The Hyundo Group chairman's office.

"Have the revised U.S. proposal up before the afternoon meeting."

Gu Hoseon gave the order as he took off his coat. Even after the long flight, he hadn't gone straight home.

He had to go back over the terms for the U.S. plant that he'd confirmed on the ground.

With an investment this size, even small changes shifted the costs that followed.

"We're compiling it with the local subsidiary. The legal team is separately checking the terms of the tax incentives."

Park Giho, the chief of the chairman's secretariat, took the coat and handed it to a secretary.

At fifty-three, Director Park gave a tidy impression, with neatly trimmed hair and thin metal-rimmed glasses.

Even when overseas schedules overlapped, the order of his reports almost never slipped.

"Don't just take their word that they'll support us. Check the wording. People change; the contract is what stays."

Gu Hoseon turned on the monitor on his desk. What had been agreed in the U.S. and what had to be prepared at home were laid out item by item.

Fatigue washed over him.

But this wasn't something he could look at after a rest. Ever since his father had stepped back to become honorary chairman, the final call had been his.

He had four older sisters.

Having received their share of the inheritance early on, his sisters never had any reason to fight Gu Hoseon over control of the group.

Unlike Ilseong, Hyundo's succession hadn't been on the business world's lips for years.

Who would lead Hyundo had been settled long ago. The question now was what direction to set and how to lead.

At home, relationships built up over long years carried weight. Politics, the press, the legal world.

Families tied to them by marriage, and connections that had grown the business alongside them, were everywhere.

There were few people he couldn't meet if he called in Hyundo's name.

But running plants overseas and selling the cars of the future couldn't be done with that power alone.

"The cost comparison on the EV side?"

"We've redone it…