House Steward Ung-hyeon Lee frowned at the sudden crowd and moved to block them. But Seong-ho gestured that it was fine and spoke loudly to Chairman Cheol-jin Choi of Homyeong Construction and the others gathered there.

“You want to borrow money? Fine. I’ll go in and speak with the chairman about it.”

“Seong-ho!”

Gyeong-eun, arms crossed, gave him a worried look. She’d assumed that letting these people into the yard and simply leaving them standing there was Tak-hyeon’s indirect way of signaling he had no intention of lending anyone money. Seong-ho wasn’t unaware of that either. But to his eyes, this too looked like an opportunity — which was why he’d told them he’d try asking on their behalf. Of course, he wasn’t offering to simply lend the money outright.

Patting Gyeong-eun’s hand to reassure her, Seong-ho went on. “If you’re able to put up collateral, I’ll go in and persuade the chairman to lend you the money.”

“Collateral?”

“Yes.”

Seong-ho looked Cheol-jin Choi in the eye. “If Homyeong Construction can put up the land it holds in Seocho, I’ll lend you money matched to its value.”

“The Seocho land is…”

At Cheol-jin’s troubled look, Seong-ho spoke loudly enough for everyone else to hear as well.

“Listen, all of you. Right now, you can’t borrow money from the banks even with collateral. I imagine you already know that, which is why you’ve all come here.”

Seong-ho paused a moment and looked around at the people gathered. None of them could argue with that. The reason they’d come here instead of a bank was painfully obvious.

To the silent crowd, Seong-ho went on. “I’m sure the chairman would want to lend money to all of you, valuing these long relationships — as would I. But you know as well as anyone how bad the situation is right now. In a time like this, lending money to others before securing our own house could easily look like a breach of fiduciary duty.”

At this, Byeong-mu Choi tried to object. “Breach of fiduciary duty, what nonsense—”

But Cheol-jin cut him off. “Quiet.”

Cheol-jin shot Byeong-mu a look telling him to read the room, then smiled at Seong-ho. “Please, go on.”

Seong-ho gave him a look of thanks and continued. “But if there’s collateral, the story changes. It gives us grounds to lend, and it lets you borrow with your heads held high, rather than relying on old ties. If the collateral is sufficient, I’ll lend you the money — so don’t linger here trying to appeal to the chairman’s sympathy. Go home, find whatever collateral you can, and come to the Restructuring Headquarters on Monday. I’ll assess the collateral then and lend you the funds.”

“You really mean it — if we just have collateral, you’ll lend us the money?”

Chairman Cheol-jin Choi of Homyeong Construction asked, his voice trembling.

This was a time when you couldn’t borrow money even with collateral in hand. With the banks, and even the private lending market, having shut their windows entirely, raising money was harder than plucking a star from the sky. In a situation like this, Seong-ho’s readiness to lend made Cheol-jin’s voice tremble uncontrollably.

It wasn’t only Cheol-jin. Everyone present, faces brightening with newfound hope, stepped closer to Seong-ho.

He spoke to them in a loud voice. “I, Seong-ho Kim, will personally guarantee it. If you have collateral, I’ll lend the money interest-free.”

“Interest-free as well?”

Cheol-jin’s voice trembled even more. Though it wasn’t yet the depths of winter, he shook as though he’d stepped into a freezer.

Seong-ho smiled at him and nodded. “Yes, interest-free. Though the collateral’s value will be assessed at current market price. That should be acceptable, shouldn’t it?”

“Of course it’s acceptable. Assessing collateral at market price is only natural — and all the more so given the circumstances now.”

Speaking as though there could be no objection at all, Cheol-jin seized Seong-ho’s hand and bowed his head in thanks.

Seong-ho reassured Cheol-jin and the others that everything would work out, then helped them make their way out of Pyeongchang-dong. Telling each person, one by one, not to worry and to come back to the Restructuring Headquarters on Monday with whatever collateral they could find, Seong-ho watched the last of them leave before returning to the yard.

“Where did everyone go?”

Back in the yard, Seong-ho’s eyes landed on Tak-hyeon standing beside a man with an ashen face and glasses.

That must be Deputy Prime Minister Kang.

Recognizing who stood beside Tak-hyeon, Seong-ho approached and greeted them. “Chairman, we’ve arrived. Deputy Prime Minister Kang, is it? Nice to meet you. I’m Seong-ho Kim, the chairman’s youngest son-in-law. And this is my wife, the chairman’s youngest daughter, Gyeong-eun Lee.”

Deputy Prime Minister Gyeong-ju Kang, pushing his glasses up, answered Seong-ho’s greeting perfunctorily and turned to Tak-hyeon instead. “Well then, Chairman, I’ll be on my way.”

“All right. Take care. I won’t see you out any further.”

Gyeong-ju nodded to Tak-hyeon, bowed, and turned. He trudged out of the house with heavy, listless steps.

Watching Gyeong-ju’s retreating figure, Tak-hyeon turned to Seong-ho and asked again, “I still haven’t gotten an answer. Why were people bowing to you and all leaving?”

Seong-ho calmly explained what had just happened. Tak-hyeon stood in the yard, hands clasped behind his back, listening quietly. Gyeong-eun watched Tak-hyeon’s expression carefully as he listened, and the moment Seong-ho finished, she latched onto his arm and, in a wheedling voice, tugged him toward the house.

“Dad, let’s go in already. I’ve been here forever and still haven’t even gotten inside. I’m hungry too. But why did Deputy Prime Minister Kang come? He looked terribly upset — did something happen?”

Gyeong-eun kept up a stream of chatter, steering Tak-hyeon toward the house to divert his attention. Her diversion seemed to work — Tak-hyeon said nothing more and let himself be led inside by her hand. But his attention hadn’t been entirely diverted.

Once inside, Tak-hyeon gestured for Seong-ho to explain again, in front of everyone, what had happened in the yard. He himself quietly withdrew and sat on the sofa, watching his children and son-in-law without a word.

“So you promised to lend them money if they put up collateral?”

Once he’d heard the whole account, Mun-jong wore a flustered expression. He looked around at his siblings to see what they thought.

Sang-jong and the other siblings looked equally flustered. Sang-jong shook his head and said to Seong-ho, “Do you think we didn’t go out to the yard for no reason? We stayed away because we didn’t want to face those people. And you went and promised to lend them money? Interest-free, no less?”

Sang-jong’s voice grew louder and louder, eventually turning into a scolding. “You could’ve just come straight in, but instead you go and cause this kind of trouble? Look at everyone else. Look at eldest brother here, or third and fourth. They all just quietly came in. But you go and make some absurd promise like this? Honestly.”

Sang-jong put his hands on his hips and turned his head away. With Tak-hyeon present, he couldn’t let his anger show fully, but what showed on the surface already looked plenty furious.

Unable to bear watching her husband get scolded by his siblings one after another, Gyeong-eun spoke up in his defense.

“Why are you all like this? He must have had a reason. Why jump straight to attacking him without even asking why?”

As Gyeong-eun raised her voice in his defense, Min-yeong Oh, Sang-jong’s wife, standing a step back, spoke up. “Sister-in-law, come over here while your brothers are talking.”

It was Min-yeong’s roundabout way of asking why Gyeong-eun would butt in while her elders were speaking.

“Am I not allowed to join in? But my sister-in-law is?”

“Well, the eldest sister-in-law has always handled household matters, so…”

“I’m properly President of Ilhyeon Hotel now too. By that logic, second brother should have no right to speak either.”

“Hey! What did you just say!”

Sang-jong jabbed a finger at Gyeong-eun.

As the mood grew increasingly ugly, Suk-ja could bear it no longer and stepped in. “Why is everyone being so loud? Can’t you see your father’s right here?”

At Suk-ja’s sharp rebuke, Sang-jong, Min-yeong, Gyeong-eun and the others, who’d been raising their voices, all glanced anxiously at Tak-hyeon.

Watching this whole scene from the sofa, Tak-hyeon gestured to Sang-jong and the others. “Don’t mind me, keep going. I’ll just sit here and enjoy the show.”

At Tak-hyeon’s words telling them not to mind him, Sang-jong said nothing more. Tak-hyeon looked at the now-quiet living room and spoke with a smile.

“It was getting entertaining, all that noise, but the moment I tell you to keep going, you all stop. Well, can’t be helped then. Head Kim.”

At Tak-hyeon’s call, Seong-ho turned to face him.

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Explain the interest-free loan. Why you decided to do it that way — seems the fools here need it spelled out.”

Seong-ho looked at Tak-hyeon, seated on the sofa, and thought to himself, So he really does know why I did it.

Watching Tak-hyeon head inside, led by Gyeong-eun’s hand, without demanding an explanation right there in the yard, Seong-ho had wondered whether he’d already grasped his intent. That suspicion had only grown watching the argument unfold, and hearing Tak-hyeon call the others “fools” who needed things explained to them confirmed it. Tak-hyeon had understood, in an instant, that lending money interest-free against collateral was advantageous for Ilhyeon.

Seong-ho looked at Tak-hyeon a moment, then turned. He began speaking to Mun-jong, Sang-jong, and Gyeong-eun’s other siblings and their spouses.

“The market is already broken beyond repair. Even if we lend money to put out the immediate fire, the companies that are going to fail will fail regardless — that’s the situation we’re in now.”

“Then why lend the money at all? If they’re going to fail anyway, we won’t even get the money back.”

At Sang-jong’s uncomprehending question, Seong-ho looked at him and answered with a slight smile. “That’s exactly why we take collateral.”

“So what you’re really after is the collateral?”

Mun-jong narrowed his eyes and asked. “Since they’ll go under regardless of whether we lend them money, and the collateral would revert to us either way… in the end, isn’t it just lending money in order to seize the collateral?”

At Mun-jong’s question, Seong-ho nodded. “Exactly. And I made a point of telling them I’d assess the collateral’s value at current market price.”

A smile settled naturally onto Seong-ho’s lips. It hadn’t been his intent from the start, but the more he explained the situation that had fallen so favorably into place on its own, the more his smile deepened.

“Let me use Homyeong Construction as an example. I told Chairman Cheol-jin Choi of Homyeong Construction that I’d lend him money if he brought in the Seocho land. What Homyeong Construction wanted was 20 billion won. That…”

“That’s absurd.”

Chang-jong cut Seong-ho off with a look of disbelief. “That land’s worth well over 100 billion, easily. Just selling it outright would fetch 70 to 80 billion without any trouble — and they’re putting it up as collateral for just a 20-billion loan?”

Seong-ho turned to look at Chang-jong. “Before things got to this point, sure. But right now, you could put that land up for sale at 20 billion and no one would buy it. So what’s the land actually worth now? I think 20 billion is generous, myself.”

“What kind of…”

Chang-jong nearly said highway robbery but held it back, seeing the pleased expression on Tak-hyeon’s face.

Tak-hyeon smoothed his hands over his knees and rose from the sofa. “Head Kim had a truly excellent idea — driving off the flies that had swarmed the yard, while also laying the groundwork to seize the fine goods those flies were carrying. This — this is what business sense looks like.”

Tak-hyeon pointed a finger at Seong-ho, then looked at his other children with contempt.

“While I was talking with Deputy Prime Minister Kang, what were the rest of you doing? Just gathering at home, hoping I’d sort it all out for you. Is there a single one of you who thought the way this one did?”

Tak-hyeon swept a look of disdain over Mun-jong and the others, then turned. “Freeloaders like you were probably just thinking about lunch. Hey. Is the food ready?”

Realizing Tak-hyeon was calling to her, Suk-ja glanced uncomfortably at Seong-ho before answering. “Yes, it’s ready.”

“Then let’s go eat. Ugh, what a waste of good rice on the likes of them. Such a waste.”

Tak-hyeon, hands clasped behind his back, walked slowly toward the dining room. Mun-jong and the others, unable to lift their heads at Tak-hyeon’s contemptuous words, followed behind him.

Walking slowly ahead, Tak-hyeon gestured for Seong-ho to come up beside him. “Head Kim. Come here.”

Seong-ho, who’d been following at the very back, came up to Tak-hyeon’s side at his gesture. Hands still clasped behind his back, Tak-hyeon gave him an instruction.

“Push back the collateral valuation date a bit further.”

“That would mean the collateral’s value has a chance of falling even further with time… Are you saying you’ve decided not to grant Deputy Prime Minister Kang’s request?”

Tak-hyeon turned his head to look at Seong-ho. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he said, “You caught that too, did you? You really are becoming more and more useful. Yes, that’s right — I’ve decided not to grant the deputy prime minister’s request. Starting tomorrow, our country will suspend intervention in the foreign exchange market. And… it will begin considering applying for an IMF bailout.”

It was a short statement, but the content packed into those few words was staggering.

Mun-jong and the others, forgetting entirely that they’d just been scolded by Tak-hyeon, couldn’t hide their shock at his words.

(End of Chapter 97)