CH132 | VOC

Kim Yong-tae’s face was a mask of despair after meeting with the creditor.

“How did it go?”

“…I’m sorry.”

I had expected as much. He had been confident that the creditor would withdraw the lawsuit if he paid him 1 billion won. But if the creditor was that reasonable, he wouldn’t have filed the lawsuit in the first place.

Assuming the creditor’s motive was money, I asked, “How much does he want?”

I was willing to pay, even if it was a substantial amount, as long as the issue was resolved. I could always recoup the loss with the Edge Phone.

But the amount Kim Yong-tae mentioned was absurd.

“…He wants 30 billion won.”

My eyebrows twitched. “30 billion won? For a 1 billion won debt? Is he crazy?”

“He wasn’t like this before…”

I stood up. “Mr. Kim, I’ve been patient, but this is too much. Brace yourself.”

“What?”

Before he could react, I punched him in the face with all my might.

“Ugh!”

He flew backward and rolled on the floor.

He slowly got up, supporting himself with his trembling arms.

I examined my fist. “Let’s consider this a warning.”

“…I’m sorry.”

He had no excuse.

“Mr. Kim, the world doesn’t revolve around your feelings. You said you were thinking about me? Then you should have told me everything from the beginning. Didn’t I tell you to be precise about the debt amount? 50 billion won for the factory, 19 billion won for your debt, and now another 30 billion won? Are you kidding me? Do you really want to reach 100 billion won? Do you think I’m investing out of charity?”

He stood up shakily, his eyes tearing up. “I’m so sorry. I have no excuse.”

This confirmed it.

He might be a competent engineer, but as a businessman, he was worthless.

He was naive and incompetent.

“One more time. Are there any other creditors?”

“No, absolutely not. This is the last one. I swear.”

I clicked my tongue. “I can’t trust you.”

He started sobbing as I looked at him with disgust. “…I’m sorry. I’m so pathetic.”

“Stop crying. You’ve worked long enough to know that no one cares about your tears except your family. And I’m not your family. How long did you think I would tolerate this?”

He lowered his head and remained silent.

“Cry at home, and give me the creditor’s contact information.”

I received the number and asked, “Tell me about the creditor. Who is he? What does he do? Everything you know.”

“…It’s Director Ahn Ja-chul.”

“A director?”

“Yes, a director at Daehoo Group, my former employer.”

A wave of unease washed over me. “A Daehoo Group executive? Why would a director lend you money? He should be trying to sabotage you.”

Why would a company lend money to a former employee who was starting a competing business and even tell him to repay it slowly?

“We were close…”

I said with a dumbfounded expression, “Didn’t you suspect anything? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I needed the money, and he was like a mentor to me, so I didn’t think much of it.”

He was unbelievably naive.

I would have to demote him to a researcher after this was resolved.

“And that ‘mentor’ is doing this to you? Wait, I’ll talk to him.”

But Ahn Ja-chul refused to meet with me.

“How about we meet and discuss this? It’s not reasonable to demand 30 billion won for a 1 billion won debt.”

[I have nothing to say.]

I tried a different approach.

“30 billion won is too much. How about 5 billion won? It’s a substantial amount. I’ll buy it for 5 billion won.”

Even 5 billion won was a lot, but I was willing to pay it to protect the Edge Phone, which was finally gaining traction.

But he was unmoved. – Either buy it for 30 billion won or continue with the lawsuit. I don’t care.

He was trying to extort me.

He wasn’t a kind mentor, he was a greedy bastard.

“I heard you cared deeply for Kim Yong-tae. Isn’t this too much? He’s finally getting back on his feet after a difficult time. And you said he could repay it slowly. Why are you doing this?”

He became less talkative at the mention of Kim Yong-tae.

[…]

“Kim Yong-tae told me he considered you a father figure and would repay you first as soon as he made some money. Don’t you feel any guilt?”

Kim Yong-tae hadn’t said any such thing, but I would lie if I had to.

“He was crying earlier, devastated by this situation. Please have mercy on him.”

But Ahn Ja-chul just kept repeating the same line.

[…30 billion won.]

I finally lost my patience.

“Are you so blinded by greed that you have to crush a struggling man’s last hope? Fine, we’ll see about that.”

I slammed the phone down and asked Maru, “What did the lawyer say?”

“The trademark is registered under Shinjin Tech, so the court is likely to rule in Ahn Ja-chul’s favor if he files an injunction.”

The trademark belonged to Shinjin Tech, which was under Ahn Ja-chul’s control due to the debt.

I glared at Kim Yong-tae, who had created this mess. “This is ridiculous…”

“I’m sorry.”

“Tsk.”

Scolding him wouldn’t solve anything.

“So we’re at a legal disadvantage?”

“Yes, the Edge Phone is practically identical to the phone Shinjin Tech was producing.”

“Damn it.”

It wasn’t a hopeless situation.

We could just ignore the Korean court and focus on overseas markets.

But Chunha Electronics was part of Chunha Trading.

I couldn’t tarnish Chunha Trading’s reputation with a counterfeit product scandal.

If only the trademark had been registered under Kim Yong-tae’s name.

If only he had told me about the other creditor.

It was pointless to dwell on what-ifs.

“Should we just give up?”

It was a shame to lose the inventory and the distribution network, but it wasn’t worth 30 billion won.

We could always have Kim Yong-tae develop a new product, since we had already invested in the equipment and seen his potential.

We would lose about 10 billion won in marketing and inventory costs, but we could protect Chunha Trading’s image.

Kim Yong-tae’s face turned pale at my words, but he remained silent, knowing it was his fault.

“But there’s something strange about this,” Park Jong-bum, who had been promoted to managing director, said.

“Mr. Kim, you said Ahn Ja-chul told you he would wait, right?”

“Yes.”

Park Jong-bum tilted his head. “That’s strange. Your company was already bankrupt, there was no hope of recovery. And yet, he was willing to wait? And now he’s suddenly demanding 30 billion won? It doesn’t add up. He should have been more aggressive in collecting the debt back then.”

I had also sensed something strange during my conversation with Ahn Ja-chul.

“Now that you mention it, he did seem hesitant when I brought up Kim Yong-tae.”

He had been silent and evasive.

“Maybe it wasn’t his decision,” Park Jong-bum said.

Kim Yong-tae said urgently, “That could be it! Now that I think about it, he seemed genuinely sorry when he demanded 30 billion won! Maybe he’s being threatened!”

His face brightened, as if a mystery had been solved.

“Yes, Director Ahn isn’t like that! There must be another reason!”

I looked at him with a pitying expression. “Why are you so happy?”

“What? Now we have a chance to persuade him. I’ll go and talk to him again…”

“Stop.” I interrupted him. “Don’t you understand the situation? If this wasn’t his decision, it’s even more serious. Why are you happy?”

Park Jong-bum nodded. “Daehoo Group is a giant, ranked second in the business world, after acquiring Ssangyong Motor Company recently. Who could threaten a Daehoo Group executive?”

Kim Yong-tae’s face hardened. “Don’t tell me…”

“Daehoo Group instructed Ahn Ja-chul to do this.”

I had been suspicious ever since I heard he was a Daehoo Group director.

I ignored Kim Yong-tae, who looked devastated, and asked Park Jong-bum, “Why is Daehoo Group targeting the Edge Phone?”

“They probably want it.”

“They didn’t care when Kim Yong-tae was struggling. Why now?”

“His previous company wasn’t a threat. It was small and focused on exports. But the Edge Phone is different.”

Unlike Shinjin Tech, which had produced at most 10,000 phones a month, Chunha Electronics had sold 100,000 Edge Phones in the first month, and the orders were increasing rapidly.

I gritted my teeth. “Using trademark infringement to crush a new company.”

It was a common tactic used by large corporations to pressure smaller competitors.

Large corporations had vast resources and countless patents.

The outcome of a battle between a large corporation and a small company with a single core product was predictable.

They would file a patent infringement lawsuit, claiming the smaller company’s product was similar to theirs, and slowly strangle them.

A legal battle would cripple the smaller company, but the larger corporation had other sources of income.

And after the smaller company surrendered, the larger corporation would acquire their technology and start producing the product themselves.

It was a despicable tactic.

And in our case, Daehoo wasn’t directly involved, but it was even worse.

“If we were just dealing with a similar product, we might have a chance. But we’re at a legal disadvantage…”

The Edge Phone was practically identical to the phone Shinjin Tech had produced.

I said to Maru, “Kim Yong-tae was the CEO of Shinjin Tech. Can’t we use that?”

“Shinjin Tech is gone. The factory, the employees, everything. There are no assets left. The court will interpret this as the creditor seizing the trademark to recover his debt.”

I ran my hand through my hair. “So it’s a hopeless situation.”

If Ahn Ja-chul had been acting out of greed, I could have just bought him off. But this was Daehoo Group’s intention.

They wanted the Edge Phone. Money wouldn’t solve this.

I sighed. “This is a mess.”

After Kim Yong-tae left, I held a meeting with Maru and Park Jong-bum.

“Let’s remove Kim Yong-tae from the CEO position and demote him to head researcher. He won’t be able to object.”

Park Jong-bum said cautiously, “Sir, what are we going to do about Daehoo Group?”

I gritted my teeth. “What do you think? I won’t let them get away with this. They’re messing with my business.”

Park Jong-bum said, “Sir, they’re the second-largest conglomerate in Korea. We have to be careful.”

“I’m not afraid of Daehoo Group. I’m not even afraid of Saseong.”

Chunha Trading might be small, but it was a fortress.

Zero debt, and a dominant market share in every industry we operated in.

Even if we went head-to-head with Saseong, I was confident we could hold our ground, at least in our own territory.

They couldn’t pressure us with money, and they weren’t interested in the junkyard or secondhand goods business.

Our cash reserves were larger than most large corporations.

And we had Haixin Group as a powerful ally in China.

My confidence wasn’t unfounded.

But Park Jong-bum made a circle with his fingers, mimicking money. “I’m not saying Daehoo is scary. But the amount involved is too small to justify a war with them.”

“Ugh.”

That was the problem.

It was a small business, worth a few hundred billion won at most.

I wanted to fight them, and I was confident I could win, but the potential losses outweighed the gains.

“But it’s humiliating to just back down…”