The expression on Jeong-eun’s face, furious only moments ago, changed.

“Ilhyeon Card?”

She took a step toward Seong-ho and, to be sure of it, put the question to him.

“The Ilhyeon Card president’s seat is vacant?”

“It would be more accurate to say that no one has yet taken the seat at Ilhyeon Card, which was newly reorganized when it acquired Sinjeong Card a little while ago.”

“You acquired Sinjeong Card? Was Sinjeong Group in trouble?”

Jeong-eun asked with a face that said this was the first she’d heard of it. Ordinarily it was the sort of talk she’d have had no interest in and no wish to know—all this about acquisitions and restructuring stirred nothing in her. But today was different.

“If you acquired Sinjeong Card and merged it with our Ilhyeon Card… doesn’t that mean the company’s grown bigger?”

“Yes. By the raw numbers, combining the two brought the customer count past 8 million. And we’re proceeding in parallel with folding firms like Ilhyeon Capital and Ilhyeon Installment Finance into Ilhyeon Card. We also have plans to acquire a few more capital firms currently on the market.”

“You’re folding Capital and Installment Finance into Ilhyeon Card too? Then…”

She worked her mind quickly. The thought struck her that, under the sub-group Tak-hyeon was envisioning, Ilhyeon Card might well take the head of the financial arm.

“I’ll do it.”

Jeong-eun thought that if she took Ilhyeon Card in hand, life insurance and general insurance—the whole train of financial affiliates—might come dragging along behind it. And even if not, with Ilhyeon Card grown to such an enormous scale, unlike in the past, she even felt that alone would be more than enough.

She coveted Ilhyeon Card, and, going so far as to raise her hand toward Tak-hyeon, she said forcefully,

“Father—no, Chairman. Me. I’ll take on Ilhyeon Card.”

Tak-hyeon showed a moment’s hesitation.

“Ilhyeon Card… Ilhyeon Card is rather too big a thing for you to handle… How about Ilhyeon Paper instead?”

“Ilhyeon Paper? What would I do running a paper mill?”

Jeong-eun shook her head hard at Tak-hyeon’s words.

“Not Ilhyeon Paper—give me Ilhyeon Card. Kim—no, Head Kim. I really can do it well.”

When Tak-hyeon showed his hesitation, Jeong-eun turned to plead with Seong-ho.

“I’m someone who takes the Chairman’s instructions… it’s not for me to seat you, or not seat you, sister-in-law.”

“The Chairman’s the one who stamps the seal, but in the end it’s Head Kim who does the arranging.”

“What a thing to say…”

“Just seat me at Ilhyeon Card. It’s Ilhyeon Card or nothing for me. Know that.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Even if it sounds like a threat, fine. Because I want Ilhyeon Card, no matter what.”

Jeong-eun stood her ground, unwilling to back down, and even set her hands on her hips.

Tak-hyeon looked up at her and mulled it over. As Seong-ho had said, Ilhyeon Card was absorbing Ilhyeon Capital and Ilhyeon Installment Finance, remaking itself into a comprehensive financial company. It was slated to become the core of the Ilhyeon Group’s financial affiliates, with a strong likelihood of later encompassing insurance and life as well. To entrust such a place, he found Jeong-eun unreliable. On top of that, the fact that only Jeong-eun’s couple would both be holding affiliates left Tak-hyeon all the more uneasy.

Jeong-eun caught that Tak-hyeon’s deliberating gaze was drifting toward Yeong-su Cha. And, realizing what he was weighing, she got out ahead of it.

“Then, Chairman. Take this man down from Ilhyeon Electronics and assign him to Ilhyeon Card along with me.”

“Dear!”

At Jeong-eun suddenly saying to strip him of his post, Cha looked at her, startled.

Jeong-eun glared at him and said,

“Anyway, there’s nothing you actually do at Ilhyeon Electronics. So rather than that, come to Ilhyeon Card and work with me.”

“What would I know about cards…”

“And what, you knew about televisions, that you were at Ilhyeon Electronics? Just say nothing and follow along. That’s how you keep your backside planted at Ilhyeon.”

At her words, Cha could say no more and shut his mouth.

When Cha went quiet, Jeong-eun turned back to Tak-hyeon.

“Chairman. You saw, didn’t you? Vice-President Cha’s carrying on like that because he’s glad to. So send me.”

“A married couple at one company is…”

When Mun-jong opened his mouth as if to throw up an obstacle, Jeong-eun whipped her head around. She glared at Mun-jong with eyes that said, block me and I’ll come at you tooth and nail, so brace yourself. In the end, at Jeong-eun’s gaze—which carried something close to bloodlust—Mun-jong had no choice but to shut his mouth.

When Mun-jong went quiet, Jeong-eun’s gaze moved to the other siblings. Sang-jong was the same as Mun-jong. They all awaited Tak-hyeon’s decision, and Jeong-eun looked around at her siblings with a look that said to just watch quietly.

Seeing her like that, a smile came to Seong-ho’s lips.

The people of this family really are amusing. Not one of them realizes it’s their death seat, and yet in they leap, every one of them, on their own two feet…

Seong-ho watched the Jeong-eun who was hurling herself into the antlion pit with an amused gaze.

But Jeong-eun, unaware of any of this, when her siblings could say nothing, turned back with a satisfied air and pleaded with Tak-hyeon once more.

“Ilhyeon Card. Let me give it a try. Together with Cha here. So trust me and entrust it to me.”

“Then let’s do this.”

As if he couldn’t hold out against her plea any longer, Tak-hyeon nodded, then looked at Seong-ho and instructed him.

“Stop the work of adding Capital and Installment Finance and the rest into Ilhyeon Card.”

Having instructed Seong-ho, Tak-hyeon turned his head back to Jeong-eun.

“For now, just do Ilhyeon Card. And if satisfactory results come out of Ilhyeon Card, I’ll think then about merging it with the others.”

Jeong-eun wanted to say she’d do well, so just merge them already. In her heart she wanted to say, trust me—but she didn’t, because it occurred to her that reaching to grab everything might mean getting nothing at all. Jeong-eun decided to be satisfied that she’d pushed this far and wrung Ilhyeon Card out of Tak-hyeon, and to withdraw.

“All right. I’ll do that.”

At the sight of Jeong-eun withdrawing so readily, Tak-hyeon nodded and said to Yeong-su Cha,

“You must support Jeong-eun well at her side.”

“I know what you’re worried about, Chairman. I’ll keep good watch at her side.”

“Right.”

Jeong-eun felt a pang of hurt at Tak-hyeon’s telling Cha, right in front of her, to support her well. Because the sense that he still didn’t trust her came through. But she erased the hurt, content merely to have gained Ilhyeon Card.

Whatever else, I got Ilhyeon Card. That’s enough.

It had been halted for now, but if only she did well, Ilhyeon Capital and Ilhyeon Installment Finance were slated to follow. If those two came along, and then the financial group after them, she’d stand no lower than Sang-jong, planted in Ilhyeon Construction.

Thinking this was only the beginning, Jeong-eun filled her breast full of joy.

But she wasn’t the only one who thought this was only the beginning. Seong-ho, too, looked at Jeong-eun and thought this was only the beginning. The sight of her flailing, sunk in the antlion pit, was already drawing itself before his eyes of its own accord.

“Ma’am.”

Hongcheon-daek approached the place where Tak-hyeon’s family had gathered. She bent at the waist toward Suk-ja and said,

“Ma’am. The third young master has arrived.”

Suk-ja nodded and gestured for Hongcheon-daek to see him in. Then she turned to Tak-hyeon and said,

“If everything’s settled now, let’s stop. They say Chang-jong’s household has arrived.”

Tak-hyeon nodded and looked at Jeong-eun.

“Anything more to say?”

“No. Nothing.”

As if afraid Tak-hyeon might, on the contrary, come out with something more to say, Jeong-eun even waved her hands and quickly turned herself back to the seat she’d originally been in. Then she turned her head to watch the corridor down which Chang-jong and his wife would come.

When Jeong-eun sat, the rest of the gathered family turned their gazes toward the corridor as well.

At last, the true protagonist of today’s gathering was showing herself.

Eun-a Jang, who’d come with Chang-jong, kept her mouth firmly shut this time, unlike before, and said nothing at all. It wasn’t the look of resignation but of anger held in check; even without her answering, one felt one already knew what she’d chosen.

“We’ve come.”

When Chang-jong greeted him, Tak-hyeon, still seated on the sofa, nodded and looked at Eun-a Jang.

“So. Have you decided?”

He could tell from her expression alone, but Tak-hyeon asked Eun-a Jang directly. Because only hearing the decision from her own mouth would make it certain.

Eun-a Jang chewed at her lips and, with effort, opened her mouth.

“The child… I’ll raise it.”

“Good. Well thought.”

Suk-ja slapped her knee with her palm, saying that was a relief.

But Eun-a Jang’s words didn’t end there.

“In exchange, I’ll live away from here.”

“Live away? What do you mean by that?”

“I mean I’ll go and live in America.”

“America? Weren’t you in America until recently?”

“Yes. That’s just it. So I mean I’ll go on living in America from now on too.”

“You’ll keep living in America?”

Suk-ja, unable to grasp what Eun-a Jang meant, turned to Tak-hyeon. At that, Jeong-eun snorted and said,

“Mom, why can’t you follow this? She’s saying she’ll never set foot on Korean soil again.”

“Never set foot again? What do you mean?”

Suk-ja gave a start at Jeong-eun’s words.

“You don’t mean just living there a while—you mean you’ll never come back from there again?”

“Yes. That’s exactly it.”

Eun-a Jang looked at the quietly listening Tak-hyeon and said,

“If you’ll permit that, I’ll raise the child.”

“How is that any different from divorce?”

Hyeon-ju Bang, Tak-hyeon’s eldest daughter-in-law, cut into the conversation. Until a moment ago she’d only listened quietly, since it had been company business. But Eun-a Jang’s matter wasn’t company business—it was family business. As the eldest daughter-in-law, she felt she too ought to raise her voice in a situation that left her nothing but uneasy.

Hyeon-ju Bang said to Suk-ja,

“Mother. Going to America and never coming back to Korea is no different from divorce. It’s not as if brother-in-law is going to America with her; he has to stay in Korea for his work. Then they’re together on paper only—how is that any different from divorce? Mother, this is something we can’t accept.”

It seemed like talk directed at Suk-ja, but it was talk directed at Tak-hyeon. She was using Suk-ja to say, in a roundabout way, that Tak-hyeon must not accept Eun-a Jang’s proposal.

Mun-jong, seated beside Hyeon-ju Bang, seized her arm.

“Why are you butting in?”

“Am I not allowed to? I’m the eldest daughter-in-law of this house, for what it’s worth. Surely I can have this much say in family matters.”

“Even so…”

Mun-jong glanced at Chang-jong. Chang-jong nodded slightly at Mun-jong’s gaze, conveying that he should permit Eun-a Jang to leave. Because it was better for Mun-jong too if the child were taken to America and never came back to Korean soil.

Realizing the meaning of Chang-jong’s signal, Mun-jong gripped Hyeon-ju Bang’s arm hard.

“You stay out of it. There is absolutely no divorce in our family. Even if it’s only on paper, keeping the marriage intact is what matters. Father.”

Calling Tak-hyeon “Father” naturally, this being a gathering to discuss family business, Mun-jong pointed at Eun-a Jang and said,

“Let it be done as sister-in-law wishes. Otherwise Chang-jong becomes a divorced man overnight—wouldn’t it be better to keep the marriage with sister-in-law than that? And… who knows, with time the relationship might improve.”

“You think this relationship is going to improve?”

“I told you to stay put.”

When Hyeon-ju Bang kept talking, Mun-jong burst out at her. Seeing him like that, Hyeon-ju Bang felt something was off.

“Why are you stepping forward like this?”

“So as the eldest son I should just sit and watch Chang-jong get divorced?”

“Father told him to divorce, so why are you the one stepping in?”

When Hyeon-ju Bang and Mun-jong fell to squabbling, Tak-hyeon knit his brow.

“Quiet.”

At Tak-hyeon’s word, Mun-jong’s mouth—about to shout at Hyeon-ju Bang once more—snapped shut. Tak-hyeon looked for a moment at the transparently obvious Mun-jong with a pitying gaze, then nodded toward Eun-a Jang.

“Fine. Do that. You may go out and not come back.”

“Father.”

“Eldest daughter-in-law, stop now too. The decision is mine to make.”

Having cut off Hyeon-ju Bang’s attempt to intervene, Tak-hyeon looked at Eun-a Jang and gave her his firm answer once more.

At his words, Eun-a Jang said with a hardened face,

“Then I’ll sort out the paperwork and leave next month. Before that, I’ll come by once to pay my respects.”

Eun-a Jang bowed curtly, turned, and left.

After Eun-a Jang had gone, the living room grew briefly noisy—some cursing her for saying only her piece and sweeping off, some asking Chang-jong whether he’d really be all right.

And in that noisy living room, Seong-ho quietly watched, without a word, the corridor Eun-a Jang had left through.

If it ends like this, that’s a shame.

If Eun-a Jang took the child into America and never set foot on Korean soil again, the out-of-wedlock-child story would clearly be over with this. Seong-ho didn’t want this kind of ending. In a situation where he had to repay double what he’d suffered, ending it like this was not the conclusion Seong-ho wanted.

Seong-ho watched the corridor without a word, and the out-of-wedlock-child story was about to sweep through the house of Ilhyeon in a new direction.

(End of Chapter 133)