Having laughed for some while, Tak-hyeon Lee turned his head toward Sang-jong Lee.

"Is it certain Sang-hoe Lee wins this presidential election?"

"Yes. It's certain."

Realizing that Tak-hyeon Lee's attention had come around to him, Sang-jong Lee spoke with a tense face, working to sound as confident as he could.

"Candidate Sang-hoe Lee is ahead of Candidate Min-gu Noh in the polls as things stand."

Sang-jong Lee even managed a slight smile, then glanced over toward Seong-ho Kim and said:

"The reason Sang-hoe Lee lost last time is that he was up against a giant of the political world in Dae-sang Kim. The Min-gu Noh he faces this time is a man whose presence is faint beyond any comparison with Sang-hoe Lee. There is no chance whatever of Sang-hoe Lee losing to Min-gu Noh. But — Kim. I hear you've met Min-gu Noh?"

"You heard about that?"

"Noh's own side seems to have let it out first that he'd met you — that's how hard-pressed he must be. You'll want to be careful."

"It was only a meal."

Seong-ho Kim said it as though it were nothing much and turned back to Tak-hyeon Lee.

Then he explained to him why he had met Min-gu Noh.

"Representative Jo of Future Asset is from the same region as Candidate Noh and said he badly wanted to meet him once, so I arranged it. As it happened, Candidate Noh had also let it be known that he wished to meet me. So I combined the two and we simply had a meal."

"And what will you do if Chairman Lee takes it badly?"

"Isn't that what my brother is for?"

To the question of what would happen if the Shinpyeong Party found out, Seong-ho Kim answered as though it were nothing.

Then he looked at Sang-jong Lee and said with a smile:

"My brother will speak well of it to the Shinpyeong Party, so what is there to worry about?"

"Me?"

"Yes. Haven't you been keeping on close terms with the Shinpyeong Party all along? Candidate Noh said something over the meal. That…