What is this kid talking about!!!

Manager Hwang Yeon-tae’s head was spinning from Jang Tae-san’s bombshell.

He was grateful for all the help when Seo-ryeon went missing.

This business was so filthy that things like that happened all the time.

There were plenty of kids desperate to make it, and the money men went after exactly those kids.

Apart from the ones who truly made it big, a lot of them ended up going the sponsor route.

He’d guarded against it with everything he had, but the CEO had found a gap and spirited Seo-ryeon away.

He’d seen red, but there was nothing he could do.

A girl group he’d trained years ago had fallen into that same pit.

Clutching at straws, he’d called Jang Tae-san.

And it had been a total success.

Seo-ryeon came back to the dorm safe and sound the next day.

He didn’t ask her much, but her face was full of life, so he knew she was all right.

That same day, though, the CEO and his brother, the director, were both arrested for embezzlement and breach of trust.

With the CEO locked up, every booked schedule fell through, and everyone was in a total meltdown.

The handful of employees couldn’t keep their minds on their work; the whole office was on edge.

The CEO and the director had been taken into custody the moment they were arrested.

He’d gone to see them, but they’d turned him away at the door.

A company with no CEO and no one in charge was a ship adrift.

Some invisible hand was clearly at work.

He’d assumed the CEO and his brother had done so much dirt in the past that someone had finally filed charges.

But now this kid in front of him was calmly saying he’d done it.

Who the hell is this kid?

Manager Hwang looked at the smiling young man across from him and turned it over in his head.

He’d thought there was something unusual about him from the first time they met.

A twenty-year-old kid who’d brought in a girl group for private events like his mother’s class reunion and a school orientation.

Even after getting his business card, he’d only half believed it.

A snot-nosed kid, the CEO of a company with a Gangnam address.

When the sudden summons came, he hadn’t known why.

He’d just been told he absolutely had to come by the office.

He had nothing to do and was going stir-crazy, so he came by for a cup of coffee.

He’d expected a tiny office in some studio building.

But the atmosphere was different from the entrance on.

A gorgeous employee who could put a celebrity to shame greeted him warmly.

The office wasn’t slapped together with a sofa or two and a desk, either.

One look told you the luxury interior had cost real money.

A little intimidated, he walked into the kid’s office.

That was when the shock hit.

The wide desk was lined with several big computer monitors.

The books on the shelves didn’t feel like decoration.

And the young man who greeted him, smiling and at ease, was no twenty-year-old kid.

He had the presence of the big-company presidents he’d met over his years in the working world.

He didn’t dare speak to him casually.

And the kid gave no sign that he could.

It was a bearing only a company’s owner could carry.

And now that same kid was saying he was the one who’d filed charges against the CEO and the director.

“I’m the major shareholder of KNB Entertainment.”

Jang Tae-san slid a document envelope across the desk.

Hwang Yeon-tae steadied himself and pulled out the papers.

They were a securities purchase agreement: fifty-one percent of the shares, taken over for three billion won.

It was a flawless document, notarized by a law firm and fully registered.

“As the major shareholder and an investor, I was looking over the company’s finances and found some suspicious circumstances, so I filed charges.”

He explained it all politely.

“The shares held by CEO Yang and Director Yang, who are now in custody, are being recovered as compensation for the embezzlement and breach of trust.”

“Then the company…”

“Becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of my investment company.”

“Ah!”

Seeing it in black and white, Manager Hwang groaned.

The kid he knew had turned into the head of his company.

“Investing isn’t a game. I have a connection to Seo-ryeon, but I can’t stand investments that don’t turn a profit. That’s for philanthropists.”

He sounded every inch the cold-blooded investor.

Hwang Yeon-tae straightened up in his seat.

He’d had real talent, but he’d become a forgotten singer.

He’d raised his protégés well, but he’d been fired from one place after another for clashing with the bosses.

He’d married the woman he’d loved for years, and now there was a kid, too.

He had to bring home a paycheck, even a pitiful one, to support his family.

Nothing else had ever caught his eye.

He loved music, and watching the kids grow was his joy.

“I looked into it, and the company’s in bad shape. It’s barely breaking even—and that’s only thanks to FOB. There’s no guarantee of profit after this. Wouldn’t you say so, Manager Hwang?”

“That’s right. But with the right investment, we could aim for more than profit—we could aim for the kids to succeed in life. The Korean entertainment business is so obsessed with profit that agencies don’t take any responsibility for their kids. Those kids have poured every precious year of their youth into trying to make it. If anyone saw the sweat and passion they put in, they’d never dare pass judgment on them! If you’ve grown together, I believe you should walk alongside them as partners until they’re ready to go out on their own. I believe the money and the heart both have to be shared! It has to be that way!”

Hwang Yeon-tae spat out all the bitterness he’d been holding in.

The money, money, money he’d lived through firsthand in this business!

He wanted to change that whole system.

It broke his heart to see kids who’d trained so hard disappear before they could ever bloom.

They were no different from what he’d been.

But the logic of capital was always cold.

His eyes reddened.

“Do you remember what you said to me not long ago, Manager Hwang?”

“Huh? What did I say?”

“That promise—that you only take as much as you need to eat.”

“At the ski resort?”

It came back to him, dimly.

“The Korean Wave is going to boom even bigger from here on. Small agencies won’t be able to handle a Korean Wave that size. People will start calling idols the Korean Wave’s cultural ambassadors. Korean idols are going to be a real hit in China and all over Southeast Asia. K-pop is going to become a whole new genre that sweeps the world.”

“How do you… know that? Did the spirits really come down on you?”

The kid was reeling off the future, and Manager Hwang was flustered.

“Manager Hwang, didn’t you say your family were village shamans? You can’t see that much coming?”

“Well, my grandmother was only a shaman for a small village…”

“We need scale. We need to become a real corporation. We have to pick out talented kids who dream of becoming stars and train them systematically. At the same time, the company has to back their character education and help them learn how to live in society. We should even get them tutoring so they can go on to higher schools.”

“Exactly! Kids become stars young, never learn a thing, and get cleaned out—it happens all the time! They absolutely need an education in how the world works!”

His angry voice rang through the room.

“You lost all your money, didn’t you?”

“Wh-what?”

“I heard you were a hit singer once. You got bled dry out there, didn’t you?”

“…”

His face fell at the mention of that painful black chapter.

“When kids come in as trainees, they should be paid at least minimum wage, like a part-time job. And the profit split should be clean and exact—fifty-fifty or so, I’d think.”

“Exactly! There are still plenty of agencies that settle at eighty-twenty or seventy-thirty. And the world’s full of thieves who skim off this and that before they even pay out!”

Whenever the kids came up, Manager Hwang’s voice got louder.

“I’d like to give them comfortable dorms, of course, and warm, nutritious meals. And cars that are guaranteed safe.”

“You really know your stuff, sir. Squeezing them without investing anything—that’s what punks do. We need a real system in place. I think the stylists, and the hairdressers and choreographers too, should get some job security. Do you know how pitiful they have it? All that for a salary that’s barely peanuts…”

“I’m counting on you, CEO Hwang.”

“What? Wh-what did you say?”

“You’ve been chosen as the new CEO of the newly born M.T.S Entertainment. Don’t ever lose the heart you have right now. Not that you would, but if you betray me…”

A cold warning, hidden behind a smile.

Frozen stiff, Manager Hwang took the hand held out to him.

Me? The C-CEO???

Nice and clean. Seo-ryeon, from now on, walk nothing but flower paths.

The papers put a smile on my face.

Money had played a big part, but without the right heart behind it, none of this would’ve been possible.

Locked up, the sleazy Yang clan had coughed up everything.

To keep it quiet, they’d spit out the rest of their shares and the three billion won sitting in their bank account.

In exchange, the embezzlement and breach-of-trust figures would be suitably adjusted.

They didn’t know that even once they got out, their bodies wouldn’t cooperate.

Morning wood, a man’s pride and joy, would never happen again for the rest of their lives.

Not even with Viagra.

Energy and blood ran along the same routes.

With their energy channels dying, there was no way it would stand up.

The Yang brothers had a life ahead of them where lifting a spoon and breathing would be hard work.

I changed the company’s name to M.T.S.

I set up a separate company to make the investment.

It stood for Mountain Tae-san, but the official story was that it stood for Music, Talent, Star.

That it really stood for Tae-san oppa, sturdy as a mountain, was something only I knew.

I also brought in money from an American private equity fund through Robert, to get some foreign capital into the mix.

I set its stake at forty percent.

My investment company held fifty, and CEO Hwang ten.

The company would never go public, not in a million years.

Making a fuss just to squeeze out a little more money would only bring headaches.

Manager Hwang cried as he signed the contract.

He swore he’d never betray my trust and would build the best entertainment company in Korea.

Even if the company ran in the red, the CEO’s salary of a hundred million won a year was guaranteed.

In a few years, the Korea-US FTA fully takes effect.

That would be poison for anyone who looked down on Korean money and tried to trip us up.

If it came to it, I’d just sue them in America.

America runs strictly on the logic of capital.

If there’s even the slightest grounds for a lawsuit, you just throw top-notch lawyers at it.

I earned some karma points on the side, too.

Good deeds always came with points as a gift.

“Is there money in show business? Or do you have a thing for that Seo-ryeon, the neighborhood kid you told me about?”

Attorney Jo asked, watching me go over the papers.

I’d wrapped everything up neatly through Samu Law’s attorneys.

Attorney Jo looked happier by the day.

“I just look out for her because she’s like one of my twin sisters. And it’s about time somebody changed the water in Korea’s talent agencies. A world where people throw their weight around on the back of other people’s success has to end.”

“You think that’s easy? I was a prosecutor my whole career, and things didn’t go the way I wanted there either. So damn many strings… Try to lock up one rich man’s brat, and it’s nothing for Assembly members, your own seniors, even the Justice Ministry to come threatening you. You don’t know this, but half the cases get quietly buried. Guys who’d be eating prison rations for ten years or more if they were ordinary people walk out with suspended sentences. That’s reality.”

Attorney Jo, a former senior prosecutor, shook his head.

“It has to change slowly. Don’t underestimate the Korean people. Everyone’s got plenty of education now. One of these days they’ll rise up and change the world.”

“God, I hope so. It’s rotten. It’s way too rotten.”

“I’ll need a lot of help from you too, Attorney Jo.”

“If there’s something I can do, of course I will. You know, ever since I met you, CEO Jang, this has been more rewarding than being a prosecutor ever was. Thanks.”

Attorney Jo was a man of real character.

He didn’t hesitate to say thank you, even to someone as young as me.

“If you ever want a vacation, just say the word. I’ll get you a family trip.”

“Seriously? My wife’s been on my case. Our parents are gone, she says, so quit sitting around the house and let’s take a trip.”

“Anywhere there’s a Pelton Hotel works. Just tell Yu Se-ra and she’ll set it up.”

“A family trip, for real? I’m telling my wife tonight, okay?”

“It’s a bonus.”

“Hahahaha! That’s it, CEO Jang! You’re really going places.”

Compared to what Attorney Jo did for me, this was nothing.

If I hadn’t met this upright man, everything would have been a lot more complicated.

“I think we should buy up the rest of the law firm’s shares too.”

“All of it?”

“Yes. Buy it all.”

“Hmm… they won’t want to let go.”

“Tell them the first one to sell gets a hundred billion won. The second gets ninety billion.”

“…”

When I tossed out a hundred billion like it was nothing, Attorney Jo stared at me in disbelief.

“Is a hundred billion a joke to you?”

“Samu Law is worth it.”

“It’s still too much! Fifty billion would be plenty to buy them out.”

“I want to work in peace. Don’t worry about it—just go for it.”

“Wow… you’re something else.”

Dragging things out to shave off a few coins wasn’t my style.

“Please take care of it without a word getting out. And keep the former heads on as advisers, in name only.”

They were rotten through.

But starting my own law firm from scratch would take too long.

Law ran on connections, too.

Samu Law was a name even the general public knew, and that was worth the price.

“Those two are no joke at bringing in business. With the big companies, it’s all about connections.”

“As long as it doesn’t lose money, that’s fine. And there are bigger clients waiting. Don’t worry.”

“Bigger clients?”

Attorney Jo would be stunned if he knew the half of it.

I was planning to acquire a few groups soon.

Samu Law would be chosen as my partner for it.

“Keep the lawyers you can trust, and feel free to get rid of the ones who’d stab us in the back.”

“Hmm… full authority, then?”

“One condition—I’d like to see the staff list first.”

“If that’s what the investor wants, then that’s how it’ll be. So we move on it right away?”

Attorney Jo had me pretty well figured out by now, too.

“Yes. Please get started right away.”

“Looks like I’ll be riding a private jet soon… right?”

“Probably~.”

“I love you. More than my own wife.”

Attorney Jo broke into a huge grin.

He was starting to sound like Robert.

“Attorney Jo, keep your assets clean. You’ve got something big to do someday.”

“!!!”

He was a man who’d served in government.

The patriotism, the wish to serve his country, still burned hot in him.

I wanted to watch him grow.

“For the firm’s head, recommend someone with a good reputation.”

“Got it.”

He understood what I meant and nodded.

People didn’t like it when the head of a law firm went into politics.

Ring-ring, ring-ring.

My cell phone rang just then.

An international number came up.

I tapped the call button.

“Daniel! I’m about to leave with my family! I miss you!”

(End of Chapter 105)