Chapter 6

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Property Holdout
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The woman blinked a few more times, her gaze shifting between the card in Taeseo’s hand and his face, before walking around the counter.

“Even the elderly folks in our neighborhood get confused about how to buy convenience store coffee.”

She went to the freezer next to the entrance, took out a cup of ice, and shook it. The ice cubes inside the plastic cup rattled.

“Everything’s self-serve at a convenience store. Coffee, too.”

Standing beside Taeseo, the woman opened the lid of the plastic cup and tore open the vinyl packaging inside.

“You remove the plastic from the ice cup like this, place the cup under the coffee machine, then press the button that says ‘Iced Americano,’ and the coffee will come out.”

As she explained, the woman pressed the button on the coffee machine. With a whirring sound, the machine started working.

When the machine stopped, she closed the lid on the coffee-filled cup, handed it to Taeseo with a straw, and returned to her spot behind the counter.

“That’ll be 1,500 won.”

At the mention of 1,500 won, Taeseo glanced back and forth between the plastic cup full of coffee and the woman’s hand scanning the barcode.

“Did you ring that up wrong?”

“Sorry?”

“Doesn’t a cup of coffee cost around 5,000 won?”

In the world Taeseo lived in, a cup of coffee cost well over 10,000 won. Of course, he’d never bought one with his own hands, so 5,000 won was the cheapest he could imagine.

The woman didn’t find his words strange. She simply looked at him as if he were just someone who didn't know any better and pointed a finger at the screen displaying the total.

“It’s 1,500 won, that's correct.”

“Ah…”

Then again, everything he had seen on his way down here seemed worthless compared to the things in his world.

He had never paid any attention to the town called Seongwu Township, but he recalled from a company meeting he’d happened to attend that it didn’t cost much to buy up all the land in an entire village here.

It was just a town of that much worth, and everything that existed here was only worth that much. Taeseo accepted the fact that the coffee in his hand could indeed be 1,500 won.

The moment he had that thought, his anger turned toward the family who had sent him here. He suddenly resented them.

*Shit.*

His grip on the plastic cup tightened. Just then, the woman, who had been looking at the POS system, stared at Taeseo with a look of bewilderment.

“Um, sir.”

She said.

“It says this card has been declined.”

* * *

Outside the convenience store, Taeseo sat at a table under a parasol, chewing on the end of his straw as he sipped his coffee.

The woman had looked at him with pity and given him the coffee, saying it was her mistake for making it before he paid.

Just as he was starting to feel like shit for accepting charity, he saw his secretary and driver running toward him through the glass door of the convenience store. Taeseo beckoned them over and had them pay for the coffee.

“They even blocked the corporate card. They actually blocked the corporate card. This is fucking disgusting.”

The local loafers who had been sitting at the parasol in front of the convenience store were gone, and in their place, Taeseo sat sipping the weakest coffee of his life.

He hadn’t even bothered to get a credit card, something everyone else had. All the money he used came from the company’s corporate account, so there was no need to cash out his steadily growing personal assets. He had never been short on money living like that, so he hadn’t needed a separate stash.

That was Taeseo—as long as he was comfortable, he didn’t get greedy.

He prioritized his own comfort so much that he’d never even considered the succession or management battles common in other families.

He had lived his life listening to his parents and older brother without question, and this was how they repaid him?

“Do they take me for a fucking idiot?”

The events of the day had reduced ‘Kwon Taeseo, the second son of Namgyeong’ to a hollow shell, just like the gold-colored card that wouldn't even process a payment.

“There’s a limit to how much you can disrespect someone.”

Shoving the card into his suit jacket, Taeseo pulled out his phone and called his brother. The other end picked up after just a couple of rings.

-Did you get there okay?

The casual tone coming from the receiver made Taeseo’s brow furrow.

“Why did you block the card?”

-You shouldn’t be using company money for entertainment.

The costs for his gatherings at the residence were charged to the corporate card every month. That was probably what he was referring to, but most businessmen used corporate funds for entertainment and recreation under the guise of client hospitality or employee benefits.

“What kind of bullshit is that? You don’t use the corporate card to play golf?”

-Building golf courses is my job. It’s different for you.

“If you’re pissed that I caused trouble, just say so. Don’t try to choke me out with these childish tricks. I can get a new card anytime.”

-Don’t bother. I get reports on all the money you spend. I can block those too, I’m just choosing not to.

The voice of the man who had cast him aside as easily as crushing an ant came through the receiver.

-You won’t have much to spend a manager’s salary on in that town anyway.

“Whether I have things to spend money on is my business. Ugh…”

Somehow, his pride was wounded, and he didn’t want to discuss his situation any further.

His brother, unlike him, lived by their parents’ word, so he couldn’t have done this alone unless his parents had turned a blind eye.

It was galling to have to watch his brother’s mood after living without a care for his parents’ opinions, but for the sake of living comfortably for the next eighty years of his life, Taeseo decided to concede a step.

“What do you need me to do?”

Their father’s shares would be split between the brothers, but Taejin would handle the management. His entire future of living in the lap of luxury depended on how his brother fared.

So, it was time to pretend to play along. Quick adaptation was another of Kwon Taeseo’s strengths.

-There’s a clan village of the An family in that area. Deep within the golf course site, there’s a grave belonging to one of their families, and they’re staging a property holdout. It’s a real headache. Whether you persuade them or give them more money, you handle it.

A property holdout is when someone with a small plot of land within a planned development refuses to sell, demanding a price far above market value. It’s called that because it’s like planting an egg on the land and waiting for it to turn into a golden one.

In these cases, the significant difference between the price offered by the developer and the price demanded by the landowner inevitably leads to conflict. In short, it was a dirty, annoying, and exhausting job.

“Isn’t it your job to handle things like that?”

-You’ll be thirty the year after next. It’s time to get your act together.

“You started working after you turned thirty. Why do I have to get my act together at twenty-eight?”

-This was Dad’s order. You know what he always says. The second son is always quicker and does everything with ease.

The brothers’ father, Chairman Kwon Seongtae, had a favorite saying.

He always said the second son was easier to raise than the first. He learned to talk earlier, walk earlier, and was better at everything from eating to staying healthy.

Because of that, the second son was forgiven for everything and was never disliked. It made life comfortable.

Of course, that was also the reason life had become boring, but Taeseo had never expected it to throw such a massive change into his life.

“Ah, fuck.”

-Dad is serious this time. You can’t disappoint him, okay?

The call ended.

“Wow, that condescending bastard, Kwon Taejin. A total prick.”

Taeseo glared at his phone in disbelief, then took a long sip of his iced Americano, in which the ice had melted without a trace.

The bottom of the plastic cup was revealed, and the straw made a gurgling sound.

As he drank the last drop of his iced Americano, Taeseo’s gaze fell on the dormitories a kilometer away, clustered together like a beehive at the construction site.

He could set everything else aside, but he could not tolerate those living quarters. Dealing with the property holdout, or whatever it was, could wait. First, he had to solve the housing problem.

“Hey.”

“Yes.”

“Get a direct line to the Chairman’s office. Tell them I’ll do as I’m told, but I need them to arrange for new accommodations. Have them relay the message to the old man through Director Seong.”

The hesitant secretary, pressured by Taeseo’s glare, immediately called the Chairman’s office. A reply came back in less than five minutes.

“The Chairman’s message is to find suitable accommodations within two kilometers. However, if you go beyond two kilometers—”

Taeseo waved his hand as if to say he didn’t need to hear the rest.

From what he had seen on the way to the Seongwu Township construction site, the two-kilometer radius around the site was nothing but rice paddies, fields, and empty plains.

He couldn't go to the next town over, either. That was likely the An family clan village Taejin had mentioned, and Taeseo was the one who was supposed to drive them off their land.

Why on earth would he live face-to-face with the people he was supposed to negotiate with? If he ever wanted to get back to Seoul, staying in that village was out of the question.

He couldn't exactly pitch a tent in a field, and putting up a prefabricated building would take at least two weeks for civil engineering, plumbing, electrical installation, and construction…

Just then, his eyes caught the words written on the convenience store’s glass window.

[Studio Apartment for Rent on the 2nd Floor]