The Chairman Who Wants to Play and Eat

Episode 15. I lost confidence. Confidence in failing.

The long, long lunch break was over.

“Whew.”

The Rolls-Royce carrying Chairman Hyun Byung-gun and Chief Joo drove away.

Only after seeing the two black security vehicles following behind did I finally let out the sigh I had been holding in.

Every second felt like a war.

Despite all the effort, all I got was points. It was a big problem.

I left Samcheong-dong with nothing but wounds.

“This can’t go on. Not like this.”

Maybe because I was a bit shaken, I accidentally muttered to myself in the car heading to school.

“Yes, Ewha?”

The driver, Lee Beom-seok, asked back.

“Are you talking about Ewha Womans University in Sinchon?”

“······.”

“Haha, thank you for the advice, but I know that if I turn towards Ewha from here, it will take a long detour to get to school, young master. I’m very familiar with Seoul’s geography, so don’t worry.”

Lee Beom-seok, who misunderstood my words, replied cheerfully.

“That’s not what I meant, just go.”

“Understood. I thought you meant…”

“Meant what?”

“Oh, haha, it’s nothing, young master.”

A small incident passed.

Anyway,

The more I thought about it, the more my heart ached again.

It was a mistake to say it out loud, but it was true.

This can’t go on.

It became troublesome.

The recruitment of Dr. Jo Young-dae, which I thought would lose a lot of points, unexpectedly received high praise from the chairman.

The problem is bigger than I thought.

Thanks to this, it has become difficult to mess up work at the company for the time being.

I can’t overturn everything now.

There is a proper line in work.

Overturning it goes far beyond that line. It not only harms me but also the company. Of course, there will be no Gangnam building or anything.

So now I have to find another way.

It was at this point that I had this thought.

“By the way, young master, are you preparing well for the midterm exams?”

Lee Daeri (insensitively) opened his mouth once again.

“Midterm exams?”

Now that I heard it, I remembered.

I had completely forgotten because I was busy.

“Yes, the exams are not far off, are they? If you need, I can help you study like last time.”

“Exams…”

“Just let me know anytime, and I’ll be ready to help.”

“You don’t have to. It would be troublesome. I can study on my own.”

“Troublesome? Young master, it’s not troublesome at all.”

He explained that there were strict instructions from the chairman and the chief secretary, and that he was grateful for their concern but it was not troublesome at all.

I thought to myself.

Wrong,

The troublesome one is not him, but me,

Instead of saying that, I let it go in one ear and out the other,

Suddenly,

A realization came to me.

‘Ah. That’s right.’

Why didn’t I think of that until now?

While looking for another way, I hadn’t thought about the midterm exams. I was so focused on solving the company’s immediate problems that I didn’t realize what was right under my nose.

It’s the first exam since I entered university.

You just need to get good grades.

Of course, by “good,” I mean high enough not to be expelled from the family, but lower than the expectations I’ve built up so far.

Raising the expectations so high has actually helped.

I can lower my grades a bit.

It will stand out.

Ironically, I have to use this. Seizing the given opportunity sharply is how I survive in Seonghyeon.

The silence grew longer with these thoughts.

Then,

“Young master?”

It was a long time before I heard Mr. Lee’s voice again. The car had already entered the campus.

“We’ve arrived, young master. In front of the main building.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Then I’ll come back to pick you up when your class is over.”

Just as he was about to leave,

“Wait a moment, Mr. Lee.”

There was one thing to instruct.

“You don’t need to come back to pick me up later. I’ll go back on my own. But there’s one thing I need you to do.”

Beom-seok felt his mind becoming clearer.

‘As expected of our young master.’

When they first left Samcheong-dong, the young master’s face was full of dark clouds.

He looked like he had a lot on his mind.

Then suddenly, he said this couldn’t go on.

Honestly, it was out of the blue.

So at first, I thought he was talking about Ihyeon Women’s University.

But he wasn’t.

‘Don’t jump to conclusions.’

That’s all he said.

It was something that had passed by,

But just before getting off in front of the school, the young master gave him an unexpected task.

“Mr. Lee, from now on, find the best oriental medicine clinic and order Chongmyung-tang. It’s not for me. It should be enough for all the first-year students except me. So you’d better start moving quickly, right?”

Chongmyungtang?

Suddenly?

The task itself is not difficult.

I just didn’t understand the reason.

The young master, who had repeatedly confirmed the instructions to himself, finished speaking and walked away into the school.

‘What is this? What on earth?’

He stood there for a moment, staring blankly at the spot where the young master had left, lost in thought.

A few minutes passed like that.

Gradually, his thoughts became clear.

‘So that’s what it was.’

The young master had clearly said, ‘It can’t go on like this.’

Here, ‘this’ did not refer to a specific school name. ‘This university’, in other words, ‘this college’.

In other words, Korea University.

Usually, people don’t refer to the university they attend as ‘this university’ or ‘that university’.

In summary, ‘It can’t go on like this’ means ‘It can’t go on with just Korea University’.

‘Then what exactly can’t go on?’

The answer came out.

It was Chongmyungtang.

‘So the young master wanted to say that limiting the distribution of Chongmyungtang to Korea University is not acceptable.’

A realization dawned upon him.

No wonder the young master did not specify the exact scope while giving the instructions.

In other words,

‘He intends to distribute Chongmyungtang to all his peers except himself, improve their skills, and then surpass them all in grades, reclaiming the top spot in the national preliminary exam that he had deliberately given up before.’

He almost shed tears.

It was because of the joy of realization.

He felt grateful once again for choosing the young master.

No matter what, he must complete his mission.

He felt a surge of determination to somehow get Chongmyungtang into the stomachs of all the first-year students competing with the young master.

That’s right.

‘It can’t go on like this!’

Soon, those words became his motto.

Vroom,

He started the car again. The engine exhaust was burning as fiercely as his will.

*

So, the day before the exam arrived.

“You must have been very busy lately, but your concentration is still impressive.”

7 PM,

Lee Beom-seok, who volunteered to tutor late into the night to prepare for the civil law exam, clicked his tongue.

He gave me the final quiz he had prepared.

“How many points?”

“95 points. You got one wrong.”

He handed me the test paper.

The only wrong question was number 9, about the requirements for canceling a legal act due to a mistake under civil law, and he gave a tedious explanation.

I knew it all.

I got it wrong on purpose.

This is also one of my ways to survive.

His evaluation of me goes straight to the secretary’s office, and maybe even directly to the chairman.

This is just a teaser score.

I planned to show my real score during the exam.

Then,

‘You worthless brat. I built a library for you when you got into Korea University Law School, and you disgrace me with such a lousy exam score? I can’t trust someone like you with the company, so just take a small building and don’t meddle in management.’

Grandfather would scold me like this.

I salivate.

Even a small building would be at least ten stories high, enough to live comfortably for the rest of my life.

“Are you listening?”

“Oh, yes.”

“You’ve prepared perfectly until the end, so there should be no problem with this exam. The first-year exam is nothing special.”

Then he confidently said that the quiz he gave me was a high-level problem that even seniors preparing for the first bar exam at Korea University find difficult, and if I could solve it with 95 points, the midterm would be a piece of cake.

Was it?

It didn’t feel that way. It was too easy.

One of us is strange, either me or the person who finds it difficult. In fact, it doesn’t really matter to me.

‘Anyway, the important thing is the test scores.’

I felt a little sorry thinking about his face that would be filled with shock the day after tomorrow.

But it can’t be helped.

After all, I have to survive first.

Thus, the tutoring session ended.

“Then, I’ll take my leave now. Since tomorrow is the day before the test period, I won’t visit your house.”

As he left, Mr. Lee added.

“Oh, and what you mentioned last time, everything was sent without any issues. It should all be in by today at the latest.”

“Good job.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s my duty. I wish you the best on your test.”

“Sure.”

After Mr. Lee left, the surroundings finally became quiet.

It’s not a lie.

‘I will do well. Because I plan to fail spectacularly.’

I opened the window.

The stars were bright, and the breeze was refreshing. It was perfect weather to fail a test.

On the day of the test,

“Have a good day! You can do it!”

The test was at ten in the morning, but Mr. Lee came to pick me up at seven with the final review notes that I didn’t even ask for.

He even smiled, showing his white teeth, saying that if I just looked at this, I would definitely be the top of the class.

“…Thank you.”

“I have no doubt that you will be the top of the class.”

“Sure.”

Suddenly, why the top of the class?

It was quite burdensome.

But my heart felt light.

Even as I flipped through the final review notes Mr. Lee handed me, I smiled inwardly.

I was looking forward to the test results today.

To be precise, I was looking forward to the day when the results would reach my grandfather’s ears.

‘Finally, the days of constant anxiety are over.’

How much I had suffered during that time.

I had to study semiconductors, which I had no interest in, work in the TF team, and even recruit American scholars.

Now, it’s time to return to my main job and reap the rewards.

In the meantime,

“We’re arriving.”

The car passed through the familiar main gate of Korea University and moved towards the law school area.

“Wait a moment.”

A familiar face passed by outside the car window.

“Shall I stop here?”

“Yes, please.”

“Then I’ll take my leave here. Good luck!”

The car stopped smoothly.

“Hurry up and go.”

“Okay.”

After he left, I went to find the familiar back that had passed by earlier and tapped him on the back.

“Han Kyung-soo!”

The person with the dragonfly glasses turned around to look at me.

“Sang-yoon, is that you?”

It was a familiar face. But there was a dark shadow under his eyes, probably from studying too much for the exams.

“Do you have an exam today too?”

“Principles of Economics. Do you have an exam too?”

“Yes.”

“But why do you look so good, as if you haven’t studied at all?”

He asked.

“No, I studied a lot.”

“Really?”

He looked doubtful.

It’s unfair.

I really did study.

The problem is not that I studied to get the questions right, but that I studied to get them wrong.

This side has more pressure.

If the goal is just to get the questions right, you only need to know the content within the scope.

But if you want to choose difficult questions and get them wrong accurately, you need to know things outside the scope as well.

Whether it’s constitutional law or civil law, if you can’t perfectly penetrate the entire system of law, it’s hard to grasp the examiner’s intention.

But I can’t explain all this.

“Anyway, good luck on the exam. Oh, Sang-yoon.”

“Yes?”

“I took the herbal medicine you sent. You gave it to all the first-year students at Korea University, right? You didn’t have to go that far.”

He spoke in an embarrassed tone.

‘It seems it went well.’

It looks like Lee Dae-ri did a good job.

You might be curious at this point.

What does the herbal medicine have to do with me doing ‘well’ on the exam?

There is only one reason.

It’s easier to achieve the desired rank if the other first-year law students taking the exam with me are far superior to me.

Competition is relative evaluation.

If others do well, my position goes down.

So, if everyone’s grades go up except mine? Naturally, my rank in the school will drop.

As a result, it goes like this.

‘What? Other students did well on the exam, but only Sang-yoon’s grades were low? He already got in through a loophole, and now it seems he didn’t even try. Useless child. I can’t hand over the company to such a child. He might ruin the company with his tricks. Sigh, tsk tsk.’

I feel like I can hear my grandfather’s angry voice.

I felt good.

“I’m glad you took it well.”

So I patted Han Kyung-soo on the shoulder.

Other guys, especially the law students, should also take it diligently like this.

Meanwhile, we arrived at the crossroads.

The place where we first met.

“Then I’ll go.”

“Good luck on the exam.”

After sending off Han Kyung-soo, I headed towards the main building of the law school.

When I arrived at the exam hall, I saw many familiar faces.

“Oh, Sang-yoon. I took the herbal medicine you sent me. Thanks to that, I studied a lot, so you should be a bit nervous.”

When one guy said this,

“Nervous? Do you think Sang-yoon would be nervous about someone like you?”

“Exactly.”

“Alright. I give up.”

My friends around me chattered away.

‘Think whatever you want.’

I found my seat and sat down with a relaxed mind.

Soon,

“Is everyone here?”

“Yes!”

“Then we will start the exam right on time. Please take your seats and do not take out anything except writing instruments and the mini law book.”

Finally, the exam began.

The question paper arrived.

‘Huh? What is this?’

But something was strange.

Very strange.

The questions on the exam paper were too easy.

I had studied more to get things wrong, but even considering that, they were too easy. It was hard to tell what to get wrong and what to get right.

It was just like when I took the semiconductor exam before.

This is a big problem. It’s difficult.

It’s too easy, so it’s difficult.

If it had been difficult, it surely wouldn’t have been hard!

It doesn’t make sense, but it does.

‘Damn it!’

I lost confidence. Confidence in failing the exam.