have many, many things to say to you! In fact, I might need more than a day to air all of my resentment and grievances! Don't tell me you expected us to rush to your side, full of gratitude, after you called us? Did you think we'd gladly massage your shoulders and ask how your days have been?! Have you forgotten that it was none other than you who discarded us, your own children, somewhere out of sight and continued humiliating us for a good few years!”

“You bastard!” Hwang Jeong-Hu shot up to his feet. “You dare raise your voice at me when you tried to usurp my company while I was confined to a sickbed?! You dare argue you haven't done anything wrong?!”

The second son, Hwang Min-Su, was fidgeting nervously from his father's anger. However, Hwang Min-Jae was unshaken. Not even a bit. He even shouted right back at his father. “In that situation, what were we supposed to do?”

“Say what!”

“The Chairman of our corporation has collapsed, and to make matters worse, he didn't even leave a will behind. In that case, are we supposed to wait forever for our father to return without any plan whatsoever? Doctors said there was no hope for you. Since that was the case, should we have left the chairman's position empty and performed ritual prayers for your speedy recovery instead?!”

“You.. You dare!” Hwang Jeong-Hu roared, only to feel dizzy from all the blood rushing to his head. “You.. You still dare to claim you did that for the company?! Your father was on the brink of death, but you haven't even paid a visit once! Yet, you still brazenly run your mouth and say this nonsense!”

Hwang Min-Jae chuckled derisively. “Back then, we were too busy trying to regain control of the crumbling company, Father. Let us get the facts straight. Father, what would you have said to us if we stayed by your bedside even as the company crumbled away to nothing? Would you have said, great job, son?!”

“...“

“No, you would've cursed us, saying we're incompetent idiots that repay your kindness of raising us with the destruction of the company. Doesn't that mean whatever we chose to do, we'd still be labeled as villains? In the middle of that storm, we really did our best. However, all we got in return was losing our savings and getting chased out of our own home!”

“It's only obvious that you'd be punished for your wrongdoings!”

“What have we done wrong, then?! Tell me!” Hwang Min-Jae roared back at his father. “Even after you suddenly went out of commission, we did our absolute best to revive our company! Because of how you had been so dismissive toward us all these years, the board of directors and other executives constantly looked down on us! In an environment like that, what else could we have done?! Your shares were essential in order to unite the company's chain of command, at the very least! That was the only way to make those damn board of directors shut up about how they were the only heroes capable of saving the company from ruination and listen to our commands! And that was why the government even stepped in to help us out when we didn't even lobby them first!”

“Are you trying to claim that you did all this out of goodwill?! That you had good intentions! Is that why you did all that mud-slinging and infighting?!”

“Hahahaha...!” Hwang Min-Jae laughed in dismay. “Father, didn't you teach us that competition among brothers is a given, so we shouldn't try to work together but treat each other as strangers and do our best to trample them?”

“...You!”

Hwang Min-Jae's expression crumpled even more. “You keep saying we're at fault, but why?! What did we do wrong, Father? We tried to save the company by following your teachings! And you rewarded us by kicking us out! You didn't even give us a chance to explain! What was that you said to us all those years ago? Sons of the boss getting a job and a large salary in the company he runs is nepotism, something to be ashamed about? That's why we silently endured, not daring to say anything about receiving even worse wages than regular employees despite being presidents of our divisions!”

Hwang Min-Jae panted heavily like a bull as he stood defiantly. “After you chased us out, what were we supposed to do?! I might have built a great life for myself, and for my family, by working in another company instead of wasting my time in Jaegyeong! But because of you, I had to work here and couldn't even save up enough money for my own family! And thanks to your interference, I couldn't even get a decent job in other places, too! Why didn't you just kill us back then instead of putting us through this hell, Father!”

“G-get out of here, right now! You, you unfilial, ungrateful bastard!”

“Yes, I'm leaving! I also don't want to see your face anymore, Father!”

“T-then, why did you even come here, you bastard!”

“Just once!” Hwang Min-Jae powerfully glared as he roared out. “Just once, I.. I wanted to say this to you, Father! To tell you what my thoughts have been all these years while trying to hold on! To tell you why I am in this state! I wanted to tell you this before I die!”

Hwang Min-Jae's expression was clearly dyed in hatred and resentment. So much so that it was hard to believe he was talking to his own father.

“My only crime in this life.. is having a father like you! Enjoy what little time you have left with this goddamn company of yours. We will never see each other again, after all!”

“Y-you, you bastard!”

“I'm leaving!” Hwang Min-Jae spun on his heels and stomped his way toward the exit.

Bang!

Hwang Min-Jae shoved the door open, hard, and frowned slightly after discovering Jo Gyu-Min and Kang Jin-Ho. “...Jo Gyu-Min.”

Jo Gyu-Min bowed his head slightly. “You still remember my name, sir.”

Hwang Min-Jae sighed and nodded. “Of course. Of course, I remember. And I... I apologize for what I did. I have done something terrible to you back then. Although, nothing much will change now even if I apologize..”

A wry smile formed on Hwang Min-Jae's lips.

“Still, you're riding the wave of success, so... Maybe forgiveness is asking for too much, but I hope you can still graciously let me go. And all I can ask of you is to draw satisfaction from laughing at a loser. Well, then..”

Hwang Min-Jae bowed slightly at Jo Gyu-Min, then walked past him, but his eyes still met Kang Jin-Ho's for a second. However, he cleanly ignored Kang Jin-Ho and kept walking ahead to enter the elevator.

Jo Gyu-Min could only sigh under his breath as he watched this scene unfold.

Hwang Jeong-Hu was still standing while stewing in his rage, while Hwang Min-Su seemed speechless and fidgety, clearly not knowing what to do next. Jo Gyu-Min realized that maybe now wasn't the best time to intrude.

Just before Jo Gyu-Min could finish organizing his thoughts, though..

“Father, I'll.. come back at another time,” said Hwang Min-Su while bowing to his father.

“Got it..” Hwang Jeong-Hu weakly nodded and sighed.

Hwang Min-Su also sighed and headed outside the office while making a bitter expression. However, after discovering Kang Jin-Ho in the corridor, he quickly changed his expression and deeply bowed his head. “Ah.. Thank you for helping us, Mister Jin-Ho.”

“...It's not a problem.”

“Well, then. Next time.” Hwang Min-Su headed to the elevator while smiling weakly at the duo.

Jo Gyu-Min watched him leave, then half-stepped inside the office and cautiously spoke, “...Sir, we'll make our report at another time.”

“Yeah, do that..”

“Thank you, sir. Well, then..” Jo Gyu-Min cautiously closed the office's door, then glanced at the other secretaries guarding the corridor. “Clean this place up, please. And bring a glass of cold water to the Chairman. No, wait. Rather than water, get him iced coffee instead. He will one-shot a glass of water in his current state, after all.”

“Understood, Chief Jo.”

Jo Gyu-Min pulled Kang Jin-Ho by the arm and headed to his office.

***

“...That was rather unpleasant,” Kang Jin-Ho sighed.

“Yes, I agree..” Jo Gyu-Min sipped his coffee while frowning bitterly. “...And you don't look so good either, Mister Jin-Ho.”

Kang Jin-Ho softly sighed when Jo Gyu-Min noticed his gloomy expression.

'Makes sense, though...'

Jo Gyu-Min mulled to himself while taking another sip of his warm coffee.

Kang Jin-Ho was basically the chief architect of this event, so he couldn't have felt great watching that burst-up between a father and a son. Most likely...

“Chief Jo, I.. believe I'm not a gullible man.”

...Mm? What is he talking about this time?

Jo Gyu-Min panicked slightly when Kang Jin-Ho said something totally unexpected. “Y-yes?”

“When I listened to him, I.. I couldn't help but think that he wasn't wrong.”

“...I'm sorry?”

.

“I meant what the elder son said back in the office.” The inaugural upload of this chapter took place via N0v3l.B(j)n.

Jo Gyu-Min slowly nodded.

“Now that I've heard his side of the argument.. He seems to have a point.. Does this mean I'm gullible, Chief Jo?”

Jo Gyu-Min wryly chuckled.

'With the passage of time, things change, doesn't it...?'

Jo Gyu-Min also used to hold a deep-seated grudge against Hwang Min-Jae, so he had no problem with how things turned out for Hwang Jeong-Hu's sons. Nowadays, though? He had been thinking that maybe... the punishment was a little too heavy-handed.

Hwang Jeong-Hu wielded absolute authority within the corporation, didn't even keep advisers nearby, and hadn't bothered to write up a will regarding his shares. In that case, what were his sons supposed to do when he suddenly collapsed?

Hwang Jeong-Hu scolded his sons so harshly that even the bystanders got frightened by his ferocity. If other presidents made mistakes, Hwang Jeong-Hu would yell,?'Mistakes can happen, so try to do better next time!'?and give them another chance. However, he'd start throwing nearby ashtrays instead if his sons were the ones making mistakes.

He constantly berated his sons for being idiots and often mentioned how reluctant he was about letting his pathetic sons take over the company in front of prominent figures. After years of such treatment, it was no wonder that other people didn't think Hwang Jeong-Hu's sons held much authority or prestige in the company.

However, what if Hwang Jeong-Hu had acknowledged his sons–to a degree–and started granting them some level of authority? Even if something untoward had happened to Hwang Jeong-Hu, the company would've quickly stabilized without too much turmoil. This whole mess was the result of Hwang Jeong-Hu collapsing even before he had the chance to enter that stage of his life.

'Right. Chairman Hwang has been holding onto power for too long...'

Hwang Jeong-Hu's charisma was unparalleled in South Korea's financial sector. Trying to fill a void left behind by such a titan would be no easy feat.

The board of directors was rightly proud of standing next to the titan of their generation, so they loyally waited for Hwang Jeong-Hu to regain consciousness. And in the process, they outright dismissed Hwang Min-Jae's opinion of uniting the leadership to stabilize the rocky corporation.

'That lasted about a year, didn't it?'

Unable to endure anymore, Hwang Min-Jae talked to the government and got them to declare Hwang Jeong-Hu was legally incompetent, then forcibly inherited his father's share of the company. Only then did the board of directors begin changing their allegiances.

In any other corporation, the sudden collapse of their chairperson from a terminal illness would've swiftly resulted in a change in the top management. However, the same thing took a year in Jaegyeong.

That was how deeply engraved Hwang Jeong-Hu's shadow was in this corporation. Despite this unfavorable situation, his sons tried their best to raise the corporation back to its feet.

People with no insider knowledge might think the sons had resorted to underhanded tricks to usurp the father's authority, but the truth was...

'Chairman Hwang has never worked together with his sons before.'

He had never taught his sons to cooperate. Hwang Jeong-Hu didn't know how to equally divide authority, so he wished for one of his sons to take over everything once he was gone. The idea of his sons ambiguously sharing power was unthinkable to Hwang Jeong-Hu.

Since they received education based on such a mindset throughout their whole lives, it was unreasonable to think Hwang Jeong-Hu's sons would suddenly start cooperating with each other to lead the corporation to prosperity.

“What a tough situation this is..” Jo Gyu-Min roughly scratched his head.

Back then, he was too focused on Hwang Jeong-Hu waking up and the corporation regaining its stability to think too deeply about this. Now that he had a chance to sit down and think about it, though..

“Mister Jin-Ho, it seems I'm also a rather gullible person.”

“You think so?”

“And... Well, I think I understand what you meant back then, Mister Jin-Ho.”

“Mm?”

Jo Gyu-Min bitterly muttered, “They must've been lonely. Chairman Hwang, his sons.. Despite being one family, they can't call themselves that anymore.”

“...”

The atmosphere in the office grew heavy.

Knock, knock..

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. Jo Gyu-Min turned his head to look just as the door creaked open a little. A junior secretary peeked his head inside. “Chief Jo, Chairman Hwang will see you now.”

“Got it. We'll be on our way.” Jo Gyu-Min jumped up to his feet. Kang Jin-Ho followed suit, albeit much more slowly.

“Chief Jo, sir.. Chairman Hwang is not in a great mood, so I implore you to be more cautious with your speech.”

“Understood,” Jo Gyu-Min nodded affirmatively.

“Thank you. Allow me to guide you.”

While following Jo Gyu-Min back to the chairman's office, Kang Jin-Ho quietly sighed under his breath.

'It's always stormy, isn't it?'

Of course, Kang Jin-Ho was referring to his surroundings.