Numbers (2023) K Drama Episode 3

Numbers episode 3 takes us back to the conversation Je-Kyun and Hyeong-Woo had after People’s Entertainment’s audit report was released. Remember Kang-Hyun told the truth about People’s Entertainment’s huge losses in the audit report. This was contrary to Je-Kyun’s plan to conceal their losses in the report, just as Taeil Accounting Firm had done in the previous years.

Now that the truth is out, Je-Kyun tells Hyeong-Woo that he has to prove that the previous year’s audit report is right. This is even though they lied about People’s Entertainment’s financial situation. Je-Kyun mentions that Taeil Accounting Firm can’t lose in this situation.

Hyeong-Woo tries to find the audit report from the previous year when he also decides to confiscate the laptops of the team members that worked on this. Hyeong-Woo wants to make sure he doesn’t leave out anything when it comes to proving the previous year’s finances. Otherwise, this may cost him his job.

Hyeong-Woo seemingly tells Je-Kyun that there’s nothing they can do about the previous year’sreport since they lied about People’s Entertainment’s losses. Je-Kyun then suggests they forge the minutes written down during People’s Entertainment’s board members’ meeting around the time these failed investments were made.

Je-Kyun plans to forge the minutes, in which it will state that the investment People’s Entertainment made resulted in them incurring huge losses, which was collectively decided by People’s Entertainment’s investors. However, this isn’t true because Chan-Joo’s son, Lee Bo-Sung, made these investments by himself with People’s Entertainment’s funds.

Later, People’s Entertainment’s minority shareholders go to Taeil Accounting Firm headquarters to protest Taeil Accounting Firm’s audit report.

With the report out to the public, everyone now knows People’s Entertainment is likely going to become bankrupt. Ho-Woo witnesses the protest, and he remembers when Haebit Construction’s employees protested when it became bankrupt. It seems Ho-Woo is about to go defend the minority shareholders who are protesting when Hyeong-Woo texts him asking him to go see him.

Ho-Woo goes to see Hyeong-Woo, who warns him not to let his emotions get the best of him during situations like this. Hyeong-Woo tells him that an accountant works for people whose money work for them and not those who work for their money. I’m honestly glad Ho-Woo didn’t go to defend the minority shareholders protesting because no one knows what this action would have cost him.

Word has got out about Lee Bo-Sung embezzling People’s Entertainment’s company funds to fund his failed business ideas that made People’s Entertainment incur huge losses. So, media reporters start following Lee Bo-Sung, asking him if the allegations against him are true. Of course, Chan-Joo is mad and confronts Je-Kyun and Hyeong-Woo about the audit report Kang-Hyun released. Je-Kyun pitches the idea of them forging the board minutes, and Chan-Joo agrees with the plan.

Kang-Hyun’s team, which worked on the audit report that was just released, heads to People’s Entertainment to look for any printed board members meeting that took place around the time these failed investments were made. People’s Entertainment’s CEO, Koo Jun-Tak, finds Kang-Hyun’s team and begins yelling at them, blaming them for releasing the audit report that may most likely cost him his company. One of Kang-Hyun’s team members, Kim Jong-Ok, begins telling CEO Koo Jun-Tak not to blame them for what happened. He then tells CEO Koo Jun-Tak to cooperate because he needs him now.

Kang-Hyun’s team finds the appropriate board meeting minutes, so they begin forging the minutes Taeil Accounting Firm is looking to forge. Hyeong-Woo informs Je-Kyun of the progress regarding the board meeting minutes. However, Je-Kyun isn’t satisfied yet. He still wants to find a way to profit from all this, even though Sang-Ah Group and People’s Entertainment will most likely not merge.

Later, the news came out that Lee Bo-Sung’s embezzlement allegations against him were cleared. It seems Taeil Accounting Firm successfully forged the board members’ meeting minutes.

Meanwhile, Hyeong-Woo is trying to determine how People’s Entertainment will pay off its debts. With the audit report out to the public, People’s Entertainment’s creditors will begin pressuring the company to repay their loans. Ho-Woo then suggests persuading People’s Entertainment’s creditors to sell off the debts People’s Entertainment owes them as bad loans.

This means that the creditors will sell off the debts that People’s Entertainment owes them to other people to collect the debts from People’s Entertainment on their behalf. The downside is that the creditors will incur a loss because they will sell off these debts at a lower price than the debt amount.

Jisan Bank, the main creditor of People’s Entertainment, initially declines to sell off their debt. But, Ho-Woo suggests convincing the other People’s Entertainment creditors, like Hanra Bank, to sell their debts first so that Jisan Bank will have no choice but to follow suit. Well, Ho-Woo’s suggestion works as Jisan Bank finally agrees to sell off their debt.

So, how does Taeil Accounting Firm benefit from all this? It turns out Taeil Accounting Firm convinced Jisan Bank to allow them to sell off their debt on its behalf. What Jisan Bank doesn’t know is that Taeil Accounting Firm will also bid to buy the debt on Sang-Ah’s Group’s behalf. This means Taeil Accounting Firm will benefit in both cases because Jisan Bank and Sang-Ah Group will pay for Taeil Accounting Firm’s services.

The accountants at Taeil Accounting Firm are then divided into two groups. One group is to work on coming up with the best-selling price on behalf of Jisan Bank, and the other is to work on the best-buying price on Sang-Ah Group’s behalf.

Chan-Joo later meets with Je-Kyun and Hyeong-Woo and tells them he no longer plans to buy People’s Entertainment as they had agreed. Chan-Joo tells them that he wanted Sang-Ah Group to merge with People’s Entertainment because he wanted to hide his son’s embezzlement of funds. But now that Taeil Accounting Firm got his son out of that mess, he no longer wants to buy it.

Of course, Je-Kyun is mad about Chan-Joo’s decision. However, he still knows he’ll benefit because Chan-Joo will pay the firm for buying off People’s Entertainment’s creditors’ debts on his company’s behalf.

At Taeil Accounting Firm, Yeon-A happens to drop a document will the minimum price the selling team came up with for the debts price. Ho-Woo, who is in the buying team, comes across the document and returns it to Yeon-A without looking at it. The selling and buying teams were not supposed to tell each other about their minimum selling and buying prices, respectively.

Seung-Jo sees Ho-Woo returning the document to Yeon-A. Seung-Jo is surprised as to why he did that when he could have easily checked the buying team’s minimum buying price and told his selling team about it.

Later, Seung-Jo visits Jisan Bank’s CEO, Ma Hang-Sik. He proposes the idea of also selling off Jisan Bank’s other bad loans with the one for People’s Entertainment. However, this time Jisan Bank is guaranteed to have a buyer with the best possible price for the debts. That way, Hang-Sik discards these loans so he won’t be penalized by the bank shareholders since he oversaw these bad loans in the first place.

Seung-Jo then tells Je-Kyun this plan. He also tells him that Chan-Joo will be forced to buy the bad debts from Jisan Bank. Typically, anyone who buys People’s Entertainment’s debt has the right to view its financial statements. This will mean that Lee Bo-Sung’s embezzling of funds is bound to be discovered, especially by Chan-Joo’s brother, Lee Sang-Joo, who will be bidding to buy People’s Entertainment’s debt.

Lee Sang-Joo was kicked out of Sang-Ah Group, and if he buys the debt and finds out Lee Bo-Sung embezzled funds, he’ll use that to overthrow Chan-Joo and become Sang-Ah Group’s chairman. And since Chan-Joo won’t want that, he’ll agree to buy all of Jisan Bank’s bad debts in exchange for no one discovering what his son did.

As predicted, Chan-Joo agrees to buy all of Jisan Bank’s debts at the highest possible price.

Later, Seung-Jo tells Hyeong-Woo that Ho-Woo will help him execute his plan. Hyeong-Woo is hesitant at first, but he has no choice but to agree. Ho-Woo is also not happy about him working with Seung-Jo, but Ho-Woo tells him that working with Hyeong-Woo will cause him to get hurt, so this arrangement is for the best.

Chan-Joo knows Seung-Jo is helping Lee Sang-Joo buy People’s Entertainment’s bad loan. So, he sends someone to try and stop Seung-Jo and Ho-Woo from arriving at the auction on time.

At the auction venue, Chan-Joo is confident that Seung-Jo won’t arrive on time place in his bid for Lee Sang-Joo. But, Ho-Woo arrives in time and places in the bid. This causes Chan-Joo to freak out, so he changes his bidding price to an even higher amount. What he doesn’t know is that Lee Sang-Joo placed quite a low bid on the loan. This leaves Chan-Joo buying Jisan Bank’s loans because he’s the highest bidder. And judging by the look on his face, he knows he was tricked.

Je-Kyun congratulates Seung-Jo for doing all this, and Seung-Jo tells Je-Kyun that he’ll go after him next. Je-Kyun isn’t frightened by what his son said though. Later, Ho-Woo overhears Hang-Sik commending Seung-Jo for coming up with such a plan. Hang-Sik then mentions that Seung-Jo was the one who recommended to Jisan Bank that they declare Haebit Construction bankrupt. Of course, Ho-Woo hears all of this.

The episode ends with Ho-Woo asking why he pushed for Jisan Bank to declare Haebit Construction bankrupt.

The Episode Review

Now that Ho-Woo knows that Seung-Jo pushed for Jisan Bank to declare Haebit Construction bankrupt and confronts him, I’m eager to see what happens next. However, I’m still wondering whether or not Haebit Construction becoming bankrupt was its fault. Was Haebit Construction in a bad financial situation, or did Seung-Jo cook up something to make it look like it would become bankrupt?