Knock knock.

Seong-ho knocked and opened the door.

“Are you busy?”

“No. What brings you here?”

Do-beom Hwang, who had been checking documents at his desk, looked at Seong-ho with a puzzled expression.

Seong-ho glanced around the Chief Secretary’s office and said,

“I don’t think I’ve ever been here before.”

“Because whenever I met with you, Head Kim, the Chairman was always present.”

Do-beom folded the documents he’d been looking at, pushed them to one side of the desk, and asked Seong-ho why he’d come to the office.

Seong-ho showed a moment’s hesitation.

Finding this side of Seong-ho unlike his usual self, Do-beom put on an even more puzzled expression and asked,

“What is it? What’s the matter that you find it so hard to bring up?”

“It’s just… Secretary Hwang. Would it be all right if I called you Brother, too?”

“Brother?”

Do-beom looked briefly bewildered at the unexpected words.

Then he burst into laughter and said,

“Ha-ha-ha. Sure. Mun-jong and the other children all call me Brother, so you call me that too, Head Kim.”

Do-beom laughed heartily, then looked Seong-ho straight in the eye and said,

“But you didn’t come here just to say you wanted to call me Brother… Now tell me. What is it you’ve come about?”

“Have you heard as well, Brother?”

“Heard? Heard what?”

“The talk going around that I’m the group’s number two.”

“Hmm…”

Do-beom’s expression hardened.

And, straightening from where he’d been leaning toward Seong-ho and easing back, he nodded.

“Yes. I have heard it.”

Do-beom, who had lowered his eyes and sunk into thought for a moment, relaxed his hardened expression and said to Seong-ho,

“Don’t worry. I’ll put in a good word with the Chairman for you.”

Do-beom assumed Seong-ho had come because he was worried about the rumor going around the company recently.

And, guessing that Seong-ho meant to ask him to speak to the Chairman on his behalf, he said,

“And you don’t need to fret too much. A rumor like this, both I and the Chairman are well aware of it. The Chairman won’t be making much of it either.”

“Even if the Chairman doesn’t make much of it, other people may not be the same.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Do-beom tilted his head and asked Seong-ho,

“Didn’t you come to ask me to tell the Chairman on your behalf that this rumor wasn’t your intention?”

“I came to you, Brother, to ask you to help me tell the Chairman that since the rumor is spreading, it needs to be killed.”

“Kill the talk? How?”

Seong-ho began speaking to Do-beom in a low voice, and Do-beom listened to what Seong-ho said for a good while in silence.

After Seong-ho finished, Do-beom tried several times to dissuade him.

But Seong-ho didn’t bend his will even at Do-beom’s attempts to stop him, and only after hearing the word “all right” from Do-beom’s mouth did he leave the Chief Secretary’s office.

After Seong-ho left, Do-beom sat in his seat for a while, sunk in deep thought.

And when he’d finished thinking, he reached out toward the intercom.

“I’m going to see the Chairman now, so don’t let anyone in.”

—But Secretary. You have a meeting scheduled with the Japanese ambassador in ten minutes.

“Tell him something urgent has come up and cancel the appointment.”

—Yes. Understood.

Setting down the intercom, Do-beom let out a low sigh and left his office.

Hearing what Do-beom had come to the chairman’s office to say, Tak-hyeon knit his brow.

“Is that true? Did Head Kim really say that?”

“Yes. He came in person just now and said it.”

Tak-hyeon, like Do-beom, sank into thought for a moment on hearing it.

“If that’s what he wants, tell him to do it.”

“Do you really intend to do as Head Kim says?”

“He says it’s what he wants. Why? Is there some problem with it?”

“It’s not that, but…”

Do-beom dropped his head under Tak-hyeon’s gaze, which said to speak up if there was a problem.

Tak-hyeon looked at Do-beom like that and gave a small laugh.

“I know how you feel. It’s a shame. But what can be done? He says it’s what he wants to do, so we should do it for him.”

“Understood. Then I’ll make the preparations.”

Listening to Do-beom’s answer, Tak-hyeon twitched the corner of his mouth as if he found it amusing and said,

“That fellow really does seem to have no greed. Doesn’t he?”

“Judging by his conduct up to now, he certainly does seem to lean that way.”

Chief Secretary Do-beom spoke to Tak-hyeon in a resolute tone.

“If he had even the smallest bit of greed, there’s no way he’d make a decision like this. If anything, he’d have wanted something bigger. Head Kim seems to mind the eyes and words of others.”

“Yes. He was like that last time, and it’s the same this time too.”

Tak-hyeon put on a gratified expression.

Do-beom looked at Tak-hyeon like that and thought,

An absolute ruler hates a number two more than anyone.

That had been true in the age of dynasties, and it was the same in the modern age after the age of dynasties had ended.

Between a blood-tied father and son, of course, but even between comrades who’d achieved a revolution together, it was commonplace for an absolute ruler and a number two to regard each other as enemies.

And so an absolute ruler didn’t want a number two, and when a number two appeared, rather than demanding loyalty of him, he tended to choose to stamp him down and cut off the sprout.

And Tak-hyeon was no different in that.

It occurred to Do-beom that perhaps Seong-ho’s choice was a brilliant one.

Rather than proving that he’d devote his loyalty to Tak-hyeon, stepping away from the position was the simpler and surer way to capture Tak-hyeon’s heart.

“When this matter is over, I think I can entrust Head Kim with something bigger.”

“Something bigger? Even though you haven’t yet checked how he handled the 100 billion?”

“Setting that aside — Head Kim’s heart is commendable, so I should show him some faith too.”

Tak-hyeon smiled with a satisfied expression.

Seong-ho hadn’t been trying to capture Tak-hyeon’s heart through a brilliant choice.

His aim was to avoid danger — and, just as he’d anticipated, danger was making its way toward him.

“What do you intend to do?”

“I’ll have to do it.”

Mun-jong answered Suk-ja’s question dryly.

But Suk-ja was satisfied with this answer from Mun-jong.

“Yes. If you’re to succeed your father and become chairman of Ilhyeon, that’s what you ought to say.”

Satisfied with Mun-jong’s answer, Suk-ja asked him,

“What do you intend to do first?”

“First, I’ll have to drag him down from the Head’s seat.”

“And how do you intend to drag him down?”

Tak-hyeon and Suk-ja had lived their lives keeping outside affairs and household affairs strictly separate.

However things went on the outside, Suk-ja never questioned Tak-hyeon, and regarding matters that occurred within the household, Tak-hyeon had never once offered Suk-ja a word of comment one way or the other.

So the sight of Suk-ja asking in what manner she’d drag Seong-ho down looked nothing but unfamiliar to Mun-jong.

But setting that feeling aside, he answered the question for now in order to satisfy Suk-ja’s curiosity.

“I mean to manufacture the idea that there’s a problem connected to this Big Deal.”

“A problem?”

“That handing over Ilhyeon Power and taking back not even Mirae Electronics but only Mirae Electronics’ semiconductor division was because of a secret pact with Mirae Group… I mean to grow that sort of talk a little.”

“Would your father believe that?”

“It’s fine even if he doesn’t. Whether Father believes it or not isn’t what matters.”

Mun-jong spoke with a calm face, fiddling with the tips of his fingernails.

“What matters is that the people around believe it. Then, even if Father doesn’t believe it, he won’t be able to keep Kim seated in that position.”

“You mean to make the surroundings noisy, is that it.”

Suk-ja nodded.

“Yes. That seems a good method too.”

Mun-jong, who’d been fiddling with his fingernails, lifted his head to look at Suk-ja and asked,

“But Mother, why are you so interested in Kim’s affairs? Is it simply because Kim is receiving Father’s trust?”

Mun-jong asked Suk-ja as if he found it strange.

Suk-ja gazed off into the distance for a moment, then answered with a dark face.

“It’s vague, but I have a strange feeling. I have the sense that fellow might blow something up in a big way later on.”

“It’s not that you just dislike Kim, is it? You never took to Kim from the very start, Mother.”

“Of course. How could I possibly take to him?”

Suk-ja recalled the first time she’d seen Seong-ho and scrunched up her face.

“A family that doesn’t match our standing.”

“Who is there that could match our standing? You didn’t take to my wife’s family or the second son’s wife’s family either.”

“That and this are different.”

At Mun-jong’s words, Suk-ja shook her head hard.

“Families that match our household’s standing are few enough to count on one hand, so I don’t even wish for that much. I’m not asking for something roughly comparable, either. Just a family that’s respectably known would be enough. But wasn’t that fellow’s father a tenant farmer by origin?”

“Didn’t Grandfather say he couldn’t even manage to be a tenant farmer? Because he didn’t have so much as a palm’s worth of land…”

“That man built a company called Ilhyeon.”

Suk-ja looked at Mun-jong with a face that asked how he could put the founder of Ilhyeon and a farmer in the same light, and raised her voice.

“But Kim’s father was a man content to till other people’s fields. And what about the one who’s his mother?”

Suk-ja raised her voice and wrinkled the bridge of her nose.

“And what about that fellow, too? Do you think that fellow suits Gyeong-eun?”

Mun-jong only smiled silently at Suk-ja’s words.

Because he thought that when she’d fixed it in advance that she didn’t take to him and looked at Seong-ho to fit that, there was no meaning in saying anything else.

But there was one thing he needed to confirm.

“So what exactly is it you want, Mother? Do you want to have him divorce Gyeong-eun?”

At Mun-jong’s question, Suk-ja closed her eyes.

Seeing Suk-ja unable to answer right away, Mun-jong went on,

“There’s never once been a case of divorce in our family until now — do you think that even so, it’s all right for Gyeong-eun?”

“That’s not it. If it were to come to that, I’d have blocked the marriage even if I had to hang myself from a cloth. Divorce… won’t do.”

However much the times had improved, it was not an age in which divorce could be a badge of honor.

Rather, in an age where divorce was a weakness, and man and woman were different again besides.

Chang-jong’s divorce was a choice that could be accepted, but Gyeong-eun’s divorce could not.

“Then what? What exactly is it you want, Mother?”

“I’ll have to drive him out of the company and split him from Gyeong-eun.”

“What? Driving him out of the company aside, splitting him from Gyeong-eun? You just said divorce won’t do?”

“Yes. Not divorce — separation.”

Suk-ja hardened her face and said,

“To keep it as a matter of paper only, set them apart, and no longer let him catch our eye. To keep him from setting so much as a foot near Ilhyeon.”

“You mean to make him a living corpse?”

“A living corpse. That’s good.”

Suk-ja reacted strongly to Mun-jong’s words.

“Yes. Let’s go with that. A living corpse. Make him alive but unable to do anything, Mun-jong. You can do that, can’t you?”

“If I set out to, why couldn’t I do it? It’s just…”

Mun-jong smacked his lips.

Seong-ho had already promised to help him and had in fact helped with various matters.

If he held the position of Restructuring Head and stayed by Tak-hyeon’s side, he might be put to even more valuable use down the road — and at the fact that he had to make such a Seong-ho into a living corpse, Mun-jong couldn’t help the bitter taste in his mouth.

Perhaps having caught wind of Mun-jong’s feelings, Suk-ja offered words to persuade him.

“Don’t be regretful. You can find a fellow more useful than him anywhere. More important than that is prying that fellow away from your father. If he keeps clinging to your father’s side like this and then sets his mind on something else, it could become a real headache.”

“That’s true…”

“And there’s something I’ve heard.”

“Something you’ve heard?”

“Yes. I hear talk that Ilhyeon’s number two is Seong-ho Kim.”

“Who would say such a—!”

At Suk-ja’s words, Mun-jong clenched his fist.

Because it was in front of his mother, he couldn’t rage openly, but Mun-jong’s fury seemed to surge to the top of his head — his face was going red.

Suk-ja took Mun-jong’s tightly clenched hand.

“That such talk is nonsense — aren’t we the ones who know it best? So there’s no need to be so angry.”

“Haah…”

Mun-jong’s clenched hand slowly opened.

Suk-ja took her son’s hand and said,

“But people who don’t know will think that talk is true.”

“I understand what you mean.”

Mun-jong clasped Suk-ja’s hand in return.

“Father and Kim are going to Los Angeles next week, so once Father is back, I’ll set about preparing in earnest.”

“Yes. The sooner, the better.”

Suk-ja felt relieved hearing Mun-jong say he’d move once next week’s business trip was over.

Only then did her mind settle, at the fact that the thing she wanted was starting quickly.

But though starting next week might be quick to Suk-ja, it was by no means quick to Seong-ho.

Seong-ho was seated atop Suk-ja and Mun-jong’s heads, moving faster still.

(End of Chapter 161)