Having frequented this house for a dozen years, I had never been allowed to enter his study (and the bedrooms).
Even though the conference room was on the tenth floor of Sunyang HQ, all the important decisions were made in his study where only his family members, now including me, and his board members were allowed to enter.
I stepped into the study and glanced around.
It looked nothing short of the conference room: a large desk for the grandfather and tables for a dozen.
The grandfather’s children and his board members already were seated.
Predictable.
If they were gathered together, they would have a meeting, to discuss current issues.
My father was replaced with Young-jun. He was seated among them, which startled me.
I was well aware that my father was treated as if he was disowned.
But Young-jun was only 20 years old, who was planning to go abroad to study.
He was too young for this.
Does this mean the grandfather has already appointed his successor?
Is it already too late?
When I was lost in this thought, lowering my head, everyone in the study thought I was alarmed.
“Hey, Do-jun. Lift your head. Boys fight, that way they grow up as men,” Young-jun said, chuckling.
He seemed to be trying to look like a grown-up.
“Be quiet! Or I will get you out of here,” his father said. Young-jun scratched his head.
The grandfather led me inside by the hand.
“Do-jun,” he said.
“Yes, grandfather,”
“Sit kneeling until I tell you to stand up, that is your punishment,”
Punishment? Or training?
It was punishment for 10-year-old Do-jun while business administration training for Yun Hyun-woo.
I sat kneeling right next to him and opened my ears, so as not to miss a single word.
“So, now, tell me,” he resumed the meeting.
“I a.s.sume that the lame duck president would use force against the protesters,” a voice said.
“Force?”
“He would use troops to disperse the protesters,”
What? Troops?
What do troops have to do with Sunyang?
“Hundreds of protesters are taking place all over the country. If the president used troops, it could be thousands,” said the other.
“Force would not suppress the protesters but add oil to the fire,”
With a loud, echoing thud, the grandfather slammed his palm down on the desk.
“So what the h.e.l.l are you suggesting? Turn against the president that may give up his office?” he yelled.
They clamped their mouths shut.
“Can’t waste any more time. You tell, vice-chairman, whose side should we be on?”
The vice-chairman, Young-ki could not easily answer.
Young-ki and his son, they had framed and killed me.
Which would not happen to me again but might happen to anyone.
I wondered what Young-ki would say.
“Even though the protesters have marched for the past 7 years, the president would not give up his office,” he said.
Second son, Dong-ki and third Sang-ki, without a hesitation, agreed.
Some board members chimed in with Young-ki.
Something was odd.
Three days later the president would make a statement: the June 29 Declaration.
The Blue House must have drawn up an outline by now.
It didn’t make any sense that Sunyang had not grasped the situation yet as it should have.
Leaving doubt behind, I bent my ear toward them.
But topics of conversation and questions to ask during the meeting were not relevant to management plans for Sunyang.
This was not what I had expected.
Somehow, absurd.
The grandfather closed the meeting by saying,
“Keep monitoring the situation!”
After everyone slipped out of the study.
“Stand up,” he said, in a gently voice.
Then I rose to my numb feet.
He sat me down on his lap and looked at me steadily.
“How come,” he said.
I gave him a curious look.
“You didn’t frown or squirm during the long meeting... but sat rapt,”
I didn’t realize my legs had gone numb, and lost track of the time.
“You’ve changed so much since I last saw you,” he said.
He must have been taken aback at how my att.i.tude had done a one-eighty degree turn.
“Have I?” I asked, with an ingenuous look.
“Yeah, I can barely recognize you,”
I needed to come up with a decent answer.
“I can’t stand anymore,”
“What?” he asked.
“I can’t stand how other family members treat my parents anymore,”
d.a.m.n, why no tears!
He held me tight silently anyway as if he knew what I was saying.
I wanted to nail him down.
“Grandfather?”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“Make the three your friends,”
“What do you mean?”
“The meeting. And the next president,”
“If you make the president and the other two who may be the next president your friends, you will not have to decide whose side you are on”
It was apparently hard work speaking innocently; from a 10-year-old’s point of view.
His soft eyes dilated as if thinking to himself ‘how could a 10-year-old think of such a thing?’
“You can’t?”
“Why not? The more friends you have the better,” he said, then let out a soft laugh.
If I hinted at the upcoming June 29 Declaration, he would be much more taken aback.
I should mesmerize him, I told myself.
“Why don’t you play outside? Grandfather’s got work to do,” he said.
I went out the door and closed it behind me.
The grandfather had some hard thinking, then picked up the phone and dialed a number.
“Give 50 (million won) to YS and DJ,”
“Both of two, sir?”
“Right, and don’t forget to give them empty compliments,”
After setting the phone down, he curved his mouth.
Very clever thinking indeed, he told himself.
He summoned the eldest grandson Young-jun. He wanted to test him.
Young-jun did hotfoot it over to the grandfather, with a nervous look.
“Tell me your thoughts,” he continued, “What should we do, in this turbulent period?”
After a little pause,
“If the president used troops, the protesters would disperse and the turbulent period would subside,” Young-jun answered.
“So, we should be on the side of the president, right?”
“Uhm&h.e.l.lip;” Young-jun could feel a cold sweat running down.
The grandfather smiled as if implying he would leave the decision to Young-jun, which however was not true.
He was tut-tutting inwardly.