KD Group President’s Office. Outside the window, Seoul’s splendid skyscrapers spread out, but nothing entered Do Jingyu’s eyes. Only a suffocating, murderous atmosphere pervaded this place.
Do Jingyu glared at the calendar on his desk with bloodshot eyes.
The dates crossed out with red pen mocked him with sneers.
The repayment deadline notified by ONE Fund was tightening around his neck moment by moment.
“President.”
The Executive Secretary carefully opened the door and entered. In his hands was a single thin envelope of documents.
Do Jingyu raised his head sharply like a long-starved beast.
“Did you find it?”
“Yes, we bought off all the local brokers in Hong Kong and the Virgin Islands…… We’ve finally caught the tail.”
Executive Director Kim held out the documents with trembling hands. Do Jingyu roughly snatched the envelope. The sound of tearing paper rang out sharply.
ONE Fund’s complex equity structure diagram. The name of the beneficial owner at the very top, reached after passing through numerous paper companies.
Beneficial Owner: YEO-HWI SEONG
“……Seong, Yeohwi?”
Do Jingyu’s mouth fell open.
But even when he rubbed his eyes and looked again, the letters didn’t change.
That little brat. The kid who had been hiding behind Dowon with a clueless face, whom he thought would only be useful as a pretty-faced trophy husband at best.
“Does this…… make sense?”
Do Jingyu let out an empty laugh. The documents in his hand trembled violently.
“All this enormous capital…… came from the Seong family?”
It was beyond imagination. A tsunami of massive capital that made even the slush funds he had scraped together over his entire life look ridiculous.
He had somewhat suspected that the Seong family brat might become Dowon’s hidden money source, but this was on a level that far exceeded expectations.
“Could it be that Father……”
The puzzle pieces in Do Jingyu’s mind fit together with a chilling sound.
“From the beginning, was he planning to hand over the Group not to me, but to that bastard Dowon?”
His teeth ground at the surging sense of betrayal.
The strategic marriage with Seong Yeohwi.
When everyone whispered that it was a marriage taking in an orphan from a ruined household, Chairman Do had forcefully pushed forward with the marriage.
In his later years, as his illness deepened, Chairman Do Hanil declared a provisional retirement, saying he didn’t even want to look at the filthy sight of his children fighting over inheritance, and retreated to a quiet mountain villa. He forbade anyone of his bloodline from visiting him. If they violated this and appeared before him, he would strike their names from the inheritance list—he had driven this point home with icy severity.
Just before such Chairman Do Hanil cut ties with his children and grandchildren, the last thing he personally decided was the marriage between Dowon and Seong Yeohwi.
A marriage that was clearly unbalanced, no matter who looked at it.
That wasn’t shackling Dowon.
It was placing the most powerful golden greatsword that no one could touch into his hands. The massive war chest sleeping inside an easily manipulated child.
“You deceived…… You deceived me? How dare you?”
Do Jingyu screamed and overturned his desk.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
Crash! Clang!
Documents, nameplates, and an expensive crystal whiskey bottle poured onto the floor and shattered. Shards flew in all directions.
“President! Compose yourself!”
“Get out of my way! Everyone get out!”
Do Jingyu rampaged like a madman. He picked up and threw the cymbidium orchid pot he had lovingly polished, causing soil and pottery fragments to make a mess of the expensive Persian carpet.
Still unable to vent his anger, he swung a golf club at the 80-inch TV hanging on the wall. With a thud, spiderweb-like cracks spread across the screen.
“Seong Yeohwi…… That little brat who doesn’t even have peach fuzz……!”
Do Jingyu stood panting on broken glass shards. His pant legs were torn and blood seeped out, but he didn’t even feel the pain.
Everything before his eyes was red.
Dowon, who was trying to take away everything given to him. And Seong Yeohwi, who had given Dowon wings. The murderous intent to tear those two bastards to death chillingly dominated his brain.
“This can’t go on.”
Do Jingyu muttered. Once the remaining deadline passed, the shares he had lovingly collected under borrowed names would evaporate. No, it was even worse than that. They would all go into Dowon’s hands.
Then it would be virtually the same as losing the battle for shares.
To Dowon, that fucking bastard, KD Group would be stolen right before his eyes.
Moreover, that wasn’t all. Would there be any allies to protect Do Jingyu once he lost power? The prosecutors and politicians who had watched his back would all turn away and suck up to Dowon. Then all the bribes he had fed them until now would become completely useless.
He had to stop it somehow.
He couldn’t become penniless and go to prison.
He rummaged through the desk with his blood-stained hands and pulled out a burner phone he had hidden.
Speed dial number 1.
The other party answered before the ringtone could sound more than a few times.
—Yes, President.
A hoarse and heavy voice.
It was Jeon Chitae, the skinhead gang boss who had escaped after losing Yeohwi at the abandoned factory in Paju.
“Hey.”
Do Jingyu commanded in a hoarse voice.
“Grab that bastard Seong Yeohwi again.”
—……What? But right now the security is tight, so it’s not easy to approach. Director Do has made it so not even an ant can get near the house. We’re actually going crazy running away with our guys……
“Don’t make flimsy excuses! You’re getting paid my money to do that kind of work! Use any means necessary, somehow find an opening and extract him!”
Do Jingyu forced himself to rage.
“Bring him to me and persuade him. Whether you threaten him, drug him, or turn him into a cripple with disabled limbs! Within three days, make sure he’s so thoroughly terrified that he won’t even think of pointing a knife at me! Got it? Three days!”
A brief silence flowed from the other end of the phone. Jeon Chitae clicked his tongue as if troubled.
—President Do. I’m sorry, but that seems difficult.
“What?”
—That guy is no ordinary person. Didn’t I report this to you last time?
“……”
—He’s a tough bastard who didn’t give in even after having four fingernails pulled out. It would be nowhere near enough to break such a guy’s spirit and make him submit within three days. He absolutely won’t break with any ordinary method.
The strength drained from Do Jingyu’s hands.
Persuasion won’t work. Threats don’t work either.
And he can’t buy him off with money. Because that bastard has more money than Do Jingyu’s wealth.
“Then how much time do you need?”
—Well. Given the situation, it’s hard to guarantee. Like I said, we’re being chased. If we make too much of a fuss, we’ll be caught by Director Do’s side instead.
“Then, then Gye Sanghoon……”
Do Jingyu asked, grasping at straws.
“Is that bastard useless?”
—He’s already in Director Do’s hands, isn’t he? You said he was a discarded card yourself.
“……Ha.”
Do Jingyu staggered toward the window. His appearance reflected in the glass was miserable. His hair was disheveled, and his bloodshot eyes looked monstrous.
There was no useful move. Every direction was blocked.
But should he just sit here and wait for the day he dies? Should he watch his kingdom, which he had devoted his entire life to building, be stolen by that eyesore of a nephew?
“……No way.”
Do Jingyu’s eyes gleamed eerily.
At the end of despair, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind. It was an idea like the devil’s whisper.
He brought the phone back to his ear. There was no longer any trace of defeat in his voice.
“It can’t be helped. Go with the last resort.”
—You mean……?
“Kill him.”
—……Are you sure about this, President?
“Didn’t you hear me? Kill that bastard Seong Yeohwi.”
Do Jingyu spat out cruelly.
“I don’t care whether you disguise it as an accident or bury him in the mountains where no one will know. Just make sure you cut off his breath.”
His gaze stabbed down at a corner of the mess scattered on the floor. The documents the Executive Secretary had brought were all trampled and scattered here and there.
‘ONE Fund is a paper fund anyway.’
A fund made into a ghost company that has no substance and exists only on paper.
Then that meant whether someone was the beneficial owner was just a matter of fabricating a few documents and fake identities properly.
‘If only that bastard Seong Yeohwi disappears……’
Do Jingyu muttered in his mind. The corners of his mouth slowly curled up.
‘That’s right. If I eliminate him and insert the proxy and ghost corporation I’ve prepared in advance in his place……?’
Then Do Jingyu might become the owner of ONE Fund.
