Twelve Years Later
Winter Doesn't Know the Pattern of Tropical Fish
Author | Ahyeoldae
Publisher | Nine
Submissions | RIDI New Works Discovery Center
(ridibooks.com/go/creators)
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The heavy metallic clang of interlocking iron behind him scraped sharply against his eardrums.
Kang-hyun paused for a moment, quietly gazing at the landscape unfolding before him.
The grand mansion, hidden layer upon layer behind dense evergreens and high, sturdy walls, looked down as if monitoring the unfamiliar visitor.
“From here on, we’ll have to walk. Please follow me.”
A Cheongbaekwon staff member stepped forward to guide him. The middle-aged man’s face carried a self-important air, as if confronting a country bumpkin who had just arrived in Seoul for the first time.
“Cheongbaekwon is so vast that first-time visitors sometimes lose their way.”
It was not empty bluster. Beyond the garden—wide enough to be called an estate—the grandeur of the mansion still came through clearly.
Of course, for Kang-hyun it was a useless concern.
“Is that so.”
Instead of continuing the conversation, Kang-hyun offered only a brief response and once again set his foot on the hard stone steps.
The full spring sunlight shattered brightly over the ash-gray roofs and white plaster walls. Whenever a gentle breeze blew, the tall old trees, their heights neatly matched, leisurely rustled their deep green leaves, and between them newly sprouted buds trembled their light-green bodies.
Add to that the mountain ridge of fine scenery that solidly supported the mansion from behind in the distance, and it felt as if he had been invited to the secret villa of a European tycoon.
Certainly, even among the renowned figures of Korea’s business world, few would own a mansion of this scale.
But that was also because they wanted to settle in respectable areas—not live like this, stuck in a small city on the outskirts of the capital, cut off from the world.
“The Chairman is waiting in the study.”
As he followed the guide into the building, the cool chill emanating from the marble climbed up from his ankles. From the impossibly high ceiling, an unlit chandelier gleamed sharply.
Kang-hyun did not look around with intimidated eyes the way people visiting Cheongbaekwon for the first time usually did. He simply followed the guide in silence.
Along the long corridor, paintings and small sculptures were displayed sparsely. Despite the structure that easily echoed sound, the mansion was filled with a desolate silence like a museum whose visitors had stopped coming.
“Chairman, the guest has arrived.”
Finally arriving before the reddish-brown mahogany door, the guide reported directly without a word to him.
“Enter.”
At the short permission, the guide flung open the door.
The stinging sunlight pouring through the front window savagely clawed at Kang-hyun’s vision. After blinking his eyelids a couple of times to adjust to the light, an old man sitting with his back to the sun came into view.
“You’ve had a hard time coming all this way, Representative Tak Kang-hyun.”
Chairman Baek greeted him with appropriate flattery. The man who had just passed sixty had such a kind face that one could hardly believe he was someone who had lived by drinking others’ tears of blood and savoring their screams.
“Thank you for the invitation, Chairman.”
Kang-hyun responded by gently lifting the corners of his mouth.
He could smile as much as he wanted at a shameless scoundrel wearing human skin. And thus he had been able to cross the threshold of this Cheongbaekwon.
“Tak Kang-hyun, you say…?”
However, only one person—Manager Lee of Cheongbaekwon, who had guided Kang-hyun this far—widened his eyes so much that the fine wrinkles around them faded at those three syllables of the name.
Of course, even under the stinging gaze that seemed to pierce his cheek, Kang-hyun did not even glance his way.
“Manager Lee, you may leave now.”
Chairman Baek barked at Manager Lee, who was lingering without reading the room.
“Ah, yes. Yes.”
While repeatedly bowing his head toward the Chairman, the gaze that had clung persistently to Kang-hyun finally disappeared.
Only after the footsteps fading beyond the door had completely ceased did Chairman Baek finally open his mouth.
“I can understand Manager Lee’s surprise. I had a similar reaction when I first heard your name.”
As if it were not a pleasant memory, a crooked smile hung on Chairman Baek’s lips.
Kang-hyun showed no particular reaction. Nor did he appear tense. Chairman Baek, who had been staring at the clean face with no change in expression, soon changed the subject.
“You said you returned yesterday.”
“Yes.”
“The result?”
Instead of rambling, Kang-hyun took out documents from his bag and placed them on Chairman Baek’s desk.
Chairman Baek quickly flipped through the pages written in English and found the attached translation at the back. His eyes, which had impatiently scanned the contract containing the previously discussed contents, stopped on the signature stamped alongside Paeksan.
Harrington Venture. A venture investment firm led by William Harrington, the grandson of the founder, and a subsidiary of Harrington Investment, a global investment company with a solid reputation on Wall Street.
“You really did it.”
A sigh mixed with admiration burst from Chairman Baek’s mouth, as if witnessing something utterly absurd.
It was inevitable. In this narrow country, companies that had made somewhat of a name for themselves never wanted to get involved with Paeksan.
Crisp new bills or worn and tattered ones were all the same money, yet for the sole reason that it started from the hands of a Myeongdong loan shark, Paeksan had always been shunned like bacteria proliferating on dirty bills.
But that Paeksan had now joined hands with Harrington, which even Korea’s leading companies were desperate to get a stamp of approval from.
Although the conditions attached were somewhat strict, the very fact of having signed the contract was an excellent progress and achievement for Paeksan.
Chairman Baek steadily gazed at the young man before him who had accomplished that great feat.
“I should apologize to you. I knew you were from Harrington Venture, but honestly, I was half-doubting this deal.”
Beneath the apology lay a subtle disregard. But Kang-hyun readily nodded.
“I understand. I wasn’t with Harrington for long, after all.”
“And yet succeeding is a testament to your ability.”
The corners of Chairman Baek’s mouth twitched comically as he offered the stingy praise. The smile of a man who trusted no one completely and thus could not fully rejoice had a twisted corner somewhere.
“Still, my eye for people isn’t dead yet. The moment I saw you work, I thought you were the real deal.”
It was then that the flow of conversation, which he had expected to just pile on self-praise about his own discernment, suddenly twisted direction.
“Your clean way of handling things seems a bit like Director Tak as well.”
At the sudden mention of the name from the past, Kang-hyun momentarily stopped breathing. The neatly tied necktie suddenly seemed to tighten around his neck.
But the momentary agitation could not put even a single scratch on the mask Kang-hyun was wearing.
The opponent was a crocodile-like man who wouldn’t bat an eye even after committing monstrous acts. To deal with such a man, he himself had to at least pretend to wear a crocodile’s skin.
“I’ve never thought I resembled my father, but if it’s praise, I’ll gratefully accept it.”
Kang-hyun, who slightly furrowed one eyebrow as if something was off, retorted dryly.
Then Chairman Baek lightened the sunken atmosphere with a light joking tone.
“Oh my, of course it’s praise. Director Tak was a bit like that with his words, but while he was alive, there was no talent like him.”
A bit like that. Wasn’t that an excessively generous expression for a murderer who, though it was manslaughter, had killed a person.
However, contrary to his inner thoughts, Kang-hyun responded to the praise with the finest smile he had shown so far. It was also a secret weapon that could dismantle any wariness or suspicion.
“By the way, you said it’s been twelve years since you were last at Cheongbaekwon?”
As expected, Chairman Baek’s tone as he changed the subject had softened further. Kang-hyun often realized in moments like this that he was living well off not only his brains but also the fine looks inherited from his parents.
“That’s right.”
“I wonder when time has flown by so much.”
Chairman Baek replaced his regret over the passing years with a short sigh.
“So, how does it feel coming back after so long?”
“It seems the same.”
Though it would be natural for emotions to well up anew, Kang-hyun offered only a brief one-line evaluation. Since it was the impression he had actually felt on the way here, there was no lie.
Perhaps thanks to cleanly erasing even the traces that naturally weather with time. Cheongbaekwon had changed astonishingly little. Enough to make him think it was fortunate, yet also enough to feel unpleasant at the unwelcome nostalgia.
“You’re right. Excessively the same.”
Even at the blunt assessment that could feel bold, Chairman Baek readily nodded, then suddenly rose from his seat.
His slow steps crossing the study stopped in front of a large aquarium. Inside the massive tank, large enough that an adult man spreading both arms would still have room, ornamental fish swam leisurely.
Perhaps because it was in a corner where sunlight didn’t reach. Despite the feast of colorful, gorgeous fins, the tank exuded a dark and damp atmosphere as if a piece of the deep sea where light doesn’t reach had been cut out and displayed.
“You see,”
Chairman Baek, who had kept his gaze fixed on the tank for a while as if lost in thought, finally spoke again.
“I have always hoped that Paeksan would possess a dignity befitting the name of this Cheongbaekwon. It would be no exaggeration to say I devoted my entire life to that.”
Cheongbaek—clear and pure white. It was an excessively absurd wish, but instead of openly mocking that dream, Kang-hyun took the attitude of silently listening.
“But no matter how hard I tried, it was useless. Turning clear water into muddy water is easy, but the reverse is difficult.”
After briefly revealing his intimate inner thoughts with uncharacteristically weak words, Chairman Baek’s snake-like gaze, which had instantly changed, once again bit sharply into Kang-hyun.
“Can you really do that?”
The voice of one who had finally discovered a spark of hope only upon reaching twilight, yet had not completely cast off suspicion, asked.
And Kang-hyun answered firmly in an upright voice that dispelled even the slightest doubt.
“You don’t purify muddy water—you discard it. You can just fill the tank anew.”
Then Chairman Baek burst into hearty laughter. As if the spirit that seemed ready to uproot everything from the roots was more than satisfactory.
Kang-hyun’s lips also drew a soft curve. Smiles that could never coexist cast a strange shadow over the study dyed in spring sunlight.
Whatever else, that last statement alone would never be kept. Baek Sang-il, who had emptied even the muddy water completely, would fail to be refilled with clean water and end up exposing that filthy bottom to the entire world.
For that purpose, Tak Kang-hyun had finally returned to Cheongbaekwon.