Chapter 6
Episode 6. Stake Driving
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The woman looked back and forth between the card in Taeseo's hand and his face, blinked a few more times, then walked around the counter.
“Even the elders in our neighborhood often get confused about how to buy convenience store coffee.”
The woman, who had gone to the freezer next to the entrance, took out an ice cup and shook it. The ice cubes inside the plastic rattled.
“Everything is self-service at convenience stores. Coffee is no different.”
Beside Taeseo, the woman opened the plastic cup lid and tore off the plastic wrap inside.
“Like this, remove the plastic from the ice cup, place the cup in the coffee machine, and then press the button that says ‘Iced Americano,’ and the coffee will come out.”
As she explained, the woman pressed the coffee machine button. With a whirring sound, the coffee machine started.
When the coffee machine stopped working, the woman placed a lid on the plastic cup full of coffee and handed it to Taeseo with a straw, then returned to her spot behind the counter.
“That will be 1,500 won.”
At the mention of 1,500 won, Taeseo looked back and forth between the plastic cup full of coffee and the woman’s hands as she scanned the barcode to tag it.
“Are you sure you calculated that correctly?”
“Excuse me?”
“Doesn’t a cup of coffee cost around 5,000 won?”
In the world Taeseo lived in, coffee prices easily exceeded ten thousand won. Of course, even that wasn't something he bought with his own money, so the cheapest he'd ever heard it quoted was 5,000 won.
The woman didn't find Taeseo's words strange. She simply looked at him as if he knew someone who paid that much, then pointed to the screen displaying the payment amount.
“It’s 1,500 won.”
“Ah……”
Indeed, everything he had seen since coming here seemed to have less value than the things in the world he had left behind.
He had never paid much attention to the town of Seongwoo-eup, but according to what he'd overheard at a company meeting, buying up all the land in the entire village unit didn't cost much.
It was simply a town of that value, and everything that existed here was only worth that much. Taeseo accepted the fact that the coffee in his hand could indeed cost 1,500 won.
The moment he had that thought, his anger turned towards the family who had sent him here. He suddenly resented them.
Fuck.
His grip tightened on the plastic cup. And at that moment, the woman, who had been looking at the POS system, looked at Taeseo with a bewildered expression.
“Excuse me, sir.”
She said.
“This card… it’s not being accepted.”
Outside the convenience store, Taeseo sat at a parasol table and sipped his coffee, biting the end of the straw.
The woman had looked at him with pity, then decided it was her mistake for making the coffee before payment was confirmed, and gave it to him.
Just as he was starting to feel bad about receiving charity, he saw his secretary and driver running towards him from inside the convenience store's glass door. Taeseo beckoned them over to pay for the coffee.
“They’ve even blocked the corporate card. They’ve blocked the corporate card. How can anyone live like this?”
After the local loafers who had been sitting at the parasol table in front of the convenience store left, Taeseo sipped the mildest coffee of his life.
He hadn't even bothered to get a credit card like everyone else. 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 lacked money living that way, so he didn't need a secret stash.
Taeseo was someone who didn't covet anything as long as he could live comfortably.
Prioritizing his own comfort so much, he had never even considered the succession disputes or management battles common in other families.
He had lived his life by taking his parents' and older brother's words at face value, yet they had cast him aside like this.
“Do they think I’m some kind of gullible idiot?”
What happened to Taeseo today was an attempt to make ‘Kwon Taeseo, the second son of Namgyeong,’ a mere hollow existence, like a gold card that couldn't even be used for payment.
“They’re treating me like dirt.”
Taeseo shoved the card back into his suit jacket and pulled out his phone to call his older brother. The call was answered after just two rings.
- Did you arrive safely?
Taeseo's brow furrowed at the casual tone of voice from the other end of the receiver.
“Why did you block my card?”
- You shouldn’t be using company money for entertainment.
Monthly meeting expenses at the residence were being paid from the corporate card. He was likely referring to that money, but most businessmen used corporate funds for entertainment or welfare under the guise of entertainment expenses or employee benefits.
“What kind of bullshit is that? Don’t you play golf with the corporate card?”
- Building golf courses is my job, so it’s different from your situation.
“If you’re upset because I messed up, just say it. Don’t try to strangle me with these childish tactics. I can get more cards made.”
- Don’t bother. We see all the money you spend. We could block that too if we wanted, but we’re not going that far.
The voice of the person who had easily pushed him aside, like crushing an ant with a hand, came through the receiver.
- Anyway, you won’t even have enough to spend as a manager in that town.
“Whether I have money to spend or not is my business. Hmph……”
He felt his pride wounded and didn't want to explain his situation one way or the other.
His older brother lived by taking their parents' words literally, unlike him. If their parents didn't overlook it, he wouldn't have done something like this alone.
He was used to living without worrying about his parents' opinions, but now he had to worry about his older brother's, which twisted his gut. Still, to live comfortably for the remaining 80 years of his life, Taeseo decided to concede.
“What do you want me to do?”
His father's shares would be divided among the brothers, but his older brother would handle the management. His entire life of luxury would depend on how his older brother managed things.
Therefore, it was time to pretend to go along with whatever was asked. Rapidly changing his stance was also one of Kwon Taeseo's strengths.
- There’s a village of the Ahn family in that area. One of their graves is deep within the golf course grounds, and it’s a real headache because they’ve driven stakes into it. You need to resolve it, either by persuading them or by giving them more money.
Stake driving (1) refers to the act of a small landowner within a development area refusing to sell their land and demanding a price much higher than market value. It's called stake driving because they drive a stake into the land, waiting for it to turn into a golden egg.
In this case, the significant difference between the developer's offered price and the landowner's demand inevitably leads to conflict. In short, it's dirty, annoying, and tiring work.
“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do, being in that position?”
- You’re turning thirty in two years. You need to get your act together.
“You started working after thirty. Why do I have to get my act together at twenty-eight?”
- This time, it’s a directive from Father. You know Father’s usual words, right? He says the second child is easier and faster at everything.
There was a saying their father, Chairman Kwon Seongtae, often repeated.
He found raising the second child easier than the first. The second child spoke earlier, walked earlier, and was better in every way – eating, health, everything – according to Chairman Kwon Seongtae.
Because of this, the second child was forgiven for anything and never incurred resentment. Thanks to that, life had been comfortable.
Of course, life had also become boring for the same reason, but Taeseo hadn't expected it to bring such a major change to his life.
“No, you son of a bitch.”
- Father is serious this time. You don’t want to disappoint him, right?
The call ended.
“Wow, Kwon Taejin, you old bastard. Such an old bastard.”
Taeseo stared at his phone as if it were absurd, then sucked down the iced Americano, whose ice had completely melted away.
As the bottom of the plastic cup became visible, a gurgling sound came from the end of the straw.
While draining the last drop of his iced Americano, Taeseo looked out at the cluster of accommodations, like a honeycomb, built about 1km away at the construction site.
Putting everything else aside, he couldn't tolerate those accommodations. He had to deal with the accommodation issue first, even if the stake driving problem was put on hold.
“It’s over there.”
“Yes.”
“Tell them I’ll do the work as instructed by calling the chairman’s office directly, but ask them to find new accommodations. Tell them to relay it to the old man through Director Sung.”
The hesitant secretary, pressured by Taeseo's glare, immediately called the chairman's office. Less than five minutes later, a response came back.
“The Chairman’s message is to find suitable accommodations within 2km. However, if it’s outside 2km–”
Taeseo waved his hand dismissively, as if the rest was unnecessary.
On his way to the Seongwoo-eup construction site, he had seen nothing but rice paddies, fields, and empty land within a 2km radius of the site.
He couldn't go to the next village either. The next village was likely the Ahn clan village Taejin had mentioned, and Taeseo was the one who would drive them off their land.
Why would he live in the same village as the people he was supposed to negotiate with? To return to Seoul, living in that village was absolutely out of the question.
He couldn't pitch a tent in a field, and even setting up a prefabricated building would require at least two weeks for civil engineering, water and sewage installation, and electrical work before the building could be erected.
Then, his eyes landed on the words written on the convenience store window.
[2-Story Studio Apartment for Rent]
• Footnotes
(1) Al Bakgi: A malicious act of intentionally purchasing a small plot of land and refusing to sell it, demanding several to tens of times the market price. (Real Estate Dictionary)
