Byeong-jin peeled the eggshell stuck in his hair off with his hand.

“Ugh… the smell.”

Furrowing his face at the smell that lingered no matter how much he washed, Byeong-jin looked at Seong-ho, who was wiping himself down roughly beside him as if it were nothing, and asked,

“Are you all right? Somehow you look completely unbothered?”

Byeong-jin found it strange that Seong-ho, from the moment they’d arrived here until now, hadn’t shown a single flicker of displeasure.

For an ordinary person it would be only natural to feel offended and put out, yet Seong-ho kept showing a manner as though nothing were the matter.

“Because I’m used to it.”

“Used to it? This?”

Byeong-jin held out his blotchy body and a towel reeking of rotten egg and wore a look of disbelief.

Seong-ho set the roughly-used towel on the table and sat down.

“Yeah. I’m used to it.”

Byeong-jin, realizing Seong-ho hadn’t said he was used to it as some idle remark, looked at him with strange eyes.

Where Seong-ho could have had such an experience, Byeong-jin had no way of knowing.

And no wonder—everything Seong-ho had experienced belonged not to now but to the former life.

For Seong-ho, who’d had few occasions to face a union smiling, this sort of thing was no different from an everyday affair.

So he couldn’t help being used to it, and the smell that made Byeong-jin furrow his face felt nothing but ordinary to him too.

Clunk.

The conference-room door opened and provisional manager Yu-cheol Han came in, together with the union representatives, headbands bound tight.

“Ugh.”

Provisional manager Yu-cheol Han, before he knew it, covered his nose with his hand at the smell that filled the conference room.

And realizing that the source of that smell was Seong-ho and Byeong-jin, he hurriedly apologized.

“I’m sorry.”

“Not at all. I wiped it off as best I could, but the smell won’t go. If you’re not too cold, shall we open a window and talk?”

“Yes. That would be good.”

Though he’d lowered the hand covering his nose, Yu-cheol Han, who’d been nearly holding his breath at the unbearable smell, went to the window himself.

And opening it to draw in the cold air for a moment, he finally managed a comfortable expression.

Yu-cheol Han drank a few more sips of the clear air, then returned to his seat and introduced the union representatives who’d come into the conference room with him to Seong-ho.

“This is union chairman Geun-yong Park. And the gentleman beside him is Gwang-myeong Kim, the former union chairman, who serves as an advisor.”

“A pleasure. I’m Seong-ho Kim, head of the Restructuring Headquarters at the Ilhyeon Group.”

Introduced, Seong-ho held out his hand.

Union chairman Geun-yong Park, with a scowling face, only looked back and forth between the hand Seong-ho held out and Seong-ho’s blotchy clothes.

Seong-ho turned his body slightly and held out his hand to Gwang-myeong Kim, the former union chairman.

But Gwang-myeong Kim, like chairman Geun-yong Park, only looked down at the hand with no apparent intention of taking it.

Seong-ho, holding out his hand awkwardly, looked down at his palm and laughed sheepishly.

“I wiped my hands off as best I could, but they’re still dirty. I’ll finish the greetings later. Shall we sit and talk, then?”

Saying let’s sit and talk, Seong-ho took his seat first.

Byeong-jin sat beside him, and across from Seong-ho and Byeong-jin, Geun-yong Park and Gwang-myeong Kim sat down, showing that the two sides stood opposed.

Yu-cheol Han withdrew to one side, maintaining the position of a bystander and making clear his intent merely to watch the present situation.

Seated, union chairman Geun-yong Park opened his mouth first, toward Seong-ho.

“I think it’d be good to make our position known first.”

“Yes. Please speak.”

“As you saw and felt on your way in here, we reject the Ilhyeon Group’s acquisition of Doa Motors. So let the Ilhyeon Group be the first to take its hands off the Doa Motors acquisition.”

Chairman Geun-yong Park, with a hardened expression, showed a hard-line stance.

Seong-ho, unflustered at the anticipated reaction, nodded and opened his mouth.

“I too, having seen it through the media, know that Doa Motors’ union members dislike an Ilhyeon Group acquisition. And coming here, I’ve learned they dislike it even more than what’s been reported through the media. But, Chairman. Even so, oughtn’t you at least hear what vision we of the Ilhyeon Group hold?”

“Whether you hold a vision or not, it makes no difference to us. Because we’ve no intention of going along with the Ilhyeon Group. If, even after we’ve made our position known, the Ilhyeon Group keeps coming out insisting it’ll acquire us… we too will have no choice but to use extreme methods.”

“Extreme methods?”

“It means we could carry out a lockout.”

Gwang-myeong Kim, on Geun-yong Park’s behalf, explained what the extreme method was.

Seong-ho turned his head to look at Gwang-myeong Kim.

“You seem to be under some misunderstanding, but a lockout is something the employer does. That is, it’s the company that does it—it’s not something a union can do.”

“It’s you, Head, who seem to be the one misunderstanding.”

Geun-yong Park wore a laugh laced with derision and said to Seong-ho,

“A lockout isn’t something only the employer can do. If we lock the factory gates from the outside, that too becomes a lockout.”

“Lock the gates from the outside, you say?”

Byeong-jin looked back and forth between Geun-yong Park and Gwang-myeong Kim with a startled face.

Because the two spoke of committing an illegal act so utterly calmly.

Watching this from a step removed, Yu-cheol Han looked quietly at Seong-ho, who wasn’t the least bit surprised even after hearing Geun-yong Park and Gwang-myeong Kim’s words.

Provisional manager Yu-cheol Han, guiding Seong-ho and Byeong-jin to their car, wore a troubled expression.

“It’s a truly awkward situation for us too. It’s hard to understand why the union is so hostile toward the Ilhyeon Group. The truth is, the creditors have no reason to turn the Ilhyeon Group away. Recovering the investment by whatever means is our goal, after all.”

Yu-cheol Han stood before the car and said to the two as they made to climb in,

“Go back and think about a good way to coax the union. If you offered a consolation payment after acquisition, or presented some form of compensation, wouldn’t the union change its mind too?”

Snorting a laugh at hearing Yu-cheol Han out, Seong-ho opened the car door and said to him,

“The union and everyone else—it seems you’re all thinking something wrong.”

“Yes? What do you mean by that?”

“We haven’t decided anything at all yet—whether we’ll participate in the bidding or not.”

“What?”

At Seong-ho’s words, Yu-cheol Han, before he knew it, stepped closer to him.

Seong-ho looked at Yu-cheol Han and said with a smile,

“I don’t know why the rumor spread that we of the Ilhyeon Group would acquire Doa Motors, but what I’m saying is that nothing’s been decided.”

“Ilhyeon isn’t acquiring Doa?”

“The government’s announcement is competitive bidding. Aren’t you aware?”

“But that’s a formality, when all’s said and done… isn’t it?”

“Formality or not, the bidding will proceed, and only by being selected as the top-priority candidate in the bidding can one move on to the next stage. But we’re in a situation of agonizing over whether to participate in the bidding at all.”

“Are you really saying you might not participate in the bidding?”

“Do I look to you like I came all the way here to tell jokes?”

Seong-ho climbed into the car, looked out the window, and said,

“Please tell the union not to worry either. Tell them that, having seen it with my own two eyes and gone, I’ll report to the Chairman on bidding participation as negatively as possible. Well then, I’ll be off first.”

Finishing, Seong-ho instructed Byeong-jin to drive.

And saying he’d be off first, he left Doa Motors’ Gwangmyeong plant.

Unlike when they’d come to the plant, there were no union members throwing eggs at Seong-ho’s departing car.

There was no one chanting slogans, and the union members who’d blocked the front of the plant were no longer to be seen either.

Having driven the car out of the plant with ease, Byeong-jin rolled down the windows to let the smell out of the car and said to Seong-ho,

“Do you really not intend to participate in the bidding?”

“If they dislike us this much, I ought to give it serious thought.”

“True. They really did dislike us. Why are they like that? However much they want to be acquired by the German company, that’s going too far. Shouldn’t they at least hear what we’re proposing? Not even meaning to listen from the start, and just threatening to lock the factory from the outside.”

Recalling the conversation in the conference room, Byeong-jin shook his head.

Seong-ho looked at the open window, gazed at Doa Motors’ Gwangmyeong plant now visible in the distance, and said,

“When you hear strange talk from those around you, you can come to misunderstand like that.”

“Where’s the union hearing strange talk to act like that?”

“If it weren’t that, there’d be no reason for them to dislike us—people they don’t even know well—that much. However world-class the German company may be.”

“True, if it weren’t that, it wouldn’t add up.”

Byeong-jin agreed, as Seong-ho said, that someone was spreading a negative perception of the Ilhyeon Group among the union.

But one curious thought occurred to him.

“But who could be talking about us negatively?”

“Who else would it be? Wherever stands to gain from talking about us negatively—that’s who.”

“So wherever gains from talking negatively is… you mean the German company?”

Seong-ho smiled and turned his head to say to the driving Byeong-jin,

“They’ve got nothing to do with it.”

“Aren’t they the ones with the most to do with us? Since they’re competing with us over Doa Motors.”

The corner of Seong-ho’s mouth rose slightly.

Because the former life’s Doa Motors acquisition battle had come to mind.

“The place that curses us and gains the most isn’t the German company—it’s the creditors.”

“The creditors? The place that lent Doa Motors money gains the most?”

Not understanding why the creditors would gain, Byeong-jin, gripping the wheel, glanced at Seong-ho.

Seong-ho looked out the window for a moment and said,

“They’re stirring up the union to recover even one won more. That’s how the situation of them being hostile toward us came about.”

“What on earth is the gain they get from being hostile toward us?”

“Didn’t you hear it a moment ago, before we got in the car?”

Seong-ho, who’d been looking out the window, turned to look at Byeong-jin.

Byeong-jin recalled what Seong-ho meant and said,

“You mean that Yu-cheol Han fellow saying to go think of a way to coax the union?”

“Yes.”

Seong-ho drew the corner of his mouth up further and said,

“The more ways to coax the union get newly added, the more the bidding price is bound to rise.”

Hearing Seong-ho’s words, Byeong-jin nodded.

“I see. Raise the consolation payment and you’ve no choice but to increase the scale of the bid, and then the bidding price naturally has to rise in proportion. Ha—these guys used their heads.”

Byeong-jin recalled Yu-cheol Han, who’d spoken as if he knew nothing, as if he were on the Ilhyeon Group’s side, and furrowed his brow.

“No wonder it was strange. It was the company side that gave notice we were coming to the Gwangmyeong plant, so it was odd how the union knew and was guarding the front. I thought they were guarding the gate at all times and spotted us, but seeing as there were no union members guarding the gate when we left, that wasn’t it either. That Yu-cheol Han fellow or whatever must have told the union in advance.”

“He must have.”

Byeong-jin glanced at Seong-ho, who agreed with him, and asked,

“You’re not going to just take this lying down, are you?”

“Of course not.”

At Seong-ho’s “of course not,” Byeong-jin looked at him with an expectant gaze.

“What’ll you do?”

“I ought to create the opposite of what they want.”

“The opposite?”

“I just have to make them cut the price on their own, don’t I?”

“Make them cut the price on their own? That’s not bad?”

Hearing Seong-ho’s answer, Byeong-jin wore an expectant expression.

And he drove on, looking forward to that time coming quickly.

Gyeong-eun, who greeted Seong-ho at the entrance upon his return home, covered her nose.

“What’s this smell?”

“Would you give me a large bag?”

“A bag? Why a bag?”

Gyeong-eun asked Seong-ho, covering her nose.

Seong-ho answered as he loosened his outer coat and tie.

“It seems I’ll have to throw the clothes away.”

“Throw the clothes away?”

“Yes. Because they smell.”

Gyeong-eun looked at the clothes with dried-on rotten egg and furrowed her face.

“Wait just a moment.”

Gyeong-eun went inside and brought back a large basket.

“Hurry and take the clothes off here. I’ll wash them.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to throw them out? Washing won’t get the smell off, I’d think…”

“Seong-ho. Do you know how much those clothes cost?”

“I don’t.”

“Do you know how many times you’ve worn them?”

“I don’t know that either.”

Gyeong-eun, taking the clothes directly from Seong-ho’s hands despite the smell and putting them in the basket, said to him,

“That outfit, top and bottom, costs over 500,000 won. And today was the third time you’ve worn it. How could you throw clothes like that away?”

At Gyeong-eun’s words, Seong-ho took off his dress shirt with a smiling face and put it in the basket.

“Seeing this, Gyeong-eun, you seem more frugal than I’d thought. I’d assumed that with chaebol, ordinarily, you wouldn’t concern yourselves with things like money.”

“There’s something my late grandfather told me long ago. That to become rich, you have to be sparing. He also said you can’t become rich without being sparing. I thought that was a true saying. So I’m just doing as he said. Ugh~ the smell.”

Seong-ho, stripped bare, looked quietly at Gyeong-eun.

Because in the sight of Gyeong-eun trying to do exactly as her grandfather told her, the figure of the Ilhyeon Group’s founder overlapped.

(End of Chapter 122)