The Return of the Ruined Chaebol's Third-Generation Heir - Chapter 73

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Regression of a Fallen Chaebol Third Generation — Episode 73
A few days later, the car left Seongbuk-dong and merged onto the main road.
Kim Jong-su, sitting in the passenger seat, opened his mouth as he gazed out the window.
“But can you really go out on your own like this?”
Today was the day Kim Jong-su and Park Han-su had arranged to meet separately, and I’d decided to go along.
Kim Jong-su asked as if worried.
“Why the sudden concern? You said you’d feel reassured when I said I’d go with you.”
“It’s not worry—it’s confirmation.”
Kim Jong-su turned his head to look at me.
“You’ve never stepped forward directly until now. When we met Professor Yoon, it was under the Bukchon Investment Association’s name. Why would someone who’s always stayed hidden behind the scenes suddenly want to stand in front?”
He had a point. Up until now, I’d deliberately avoided the spotlight.
After all, publicly I was just a university student on readmission who’d scored a perfect on the College Entrance Examination.
“There’s no reason Chairman Park Han-su would know my true identity. My name has never circulated in the industry, and my face isn’t known.”
“That much is true. But there’s always a chance in a million.”
“Even if that chance in a million comes to pass, there’s no problem.”
Kim Jong-su’s eyebrows rose.
“Chairman Park Han-su wants to sell Seongshin to someone who’ll protect it. For someone like that, having financial backing behind the scenes is actually good material. And a man who’s survived forty years in finance isn’t the type to talk carelessly.”
Kim Jong-su watched me for a moment, then turned away.
He wasn’t entirely reassured, but he didn’t press further.
“Fine, let’s leave it at that.”
Kim Jong-su straightened in his seat and asked.
“So what do I need to do? Present the acquisition terms and discuss price?”
“You present the conditions, sir. Sixty billion for the acquisition, seventy billion ceiling including premium. Restructure to keep Project Financing below 30% after normalizing operations. That’s sufficient.”
“That much isn’t difficult.”
Kim Jong-su took it lightly.
“But will numbers alone work? What if Jungseong offers a higher price?”
“That’s precisely why you can’t rely only on numbers, sir.”
I cut in firmly.
“Chairman Park Han-su doesn’t move on price. The conditions Jungseong Construction offered were very good, yet we haven’t heard any confirmation of the acquisition.”
“That’s what puzzles me. Why is it dragging on?”
“I can’t say for certain from the outside, but from what I hear, Jung Hyun-il must have looked down on it. Treating Seongshin as merchandise, that sort of thing.”
Chairman Park Han-su likely said something that got on Jung Hyun-il’s nerves as a result.
So Jung Hyun-il would have used the affiliated media to stir things up.
Kim Jong-su clicked his tongue.
“The fool.”
“So we need to go the opposite direction. There’s something Chairman Park Han-su wants to hear.”
Park Han-su wants Seongshin to remain a savings bank even after it leaves his hands.
A man who sees the bank itself, not merely as a cash source.
He wants to hand it over to someone who understands that difference.
“You present the acquisition terms, sir, and I’ll handle the rest.”
Kim Jong-su glanced at me.
“The rest being what?”
“We’ll know once we meet him.”
“So that…….”
“Chairman Park Han-su isn’t a man who looks at numbers—he’s a man who reads people. Prepared words won’t get through. You have to see him directly and read him.”
Kim Jong-su fell silent.
To a man who’d survived in the loan-sharking business for decades, the request to stand before someone without preparation wasn’t easily accepted.
Still, Kim Jong-su didn’t push further.
“……You’ve never been wrong before, so I’ll trust you this time.”
Kim Jong-su spoke as he looked at me.
“But if the direction’s wrong, I won’t take responsibility.”
I laughed, knowing he was only half-joking.
The car slowed down.
The Seongshin Savings Bank Headquarters building came into view.
It was an old building.
The paint on the signboard had faded in patches, and the interior visible through the first-floor glass doors looked worn.
This was what a bank Park Han-su had built from nothing forty years ago looked like.
“Here we are. Let’s get out.”
Kim Jong-su opened the door first and stepped out, and I followed.
We were guided by a staff member up to the chairman’s office on the third floor.
When the door opened, Park Han-su rose from his seat.
“Chairman Kim, welcome.”
His expression was warmer than expected.
“Thanks to you, we’ve put out the most urgent fire. I was too frazzled to say so at the time, but I’m grateful.”
“It was nothing. I did it because I promised.”
Kim Jong-su replied with composure.
The atmosphere between the two men shaking hands wasn’t bad.
Having weathered the storm of the Bank Run together, the distance between them had clearly narrowed compared to before.
Park Han-su’s gaze shifted toward me.
“And this person?”
“Our operations manager.”
“Hello. I’m Kang Seon-woo.”
I bowed in greeting.
Park Han-su gave me a brief once-over.
Eyes that weigh people. He was probably assessing me.
“……A young fellow, I see.”
That was all he said.
His attention turned back to Kim Jong-su.
As expected, Park Han-su seemed to think of me as little more than an attendant.
“Please, have a seat.”
At Park Han-su’s invitation, we sat down.
“Chairman, to be frank, when you said you’d come today, I roughly guessed what this was about. So how about we get straight to the point?”
Park Han-su broached it first. He wasn’t the type to circle around.
Kim Jong-su nodded and opened his mouth.
“I’ve come to formally propose acquiring Seongshin Savings Bank.”
“…….”
“We’re thinking around sixty billion won for the acquisition. After the acquisition, we want to reduce Project Financing to below 30% over ten years, and if you wish, we can document the condition of maintaining the Common People Finance approach.”
Park Han-su listened quietly.
His expression didn’t change.
He wasn’t startled by the numbers, nor did he seem pleased.
As expected, to this man, whether sixty or seventy billion, numbers are just numbers.
“You’d reduce Project Financing?”
“Yes. The current 42% is too high. If the real estate market turns, there’s no structure to withstand it.”
Kim Jong-su’s answer was correct.
“Chairman.”
Park Han-su crossed his arms.
“To be frank, I still have questions about what you plan to do with a savings bank.”
Park Han-su was suspicious.
Why would a loan-shark from before want to buy a savings bank? Was it just to swap the facade and keep making high-interest loans the way you did in Myeongdong?
If what Jungseong Construction was suspected of was being the source of Project Financing money, then the suspicion directed at Kim Jong-su came from the path he’d walked so far.
“I’ll be frank with you. I want to go legitimate.”
Kim Jong-su chose the direct approach.
“With a Financial License, I can move larger sums and reduce funding costs. There’s no business reason not to do it.”
“…….”
“I’ve made small profits and rolled them steadily. That’s been my method for thirty years, and buying a savings bank won’t change that.”
It wasn’t a bad answer.
“Everyone says things like that.”
It was brief. And cold.
“Jungseong Construction said the same thing. ‘We’ll protect Common People Finance, we’ll guarantee employment for staff.’ They said all the right things.”
Park Han-su’s eyes fixed directly on Kim Jong-su.
“But I’m not going to hand over the bank based on the words of the man sitting in front of me.”
The air stiffened.
Kim Jong-su’s expression shifted subtly—not from having nothing to say, but from having no more cards to play.
He’d presented numbers. He’d spoken his convictions without hiding, but the wall hadn’t come down.
Silence stretched long.
“Chairman.”
Now it was my turn to step in.

* * *
“Chairman.”
Seon-woo opened his mouth.
Kim Jong-su tensed inwardly.
He’d said in the car that he’d handle the rest on his own, but what that rest was, he’d never said.
“Do you know which branch saw the most withdrawal requests during the Bank Run?”
It was an unexpected question.
Neither Kim Jong-su nor Park Han-su had anticipated it.
“……The Eunpyeong Branch.”
Park Han-su answered briefly.
“The Eunpyeong Branch opened in 1998. Right after the IMF Crisis. It was when major banks were closing small branches, but you opened one in Eunpyeong instead.”
Kim Jong-su blinked.
This story hadn’t come up in the car. When did this young man investigate Seongshin’s history?
“When major banks were disappearing from Eunpyeong-gu, people with nowhere to go came to Seongshin. Small merchants, market vendors, street peddlers even. People the major banks wouldn’t accept because they weren’t profitable—you took them on as customers.”
Park Han-su’s hand moved slightly.
He didn’t uncross his arms, but his fingers stopped on his forearm.
“The Eunpyeong Branch had the most withdrawals during the Bank Run because those customers got scared again. If Seongshin closed, they’d have nowhere to go once more.”
Kim Jong-su just listened from the side.
This young man wasn’t talking about numbers.
He was talking about the story of Seongshin Savings Bank itself.
“……And?”
Park Han-su’s voice had changed.
“What you’re worried about isn’t the acquisition price, sir.”
Seon-woo spoke quietly.
“It’s whether the employees who’ve come this far with you will be laid off. Whether the name Seongshin will disappear. Whether what you’ve built your whole life will end as someone you sold it to.”
The air had shifted.
Kim Jong-su could feel it. Unlike when he’d spoken, Park Han-su’s attitude and bearing had changed.
“……How would you know.”
It was plainly a dismissive statement, but it wavered slightly.
“I don’t. I can’t possibly understand the heart of someone who’s endured here for decades.”
Seon-woo acknowledged it. He didn’t pretend to know.
“But there’s one thing I do know.”
Seon-woo’s eyes met Park Han-su’s directly.
“For Seongshin to survive, it has to reduce Project Financing and return to Common People Finance. That’s not some grand creation of something new—it’s restoring the bank you first created.”
Restoring it. Back to its original form.
Kim Jong-su understood the weight that phrase carried in this room.
The bank Park Han-su had built decades ago.
The place neighbors turned to as a last resort.
Somewhere along the way, it had been tainted by corporate finance rather than Common People Finance and lost its true form.
Seon-woo didn’t say we’d do better or become a better bank.
He simply said that what you made was right, and acknowledged that it hadn’t gone wrong.
“……The Eunpyeong Branch.”
Park Han-su murmured.
“It rained the day we opened that branch. Yet everyone came to entrust their money anyway. Standing in line with umbrellas. Suddenly I’m remembering that.”
Park Han-su’s gaze hung suspended in empty space, directed at no one.
After a long silence, Park Han-su raised his head.
“……I’ll think about it.”
“Then we’ll await your answer. Chairman, shall we be going?”
“……Yes, yes. Go on. Thank you for taking the time today, sir.”
We rose from our seats, bowed in farewell, and left the chairman’s office.
The elevator doors closed, we passed through the first-floor lobby, and stepped out of the building.
Kim Jong-su looked at Kang Seon-woo walking beside him.
In thirty years on the streets of Myeongdong, he’d seen all kinds of men, but never one like this.
He knew how to move money well, and he’d seen him orchestrate schemes.
But today was different.
He’d opened the heart Park Han-su had kept locked away.
“Listen.”
Seon-woo turned his head to look at him.
“How old are you anyway?”
Seon-woo smiled and spoke.
“I’m not sure. Not anymore.”
With that, Seon-woo walked ahead toward the car, and Kim Jong-su watched his retreating figure in silence.

* * *
Meanwhile, at Jungseong Construction Headquarters, in the president’s office.
“We’re continuing operational meetings with the Seongshin side. However, Chairman Park Han-su hasn’t appeared directly, and Seongshin has only been sending operational staff.”
The Vice President spoke as he handed over documents.
Jung Hyun-il reclined deeply into the sofa, listening.
“What about the authorities? It seems like they’re stalling. How’s the FSC?”
“They say they’ll proceed on the timeline. The deadline for the sale recommendation is year-end, so the longer it drags, the worse it gets for Chairman Park.”
Jung Hyun-il’s mouth corner rose.
“The old man’s got his pride. Sending only operational staff while digging in his heels—what a sight.”
At the memory of Park Han-su’s stubborn demeanor, laughter escaped him involuntarily.
“In the end, he’ll hand it over for peanuts. Actually, him dragging things out does us a favor. If he keeps resisting until the FSC comes down on him, what negotiating power will he have left?”
The Vice President didn’t respond.
“What about Yoon In-chul? Still reconsidering?”
“He said he’d call back by today.”
Jung Hyun-il clicked his tongue.
“Unbelievable. The old man who needs to sell and the fellow trying to set himself up as a figurehead—they’re all just hemming and hawing, dragging their feet.”
That was when it happened.
Buzz—
A vibration sounded from the Vice President’s pocket. He checked the screen and looked up.
“It’s Professor Yoon In-chul.”
“That bastard, so quick to call if he’s going to give an answer, yet he keeps us waiting. Go ahead and take it.”
Jung Hyun-il waved his hand, and the Vice President answered the phone.
“Yes, I’ve received your call. Professor, yes……? Sir, Professor. Professor!”
It was a brief conversation.
The Vice President’s expression hardened visibly.
At first, Jung Hyun-il watched without concern, but the moment he saw the Vice President’s face after hanging up, he sensed the shift in atmosphere.
“……What did he say?”
“He declined.”
Jung Hyun-il’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“He said he’s in talks with another party, so accepting our proposal is difficult.”
Jung Hyun-il’s eyes narrowed.
“Another party? Which one?”
“That……hasn’t been confirmed yet…….”
“Not confirmed?”
Jung Hyun-il’s voice turned rough.
“We put in a proposal with Yoon In-chul just days ago. Someone else came in during that time? And you didn’t know about it until now?”
“I apologize. I’ll find out right away…….”
Bang!
Jung Hyun-il hurled the remote control from the table at the wall.
“Find out now! Who is it!”
“Yes, yes! Understood, sir!”
The Vice President rushed out, and only Jung Hyun-il’s heavy breathing filled the president’s office.

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