The Chairman Who Wants to Play and Eat

Chapter 42. A person who always shows more than expected.

Weeks passed like that.

At five in the morning, after finishing his workout, he entered his study just as the phone began to ring.

The first voice I heard was that of the operator, sounding as if still half-asleep.

– This is an international call from Palo Alto, California. Would you like to accept it?

“Please put him through.”

Beep, beep—

With the signal, this time the cheerful voice of Steven Jackson, crossing the Pacific, pierced my ear.

– Mr. Hyun, did you have a nice lunch?

Right, it must be noon there.

Self-centered as ever. Doesn’t consider the time difference.

“It’s five ten in the morning here, Steven.”

– Oh, really? I didn’t know that. Have you had breakfast then?

“I haven’t eaten yet.”

– I see.

He seemed to regard my words as no big deal.

Well, such things do happen often in the Korean corporate world. I wasn’t too bothered by it either.

I changed the subject.

“By the way, did I mention that I wanted to wish you a happy birthday, Steven?”

He laughed.

– The birthday was quite a while ago. I had a great time without Mr. Hyun. Actually, I called about that. What on earth was that thing you sent? A virus?

“It’s nothing special.”

– Nothing special? It’s a brilliant idea. You’re using the boot sector, right?

He’s trying to subtly show off that he knows more than he lets on.

“Well, something like that.”

At my response, he burst into laughter.

– We should create something like that at Apple and spread it around. Something much more dangerous than what you sent. It’s in unexpected crises that my true abilities shine. To endure that is what makes one an engineer at Apple. Truly, there’s so much to learn from you, Mr. Hyun.

It’s getting lengthy.

“So what’s the real reason for your call?”

I cut him off before it got any longer.

– I just wanted to say thank you for the gift. Haha. It was one of the few delightful experiences in my life. Did I mention that?

“It seems so.”

– Good. So how much is that Axel worth?

“Excuse me? Are you serious?”

– Wasn’t the reason you sent it because of money? Let’s be honest. If you were just going to give it to me, you wouldn’t have deleted it in the first place. Am I wrong?

He got straight to the point as if he had been waiting for this moment.

– Right now, our Appel is using BisCalc, and they want exactly double the last license renewal. Axel is a better program, so I’ll offer you three times the existing contract. How does that sound?

“What do you mean, three times?”

It was a thunderbolt from the early morning.

– Is that not enough? Should I raise it even more?

“No, that’s not what I meant. I clearly stated that I considered it a gift.”

He was taken aback.

There was a reason I called it an astonishing gift.

I had assumed he would just copy it.

Even if he deleted it.

At least the Steven Jackson I knew from Appel was that kind of person.

It was already a well-known story that Jackson visited the WEROCS Institute in Palo Alto, saw a few innovative ideas, and then shamelessly appropriated them for his own products without permission.

What could the reason be?

‘If Appel’s unauthorized appropriation becomes a problem and criticism pours in, the board will easily resolve to oust him. That’s what he’s hoping for.’

I know, at least.

So I was confident he would act the same way this time.

But why?

It’s truly astonishing.

It is astonishing, indeed. I just didn’t expect it to be astonishing in this way.

Could it be?

‘Does he think that such a mistake won’t shake the board, which is already tired of his antics?’

It’s possible.

When mistakes are repeated, the value of the person suffering diminishes.

Even if you want the same reaction, its magnitude must continue to grow.

Thinking that way makes everything clear.

The fact that he’s willing to offer a price higher than the existing contract proposal while purchasing my Axel leads to the conclusion that he aims to shake the board with an even greater misdeed.

But I can’t just be dragged along.

Let’s shake things up.

“Then that’s fine.”

– Wow, I knew you would say that.

A cheerful voice came through the receiver.

“But let’s do it this way. It won’t be possible under the conditions you want. It doesn’t make sense that an unproven new product contract would be larger than a contract for an existing product with guaranteed performance. If we’re going to do this, please at least match the proposal that BizCalc wanted. That’s my condition.”

– What?

A response followed, filled with disbelief.

– It’s three times better than double the conditions. You don’t understand this?

“I understand. But I won’t proceed without BizCalc’s existing proposal.”

He appealed firmly once again.

– Ha, this is something.

After a sigh, he finally confessed.

– As expected, Mr. Hyun. I can’t keep up with you. Actually, I lied.

“Excuse me?”

– The proposal that BizCalc requested was not double the existing contract, but triple. So if you want to proceed as you wish, Axel must also be three times. Now, you have no complaints, right?

Throughout the call, Steven Jackson kept thinking.

‘He’s definitely not an easy opponent.’

His lie was immediately seen through.

The conversation with BizCalc was a secret that had not been disclosed to anyone.

Let alone, it seemed unlikely that he, being thousands of kilometers away in a distant country like Korea, would have known to say such a thing.

If they had been face to face, it might have been different.

It wouldn’t have been entirely impossible to detect a lie through the slightest tremor in the eyes.

But right now, it’s a phone call.

There’s no way to explain how remarkable that person’s intuition must be to have noticed that.

A moment later,

– …Then there’s nothing we can do. Let’s proceed that way.

Hyun Sang-yoon’s voice came through.

He led the game as he wanted. He raised the stakes from double to triple.

And yet, he presented an attitude as if he was reluctantly accepting it.

This is extraordinary.

At this point, it was enough to elicit admiration.

Did he say he was twenty?

“It feels like I’m looking at my younger self.”

The ‘young’ Steven Jackson, now just twenty-eight, thought this and said it with ease.

“Then our story is over.”

– Yes.

The contract was finalized.

Now it was time for the next chapter.

“How shall we sign? I heard there’s a U.S. branch of Seonghyeon Group. Will you go through them?”

– I won’t.

“Why not?”

– Because I developed this on my own. So it has nothing to do with the company. I’ll sign the contract in my name, not Seonghyeon Electronics.

For a moment, I thought I had misheard.

‘Did he really do all of this by himself from start to finish? Is that even possible?’

It was impossible.

He had only used it once.

But that was enough.

He could tell that Axel’s functionality was superior to BizCalc and any spreadsheet available on the market.

There was no way he could have created such a volume alone.

Not even a veteran could manage that.

‘Is it really possible to learn programming in that time and create a program of this caliber? Steve Kowalski couldn’t have done that either.’

Therefore,

One of them was lying.

Either the claim he made in Seoul about not knowing how to program was a lie, or this current assertion that he did it all by himself was a lie.

Of course, there was no way to find out which it was.

He wasn’t Hyun Sang-yoon.

“Alright.”

Normally, the way to exercise copyright for a program developed by an individual is to hire that author.

But hiring Hyun Sang-yoon wouldn’t be easy.

He was part of Korea’s royal family.

It didn’t seem likely that he would come all the way to America to work for someone else. It wouldn’t be fun to get rejected after bringing up such a pointless topic.

He organized his thoughts and continued speaking.

“Well then.”

– Please, go ahead.

“I’ll discuss this again when we finalize the contract, but I plan to include this Axel as bundled software in the upcoming new lineup of Apfel. The more sales increase, the larger the running royalty will be for you.”

He laid the groundwork.

– I suppose so.

“What will you do with all that money? It will be much more than Mr. Hyun is thinking. I can guarantee that. Or I will make it so.”

– Ah, yes.

“Are you planning to bring it all back to Korea?”

– Well, is there no good way to do that?

Seeing him ask, it was clear he hadn’t thought that far.

Wait,

No. That’s not it.

In that moment, a thought struck Steven Jackson’s mind.

Did he really ask out of ignorance?

Or was he pretending not to know, fully aware of the methods, just to gauge him?

There was only one way to find out.

“Then, if I make a suggestion, would you be willing to listen?”

– If it’s something I can accommodate, of course I will.

Okay, he took the bait.

“Alright. It’s difficult to discuss everything over the phone, so how about we sign the contract in a third location, neither in Korea nor the U.S.?”

– You can do as you please. Do you have a place in mind?

“How about Ireland? It would be a good opportunity for some sightseeing as well.”

Ireland.

A small island nation next to Britain.

But there was a significant reason he preferred that place.

The sightseeing was just an excuse.

The real purpose was the ‘Double Irish’,

A tax strategy he had been diligently honing ever since Apfel 2 began to rake in substantial profits after its worldwide hit.

He thought to himself.

‘If he’s just testing me, he’ll prepare the corporation on his own; if not, he won’t make any preparations at all.’

Just how far does that friend go,

What does he know, and what remains unknown to him?

It was pure curiosity.

Yet now, I felt I had a vague understanding.

This friend, Hyun Seong-yoon, was someone who always showed more than one could imagine.

I hung up the phone.

I thought to myself.

‘Why Ireland all of a sudden?’

I never dreamed that name would come up.

I found Stephen Jackson’s taste to be quite peculiar. Is there really anything to see there? Isn’t it just a small country next to England?

I couldn’t tell.

“Sir, are you awake?”

The call had taken longer than expected.

So, as I stepped out of my study later than usual, Deputy Lee Beom-seok had been waiting for me all this time.

“Deputy Lee, I have a favor to ask.”

“Please, go ahead.”

There was something I needed to prepare.

“I need to study Irish. Please get me some textbooks. From beginner to advanced, don’t leave anything out.”

*

From noble mtl dot com

A few days later, in the chairman’s office at the Seonghyeon Group headquarters,

“Director Joo, come in for a moment.”

Director Joo Yong-hoon, who had been sitting in the secretary’s office, received the call.

He moved swiftly.

Even at over fifty, his body, which had been maintained through daily exercise, remained fit and quick.

He entered the room.

“Have a seat.”

Chairman Hyun Byeong-geon gestured to the empty spot at the table. A signal that the conversation would be lengthy.

“Yes.”

The response was straightforward and clear.

I had a feeling you would call.

It was none other than Hyun Sang-yoon who had just left the chairman’s office five minutes ago.

I didn’t know the content of their conversation.

But I believed that if Hyun Sang-yoon had been in and out, the matter must be important. It was a belief born from long experience.

“Do you know anything about Ireland?”

‘Ireland?’

Director Joo raised a question mark in his mind.

Since it was a question that came after a conversation with the young master, it must also be related to him.

Of course, he was well aware of Ireland.

When establishing Seonghyun’s European subsidiary, he had reviewed the corporate tax rates of various countries, including the UK and France.

Ireland had also been one of the candidate locations.

After organizing his thoughts, he replied.

“If you need a detailed review, I can call the responsible executive.”

“No, that’s not what I mean.”

He waved his hand.

“Just now, Sang-yoon came by and said he wanted to go on a business trip to Ireland within a few days. He mentioned a reason, but it sounded like an excuse to me.”

Director Joo nodded.

“The corporate tax rate in Ireland is low, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Then he’s probably planning to set up his own company there.”

He had seen and heard things.

His eyes and ears were everywhere. Even if it seemed like he didn’t know, he was seeing through it all. It wasn’t for nothing that he had been sitting in the chairman’s seat for so long.

“He must be thinking of raising funds overseas. He’ll need his own resources for future endeavors, right?”

“I believe that’s correct.”

“But he doesn’t say anything.”

Even if he spoke as if he were hurt, Director Joo already knew. Chairman Hyun was pleased with his grandson’s growth.

“Director Joo, be attentive and take good care of him. It’s not something he can handle alone, so at least assign someone capable to his side.”

The chairman’s order had been given.

“I will do so.”

“Don’t mention that I told you. If he’s not saying anything to me, I can only help him silently.”

Tsk tsk. What a foolish fellow, sighs followed.

But Director Joo could sense it.

The genuine anticipation mixed in with the grumbling voice of the current chairman. And he felt the same.

‘Because it’s Young-Soon.’

No other words were necessary.

That alone was more than enough reason.