Knock, knock.

"Come in."

At the word from within, the door opened quietly.

The secretary bowed and explained.

"Vice-Chairman. The president of Ilhyeon Heavy Industries is here."

Mun-jong, seated on the sofa, nodded, and the secretary stepped aside as Seong-ho came in.

"You called for me?"

"Yes. Come and sit."

Seong-ho took the empty sofa to Mun-jong's left.

"This is really…"

Mun-jong adjusted his posture and tried to begin.

But the words wouldn't come easily, and he picked up the glass in front of him and drained it before he could speak again.

He shook his head, finding it absurd all over again.

"Has Jeong-eun genuinely lost her mind?"

"…Whether she has or not, we need to sort it out first."

"We do… otherwise… No, but really — has she eaten something? What is this?"

Mun-jong put a hand to his forehead.

Feeling faint, he sank back.

Seong-ho watched him quietly and turned his eyes to the table.

A newspaper lay on it, under a headline in large type.

Ilhyeon Card Acquires Mirae Card, Ascends to Largest Card Issuer

And beneath it, a follow-up.

Ilhyeon Card, with 14 million subscribers, has acquired Mirae Card and its 10 million, becoming the nation's largest card issuer with 24 million. The announcement came yesterday. The acquisition cost, including Mirae Card's debt, is reported to be 700 billion won. However, the industry expects the actual outlay to have been far smaller than projected, or close to nil — with Mirae Card's debt reaching 700 billion, the prevailing view is that costs were minimized by assuming the debt.

Seong-ho read it and looked back at Mun-jong, still holding his forehead.

"What does the Chairman say?"

"I'd like to know that myself."

Mun-jong lowered his hand and sat up.

He shook his head.

"So you go and ask him."

"You haven't asked?"

"How could I? You were there — you saw. Ask, and I'd have been swept up with her."

He waved a hand as though he'd rather die.

Seong-ho understood.

On the day of the general meeting, Jeong-eun had dropped a bomb.

"We intend to…