“Head. The results are in.”

A staffer rushed frantically into the conference room.

Byeong-jin, who’d been shifting in his seat even while sitting, asked the staffer who’d hurried in,

“So, how did it go?”

“It’s unsold! It’s gone unsold, they say.”

“What? Really? It really went unsold?”

Byeong-jin sprang to his feet.

Following him, Byeong-ju Jeong asked the staffer,

“The reason? What do they say the reason is?”

“The reason is…”

The staffer glanced at Seong-ho and answered just as he’d heard it from the staffer waiting at the bidding site.

“They say it’s because no acquisition candidate meeting the creditors’ criteria emerged.”

“The creditors’ criteria? What are the criteria, that no candidate met them?”

Byeong-jin, on his feet, asked the staffer.

But the staffer, perhaps not knowing that much, only wore a troubled expression and could say nothing.

Seeing this, Deputy Head Gyeong-deuk answered on the staffer’s behalf.

“What’s there to ask? Naturally it means none of them met the price, doesn’t it?”

Byeong-jin, perhaps finding Deputy Head Gyeong-deuk’s answer persuasive, nodded.

Byeong-ju Jeong grabbed Byeong-jin’s clothes to make him sit and asked the staffer,

“Did they say everyone participated in the bidding?”

The staffer turned toward Byeong-ju Jeong, who’d posed the question, and answered,

“Yes. Every company expected—the German company, plus Sunwoo and Dugyeong and the rest—participated in the bidding, they say.”

“Everyone participated and still none met the price? Does that make sense?”

Everyone gathered in the conference room, Byeong-ju Jeong included, looked at Seong-ho with faces curious as to how they should interpret the present situation.

“Understood, so you may go now.”

Seong-ho told the staffer who’d relayed the news that he’d done well, then looked around at the team leaders watching him and said,

“All right, now that the results are in, let’s move.”

“Do we participate at the price that’s dropped from going unsold?”

“Shall we first find out how much each company wrote down?”

“I’ll take Dugyeong’s side.”

“Then I’ll take Sunwoo.”

At the word to move, even without anyone instructing them, the team leaders began of their own accord to discuss how to move.

Because though they hadn’t participated in this bidding, they naturally assumed they’d participate in the next.

But Seong-ho’s choice was wholly unexpected.

“From now, our Restructuring Headquarters will conclude its Doa Motors acquisition duties. Every team is to be deployed to the work of recovering the money we lent last year against companies’ collateral.”

At the sudden instruction, the team leaders present wore startled expressions.

But Seong-ho, unconcerned with the team leaders’ reactions, continued his instructions.

“Start by checking the repayment plans of the companies that borrowed, beginning with the ones that look to be struggling. What to be careful of is that we must never be the first to ask whether they’ll repay the money borrowed against collateral. We have to make the other side bring it up first, so that we don’t come off looking like loan sharks.”

From the moment they’d lent emergency funds against collateral, they’d anticipated a day like this would come.

So the team leaders could accept Seong-ho’s decision calmly.

Half were companies so troubled that the path to repaying was hopeless, and the other half were places that, considering the fallen value of the collateral, thought it better to hand over the collateral and wipe out the debt even if they had the ability to repay.

So the checking work would clearly flow in the direction of acquiring the collateral.

Anticipating this, the Restructuring Headquarters had already been carrying out the work internally in advance.

So the collateral-acquisition work wasn’t a surprising matter to them.

What surprised them was the Doa Motors bidding.

“Head. Are we completely giving up the Doa Motors bidding?”

“If it went unsold, doesn’t that mean the price has dropped? In that case it’s a situation where we should step up to the bidding all the more actively—so why are we withdrawing from the Doa Motors acquisition work? Doesn’t that mean we give up the bidding this time too?”

Seong-ho looked at the flustered team leaders and said,

“I didn’t say we’re giving up.”

“What? But didn’t you say to conclude the Doa Motors work?”

Byeong-ju Jeong looked at Byeong-jin, seated beside him, with a face asking whether he’d misheard.

Byeong-jin conveyed with his eyes that he’d heard the same, and all the other team leaders seated there wore the same expression and looked at Seong-ho with puzzled gazes.

Seong-ho smiled at the team leaders’ gazes and said,

“Since certainty came from it going unsold, there’s no need to spend resources in a useless place, so I’ve instructed a withdrawal.”

“Then…”

“The Doa Motors acquisition work will be carried out by just the two of us, myself and team leader Jo. So the rest of you may withdraw.”

“What? You’ll do it with just the two of you?”

Hearing Seong-ho, Byeong-jin went ashen, and the other team leaders all looked back and forth between Seong-ho and Byeong-jin with startled faces.

“What? He’ll carry out the Doa Motors acquisition with just the two of them?”

“Yes. He said that since it became certain with the unsold result, just the two of them would be fine, they say.”

“Isn’t that fellow mad?”

Chief Do-beom had gotten the feeling that lately Tak-hyeon referred to Seong-ho as a “mad fellow” strikingly often.

Certainly, to Do-beom’s thinking too, most of Seong-ho’s choices were deranged enough to warrant being called those of a “mad fellow.”

He carried out his work by methods no one could imagine choosing—methods only Seong-ho in all the world would choose.

That the words “mad fellow” came out was perhaps only natural.

But Tak-hyeon’s “mad fellow” sounded a little different.

“Just how confident is this fellow, to act like this?”

Tak-hyeon’s “mad fellow” was an exclamation of admiration.

Tapping the sofa’s armrest with his fingers, Tak-hyeon said,

“Ordinarily, however much certainty one has, they don’t go this far… And yet he sends everyone back and does it with just the two of them? This is as good as saying the creditors and the government are holding an answer sheet that says there’s no alternative but us.”

Tak-hyeon raised the corner of his mouth with an admiring face and instructed Do-beom,

“Even if a government official calls, absolutely don’t take it. Even if it’s the president. And if you do take it, say we’ve handed full authority to the Restructuring Headquarters, so talk with them.”

“You intend to concentrate the power on him?”

“You have to concentrate it when you can.”

“Chairman, if… if, hypothetically.”

Do-beom, worried his words might become seed, showed himself hesitating, unable to speak rashly.

Tak-hyeon looked up at him and said with a smile,

“I know what you’re worried about. You’re worried about what happens if, having acted this confidently, he doesn’t get the result he wants, aren’t you?”

“…Yes. That’s right.”

Do-beom nodded and, still wearing a face full of worry, said,

“He’s shown the confidence to withdraw even the staff who’d been doing the work and carry it out with just the two of them—so if the result goes wrong… and Doa Motors is a company we absolutely must acquire…”

“Then wouldn’t Head Kim take responsibility?”

“Responsibility?”

“Yes.”

The fingers tapping the sofa’s armrest tensed.

“You said something like this before, didn’t you? That looking at Head Kim is like looking at a man walking a tightrope. Now I see it that way too. But this time, to give the watcher a thrill, he’s even planted a blade below?”

Do-beom’s face turned white.

“If an acrobat walking a tightrope with a blade planted in the ground falls from the rope, what happens?”

Tak-hyeon’s hand tapping the armrest stopped.

And wiping the smile from the expression with which he’d been looking at Do-beom, he said,

“I’m curious how much more thrillingly he’ll walk the rope with a blade planted below, so concentrate all the power on him. We’ll only watch as the audience.”

“Yes, understood.”

When Do-beom bowed his head and answered Tak-hyeon’s instruction, Tak-hyeon posed another question.

“That’s how we’ll do that… and is she still holed up at home?”

Do-beom realized the one Tak-hyeon spoke of was Eun-a Jang, Chang-jong’s wife and his own third daughter-in-law.

So slowly raising his head, he began to say what Tak-hyeon was curious about.

“She’s reportedly still made no decision and hasn’t set a foot outside the house.”

“She’s not dead, is she?”

“That’s not so. According to the housekeeper who always tends the house, she’s alive and well at home.”

Perhaps Do-beom had harbored the same suspicion, for he answered Tak-hyeon’s question quickly.

Tak-hyeon nodded with an expression that was, in one respect, relieved.

“Right. As long as she’s alive, that’s fine. She’s still a member of our family, and if she dies, the family discord and even the child’s story would all come spilling out and be a headache. So if she’s going to die, it’s better she dies after leaving our family.”

At Tak-hyeon’s words that it made no difference so long as Eun-a Jang left the Ilhyeon family, Do-beom wore a troubled expression.

Tak-hyeon, without looking at him, clasped his hands together.

“That said, we can’t force her out. If she comes at us hell-bent on everyone dying together, that too is a headache.”

Thinking for a moment, Tak-hyeon slowly opened his mouth.

“For now, watch for a while. Don’t provoke her and don’t pressure her. Give her time until she chooses on her own. Whatever choice she makes, she has to make it herself so it doesn’t get noisy later on.”

“Understood.”

“But don’t stop watching, and if anything happens, contact me right away. Understand?”

“Yes, understood.”

Do-beom answered a little more loudly to convey his intent to follow the instruction.

Perhaps satisfied with Do-beom’s answer, Tak-hyeon unclasped his hands.

And he gazed with an interested light in his eyes toward where Seong-ho, who would untangle the Doa Motors matter, was.

“Hey. How are the two of us supposed to acquire Doa Motors?”

“We’re not the ones doing it.”

In the conference room, emptied of Deputy Head Gyeong-deuk and all the team members, only Seong-ho and Byeong-jin remained.

Byeong-jin spoke casually with Seong-ho when there was no one around, and Seong-ho too was all the more comfortable with that attitude of Byeong-jin’s.

“The ones who move are over there. We stay still, and when they move, we just move to match, so we don’t need anyone else. Just you and me is plenty.”

“Over there means… Modu Bank?”

“It’d be the creditors including Modu Bank, and the Doa Motors union, and so on.”

At Seong-ho’s words, Byeong-jin, a little reassured, stopped his pacing.

And chewing over Seong-ho’s words, he said,

“What you’re saying sounds like the other side will bow and come to us of their own accord… but is that really true? Whatever the case, there’s still a place left that means to acquire Doa Motors, so wouldn’t talking with them be better for the creditors than talking with us?”

“Who knows? Is there really one left?”

“Huh?”

At Seong-ho’s question, Byeong-jin was lost for words.

Knock, knock.

Just then the secretary knocked and came into the conference room.

“Head. There’s a call from the Ministry of Finance and Economy asking you to come in today.”

Byeong-jin knit his brow and turned to the secretary.

And in a displeased voice, he said,

“Now hold on. What time is it, that they’re asking him to come in? On top of that, it’s not even a pre-arranged appointment—contacting on the same day, where’d they learn that dog-dung manner?”

Byeong-jin raised a hand toward Seong-ho and said,

“Head Kim. I’ll handle this myself, so don’t worry.”

“How do you mean to handle it, team leader Jo?”

Knowing why the Ministry of Finance and Economy had called, Seong-ho asked Byeong-jin with a smiling face.

Byeong-jin, still raising a hand toward Seong-ho, rose from his seat and answered,

“There’s no need for you to go in person to fellows showing dog-dung manners—calling on the same afternoon to summon you. I’ll go in your place.”

“You, team leader Jo? Will that be all right?”

“Of course it’ll be all right. Don’t worry. I’ll go in and firmly tell them that they can’t get to see the Head with same-day contact like this. Those civil-servant fellows, planted on their backsides on the taxes we pay, telling people to come and go as they please… I’ll fix these fellows’ habits good and proper.”

“Do you think it’ll be all right for team leader Jo to go in my place?”

Seong-ho posed the question of whether it would be all right not to Byeong-jin but to the secretary.

The secretary wore a troubled expression and answered,

“Um, that… I don’t think team leader Jo should go in.”

“Why shouldn’t I go in?”

“Because the person to be met at the Ministry of Finance and Economy is someone team leader Jo ordinarily couldn’t see.”

“Who’s the person I ordinarily couldn’t meet?”

Byeong-jin knit his brow and looked at the secretary and asked.

“Could it be… the vice-minister?”

“No.”

The secretary shook his head, saying no.

At the word that it wasn’t the vice-minister, Byeong-jin tilted his head.

A director-general-level below the vice-minister wasn’t someone he couldn’t meet.

If he couldn’t meet them, it’d be vice-minister level or above, but at the word that it wasn’t the vice-minister, for a moment the person summoning Seong-ho didn’t come to mind.

Then a certain word suddenly came to Byeong-jin’s head.

“Don’t tell me… the Deputy Prime Minister?”

At Byeong-jin’s uncertain voice, the secretary nodded and answered,

“Yes. The Deputy Prime Minister says it’s fine if it’s late, but he absolutely wants to see the Head today.”

Byeong-jin’s mouth fell open at the secretary’s words.

(End of Chapter 128)