Mun-jong Lee looked at Ju-cheol Seong rolling on the floor and his face soured.

"Broken again. Hey. Secretary Lee."

"Yes, Vice-Chairman."

Ho-yeong Lee tensed.

Because he had come to the secretariat only recently, still ramrod-straight with fresh discipline, and had met a sight he'd never imagined.

"What was your posting?"

Mun-jong Lee smiled as he asked it.

Ho-yeong Lee raised his chin slightly, clicked his heels together and answered.

"I was a training officer at a recruit training center."

"A recruit training center. Oof — isn't that a place with no give in it?"

"It's where the army's foundations are laid, so we hear that a good deal."

"Right. Still, that's no bad thing in a secretary."

"Thank you."

Ho-yeong Lee brought his heels together again and answered with the same taut discipline in his face.

Mun-jong Lee let out a laugh at the sight of him and pointed a finger at the floor, where blood had fallen.

"Have that cleaned up properly."

"Yes. Understood."

The answer came at once, without a question about what or how.

Mun-jong Lee evidently liked the look of him; he dug an elbow into Seong-ho Kim, sitting beside him, and said,

"Seong-ho, if it appeals to you, try taking on ex-military yourself. They're quite good."

"That one is enough for me."

Seong-ho Kim meant Jeong-cheol Choi.

Mun-jong Lee looked back at Jeong-cheol Choi and shook his head.

Jeong-cheol Choi seemed unable to face the wreck of Ju-cheol Seong straight on; he had his features screwed up and his eyes turned aside, and was barely managing to look at the man lying on the floor.

Set against his own secretary, standing proud with his head up straight, Jeong-cheol Choi looked far short of the mark, and Mun-jong Lee clicked his tongue.

"Tsk, tsk. Could a man like that ever do anything big?"

At that, Seong-ho Kim only just held back a snort.

Is the big thing you mean the same as killing me?

Seong-ho Kim said it to himself, and looked at Ho-yeong Lee, standing there stiff and correct, and at Tae-hun Park, who until…