The Chaebol Returns To The Presidency 1967 [EN]: Chapter 172

172. Showdown with the Academic Mafia

The bus screeched to a halt.

“Final stop! Everybody off!” the bus driver announced.

This time, the President’s secret visit was to Bulgwang-dong, located in western Seoul.

Across from the bus terminal, a public bathhouse with an impressive red brick chimney stood out.

The President remarked to his bodyguard, “It’s been ages since I’ve been to a public bathhouse. I can barely remember.”

“I went last week. I go to scrub myself clean, but soaking in the hot water really melts away the fatigue.”

“Should we go to the bathhouse today?”

“What if they recognize you after your disguise comes off?”

“Hmm, like last time, I’ll pretend to be mute, and you can act like my son. That should be perfect. Oh, and get me a cane too.”

“Haha, you could be an actor. Your acting skills are improving rapidly.”

“I’m thinking of dabbling in the movie business after my term as President ends.”

They leisurely explored the neighborhood and market before heading to the bathhouse to soak away their fatigue.

Afterward, they headed back to the bus terminal to return to Gwanghwamun.

As they were about to board the bus at the terminal, they suddenly heard a woman’s terrified scream.

“Where do you think you’re touching!”

“Hold still!”

At first, the President and his bodyguard thought it was just a lovers’ quarrel and were about to pass by.

However, there was an unusual tension between the two.

“What’s this? Why is there cash coming out?”

“I-I’m sorry.”

Slap!

They even heard the sound of the man slapping the woman’s cheek.

“Sob sob!”

“You thieving bitch! No wonder the company is in the red when you’re skimming like this!”

“The drivers curse at me if I don’t give them their cut.”

“Don’t blame the drivers!”

The President, who had overheard the conversation, approached the bus company employee who was berating the young bus conductor.

The company employee, apparently a disciplinarian, was burly and had a menacing look.

The conductor was trembling like a mouse before a cat.

Unable to watch any longer, the President stepped between the two.

“Why are you assaulting this young woman?”

Despite it being just a question, the employee glared at him.

“Who are you? Mind your own business and be on your way!”

“I’m interfering because she’s like my granddaughter. I asked what’s going on, didn’t I?”

“I’m disciplining this thieving bitch for skimming bus fares! Now, is that enough? Go away!”

As the employee raised his voice aggressively, the President calmly warned him.

“But are you searching her body? Don’t you know that’s a bigger crime?”

“What’s this old geezer talking about?”

“She said the bus drivers forced her to skim.”

“That’s none of my business. I caught the thief red-handed, so there!”

“If there’s a suspicion, you should report it to the police. Why are you taking the law into your own hands?”

“What? You should be grateful I’m not handing her over to the police. What was that you said? Is this old codger senile? Can’t tell when to butt in and just spouting nonsense!”

Enraged, he kicked the President’s cane out from under him.

The President, losing his grip on the cane, staggered.

Eventually, the bodyguard stepped forward.

“Hey! What gives you the right to use violence!”

“Are you her daddy? Looks like today’s the day you meet your ancestors! You little punk-”

The male employee threw a heavy punch.

The bodyguard, as if waiting for it, didn’t back down. Instead, he sidestepped and delivered a devastating elbow uppercut to the man’s jaw.

Thwack!

Crack!

A strange, metallic sound that couldn’t possibly come from a human echoed.

Several of the man’s upper and lower teeth shattered and flew out.

Inevitably, the man lost his balance and collapsed forward.

“Eek!”

The conductor covered her face with both hands and screamed.

The man’s face was covered in blood, making him look grotesque.

The President picked up his cane from the ground and tapped the man’s head with it.

“This is how the justice system is realized.”

The two boarded the bus and disappeared without a trace.

*

State Council Meeting.

The Minister of Transportation reported.

“The bus drivers’ and conductors’ salaries are so low that skimming bus fares, the so-called ‘Ppangttang’ [a Korean slang term for skimming bus fares], has become commonplace. We are considering replacing cash fares with fare cards or tokens to prevent Ppangttang.”

The President, well aware of the failure of the token system during Chairman Wang’s era, said,

“Tokens are just inconvenient and cumbersome for passengers. They are useless in preventing Ppangttang.”

“Until an electronic payment system is fully in place, there will be loopholes in any fare payment method. Before thorough education and enforcement, we must first and foremost raise salaries to fundamentally eliminate Ppangttang.”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

“Have the bus company’s management and labor unions meet and have an open discussion. Tell them to raise salaries in exchange for eradicating Ppangttang. After that, plainclothes police officers will patrol as passengers to arrest any theft that occurs, and the perpetrators will be severely punished.”

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

“Public transportation is a public service. Consider a quasi-public system where the government subsidizes unprofitable bus routes. Also, research the operation of small village buses that run to every corner of the neighborhood.”

The bus route reorganization and government subsidies for chronic deficit routes were implemented, and the operation of government-supported village buses was actively considered.

* * *

J University.

Students were eating lunch in the cafeteria.

However, instead of enjoying their meal, the students who received their trays all grimaced.

The cafeteria menu consisted only of barley rice, a few pieces of kimchi, a small amount of seasoned bean sprouts, and a watery tofu soybean paste soup.

“At this rate, it’s worse than military rations.”

“I heard that Western-style food is served in the military these days. This is refugee-level.”

“The president is taking all the money, so the food is like this every day.”

“It would be a relief if it was just the cafeteria food. Half of the faucets on campus are broken, but they don’t fix them. There’s no heating in the winter. If I had known it was such a poor school, I wouldn’t have enrolled here.”

“My cousin was going to apply here, but I foamed at the mouth and stopped him. Now I can’t even drop out of school.”

“Our department has 40 students, but 10 drop out after a year. They take bribes to fill those 10 vacancies with transfers.”

“Ha~ They take entrance fees when you enroll, and then they take transfer fees again. No matter how I think about it, the school is completely obsessed with money.”

“Some professors with a sense of justice petitioned, but they were all kicked out. Talented and conscientious professors don’t last.”

“Hoo~ Is the only way to deal with this school to either quit or just turn a deaf ear?”

“Quitting is not an option. The students are the owners of the school. So we have to step up and change it. The student council is holding a rally today to eradicate private school corruption. Let’s go together.”

“I’ve never been to a protest before, but I can’t stand it this time. Okay, let’s go!”

*

Main Building.

Hundreds of students occupied the main building lobby and chanted for the president’s resignation in unison.

“Nepotistic hiring of professors, the president must resign!”

“Father is the president, daughter is the chairwoman, son-in-law is the head of academic affairs, abolish the family management!”

“Resign, family president who suppresses whistleblowers!”

“The board of directors who embezzled public funds and condoned illegal admissions must resign en masse!”

The walls of the main building were covered with slogans demanding the president’s resignation, scrawled in paint.

*

4th floor, President’s office.

The president was shouting furiously into the phone at the head of academic affairs.

“Call the police, quickly!”

Having received the order, the head of academic affairs urgently called the local police.

“Student rioters are occupying the main building and committing violence! Please come quickly and arrest them!”

The police on the other end of the line replied.

“– The police cannot intervene in school matters. Try to persuade them and reach a compromise.”

“The rioters are occupying the school and causing a disturbance, and you’re saying the police are just going to stand by and watch?”

The president, who had been listening to the phone conversation, said,

“Tell them the students are detaining and threatening the president!”

“They are detaining and threatening the president!”

“– The students and the president should sit down and have an open discussion. I repeat, the police cannot be dispatched for school matters. Try asking the school security personnel for help.”

“What good are half a dozen old security guards going to do!”

In the end, the police did not intervene in the on-campus protest.

The president lamented.

“What is the country coming to, that students dare to grab their teachers by the collar! The police receive a report and just stand idly by. These are the end times, the end times!”

“What do we do now, Father-in-law?”

“Seeing that those guys even brought tents, they’re planning a long-term sit-in here. What are we going to do?”

“Should I contact a manpower agency and call in some goons? I know some guys who are good with their fists. If they swing some steel pipes around, the students will be terrified and run away.”

“Tsk, tsk, is that the best you can come up with? Don’t you know the police will come right away if there’s bloodshed? What kind of disgrace would we suffer if we hired thugs instead of school staff and it got in the newspapers!”

“Tch, a beating is what those punks need….”

“You have to use your head, use your head! Do it like this!”

*

The next morning.

About 20 students were sleeping late in the main building lobby after staging an all-night sit-in.

At this time, someone threw leaflets into the air from the upper floors of the main building.

The leaflets falling from above fluttered like snow.

The same leaflets were scattered here and there throughout the campus.

The students who came to school each picked up a leaflet and read it.

The students, who naturally thought it would be a report on the denunciation of private school corruption and progress, were shocked.

“W-what is this?”

It was a North Korea-praising leaflet titled ‘Let’s go to the earthly paradise, North Korea!’

The student council president, who was protesting in the main building, was also surprised to see this leaflet.

“Who scattered this?”

The head of planning, who was returning from the restroom, said,

“President, did you order the making of Molotov cocktails?”

“Molotov cocktails? What Molotov cocktails? I didn’t do anything like that.”

“There was a box of Molotov cocktails in the corner of the restroom.”

“A whole box? Something’s fishy here.”

Sure enough, the head of culture rushed in, out of breath.

“The police are entering the school gate!”

“The police? Why are the police entering an on-campus protest?”

“I think it’s because of the North Korea-praising leaflets scattered around campus. It’s under the student council’s name! We didn’t write this, did we?”

“Are you crazy? What North Korea praise has to do with eradicating private school corruption?”

About 100 riot police officers entered the main building and arrested the protesting students, student council executives who participated, and about 70 active participants, and confiscated Molotov cocktails, leaflets, and protest supplies.

*

Police station.

A detective interrogated the student council president.

“It says student council here, but you’re pretending you don’t know?”

“This is a frame-up! It’s a movement to oust the corrupt president, board of directors, and faculty! We didn’t make the Molotov cocktails. Someone deliberately put them there.”

“Who would do such a thing?”

“It’s a setup orchestrated by the president’s side to break up the protest.”

“A setup?”

“Yes, a red scare operation. They plotted a conspiracy to break up the student council protest.”