Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1253

“Honestly…”

Hwang Min-soo spoke with a blank expression.

“I think it’s a very obvious thing to say.”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled softly.

That’s right.

It was an obvious thing to say.

“But those obvious words hit me like a dagger.”

Hwang Min-soo smiled ruefully.

“I wanted to be a son to be proud of.”

“I wanted to be a dependable husband and a respectable father. But the people I saw were so great, and I was just pathetic. I tried and tried, but… well, it didn’t work out.”

Hwang Min-soo’s voice was filled with regret.

Kang Jin-ho listened to Hwang Min-soo without saying a word. Now was not the time for agreement.

“But…”

Hwang Min-soo gripped the beer can tightly. The beer can crumpled in his hand.

“That’s right. Yes, that’s right. What does it matter? I don’t have to live exactly as I wished. The important thing is to be better than I am now.”

Hwang Min-soo looked at Kang Jin-ho with determined eyes.

“Chairman.”

“Yes.”

“Please hire me. I don’t care about the money. Just give me enough to make a living. I’m tired of my son looking at me with those dull eyes. I want to be a proud father again.”

“Like Chairman Hwang?”

“Oh, come on.”

Hwang Min-soo waved his hand.

“He’s my father, but Chairman Hwang Jung-hoo is a terrible parent.”

“…I suppose so.”

Having heard the story before, he couldn’t deny it.

“However…”

Hwang Min-soo looked out the window with a slightly wistful gaze. His eyes were fixed on the night view filled with lights.

“There’s something I want to be like him. My father was indifferent, forceful, and… even a little harsh, but when I looked at him, it was like looking at a mountain.”

“I want to be a little like that. I want to show my son a proud back.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled and nodded.

“You will be able to.”

“Yes, Chairman. I have to be.”

Hwang Min-soo, who had been hesitating slightly, had a slightly awkward expression that was different from before.

“Um… and Chairman.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t think this is the place to say this, but if you need more people, how about contacting my brother?”

“Your brother?”

Was his name Hwang Min-jae?

“Yes.”

Hwang Min-soo cleared his throat a couple of times, as if embarrassed, and continued.

“In terms of ability, he’s better than me. Honestly, I struggled to keep up with him. If you’re thinking of running a company, it would have been better to contact my brother than me.”

Kang Jin-ho shrugged.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Please do.”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Hwang Min-soo with a strange look.

In the past, Hwang Min-soo had a fierce battle with his older brother, Hwang Min-jae, over the management rights of Jae Kyung. Everything went back to square one when Hwang Jung-hoo woke up.

But now, he was recommending Hwang Min-jae to Kang Jin-ho, saying he was better than himself.

It was quite an interesting situation.

“Don’t you hate your brother?”

“Ahem.”

Hwang Min-soo coughed.

“At one time… well, no. I still hate him.”

“I want to say that it’s all in the past, but the feelings that have built up because of the past don’t just go away. I still get chills sometimes.”

“But?”

“But still…”

Hwang Min-soo smacked his lips. He had a lot of thoughts, but it was hard to put them into words.

“My brother wouldn’t be that different from me.”

Only those who have fallen to the bottom can understand the feelings of those at the bottom.

Those who have not fallen to the bottom can only guess. Hwang Min-soo, who had fallen to the most miserable place, knew how Hwang Min-jae was living now.

“I understand.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded lightly.

This was not a bad offer for Kang Jin-ho either. MK was absolutely short of people right now. They had hired enough office workers, and CEO Lee Hyun-joo could handle the accounting, but there was no manager to decide the overall direction of the group and carry out the practical work.

That was not Kang Jin-ho’s role. Kang Jin-ho had to look at bigger things.

Even if it wasn’t right now, once MK became a little more stable, Hwang Min-jae’s power might be needed.

‘The old man will be furious.’

He didn’t hide his discomfort at bringing in just one Hwang Min-soo, but if he brought in Hwang Min-jae as well, he would surely be furious.

But he wouldn’t stop it.

Emotions are not eternal.

Even the anger that seemed to melt mountains and the sadness that seemed to color the world were powerless in the face of the absolute law of time. Even Hwang Jung-hoo, who had once been furious with disappointment and anger at his sons, could not maintain that intense emotion until now.

All that remained was the principle he had established.

Kang Jin-ho knew.

Those who strictly adhere to the principles they have established.

And those who cannot forgive themselves or their families for anything that violates those principles.

Generally, in Kang Jin-ho’s life, such principled people had accomplished great things. But…

‘They were unhappy.’

Excessive principles tend to strangle oneself. A reasonable amount of flexibility is necessary. If what you want is happiness, not the development of the world.

“Then.”

Kang Jin-ho shook off his thoughts at Hwang Min-soo’s voice.

“What am I going to do now?”

“…Does it really matter what you do?”

“Yes? No, but still…”

“What you do at a company is all similar. Please take the position of president of MK.”

“President?”

Hwang Min-soo’s eyes shook.

He thought that he would be given a fairly high position since he was called in for a job and the chairman himself was interviewing him, but he never imagined that the word ‘president’ would come out.

“Oh, no, what do you trust in me? What if I don’t do my job properly and cause losses?”

“Then it’s my fault for misjudging people.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll fire you then.”

Hwang Min-soo looked at Kang Jin-ho with a dumbfounded expression.

‘Is he generous?’

Or is he thoughtless?

He was a really hard person to define.

“And you can talk to that person for details.”

“Yes?”

Who else was here?

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

The door opened and Lee Hyun-soo came in and bowed to Kang Jin-ho. Then, she smiled and looked at Hwang Min-soo.

“Welcome to the family, Mr. Hwang Min-soo. Or should I call you President Hwang Min-soo now?”

“Let’s just call me Mr. Hwang Min-soo for now.”

Hwang Min-soo waved his hand.

“And the word ‘family’ is still a bit much.”

“You’re a bit shy.”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled.

“It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that we work together.”

“…Maybe it’s just me, but everyone I meet at this company is so easygoing.”

To put it nicely, they were easygoing, and to put it badly, they were sloppy in everything they did.

“Well, then…”

Lee Hyun-soo began to explain step by step what MK wanted from Hwang Min-soo. Hwang Min-soo’s face, which had been listening to the explanation with an interested expression at first, gradually hardened.

By the time Lee Hyun-soo finished the explanation, Hwang Min-soo’s face was completely distorted.

“So…”

Hwang Min-soo’s fingers moved erratically in the air as if trying to organize his thoughts.

After a long time of not being able to speak, Hwang Min-soo turned to Kang Jin-ho with a dumbfounded expression.

“…This isn’t about hiring a manager, it’s about telling me to start a business from scratch, isn’t it?”

“It’s better to start completely new than to fix things half-heartedly.”

“…You’re so recklessly optimistic.”

Hwang Min-soo sighed.

‘Well, I expected it to some extent.’

The company called MK was unheard of. Whether the company was solid or not was secondary, it meant that it was a company that had not been established for long. Such a company had to be fundamentally reorganized.

“Well, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Oh, you’re optimistic?”

“What did you expect?”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled.

“I didn’t expect you to hit me, but I expected you to have a fit.”

“Usually, people would have a fit. It’s like telling me to go on an overseas assignment and then throwing me a shovel and telling me to build the headquarters from scratch.”

“It’s different in that we’re providing you with manpower.”

Hwang Min-soo looked at Lee Hyun-soo with a bewildered expression. Lee Hyun-soo subtly turned her gaze away at that look.

It was a bit much, to be honest.

First, they wanted to start a franchise, so they wanted him to select the personnel to run the franchise headquarters, create a system, and once the franchise was running smoothly, they wanted him to take over the management of the company as well.

It was like telling him to play the drum, the janggu [a traditional Korean drum], and the kkwaenggwari [a small Korean gong] all by himself.

“…There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Are you accepting it?”

“It’s better this way.”

Hwang Min-soo picked up the remaining beer on the table and opened the lid.

Ssssh.

Hwang Min-soo took a sip of beer and wiped his mouth.

“It’s better to be busy than to be vaguely busy. I’m not starting with a half-hearted attitude.”

Hwang Min-soo’s sharp gaze was fixed on Kang Jin-ho.

“I don’t know if I would have started, but once I start, I’ll go all the way. I will never let you down. Instead, please promise me one thing, Chairman.”

“Say it.”

“Please make it easy for me to work. Let me recruit the people I want, and I’ll change the company’s system to a style that’s easy for me to work with. I’ll show you the results for sure, so please guarantee my autonomy.”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Lee Hyun-soo with a subtle gaze.

Then Lee Hyun-soo smiled awkwardly.

“…Is there a problem?”

“No, it’s not that…”

Lee Hyun-soo burst out laughing.

“That’s not a request. Our chairman is not good at interfering. Usually, people who work under the chairman get angry and ask him to pay more attention.”

“You’ve come to a company that suits you well. Congratulations.”

While listening to Lee Hyun-soo’s insincere congratulations, Hwang Min-soo pondered again and again whether his decision was the right one.

‘What can I do?’

It was a fait accompli.

Hwang Min-soo smiled awkwardly as he faced the smiling Lee Hyun-soo.

“But there’s one thing I want to ask…”

“Yes. Please ask anything.”

“I’m just asking in case, but are the abilities of the employees we’ll be working with reliable? Surely, the employees of this big company aren’t all newbies or have no experience, right?”

Kang Jin-ho and Lee Hyun-soo exchanged glances with subtle eyes. Hwang Min-soo, who had lived his whole life watching Hwang Jung-hoo’s every move, could not have failed to notice that exchange of glances.

Hwang Min-soo quietly got up from his seat.

“I’ll go for today.”

“Hey! Hey! Please sit down first!”

“Let me go! Is this even a reasonable thing to say? If you’re going to send people to the battlefield, you should at least give them a gun! What am I supposed to do with chopsticks!”

“Come on, calm down! Take a deep breath, take a deep breath.”

“Let me go!”

“Now that it’s come to this, take it easy. What can we do? The living must live.”

“You crazy bastard!”

That’s how Hwang Jung-hoo’s second son, Hwang Min-soo, joined MK.