“What brings a busy Head like you all the way here?”

Chang-jong looked at the Seong-ho who’d come without any notice and asked.

Seong-ho told Chang-jong’s secretary to step out and sat down in the chair set before Chang-jong.

Chang-jong watched the secretary close the door on his way out, then turned his gaze to Seong-ho.

“What’s this, sending even my secretary away? Surely you’re not planning to do something to our Ilhyeon Distribution?”

“Brother.”

Chang-jong wore a puzzled expression at Seong-ho’s serious face.

To that Chang-jong, Seong-ho offered talk as serious as his serious face.

“Brother. Do you remember the conversation we had last time?”

“The conversation we had?”

Chang-jong called to mind what conversation Seong-ho meant.

Since the times they’d talked one-on-one could be counted on one hand, he could tell at once what conversation Seong-ho meant, and wearing an even more puzzled face, Chang-jong asked him,

“You mean that conversation about solving my troubles and all that?”

“Yes. That’s exactly it.”

Seong-ho nodded and, looking straight at Chang-jong, said,

“It seems that moment has come.”

Seong-ho stopped and looked at Chang-jong.

For a moment Chang-jong furrowed his brow, not understanding what Seong-ho’s words meant.

Then, catching Seong-ho’s meaning soon enough, he unknit his brow and asked,

“Huh?! Something like that’s happened? A moment when I can be of help to the eldest brother?”

“Yes.”

“Really? And what’s the matter, then?”

Wearing a pleased expression, Chang-jong pressed Seong-ho to hurry and tell him.

“Before you hear it, there’s one thing you have to bear in mind.”

“What is it I have to bear in mind?”

“There’s a condition attached—once you hear what the matter is, you absolutely have to go through with it, Brother.”

“The things you worry about. We have that conversation between us—do you think I’d hear it out and then back down? Hurry up and tell me what it is.”

Telling Seong-ho he was talking nonsense, Chang-jong raised a hand and gestured for him to hurry and speak.

Seong-ho looked quietly at the Chang-jong who was making light of his words, then slowly began.

As he listened, Chang-jong’s face gradually hardened.

The hand that had been gesturing hurry and tell me had long since stopped, and he said nothing.

Having only listened to Seong-ho’s account, Chang-jong, even after Seong-ho finished, could say nothing at all and only kept his head bowed.

Seong-ho understood Chang-jong’s reaction.

I had the same reaction when I first heard it.

Recalling that when he’d taken on Mun-jong’s child in his stead in the former life, he’d been no different from Chang-jong now, Seong-ho waited until Chang-jong had fully finished thinking it through.

Because he was certain that Chang-jong would accept the proposal and throw himself into this pit either way.

After thinking for a while, Chang-jong lifted his head.

“Really… if I really take the fall in his place, my future is guaranteed?”

“When the eldest brother inherits the group, you’ll be able to take the company you want and split off on your own, Brother.”

“Split off…”

Chang-jong felt his chest tremble at Seong-ho’s words.

Because he’d been told that the very thing he so desired might be possible.

“All right. I’ll do it.”

“Then let’s get up.”

Seong-ho sprang to his feet.

And looking down at the seated Chang-jong gazing up at him, he said,

“Isn’t there a saying—pull the ox’s horn out while the iron’s hot? Go to the eldest brother right this moment and get a firm promise of your future.”

“Right.”

Chang-jong brought both hands down on the desk.

And springing to his feet, he said to Seong-ho in a booming voice,

“You’re right. Step up when he’s in the worst trouble, and he’ll be all the more grateful. I’ll go this instant and tell the eldest brother I’ll do it.”

“A wise decision.”

Telling Chang-jong he’d decided well, Seong-ho walked to the door.

And opened it for him himself.

Seeing the opened door, Chang-jong drew a great breath and stepped out with vigorous strides.

Seong-ho watched the back of Chang-jong going out through the door he’d opened for him, and smiled without a word.

To Seong-ho’s eyes, Chang-jong looked like a man walking into hell on his own two feet.

Mun-jong looked at the Chang-jong who’d come to his office with a surprised gaze.

“Chang-jong, you…”

“Brother. Don’t worry. I’ll do it in your place.”

Startled by Chang-jong’s booming voice, Mun-jong rose from his seat and first calmed Chang-jong down.

“All right. All right, so keep it down… let’s sit here and talk.”

Mun-jong gestured toward the secretary standing at the door with startled eyes and said,

“No need for tea, so step out and don’t let anyone in.”

“Yes, understood.”

When Mun-jong’s secretary bowed his head in assent and left, closing the door, Mun-jong rose and walked to the reception sofa, gesturing for the two to come closer.

And sitting down first, he asked Chang-jong about what he’d said a moment ago.

“You’ll do it in my place—is that true?”

Chang-jong leaned his head toward Mun-jong and spoke in a small voice utterly opposite to the booming one he’d shouted with on entering the office.

“Yes. Your child, Brother. I’ll say it’s my child.”

Mun-jong looked at Chang-jong with surprised eyes, then turned his gaze to Seong-ho, seated beside Chang-jong.

When Seong-ho nodded at his gaze, only then, with a relieved expression, did he grasp Chang-jong’s hand.

“Thank you. I’ll never forget that you helped me.”

When the words he most wanted to hear came out of Mun-jong’s mouth, Chang-jong clasped Mun-jong’s hand in return and said,

“Isn’t your trouble my trouble, Brother? Just trust me.”

“Yes. Ever since we were young, I knew you were different from the other children. The way you followed me, the eldest, well, and listened to me—it was different from the other fellows. I knew you’d help me, after all. Whoever else might not, I knew you would.”

Mun-jong spoke in a voice brimming with emotion, and Chang-jong reddened at the rims of his eyes as he listened.

Watching the two, who looked like devoted, affectionate brothers, Seong-ho forcibly held back the laughter threatening to burst out.

What a performance, the pair of them.

When they’d been looking for someone to stand in for Mun-jong, Mun-jong had excluded Chang-jong from the discussion first.

“That one’s absolutely not the sort to step up in my place.”

Because the Chang-jong Mun-jong knew was a fellow who’d sooner betray his elder brother than ever step up for him.

For the man who’d said that to now be telling Chang-jong “I knew you’d step up” was, to Seong-ho, nothing but comical.

Seong-ho gazed steadily at the two sharing their deep brotherly love, then opened his mouth.

“There’s still something important remaining. Let’s resolve that first.”

“Something important?”

Mun-jong, who’d been holding Chang-jong’s hand, turned his head toward Seong-ho.

“Yes. That, up there.”

Seong-ho pointed a finger at the ceiling.

Realizing that what Seong-ho pointed to was their father, Tak-hyeon, Mun-jong and Chang-jong nodded at the same time.

“Right. That’s so. We have to talk with Father.”

Mun-jong let go of the hand he’d been holding.

The burden of having to face Tak-hyeon weighed heavier on him than the joy of Chang-jong standing in for him.

“Will Father believe it?”

“Whether he believes it or not is beside the point. If we say so, the Chairman will accept it without much comment.”

“Is that really true? Father will accept what we say just as it is?”

“Yes.”

Seong-ho spoke in a confident voice to the two wearing disbelieving expressions.

“The Chairman won’t be interested in whose child it is. He’ll be more interested in how the matter was handled. What’s done with the child, what was done with the child’s mother, and what will be done going forward. The Chairman will regard that as more important.”

Seong-ho recalled the former life.

At the time, Seong-ho had thought Tak-hyeon would scold him severely.

He’d expected that Tak-hyeon, who found him a distasteful son-in-law to begin with, would surely regard him as having committed an unforgivable sin, having gone so far as to break his daughter’s heart.

But unexpectedly, Tak-hyeon hadn’t taken issue with Seong-ho’s conduct.

If anything, he’d shown more interest in how the problem was handled.

Recalling the Tak-hyeon of the former life, Seong-ho spoke to the two in a calm voice.

“So keep your story consistent. Third brother, you just say the child that’s been born is your child and that the child’s mother was sent abroad. And when the third brother speaks, the eldest brother can scold him one moment and take his side the next, leaving a good impression on the Chairman.”

“Will Father really not take issue with the indiscretion if we do that?”

Seong-ho looked quietly at Mun-jong, who dismissed the matter of a child born out of wedlock as nothing more than an “indiscretion.”

And scoffing inwardly, he answered him.

“Consistency is what matters. As long as you’re consistent, the Chairman won’t take issue with this affair any further.”

Seong-ho offered words to set the two at ease.

But the truly important words he didn’t let out of his mouth.

The real problem is that people other than the Chairman will be the ones to make an issue of it.

The two, unaware of this thought of Seong-ho’s, felt reassured and looked at each other again.

And trading “for the sake of the eldest brother” and “I won’t forget your help” back and forth, they put on the picture of affectionate brothers.

“Oh, right. But…”

Having shown their brotherly warmth for a while, Mun-jong suddenly recalled something and asked Chang-jong with a worried face.

“Your wife… will your wife be all right with it?”

With his worry over Tak-hyeon gone, only now did Chang-jong’s wife come to Mun-jong’s mind.

Since the real party concerned was, after all, Chang-jong’s wife, it occurred to him that even if Tak-hyeon let it pass quietly, there was a strong chance Chang-jong’s wife would make an issue of it.

Contrary to Mun-jong’s worry, Chang-jong spoke with a face that said he hadn’t worried about his wife in the first place.

“Don’t concern yourself with that woman. She’s a woman who won’t care wherever I birth a child or carry one home from.”

“Will it really be all right? However you look at it… a child born out of wedlock…”

“Brother. I told you, just trust me.”

Chang-jong even spoke up loudly, as if to ask whether Mun-jong didn’t trust him.

“I’ll handle everything, so when you talk to Father, you just take my side well. And… don’t forget the promise.”

“Don’t worry about that. Ilhyeon Distribution will be yours.”

“Just Ilhyeon Distribution?”

Chang-jong wore an expression that said that alone didn’t satisfy him.

At this side of Chang-jong, Mun-jong smacked his lips.

Moments ago Mun-jong had spoken of him as a lifesaver, but faced now with the thought of actually carving off a piece of the Ilhyeon Group to hand over, a reluctant feeling crept in.

Chang-jong caught on to this reaction of Mun-jong’s too.

Just as Chang-jong was thinking he ought to say he’d pull out if it came to that, Seong-ho stepped in first.

“Brothers. Let’s talk about that after we’ve spoken with the Chairman. Right now is the time to focus on that matter.”

Seong-ho knew well what Mun-jong was thinking and what was in Chang-jong’s heart.

So before discord could arise, he reminded the two of what was important.

Perhaps because that talk of Seong-ho’s took hold, the two promised to set the matter aside for the moment.

The two prepared, together with Seong-ho, for what they’d discuss with Tak-hyeon, and having thus aligned their stories, the two of them went into the chairman’s office together that evening, before Tak-hyeon left for the day.

Tak-hyeon gazed for a long while, without a word, at the door through which Mun-jong and Chang-jong had left.

Do-beom, not knowing what was in Tak-hyeon’s heart, only waited quietly, standing behind him, for Tak-hyeon to speak.

Into the chairman’s office, where a long silence had thus stretched on, Tak-hyeon opened his mouth and broke it.

“Is it certain the child is Mun-jong’s?”

“Yes. Both the test Mun-jong’s side ran and the test I ran after separately collecting a sample confirmed the child is Mun-jong’s.”

“Heh heh. And yet Chang-jong steps up and says it’s his child?”

Tak-hyeon let out a low laugh and held out his hand.

Do-beom drew the cigarette case from his pocket, fit a cigarette into Tak-hyeon’s hand, and lit it for him.

Tak-hyeon drew the smoke deep once, then slowly exhaled and said,

“And it’s also true that Head Kim met with Chang-jong today?”

“Yes. After meeting Chang-jong, they went together to Mun-jong’s office, they say.”

“So in the end, it’s a picture Seong-ho drew… hoo.”

Exhaling the smoke long once more, Tak-hyeon let out a laugh as if amused.

“Not bad. He’s brought me a hand I never saw coming.”

“What shall we do?”

Tak-hyeon handed the shortened cigarette to Do-beom, who took it, ground it out in the ashtray, and read Tak-hyeon’s mood.

Tak-hyeon wore an even deeper smile and said,

“Tell the family to gather. Every last one of them.”

“Every last one?”

“Yes. Daughter-in-law or son-in-law, tell them to gather at Pyeongchang-dong right this minute. Say I have something to say.”

“Then…”

“Since the fellows insist on it, I ought to play along.”

“What will you do about the child? Do you intend to take it in?”

“Mun-jong’s blood flows in it, and don’t they say it’s Chang-jong’s child? Then I ought to take it in. As if that’s any great matter…”

Tak-hyeon spoke as if it were nothing and rose from his seat.

Do-beom looked at Tak-hyeon’s retreating back and thought.

If they’d said it was Seong-ho’s child… would he still have taken it in?

Thinking it probably wouldn’t have been so, Do-beom followed after Tak-hyeon.

(End of Chapter 117)