Money Likes Me Too - Chapter 42



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Episode 42.

Lee Chung-jae was loitering around the office of the chairman of the board of directors. He looked out the full-length glass window at the Jeju sky.

My mind was clouded, but the sky was clear.

‘It’s all in the past.’

The owner of the help has changed. People are all the same. It was as I wanted.

But still, a corner of my heart felt empty. It was strange. It felt like years had passed even though not much time had passed.

dripping.

There was a knock on the door. It was the chief secretary.

“Mr. Chairman, may I come in?”

“Oh, this guy. You’re the chairman. You should call him chairman.”

“To me, the chairman will always be the chairman.”

“With people.”

Lee Chung-jae smiled sadly.

“Pangku CEO Lee Seok-hwan said he wanted to meet me when he came down to Jeju Island. What should I say? He said he’ll be arriving in a few hours.”

He nodded. There was no need to look at the schedule.

“Please tell him to come.”

“Understood, sir.”

Lee Chung-jae suddenly felt grateful to the chief secretary who insisted on using the title until the end.

A few hours later.

“Mr. Seok-Hwan, it’s been a while.”

Lee Seok-hwan entered the chairman’s office and bowed his head.

“How have you been, Chairman? I apologize for not visiting you more often.”

“I’m not the chairman anymore. Please call me chairman.”

Lee Chung-jae offered them a seat. Immediately afterwards, a fragrant bowl of rice cake was placed between them. During the brief silence, countless thoughts went back and forth between them.

“What brings you all the way to Jeju? Is there something going on at the company?”

“Why do I have to come here? I came running as soon as I heard the news. Mr. Chairman.”

Half of it was a lie.

Even these days, he is always looking for a missile delivery fulfillment center site, and every day feels like a year. He came down to Jeju Island to see the center land, and he came to meet Lee Chung-jae. Even though Lee Chung-jae has stepped down from the chairmanship, he is still a big investor to him. He needs to take care of him.

“Thank you. Please come and check if the old man in the back room is dead or alive.”

It was Lee Chung-jae’s indifferent response, as he could not have guessed the circumstances.

“Don’t say that.”

“I’m joking.”

“I feel a little better knowing that you’re joking, but that’s not what I meant.”

“Let’s just assume that’s true and move on. Is everything going well at work? Are there any particular problems?”

Lee Chung-jae changed the subject.

“What problem could there be? It’s a money problem.”

“Does it require a lot of investment?”

“I can’t say no. Even the small amount of revenue we make is all spent on building infrastructure. These days, my job is to look for houses in New York and Silicon Valley. They are all so picky.”

House refers to venture capital.

“I guess so. Hehe.”

Lee Chung-jae recalled. It’s been almost 20 years already. It’s the same now as it was then. For a black-haired Asian, foreign judges are difficult opponents. They don’t speak the language well, and they often start off by beating around the bush and then go in and don’t respond.

“Still, you’re doing well.”

Lee Chung-jae opened his mouth.

“Now that you’ve got off to a good start, it’s time to focus on scaling up. It’s a good strategy. All or nothing. If you don’t dominate the entire platform, you’re not going to get a single bean left.”

Lee Seok-hwan had nothing to say in response.

“I have already become a Nagari.”

“Mr. Chairman······.”

“No, I’m telling the truth. I’ve known this for a long time. What’s the point of looking back? I can only consider myself lucky that I have some money left.”

Lee Chung-jae looked at him.

“Can you guess what Kang Si-Hyeon means?”

As expected, here we go again.

“He could have bought all my shares. He had enough money to buy the company without having to do a public offering. But he didn’t touch my share. Can you guess why?”

‘Maybe he just didn’t want to buy it because it had a premium attached?’ Lee Seok-hwan thought to himself, but didn’t say anything.

“You were considerate of me.”

Lee Chung-jae, who did not know the inside story, continued speaking.

“Consideration?”

“It wasn’t that you were giving me a position, but that you were giving me time to make a decision. You were giving me 12% of my shares as retirement pay, so I asked you to step down from the business. You were giving me one last chance to treat you like a senior. That was what I meant.”

“······.”

“I could have taken everything away. Then I wouldn’t have stayed still. But now it’s different. I can’t do anything. Even public opinion won’t be on my side. I have no choice but to follow his generous will.”

Lee Seok-hwan looked at him without answering.

“I have money, so I can’t rest. I plan to set up a house (VC: venture capital) and spend my time incubating. I plan to step down from the chairman position gradually. It doesn’t look good to keep the position, but it doesn’t look good to step down right away either.”

“Then what about help? How does it work?”

“Isn’t President Hong here?”

The board of directors changed several times, but the CEO remained the same. Hong Jeong-tae was a young and capable man. He also knew a lot about help.

“He will do a good job of leading Kang Si-hyeon. I trust him.”

After finishing his last words, Lee Chung-jae closed his mouth. He picked up his teacup. The scent was very good for calming his mind. It was one of the reasons he came to Jeju Island.

I started feeling unfounded anxiety.

‘Could it be my turn next?’

The tea from Jeju Island suddenly began to taste bitter on Lee Seok-hwan’s tongue.

***

It’s December 30th.

“This is Han Jang-soo, sir.”

“Come in.”

A manager came into the CEO’s office.

“What about Chief Yoo?”

“I guess you’re busy. The New Year is just around the corner. I’ve just finished the benchmark test to prepare for the traffic surge. There haven’t been any major issues yet.”

“Please tell them to report any accidents immediately.”

“Even so, there’s not much we can do. The traffic problem is always the last mile. It’s out of our hands.”

Last mile refers to local network services. One manager changed the subject as if he had just remembered something.

“Ah, sir.”

“Go ahead.”

“I almost forgot. President Hong Jeong-tae has something urgent to report to you.”

“Are you at peace now?”

“Yes, that’s right. If it’s okay with you, I’ll tell the representative to come down.”

Although we were committed to ensuring autonomy in helping, there had to be some degree of integration. It was not easy for a company with such a long history to integrate directly into cocoa. It took time.

Jeju Island was too far.

So, the Synergy TF was moved to the Hwapyong Cocoa Tower. It was an organization established when Lee Chung-jae was the chairman. Hong Jeong-tae mainly stayed in Hwapyong and went back and forth to Jeju whenever necessary.

“Hello, CEO Kang Si-Hyeon.”

He just happened to come in. He was young and had a sharp impression. He was said to be an M&A expert who had worked for a long time at a consulting firm and a foreign IB.

“Welcome. This is my first time seeing you since that day.”

I said hello too.

“That’s right. It’s been only a few weeks, but it feels like years have passed, sir.”

“Shall we sit down for now?”

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“Yes, sir.”

He was polite. As with any relationship, appropriate courtesy is the lubricant of a relationship.

President Hong’s report continued.

“······ As you mentioned, services such as Help Map, Help Kids, Help Account Book, and Help Shopping Choice will be gradually merged into Cocoa Labs after physical division. The largest service, Help Map, is almost done with the process. All we have to do is change the name to Cocoa Map.”

“is it so.”

“And this······.”

He took out a document and handed it over.

“What is this?”

“Aside from the apps I mentioned, there are other businesses that need to be sorted out in the future. To put it simply, they are a burden.”

A pet?

“Please take a look and if there are no issues, we will immediately proceed with the service termination process. Since there are not many users, it won’t take long. We originally planned to end it within the year, but that didn’t work out. I apologize.”

There’s something else to be sorry about. I pressed you.

“It’s over?”

“Let me give you a brief explanation.”

His explanation was summarized as follows:

Help cloud services are server-eating monsters. They are ineffective. They cost a lot. Blog services are similar. They force customized management, so they eat up a lot of resources. This also costs a lot.

In the end, it all meant that it was expensive.

“······ It’s not competitive compared to other companies (Naver). It would be less repulsive to users to exit at the right time when turning around. Now is the opportunity.”

He finished speaking. Director Han Jang-soo nodded beside him.

“Just a moment.”

Are you in your right mind, about to terminate a service that costs money? I couldn’t understand it.

“Whatever the problem.”

Mr. Hong asked cautiously.

“Let me get to the point. There will be no service termination.”

“But the cost······.”

“That’s why. Because it costs a lot.”

Even if you are a subordinate, things will go smoothly if you make them understand. I added an explanation for him who didn’t understand.

“The higher the cost, the bigger the service, right? And the fact that you’re competing with other companies means that there’s a certain amount of demand. It’s just that the other companies’ share of the pie is bigger. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, I understand.”

President Hong nodded absentmindedly.

“Until now, the Korean portal market has been a two-way system between Naver and Dobo. It seems that Google is rising in the middle based on its advanced search algorithm. So what stance should we take?”

“well.”

“It is realistically difficult for us to beat Google’s algorithm. It is relatively easy to beat Naver’s customer-friendly service. In such a situation, are we going to terminate the service that is our strength? Such a strategy will only perpetuate the current situation where we are being pushed by Google from below and suppressed by Naver from above. I don’t know if it has helped, but I can’t do that.”

President Hong had no answer.

“Do you understand what I mean?”

“······yes.”

“Okay. Then there will be no service termination. Please proceed with the physical division as is. Please discuss the details with Director Han and handle it.”

The conversation is over.

‘Thank goodness it went well.’

As long as I keep my eyes open, there will be no service shutdown. It has been that way so far and it will continue to be that way in the future.

President Hong’s shoulders looked small as he turned around.

‘What is this?’

Hong Jeong-tae couldn’t understand.

I felt possessed. That was when a heavy hand touched my shoulder.

“······!”

When I looked back, it was Director Han. Their eyes met.

‘Are you really surprised?’

His eyes were saying this.

‘This is the place. I sincerely welcome you to the real world of cocoa.’

Those were very sad eyes.

***

December 31st. It was the day before the year of Gap-o (甲午年) in 2014.

“Ms. Jinju, what is that carrier?”

A manager stopped by and asked about the large carrier that was sitting on Won Jin-ju’s desk. It didn’t look new.

“Oh, I just bought it. I’m going to use it when I move my office.”

“Just now? How?”

“You don’t seem to know much about it, sir. There’s a great app called ‘Hwapyeong Market’. Have you tried it yet?”

Hwapyeong Market? It was the first time I heard that name.

“What is that?”

Her expression became triumphant. She continued explaining while showing her phone.

“Anyone can come in and trade used goods if they get a Hwapyung job certification. It’s a bit scary if it’s an unspecified number of people, but since they all have familiar faces, you can trust them. The goods are also good.”

“There are a lot of used goods trading sites.”

“The dealers have taken over. I don’t want to go to a second-hand market to buy new products. They’re not cheap either.”

“That’s right,” Director Han nodded.

“That’s a good idea. Who would do that?”

“well.”

Actually, she didn’t know either.

“I don’t know much about the person who works at Cocoa Tower. I just do it for fun anyway. It’s not like I’m making any money.”

While they were talking, one of the directors sensed a dark aura behind him and turned his head.

“What did you just say?”

Kang Si-hyeon was listening to their conversation.

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“Didn’t you say something like it wasn’t worth the money? I heard it clearly.”

Sweat was dripping down my back. I had to at least keep my attention from turning to my new business idea.

That was when.

Won Jin-ju, who knew nothing, put it on without noticing.

“Don’t you know this, sir? Why is everyone like this? This is an app called ‘Hwapyung Market’. ······.”

The explanation was short. Kang Si-hyeon’s eyes sparkled as he listened to it all.

“Director Han?”

“yes?”

“Shall we go into the representative office?”

The eyes of the director who was being dragged in kept looking at Won Jin-ju. Their eyes were filled with resentment.

‘What did I do wrong?’

Won Jin-ju shrugged her shoulders.

“That item just now was pretty good.”

“Is that so?”

“Create a project right away. Let’s have our PM sit down. You don’t know who the app developer is? Find out. Contact him right away. You can even take over. Oh, and change the name.”

“I will do so, sir.”

“Who would be a good PM? Sir, is there anyone you would recommend?”

It was a question I had been waiting and waiting for.

“Of course, sir.”

“Even if I die, I won’t die alone.” Han Jang-soo smiled faintly.

Won Jin-ju, who was inspecting the blemishes of a used carrier outside, was completely oblivious to the dark threat that was approaching.

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