“Order whatever you want. There’s no one here who will say anything.”
The place Chairman Baek Ildo took me to was a restaurant located on the upper floor of a hotel.
Like the first-floor lobby, there were no other customers here either. Only a single server and a chef going back and forth to the kitchen.
They too were waiting at a distance having received Baek Ildo’s instructions, so it truly seemed like no one else was in this vast restaurant besides Baek Ildo and me.
“Why are you quiet? Are you surprised I’m kinder than you thought?”
“…Yes. Honestly, I am.”
Baek Ildo took a sip of water from his glass and smiled benevolently.
“What’s wrong with an aging old man treating an outsider’s child well?”
It sounded like kind words at first glance.
But there was a hidden meaning within.
Baek Ildo drove home the point, calling me an ‘outsider’s child.’
“I only act strict when necessary.”
He continued, resting his chin on his hand.
“When it’s not necessary, I simply don’t.”
“…Yes, I understand. ‘Chairman.'”
“Good. I like that you’re quick-witted.”
He smiled, seemingly satisfied with my formal tone.
I had absolutely no desire to enter the Baekil main family anyway.
Because I’m not the Baek Gunho from the novel.
“Why don’t you order a drink?”
“I’m fine. I can’t take up the chairman’s time.”
“Really? Then I’ll give you exactly 5 minutes.”
Suddenly, Baek Ildo’s atmosphere changed drastically.
My breath caught, and my vision momentarily wavered.
…It’s a dominant alpha’s pheromones.
Without even giving me a chance to react, Baek Ildo continued speaking.
“If you bring up something trivial, I’ll never meet with you again.”
Baek Ildo shed the shell of a kind grandfather and revealed his true nature.
“The only reason I gave you this opportunity today is all thanks to Lee Jiyoung. If it weren’t for your birth mother, I wouldn’t have created this meeting now.”
‘Lee Jiyoung…?’
I didn’t expect Baek Gunho’s birth mother’s name to come up here.
Baek Ildo looked down at me with the same cold gaze he showed at the banquet hall.
“With this, I’ve repaid the debt I owed to that fellow. So it would be best not to harbor vain hopes relying on lingering sentiment.”
“…”
“I’m looking forward to what you’ll say. Surely, it will be valuable enough not to waste the time of me, Baek Ildo, who has supported this nation’s industry and economy for decades?”
Piling on the pressure as much as possible.
He was a far more nasty human being than I’d thought.
“Chairman.”
“Speak.”
“The investment withdrawal that Baekil Group announced this time—could you please cancel it?”
“Hm?”
Baek Ildo’s eyes widened as he removed his hand from his chin.
“Surprising. I thought you’d lick my toes and beg for a spot at the bottom of the family or some inheritance.”
…That’s content that would have made the Baek Gunho from the novel flinch enough.
“So, what’s the reason?”
Instead of answering ‘To save Lee Haram from ruin,’ I brought out the content I’d prepared in advance.
“Among the list of businesses where investment recovery has been decided, the Spanish company VivaPlay is included.”
“I know.”
“Even if Baekil urgently needs to secure funds right now, giving up on this place isn’t a good choice.”
“Is it because of your friend next door?”
…He even knows about Haram. How far did this old man dig for information?
Lying won’t work with this opponent. Sweat seeped into my palms.
“That’s correct.”
“You’re surprisingly sentimental? Or are you stupid? To think you’d enter this crocodile’s den over someone else’s business.”
Baek Ildo continued in a voice mixed with sighs, his arms crossed.
“I feel sorry for Lee Alejandro. Because of that dull fourth son of mine, several perfectly fine companies are about to go bankrupt.”
What he mentioned was an incident that had recently blown up nationwide.
WS Telecom.
A large-scale hacking incident occurred due to poor management at the telecommunications company run by Baekil, and when an attempt to shift responsibility to external developer code defects was exposed, cleverly hidden illegal acts were revealed one after another.
A public apology was issued, and massive compensation policies were implemented. On top of that, penalties were being gleefully imposed from various places like the National Assembly, Financial Supervisory Service, and Fair Trade Commission.
This was one of the news stories I’d been constantly watching at school.
Since something similar had happened in my past life, I could roughly guess the sequence of events to come.
“It’s regrettable for me too to have to cut ties with places we’ve maintained good relationships with for years. But where am I supposed to come up with the huge sum of tens of millions of dollars right now?”
“I’m not asking for everything. Couldn’t you somehow exclude just VivaPlay?”
“The ones on the list were rationally selected in order of low operating profit and uncertain prospects. Why should I give that guy special treatment?”
As expected, he’s no pushover.
Hiding my extremely tense feelings, I took out a palm-sized latest tablet pad from inside my suit jacket.
Compared to the ones from my past life, it was still thick and had inferior performance, but it was decent enough.
Thanks to investing all the allowance I received from my adoptive parents in devices like these, I was able to confirm the important fact that technology was developing at the pace I knew in this life too.
I brought up the materials I’d prepared on the pad screen and handed it to Baek Ildo.
“…So, from now on, within the 5 minutes the chairman mentioned.”
The materials I’d painstakingly created,
Inside them were…
The end of the DVD and DMB era of the 2000s.
The development of WiFi and 5G internet.
NeTube’s global success.
The emergence of the personal internet broadcasting industry.
And even OTT services like Netflux.
They contained the essence of streaming services that would dominate the era in a few years.
“I will explain the future value of the cloud-streaming platform that VivaPlay is developing.”
Finally, it’s time to show the prowess of a regressor possessor.
* * *
“Should I pack in advance?”
Lee Haram let out a deep sigh while looking around his room.
One wall was filled with medals and trophies he’d won.
His father’s anxious voice could be heard from the living room.
He was on the phone with his other father in Spain.
It seemed he’d bought a ticket to Korea, saying he’d have one last showdown with the Baekil Group chairman.
‘It probably… won’t go well.’
The face of his father he’d seen in Spain was that serious.
The family already seemed to be half-resigned to the situation.
‘I’ll have to… part with Gunho hyung too…’
Lee Haram covered his eyes with his forearm and bit his lip.
He’d even had thoughts about whether he should try begging Gunho hyung for help.
But what kind of shamelessness would that be?
When he’d always only been receiving from Gunho hyung…
“Even if it’s Gunho hyung, it’s not like he can do anything about what adults have decided…”
“Haram—!”
“Kyaa, you scared me!”
Suddenly the door burst open and his father came in.
“…Lo logramos.”
And continued in a tearful voice.
“They say your father’s company survived.”
About 2 hours before Lee Haram embraced his father and wailed,
There was Baek Gunho’s struggle there.
* * *
After finishing my presentation, I bowed deeply.
“I apologize. I went 7 minutes over the scheduled time.”
What I’d prepared wasn’t anything grand.
Since I knew what would be popular and successful in the future, I just appropriately packaged it as ‘core strategy to lead the future global media industry blah blah’ and listed it out.
Although I’m a half-baked possessor who barely knows the novel’s content, I’m also a regressor who experienced all sorts of hardships in my past life.
When was it? During my contract part-timer days at some corporation, I took on all sorts of tasks and stayed up day and night for a week. I only got sick from that black company and left, but thanks to that, I could get a sense of how company work operates.
For example, in front of a company CEO, you should convey only the main point accurately without superfluous words.
‘But… why is he silent?’
I sneaked a sidelong glance at Baek Ildo, who had been silent for a while.
Did I do something wrong?
Was going over time after all fatal?
While secretly wiping the cold sweat on my hands on my pants, Baek Ildo finally opened his mouth.
“…These things. Are they Yeonhui’s ideas?”
He took his gaze off the pad and asked me.
“Did that oddball who took on being your mother make this?”
“My adoptive mother doesn’t know about the conversation I had with the chairman today.”
“Then you’re saying you did all this yourself?”
Baek Ildo tapped the pad with his fingers and said:
“Then what did you tell Yeonhui to request a meeting with me?”
“That’s…”
Should I answer this or not?
I slightly averted my gaze and answered.
“She thinks I went to see the chairman in person.”
“In person?”
“For career research…”
“Career research.”
“Yes. It’s embarrassing, but I’m aiming for business administration for now.”
I felt an incredulous gaze but continued speaking resolutely.
“If it’s Chairman Baek Ildo, who built one of the nation’s leading companies, then he’s the best role model for me, so I said I really wanted to meet you.”
“…”
“That’s what I told her.”
“…”
“Yes…”
“…”
Baek Ildo closed his mouth and then muttered to himself.
“Just because of that… a daughter who hadn’t contacted me for over 10 years reached out?”
Just as I was gauging his mood, wondering if I’d offended him—
“Haha, uhahahahaha! Similar. Very similar!”
Suddenly he burst into hearty laughter.
“I never thought a day would come when I’d laugh like this at my age! Hahaha!”
“Ch-Chairman?”
“Both Yeonhui and I have aged. We’ve really mellowed a lot! Time is cruel! Hahaha!”
Fortunately, Baek Ildo seemed pleased.
Though I didn’t really understand why.
“I’m in a good mood. Ask me anything you’re curious about. I’ll answer everything I know. For instance.”
Baek Ildo gazed at me with his navy blue eyes shining.
“Lee Jiyoung. Like a story about your mother.”
That was nervewracking