I rushed to Chunha Resources. Inside, Maru was fidgeting nervously, and two men, one middle-aged and one younger, were fuming in front of him.
'Those two must be from Siho Condenser.'
I addressed them politely.
"I'm the owner of Chunha Resources. What seems to be the problem?"
The middle-aged man glared at me and shouted,
"Do you think you can just buy anything without checking and run a business like that? Return the part right now! Do you even know how much it's worth?"
I was angry at his outburst, but I held back. He might be someone I need in the future.
"Please calm down and explain the situation. I need to understand what happened to resolve this."
The middle-aged man, still fuming, said,
"One of our production line workers confessed to stealing a core component from a machine and selling it here. We need to get it back as soon as possible. It's urgent. We'll all lose our jobs if we don't!"
"Please calm down. I'll look into it right away."
I recalled tossing the part onto the copper pile a few days ago and went to check, but it was gone.
"Maru, when did we ship out the copper?"
"You said we had a lot, so we delivered it to the wholesaler three days ago."
I must have instructed him to do so. I had been so preoccupied with computers lately that I had neglected Chunha Resources and forgotten about it.
I hurriedly called the wholesaler and asked if they still had the copper we delivered, but they said they had already compressed and delivered it to the smelter yesterday. There was no way to retrieve it now.
I shook my head and approached the middle-aged man.
"I'm sorry, but it seems it's already been melted down. I apologize for acquiring it without proper verification."
The color drained from the man's face. The younger man's pupils dilated. Then the younger man spoke.
"Manager, what do we do? We're all going to get fired."
"No, I have a mortgage on my apartment, and my daughter is only in elementary school."
As they panicked, I said,
"I'll return the money I paid for the copper. I'm sorry."
The manager's eyes suddenly turned sharp.
"Do you think that will resolve this situation?"
I was getting angry now. What did he expect me to do? I didn't steal it, and I was offering to return the money. They had even caught the thief and gotten a confession, so why were they giving me a hard time?
"Why are you blaming me? You should go after the thief. I just bought it thinking it was scrap metal."
The manager groaned and said,
"…He ran away."
"What?"
"He disappeared while we were distracted after getting his confession."
I stared at him in disbelief, and the manager glared at me and said,
"Did you issue a receipt when you bought it?"
"…What kind of junkyard issues receipts?"
"No receipt, handling stolen goods, tax evasion… Do you think you can withstand a prosecution investigation?"
His words sent chills down my spine. A prosecution investigation? I had just started building a foundation for success, and I couldn't let this happen.
"Why would I be prosecuted? Are you threatening me?"
"The situation is that dire. We don't want to do this either, but we have to handle it somehow."
I put on my most innocent expression and said,
"Siho Condenser is a large company, isn't it? What power does a small neighborhood junkyard like ours have that you're doing this to us? Please have mercy. We're just barely making a living by cleaning up trash. This is unfair."
The manager remained silent for a moment before saying,
"…The company doesn't know about this yet. So it has nothing to do with the company."
"Then what do you mean by prosecution?"
"If we get caught for losing the part and it gets reported to higher-ups, that's what will happen."
I felt my blood pressure rising. I had bought it thinking I had found a good deal, and now I was in this ridiculous situation. I spoke calmly,
"So you're saying you'll let it slide if we resolve this before it gets reported?"
The manager nodded.
"Sigh, alright. How much do you need?"
"30 million won."
I almost cursed. What? 30 million won? Did he think I was stupid? Was he kidding me?
"It's just a chunk of copper! The material cost would be 2-3 million won at most. Even with processing and transportation costs, how can it be 30 million won? I deal with raw materials, you think I'd believe that?"
"It's not just copper."
The manager showed me a quote and said,
"I said it was a core component, right? It's a silver coil wrapped in copper. It contains 100 kg of silver."
What?
"It's an essential process in condenser manufacturing. They use silver for the coil to increase conductivity. But making it entirely out of silver would be too expensive, so they wrap it in cheaper copper, which has lower conductivity, to save costs. Out of the 480 kg, 100 kg is silver."
I looked at the quote he handed me. I couldn't help but curse.
"Damn it!"
"This is the quote we requested before we caught the thief, when we were trying to cover the cost ourselves by pooling money from the department. We gave up after seeing the price, but we didn't know either."
100 kg of silver out of 480 kg? And I had sold it thinking it was just copper? Me, a junkyard owner? If I had just cut it open a little with an oxy-fuel torch or something, I would have known!
The cost of copper and silver, just the raw material cost, was around 20 million won. I was more angry about selling a 20 million won item for 2 million won than about the 30 million won I had to pay.
"So you want me to bear the entire cost?"
"Either that, or we all go down together. We lose our jobs, and you get investigated."
I remained silent, and Maru fidgeted nervously beside me.
After a moment of silence, I said,
"Come back tomorrow."
The manager was about to protest, but I shouted back,
"Damn it! I said come back tomorrow! Who keeps 30 million won in cash? I need to go to the bank and withdraw it!"
It was the first time I had raised my voice at them.
It was also the first time I had raised my voice since starting the junkyard business.
I had always been humble and accommodating, keeping the future in mind, but I was so angry that I couldn't control myself.
The manager and the employee were startled and discussed it for a moment before saying,
"We'll come back tomorrow."
"Wait. Maru, bring the recorder from the office."
As Maru rushed to the office, I said,
"I'm sorry. It's just frustrating to lose hard-earned money for such a ridiculous reason."
"I understand."
"If you catch that thief, please let me know. Here's my business card."
While the manager took my card, I turned on the recorder that Maru brought and said,
"If I pay 30 million won to cover the cost of the stolen Siho Condenser component, Manager… what's your name?"
"It's Kim Kyung-min."
"Manager Kim Kyung-min will handle this matter discreetly. There will be no further demands from Chunha Resources. Even if things go wrong, Chunha Resources will not be held responsible. Do you agree?"
"What do you mean, 'things go wrong'?"
"Then I don't have the money. Get fired. Just leave. I'll quit too."
We stared each other down, and finally, the manager sighed and said,
"I agree."
"Good."
I turned off the recorder and said,
"Come back tomorrow. And bring your Siho Condenser employee ID. How can I trust you with the money without any proof? How do I know you're not a scammer? Come prepared with proper identification. I'll have the money ready."
After the manager left, I stood still with my eyes closed. I couldn't calm down. Selling a 20 million won item for 2 million won.
And the fact that my bad feeling about it had come true made it even more absurd.
"Maru, is there any soju in the office fridge?"
"I'll go buy some."
"Let's finish up work for today and have some soju together."
Maru glanced at the door where the manager had left and said,
"But are you really going to give them the money? It's 30 million won. 30 million won. Shouldn't we look into how other junkyards handle these stolen goods situations? It's not like we knew it was stolen. It's so unfair."
"Forget it. Let's just give them the money and be done with it. Consider it a lesson learned. I don't want to be involved in this kind of mess anymore. Go buy some soju."
Maru sighed deeply and said,
"We don't have to go to the bank?"
"What bank? All the money is in the office safe. Hurry up and come back before I explode."
"From tomorrow on, we'll only accept factory goods. No more 1-ton trucks. This was a valuable lesson."
"You're right. I've heard stories about stolen goods, but I never thought it would happen to us."
Our soju glasses clinked cheerfully, and we took shot after shot.
"This is the first time I've lost money since starting the junkyard."
"That's right. We've never experienced a loss before."
"What do you think would have happened if we hadn't started the used computer business?"
"…We might have gone bankrupt. Or even ended up in jail."
"Exactly. And there's a high chance we wouldn't have had the 30 million won. They might have actually reported us and we would have been investigated. And it's not like we haven't broken any other laws. The amount of accumulated tax evasion alone would be enormous. We've never done any official transactions. And I'm not familiar with the law, but there must be other regulations regarding environment and safety that we've violated."
"It's inevitable, considering our line of work."
I looked at Maru and said,
"Don't tell me I'm repeating myself, just listen. Do you know what I realized this time?"
"What is it? Money again?"
I nodded.
"That's right. Money. In a capitalist society, money is power. I was able to act tough and confidently offer them the money because I had it. Imagine if I didn't have the money."
I took another shot and continued,
"I would have probably begged and pleaded, trying to avoid paying. If things had gone wrong, I might have even run away with all the cash I had."
"Hahaha."
Maru laughed bitterly.
"We need to have plenty of money to maintain our dignity and prepare for emergencies. Maru."
"Yes, hyung."
"We need to make a lot of money. More than anyone else. I'm serious."
As I was making this firm resolution, Maru thought for a moment and asked,
"But hyung, you said that thief was a production worker at Siho Condenser, right?"
"Yes."
Maru tilted his head and said,
"If he was an employee at a decent company, his salary wouldn't have been low. Why would he steal a company component and sell it for a measly 500,000 won? What kind of person does that?"
"He's just crazy. No one in their right mind would do something like that."