Tak-hyeon Lee gazed quietly at the closed study door, then asked Chief Secretary Do-beom Hwang,

“The prosecutor investigating the Jisan Group this time — he’s friends with him, you said?”

“Yes. I received a report that they met and drank together not long ago.”

“They drank together, and then the Jisan Group investigation began?”

Tak-hyeon Lee drummed his fingers on the desk.

Then he turned his head toward Do-beom Hwang and asked,

“Did they say there was anything strange about it?”

Do-beom Hwang nodded and answered,

“Yes. I’m told there was nothing particular. They went into a barbecue joint together, drank and ate for about an hour, and then parted. They say he didn’t drink enough to get drunk, and no pointless talk came up during the meeting either.”

“Is that so?”

Even at Chief Hwang’s report, Tak-hyeon Lee did not withdraw his suspicious gaze.

Because no matter how he thought about it, the strong feeling that something wasn’t quite right kept coming over him.

Following Tak-hyeon Lee’s gaze to the study door, Do-beom Hwang cautiously asked,

“Do you perhaps think Assistant Manager Kim leaked information to Prosecutor Park?”

At Do-beom Hwang’s question, Tak-hyeon Lee looked up at him again.

“Did Strategic Planning know about the Jisan Group business?”

“They wouldn’t have. Even the financial sector, the party directly involved, is reacting as though it were unexpected. It’s content the secretariat only caught because it kept a constant watch on the Jisan Group — otherwise, there’d have been no way to know.”

“Then Kim informing Prosecutor Park doesn’t add up front to back, does it?”

“That’s… true.”

Hearing Tak-hyeon Lee’s words, Do-beom Hwang realized only then that his notion of whether Seong-ho Kim had informed Dae-su Park didn’t fit.

Tak-hyeon Lee withdrew his gaze from Do-beom Hwang and said,

“And yet, this claim that doesn’t add up front to back somehow feels persuasive to me.”

“Sorry? It feels persuasive to you?”

“Yes. There’s definitely something strange going on.”

Drumming his fingers on the desk again as he thought, Tak-hyeon Lee said,

“The Daeguk Fertilizer matter. I ought to hand him that one too. By way of checking whether my thinking is wrong or not.”

Do-beom Hwang asked with a startled expression,

“You’ll hand him Daeguk Fertilizer? Isn’t that the group’s top-priority task, the one we have to acquire no matter what?”

“Yes, a company we absolutely must acquire. Because it’s one of the early companies my father founded.”

One of the several early companies Tak-hyeon Lee’s father had created when establishing Ilhyeon Enterprise was none other than Daeguk Fertilizer.

Built with grand ambition after the war, in anticipation of the growth potential of the fertilizer business, Daeguk Fertilizer had been something Tak-hyeon Lee’s father regarded with special affection.

And just as his father had predicted, the fertilizer business flourished greatly, and when Ilhyeon transitioned into a conglomerate, it took charge of one of its pillars and played a large role in making Ilhyeon prosper.

But when the military regime came to power, everything changed.

The military regime forcibly nationalized Daeguk Fertilizer, wresting it from the Ilhyeon Group’s hands.

And now that same Daeguk Fertilizer had come onto the market.

Selected as one of the companies to be divested among the many held by the Korea Development Bank, it was slated to go to auction.

Naturally, the Ilhyeon Group had designated the Daeguk Fertilizer bid as the group’s top-priority task.

Because Tak-hyeon Lee believed that reclaiming the company his father — the founder of the Ilhyeon Group — had built was more important than anything.

So within the group, a view had even arisen that Tak-hyeon Lee might move on it personally.

Since it was something they had to acquire no matter what, there was a strong chance the price would be set higher than expected, and the only person in the Ilhyeon Group who could take responsibility for such a high price was Tak-hyeon Lee — which was why there was talk that the group chairman might move on it himself.

And now, to hear that Tak-hyeon Lee meant to hand that to Seong-ho Kim, Do-beom Hwang couldn’t help but be shocked.

Do-beom Hwang looked at Tak-hyeon Lee with a disbelieving expression and asked once more,

“Chairman, are you serious? Handing the Daeguk Fertilizer bid to Assistant Manager Kim…”

“I’m not handing it to Kim — I’m handing it to Strategic Planning.”

“That’s… isn’t that the same thing?”

Do-beom Hwang looked at Tak-hyeon Lee with a gaze that asked how handing it to Strategic Planning differed from handing it to Seong-ho Kim.

Tak-hyeon Lee, who’d been drumming his fingers on the desk, drew his hands back, clasped them, and turned his chair to face the window.

And, gazing out at the sunlit yard reflected through the glass, he said in a calm voice,

“Chief Hwang is right. It is much the same thing, really. But there’s a difference.”

“A difference… you say?”

“Yes. If I handed it to Kim, then Kim would have to be the one running the bid as its lead. But if I hand it to Strategic Planning, he won’t be able to do that, will he? I want to see how much of his ability he can display not as the head, but as a mere member of the team — that’s why I mean to hand it to Strategic Planning, so bear that in mind and relay it in my stead.”

At those words, Do-beom Hwang could tell what Tak-hyeon Lee was thinking.

Seong-ho Kim was a being who could never — must never — become the head.

Which was why, rather than entrusting the work to Seong-ho Kim, he was entrusting it to the team Seong-ho Kim belonged to, to see how he moved as one of its members.

But even so, there was a part that worried him.

“If the price ends up too high, or failing that, if we lose the bid… what then?”

Do-beom Hwang asked Tak-hyeon Lee with a face full of worry.

Gazing out the window, Tak-hyeon Lee answered in a composed voice,

“If the price is too high, then lift all surveillance on Kim. And send him off to America or England on the pretext that he needs to study. Let him drift around abroad for about ten years and then call him back, and… he’ll have become someone entirely unconnected to the company.”

Tak-hyeon Lee spoke of packing his son-in-law off overseas under the pretext of study in the most composed of tones.

And these words of his didn’t stop there.

“And if we lose the bid…”

Gazing at the yard, Tak-hyeon Lee turned his head to look at Do-beom Hwang.

And in a forceful tone, he said to him,

“Clear out every single person in Strategic Planning. Not just the team Kim belongs to — blow away the entire Strategic Planning Office.”

Do-beom Hwang thought wiping out the whole Strategic Planning Office was too harsh a measure.

But in the Ilhyeon Group, Tak-hyeon Lee’s word was law, so he couldn’t offer any other opinion.

“Yes. Understood.”

Hearing Do-beom Hwang’s reply, Tak-hyeon Lee turned his gaze back to the window and said,

“Losing the bid amounts, in the end, to having no ability. If such talentless things are gathered in the place that decides the group’s affairs great and small, clearing them out is only right. And Kim has all the less reason to be there… Blow away Strategic Planning, and demote Kim to manager of some logistics warehouse out in the provinces. And stamp it with an official seal saying he’s never to be brought back up to Seoul again.”

Do-beom Hwang felt his chest grow heavy.

Being sent overseas was, comparatively, the better of the two.

Because at least one could hold on to the hope of coming back someday.

But a provincial demotion was another story.

Do-beom Hwang’s chest grew tight at the thought that Seong-ho Kim might come to regret ever having married a daughter of the Ilhyeon Group.

Yet had Seong-ho Kim heard this talk, he would have cheered instead.

Because the Daeguk Fertilizer acquisition, like Jisan Cement, was something that had happened not long after Seong-ho Kim’s marriage, so he remembered it clearly.

On top of that, in Seong-ho Kim’s hand was the diary, in which every record was written.

He was heading onto a battlefield he could not possibly lose, so it was certain Seong-ho Kim would have thrown up both hands and welcomed it gladly.

But Do-beom Hwang, knowing none of this, only gazed with a rueful look at the door Seong-ho Kim had left through.

And so a new test was handed down to Seong-ho Kim.

***

“Seong-ho. I’m sorry.”

Gyeong-eun Lee watched Seong-ho Kim’s face for a reaction in the car.

“Even now, if you don’t like it, we can just go home. I really mean it.”

Seong-ho Kim gently took her hand and said with a smile,

“I’m fine.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Really.”

Seong-ho Kim smiled all over his face and nodded.

“If anything, I think today’s gathering is going to be a lot of fun. I mean it, truly.”

Gyeong-eun Lee studied his face closely.

She was trying to check, by looking at the face of the Seong-ho Kim who’d never been able to hide a lie, whether he was lying or being sincere.

But the Seong-ho Kim who’d come back after being knocked about every which way in the Ilhyeon Group was not the Seong-ho Kim of before.

And his words about looking forward to it were no lie.

Having confirmed that his words were sincere, Gyeong-eun Lee leaned back against the car seat with a bright, relieved face.

“Then that’s a real relief. Since that first time meeting my friends didn’t end well, you’ve no idea how anxious I was about this.”

Before they married, Gyeong-eun Lee had once introduced her friends to Seong-ho Kim.

They were all people she’d known since childhood, and naturally most were the children of people who held prominent positions in Korea.

In their eyes, Seong-ho Kim couldn’t help but be a very shabby figure.

So, knowingly or not, they’d treated him with an attitude of disdain, and a few had even hinted to Gyeong-eun Lee that they couldn’t understand why she’d marry a man like this.

Gyeong-eun Lee had distanced herself from the friends who said such things, but afterward, she never brought Seong-ho Kim to friend gatherings.

It wasn’t that she was ashamed of him — it was to avoid creating situations that made him uncomfortable.

“I was worried that today’s gathering with my friends might be uncomfortable for you too, just in case.”

“Of course I know you’re thinking of me, Gyeong-eun.”

Seong-ho Kim patted her hand and smiled.

“I don’t want you drifting apart from your friends because of me, either. I’m going to today’s gathering because I sincerely want to, so you don’t need to worry like that.”

“Thank you.”

Grateful to Seong-ho Kim, Gyeong-eun Lee gripped his held hand tightly.

Glancing at her, Seong-ho Kim recalled his experience from his past life for a moment.

Gyeong-eun Lee had said they were really good friends, but at this gathering too, there had been an incident where he was looked down on.

Recalling that memory, Seong-ho Kim wore a thick smile.

Just as he’d told Gyeong-eun Lee, since coming back, Seong-ho Kim had been counting the days to today.

Because the memory of being scorned at the golf outing that would take place today remained intact.

So he’d been waiting for today, when he could pay back what had happened then.

‘This time will be different.’

The dense smile that had formed at the corner of Seong-ho Kim’s mouth showed no sign of vanishing.

In his past life, Seong-ho Kim had been invited to this golf outing when he’d done no more than grip a golf club two or three times.

And how thoroughly he’d been scorned there — though it was a matter of decades ago, it was lodged deep in his mind as if it were only yesterday.

‘No matter how long you lot have been playing golf, it won’t be as long as me. Today, I’ll play with you properly.’

Seong-ho Kim cracked his knuckles and awaited his time to stand on the field.

Unlike his past life, the Seong-ho Kim of now had decades of experience attached to him.

On top of that, the Bukseoul CC he was now heading to was, by the current standard, a newly born course not even a year since opening — but to Seong-ho Kim, it was a very familiar field, a course he’d worn the threshold thin visiting.

‘It’s a place I could play with my eyes closed. I’ll pack in the humiliation of my past life too and trample them thoroughly.’

At the thought that he could take his revenge for his past life, Seong-ho Kim hoped to arrive at Bukseoul CC quickly.

And as if it understood his heart, the car raced toward Bukseoul CC, spitting out a lively engine note.

(End of Chapter 15)