Seeing Chung-seop Jo still staring down at his rice bowl, Seong-ho smiled and said,

"What is it? The food not to your liking?"

"Not to my liking? Certainly not!"

Chung-seop's head snapped up in alarm at Seong-ho's words, and he shook his head and picked up his spoon.

Then he took a spoonful of broth from his bowl and pushed the stray thoughts out of his head.

"Well? Good, isn't it?"

"Yes. It's excellent."

Beside Seong-ho, Chung-seop had the feeling of returning to being not the Representative of Silla Future Asset but the branch employee he'd once been at Ilhyeon Securities.

And thinking that this might, in fact, be who he really was, he broke into a bright smile.

Seeing Chung-seop moving his spoon and chopsticks with real appetite, Seong-ho smiled and went back to his own rice.

For a while the two of them ate in earnest, and when the bottoms of their bowls were roughly in view, Seong-ho spoke.

"Representative Jo."

"Yes, sir."

At Seong-ho's call, Chung-seop looked up from the seasoned bellflower root he'd been eating.

Ladling more stew from the pot into his bowl, Seong-ho said,

"The reason I asked to see you today…"

Chung-seop set down his spoon, realizing Seong-ho was finally coming to the point.

He listened closely, and Seong-ho began.

"It's because I'd like to borrow money."

"Sorry? What do you mean by that?"

Seong-ho set his bowl down and said,

"I've moved over to Mirae Heavy Industries, as you know. And having gotten there, I found the company's pockets completely empty. So I'd like to borrow a bit — that's why I asked to see you."

Chung-seop tilted his head at that.

"Lending money to Mirae Heavy Industries is no trouble at all. But shouldn't you be raising funds within the group before coming to us? We can certainly lend it if you ask, but Ilhyeon isn't exactly short of money, and rather than paying us interest you'd surely be better off settling the borrowing internally. And besides, as you'll be aware…"

Chung-seop's expression turned briefly awkward before he continued.

"Mirae Heavy…