“Hyunwoo Jang? Are you talking about Hyunwoo Jang of KOVE DREAM?”

“Yes. I have confirmed that Mr. Ha and Hyunwo have kept in touch with each other for a long time. What is more surprising is that you and I are their targets.”

Chulmo Kim tilted his head to one side. He had no idea what happened between Hyunwoo and Jungmin Hwang, but he had no personal grudge against Hyunwoo.

Why were they targeting him?

Momentarily, Chulmo’s eyes sparkled sharply. For he felt Hwang lied to him.

‘Jungmin Hwang, are you now entangling me in a dirty scheme?’

But he pretended not to know.

“Why us? Do they have any hard feelings against us?”

“No, they don’t. I hear they’re thinking of driving out corrupt politicians in the name of a just society.”

Chulmo’s eyes opened wider at that.

Come to think of it, Hwang’s explanation made sense.

For a long time, Ha emphasized the word ‘integrity’ in politics. And Hyunwoo tried his best to distance himself from politics as much as possible.

It was far from strange that Ha and Hyunwoo joined hands for that cause.

Chulmo frowned suddenly.

“Why are they trying to do such useless…”

“That’s not the point. Hyunwoo has already become the world’s richest guy as of last year. And it is certain that Ha is going to be the head of the ruling party. If this trend continues, our political life will come to an end.”

Come to think of that, it was really a serious situation.

Suddenly, Chulmo became impatient.

“What do you think we should do?”

“It’s inevitable for us to sacrifice some of our close junior Assemblymen. But we should never allow Ha to become our party’s head.”

Chulmo could understand what he wanted.

“Are you talking about the by-elections?”

“Right. When I step down, it’s certain that Ha will be the new leader. Then, he will try to nominate his own men as candidates in the elections. We have to stop that as much as we can.”

“It won’t be easy.”

“Well, it can be easy if we cause factional frictions within the party. And then we have to send our men as independent candidates to the elections and have them compete with Ha’s picks. None of them has any strong political base. If we do well, we can have our guys elected.”

Chulmo nodded.

“Sounds good. Let me help your efforts, too.”

“Thanks. I’ll get back to you later.”

After the call, Chulmo frowned.

‘Hyunwoo, how can you dare pull out a dagger against me?’

Of course, Hyunwoo was a business giant. No matter how strong a politician he was, he could not take him lightly.

He clenched his fist.

‘If one goes up a hill, one has to come down. Do you think you can keep rolling on like that? Let me make you go down a hill in your life.’

Several days later, the Prosecutor’s Office announced it would investigate the Munsik Choi list. As it was disclosed that several politicians had received kickbacks from the late Choi, the investigation was proceeding very quickly.

Many politicians were summoned for investigation, and several of them had to admit their dealings with Munsik.

But several politicians severely resisted the summon, but when the prosecutors requested an arrest warrant, they had no choice but to give up.

The incumbent Prime Minister was the first to have been arrested, followed by a governor. And several politicians were also arrested.

The names of those arrested corresponded with those mentioned by Mr. Ha.

The investigation was quickly wrapped up, about three months after Munsik’s suicide.

But the general people didn’t pay much attention to the investigation. And the press didn’t make a big fuss about it.

The reason was because everybody was sick and tired of that news. In fact, broadcasting networks broadcasted all kinds of news about the Choi list all day long for the past two months. Whenever they turned on the TV, they had to watch it on every channel.

It seemed that there had been no tangible progress in the investigation, which made the public sick and tired all the more. They even wished they could no longer watch the news about it anymore.

Then suddenly all the news about the list disappeared from the TV.

That’s what Chulmo Kim and Jungmin Hwang wanted from the start. As the public became more and more interested in the Choi list, it would put them at a disadvantage, so the two kept low profile in the meantime.

But Chulmo and Hwang began to rally politicians behind them for a comeback.

Suddenly, there circulated strange rumors in town.

“Did you hear that rumor? I’m talking about the arrested lawmakers. Is it true that Jungmin Hwang made them scapegoats for his own political interests?”

“What a mean guy!”

Hwang was stunned to hear that.

Strictly speaking, such rumors were not fake, but they could have different repercussions, depending on how they were interpreted. Hwang thought he couldn’t save all the politicians, so he used some of them as scapegoats.

Though he felt sorry for the arrested lawmakers, those who survived had to think of him as their benefactor.

But the situation had been turned upside down.

Many politicians who were saved from the arrests began to worry.

“Someday, I might be faced with the same consequences.”

“I might as well desert Hwang and find a new benefactor.”

They were agitated. Only a few loyal followers stood beside him.

Some of them switched their loyalty to Chulmo Kim. Though he kept a low profile now, they were convinced that he would make a strong comeback someday.

Some formed their own faction, aiming for another Jungmin Hwang group.

And some gathered around Ha. They thought the next strongman after Chulmo was Ha.

Jungmin Hwang was like a toothless tiger.

On the other hand, Ha became stronger and stronger. He was the very politician who most strongly called for a thorough investigation of the resources diplomacy scandal. Accordingly, he won an overwhelming support from the people.

Thanks to an atmosphere favorable to him, Ha became the head of the ruling party.

In his inaugural address, Mr. Ha announced his clear intention.

“It’s time that corrupt and incompetent politicians should go. Let me nominate fresh and competent candidates in the upcoming by-elections. I’ll make our party trusted by the people.”

Many people welcomed Ha’s pledge, thinking, ‘Finally our politics will change.’

However, Chulmo watched him, sharpening his political knife.

“Okay. Enjoy your privilege as much as you can now. Your rule will end shortly.”

Jungmin Hwang and Yosong Lee, present with Chulmo, also gnashed their teeth in anger.

“How can we get rid of him? We have to bury him and Hyunwoo on this occasion.”

Jungmin, who was once the strongest man of the ruling party, became Chulmo’s henchman. Realizing that he could not stand on his own feet, he decided to be Chulmo’s loyalist.

And Chulmo accepted him gladly.

Yosong Lee was a strong opposition lawmaker. But he lost power as he failed to defeat his rival in the party convention to select its leader. He was also one of the political scapegoats, hit by the Munsik list, but he was dreaming of a comeback.

Giggling at them, Chulmo said, “I have a good idea.”

Jungmin and Yosong’s eyes sparkled.

“Really? What is it?”

“Do you know that Hyunwoo had a lover in the past?”

Though Yosong didn’t know anything about it, Jungmin already learned lots of tips on it.

“I was briefed about it before. I hear he had a girl named Suji Min…”

Chulmo nodded.

Jungmin could not understand why he suddenly mentioned her name.

“I understand she already got married and has a baby girl…”

“Don’t just focus on her. Look at her husband. He is a young prosecutor named Jungsu Pae.”

Jungmin didn’t investigate as far as that. Or he didn’t need to.

So what?

Jungmin made a curious expression, for which Chulmo asked, “Don’t you know who is his father? He’s Youngguk Paek, the chief of Seoul Prosecutors’ Office.”

“Ah, Youngguk Paek! He’s his son?”

But Hwang was still wondering about Chlmo’s intention.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“It’s time Younggu got promoted to the position of Prosecutor General. We can help him get there, and he can help us, too. Mutual help.”

“Do you think Youngguk can implicate Hyunwoo in trouble?”

“We can use his son Jungsu. If Jungsu can be a close friend of his, he can easily find Hyunwoo’s vulnerabilities. He won’t refuse his father’s request.”

Jungmin’s jaw dropped at that. In other words, Chulmo’s scheme was to make Jungsu Hyunwoo’s friend and then find his weak point.

Actually, Jungmin heard that one of Hyunwoo’s vulnerabilities was to trust somebody too easily.

If that was the case, Chulmo’s tactic might work out successfully.

On the other hand, Jungmin was scared of Chulmo. Jungmin used to be called a man of wicked ideas when he was a strongman in the National Assembly. Now, Chulmo deserved such a stigma. He looked like a man who could do whatever he wanted.

‘I shouldn’t make him my enemy.’