Return To The Building Owner [EN]: Chapter 571

Two days later.

Chairman Min Hong-shik and Director Park Sun-woo arrived in Bupyeong, their expressions relaxed and confident.

Before getting out of the car, Chairman Min Hong-shik turned to Director Park Sun-woo, as if to double-check.

“Everything is prepared, right?”

“Yes, Chairman. Every document is perfectly prepared, down to the last penny. No matter how hard that kid tries to find fault, there won’t be any loopholes. So, please don’t worry and just deal with him.”

Director Park Sun-woo’s face was full of confidence. Seeing this, Chairman Min Hong-shik nodded in acknowledgment, patted Director Park Sun-woo’s shoulder, and said,

“I feel reassured having Director Park. Now, let’s go meet that kid.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

The two got out of the car and headed towards Movie Heart.

At that moment.

Hyun-sung was on the phone inside the Movie Heart store. He was talking to Choi Yoon-soo, a used video dealer.

“So, Min Kwang-gi is opening a store in Bucheon, is that right?”

-“Yeah, I got a call from my brother the other day and finally tracked him down after some searching.”

“Still, it’s only because you’re a veteran that you found him so quickly. Other dealers are too scared to even approach him because it’s Movie Heart’s stuff.”

-“They can’t help it. As you know, Movie Heart is nationwide, and if they get on their bad side, it’s hard to survive in this business. So, I had to be careful too. You have to understand.”

That was true.

Movie Heart was able to grow so big because it was nationwide. So, used dealers had to be careful of Movie Heart. That’s why even a veteran like Choi Yoon-soo had to be cautious.

“Yes, I understand. From now on, I’ll contact the founder myself, so you can step back.”

-“Okay, I’m sorry, but I’ll stop here.”

“Thank you. And I’ll take care of the referral fee.”

-“No, don’t do that. I wouldn’t take a referral fee from you. Just handle it quietly this time.”

“I’ll take care of that. Then, goodbye…”

Click.

A smile spread across Hyun-sung’s face after he hung up.

Now that he was dealing directly with the founder, he would be able to get the best price for the goods.

If Movie Heart had taken these items, they could have easily gotten at least 100 million won, maybe even 120 million won.

That’s why they were so greedy.

But the moment Hyun-sung stepped forward, they had no choice but to back down.

The reason was obvious.

This is how scary money is.

Even the mighty Movie Heart backed down in front of an individual.

“Heh heh!”

Hyun-sung couldn’t help but feel good.

The situation was incomparable to his past life. It was all thanks to the power of capital. Whatever the reason, he was glad that he could at least get the best price for the goods.

“By the way, they should be here soon…”

Hyun-sung turned his head and looked at the entrance of the store.

Just then.

Clang!

The store door opened and two people entered. Of course, those two were Chairman Min Hong-shik and Director Park Sun-woo from Movie Heart.

As soon as Chairman Min Hong-shik entered, he spoke confidently.

“To think I’d see CEO Kim here. It seems you never know what kind of connections you’ll make. Who would have thought we’d meet again like this?”

Chairman Min Hong-shik’s expression exuded confidence.

Hyun-sung smiled slightly at him. He seemed to know why he was acting so confident.

Two days ago, Hyun-sung had said something directly to Director Park Sun-woo.

It was about the settlement. He had also mentioned that he would appreciate it if they could settle the entrusted management in advance and bring it with them.

Of course, they would have prepared it.

And thoroughly, at that.

But what Hyun-sung was aiming for wasn’t the entrusted management. In the end, Chairman Min Hong-shik and Director Park Sun-woo had wasted their time for two days.

Of course, the two of them didn’t know that yet.

That’s why Hyun-sung was smiling.

The three of them sat around the table, and Director Park Sun-woo immediately stepped forward, as if he had been waiting for this moment.

“CEO Kim, take this first.”

Director Park Sun-woo handed Hyun-sung an envelope.

It was probably proof of the 40 million won that had gone into the entrusted management.

But Hyun-sung immediately asked, pretending not to know anything.

“What is this?”

“It’s about the 40 million won that went into the entrusted management, as you mentioned the other day. So, please take a look.”

“Ah, I see…”

Hyun-sung glanced at the envelope and nodded. Then, he casually pushed the envelope aside.

Seeing this, Chairman Min Hong-shik immediately spoke, looking bewildered.

“CEO Kim, what are you doing?”

Chairman Min Hong-shik’s expression showed how surprised he was. According to his expectations, Hyun-sung should have carefully examined the contents as soon as Director Park Sun-woo handed him the envelope.

Then, he should have tried to find any flaws or problems.

Of course, he wouldn’t be able to find any flaws. Director Park Sun-woo had already prepared all the documents perfectly.

That was the picture he had painted.

But Hyun-sung did the opposite, simply glancing at the documents and pushing them aside without even looking at them. Chairman Min Hong-shik couldn’t help but be surprised.

Hyun-sung asked innocently.

“Yes? What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean, ‘What’s wrong?’ Aren’t you going to check the contents?”

“Is there really a need to check?”

“What do you mean, ‘really’?”

Chairman Min Hong-shik was dumbfounded.

It was Hyun-sung who had first requested a settlement for the entrusted management. But when he actually prepared the documents and handed them over, he just glanced at them and pushed them aside without even looking at them. Did that make any sense? How much effort had he put into preparing those documents?

And another person was also dumbfounded.

Director Park Sun-woo was going crazy. He had barely slept for two days to prepare those documents. But he was speechless at Hyun-sung’s refusal to even open them.

This couldn’t be happening. If this was how it was going to be, all his hard work for the past two days would have been for nothing.

Director Park Sun-woo couldn’t help but ask why he wasn’t looking at the documents.

“CEO Kim, didn’t you ask me to settle the entrusted management first?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Then what is this behavior?”

“I’m just saying that I don’t need to look at them because you would have prepared all the documents perfectly anyway. Is there anything wrong with that?”

The only reason Hyun-sung wasn’t checking the contents was that there was no need to. The documents were probably fake anyway, and the problems with those fake documents would have already been fixed.

In that situation, what was the point of checking the documents?

But Director Park Sun-woo couldn’t accept the situation. He couldn’t help but feel regret.

“Still…”

“I’m just saying that I’ll accept the documents as they are. Do you understand what I mean?”

“…”

Director Park Sun-woo had nothing more to say.

Hyun-sung had clearly said ‘created documents’ a moment ago. That meant he knew that the documents created over the past two days were fake. But he wasn’t going to ask any further.

Chairman Min Hong-shik was also speechless.

He had been confident when he entered Movie Heart a moment ago. All the documents were perfectly prepared.

But he realized that it was meaningless from what Hyun-sung had said a moment ago.

He had already anticipated everything.

That the documents for the entrusted management were created documents. And yet, he wasn’t going to check them.

What did that mean?

It meant that he had already anticipated the current situation when he first talked about the entrusted management.

Hyun-sung continued.

“Well, shall we start the settlement in earnest now?”

“What do you mean, ‘now’?”

Chairman Min Hong-shik felt like he had been hit in the back of the head. Director Park Sun-woo next to him felt the same way.

When he said he wouldn’t look at the documents for the entrusted management, he thought everything had ended anticlimactically.

But suddenly, strange words came out of Hyun-sung’s mouth. It was the word ‘now’.

That meant that his target wasn’t the entrusted management from the beginning, but something else.

In the end, the entrusted management was just bait to divert attention.

Director Park Sun-woo cautiously asked Hyun-sung.

“What kind of settlement are you talking about?”

“From what I’ve heard, you took too much when you first opened the store, so I’m going to settle that part.”

“When we opened the store?”

“Yes, I understand that you need to take a certain amount since it’s a chain store, but it was too excessive.”

“Ha…!”

Director Park Sun-woo couldn’t help but laugh. He found the current situation more and more absurd the more he thought about it.

In any case, how much they took when they opened the store was an internal matter for Movie Heart. But now, Hyun-sung was going to argue about that too.

Of course, they could just ignore him.

But it wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

If it was easy, they wouldn’t have come this far.

The reason for all of this was his wealth, the fact that they had no choice but to be swayed by the money he possessed.

Director Park Sun-woo had no choice but to ask again.

“Okay, what do you want to confirm?”

“First of all, it’s about the video supply. I heard that you received 80 million won for supplying 40,000 videos. Is that true?”

“Ahem… that’s right.”

Director Park Sun-woo cleared his throat and answered briefly. If he had been confident, he wouldn’t have cleared his throat on purpose. That meant that Director Park Sun-woo already knew that there was a problem with the price.

Hyun-sung asked again.

“I saw those items when I first came here, and they only looked like 30 million won worth of goods to me. What do you think, Director?”

“So, what are you trying to say?”

Director Park Sun-woo had no choice but to admit it. Those items were only worth that much anyway.

“Are you admitting what I’m saying?”

“I’m not admitting 100%, but I’m admitting it to some extent. But that’s an internal matter for Movie Heart. I don’t think CEO Kim, as a third party, has anything to say about it.”

Pfft.

Hyun-sung smiled at the end of Director Park Sun-woo’s words. Then, he looked at Chairman Min Hong-shik and asked.

“Chairman, do you think so too?”

“Director Park is right. That’s an internal matter for our Movie Heart…”

“Chairman!”

Hyun-sung interrupted Chairman Min Hong-shik. Then, he immediately continued.

“Did you take advantage of all the other stores across the country in the same way?”

“Hmm…”

Chairman Min Hong-shik couldn’t answer.

Of course, Hyun-sung was right. But he couldn’t admit that fact with his own mouth.

“Is that a fact?”

“…”

“Okay, since you’re remaining silent, I’ll take that as an admission. I’ll stop there for now. Now, I’ll tell you my settlement conditions.”

Hyun-sung paused for a moment and then opened his mouth again.

“In the end, the head office took 50 million won for the opening items. But I can’t accept all of that. I’ll concede up to double.”

“Double?”

“Yes, I’ll admit up to 60 million won. But I can’t accept the remaining 20 million won.”

“You can’t accept it?”

“Yes, because it doesn’t make sense. No matter how much of a chain business it is, you can’t go beyond double. This isn’t a matter of conscience, it’s a matter of basic principles.”

Everything has its limits. You can’t go too far.

Passing on 30 million won worth of goods to a store owner for 80 million won is an act that doesn’t make sense no matter how you think about it. Even if it’s an internal matter for Movie Heart.

“So what?”

“What do you mean, ‘So what?’ Didn’t I tell you I was going to settle it?”

“In the end, you’re saying we should spit it out, is that it?”

“That’s what settlement is. If you had taken a reasonable amount, I wouldn’t be doing this.”

“What if we refuse?”

Smirk.

Hyun-sung looked at Chairman Min Hong-shik and smiled. Of course, that smile was full of contempt.

Hyun-sung opened his mouth again.

“Can you handle it?”

“What?”

“I promise you, I’ll start by getting rid of the 200-pyeong [approximately 7,166 square feet] Movie Heart in Mapo, Seoul. And I’ll do it within three months.”

“…”

Gritting.

Chairman Min Hong-shik clenched his teeth instead of answering.

Movie Heart Mapo.

The symbol of Movie Heart is the Movie Heart in Mapo. It’s the largest in the country, with daily sales of over 15 million won.

The place Hyun-sung was targeting was that very place. That meant he was going to have an all-out war with Movie Heart.

And the problem was that it probably wasn’t an empty threat.

‘You son of a bitch!’

After a long period of contemplation, Chairman Min Hong-shik finally lowered his head.