Chung-seop Jo looked over the company names written on the paper once more.

Because what was written there were the kind of stocks the market commonly called “junk stocks” — companies whose fundamentals or future value counted for absolutely nothing.

Chung-seop Jo couldn’t understand why a man who was practically the Ilhyeon Group’s own son-in-law would ask him to trade junk stocks like these.

And on top of that, he wasn’t asking with some small sum — he wanted a hundred million won invested, which made the strangeness of it impossible to ignore.

Watching Chung-seop Jo, whose eyes wouldn’t leave the paper, Seong-ho Kim said,

“It’s exactly as I told you a moment ago. Just manage my account according to what’s written on that paper.”

“That… Director, sir. Do you truly want me to do it exactly like this?”

Lifting his eyes from the paper, Chung-seop Jo looked at Seong-ho Kim, puzzled.

Under his gaze, Seong-ho Kim only smiled quietly and nodded.

“Yes. For now, that’s the plan — and once the Sogyeong Machinery trade is finished, I’ll let you know the next part of the plan separately.”

“Uh… Director.”

Chung-seop Jo asked, in a cautious voice,

“You’re not… running some kind of manipulation scheme, are you?”

“Hahaha. How could that be? I’ll explain the reason separately later, so for now, please just do as I’ve said.”

Seong-ho Kim’s promise to explain the reason later erased Chung-seop Jo’s suspicion.

And he tossed out something to Chung-seop Jo that would serve as bait.

“In the gaps between, whenever there’s downtime, you’re free to trade at your own discretion, Assistant Manager Jo.”

“At my own discretion?”

“Yes. According to whatever you’re seeing in the market, please manage my account as you see fit.”

“Are you serious?”

At Seong-ho Kim’s offer to entrust him with discretionary trading authority, Chung-seop Jo felt his appetite whetted.

Seeing this, Seong-ho Kim smiled and offered him something even more mouthwatering.

“10% of the profits. I’ll give you 10% of the profits as a success fee. How does that sound? Will you do it?”

“10%…”

Chung-seop Jo looked down once more at the companies on the note Seong-ho Kim had handed him.

It was a mouthwatering offer, no question.

But the junk stocks written on the paper — Soyoung Packaging, Hudo Electric, Sogyeong Machinery — made him hesitate.

Understanding what Chung-seop Jo was wrestling with, Seong-ho Kim spoke first.

“I won’t hold you responsible for any losses. Instead, for the companies written there, and any others I specifically ask you to trade, I’d like you to follow my instructions no matter what you personally think. If you can commit firmly to just that, I won’t hold you responsible for the outcome.”

“Are you serious about that?”

“Yes.”

At Seong-ho Kim’s assurance that he wouldn’t be held responsible for losses, Chung-seop Jo wore a startled expression.

If he could trade freely without bearing responsibility for losses, there was no reason to turn down Seong-ho Kim’s proposal.

“If you truly won’t hold me responsible for losses…”

Chung-seop Jo deliberated for a moment, then nodded firmly, as if he’d made up his mind.

“Then I’ll do it. When would I ever get to invest this much money in stocks like these… ah, forgive me. In stocks like these otherwise? And on top of that, you’re letting me trade freely outside of your instructions and offering me 10% — I don’t see any reason to refuse.”

At Chung-seop Jo’s acceptance, Seong-ho Kim, looking pleased, held out his hand.

“Thank you. I’ll be counting on you, then.”

“Contact me anytime you need anything. Whether it’s morning or night, if you call, I’ll come running, Director. Thank you for trusting me with this.”

Grasping the hand Seong-ho Kim held out, Chung-seop Jo bowed deeply to him.

Chung-seop Jo — the man who would go on to found Hyeonjae Securities and rise in a single leap to become a prodigy of the securities world.

This was the moment that man joined hands with Seong-ho Kim and began to make his real entrance onto the stock market stage.

Seong-ho Kim and Gyeong-eun Lee went out on a date for the first time in a long while.

Having lived at Pyeongchang-dong ever since the wedding without ever getting proper time to themselves, the two of them used Seong-ho Kim’s new assignment overseeing Ilhyeon Hotel’s restructuring as an excuse for a date there.

“I can’t remember the last time we did this. Seong-ho, should we stay the night at Ilhyeon Hotel before we go home?”

“Wouldn’t that draw a lot of attention?”

“So what if it does? We’re not children — we’re grown adults, married even. Staying one night at a hotel under the excuse of work is nothing.”

“Your mother will definitely have something to say about it.”

At Seong-ho Kim’s words, Gyeong-eun Lee thought of her mother and made a sulky face.

“Honestly, I don’t understand why Mother’s like that at all. I can’t fathom what she finds so unbearable about you that she picks a fight over every little thing.”

Gyeong-eun Lee glanced sidelong at Seong-ho Kim as he drove and said,

“I’m sorry…”

“Sorry for what?”

“If I were you, I’d have gotten angry a hundred times over by now. They say a mother-in-law dotes on her son-in-law, but somehow in our house, my mother can’t wait to devour hers.”

Hearing Gyeong-eun Lee’s words, Seong-ho Kim smiled lightly.

“It’s fine. And honestly, I understand your mother, too.”

“Really? You understand her?”

“Of course. If my own daughter were as precious to me as you are to her, I might never want to see my son-in-law again, whoever he was. But your mother, even when she gets angry with me, still lets it slide, doesn’t she? On top of that, we’re living under the same roof.”

Seong-ho Kim glanced briefly at Gyeong-eun Lee while keeping his hands on the wheel.

“From your mother’s perspective, I think that counts as a hundred concessions already.”

“Seong-ho…”

Gyeong-eun Lee looked at him with a moved expression, seeing that Seong-ho Kim — who had every reason to resent her mother — instead said he understood her.

“Thank you for saying that.”

“No need to thank me. It’s just the truth.”

Smiling at Gyeong-eun Lee, Seong-ho Kim turned his gaze back to the road ahead.

In truth, Seong-ho Kim hadn’t said that merely to please Gyeong-eun Lee’s ears.

‘Looking back on it, of everyone in the in-laws’ family, Mother-in-law was actually the decent one.’

Suk-ja Chu, who had tried to devour him alive from the very start of the marriage, was — only in hindsight — the best person among the Ilhyeon family.

She disliked Seong-ho Kim simply because he was the scoundrel who’d taken her precious daughter away, and for no other reason.

Even someone like Suk-ja Chu, who threw out contemptuous, near-abusive remarks, was still better for doing it openly, to his face.

At the very least, she never schemed behind his back and handed him humiliation from the shadows, the way the others did.

—You devoured my daughter, you bastard!

Seong-ho Kim suddenly recalled the words Suk-ja Chu had hurled at him on the day Gyeong-eun Lee died.

With her words rising in his mind as if shouted right beside him, Seong-ho Kim glanced at Gyeong-eun Lee in the passenger seat and asked,

“Gyeong-eun. You really don’t have headaches or anything like that, do you?”

“That again?”

Gyeong-eun Lee furrowed her brow as if tired of the question and said,

“I keep telling you I’m really fine. We even went to the hospital together last time. They said there was nothing wrong. I really am fine.”

Gyeong-eun Lee even tapped her own head lightly to show she was fine.

The very first thing Seong-ho Kim had done after opening his eyes back in this era was take Gyeong-eun Lee to the hospital.

Because he wanted to protect the Gyeong-eun Lee who had, in his past life, died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage.

But the hospital had only ever told him she was fine.

‘Is it because there’s still time left?’

In his past life, Gyeong-eun Lee’s death had come years from this point.

Seong-ho Kim wondered whether it simply hadn’t been detected yet because there was still time remaining.

‘Then again, it struck with no warning signs at all, that time too.’

It had been a cerebral hemorrhage that erupted suddenly, without a single one of the usual warning signs — headaches, dizziness, numbness.

Which was why treatment had come too late, and why she’d ultimately been unable to escape a short life.

“I really am fine.”

Gyeong-eun Lee smiled brightly at Seong-ho Kim, who still wore a dark expression despite her reassurance.

“If it worries you that much, I’ll get a brain scan every year at my checkup. Does that settle it?”

Gyeong-eun Lee said that if Seong-ho Kim was this worried, she’d endure the minor hassle and get tested every year.

Seong-ho Kim nodded at her words and answered,

“It’s just that I worry a great deal. I won’t keep asking you to get tested so often, so when the time comes that I do ask, please make sure to go along with it.”

“That’s not exactly a hard thing to ask… fine. I will.”

Thinking there was no reason not to go along with it, since it wasn’t meant to trouble her but came from genuine worry, Gyeong-eun Lee answered readily.

At the sight of her, Seong-ho Kim took his hand off the gearshift and gently took Gyeong-eun Lee’s hand instead.

Then he slowly drove the car toward the entrance of Ilhyeon Hotel.

“Huh? What’s this?”

Seated in the passenger seat, Gyeong-eun Lee looked at the hotel entrance with a puzzled expression.

“Why isn’t a hotel employee coming out? There’s usually a valet who comes to take the car, isn’t there?”

The car had arrived in front of the hotel, and yet no one came out, which puzzled Gyeong-eun Lee.

“Let’s get out for now. There might be some other urgent matter and the staff simply haven’t noticed.”

“No matter how urgent something else might be, when a guest has arrived…”

Seong-ho Kim got out of the car first, and Gyeong-eun Lee opened the passenger door and got out after him.

Having gotten out, Gyeong-eun Lee looked around for a moment, hoping someone might still come late, then looked toward the inside of the hotel entrance.

“Wait, those people are…”

The doorman who should have been standing ready at the entrance, the staff who should have been helping with valet parking, and the female employees who should have been at the information desk — all of them were gathered together in little clusters, chatting among themselves.

Even as Seong-ho Kim’s car pulled up in front of the entrance, they merely glanced over once and then paid no further attention at all.

Unable to bear the sight of the Ilhyeon Hotel staff behaving this way, Gyeong-eun Lee stepped forward first.

“Excuse me. Can’t you see a car’s pulled in here? Shouldn’t someone be handling the valet parking?”

At Gyeong-eun Lee’s voice, the clustered employees only then turned their heads toward Seong-ho Kim.

But they merely turned their heads — not one of them moved.

The doorman, speaking on behalf of the gathered staff, answered Gyeong-eun Lee in an annoyed tone.

“Just park it wherever in the lot. We’re busy, so don’t come looking for us…”

“Excuse me, look here, the guest is right now—”

Just as Gyeong-eun Lee was about to raise her voice again, Seong-ho Kim stopped her.

“Gyeong-eun, it’s fine. Just wait here a moment. I’ll park the car and come back.”

“But, Seong-ho.”

Seong-ho Kim gestured to Gyeong-eun Lee that it was all right and got back into the driver’s seat.

Seeing this, Gyeong-eun Lee could no longer insist on giving the staff a piece of her mind and had no choice but to wait for Seong-ho Kim.

While Seong-ho Kim parked the car, Gyeong-eun Lee glared at the staff, her face flushing red with humiliation.

Returning after parking the car, Seong-ho Kim saw Gyeong-eun Lee’s reddened face and asked with a smile,

“Why’s your face so red? Are you embarrassed?”

“Of course I’m embarrassed.”

Gyeong-eun Lee shot a glare at the staff, still chatting away regardless of whether guests came or went, seemingly finding something endlessly amusing, and said,

“I’ve never seen staff behave like that at any other hotel — how could ours be like this… Ugh. Father should have seen this. If he had, he’d have fired every single one of them.”

“Hahaha, that’s something the chairman can do without seeing it himself.”

Seong-ho Kim took Gyeong-eun Lee’s hand and, walking into the hotel, said in a low voice,

“Have you forgotten? That I’ll be coming here in a few days?”

“Ah! Right. That’s true, isn’t it?”

Recalling that Seong-ho Kim had been assigned to restructure Ilhyeon Hotel, Gyeong-eun Lee clapped her hands, delighted.

Watching her, Seong-ho Kim smiled and said,

“Wasn’t it just the other day you were in tears, saying you couldn’t understand why I’d turned down the Ilhyeon Watch president’s seat, feeling more regret over it than I did myself? And now you’re happy about this?”

“That’s a different matter entirely.”

Looking back at the doorman who hadn’t even opened the door for a guest, and the staff sitting around smoking without so much as glancing at hotel guests, let alone offering assistance, Gyeong-eun Lee said to Seong-ho Kim,

“Seong-ho. Fire all of them. What on earth do they think guests are, behaving like that? I simply cannot understand it.”

“Gyeong-eun, don’t be so angry about it.”

Seong-ho Kim soothed her and, personally calling the elevator, said to Gyeong-eun Lee,

“Because what happened today is only the tip of the iceberg.”

“Sorry? What do you mean by that?”

Ding.

Just as Gyeong-eun Lee was about to ask her question, the elevator came to a stop.

Meaning to raise a hand and ask the elevator girl to wait a moment as the doors opened, Gyeong-eun Lee froze instead.

Because the elevator girl, who was supposed to always be on standby inside the elevator for guests, was nowhere to be found — the elevator was completely empty.

Unlike the flustered Gyeong-eun Lee, Seong-ho Kim wore a smile, as if he actually rather liked what he was seeing.

Because Ilhyeon Hotel’s state was every bit as much of a mess as he’d anticipated.

‘There’s going to be a lot of work here too.’

The worse a company’s state, the more brightly a restructuring shines.

Picturing the great results yet to come, Seong-ho Kim led Gyeong-eun Lee into the elevator.

(End of Chapter 32)