"I hear Father's not going?"

Jeong-eun Lee threw the door open and came in.

Sang-jong Lee was at his desk going over documents. He frowned at her.

"Knock before you come in, would you?"

"Since when do you care about that?"

Jeong-eun snorted and sat down across from him.

Then she looked at him.

"Never mind that. Hurry up and answer what I asked. He's really not going?"

"At his age? Of course not."

Sang-jong answered with his eyes back on the documents.

But Jeong-eun wouldn't let it go.

"It's not like he'd be flying. It's two or three hours by bus. Think of it like going from Seoul to Daejeon."

"Is distance the problem here?"

As long as Jeong-eun was in his office, Sang-jong figured, he could forget about reading documents. He closed them.

"He can't do anything he wants, he'd be surrounded by the North Koreans and practically dragged around. Why would Father go?"

"It's not like he'd be doing anything there, so what does it matter…"

"If you want him to go so badly, why don't you go ask him yourself if he'll go?"

"Who said I want him to go? I'm just asking."

Sang-jong sighed heavily.

"Hoo… So do you want him to go, or don't you?"

"I want to know what Ilhyeon's thinking."

"Thinking what?"

"I hear Seong-ho Kim's not going either. They say that friend of his is going instead, which means Ilhyeon has no interest in North Korea at all."

"When were they ever interested? Father and Seong-ho both never caring about North Korea isn't exactly news."

"That's true, but…"

Jeong-eun was lost in thought for a moment, then spoke slowly.

"It feels like they're cutting ties with the Mincheong Party too, not just North Korea. That's why."

The irritation drained from Sang-jong's face. He turned serious.

"So that's what you came here to say?"

"Who is Seong-ho Kim? He hit it off with Min-gu Noh, didn't he? A man like that saying he won't go… makes me wonder if something's up. With North Korea and the Mincheong Party both."

"So what you're…