“Order anything you like. No one’s going to say a word.”
The place Chairman Baek took me to was a restaurant on the hotel’s upper floors.
Like the first-floor lobby, it had no guests at all. Only a single server and a chef moving between the kitchen and the pass.
They, too, were standing back at Chairman Baek’s instruction, so it truly felt like there was no one in this wide dining room but Chairman Baek and me.
“Why so quiet. Surprised I’m kinder than you expected?”
“…Yes. Honestly, I am.”
Chairman Baek took a sip of water and smiled benignly.
“What’s wrong with an old man nearing the end of his days treating an outside child well?”
On the surface, it sounded gentle.
But there was something tucked inside it.
He’d nailed me as an “outside child.”
“I’m strict only when necessity demands it.”
He propped his chin and continued.
“When there’s no need, I don’t behave that way.”
“…Understood, Chairman.”
“Good. I like how quick on the uptake you are.”
He seemed pleased with my formal tone.
In any case, I had not the faintest desire to enter the Baek main house.
I’m not the Geonho Baek from the novel.
“At least order a drink.”
“I’m fine. I shouldn’t take up your time.”
“Really? Then you get exactly five minutes.”
All at once, his atmosphere flipped.
My chest tightened; my vision wavered for a beat.
…Prime Alpha Pheromones.
Before I could react, he went on.
“If you bring up anything trivial, I won’t meet you again. Ever.”
The kindly-grandpa shell fell away; his true face showed.
“The only reason you have this chance today is because of Jiyoung Lee. If not for your birth mother, I wouldn’t have arranged this meeting.”
Jiyoung Lee…?
I hadn’t expected the name of Geonho Baek’s birth mother to pop up again here.
Just like in the hall, he looked down on me with an icy gaze.
“That settles the debt I owed that person. Don’t nurse foolish hopes that lean on sentiment.”
“…”
“I’m curious what you’ll say. It had better be valuable enough to justify the time of me, Chairman Baek of Baekil, who has supported this nation’s industry and economy for decades.”
He was piling on the pressure.
He was a far nastier piece of work than I’d pictured.
“Chairman.”
“Speak.”
“Could you cancel Baekil Group’s recently announced investment withdrawal?”
“Hm?”
His eyes widened; his hand left his chin.
“Unexpected. I thought you’d lick my toes and beg for some minor seat at the table or a slice of the inheritance.”
…If it were the novel’s Geonho, that would have made him flinch.
“So, why?”
To save Haram Lee from falling into the abyss… Instead of that answer, I took out what I’d prepared.
“The list of projects slated for capital recovery includes the Spanish company VivaPlay.”
“I know.”
“Even if Baekil urgently needs liquidity, abandoning that one is a poor choice.”
“Is this about the neighbor kid?”
…He even knew about Haram. How far has this old man dug.
Lies wouldn’t work on him. Sweat dampened my palm.
“Yes.”
“Surprisingly sentimental, aren’t you? Or just stupid. To think of walking into this den of crocodiles over someone else’s problem.”
Arms crossed, he spoke with a sigh in his voice.
“Lee Alejandro. I do feel sorry for the man. Thanks to that dim fourth son of mine, more than a few solid companies are about to go under.”
He was referring to the incident that had blown up nationwide.
WS Telecom.
At Baekil’s carrier, mismanagement led to a massive hacking damage incident, and when their attempt to pass the blame to an outside developer’s code defect was uncovered, a string of cleverly concealed violations came spilling out.
There was a televised apology to the public and an enormous compensation policy. On top of that, fines were exploding left and right from the National Assembly, the Financial Supervisory Service, the Fair Trade Commission—you name it.
It was one of the stories I’d been following in the news at school all day.
A similar thing had happened in my previous life, so I could roughly guess the steps to come.
“I’m not happy about having to cut ties with partners we’ve kept good relations with for years. But where do you expect me to conjure up tens of millions of dollars on the spot?”
“I don’t mean all of them. Could you at least spare VivaPlay?”
“The names on that list were chosen rationally: low operating profits, uncertain outlooks. Why should that one get special treatment?”
Tough, as expected.
Hiding the tension bunching inside me, I took a palm-sized, latest-model tablet from inside my suit jacket.
Compared to what I’d had in the last life, it was still thick and underpowered—but workable.
By blowing all the allowance from my adoptive parents on devices like this, I’d confirmed the crucial fact that technology was progressing at the pace I remembered in this life, too.
I brought up the files I’d prepared and handed the tablet to him.
“…So, within the five minutes you granted.”
The materials I’d poured my heart into—
inside them were…
The twilight of the 2000s DVD and DMB era.
The advance of Wi-Fi and 5G internet.
The global craze of YouTube.
The rise of personal livestreaming.
And OTT services like Netflicks.
The essence of streaming services that would rule the era in a few years.
“I’ll explain the future value of VivaPlay’s cloud-streaming platform in development.”
Time to show what a regressor-possessor can do.
“Do I… start packing now?”
Haram Lee looked around his room and let out a long sigh.
One wall was covered with the medals and trophies he’d earned.
From the living room, his father’s anxious voice drifted in.
He was on the phone with Haram’s other father in Spain.
Apparently he’d bought a ticket to Korea, saying he’d settle things once and for all with the chairman of Baekil Group.
This won’t… go well, will it.
His father’s face in Spain had been that grave.
The whole family’s mood was half resigned already.
I’ll end up… parting from Geonho hyung too…
Haram pressed his forearm over his eyes and bit his lip.
He’d even toyed with the idea of begging Geonho hyung to help.
But with what face could he do that.
All he’d ever done was receive from him…
“No matter how much it’s Geonho hyung, it’s not like he can change decisions adults have already made…”
“Haram—!”
“Ack, you scared me!”
The door burst open and his father rushed in.
“…Lo logramos.”
With a quaver, he went on.
“Your father’s company—saved.”
About two hours before Haram clung to his father and burst into tears—
there had been Geonho Baek’s struggle.
I finished the presentation and bowed deep.
“I’m sorry. I went seven minutes over.”
What I’d prepared wasn’t anything grand.
I knew what would be popular and profitable in the future, and I’d dressed it up as “a core strategy to lead the global media industry going forward” and laid it out.
I might be a half-baked possessor who hardly knows the novel’s plot, but I’m also a regressor who went through every kind of grind in my previous life.
When was it—during a stint as a temp at some stock company, I’d been saddled with every job under the sun and pulled an all-nighter for a week straight. I left that black company with nothing but illness, but I did get a feel for how companies operate.
Like how, in front of a company head, you cut the frills and present the point cleanly.
But… why isn’t he saying anything?
I snuck a sidelong look at Chairman Baek, silent for a long while.
Did I mess up?
Was going over time fatal?
As I discreetly wiped the clammy sweat from my palm onto my pants, he finally spoke.
“…This material. Yeonhee’s idea?”
He lifted his gaze from the tablet and asked me.
“Did that eccentric who claims to be your mother make this?”
“My adoptive mother doesn’t know what I discussed with you today.”
“So you did all of this yourself.”
He tapped the tablet with his fingers.
“Then what did you tell Yeonhee to get out and ask me for a meeting?”
“That…”
Should I answer that or not.
I glanced away and replied.
“She thinks I came to see you in person.”
“In person?”
“For career exploration…”
“Career exploration.”
“Yes. Embarrassing as it is, I’m aiming for business administration.”
I could feel his look of disbelief, but I kept going.
“If it’s Chairman Baek of Baekil Group, who built one of the country’s leading companies, then you’re the best role model I could have. I told her I really wanted to meet you.”
“…”
“That’s what I said.”
“…”
“Yes…”
He kept his mouth closed, then muttered to himself.
“Just for that… a daughter who hasn’t spoken to me in over ten years contacted me?”
I was wondering if I’d stepped on his toes when—
“Ha ha, wahahahaha! You’re alike. Exactly alike!”
He suddenly burst into a hearty laugh.
“At my age, I never thought I’d laugh like this again! Hahahaha!”
“Ch-chairman?”
“Yeonhee and I—we really have gotten old. We’ve both softened up so much! Curse the years! Hahaha!”
Thankfully, he looked delighted.
I had no idea why, but still.
“I’m in a good mood. Ask anything you’re curious about. I’ll answer everything I can. For example.”
His navy eyes glinted as he fixed them on me.
“Jiyoung Lee. Your mother, for instance.”