The pressure on Seong-ho continued as time passed.

"He told them to pull all the advertising? What on earth is that supposed to mean?"

Jeong-eun in particular pressed hard.

"Father. Look at this. It's chaos out there."

She had brought the newspaper herself and laid it down in front of Tak-hyeon.

The paper carried an article full of blunt, unvarnished attacks on Ilhyeon.

"Do you know why they're doing this? Because President Kim ordered every advertisement pulled over the negative articles about Ilhyeon Heavy Industries. So now they're writing pieces like this out of pure spite. They're not getting the advertising anyway, so it's 'do your worst'!"

Jeong-eun turned to Seong-ho, who had said nothing.

"What exactly are you thinking? If you cause a disaster, you ought to produce a solution!"

Seong-ho gave her no answer at all. Instead, he looked quietly at Yeong-su Cha, seated beside her.

So he does feel some guilt, being in the same position as I am.

Yeong-su Cha's head was bowed toward the floor.

Seong-ho watched him for a moment, then answered Jeong-eun.

"They were never going to write anything favorable anyway. Is there really any need to hand them advertising?"

"What kind of nonsense is that?"

Jeong-eun shouted at him, incredulous.

"Pulling the ads does nothing but make the relationship worse. What good does that do us!"

"They started it. I see no reason we should endure it."

At Seong-ho's uncharacteristically hard reply, Jeong-eun was briefly lost for words.

It was strange to see him come out so strongly, so unlike his usual manner.

But strange or not, she resolved not to let it concern her.

She had come today intending to see this through to the end, and so she decided to push harder still.

"Fine. Let's say you're right about all of it. Do you have a method, then?"

"A method for what?"

"What have you been listening to?"

Jeong-eun's face was full of fury.

"I'm asking whether you have a way to calm this situation down."

"And why should I have to think of one?"

"You—"

Jeong-eun trembled, unable to…