Gyeong-eun had stayed up, waiting for Seong-ho instead of sleeping.
“Why are you home so late?”
“You were still awake?”
Warmly embracing Gyeong-eun, a shawl draped over her shoulders, Seong-ho explained why he’d come home late.
“I was a bit delayed talking with the eldest brother at the company about how to respond to the election results.”
“With my eldest brother?”
Gyeong-eun looked up at Seong-ho with a surprised gaze and said,
“So you and my brother leaving early was to talk together?”
“Yes.”
Seong-ho gave a light laugh and, an arm around Gyeong-eun’s shoulders, went inside.
Hearing this, Gyeong-eun nodded and said,
“No wonder—I thought you and my brother left awfully early.”
Thinking there’d been a reason behind everything at Pyeongchang-dong, Gyeong-eun looked up at Seong-ho.
“If my sister finds out about this, she’ll be hurt, won’t she?”
“She will, I imagine.”
Seong-ho smiled quietly at Gyeong-eun’s words and turned on the TV.
—Even now, with 63 percent of the vote counted, it’s still unclear who has won. Because the gap between the two candidates is so slim that it could overturn at any moment. At this rate, a definite result isn’t expected until the early-morning hours, once more than 90 percent has been counted.
Gyeong-eun looked at the TV and asked Seong-ho,
“The result won’t change, will it?”
“It won’t change.”
Seong-ho let out a confident remark and turned off the TV.
Then he gazed down at Gyeong-eun for a moment.
At Seong-ho’s wordless gaze upon her, Gyeong-eun ran a palm over her face and said,
“What is it? Is there something on my face?”
“Gyeong-eun. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? For what?”
Gyeong-eun looked up at Seong-ho, who’d suddenly said he was sorry, with strange eyes.
Then she smiled with an expression that said she thought she knew why he’d said it.
“It’s because you came home so late, isn’t it? It’s all right.”
Gyeong-eun pushed at Seong-ho’s back and said,
“You’ve got to get to bed a little sooner if you’re going to work tomorrow, so hurry and wash up. I’ll get the bed ready.”
Walking forward, pushed along by Gyeong-eun, Seong-ho turned to look back at her.
And the real reason he’d said he was sorry, he spoke only within his heart.
This time, I won’t let you be hurt, Gyeong-eun.
Offering the near-vow only within his heart, Seong-ho went into the bathroom to wash up.
The next day, when Seong-ho arrived at the company, Byeong-jin came over to him.
“We’ve secured the expectant mother.”
“Where is she now?”
Answering Byeong-jin in a low voice, Seong-ho went into his office.
Following him into the Head’s office, Byeong-jin carefully shut the door, drew the blinds, and told Seong-ho what had happened overnight.
“For now, we’ve moved her to a hotel in the city.”
“Is it a place we can control?”
“Yeah. Ilhyeon Hotel has too many watching eyes and seemed more dangerous, so we set her up at a hotel not far from the company. And I told the manager we’re from where we’re from and are handling an important matter, so we’d need a whole floor cleared—nothing should go wrong.”
“Just in case, station our people at the hotel too.”
“I’ve already taken care of that as well. I placed our people on the floor where the expectant mother’s staying and right out front of the hotel, and told them to block anyone approaching her.”
Hearing Byeong-jin out, Seong-ho patted his shoulder.
“Good work.”
“Wasn’t much work to speak of. Just as you said, I went to the inn and there she was. Once I said I was from the Ilhyeon Group, the woman came along willingly, so it went smoothly.”
Listening to Byeong-jin, Seong-ho perched on the edge of the desk and, arms folded, said,
“Did you talk with her? What does she say she wants?”
“She claims she came thinking she ought to show the child its father… but the real reason isn’t that—it seems to be money.”
“Oh? What did she say?”
“Without my even asking, she went on in great detail about how hard her life in America had been.”
Seong-ho let the corner of his mouth curl up and nodded.
“Right. The real reason will be money.”
Seong-ho knew exactly what she wanted.
Because he remembered clearly how, in the former life, she’d vanished like smoke the moment she got as much money as she wanted.
This time I mustn’t let her vanish.
In the former life, because she vanished, he wasn’t even given the chance to clear his tarnished name.
He’d seen Gyeong-eun grieving and tried to set the mistaken facts right, but with the woman and child gone, that chance had vanished forever.
Seong-ho had no intention of letting it go that way this time.
Because discord only has meaning if it continues.
That was why he meant to keep the expectant mother in hand, and just as he wished, the seed of discord had come into Seong-ho’s grasp.
“So what should we do now?”
Seong-ho let the corner of his mouth curl up and laid out the next step for Byeong-jin.
Seong-ho and Mun-jong stood side by side in front of the chairman’s office.
Looking at the door, Seong-ho spoke to Mun-jong in a low voice.
“We’ve secured her.”
Mun-jong knew what had been secured without needing to ask.
“Then what do you intend to do now?”
Without a moment to breathe, Mun-jong asked Seong-ho for the next plan.
Seong-ho went on speaking, gazing at the door rather than at Mun-jong.
“The due date is ten days out, they say. When the child comes in ten days, I intend to run a comparison against you, Brother.”
“Yes. It’s certainly not mine, so do that.”
Mun-jong let out the confident remark.
Seong-ho glanced back at Mun-jong, and just then the door opened and Do-beom announced that they should come in.
“Both of you, come in now.”
At Chief Do-beom’s instruction, Mun-jong and Seong-ho went through the door into the chairman’s office.
Entering the chairman’s office, thick with cigarette smoke, Mun-jong and Seong-ho bowed their heads to Tak-hyeon in greeting.
Tak-hyeon directed the two to sit on the sofa and spoke first.
“As anticipated, Dae-sang Kim has summoned the business heads for tomorrow. Now then—what should we do?”
Tak-hyeon had asked what they should do before Mun-jong and Seong-ho had even taken their seats.
It was an indirect way of conveying just how important tomorrow’s gathering was.
Tak-hyeon looked first at Mun-jong and said,
“Vice-Chairman. Have you got anything worked out?”
“I…”
With his head already wholly filled with the other matter, Mun-jong couldn’t produce a proper answer to Tak-hyeon’s question.
Seeing Mun-jong hesitate, Tak-hyeon was about to shout in frustration.
Just then Seong-ho spoke first.
“I sorted it out yesterday after talking it over with the Vice-Chairman.”
“Yesterday?”
Tak-hyeon, about to shout, turned his head at Seong-ho’s words.
Under Tak-hyeon’s gaze, Seong-ho began to say, in a calm voice, the words he’d prepared.
“After you turned in yesterday, Chairman, the Vice-Chairman and I went to the company and talked over how to respond.”
“Did you now?”
Tak-hyeon glanced at Do-beom, seated beside Mun-jong.
He was trying to confirm through Do-beom whether what Seong-ho said was true.
Receiving Tak-hyeon’s gaze, Do-beom gave a slight nod confirming that Seong-ho’s words were true, and at Do-beom’s confirmation, Tak-hyeon looked at Mun-jong with a surprised gaze.
“Not bad. So you’ve finally grasped what’s important and what needs doing?”
At Tak-hyeon’s seemingly approving words, when Mun-jong wore an awkward expression, not knowing what to answer, Seong-ho once again stepped in first and spoke, turning the attention back onto himself.
“Tomorrow’s gathering will surely bring up talk of restructuring, as anticipated. And I expect they’ll demand a realignment of businesses that have been redundantly invested in across the various groups.”
“Business realignment?”
“Yes. In particular, there’s a strong likelihood they’ll demand a realignment of industries that require continuous large-scale investment.”
“What do you mean by that?”
When Tak-hyeon furrowed his brow, Seong-ho held out the file he’d brought.
Inside the file, the sorts of things likely to come up at tomorrow’s gathering had been laid out in writing beforehand.
Tak-hyeon leafed through the documents, a smile spreading fuller and fuller across his face.
“You prepared this in advance?”
“They’re things I sorted out after talking with the Vice-Chairman yesterday.”
“You talked this over with the Vice-Chairman?”
Tak-hyeon lifted his head and looked at Mun-jong.
Mun-jong had no idea what was written in the documents.
Because the talk they’d had yesterday was, in its entirety, about the “expectant mother.”
But Mun-jong caught on at once at Seong-ho’s glance and said to Tak-hyeon,
“It was put together in a hurry, so the content may be lacking. I hope you’ll understand.”
At Mun-jong’s words, Tak-hyeon shook his head.
“No. Just going in with this much prepared is more than enough. This alone means we’re at least two or three steps ahead of everyone else.”
Tak-hyeon closed the file, lifted it, and pointed it back and forth between Mun-jong and Seong-ho as he spoke.
“It’s reassuring to have the two of you. Very well done. Just keep on exactly like this.”
“I’ll see to it we don’t fall short of your expectations, Chairman.”
When Seong-ho bowed his head at Tak-hyeon’s praise, Mun-jong followed suit and bowed his head as well.
“Isn’t attending well to the Chairman the work of myself and Head Kim? We’ll continue to do our utmost going forward.”
“Yes. Well done.”
When Tak-hyeon wore a satisfied expression and told them they could go now, Mun-jong and Seong-ho bid him farewell and left the chairman’s office.
Once out, Mun-jong took Seong-ho by the arm and asked what it was he’d handed Tak-hyeon a moment ago.
“Just what did you sort out that has Father so pleased?”
“I laid out the things it’d be good for us to acquire and the things we can let go of without concern.”
“Things to acquire and things to let go? You put that together already? Without even consulting me?”
Mun-jong was displeased at the fact that Seong-ho had skipped over him and reported directly to Tak-hyeon.
And he made to give Seong-ho a stinging word.
“If you keep on like this—”
“Brother.”
To the Mun-jong about to snap at him, Seong-ho drew in close and spoke in a low voice.
“Don’t forget. What matters right now isn’t this.”
“That’s…”
Mun-jong had been about to say—if how to respond at the gathering the president-elect had summoned wasn’t what mattered, then what was?
But whatever it might be for others, for Mun-jong there existed one thing more important than that.
Confirming that Mun-jong’s face had stiffened, Seong-ho spoke in a low voice.
“Brother. I’ll resolve everything, so you carry yourself calmly, just as usual. That’s what matters right now.”
Mun-jong slowly nodded and laid a hand on Seong-ho’s shoulder.
“Right. I understand what you mean. I’ll leave this matter to you, so I’m counting on you.”
“Just trust me.”
Telling him to trust him, Seong-ho turned and headed off to his office first.
And recalling the former life, he thought.
Right. Back then, I trusted you too. But the return on my trust was nothing like what I’d hoped for. This time, it’s my turn to give the answer.
Thinking that this time it was his turn to give an answer to that trust, Seong-ho carried his steps toward his office.
Byeong-jin led Seong-ho to the front of the hotel room.
“Is this it?”
“Yeah.”
Byeong-jin answered Seong-ho and opened the door.
As Seong-ho went in through the opened door, Byeong-jin shut it behind him and stood before it, guarding it so no one could enter.
“Who… are you?”
Inside the hotel room, a woman with a swollen belly was looking at the Seong-ho who’d entered with a tense face.
Seong-ho carried a chair over to the woman perched on the edge of the bed.
And setting the chair before the tightly-strung woman, he sat down on it.
“Who are you?”
When the woman put the question to him again, Seong-ho, seated in the chair, pointed a finger at the woman’s belly and said,
“I’m that child’s uncle by marriage.”
“Uncle by marriage…?”
At the words “uncle by marriage,” the woman studied Seong-ho’s face with a tightly-tensed expression.
Then, calling a certain person to mind, she asked,
“By uncle by marriage, you mean… the youngest uncle by marriage?”
“Yes. I have a memory of meeting you at the wedding, but it seems you don’t remember me. At the time, I believe you were the eldest brother’s attending secretary, Su-yeon Jeong… don’t you recall my face?”
“Back then I was so out of my wits…”
At Seong-ho’s words, which rather chided her for not recognizing him, Su-yeon Jeong wore an apologetic expression.
Seeing this side of Su-yeon Jeong, Seong-ho smiled without a word and told her why he’d come.
“You’re not comfortable in your condition, so I’ll get straight to it. Have the baby and leave. Whether it’s America or Europe, once you’ve left, never return to Korea again. If you promise to do that, I’ll give you as much money as you want.”
At Seong-ho’s words, Su-yeon Jeong shook her head in shock.
“And the child? What about the child?”
Seong-ho gazed steadily at Su-yeon Jeong and her belly, then spoke slowly.
“The child, we will raise.”
“‘We’—we who? The Vice-Chairman will take the child in? Then me too… take me in too. I can’t leave and abandon the child.”
Su-yeon Jeong let out something close to a wail and pleaded with Seong-ho.
But the eyes with which Seong-ho looked at her were nothing but cold.
Knowing full well what sort of person she was and what she was here for, to Seong-ho, Su-yeon Jeong’s wailing looked like nothing more than a piece of theater.
(End of Chapter 114)