A Gate Opened On My First Day As A Politician - Chapter 42

Chun Geum-soon led me to a hotel basement wine bar.

“What… what would you like to drink, honey…?”

“This.”

‘Crunch. Crunch.’

Two well-dressed individuals sat in a luxury room, politely facing each other, munching on karaoke-style puffed snacks.

“Did you… read the contract carefully…?”

“Ah, yes. I did take a look at it.”

If I approved their magic stone business, I had to marry and have children.

My stake in the business? 0.38%.

If we divorced, they would give me half of their assets.

In return—

I had to shield them from the Fair Trade Commission and the prosecution, while they used their media and regional influence to protect me.

I awkwardly smiled and handed the contract back.

“Um… Executive Director Chun, wouldn’t it be better to consult the Ministry of the Interior or the Defense Acquisition Program Administration about this instead of me? At the very least, someone higher up than—”

“There doesn’t seem to be anyone higher than you.”

“So… should I take this as a direct order from your chairman?”

‘Translation: Did your grandfather teach you to do this?’

“First of all, I appreciate the proposal—”

You bastard.

“However, it seems too cautious to be called a true ‘mutual partnership’.”

If you’re going to negotiate, lay your cards on the table.

“As a public official, I do not wish to be bound by personal relationships, and I question whether this is truly in the national interest.”

Are you telling me to be your sugar baby in exchange for money? Do I look like I’d agree to that?

“Of course, I’m sure Chunmok Group has already considered my circumstances in advance.”

I doubt you seriously expected me to accept this deal.

“In the same sense, I also assume that this isn’t just a simple business proposal, but something far more calculated.”

So, what else are you planning?

“However, I regret to inform you that our interests do not align.”

Do I look like an idiot who’ll fall for this?

“I am not well-versed in corporate affairs.”

And I don’t care to be.

“Nor do I have the time for it.”

I’m not your babysitter.

“If I may be frank, Chunmok Group doesn’t seem to have full confidence in me either.”

So let’s cut the crap.

“Given that this involves the public interest, I trust you’ll understand why I must be cautious.”

Get lost.

“Especially in times like these, I have to be extra careful.”

I don’t have a death wish.

Chun Geum-soon silently stared at me for a moment, her expression unreadable.

Her eyes looked sorrowful.
Her lips were smiling.
Her atmosphere was cold.

But there was no way I’d get swept up in her pace.

I waited patiently for her response.

“Haa…”

A sigh—

No.

A laugh.

“Fufu…!”

“Are you saying… I need to come to you three times, just like in ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’?”

“What?”

“Playing hard to get… I like that.”

“W-What?”

“Honey.”

She grinned eerily.

“Shall we… talk somewhere even more private?”

And just like that—

I was dragged to her house.

“Welcome, Assemblyman Han! I’m Chun Seung-yoon, the President of Chunmok Heavy Industries!”

“Ah, yes. Nice to meet you.”

“I’ve only ever seen you on TV, but you look even more handsome in person! I hope my younger sister wasn’t too much trouble on the way here.”

“Oppa…!”

“Hahaha…”

While Chun Geum-soon bickered with her eldest brother, her second brother approached and extended a hand.

“I’m Chun Seung-moon, Executive Director of Chunmok Heavy Industries. A pleasure to meet you, Assemblyman Han Seung-Moon.”

“A pleasure to meet you too, Executive Director Chun.”

“It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Oh, ‘honor’ is a bit much…”

“I watched the Apgujeong Incident unfold. It was very impressive.”

His voice was too serious for someone who was simply excited about sharing a name with me.

After greeting Chun Geum-soon’s parents and her brothers’ wives, I finally sat down for dinner.

The Chairman was absent.

I turned to her father, the Vice Chairman, and asked,

“Um… Is the Chairman…?”

“He’s currently recovering due to health issues. Nothing serious, but… Ah, well, we’ve prepared a simple meal for you. Please, enjoy.”

The atmosphere was incredibly friendly.

At times, hints of arrogance slipped out, but they quickly restrained themselves when noticed.

Less dignified than a drama, more polite than I had expected.

They were experts at wearing masks.

But at the end of the day, they were selling their daughter like a commodity.

—

5 hours and 41 minutes.

That’s how long it took for me to escape their house.

I was so desperate to leave that I kept track of the time.

I had dinner, tea, fruit, coffee, and even some fancy aged wine with a name too complicated to remember.

It must’ve been absurdly expensive.

The first time in my life I had such a luxurious meal, but I was so uncomfortable, my stomach felt heavy.

I just wanted to eat ramen.

Even that’s getting ridiculously expensive these days…

It felt like I got trapped in a high-class pyramid scheme.

After getting tossed around for five hours, I was completely drained.

Political metaphors in casual talk, hidden messages in pleasantries, indirect persuasion through proverbs and context.

The most difficult and exhausting conversation of my life.

Scary people.

—

I staggered out of the house, my mind foggy from alcohol.

Leaning against the wall, I exhaled a cold, white breath.

“Hyung!”

“I… Il-ho…!”

Yang Il-ho rushed forward to catch me before I collapsed.

“You can’t die here!”

“…You might as well curse me to death.”

– Honk!

“Hyek!”

A passing Benz blared its horn.

The window rolled down, revealing Chun Geum-soon with her droopy eyes and a bright smile.

“Sweetie.”

“…Yes?”

“Do you… want some hangover soup?”

“…It’s 2 AM.”

“I know a great place.”

“What the—”

“I won’t cling to you tonight. Just eat with me…”

“Hmm…”

“Ox head soup.”

“!”

On a cold winter night, a steaming hot broth warmed my body.

I was happy to be alive.

I mixed a bowl of rice into the rich, milky soup, blew on it gently, and took a big bite.

The scalding heat nearly burned my mouth, but as I swallowed, I felt fire flow down my throat.

“Ah… this is it…”

‘Slurp. Slurp. Sniff. Slurp.’

The white, savory broth slowly sobered me up.

Savoring the deep, beefy aroma, I asked,

“Executive Director Chun.”

“Yes…?”

“Didn’t you say we’d go somewhere… private?”

Who the hell says they’re taking you somewhere private and then brings you to their own house?

Still a bit dazed, I turned to Chun Geum-soon and asked.

She answered with complete nonchalance.

“Usually… places without people are called private, right?”

“That’s true.”

“My house had nobody in it. So… technically, it was private.”

Well, that sobers you up real fast.

A perfect hangover cure.

I could only stare at her, wide-eyed. Yang Il-ho was so startled he dropped his spoon.

With a casual wave of her hand, Chun Geum-soon signaled the restaurant owner, who promptly brought over a bottle of bokbunja wine.

“Could you… lower the shutter?”

“Yes, Executive Director.”

With a loud clang, the restaurant’s shutters came down. The owner disappeared, and we were completely alone.

A sealed room.

She smiled faintly and spoke in a quiet tone.

“U-Um… you can listen if you want…”

Then, she glanced at Yang Il-ho.

It was the kind of look that asked, ‘‘Does this guy really need to hear this?’’

Before I could answer, Yang Il-ho, reading the room, started to get up from his seat.

Tsk.

I immediately grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

I had made him do everything imaginable at the foundation for half a year.

And, more importantly, he had a gun in his jacket. I wasn’t about to send him away.

So I delivered a perfectly dramatic line.

“If you don’t trust, you don’t use. And if you use, you trust.”

“You like ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’, huh…?”

Actually, it was a line from a drama.

Chun Geum-soon let out a soft chuckle and took a sip of soju.

“I saw that show too…”

“…I don’t particularly like it. But being around Assemblyman Yang Pan-seok, I’ve picked up a lot.”

“Haha, well, Assemblyman Yang does love ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’…”

I gave her a curious look.

How did she know that?

“U-Um… he was a friend of my grandfather.”

“Oh, with the Chairman…?”

“Yes… I met him a lot when I was younger…”

I asked her directly.

“So, was it Assemblyman Yang who wanted the two of us to be together?”

“No.”

She answered immediately.

“I want this.”

With a ‘thunk’, she grabbed her soju glass, downed it in one shot, and smiled as she poured me another drink.

“L-Let me read your mind, Seung-Moon…”

It was probably just a metaphor, but for a moment, I flinched.

“These nouveau riche bastards try to buy you with money… But they don’t even show their cards…”

She giggled.

“And now that magic stones got involved… If someone leaks that we’re messing with national strategic resources, the media will eat it up. Everyone loves playing the moral police…”

I accepted the drink she poured and listened with half-lidded eyes.

“With martial law becoming weaker, the press is preparing to fight back. And in politics, someone always needs a scapegoat…”

I wordlessly filled her glass.

“Then, if we slowly cut into them with the Industrial Bank, the Fair Trade Commission, and the National Tax Service, piece by piece… Dismantling an entire conglomerate wouldn’t even be hard.”

Of course, Chun Geum-soon wasn’t an idiot.

She always assumed she was being recorded.

Hell, she was probably recording our conversation right now.

And yet, she was still saying all this.

I smirked.

“Our Executive Director Chun isn’t as timid as she seems, is she?”

She was ready to gamble her life. With me.

“S-Seung-Moon… You’re just as frightening as I imagined… Hehe. I really know how to read people…”

We finished half a bottle of bokbunja.

Her face was flushed, and her voice grew drowsy.

“There’s a saying…”

“A wise minister in times of peace… A cunning hero in times of chaos…”

It was how people described Cao Cao in ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’.

A brilliant official in stable times. A scheming tyrant in turbulent times.

She poured me another drink.

“Do you think… the times shape people?”

“No.”

“In times of peace, a cunning hero just has no room to act. They don’t suddenly become satisfied with being a wise minister.”

“……”

“A-Ah! That was a bit cringy… Ahh…”

She rubbed her face, trying to snap herself out of it.

Then, smacking her own cheeks, she took a deep breath.

“‘Huff!’ Okay, back to business!”

She clasped her hands together, rested her chin on top, and grinned.

“Chunmok Group’s cross-shareholding is like a spider web… At the core, we have Chunmok Heavy Industries. The shipbuilding company.”

‘Cross-shareholding.’

Company A owns shares in Company B.
Company B owns shares in Company C.
Company C owns shares in Company A.

The chaebol family only directly controls Company A. That way, they indirectly control everything else.

“So basically,” I muttered, “it’s a shitshow.”

“They got burned during the IMF crisis and still didn’t learn their lesson. They should’ve switched to a holding company system.”

“Ugh… We spent too much to make that happen. Anyway… Chunmok Heavy Industries holds 4% of the shares, but that controls the entire group…”

This kind of setup only worked because politicians and bureaucrats acted as human shields.

They blocked foreign capital, fended off shareholder attacks, and protected the group from government interventions.

But now, “Their defenses have been breached.”

The country collapsed.

And with that, the invisible shield of power disappeared.

They couldn’t protect their shares anymore.

They controlled dozens of companies through one, but now that one was under threat.

“And, some of our subsidiaries have already fallen. So we don’t have the cash to defend our shares…”

Chunmok Group was on the brink of collapse.

“Chunmok needs emergency funds to protect our shares. And we need a new shield.”

She looked straight at me.

“So, what Chunmok really wanted to ask you, Seung-Moon, wasn’t about starting a business together…”

I finished her sentence.

“You’re screwed, so you want me to be your meat shield?”

“Bingo~!”

The most interesting thing wasn’t Cheonmok’s internal problems.

It was the grin on her face.

“Sweetie~…”

She tilted her head, smiling with her fingers intertwined beneath her chin.

“I have a really, really spicy plan…”

She smirked.

“Won’t you help me just this once…?”