Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ding-dong! Ding-dong!
“Seong-ho Kim. I know you’re in there. Open the door! Open the door, you bastard!”
Chang-jong’s voice came harsh and furious from the other side of the door.
Gyeong-eun turned to Seong-ho with worry in her eyes.
She shrank her shoulders at the anger in her brother’s voice and spoke to Seong-ho anxiously.
“My brother sounds really angry.”
“He does to me too.”
“What could it be about?”
“Who knows? I’m not sure what’s gotten into him either…”
He had a rough guess as to what it was, but Seong-ho kept it to himself.
Gyeong-eun didn’t know what to do as Chang-jong’s shouting grew louder.
Seong-ho gave her a light smile and set her at ease.
“There’s no need to worry like that. It’s fine, so relax.”
“Seong-ho, are you sure it’s all right? If it comes to it, I can at least call the security guard…”
“It’s really fine. Surely Brother hasn’t come all this way to devour us.”
Seong-ho tossed out the joke and laid a hand on her shoulder to ease the tension.
“Gyeong-eun, don’t worry—could you just put on some coffee? I think it’d be nice to sit down and talk things over calmly with him over a cup.”
It hardly looked like the sort of atmosphere for calmly sitting down over coffee, but Gyeong-eun decided to stop worrying, just as Seong-ho asked.
To keep voicing her worries would mean she didn’t trust him.
So Gyeong-eun chose to trust him and start with what he’d asked of her.
“All right. I’ll go put the water on, then.”
As Gyeong-eun turned toward the kitchen, Seong-ho walked to the door where Chang-jong’s voice was still coming through.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“You bastard! I said open the door!”
When the door stayed shut, the shouting only grew louder and the pounding harder.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Just as the pounding started up again, Seong-ho opened the door and appeared before Chang-jong.
“Brother. What brings you here without a word?”
“You son of a—”
The moment Chang-jong finally laid eyes on Seong-ho, he grabbed him by the collar without preamble.
“You son of a…”
But once he’d actually seized the collar, Chang-jong found himself at a loss for words.
Seeing him suddenly go silent, Seong-ho smiled, lowered the hand gripping his collar, and invited him inside.
“Brother. Let’s talk inside first. If we do this out here, everyone knows who I am, and there could be pointless rumors flying around.”
Only then did Chang-jong come to his senses.
And it occurred to him that if talk of this commotion spread through people’s mouths, it would do him no good either.
“Fine. Let’s go in and talk.”
Seong-ho smiled and led him inside.
“This is your first time here since we moved, isn’t it? I apologize. I should have reached out first—instead I made you go to the trouble of coming yourself. Please, have a seat. Gyeong-eun~ your brother’s here.”
Right up until Chang-jong stepped in and settled onto the sofa, Seong-ho didn’t once ask why he’d come.
Chang-jong stared at him, and just as he took his seat, Gyeong-eun came over with cups of coffee.
“Brother. What are you doing here?”
Setting a cup down in front of himself, Chang-jong cleared his throat under Gyeong-eun’s puzzled gaze.
“Ahem. Just… I had something to say to Kim, that’s all.”
“Something to say? You looked pretty angry a moment ago—you didn’t come to pick a fight with Seong-ho, did you?”
“A fight? Hardly.”
Once he was inside, seated on the sofa and looking at Gyeong-eun’s face, Chang-jong found it hard to keep up his anger.
Unlike Sang-jong, Chang-jong’s temper knew its time and place.
Seong-ho watched Chang-jong dithering in front of Gyeong-eun and let the corner of his mouth curl up.
This is exactly the kind of man the third brother is.
Like the rest of Tak-hyeon’s children, Chang-jong was combative and heedless of those around him.
But he’d had no choice but to mind his older brothers, and with the even more violent Jeong-eun for a sister, Chang-jong could never simply vent his temper on the spot.
He had to watch and endure, then loose his temper only when the situation allowed.
Seong-ho knew this side of Chang-jong well.
He had his eye on the group, yes—but if given a piece of his own, he’d let go of that ambition and take his share rather than fight. Unlike Sang-jong, who had only one man to get past, Chang-jong understood full well the reality that he’d have to get past two older brothers and an older sister. And he was the sort who could endure, if there was profit in it for him.
Watching this side of Chang-jong, Seong-ho considered how he might put the man to use in the coming storm that would break over Tak-hyeon’s family.
“Why the hell are you doing this to me?”
“Brother. Whatever do you mean?”
“You know I’m the Vice-President of Ilhyeon Distribution, and there’s a limit to how much you can ignore me. You march into my company and cut people loose however you please—what does that make me?!”
With his coffee cup set before him, Chang-jong finally told Seong-ho why he’d come.
His tone was sharp and angry, but he’d softened considerably from the way he’d first been pounding on the door.
So Gyeong-eun, no longer terribly worried, simply sat beside Seong-ho and listened.
Even facing a Chang-jong brimming with grievance, Seong-ho spoke without losing his composure.
“Brother. I danced the sword-dance on your behalf.”
“On my behalf? How is that for my sake?”
“Because you couldn’t cut them yourself.”
At his words, Chang-jong clenched a fist.
“Why couldn’t I cut them? I could cut them too. But…”
Chang-jong insisted he could do it himself, but the strength drained from his words as he went.
Catching that shift in tone, Seong-ho played along and offered Chang-jong a line to lift him up.
“Ah—so you’d been watching for the right timing to clean it up without troubling the Chairman?”
“Th-that’s right. If I moved on them recklessly, people might say I was purging the old man’s people, so I was biding my time.”
“I’m sorry. It seems I ruined your plan, Brother. Please forgive me.”
When Seong-ho bowed his head, Chang-jong could no longer keep up his anger.
To be the first to admit his own fault and even apologize—Chang-jong’s rage wasn’t solid enough to keep burning against a man like that.
“Well… fine. Now that you know your mistake, don’t do it again. Or at least tell me beforehand if you’re going to.”
“Yes. I’ll be more careful from now on. But more than that, Brother…”
Seeing that Chang-jong’s tone had softened considerably, Seong-ho began steering toward a new subject.
“Brother, who do you think will end up inheriting the group?”
“What? What’s this all of a sudden?”
“It just so happens it’s only us here, so I’d like to hear your honest thoughts.”
“Seong-ho, what do you mean? Who inherits the group, out of nowhere?”
Gyeong-eun, who had been quietly sipping her coffee and listening, turned to Seong-ho with a startled face.
Seong-ho only smiled at her and put the question to Chang-jong again.
“Brother. I really would like to hear your honest thoughts.”
“And what do you plan to do with them? Did Father tell you to ask? Or did my older brothers put you up to it—warning me not to make a move on them?”
Chang-jong asked back with a displeased expression.
And as if the reason he’d come here no longer mattered at all, he reacted fiercely to Seong-ho’s question.
“I have no intention of fighting my brothers over the group. Same goes for you, doesn’t it, Gyeong-eun?”
“Brother. Of course. I have no ambition for the group whatsoever. Even now, if Father told me to leave the company, I’d leave. Me sitting in the President’s chair at Ilhyeon Hotel…”
Gyeong-eun glanced at Seong-ho, then went on.
“—isn’t because I covet anything in the group. Whether it ends up being you or one of the others, it makes no difference to me. I intend to simply follow whatever Father decides.”
As if desperate to prove her own innocence, she even waved her hands, and Chang-jong agreed with her.
“I’m the same. I’ve no intention of going against Father’s decision. And even less of fighting my brothers over the succession… Kim. Tell Father clearly. Whoever it turns out to be, I’ll abide by his will.”
Certain that Seong-ho was probing him on Tak-hyeon’s orders, Chang-jong forcefully declared his lack of interest in any succession fight.
“The Chairman didn’t tell me to sound out your intentions. I asked what you thought for the sake of what’s to come.”
“What’s to come? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean the future, exactly as I said. I asked because I’m curious about the future you envision, Brother.”
Seeing that Chang-jong still hadn’t grasped his meaning, Seong-ho smiled faintly and raised his coffee cup.
Chang-jong watched him drink for a moment, then, frustrated, spoke first.
“Say something I can follow. What about the future?”
Even under Chang-jong’s prodding, Seong-ho drank his coffee at his leisure.
Then, to a Chang-jong whose face was reddening with impatience, he spoke in a voice as unhurried as his movements.
“If you have no intention of fighting the eldest, the second, and your sister—then how do you picture your future?”
“Don’t tell me…”
Chang-jong narrowed his eyes at Seong-ho and spoke as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Are you telling me to fight my brothers and my sister?”
“No. Quite the opposite.”
“The opposite?”
“If you don’t mean to fight, then step cleanly aside and take your gain from it—that’s why I asked for your honest heart, Brother.”
As Seong-ho’s fog-shrouded question came clear, Chang-jong’s eyes went wide.
“Right now, your brothers and your sister are surely misunderstanding your true intentions.”
“Misunderstanding? What is there to misunderstand about me?”
Seong-ho recalled the experiences of his former life, and told Chang-jong of something that had happened back then.
“The eldest, the second, and your sister are certainly convinced that you covet the group as well.”
“What… did the eldest say that to you?”
Seong-ho quickly waved a hand.
“Don’t misunderstand. What I’m saying here comes purely from my own thinking—not from the Chairman, nor the eldest, nor the second, nor your sister. I’ve listened to none of them.”
“Then how do you know my brothers are misunderstanding?”
“How could they think otherwise? You’ve kept up this ambiguous attitude all along, after all.”
“What’s ambiguous about my attitude?”
“Look at right now.”
Seong-ho’s voice grew steadily firmer as he took clear command of the conversation.
But Chang-jong, listening, didn’t realize that the reins of the exchange had passed from his hands into Seong-ho’s.
He was simply being swept along by Seong-ho’s words.
Seong-ho pointed a finger downward and said,
“Even now, you’ve come to see me—because I didn’t preserve your face. If the eldest and the second had seen this, what do you think they’d make of it?”
“…What would they make of it?”
“That you’re defying the Chairman’s will. Because it’s been made clear that when I move, it’s the Chairman’s will itself.”
At Seong-ho’s words, Chang-jong’s face slowly drained of color.
Chang-jong knew perfectly well that Tak-hyeon wouldn’t say a word about a matter like this.
If anything, the old man might have been delighted, calling it impressive.
But Mun-jong and Sang-jong were another story.
If those two believed Chang-jong had bared his ambition, they’d both flash their fangs at him at once—rushing to tear into Chang-jong first, before they even started fighting each other.
Knowing his brothers’ temperaments better than anyone, Chang-jong went pale as he spoke to Seong-ho.
“Should I go now and tell my brothers where I stand…?”
“No. That would only make things far worse.”
“Now what’s that supposed to mean? You said they’re misunderstanding because I haven’t stated my position properly. So I go and state it—why does that make things worse?”
Chang-jong was being swept along completely by Seong-ho’s talk.
Watching this from the side, Gyeong-eun looked at Seong-ho with fresh eyes.
Was Seong-ho always such a smooth talker?
She looked back and forth between the flustered Chang-jong and Seong-ho.
And she marveled at how the same Chang-jong who, ten minutes ago, had been pounding on the door and screaming, was now hanging on Seong-ho’s every word.
(End of Chapter 106)