Chapter 8 – Deal [You're Next!]

“?”

At Lee Siguk’s somewhat abrupt statement, the three men could only stare blankly at him, blinking for a while.

Seeing their expressions, Siguk spoke again.

“Mr. Kim Yanggi’s organization will be led by CEO Lee Jeonghoon from now on.”

Only after Siguk reiterated his intention did the three men snap out of their daze.

Lee Jeonghoon’s complexion turned pale. Kang Bonggil and Han Myeongho simultaneously looked at Lee Jeonghoon.

They were speaking with their eyes.

‘Was this discussed in advance?’

And Lee Jeonghoon looked at them and shook his head slightly.

‘I don’t know about this either.’

But the suspicion that bloomed in their hearts did not easily subside.

‘That bastard Lee Jeonghoon…!’

‘He seemed like he was just quietly breathing under Hyung Yanggi, but he pulls a backstab like this.’

A murderous intent momentarily swirled in the eyes of the two men looking at Lee Jeonghoon.

Seeing this, Siguk’s expression turned serious.

“You damn bastards, glaring at the Boss?”

A wave of Mana, carrying murderous intent, pierced the two men.

The murderous intent swirling at the corners of their eyes immediately subsided.

“Got a problem? Then you can join Kim Yanggi in his swaddling clothes too.”

The two shuddered and vehemently denied it.

“N-no, sir. H-how could I dare have a problem?”

“Th-that’s right. Ah, our CEO Lee is the perfect fit to be the Oyabun, isn’t he?”

“Y-yeah! Hyung Jeonghoon is the oldest and also, th-that, what’s it, the smartest too, right?”

“Th-that’s right.”

Looking at the two men performing their comic routine, Siguk withdrew the wave of Mana. However, his expression remained cold, and Kang Bonggil and Han Myeongho couldn’t relax their tension.

After staring at the two men with a chilly gaze for a moment, Siguk shifted his gaze to Lee Jeonghoon.

Despite not being affected by the wave of Mana, Lee Jeonghoon’s expression was not good.

“CEO Lee, you don’t have a problem, do you?”

At Siguk’s question, Lee Jeonghoon looked at him.

His lips twitched. But whether there were too many words trying to burst out or he simply couldn’t muster the courage to voice them, no particular sound came forth.

Siguk looked at the three men and spoke.

“Let’s be honest with each other.”

Kang Bonggil and Han Myeongho quickly nodded their heads. Lee Jeonghoon merely looked at Siguk with a pale face and eyes full of disbelief.

“When Kim Yanggi was here, there was a central figure, so even if Bonggil and Myeongho bit and tore at each other and acted like fools, the organization could be maintained. After all, it was a fight between action team leaders under the Boss.”

Kang Bonggil and Han Myeongho nodded.

“But the Boss is dead. Without saying who would be the successor, without any arrangements. In this situation, if you two fight, what will happen? It’ll turn into an all-out war, won’t it?”

The two couldn’t say anything. They just let out awkward coughs, briefly looked at each other, and then averted their eyes.

“If you two square off and fight, whoever wins, both will take quite a hit. Then, in that state, if another rival organization attacks, do you think you can stop it?”

“……”

“……”

“And if we put one of you as Boss, will the other one obediently follow? You two serve each other so well as Hyung and little brother. Right?”

“……”

“……”

“That’s why we’re setting up CEO Lee as the Boss to succeed Kim Yanggi. For one, he’s the oldest, and the smartest.”

The two men nodded.

But the head of Lee Jeonghoon, who was actually listening to the story, did not nod.

Instead, he just silently stared at Siguk with a gaze full of doubt.

Feeling that gaze, Siguk spoke to Lee Jeonghoon.

“Why, is there a problem with what I said?”

“……”

Siguk could feel the strong suspicion and distrust harbored by the silent Lee Jeonghoon in his eyes and breathing.

Siguk chuckled softly. He looked at Kang Bonggil and Han Myeongho and spoke.

“Looks like I need to have a talk with CEO Lee. You two go to that room and help the kids for a bit, and come back here when I call you.”

“Ah, understood.”

“Yes, yes.”

Kang Bonggil and Han Myeongho got up from their seats and went out of the VIP room.

After confirming the two had left, Siguk asked Lee Jeonghoon.

“What is it that makes you so suspicious and distrustful?”

“……Who on earth are you?”

“I told you earlier. Lee Siguk, Class 1, 6th grade, Geumcheon Elementary School.”

“At first, when Kang Bonggil said he was briefly going to his shop, I didn’t think much of it. And it was the same when you came to the room with Kang Bonggil. But the moment you smashed Kim Yanggi’s skull, I realized. Ah, you’re the one who called out Kang Bonggil too.”

“……”

“You shook up Kang Bonggil’s business to call him out, used Kang Bonggil to find Kim Yanggi, killed Kim Yanggi, and now you’re trying to use the existing power balance within his organization to put me in as Boss. Do you really think these are thoughts that can come from an elementary school student’s head?”

“……”

“You are not an elementary school student. On the outside, you’re clearly a child of that age, but you absolutely are not. Absolutely not. It’s more likely you’re a dwarf with a baby face. You’re definitely not an elementary school student. It’s impossible.”

At the mention of a ‘dwarf with a baby face,’ Siguk burst out laughing.

Lee Jeonghoon just watched that sight with a stiff expression.

After laughing out loud for a while, Siguk stopped laughing.

He looked at Lee Jeonghoon with a face still full of laughter and spoke.

“This is why Kim Yanggi put you in as the CEO of Clover, and why I’m trying to put you in as Boss. Smart people are dangerous if you keep them at a distance.”

“……”

“A dwarf with a baby face. That’s a plausible and reasonable inference. A reasonable inference that those two idiots somewhere between a chimpanzee and a human could never come up with.”

“……”

“Being reasonable and smart is CEO Lee’s greatest strength. But sometimes that reasonableness grabs its own ankle.”

“……”

“Sometimes there are things in this world that are hard to explain rationally. And the me talking in front of CEO Lee right now is also a guy who falls into that category.”

“……”

“I really am from Class 1, 6th grade, Geumcheon Elementary School. I’m thirteen. I currently live at an orphanage called Angel’s Shelter located in Geumcheon District. Should I give you my resident registration number? 050501 with 3……”

“Enough. Stop, stop it.”

Lee Jeonghoon’s voice was trembling.

Siguk could feel it.

The confusion he harbored now, the collapse of his thought system coming from the collapse of common sense.

“Let’s set this issue aside for now. That’s not what’s important right now.”

At the story told while emitting a bit of Mana, Lee Jeonghoon barely managed to hold onto his senses.

“Hey. Bastards outside.”

Siguk shouted, looking at the door.

“Are these bastards trying to test me?”

At that moment, the door opened and Kang Bonggil and Han Myeongho rushed in.

“You damn bastards, I told you to go help with the cleaning and take a break, right? Then why were you outside with your ears pressed against the door? Want me to cut them off?”

“N-no, sir.”

“S-sorry about that.”

“Whatever. Go get something to drink. My throat’s dry.”

“Ah, understood.”

“W-we’ll do that.”

The two quickly left the room.

And not long after, the two came back in carrying a bottle of soju and water.

“When did I tell you bastards to bring alcohol? Whatever, put that on the table and quickly go wait in the VVIP room.”

After the two placed the soju and water on the table, they left the room as if fleeing.

This time, sensing the presence of the two men obediently heading to the VVIP room, Siguk chuckled.

Siguk poured soju into two glasses. Placing them in front of himself, he opened his mouth.

“The really important story isn’t about how old I am, or how I can have such thoughts and actions. It’s about why I’m telling you this.”

“……”

“CEO Lee is a smart person. I don’t know what circumstances led someone with such excellent specs to work under someone like Kim Yanggi, but you’re not someone to work under anyone. That’s clear.”

“……Thank you.”

“No, no need to thank me. I just stated a fact. Just look at the immediate reactions to me. Those ape-like bastards, just because I act strong, they immediately treat me almost like their Oyabun without any suspicion, but CEO Lee isn’t like that. Right?”

“……”

“Now, now. From now on, I’m going to propose a deal to you. Whether you accept it or not is entirely up to you.”

“……A deal, you say?”

“Yeah. A deal.”

“……Let’s hear it.”

“Before that, there’s one thing I want to ask.”

“?”

“Why are you living like this?”

“……”

Lee Jeonghoon did not answer. He just looked at Siguk with wavering eyes.

Siguk continued.

“Well, fine. Everyone has their own circumstances. If you don’t want to answer, you don’t have to. Then I’ll change the question.”

“……”

“How long are you going to live like this?”

“……”

“Someone who graduated from Korea University’s Economics department and even became an accountant… honestly, I don’t understand just doing money laundering for neighborhood thugs. No matter what circumstances you have. Don’t you think?”

“……”

“You must be smart, and good-looking too. If I were you, I’d want to live properly and impressively at least once? CEO Lee, don’t you think?”

“……”

Lee Jeonghoon couldn’t utter a single word in response to Siguk’s words.

Neither refutation nor agreement.

He couldn’t say anything.

Amidst the chain of circumstances and ill-fated connections passing through his mind, too ridiculous to even tell others, Lee Jeonghoon suffered.

“I’ll turn you from a thug into the respectable Chairman of a corporation.”

Lee Jeonghoon, who had slightly lowered his head, raised it again. He looked at Siguk with wavering eyes.

His mouth barely opened.

“Th-that’s possible?”

“It’s possible.”

“How?”

A smile appeared at the corner of Siguk’s mouth.

“By combining my power and your brains, it’s possible.”

“……”

Lee Jeonghoon’s brain, paralyzed by bitter and dark memories of the past, began to spin fiercely.

The force Siguk showed when killing Kim Yanggi, the charisma that subdued Kang Bonggil and Han Myeongho with just his presence.

And his own brain.

“……Why on earth are you doing this for me?”

“I told you. It’s a deal. To get you to agree to my request, well, I have to do at least this much, don’t I?”

“……What’s the request?”

“It’s simple. You just have to adopt me.”

Instantly, Lee Jeonghoon’s mouth fell open. For a while, he looked at Siguk with a dumbfounded expression. As if finding it amusing, Siguk looked at him and laughed.

A moment later, after regaining his senses, suspicion and distrust surfaced again on Lee Jeonghoon’s face.

Siguk opened his mouth.

“Whether I’m a dwarf with a baby face, an old man in a child’s body, or a precocious human, I am, in any case, legally a minor. There are many legal restrictions regarding the ownership or management of assets.”

“……”

“So I need a legal guardian I can trust to manage my assets. And you’re perfect for that.”

Even as a Regressor, the breadth of Siguk’s memories of the future was not that wide.

Except for major events that anyone would know, like the death of the Russian president, Siguk’s memories consisted entirely of things placed on the trajectory of his life as a Villain.

In those memories, the only human who could be most helpful, most useful to Siguk, was someone like Lee Jeonghoon.

Siguk quietly looked at Lee Jeonghoon.

Lee Jeonghoon also quietly looked at Siguk.

For a while, silence fell between the two.

In that silence, Siguk waited for Lee Jeonghoon’s answer.

After a moment, Lee Jeonghoon opened his mouth.

“……Why me, of all people?”

“You’re the smartest.”

“Is that really the only reason?”

Siguk grinned.

“Then should I ask Bonggil and Myeongho to become my father? Those idiots?”

Lee Jeonghoon said nothing.

He just stared quietly at Siguk.

As if trying to distinguish truth from falsehood in his pupils.

Siguk handed a glass to Lee Jeonghoon. Then he picked up his own glass.

As if telling him to stop asking and choose.

Lee Jeonghoon looked down at the glass in front of him and agonized for a while.

A moment later, Lee Jeonghoon picked up the glass. Siguk grinned.

Siguk extended his glass. Lee Jeonghoon lightly clinked his glass against it.

Siguk downed the soju in the glass in one go.

Watching this, Lee Jeonghoon also downed his soju in one go.

The two emptied their glasses.

“Kheu……”

Since he was still physically a minor, the Poisonous Energy of the alcohol felt even stronger. His Concentration momentarily dropped to the 70% range.

But Siguk’s mood became better than ever.

“……Isn’t underage drinking in front of the person who’s going to become your father a bit inappropriate?”

Lee Jeonghoon, perhaps also in a good mood, made a silly joke.

“They say you learn drinking from your father.”

Siguk also responded with a joke and laughed.

Lee Jeonghoon also looked at Siguk and forced a smile.