Having pleaded for a good long while, in something close to a wail, Su-yeon Jeong quietly opened her eyes when Seong-ho gave no reaction at all.
And seeing Seong-ho’s cold gaze, she wiped her tears and said,
“I can’t be without the child. If you take the child from me…”
“One billion won.”
“What?”
“I’ll give you one billion won.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? One billion won? Do I look to you like I’m doing this for money?”
At Seong-ho, who’d brought up money out of nowhere, Su-yeon Jeong wore an offended expression.
And wiping away her tears, she shouted sharply at him.
“I didn’t come here to sell my child!”
“I’ll give you nine hundred million won.”
“What are you—”
Without so much as a twitch of an eyebrow at Su-yeon Jeong’s words, Seong-ho raised his wrist, looked at his watch, and said,
“I’ll give you ten seconds. If you don’t answer within ten seconds, the sum keeps falling. Ten. Nine. Eight…”
“I—I can’t be parted from my child…”
Su-yeon Jeong’s voice trembled.
Whether she carried on or not, Seong-ho kept reciting the numbers, gazing down at his watch.
“…Three. Two. One. Time’s up. I’ll give you eight hundred million won. I’ll give you time again. Ten. Nine. Eight…”
From the mouth of the Su-yeon Jeong who had been wailing moments ago, not another word came out.
Eyes wide, she worked her lips as if there were something she wanted to say.
But she couldn’t get it out, and another ten seconds passed.
“A pity—time’s up again. I’ll give you seven hundred million won. Shall we begin again, then? Ten. Nine. Eight—”
“W-wait! Wait a moment.”
Su-yeon Jeong hurriedly threw up a hand toward Seong-ho, cradling her belly.
“One billion isn’t enough.”
Seong-ho, who’d been gazing at his wristwatch, let the corner of his mouth curl up and, lifting his head to look at Su-yeon Jeong, said,
“So you’ve finally decided to talk.”
“One billion won’t do. Give me more.”
“One billion is a great deal of money, you know.”
“The exchange rate’s gone up, so one billion isn’t enough. Give me two billion. For two billion, I’ll consider it.”
“You seem to be under some sort of misunderstanding.”
Seong-ho tilted his head at an angle and said to Su-yeon Jeong,
“I didn’t come here to negotiate. And what I’m saying isn’t an offer, either.”
“Not an offer? Then what is it?”
“I came to notify you of the one and only option available to you, Su-yeon Jeong.”
“Notify?”
When Su-yeon Jeong stared at him wide-eyed, Seong-ho brushed off his knee with a hand, unhurried, and said,
“You’d do well to choose me, Su-yeon Jeong.”
“Are you threatening me right now?”
“It’s not a threat—I’m merely reminding you once more of a fact you already know yourself.”
“And what is it I supposedly know?”
“That I’m the only one you can hold a conversation with.”
At Seong-ho’s words, Su-yeon Jeong’s mouth clamped shut.
Seong-ho looked at her and smiled without a word.
She spent a full five years at Mun-jong’s side, so she’ll understand what I mean.
Su-yeon Jeong knew well that among the people of the Ilhyeon Group, there weren’t many one could sit across from and talk with like this.
She, better than anyone, knew that if she faced anyone else, a situation would unfold in which even Seong-ho’s cold notification would come to feel mannerly by comparison.
Seong-ho looked for a moment at the now-silent Su-yeon Jeong, then rose from his seat.
At the sight of Seong-ho rising, Su-yeon Jeong startled and got to her feet, supporting her belly.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve conveyed my meaning well enough, so I ought to head back. That way you can rest too, can’t you, Su-yeon Jeong?”
“But we haven’t finished talking.”
“Haven’t we?”
Seong-ho, seated in the chair once more, looked at Su-yeon Jeong without a word.
Su-yeon Jeong wore a complicated expression under his gaze, then opened her mouth.
“All right… If you’ll just give me one billion won, I’ll disappear.”
“A fine choice.”
For the first time since entering the hotel room, Seong-ho wore a smiling expression as he said to Su-yeon Jeong,
“You take the one billion won, Su-yeon Jeong, go somewhere new, and live a new life.”
“Ah! What becomes of the child?”
The same question as before, but Su-yeon Jeong’s voice was different.
Seong-ho answered her in a calm voice.
“The child will live on as a person of the Ilhyeon family.”
“Then you’ll take the child in?”
“Yes. That’s how it will be.”
“That’s a relief.”
Su-yeon Jeong plopped down onto the bed.
She had been certain the Ilhyeon Group wouldn’t acknowledge the child.
She’d anticipated a long, tedious fight might break out, and she’d entered Korea resolved that she must never be pushed back by the Ilhyeon Group.
Of course, her steeling herself this way had nothing to do with the child soon to be born.
She’d come in with a swollen belly in order to wring even one won more out of the Ilhyeon Group.
Thinking she could simply skip off abroad afterward, she’d even been prepared to lay every last one of their disgraces bare if the Ilhyeon Group refused to pay.
And yet, unexpectedly, the Ilhyeon Group had agreed to pay ever so willingly. On top of that, the sum they offered was one billion won—more than she’d imagined.
She let out a sigh of relief at how smoothly things had flowed.
“As long as the child can be with its father, it’s fine.”
Unlike the warm-seeming words, the emotion contained within them was relief at being able to hand off a child that was so much baggage.
Seong-ho made no reply at all to Su-yeon Jeong’s words and turned around.
“One of our people will accompany you at the hospital. And after the child is born, Su-yeon Jeong, you recover, and then leave Korea along with the money we’ve prepared.”
“Um, but…”
Just as Seong-ho went to turn the doorknob, Su-yeon Jeong called him back.
“Is there some other demand?”
Seong-ho asked in a dry voice.
Su-yeon Jeong hurriedly shook her head at his question and said,
“No. It’s not that I have another demand… but won’t you run a test?”
Su-yeon Jeong asked because she found it strange to proceed without even confirming the father through a paternity test.
Seong-ho smiled, hand on the doorknob.
“Why? Is the father of the child in your belly perhaps someone else, Su-yeon Jeong?”
“No. No. The child’s father is… most certainly the Vice-Chairman.”
Perhaps afraid Seong-ho might suspect the child’s father wasn’t Mun-jong, Su-yeon Jeong shook her hands and head vigorously, stressing that the child’s father was Mun-jong.
Seeing this side of Su-yeon Jeong, Seong-ho slowly drew up the right corner of his mouth and said,
“I think so too.”
At Seong-ho showing not the slightest suspicion, Su-yeon Jeong blinked.
She hadn’t known how to react to a Seong-ho who believed, firm as iron, that the father of a not-yet-born child was Mun-jong.
Turning the doorknob and opening the door, Seong-ho left a final word.
“We’ll handle the rest, so you just move according to the promise, Su-yeon Jeong. Then our relationship will be cleanly settled.”
“Don’t worry. I’m a person who keeps her promises too.”
“I think so too. Well then…”
Leaving behind word that he trusted her, Seong-ho shut the door.
Byeong-jin, who’d been waiting outside, asked what had happened within once Seong-ho came out.
Seong-ho answered simply and walked slowly down the corridor.
Having heard the account, Byeong-jin walked alongside Seong-ho and asked in a worried voice,
“Hey. Aren’t you trusting her too much? What’ll you do if she shows up again down the road, years from now?”
When the slowly-walking Seong-ho turned his head to look at him, Byeong-jin spoke to him with a grave face.
“She might have a change of heart later on. Nobody in your family knew that woman was pregnant, right? And on top of that, she had the procedure done, yet turns up full-term… she’s no ordinary woman. She might well appear again later.”
“That would be interesting, wouldn’t it?”
“What?”
Hearing Byeong-jin, Seong-ho thought instead that if she reappeared, an interesting situation would unfold.
“Keep that woman under close watch going forward. Keep an eye on what country she’s in and what she’s doing.”
Byeong-jin, taking Seong-ho’s words as agreement with him at any rate, nodded and answered.
“Right. We have to keep watching. There’s no telling how a woman like that might turn later. I’ll take responsibility for keeping an eye on this, so you don’t worry about a thing.”
At Byeong-jin’s words, Seong-ho patted his shoulder and said,
“You’ve no idea how reassuring it is to have you beside me.”
“What are friends for? And thanks to you I’m rising through the ranks at the company, so of course I ought to scratch your itch where you can’t reach. From now on, whenever there’s something like this that’s hard to ask of others, tell me. I’ll take care of it.”
At Byeong-jin’s words, Seong-ho laughed brightly and gently tightened his grip on Byeong-jin’s shoulder to convey his gratitude.
And Byeong-jin, perhaps catching Seong-ho’s meaning, softly laid his own hand over the one gripping his shoulder, conveying his feeling in place of words.
And so the two of them passed through the corridor and stood side by side before the elevator.
The news that President-elect Dae-sang Kim had gathered the five great chaebol flowed out extensively through the press.
With the country fallen into hardship, the attention of many turned to what solution might emerge from the gathering Dae-sang Kim had arranged.
And after the meeting ended, the presidential transition committee announced to the press what had been discussed.
—The president-elect has instructed each group to reduce its debt ratio to 200 percent. This is not a recommendation but a requirement, and he expressed a firm resolve that, should the 200 percent not be achieved by next year, they would begin by recalling the bonds issued through state-run financial enterprises. He also strongly stated that businesses redundantly invested in across the various groups be cleaned up. Since redundant businesses constitute a negative factor not only for the companies but for the nation as well…
Having left the Ilhyeon Hotel where the transition committee’s announcement was in full swing, Tak-hyeon closed his eyes the moment he got into the car.
Do-beom, seated in the passenger seat, signaled the driver to set off with a gesture and said to Tak-hyeon in the back,
“Thanks to going in prepared beforehand, the results seem substantial. Doa Motors is something you’ve had your eye on for a long time, isn’t it, Chairman?”
Tak-hyeon, who’d had his eyes closed for a moment, slowly opened them and said to Do-beom in the passenger seat,
“Yes. I’ve liked it for a long time.”
Tak-hyeon let out a sigh for a moment and looked out the window.
And examining the countless passing cars one by one, he said,
“There are far too many car companies on this cramped patch of land. Five domestic firms alone, and then Japan, America, Germany, and so on from overseas—just how many automobile brands are there, exactly?”
“You’re quite right, Chairman.”
“The domestic firms need to be pared down to two or so. And whenever that may be, I’m convinced it will come to that.”
“So you meant to grow the company’s size all the more, so as not to be weeded out when that time comes.”
“That’s exactly it.”
Tak-hyeon wore a satisfied expression at Do-beom, who’d caught his intent, and said,
“No one knows when it’ll be. It could be this time, or it could be ten years, twenty years from now. In any case, when such a thing happens, what do you suppose becomes of us if we’re the largest of them all?”
“Rather than us being cleaned up, they’d be gathered in beneath us.”
“Ha ha ha.”
Tak-hyeon reached a hand toward the passenger seat and patted Do-beom’s shoulder.
“This is why I like you. Yes. That’s exactly it. To gather them in beneath us, Doa Motors was absolutely necessary.”
Tak-hyeon leaned back against the seat again, lifted his head to gaze up at the car’s ceiling, and said,
“If I’d stepped up when I first meant to acquire Doa Motors, it might have cost over ten trillion won. Thanks to Head Kim blocking that, we’ve been able to save a great deal of money.”
“Then is it confirmed that we’ll be acquiring Doa Motors?”
“It’s confirmed.”
Tak-hyeon lowered his head, looked at Do-beom, and said,
“But the formalities remain.”
“Formalities?”
“The price hasn’t been set yet. Setting the price comes first. And we’ll have to put on one more bit of show-for-appearances’ sake, letting the outside world know it was decided through competitive bidding. Otherwise the big-nosed fellows might come around being a nuisance.”
“Just so. The IMF demands restructuring across the whole industry, but in the case of companies with interests entangled, that could become a problem.”
“But formalities are just formalities, after all. In any case, the fact that we’ll acquire Doa Motors at a price far cheaper than first anticipated doesn’t change.”
Tak-hyeon wore a satisfied expression as he headed back to the company.
And Tak-hyeon, who felt this satisfaction would continue on into the future, got a strong sense that the bailout was becoming a great opportunity for him and the Ilhyeon Group.
“This is just the beginning. Depending on how much more we can wring out of this, twenty years—no, the Ilhyeon Group’s hundred-year plan can be completed.”
Feeling the first footprint of the hundred-year plan had been stamped down to his satisfaction, Tak-hyeon turned his head toward the window.
But at this hour, while he was preparing the Ilhyeon Group’s hundred-year plan, Tak-hyeon did not know that elsewhere, a move to smear filth all over the Ilhyeon family was afoot.
(End of Chapter 115)