“Just what in the world is going on?”

Coming out of the gate, Mun-jong Lee hurried through the airport lobby and asked the Ilhyeon Electronics U.S. branch head who’d come to meet him.

However hard he’d rushed over, Mun-jong’s face was thick with fatigue.

But apparently bewilderment came before fatigue — he questioned the branch head, and the branch head bowed his head with a flustered face and answered,

“It’s due to my incompetence.”

“Never mind that useless talk — tell me properly. Why did the Chairman fly into such a rage?”

When an answer with no substance to it came out while his heart was racing, Mun-jong put on a displeased expression.

And he opened the door of the car parked in front of the airport himself and got in.

The branch head, wearing the expression of a man who’d sinned, dropped his head and got into the car after Mun-jong.

When Mun-jong’s car set off, a dozen or so black vehicles followed after it.

They were all people who, like Mun-jong, had been summoned by Tak-hyeon Lee.

Fastening his tie in the car, Mun-jong said to the branch head,

“The worst appliance award, was it? I heard they received some award or other like that. Is it because of that?”

“It’s not only that.”

“If it’s not only that, what else is there? Just how strange an award did you receive that the Chairman got so angry?”

Mun-jong stopped the hands tying his tie and turned to the branch head.

The branch head bowed his head slightly and relayed to Mun-jong the story of what happened after the awards ceremony — the highlight of the electronics show.

Ilhyeon Electronics, having won the Worst Appliance Award, had become the laughingstock of the electronics show.

The emcee spent a full ten minutes mocking just how ridiculous Ilhyeon Electronics’ products were.

Even the spectators and officials clapped their hands and jeered at Ilhyeon Electronics’ goods.

When such a debacle unfolded at the very place where Tak-hyeon was seated, the faces of the Ilhyeon Group officials turned ashen.

Secretary Hwang urged Tak-hyeon to leave his seat, but Tak-hyeon kept his seat until the mockery ended, listening to it all.

And only after the awards ceremony ended did he rise from his seat.

Every Ilhyeon Group official was tense at Tak-hyeon’s reaction.

But Tak-hyeon, as scheduled, showed no reaction at all until, after the ceremony, they moved to the showrooms located in the city.

Arriving at the showrooms, Tak-hyeon toured all five of them and then returned to the hotel.

And through Do-beom Hwang, he summoned all the group’s senior officials, Mun-jong among them, from Korea to Los Angeles.

At the word that Tak-hyeon had shown no reaction at all, Mun-jong let his hand drop.

“This is…”

“What’s the matter?”

“Seong-ho? Where’s Head Kim?”

“He’s currently at the convention center, directing the wrap-up work.”

“He’s well and truly out of his mind. He’s directing wrap-up work in a situation like this?”

Mun-jong loosened the tie around his neck as he spoke.

“Turn around to the convention center.”

“The convention center, not the hotel?”

“Yes.”

Mun-jong flung the tie he was holding onto the floor of the car and shouted,

“I need to meet that fellow before I meet the Chairman, so turn the car around right now!”

The branch head, faced with Mun-jong like this, didn’t dare ask the reason and instructed the driver to head for the convention center.

When Mun-jong’s car changed direction toward the convention center, the other cars all followed in a line, heading there too.

Arriving at the convention center, where wrap-up work was in full swing, Mun-jong headed straight for the Ilhyeon Electronics booth where Seong-ho was said to be.

And spotting Seong-ho from afar, he shouted,

“Hey, you! Just what kind of fellow are you!”

The people tidying the booth stopped what they were doing at the sudden voice and turned their heads toward where the sound had come from.

Seong-ho too looked toward the sound and bowed his head.

“Vice-Chairman. You’ve come?”

“What kind of fellow are you, to cause a debacle like this!”

Seong-ho lightly took Mun-jong’s arm and said quietly,

“Let’s go inside and talk first.”

“Go inside? Go inside what?”

Since there were many people watching, Seong-ho tried to lead Mun-jong off to one side, but Mun-jong shook off his hand.

And he shouted in a voice loud enough for not only the nearby Ilhyeon Group staff but also the reporters still remaining and the other companies’ officials to hear,

“There’s a limit to how much you can throw ink on the company name. How are you going to take responsibility for this?”

“Vice-Chairman. That’s…”

“Of all times, it was a place the Chairman attended! You pull something worthy of being sneered at by competitors in a place like that, and you can call yourself Head of Restructuring?!”

After listening to Mun-jong’s tirade for a good while, Seong-ho slowly opened his mouth.

“Vice-Chairman. I feel wronged by that too.”

“Wronged? What have you got to feel wronged about? You create a situation like this and the word ‘wronged’ comes out of your mouth?”

Realizing he couldn’t lead Mun-jong somewhere else, Seong-ho let go of the hand holding Mun-jong and said,

“I didn’t direct the entire electronics show. Nor did I lead the new products Ilhyeon Electronics released.”

“If not you, who led them?”

“Isn’t there someone who transferred out of Ilhyeon Electronics? It’s a matter that has nothing to do with me.”

“Someone who transferred?”

Mun-jong was about to say how was he supposed to know everyone who’d transferred, but stopped.

Because among the many people who’d transferred, there was one Mun-jong would know.

“Brother-in-law Cha?”

Seong-ho slowly nodded and said to Mun-jong,

“My only crime is having come along with the Chairman. The product that won the Worst Appliance Award, and indeed all the products laid out here — they’re all things I’m seeing for the first time.”

But Mun-jong pointed a finger at Seong-ho and said,

“In the end, the overall person in charge of running the electronics show is you! So know this — you can’t be free of this matter either. I’ll pin the responsibility on you one way or another!”

Having finished, Mun-jong turned around.

“Let’s go.”

Mun-jong, just as when he’d come, led the group’s senior officials and left.

“He ran straight here from the airport just to shout at you once? Leading all those people?”

Byeong-jin Jo, who’d sidled up, looked at Mun-jong’s receding back with a marveling expression and spoke.

Seong-ho gave a small laugh at Byeong-jin’s words and asked,

“Well? In Korea, is it going as expected?”

Hearing Seong-ho’s question, Byeong-jin drew his gaze back from Mun-jong and said in a low voice,

“Yeah, it’s just as you said.”

Byeong-jin glanced around for a moment, then pulled Seong-ho off to a quiet spot.

Even so, apparently still worried about ears nearby, he brought his mouth close to Seong-ho and spoke in a very low voice.

“They say Vice-Chairman Lee is going around asking about you in connection with the Ilhyeon Power Big Deal. I hear he’s stirring up not just the Restructuring Headquarters staff but even the people at Ilhyeon Power and Mirae Electronics’ semiconductor division. It seems, just as you figured, he’s trying to find some story that you and Mirae Electronics had some kind of agreement over handing Ilhyeon Power over.”

“Not trying to find it — trying to make it, more like.”

“Trying to make it?”

Seong-ho lifted the corner of his mouth and recalled Mun-jong.

“I know that man better than anyone in the world, and he’s the sort who’s more than capable of manufacturing a rumor.”

Byeong-jin looked at Seong-ho with a startled face.

The words “manufacture a rumor” had sounded far from ordinary.

Seong-ho patted the back of the startled-looking Byeong-jin and said,

“There’s no need to worry so much. It’s because I knew he’d do that that I’m moving first like this.”

“So that’s what it was?”

Only now did Byeong-jin understand Seong-ho’s choice.

“In simple terms, it’s one step back for the sake of ten steps forward. And since I’m taking that one step with my own two feet, I take no damage, and I get to decide where I retreat to.”

“So Vice-Chairman Lee will end up swinging at empty air, more or less.”

“That’s right.”

Seong-ho brought his hand down onto Byeong-jin’s palm and said,

“So let’s wrap this up well.”

“Yeah. First let’s get things tidied up here…”

The Ilhyeon Group staff, who’d briefly stopped for Mun-jong’s coming and going, began to move diligently again.

Byeong-jin returned to where the staff were to carry on the wrap-up work, and Seong-ho, telling Byeong-jin to keep up the good work, gazed quietly at the booth being tidied.

And, a smile at his lips, he muttered to himself,

“It’ll look like a retreat. But no one will know that it’s actually not a retreat but an advance.”

It was surely the case that no one knew the place Seong-ho was moving to was not backward but forward.

Only Seong-ho in all the world knew this fact, and in his hand was a leather diary.

With Tak-hyeon’s emergency summons, the group’s senior officials gathered in Los Angeles one after another.

At the news of the emergency summons, the reporters couldn’t even return to Korea and waited in America.

It was to cover, on the scene, the reason Chairman Tak-hyeon had summoned them and the talk that would come out of the gathering.

The reporters raised their antennas toward the hotel’s large conference room where the meeting would be held.

“Vice-Chairman.”

Mun-jong, on his way to the large conference room in the hotel at Tak-hyeon’s summons, slowed his steps at the sound of someone calling him.

His secretary, who’d called him, approached Mun-jong at a trot and spoke in a low voice.

“I’ve made all the preparations so we can proceed with the matter right away once we return to Seoul.”

The secretary glanced around for a moment, then again said in a low voice regarding Seong-ho,

“The very day after Head Seong-ho Kim returns, a Mirae Group official has agreed to seek out Head Kim. And I’ve also recruited a Restructuring Headquarters staff member who’ll testify that talk related to Ilhyeon Power was exchanged at that meeting. Also…”

“Enough.”

Mun-jong stopped the mouth of the secretary rambling on and on.

And, frowning, he gave a look with his eyes.

At Mun-jong’s look, the secretary lifted his head and surveyed the surroundings.

While they’d been talking, they had somehow already arrived at the large conference room.

“I’ve got it, so enough… So we can start right away once we return to Seoul, is that it?”

“Yes. We can start immediately.”

“Good.”

Mun-jong nodded and opened the large conference room door.

“Proceed as planned.”

Mun-jong gave the instruction and entered the large conference room.

The Ilhyeon Group presidents gathered in the large conference room were holding their seats with dark faces.

They offered a seated greeting toward Vice-Chairman Mun-jong as he entered.

Mun-jong received their greetings with a slight bow of his head and slowly headed for his seat.

And then, after gazing for a moment at Seong-ho, seated across from him, he looked at the home appliances stacked against the wall.

“Brother. What is that?”

Mun-jong pointed a finger at the appliances and asked Do-beom Hwang, seated beside him.

“Did Head Kim bring those to pull some strange stunt again?”

“That’s not it.”

“Then what?”

“The Chairman instructed that they be brought and placed there.”

“The Chairman instructed it?”

Mun-jong looked at the appliances stacked against the wall as if he found it strange.

He couldn’t take his eyes off them, trying to work out the meaning of the appliances Tak-hyeon had ordered placed in the conference room.

While he was gazing at the appliances for a good while like that, Tak-hyeon entered the conference room.

Mun-jong stopped gazing at the appliances, rose from his seat, and greeted Tak-hyeon.

Tak-hyeon looked at the presidents greeting him with nods, one by one.

And, pausing his gaze for a moment on Seong-ho seated at the far end, he gestured.

“Everyone, sit.”

When Tak-hyeon, having finished speaking, sat down first, the presidents took their seats one after another.

Tak-hyeon turned his head toward Do-beom and said,

“From now on, turn on a recorder and record everything.”

At Tak-hyeon’s instruction, the presidents present, Mun-jong included, all wore startled expressions.

Ordinarily, Tak-hyeon was a man who thoroughly prevented the contents of meetings from leaking to the outside.

For such a man to personally instruct that a recording be made, the presidents present couldn’t help but be startled.

Whether he’d been given advance word by Tak-hyeon, Do-beom, showing no sign of fluster, took out a recorder and set it on the table.

Confirming that the recorder’s record button had been pressed, Tak-hyeon explained to the presidents present the reason he’d had the recorder brought out.

“There’s a particular reason I instructed that this meeting be recorded. It’s because my words could be twisted, so I’ve had everything recorded — understand that.”

At Tak-hyeon’s words, the presidents, unable even to answer that they understood, lowered their eyes slightly.

Whether they were wondering what he meant to say here that might be twisted, the people present were seized with unease.

Whether or not he knew of this unease, Tak-hyeon raised a hand and pointed a finger at the appliances piled high against the wall opposite.

(End of Chapter 164)