No Moral

Diffident, Yoonshin answered honestly, “Uh, I guess in game terminology, my cheat code?”

“Your sister?”

“She’s friends with President Cho’s wife. Apparently, they’re quite close.”

With those two sentences, Sehun made the connection and nodded. Then, he sat up from his chair that he had been leaning into comfortably. He beckoned Yoonshin to come closer, then he said, “Okay, Fourth-year. We’re now holding information in our hands. A same-sex affair will be a critical hit to Youngjin Group, but it won’t significantly impact the M&A. Unless they’re both hitting rock bottom in some aspect, we can’t publicize it. But it’s too good to not use. How do you propose that we use this in the most effective way to knock down their price? How would you set it up if it were you? Try to come up with a good design.”

Sehun probably already had an answer in mind. He was merely trying to see if the answer he came up with aligned with Yoonshin’s. Yoonshin wasn’t planning on repeating the same mistake from the first test he took with Sehun. Before he came to Sehun’s room, he deliberated on how Doguk could win. He also thought about what Sehun would do in this situation. The answer came to him quickly. “We don’t knock down the price.”

“You won’t? You don’t want to earn money?” Sehun rejoindered.

“That is, only at first.”

Sehun’s eyes narrowed at Yoonshin’s unanticipated answer. Whether it was because of the content of the answer or because Yoonshin had no hesitation, Yoonshin didn’t know. It could have been because of a different reason that Yoonshin couldn’t think of on the spot.

“More details,” Sehun urged.

“Youngjin Group isn’t some corner store. They’re a well-established company. A law firm shaking them up with a scandal would impact their stock value momentarily, but they will quickly go on the defensive, more so when the company is impending sale. This information will become completely worthless if you use it that way.”

Sehun gazed at Yoonshin with agreement in his eyes. Yoonshin knew that meant he wanted him to continue, so he said, “I was thinking we could offer a premium price under the table. When Youngjin writes us their price, we can tell them we’ll put in a bid for them with an added premium. Instead, we can negotiate for conditions in our favor.”

“Then, you want to lower their book value and knock down the bidding price.”

A construction company’s value fluctuated with government policies and regulations. Put simply, if someone external to the company was determined to shake up a company, they could easily achieve such a result. When the terms and conditions of the purchase were close to finalization, they could borrow Taesan’s power and use it aptly so that Youngjin would have no choice but to compromise. Then, Sehun would probably have enough methods to push other bidders away.

While considering the uniqueness of the situation to synthesize this new proposal, Yoonshin had imitated Sehun, yet Sehun didn’t react much. He merely rubbed his face with one hand.

Sehun slowly lowered his hand. When he stared at Yoonshin again, his eyes were icy. Yoonshin almost thought that it was the usual poker face, but he noticed that it was slightly different. In a subdued voice, Sehun said, “You look pretty excited talking about stabbing someone in the back.”

“It’s just one possible scheme of many. I don’t feel particularly good or bad about it,” Yoonshin replied.

“Okay, I understand. I’ll think about how useful this could be.”

“Does my answer meet the cutoff?”

“It’s simple. There is a limit to a good person trying to do something bad. It’s a flop.” The frost in Sehun’s stare had disappeared. His eyes were now colorless and neutral.