Seong-ho Kim turned to Jeong-cheol Choi, who was standing beside him.
"You didn't tell him?"
"No, sir. Well… it could have changed…"
Byeong-jin Jo looked at Seong-ho, flustered, then quickly waved his hands.
"Come on. You can't do that. Hey. This isn't right."
His tone was flat and hard. No way.
"The rice is cooked. All that's left is to lift the lid and serve it. If you move me now, I'll be so sore about it I won't sleep."
"I know how hard you've worked, but there's something else for you to do."
"Something else?"
"You need to go to North Korea in place of the Chairman and me."
"What? Go where?"
Byeong-jin hadn't seen that coming at all.
But Seong-ho wasn't done surprising him.
"You just need to attend this inter-Korean summit in place of the Chairman and me."
"In place of the Chairman and you? Isn't that for the heads of the business groups?"
"That's right."
"So how am I supposed to go?"
Byeong-jin was a Vice-President of Ilhyeon Heavy Industries.
Ilhyeon Group might tower over every other company, but he was still only a Vice-President at one of its affiliates.
Ilhyeon Heavy Industries was aiming for twenty trillion won in sales and was bigger than most companies, but even so, sending its president would be the right level.
And that wasn't the only strange thing.
Byeong-jin quickly shook his head and asked:
"But didn't you just tell me to get out of Ilhyeon Heavy Industries?"
"I did."
"Then what am I supposed to go as? I can't just go to North Korea without any title."
"Of course you can't go like that."
Seong-ho looked at Byeong-jin with a hint of a smile.
"You're going as overall president of Ilhyeon Electronics."
"Huh? What? Go as what?"
Byeong-jin was even more startled than when he'd been told to leave Ilhyeon Heavy Industries.
"You want me to be overall president of Ilhyeon Electronics?"
"Yes."
Seong-ho looked straight at Byeong-jin.
"I can't be tied down to Ilhyeon Electronics alone. But that doesn't mean I can hand Ilhyeon Electronics to just…