I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 340

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 340
Father’s going to Japan too!
Of all the timing!
My head was pounding.
How could I possibly stop this?
A dull ache throbbed at my temples.
“Sung-guk, is something wrong?”
Jeon Tae-guk, who had just started sipping champagne beside me, glanced over.
“It’s nothing. Brother, I’ll head home as soon as we land from the airplane.”
“I should visit my place too. Let’s go together.”
I nodded and drained my champagne in silence.
How on earth could I prevent this?
The Great East Japan Earthquake would claim countless lives, destroy nuclear plants, and contaminate the entire region with radiation.
A tsunami would sweep in, reducing Northeast Japan to rubble.
What could I possibly do against such a catastrophic natural disaster?
My vision blurred with despair.
* * *
Ding dong. Ding dong. Ding dong.
I jabbed the doorbell repeatedly.
The door opened slightly, and Ji-hee peeked out cautiously.
“Brother….”
“Ji-hee, you were home?”
“Yeah.”
“Brother… don’t you know our home’s password?”
“Ah….”
I scratched my head sheepishly.
Ji-hee shook her head in disbelief.
“Brother, it’s your birthday.”
“My birthday?”
“910912. That’s always been our home’s password. Mom and Dad always use that.”
“Is that so….”
I felt embarrassed and stepped inside.
Mother and Father remembered me—their grown son who had become independent—through that password every single day.
Suddenly, my chest tightened with emotion.
In this life, nothing bad must ever happen to our family!
“Ji-hee, where’s Mother?”
“Mother heard you were coming and went shopping. Min-guk is at the practice room… and I was studying.”
Ji-hee, now a middle schooler, had made studying her passion.
Her grades reflected that dedication perfectly.
“Did your brother interrupt your studies?”
“I was trying to get some rest. Oppa… but did you really catch an industrial spy?”
Ji-hee’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Yeah. I didn’t catch them directly, but I played a crucial role in it.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“Wow… Oppa, I want to become someone who catches bad people like that too.”
“That’s great… Our Ji-hee could become a prosecutor, a lawyer, or a judge. Why don’t we think about your future path together, like this oppa does?”
I subtly steered the conversation toward Ji-hee’s career prospects.
Ever since Ji-hee saw Barack Obama, she’d been talking about wanting to become a lawyer.
[Still, Ji-hee, your ultimate goal should be president. Our family needs to produce at least one president!]
I gently stroked Ji-hee’s head.
Just then, Mother came in with the groceries.
“Sung-guk, I heard you’re back from your business trip? Are you feeling okay?”
“Yeah, Mom….”
A family that asked about my well-being first, not about work.
This was what a real family truly was.
* * *
“Dad’s food expo runs from March 25th to 27th. Look at this, hyung.”
Min-guk thrust the pamphlet for the food expo his father was attending into my hands.
[Should I be relieved about this….]
The food expo Father was attending ran from March 25th to 27th.
And the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11th.
There was only one reason I remembered this date so precisely.
Because I’d learned about the Tōhoku earthquake on the way to the airport for a business trip to Japan that day, and all my schedules had been cancelled, I remembered it vividly.
I recalled how difficult things had been back then because all ongoing projects with Japan had run into problems.
If the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11th, it was obvious that Father’s food expo would be cancelled.
“Hyung, please book me a ticket to Japan too. Okay?”
“I’ll book it for you. But there’s a condition.”
“You always have conditions….”
Min-guk grumbled.
“Since you’ll be following Dad’s schedule, I’ll book your ticket for March 12th. That works, right?”
“Hmm….”
Min-guk seemed to be thinking it over, then glanced up at me suspiciously.
“Hyung, you’re not adding some condition like ‘don’t cause trouble until March 12th and practice hard’ or something, are you?”
[This time, I’ll be generous.]
“No conditions at all. I’m just saying I’ll book the closest date possible since Dad might have other schedules come up. How’s that?”
“Really?”
“Have you always been fooled by your hyung?”
“Hyung, you haven’t forgotten all the things you’ve done to me so far, have you?”
[Do I really need to remember all that?]
Min-guk narrowed his eyes and stared at me.
“Min-guk, this time I’m definitely keeping my promise. If I break it again….”
“Then I won’t call you hyung anymore!”
Min-guk was resolute.
I had no intention of backing down either.
“Fine! If you don’t book me a flight to Japan on March 12th, then don’t expect me to call you hyung.”
With those words, Min-guk placed his complete trust in me.
“Deal, hyung! We have a deal!”
Min-guk extended his hand, and I clasped it firmly.
[Jeon Min-guk, when March 12th comes around, you’re probably going to throw a fit asking me to cancel that flight ticket!]
* * *
It was only natural that the company was in disarray.
The situation with Lee Sun-hwa and Han Myung-seok had left the employees on edge.
I entered Adam’s office without saying a word.
“Sung-guk, here’s the material Secretary Park sent over.”
I asked Secretary Park Sung-hee to investigate everything about the remaining employees.
We had conducted basic personal background checks on Lee Sun-hwa and Han Myung-seok during their hiring, but those were standard company-level investigations. What I wanted was a far more thorough investigation to ensure we didn’t have a second Lee Sun-hwa or Han Myung-seok.
Jeon Tae-guk, who had been reviewing the materials, turned to the final page.
“The remaining employees don’t seem to have anything unusual.”
“That’s right. Adam, we need to strengthen our programmer team, don’t we?”
“Yes. If we’re going to start working in earnest now, that seems necessary.”
I looked at Jeon Tae-guk.
“William, about that expo that Samjeon and Hyojin mentioned—it was March 10th to 12th, right? I haven’t given them an answer yet.”
“Sung-guk, if you want to book flights and accommodations, you need to decide soon. There’s only about a week left.”
“I was thinking we should postpone this expo.”
Jeon Tae-guk’s expression turned puzzled.
“With the situation with Lee Sun-hwa and Han Myung-seok, wouldn’t it be better to go and clear our heads? Since it’s an IT expo, it could be beneficial for the employees too.”
“Rather than that, I think Alpha definitely needs time to reorganize right now.”
I offered the excuse I had carefully prepared.
“William, Sung-guk is right. The expo would be nice, but we might end up dwelling on this unsettled feeling for longer. I think it would be better to conduct employee interviews, bring in new staff, reorganize, and then attend the next expo.”
Adam backed me up.
“Well, I suppose there’s no helping it then…. I’ll tell Dad that. I was really looking forward to going to Tokyo and eating lots of delicious food, but I guess that won’t happen. Maybe I should just go alone. Sung-guk, won’t you come with me? Adam, what about you? The three of us could take a trip that weekend!”
Jeon Tae-guk’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.
Adam glanced at me cautiously.
“I’d like to go, but… will there be time if we’re reorganizing?”
“Adam, we need to rest on weekends too. Japan is only a two-hour flight from here. What if we go Friday night and come back Sunday afternoon? Sung-guk, what about you?”
“I’ll think about it. It seems like I’ll have a lot of work even on weekends.”
“Hey, you should tell me these things in advance so I can book tickets and reserve accommodations.”
“When has the heir to Samjeon Group ever done things in advance?”
[I was the heir to Samjeon Group in my previous life too, Jeon Tae-guk!]
First-class cabins rarely filled up completely, and Samjeon could arrange flights and hotels even with just a few hours’ notice.
“Well, that’s true. I was hoping to make reservations at some good restaurants if you’d given me a heads-up.”
[Sigh… Now I have to stop Jeon Tae-guk and Adam from going to Japan too….]
I quickly finished reviewing the documents and stood up from my desk.
“Let’s focus on reorganizing the company first. I’ll explain the situation to the employees, conduct individual meetings over the next week, and then we’ll move forward with the new project starting the following week.”
Jeon Tae-guk looked at me with disappointment.
“What… So you’re saying you’re not going to Japan?”
“It’s not that I’m not going—it’s that I don’t have time. Let’s start the individual meetings with the employees.”
* * *
Fortunately, most of the employees showed no issues in the investigation and wanted to build more experience at Alpha.
While the situations with Lee Sun-hwa and Han Myung-seok were shocking, the general sentiment was that it was actually good these people left early.
Choi Sung-deok, the last programmer I counseled, shared an interesting story during our meeting.
“CEO, actually I interviewed at two companies and received final offers from both.”
“Which is the other one?”
“Neisen.”
Neisen was a major corporation in the IT industry.
“They offer better salaries and far superior company benefits than us. Is there a reason you chose Alpha?”
“Well… I’m not sure if I should say this…”
Choi Sung-deok laughed shyly, looking embarrassed.
“Please speak freely.”
[Jeon Sung-guk’s company. Trust in Jeon Sung-guk. The vision Jeon Sung-guk possesses. I can listen to all of that, Choi Sung-deok.]
“Actually, my mother had a fortune reading done. She said this company would prosper greatly in the future. She said there would be many difficulties at first, but after a short time, this company would grow into a global enterprise. So I chose Alpha without hesitation.”
Because of a fortune reading….
[Choi Sung-deok. It’s obvious that startups face difficulties in the beginning! That’s not fortune-telling! The fact that it will grow into a global enterprise is because I, Jeon Sung-guk, a global entrepreneur, exist! If you just read a few lines of economic news, you’d know that—did you pay for that information?!]
I forced the most benevolent smile I could muster.
“A programmer believes in fortune readings?”
“I don’t believe in everything, but if hearing something doesn’t hurt, it’s good, right? Oh, and… honestly, even if it wasn’t a fortune reading, I was planning to come to Alpha anyway.”
[Hmm… It was because of me after all.]
“When I went for the interview at Neisen, the team lead was someone I worked with as an intern. That person made things so difficult when I was interning that I’m pretty sure half the company’s employees left because of them. Just thinking about working under that person kept me up at night.”
And so Choi Sung-deok left the counseling room without saying a single word about choosing this company because of me.
Knock. Knock.
I heard a knock at the door.
[The counseling sessions are all done….]
The door opened and Jeon Tae-guk poked his head in.
“Sung-guk, you can’t hate me after you hear what I have to say.”
[I’m already hating you.]
“What is it, William?”
“The counseling sessions are all done, and you don’t have any schedule from tomorrow afternoon, right?”
“I need to prepare the presentation materials for the project starting next week. That’s something I have to do myself.”
“But… you could easily do that on the airplane.”
Don’t tell me…
“I booked a flight ticket for Friday night at 9 PM.”
I jumped to my feet.
Then today was… March 9th, Wednesday.
“Sung-guk, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing. I understand, William. I have a lot of work to do. Please go home first with Adam.”
“Alright, so we’re leaving Friday!”
Jeon Tae-guk closed the door with an excited expression.
On Friday night, March 11th, no flights to Japan would be able to take off anyway.
I’d managed to prevent those around me from going to Japan… but I couldn’t save myself alone.
I wanted to warn people about this fact in advance.
I started to create anonymous accounts on FaceNote and Twitter, the platforms people used most, but then I paused.
If such a post came from an anonymous account, everyone would probably ignore it. So… I had no choice but to post it from my own account.
If I could save many people… I decided to endure becoming the subject of ridicule for a while.
– I often have strange dreams… and sometimes they become reality.
Recently, I dreamed of a massive earthquake occurring in Northeast Japan, and it was so vivid it was actually frightening.
I happened to have plans to go to Japan on the 11th, but since it wasn’t anything important and I felt uneasy, I canceled.
I hope the dream doesn’t come true, but I’m writing this just in case.
For those planning to visit Japan this weekend, wouldn’t it be worth reconsidering a trip to the Northeast?

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————