AAE -- Wishes Of The Heart

Chapter 32

written by LoveCR2 -- 2005

edited by All-About-AAE -- 2017

 

"Whatever I have to do, Yoon Hyung-Chul will never be CEO of Mun-Yung!" -- Kim Eun-Hee, Chairman Yoon's wife

 

 

PYONGCHANG-DONG, SEOUL...

 

"So Yoon Hyung-Chul outfoxed you in this week's negotiations, again?" Kim Eun-Hee, Chairman Yoon's second wife, comments on the recent executive conferences. "At this rate he'll have MBS entirely under his thumb before long. And where does that leave you?"

 

MBS Director Kim Eun-Ki looks back at her, and takes a long, slow sip of Jim Beam before answering, "I never expected Hyung-Chul to be such a skillful adversary. But I still have a few cards left, before this hand is finished."

 

Eun-Hee looks out over the lighted, Japanese-style garden of her suburban Seoul home, and warns: "There's less than a year before the Board vote to replace my husband when he retires. If Hyung-Chul is elected President of MBS, what's to stop him from eventually gaining full control over Mun-Yung, too?"

 

"I'm fully aware of the risks, dear Sister. You needn't worry your pretty little head over it," Eun-Ki regards her contemptuously.

 

"Don't mock me!" she retorts. "It was this 'pretty little head' that got us this far, remember? You'd still be pushing paper in a nondescript office if I hadn't snared Yoon Hoe-Jang when he was still persona-non-grata after leaving his wife."

 

"Okay, I'll grant you that," Eun-Ki concedes. "You're an expert when it comes to using feminine 'wiles' to turn the hardest man into soft putty," he layers on the sarcasm with the double entendre. "But don't forget. It was my money that paid the best surgeons in Seoul to get your face into MBS in the first place, to win that 'audition' on the casting couch."

 

"As long as it's a man's world, don't criticize a woman for what she has to do to make a better life for herself," Eun-Hee remarks caustically. "Especially when you've benefited handsomely by that, too."

 

"All right, I'll take that back," he retreats off his criticism to sooth her ruffled feathers. "Now, what's this plan you hinted at over dinner?"

 

"Since you've shown only utter incompetence, I'm taking things into my own hands," she takes her turn at being condescending. "It's the only way I can guarantee it is MY son -- not HERS -- who ultimately holds the seat of power!"

 

Eun-Ki shakes his head in exasperation. "When are you going to stop obsessing over that woman … she's been dead for five years!"

 

"Five years or five hundred, I'll never forgive her revenge -- grasping onto her husband until her last breath, just to deny my rightful place in society, and my son's legitimacy as an heir. So this is MY revenge -- erasing the mother's legacy by denying her son's inheritance!"

 

Her eyes narrow threateningly. Whatever I have to do, Yoon Hyung-Chul will never be Chairman of Mun-Yung!" she vows. "Never!"

 

"The only way you can guarantee that is by getting control over Director Yoon's block of voting shares," Eun-Ki points out. "And you have no practical chance of that. Even if you killed him, control of the Trust reverts to Director Yoo and his daughter, Joo-Hee, as determined by his mother."

 

"I don't have to kill him," Eun-Hee smiles sinisterly, "if he gets married first. Then, if he dies or is deemed incompetent, control reverts to his wife, right? And whoever controls his wife..."

 

"Controls her votes on the Board, and that ends your rival's legacy," Eun-Ki connects the remaining links of the plot.

 

"Exactly."

 

"There's only one flaw in your plan," he smirks. "Director Yoon is close with Announcer Jin Sun-Mi, rumors say they are planning marriage. How are you going to convince him to marry the woman of YOUR choice instead?"

 

She flicks her eyes seductively. "Didn't you just say I was an expert at feminine wiles?"

 

Eun-Ki ponders that for a moment and then looks at her oddly. "Even if it's possible, who do you have in mind for the job?"

 

"There's no need to name names now," she refuses to divulge the person. "It's only important that Announcer Jin is taken out of the picture first. Now that she's accepted the London Special Correspondent position, that should be much easier."

 

Eun-Ki is amazed. "How did you know Announcer Jin is leaving? I only learned that myself yesterday."

 

"I have my spies," Eun-Hee answers smugly. "Just as I know you're gaining control of the overseas bureaus, and can make sure that Jin Sun-Mi is exactly where we want her to be."

 

"But that's months away, after Director Pyo retires," Eun-Ki corrects her. "There's nothing I can do about it in the meantime."

 

"Hadn't you heard the news? Eun-Hee smiles. "Director Pyo entered the hospital today, after suffering a massive heart attack. It was from overwork some say... I won't tell you what I know... But you can assume you'll be making a trip to London sooner than later."

 

He sees the calculated coldness in her eyes, and decides that he'd prefer to not know what she knows.

 

"Still, it's a long shot, if you ask me," he dismisses the feasibility of executing such a complex plan. "How are you going to make everyone play along with your plot? "

 

"We won't have to make them do anything," she replies with a conspiratorial wink, "as long as they think it is in their best interests, and in the interests of others, to follow the script..."

 

"But..."

 

"Leave the details to me," she insists. "You just keep losing your battles with Director Yoon like usual, to keep him off guard -- so when the time comes, he'll never know what hit him..."