Chapter 7 – Losing Is Winning
Arm wrestling was indeed a drinking game.
To be precise, if you lose in arm wrestling, you have to drink a shot of vodka.
If you win, you can choose to drink or not.
Yuri, the bar owner, brought out two bottles of vodka and set them on the table.
Soon enough, people gathered around.
It was a rare sight to see an Asian involved in arm wrestling.
Moreover, since Seon-su had bought drinks previously and mingled with them, they were even more curious.
“Начнем? (Shall we begin?)”
Putin started rolling up his shirt sleeves.
His forearms were thicker than expected.
I also took off my jacket and rolled up my sleeves.
Seeing this, Putin remarked.
“Удивительно. (Surprising.)”
He seemed taken aback by the thickness of my forearms and the visible veins.
Putin extended his hand.
“Давайте начнем. (Let’s start.)”
As I gripped Putin’s hand, I felt his strength.
Can I win?
His forearms were nearly one and a half times thicker than mine.
Of course, that meant he was much stronger.
Yuri grabbed our hands, gave them a slight shake, and then shouted.
“начало! (Start!)”
“Eeeek!”
I put in all my strength and managed to push Putin’s arm halfway down.
The onlookers shouted.
They seemed to think I might win.
However, Putin’s expression remained relaxed.
His arm didn’t budge any further.
Eventually, his arm began to rise back up to the starting position.
Putin smirked.
He was holding back.
No, maybe he was toying with me?
Ugh.
Thud.
The table shook as Putin won the first round.
“Пейте. (Drink.)”
It was the rule. I picked up the vodka glass and drank it in one go.
Seeing this, Putin also picked up his glass and drank, then said:
“Это не справедливо, если вы это сделаете. (It’s only fair if we both do it.)”
It didn’t seem fair at all.
The difference in strength was undeniable.
Putin extended his hand again.
I took his hand.
***
Astonishing.
Putin muttered as he watched Seon-su not give up.
It was already the 20th round.
Putin had lost focus and lost about three rounds.
But he had won the remaining 17 rounds.
Even so, Seon-su kept extending his hand.
“Не лучше ли сдаваться? (Wouldn’t it be better to give up?)”
“Нет. (No.)”
If I were going to give up, I wouldn’t have come this far.
And now I think I know how to win in arm wrestling.
It’s not just about having strength.
The key is explosive power and timing.
I extended my arm.
Putin smiled and grabbed my hand.
Yuri shook his head and shouted to start.
“начало! (Start!)”
Putin thought there was no way he could lose.
He was letting his guard down.
I twisted my wrist slightly inward and exerted all my strength in one moment.
Putin’s eyes widened.
Thud.
For the first time, Putin lost without being able to use his strength properly.
The crowd started to gasp in admiration.
I spoke to Putin.
“Пейте. (Drink.)”
Putin, bewildered, downed the vodka.
Seeing this, I picked up my own glass and echoed the words Putin had said earlier.
“Это не справедливо, если вы это сделаете. (It’s only fair if we both do it.)”
Putin thought Seon-su must be crazy.
He had shared only the first few shots with him. After that, he hadn’t.
Seon-su had drunk nearly two bottles of vodka on his own.
Yet, he still wanted to keep drinking.
Putin, seemingly amused, said:
“Хорошо. (Alright.)”
It felt like Seon-su was challenging him.
Putin liked that Seon-su didn’t give up.
He extended his hand again.
This time, he wouldn’t let his guard down.
Seon-su took his hand.
Yuri shouted for them to start.
“Ugh.”
“Дай мне силы. (Give me strength.)”
Putin shouted.
Putin was putting all his strength into preventing his wrist from bending.
This time, it wouldn’t be an easy win.
They both applied strength evenly, waiting for the right opportunity.
Rocking back and forth.
I pulled back slightly and then pushed forward again, causing Putin to waver.
At that moment, I twisted my wrist and used my body weight.
Thud.
“Хорошо. Хорошо. (Good. Good.)”
Putin Enjoyed Himself Despite Losing
He raised his vodka glass and drank.
Seeing that, I also lifted my glass and drank.
“ещё, опять! (Again, once more!)”
He couldn’t remember the last time he faced an unyielding opponent like this.
Putin was enjoying his competition with Seon-su. But that didn’t mean he intended to lose on purpose.
He extended his hand.
Seon-su also grabbed Putin’s hand.
***
Six Bottles of Vodka.
Did we drink it all?
No, only four bottles were consumed through the arm-wrestling matches.
The remaining two bottles were just shared with Putin for fun.
The result of the competition?
A complete defeat.
In the middle, I managed to win about seven times.
But since it wasn’t a single match, I couldn’t keep winning continuously.
There was a clear difference in stamina and strength.
Since I lost the bet, I couldn’t mention anything about business.
However, that didn’t mean I intended to give up.
This was my first proper meeting with Putin.
If I could meet him a few more times, he might start paying more attention to me.
That’s how relationships work, after all.
“Seon-su, are you okay?”
“Do I look okay to you?”
“Yeah, your hand’s all bruised.”
It wasn’t until daylight, after we returned to the hotel, that I noticed the deep bruise on the back of my hand.
It was inevitable.
After all, I had slammed it onto the table dozens of times.
“Still, it was amazing when I think about it.”
“What was?”
“You nearly had him on the brink of collapse.”
He was talking about Putin.
“Does your stomach feel alright?”
“It hurts a little.”
I never imagined that training for drinking sessions with Senior Jeong-seok, taking various vitamins, and supplements would help me out like this.
“Let’s ice your hand.”
Senior Jeong-seok moved to get some ice.
There was no ice in the room, so we had to ask the hotel staff.
Bang!
“Huh?”
Senior Jeong-seok was startled.
Men dressed in black suits had entered the room.
Flustered, my senior shouted in Korean.
“What is this!”
But the men grabbed his arms.
Two of them then approached me.
Before I could even react, they grabbed my arms too. And that wasn’t all.
They pulled a black hood over my head.
It wasn’t the kind of situation where resistance seemed appropriate.
The men began roughly dragging us somewhere.
***
Senior Jeong-seok expressed his anxiety as we were being dragged along.
“Seon-su… who do you think these people are? Are we going to be okay? What should we do?”
I didn’t know what to say in response.
Then, my senior started asking the men in Russian why they were taking us, stating that we were Korean. However, there was no response.
This made him even more nervous.
“Seon-su… Shouldn’t we inform the embassy?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“There’s no way to contact them in this situation.”
“I guess, but still…”
Something felt odd.
They seemed to be dragging us roughly somewhere.
But only at first. They didn’t do anything else.
Even when my senior yelled and asked questions, they remained quiet.
If they had bad intentions, they wouldn’t have stayed silent like this.
Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.
Putin.
He was an Ex-KGB agent.
KGB was the intelligence agency of the former Soviet Union.
Although it’s been disbanded, there are likely still agents around.
“Seon-su… Who are these people? Huh?”
I thought it was necessary to calm Senior Jeong-seok down.
“They’re probably agents.”
“Agents? You mean KGB agents?”
The only agents Jeong-seok knew of were the KGB.
The thought of being taken by the infamous KGB terrified him.
“We haven’t done anything wrong. Hey! Agents!”
My senior was so flustered that he didn’t even realize he was speaking in Korean.
It seemed he was getting more agitated.
“Senior, calm down.”
“Seon-su! Are we going to die?”
“Calm down. We’re not going to die.”
“Then why are they taking us!”
“Trust me. We won’t die.”
My calm but confident tone seemed to reassure Senior Jeong-seok.
Because he trusted me.
So, he shouted out.
“Мы корейцы. Вы сейчас делаете неправильно. Это станет международной проблемой. (We’re Koreans. You’re doing something wrong. This will become an international issue.)”
This time, he spoke in Russian.
For the first time, one of the men responded.
“Если не хочешь умирать, молчи. (If you don’t want to die, shut up.)”
Senior Jeong-seok closed his mouth immediately.
He understood the word ‘die’ very clearly.
* * *
The Car Stopped.
And I felt more certain.
When we got out of the car, they shielded my head to prevent me from getting hurt.
While going up and down the stairs, they held me firmly to keep me from tripping.
Almost as if they were protecting me.
We arrived at a certain room.
When they seated us on chairs, they were a bit rough.
“Huh? What are you doing?”
Senior Jeong-seok shouted in confusion.
They tied our hands behind the chair.
My hands were also tied.
However, they did not remove the black cloth covering our faces.
“Seon-su?”
Jeong-seok became anxious again.
“Seon-su?”
“I’m right here.”
It seemed like someone was entering the room.
And then they stood right in front of us.
“Какова цель вашего приезда сюда? (What is your purpose for coming here?)”
I tried not to laugh. But I couldn’t help it.
Although they couldn’t see me smiling because of the black cloth.
“Я спросил, какова цель. (I asked, what is your purpose?)”
They seemed to be asking seriously.
But I knew this voice.
The one I arm-wrestled and drank with all night.
Right in front of me.
Should I pretend not to know?
No.
Whether it’s a joke or not, it’s better to end this situation quickly.
“Друг очень шутит. (Friend, you’re joking too much.)”
When I called him a friend, his voice rose.
“Друг? Ты знаешь, где это сейчас и говоришь? (Friend? Do you even know where you are right now?)”
“I don’t know where this place is, but I know you’re my friend.”
I spoke calmly, and the other person seemed to be holding back laughter.
“Кто я? (Who am I?)”
Let me tell you exactly who you are.
“Мой друг Владимир Путин. (My friend, Vladimir Putin.)”
Then, the black cloth was pulled off my head.
I squinted against the sudden brightness.
But the face before me was indeed Putin.
Putin smiled.
“Верно. Мой друг. (Yes, my friend.)”
Now it was time to get serious.
I deliberately hardened my expression and spoke.
“Что это за шутка? (What kind of joke is this?)”
“Вы думаете, что друг шутит? (Friend, do you think this is a joke?)”
Putin was still smiling.
The atmosphere felt different.
He wasn’t the same person who was drinking in the bar. I could sense that this wasn’t a joke.
“С какой целью вы приехали сюда? (What is your purpose for coming here?)”
I felt like I needed to answer carefully.
The person standing before me now wasn’t the Putin who played drinking games in the bar.
In that case, it would be best to speak honestly.
“I came to secure natural gas.”
“Вы знали, кто я, и приблизились? (Did you approach knowing who I am?)”
Should I lie about this?
I knew from a dream.
But even if I lied, he wouldn’t believe it.
I had to speak the truth.
But just enough of it.
“I knew who you were. But we met purely by chance.”
“Верить в это? (You expect me to believe that?)”
The smile disappeared from Putin’s face.
It was understandable.
There were many people who approached him with an agenda.
He thought I was one of them.
“You don’t have to believe me.”
I had to come on strong.
Putin appreciated masculinity.
“Что? (What?)”
Putin was taken aback.
Most people in this situation would grovel and beg for his trust.
But Seon-su did not grovel or beg.
He didn’t even ask Putin to believe him.
“But the fact that we’re friends doesn’t change. I can do without the gas, but I don’t want to lose a friend.”
I was saying that I could give up the gas that was essential for business, but I couldn’t give up Putin.
Putin understood that.
Which made him more confused.
“You’re saying you can give up your goal for a friend?”
The truth is, the bigger goal is Putin himself.
If I could secure Putin, I could secure the gas too.
He didn’t understand my intentions, so he had to ask that question.
“I don’t even know what I’m thinking. But I’m sure that friends are more important.”
Putin had many people around him who would stop at nothing to achieve their goals.
He himself had betrayed others before, walking a tightrope to survive.
But now Seon-su was behaving like this, leaving him perplexed.
But he felt good.
They had shared drinks and became friends through a bet.
They could’ve been two strangers passing by.
But a friend is a friend.
Either way, Seon-su seemed to value Putin more than anything else.
Heh.
Putin laughed again.
He thought it was funny himself.
To be swayed by such sweet words.
Putin slightly nodded to the agent standing behind him.
The agent approached and untied Seon-su and Jeong-seok.
Putin spoke to Seon-su.
“Ты знаешь где это? (Do you know where we are?)”
I could answer confidently.
“Офис друга. (A friend’s office.)”
There was a reason for my confidence.
It was a clean, elegant space with a desk clearly meant for someone to work at.
“Правильно. Это мой офис. (Right. It’s my office.)”
Putin grabbed a nearby chair and sat down in front of Seon-su.
Then he crossed his legs and asked.
“Друг. Чего ты хочешь? (Friend, what do you want?)”
I couldn’t just naïvely say that I wanted a contract with Gazprom.
I needed to approach it from another angle.
—
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