Having finished a simple meal, Tak-hyeon's family had gathered in the living room.

From the outside it might have looked like a happy family get-together, but an unreadable tension ran between them.

"Agh! I can't take it."

In the end, it was the short-tempered Jeong-eun who broke first. "This is stifling — let's just get it over with."

Yeong-su Cha, seated beside her, tried to hold her back, but she wouldn't listen. "Doesn't this suffocating, maddening situation drive you crazy?"

Rebuking her husband as if daring him to say she was wrong, she turned to Tak-hyeon. "Dad. Just tell us. Why did you call everyone here today?"

Tak-hyeon frowned. "I'll say it when I see fit. If you can't even wait for that, what great thing do you imagine you could ever accomplish?"

"Fashion is a world where you don't survive unless you move fast. It's because it's me that I survive in a place like that. Someone like second brother over there would've gone under a hundred times by now."

At that, Sang-jong — deliberating whether to eat a piece of fruit — flared up. "I'm sitting here minding my own business. Why drag me in?"

"Well, it's true, isn't it? Is there anyone here who doesn't know Ilhyeon Construction's numbers are bad right now?" Jeong-eun swept her gaze over the room. "Honestly, it holds on only because it's a company the size of Ilhyeon Construction. If you'd run Ilhyeon Fashion the way you manage, you'd have been thrown out ages ago."

She turned her head slightly and muttered, "If you're going to be incompetent, at least be incompetent in moderation."

"What?"

But it was a mutter everyone in the room could hear.

Sang-jong shot to his feet, and Jeong-eun only snorted and looked up at him. "Did I say something wrong? It's true. Everyone knows Ilhyeon Construction's trouble comes from your lack of any management philosophy — so why get so worked up?"

"You… what kind of way is that to speak to your older brother?"

"Oh, how frightening. Nothing to say, so now you're scolding me for…