Through the small window set in the door, Sang-jong looked at Tak-hyeon, asleep on the ward bed.

After gazing into the room a while, Sang-jong slowly turned back to Mun-jong, who was still watching him with startled eyes, and spoke. "You don't mean to spend the rest of your days as vice-chairman under Father, do you?"

He walked slowly toward Mun-jong as he went on. "Father's surgery was a success, and they said once he recovers he'll be as active as before. Which means he'll be hale for at least another ten years… You're not planning to stay pinned in the vice-chairman's seat all that while, are you?"

"…What you're saying is, you want us to stage a rebellion?"

"A rebellion?" Sang-jong shook his head. "Anyone who overheard that would think we mean to do something to Father. Not a rebellion—we lighten Father's load, that's all."

At that, Mun-jong gave a snort. "Isn't that one and the same thing?"

"One and the same or not, you'd best think it over carefully."

Just then Gyeong-eun's voice came from outside the family lounge.

Before she could come in, Sang-jong said in a low voice to Mun-jong, "Whether you spend another ten years pinned under Father in the vice-chairman's seat—or rise to the seat above all others and unfold your own ambitions."

As Sang-jong finished, the lounge door opened and Gyeong-eun and Seong-ho came in with the baby.

"Oh? Big brother and second brother, you're both here?"

"Is it all right for you to be up and walking already?"

Sang-jong went toward Gyeong-eun with a smile.

Gyeong-eun gave her loose, billowy hospital gown a flap. "They say in the old days women gave birth in the morning and were out weeding the fields by afternoon. It's been three whole days—I ought to be fine."

"Good to hear you're all right." Smiling, Sang-jong looked down at the baby nestled in the carrier. "They say sons take after their mothers—and sure enough, he's the very image of you."

"You see it too, Oppa? It's uncanny to me how much he looks like me. That's what…