Sang-jong walked slowly to the sofa without taking his eyes off Seong-ho. Dropping heavily onto it, he said, "Fine. Let's hear it. Let's at least hear how liquidating my stocks is supposed to be for my benefit."

Unlike when he'd first stormed in, Sang-jong now showed himself willing to listen, and Seong-ho smiled. Keeping his eyes on Sang-jong, he began in a calm voice.

"Does the stock market look good to you right now?"

"You saying it's bad?"

"Yes. I think it's very bad."

"Not just bad — very bad?" Sang-jong frowned at him. "That's not what the Ilhyeon Securities people told me."

"And what did they say?"

At the question, Sang-jong recalled what the Ilhyeon Securities people had told him and answered. "That the market's unstable right now because of the Dubo affair, but once that's settled it could climb… and it's actually climbing right now, too."

"And if it isn't settled?"

"What?"

"Did they not tell you what happens if it isn't settled?"

"What are you talking about?"

"So you didn't hear it. What things look like if it isn't settled."

When Sang-jong only blinked, Seong-ho smiled as if he'd expected as much. "Brother, think about why the chairman is throwing himself into this restructuring. If it were all going to settle, and the market steady, and everything come back to where it was, why would we be doing this?" He spread his hands and went on. "The Ilhyeon Construction stake you hold, Brother — the chairman gave it to you. If word got out that you'd pledged it as collateral to play the market, what do you think he'd make of that?"

"I'll just win!"

"Right. You just have to win." Seong-ho agreed at once with Sang-jong's shouted words. "And have you thought about what happens when you don't?"

Sang-jong couldn't answer. He was no fool. He'd thought through the very situation Seong-ho described, and he'd calculated what would come down on him if it happened. And yet he'd made his choice for a reason all the same.

"You think I haven't thought about it?" After a…