Bang!

Coming into the room, Sang-jong Lee slammed the door hard enough to break it.

"They'll hear that on the ground floor."

Min-yeong Oh spoke to him in a worried voice.

Sang-jong Lee shouted as though he could not care less either way.

"And if they hear it?"

"What will you do if Father says something?"

"Let him do as he likes. He's got a son-in-law he's fond of, so one of me is neither here nor there."

"What are you saying? You're still his son."

"And what's different about being a son? No — why is he strict with me, his son, and so generous with a son-in-law? What have I done wrong!"

Min-yeong Oh shook her head and tried to soothe him.

"What is it you've done wrong, indeed."

"No. I've done something very wrong."

Still furious despite her soothing, Sang-jong Lee seethed as he spoke.

"I failed to fetch him a decoration. That's a grave offense."

Sitting down in a chair, Sang-jong Lee rested his arms on the table as he spoke.

"They say a man with too much money loses his mind over honors — what's a decoration worth, that he… He's absolutely deranged over it."

"Darling!"

Min-yeong Oh started in alarm and rushed over to him.

"What will you do if someone actually hears you?"

"Am I saying anything untrue?"

Sang-jong Lee raised his voice instead.

"Isn't it because money is overflowing that he's now greedy for honor as well? What's a decoration worth…"

At his steadily rising voice, Min-yeong Oh could bear it no longer and pulled at his arm.

Irritated, Sang-jong Lee shook her hand off.

While Sang-jong Lee was venting his grievances in that irritable voice, Mun-jong Lee, at his own house, was having a conversation about the very same problem.

"Father really is too much."

Hyeon-ju Bang, having taken off her clothes, spoke as she hung them on a hanger.

"Nothing actually changes because he receives a decoration, does it? Interment at the National Cemetery? Isn't that something he could have without this particular decoration?"

Standing beside her with his arms…