“How are you? Are you all right?”

Sang-jong asked Gyeong-eun, lying in the bed. At his question, Gyeong-eun, before she knew it, went to nod and grimaced.

“It’ll be difficult for her to answer just yet. But she’s come to, and she’s recognizing her surroundings normally, too.”

Answering in Gyeong-eun’s stead, Chang-mu Kim brought a hand up before her eyes.

“Gyeong-eun. Can you see this? Do you know how many fingers I’m holding up?”

“Two… of them.”

Chang-mu Kim nodded, moved his hand from before her eyes, and asked again.

“Do you know where you are right now?”

“The hospital… the hospital. But where’s Seong-ho… where is Seong-ho?”

Gyeong-eun tried to find Seong-ho among the people surrounding her. Seong-ho, who’d drawn back, came forward, took her hand, and answered.

“I’m right here.”

“Seong-ho. Why am I lying here? I definitely came to help with your checkup… so why am I the one lying down?”

“A blood vessel in your head suddenly burst, and you had surgery. As it happens, Doctor Chang-mu Kim here was present, so you could have the surgery without delay, and they say it went very well. So don’t worry about anything now, Gyeong-eun—just focus on getting better.”

“I’m really all right, aren’t I?”

“Right now you’re just foggy because it hasn’t been long since the surgery. So rest well and focus only on recovering. Once you’ve recovered, you’ll be back to your old self.”

Having reassured Gyeong-eun, Seong-ho turned to Chang-mu Kim. Chang-mu Kim, who’d quietly listened to their exchange, said to the people present,

“Seeing that she can speak well too, it seems everything’s gone well.”

Her speech was fine, and her cognition seemed undiminished. Gyeong-eun’s surgery had gone even better than they’d feared, and, so long as she recovered well, there looked to be no problem returning her to her former self.

Seong-ho, who’d been holding Gyeong-eun’s hand, rose and bowed to Chang-mu Kim again.

“Thank you. I won’t forget this kindness.”

“Kindness? It was only what a doctor is bound to do. I’ll be going now. Recovery is more important than anything now, so don’t make her talk too much. Well, then…”

Confirming that Gyeong-eun’s condition was sound, Chang-mu Kim left the room.

“Let’s step out so she can rest a while. Father. Mother. Outside…”

When Yeong-su Cha urged them to leave, Tak-hyeon, who’d been looking down at Gyeong-eun without a word, nodded.

“Right. Let’s go out.”

When Tak-hyeon left, Mun-jong and Sang-jong followed, moving to the caregivers’ rest area set up beside the room where Gyeong-eun stayed.

“Get well soon.”

Min-yeong Oh greeted Gyeong-eun and went out, and Hyeon-ju Bang, watching her retreating figure, muttered something under her breath that couldn’t be made out.

“Brother-in-law. You come out too. That way your wife can rest properly.”

At Cha’s words, Seong-ho nodded and, bringing his face close to Gyeong-eun’s, said,

“You’ll be tired, so close your eyes for a bit. And if anything’s uncomfortable, press this button here. Then I’ll come right away.”

Seong-ho pressed the button into Gyeong-eun’s hand and raised himself up. Gyeong-eun lifted her hand with effort, looked at the button, and blinked at Seong-ho. Not yet able to speak well, she conveyed with her eyes alone that she understood, and at her look, Seong-ho gave her hand one squeeze and stepped out of the room.

“This place is nice.”

Seated on the sofa, Jeong-eun looked around.

“For someone with money, it seems just the place to rest. Dear. Shall we rest here a few days too?”

“Why would a perfectly healthy person like you stay where the sick come?”

Suk-ja tossed out a word at Jeong-eun, who’d taken a liking to the Ilhyeon Hospital VIP suite. But even at Suk-ja’s words, Jeong-eun didn’t stop looking the place over.

“Mom. These days people come to the hospital even when they’re not sick. They come and get checkups and receive care from the doctors. Father, while you’re here, get yourself thoroughly examined.”

“Did you come here to play? The youngest is lying there right now, and that’s all you can think of?”

“Come on. We all saw she’s fine and came out, didn’t we? She’s fine. Even the director said so—rest here well and she’ll heal in no time. And they said the doctor who did Gyeong-eun’s surgery is the best in the country, right? The best says the surgery went well, so what is there still to worry about?”

Jeong-eun spoke as if she didn’t understand. And she looked around at the other siblings with a gaze asking whether anyone agreed with her. But the siblings all avoided her eyes. Even if they agreed with her in their hearts, the thought was that carelessly saying so out loud might send the arrows raining down on them for nothing.

But someone unexpected agreed with this thinking of Jeong-eun’s.

“Right. Jeong-eun’s right about that. From tomorrow, none of you come to the hospital.”

Tak-hyeon had shown that he was thinking the same as Jeong-eun.

“Dear!”

Suk-ja looked at Tak-hyeon with a gaze that asked what he meant.

“You saw for yourself she’s all right, didn’t you? And you heard she’s fine, too… Coming twice—the day of the surgery and the day she was brought down to the room—is enough. What need is there to come every single day?”

“Even so…”

“Everyone take it as such, and from tomorrow come as much as each of you wants, on your own. And put more of your minds to company work.”

Tak-hyeon had told them not to keep coming, without so much as a glance at Suk-ja. Suk-ja gripped Min-yeong Oh’s hand tightly and shouted at him.

“Is the company more important to you than Gyeong-eun?”

Tak-hyeon turned to Suk-ja and shouted back.

“If everyone who’s meant to lead the company is all gathered here, do you think the company runs properly? We’ve heard Gyeong-eun’s fine—do you think we ought to keep Ilhyeon’s hundreds of thousands of employees standing idle?”

“That’s not it, but…”

“Us gathering here won’t make Gyeong-eun get out of that bed this instant, so we ought to be moving as we must. How long do you mean to gather here and do nothing but worry uselessly!”

At Tak-hyeon’s words, Suk-ja gripped Min-yeong Oh’s hand hard. There was much she wanted to say, but couldn’t, so she only gripped Min-yeong Oh’s hand instead. Min-yeong Oh wore a troubled expression and looked at Sang-jong. Sang-jong too knit his brow at something uncomfortable, and for a moment the caregivers’ rest area was wrapped in silence.

Just then, Tak-hyeon—who’d been raising his voice only moments before—said to Seong-ho in a voice grown a little calmer,

“Head Kim, you get back to company work now too.”

“Me… as well?”

Seong-ho, not having expected to be given an order to return to the company himself, looked at Tak-hyeon with a briefly flustered face. Tak-hyeon nodded and said,

“Yes. Next week the officials of the five great groups will gather again at the Blue House.”

“For what reason are they gathering this time?”

Mun-jong asked with a curious face, as if it were a fact he too hadn’t known. Tak-hyeon turned his head slightly at Mun-jong’s question and answered.

“The Big Deal is going to proceed in earnest.”

“The Big Deal…”

“You mean the business-world realignment?”

Sang-jong said in a startled voice. Tak-hyeon nodded.

“Yes. It seems this government means to push forward with the thing it prepared so ambitiously.”

“With the Doa Motors stumbling stone that was blocking the way now pulled out, they’re moving in earnest.”

“That’s right.”

Tak-hyeon nodded and, looking at Seong-ho, said,

“The Blue House has judged that it’s sorted out the confusion of the government’s early days. So now there’s a need to move in earnest. And you’ll have to take charge of that and see it through.”

“Father—no, Chairman. Head Kim takes charge and handles it?”

Sang-jong looked at Tak-hyeon with a startled face. Mun-jong was just as startled. But he didn’t make a fuss like Sang-jong; he only quietly read Tak-hyeon’s mood, trying to grasp his intent.

“The one who knows best what’s unnecessary in our group and what to bring over from the other side is Head Kim, so of course Head Kim should take charge and handle it.”

“But still…”

Sang-jong glanced at Seong-ho. He did think of Seong-ho as being on his side. Because it was all thanks to Seong-ho’s counsel—the matter with Chang-jong included—that he’d been reseated in the position he’d once been flung out of. But even so, Seong-ho gaining ever greater power within the group was not entirely welcome to him. Judging, it seemed, that he couldn’t stop Tak-hyeon, Sang-jong turned his head and looked at Suk-ja. He was sending her a look, asking her to block it. But Suk-ja could say nothing. Suk-ja could not easily cross the line Tak-hyeon had drawn before her—strictly dividing outside affairs from household affairs. Sang-jong turned his head away as if stifled.

Mun-jong sank briefly into thought at Tak-hyeon’s words, and Chang-jong—still bearing the status of a sinner—could say nothing at all, standing alone among the other siblings who’d come as couples.

Sang-jong looked around at Jeong-eun, who ordinarily grated on people with her irritating tone. Because he thought that, of everyone present, Jeong-eun was the most likely to talk back to Tak-hyeon. But Jeong-eun’s interest lay elsewhere.

“But then—what happens to Ilhyeon Department Store and Ilhyeon Hotel?”

“What?”

“With Gyeong-eun lying there like that, can she manage the department store and the hotel properly? You can’t very well tell a sick person to keep working, either. In that case they’d be vacant…”

“Why? Is it that you want to do it?”

When Tak-hyeon looked at Jeong-eun and asked, Jeong-eun twitched the corner of her mouth and answered.

“No. I don’t mean I want to… but it’s so, isn’t it? These aren’t second- or third-tier affiliates—the department store and the hotel are among our group’s main affiliates, so you can’t leave the top-executive seats of two such places vacant…”

Sang-jong heard Jeong-eun’s words, harboring a mind of their own, and turned his head away. Because he saw that Jeong-eun had no interest in whether Seong-ho’s power grew or not, and was chasing only what would profit her immediately.

“That’s not yours to worry about, so put it out of your mind.”

Catching Jeong-eun’s greed, Tak-hyeon cut her off cleanly.

“If I need to, I’ll take measures, and even if a new top executive has to be appointed, it won’t be you, so there’s nothing for you to concern yourself with.”

“It won’t be me? Why not?”

“You just think about running the Ilhyeon Card you took on properly.”

“Father.”

Jeong-eun made a tearful face. But Tak-hyeon, even seeing it, didn’t move so much as an eyebrow.

“Ilhyeon Card alone is more than you deserve. Vice-President Cha.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

Yeong-su Cha shot to his feet. Tak-hyeon looked up at him and instructed,

“Is the sorting-out of the other places absorbed into Ilhyeon Card going well?”

“The absorption of Ilhyeon Capital and Ilhyeon Loan Finance and the rest is entering its final stage. On that footing, we mean to build the customer count up to 10 million this year.”

“10 million. Good.”

Having heard Cha’s answer, Tak-hyeon turned his head to Jeong-eun and said,

“Once the customer count reaches 10 million, we’ll talk again. Until then, don’t go casting your eye on other things.”

At those words, Jeong-eun hung her head. Having drawn the line before Jeong-eun, Tak-hyeon turned back to Seong-ho and said,

“Next week. You go as Ilhyeon’s representative and bring back some good goods.”

“Yes. Understood.”

Having heard Seong-ho’s answer, Tak-hyeon rose from his seat.

“I’ve seen Gyeong-eun wake, and I’ve said what I meant to say, so I’ll go first.”

Finishing, Tak-hyeon looked at Suk-ja. He was asking with his eyes whether she’d go home with him.

“I’ll stay just a little longer and then go.”

“Do that, then.”

Tak-hyeon didn’t press her twice and turned at once. Tak-hyeon’s children, daughters-in-law, and sons-in-law who were present rose and saw him off as he left. And after keeping their places a while longer, they left Gyeong-eun’s room one and two at a time.

After the Mun-jong couple, the Jeong-eun couple, and the Chang-jong who’d come alone had gone, the last to hold their places—Suk-ja and the Sang-jong couple—looked at the outside scene gone dark and rose from their seats.

“Take care of yourself.”

“If you have to prepare for next week, you get home early too.”

Min-yeong Oh and Sang-jong each said their word to Seong-ho. Seong-ho greeted Min-yeong Oh and answered Sang-jong.

“This place is spacious and comfortable, so I mean to stay here. I intend to commute from here too.”

“Hmm… right.”

Leaving a short word, Sang-jong turned. And escorting Suk-ja—who’d taken one last look at Gyeong-eun before coming out—he was the last to leave Gyeong-eun’s room.

When not a soul was left in the once-crowded caregivers’ rest area, Seong-ho muttered to himself.

“As I thought—second brother has latched onto the mother-in-law.”

Ever since he’d urged Sang-jong to move into Pyeongchang-dong, Seong-ho had anticipated this outcome. And, just as he’d predicted, watching Sang-jong try to build his power on Suk-ja’s back, a laugh spilled out of him.

“Last time, too, seeing that Chairman Tak-hyeon wouldn’t work out, he pulled the mother-in-law over to his side to build his power.”

Because Seong-ho knew all too well the result of that choice of his.

“More to the point—the Big Deal…”

Having finished his thoughts about Sang-jong, Seong-ho recalled the mission he’d newly received and turned. Thinking he’d have to look through the leather diary to sort out what to gain and what to give up in the Big Deal, he moved his feet toward the room where Gyeong-eun lay.

(End of Chapter 147)