Chapter 64: That Time I Went from South America to Korea (4)

TL: Skye

The moment that unexpected question landed, Yu-jin gripped the microphone and held his silence for a beat.

On the surface he kept the same easy smile, but his head was a mess.

'Spoken like a true Hankuk University student... sharp question, kid.'

He hadn't seen it coming at all.

He'd figured the worst they'd hit him with would be something about national development vision, or maybe avenues for cooperation with Korean corporations. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected someone to drag election talk out into the open right to his face.

'I'd better thread this needle carefully.'

Reporters were stacked everywhere in the hall. Whatever he said here, he could bet his life it would be splashed across every front page tomorrow.

Yu-jin's brain kicked into overdrive.

For starters, the kid wasn't wrong. He was, technically, an unelected power right now.

The whole "state of emergency" justification was wearing thin, and if this period dragged on much longer, the international community would slap a "dictator" label on him soon enough.

Of course, that didn't mean he could just hand over the reins tomorrow.

He'd started too many things. The expressway needed finishing. The nuclear plant had to go up. The industrial complexes had to be filled with investment from Korean corporations.

At minimum, he had to wrap up a decent chunk of it before passing the baton, or it would all unravel after he was gone.

And there was another problem.

What if he handed power to someone, and San Marcos slid right back into chaos?

What if the next regime decided to make him, the former regime, the target of a purge?

"......"

Just imagining it sent a chill through him. Until he had at least a basic safety net in place, his hands had to stay welded to the steering wheel.

Which meant the answer was simple.

'I hold an election. And I run in it.'

An election would set a fixed term, and a fixed term meant he could finally walk out while the applause was still going.

And above all...

'Otherwise, when the hell am I supposed to retire?'

Working forever with no end date in sight was a one-way ticket to dropping dead from overwork.

Calculations complete, Yu-jin slowly opened his mouth.

"That is a very sharp and timely question. Truly worthy of one of my juniors."

Yu-jin met the student's eyes and continued, deliberate and clear.

"As you've pointed out, the current government of San Marcos is built on Emergency Powers. It was an unavoidable choice for restoring order from chaos, but I wholeheartedly agree that this cannot be a permanent arrangement."

The hall went still, holding its breath.

Below the podium, Isabella's pupils were quaking like a seismograph in an earthquake, but Yu-jin didn't stop.

"San Marcos has only just emerged from the brutal chaos of civil war and terrorism, and is finding its footing. The urgent task of national reconstruction makes the road ahead difficult, but..."

Yu-jin paused, then declared in a voice ringing with conviction.

"While it has not yet been formally discussed, my intention is to hold an election no later than one year from now, at the point when San Marcos's social systems have normalized. A fair and transparent election, with UN observers present."

"...!"

A wave of murmuring swept through the audience.

"But what if you lose? Wouldn't that throw the country into even greater turmoil?"

The reporter wore a press badge over his chest. Yu-jin answered with practiced ease.

"Not once in my life have I lived with power as a goal. Naturally, I have no intention whatsoever of extending my power through undemocratic means. That is why I will trust in the greatness of the people of San Marcos, stand for election one year from now, and humbly accept their choice."

A beat of silence. And then.

Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap!

Applause erupted hard enough to lift the auditorium ceiling clean off.

The young, hot-blooded university students went wild for the image of a young leader voluntarily laying down his power and submitting himself to judgment.

Yu-jin came down from the podium amid the cascading cheers, waving casually, and turned a wry smile toward Isabella, whose face had drained completely white.

From the next morning onward, the Republic of Korea was thrown into uproar by Yu-jin's remarks.

[BREAKING] Acting President Choi Yu-jin Drops Bombshell: "Presidential Election in One Year"

[EXCLUSIVE] San Marcos Unveils Democratization Roadmap. Choi Yu-jin Hints at Formal Candidacy.

[NEWS ANALYSIS] If Choi Yu-jin Loses in One Year, Will Nuclear Exports and Economic Cooperation Collapse?

The 9 PM network news, the front page of every morning paper, all wallpapered with Yu-jin's face.

Online opinion was running just as hot.

-Wait, he's running in the presidential election? The romance is unreal.

-Look at that confidence. Basically saying he's gonna win in a landslide a year from now, right?

-But what if he loses? What happens to our companies? They invested on faith and now it's all gonna go up in smoke?

-Nah nah nah, my buddy doing tour guide work in San Marcos says there's no way he loses. Apparently they basically treat him as the Founding Father over there.

-Founding Father my ass, I went there myself, dude's basically a god. Got his face carved into a mountain Mount Rushmore-style.

The aftershocks hit hard.

So hard that reporters were occupying the hotel lobby right up until the moment Yu-jin's Korea schedule wrapped.

When Yu-jin, having finished every last appointment, tried to head out to the airport early that morning, the reporters camping in the lobby swarmed him like wasps.

"Acting President! Just a word, please!"

"Is the one-year election timeline your official position?"

"As I understand it, San Marcos currently has no National Assembly, will you be holding a General Election as well?"

Dozens of microphones lunged in like spears. Yu-jin raised a hand with his trademark good-natured smile.

"I will address the details through an official briefing once I return home. What I can say with certainty is that San Marcos will be walking the path of democracy from here on."

With the help of his security detail, Yu-jin barely managed to break through the cordon of reporters and clamber into the vehicle, where he let out a sigh of relief.

And then.

"...Ahem."

He ran straight into a wall of cold air. Isabella was radiating frost in a way she rarely did.

Already seated, having just finished a phone call from the look of it, Isabella set her phone down and turned to face him.

"A message has come in from the Blue House. Deep concern."

"Oh?"

"They committed astronomical investment trusting in Your Excellency's stable leadership, and you've just thrown the uncertainty of a possible regime change a year from now into the mix."

Yu-jin answered with feigned composure.

"And the corporations?"

"Nothing in particular. Which I suppose means that's how much they trust Your Excellency."

"That's a relief, then."

"Your Excellency."

Isabella's voice dropped to a low register.

"A matter of this magnitude should have been thoroughly discussed with your staff in advance."

"Sorry I couldn't tell you ahead of time. But it was something we'd have to do eventually, wasn't it?"

"......"

"And it doesn't look great from the outside either. People could start calling me a dictator."

"That's already..."

"Already?"

At Yu-jin's prompt, Isabella bit her lip.

She let out a long, frustrated sigh.

"We were already preparing a Constitutional Amendment Bill to install Your Excellency as our leader for life."

"...What?"

Yu-jin's eyes went round.

Did he just hear what he thought he heard?

"For life... what now?"

"It was the unanimous opinion of the Military Establishment and the Cabinet that Your Excellency must guide San Marcos for life. And so we were going to amend the constitution and elevate you to President for Life... but that's all moot now."

"Hold on. Who gave anyone permission to..."

A cold sweat ran down Yu-jin's spine.

'These people were planning to suck the marrow out of my bones!'

If he hadn't brought up the election thing when he did, he would have been done for.

"Haaah..."

Isabella, having no clue whatsoever what was running through Yu-jin's head, clutched her temples.

"Well, since it's come to this, we'll have to start preparing for the election as soon as we get back."

"That fast?"

"Since its founding, San Marcos has held only four proper elections. And even those were just to elect members of the National Assembly."

Isabella glared at Yu-jin and laid out the case point by point.

"Elections were held so long ago that there's no Voter Registry, no Polling Stations, no vote-counting personnel. We have to start from scratch, everything from drafting Election Law to voter education."

"Ah... more work than I thought."

"And above all, since we're holding an election anyway, we need to come out of it with one hundred percent approval."

"......"

Yu-jin quietly turned his gaze toward the window.

That was when it happened.

Ring-! Ring-!

The emergency phone in his inner jacket pocket went off in a clamor.

It was a hotline known only to a select few, including SIA Director Lucio.

"Just a moment."

Cutting Isabella's lecture short, Yu-jin pulled out the phone. The instant he registered the message on the screen, his face turned to stone.

[Sender: Lucio.] [URGENT: U.S. Joint Special Operations Command's Delta Force has struck the Venezuelan Presidential Palace. President Nicolás Maduro and the First Lady have been arrested. Currently being transported to the U.S. mainland aboard a U.S. military transport.]

"Huh?"

***

"No way."

I had to question my own eyes.

"Is this for real?"

I'd known through SIA reports that the U.S. was eventually going to intervene in Venezuela.

Honestly, even without SIA, it was a perfectly predictable scenario.

There was no way the U.S. was going to sit and watch Venezuela cozy up to China right in their own front yard.

But I'd assumed the most they would do was prop up some pro-American politician and pressure Maduro into stepping down.

Instead...

"They sent special forces into another country and snatched the president?"

Not even a former president. The sitting one.

Just thinking about it made my skin crawl.

Because that meant there was nothing stopping the same thing from happening to me.

I hit the call button with a trembling hand.

"What in God's name is going on?"

Lucio's voice on the other end of the line was urgent but composed.

[Delta Force raided the Presidential Palace in Caracas. Maduro reportedly didn't even put up a fight, they hauled him out in his underwear.]

"What's the actual reason? Even for the U.S., kidnapping the head of a sovereign state in such a high-handed manner makes no sense."

[The official pretext is the war on drugs and human rights abuses, but...]

Lucio paused for a moment, then offered the kind of cool-headed analysis befitting an intelligence chief.

[He's after Venezuelan Heavy Crude Oil. No question. President Drump was in dire need of a major diplomatic win.]

"Hah... that man, you really never know which way he's going to jump..."

[And... hm? What was that?]

Lucio's voice on the other end suddenly climbed an octave.

[Your Excellency, you need to check Drump's SNS. Right now. He's just posted a statement.]

"SNS?"

Still holding the phone, I scrambled to open the SNS app.

Drump's account, where the eyes of the world were currently glued.

The instant I refreshed, a fresh post sat at the very top, paired with Drump's profile picture in a MAGA hat.

[Venezuela's dictator Nicolás Maduro is finished! He starved his own people and peddled drugs. America will no longer tolerate this kind of garbage dictatorship in our own backyard. Justice has been served!]

A post with the unmistakable scent of flexing American power and rallying the base. But the moment I read the next paragraph, my breath caught in my throat.

[For proof of why he is guilty, look no further than my friend, Yu-jin Choi of San Marcos.]

"...Hm?"

Why was my name showing up there?

[He had every means to become a dictator, yet unlike Maduro, he did not hide behind his army. Nor, like Maduro, did he flood the streets with drugs for money. Instead, in Korea, he promised to hold a democratic election in one year. That is true leadership! Maduro is going to prison, but my great friend Yu-jin is going to the future! I, Drump, fully support the democracy of San Marcos!]

"No."

What the hell kind of dog-shit nonsense was this.

I was staring down at the screen, dumbstruck, when Isabella, who had been peering at the smartphone screen alongside me, started trembling head to toe.

"Your Excellency... just how far ahead were you reading the board?"

"......"

*****

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