Mun-jong Lee slowly opened his mouth toward the satisfied Tak-hyeon Lee.

“It’s a thought that came to me from watching Kim show such fine form several times recently, but…”

Mun-jong Lee paused for a moment and, looking Seong-ho Kim straight in the eye, revealed his scheme.

“I wonder if someone like Kim couldn’t solve the Ilhyeon Watch problem as well.”

When Mun-jong Lee brought out the name Ilhyeon Watch, the smile on Tak-hyeon Lee’s face went rigid.

Sang-jong Lee was just as startled.

Mun-jong Lee had said he had something in mind, but Sang-jong Lee had never imagined it would be Ilhyeon Watch.

“Are you saying we should hand Ilhyeon Watch to Kim right now?”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s words, Mun-jong Lee let a slight smile touch his face and continued, his eyes on Tak-hyeon Lee,

“Ilhyeon Watch is going through some difficulties at the moment, isn’t it? It’s a proposal I’m making because I wonder whether someone like Kim couldn’t navigate through such difficulties well.”

“Brother. So you’re saying we should seat Kim as president of Ilhyeon Watch?”

“No. That’s not it.”

Mun-jong Lee shook his head at Sang-jong Lee’s question.

And he explained in detail to Tak-hyeon Lee.

“I’m saying we appoint Kim as Strategic Planning’s restructuring officer, then dispatch him to Ilhyeon Watch and put him in charge of the work of getting Ilhyeon Watch back on its feet.”

“Have Kim get Ilhyeon Watch back on its feet?”

“Yes.”

Mun-jong Lee, still wearing a smiling face, glanced once at Seong-ho Kim.

“Kim is a man who’s pulled off miracle after miracle. Couldn’t he revive Ilhyeon Watch like a miracle too? What do you say, Kim?”

Mun-jong Lee threw out the last question with his eyes on Seong-ho Kim.

Seong-ho Kim looked at Mun-jong Lee with a smile on his face.

‘So this was your scheme?’

Ilhyeon Watch was the Ilhyeon Group’s sore finger.

It was a company Ilhyeon had ambitiously established a little over ten years ago when it entered the watch industry — the first company Tak-hyeon Lee had personally founded after inheriting the group.

So Ilhyeon Watch held a great deal of Tak-hyeon Lee’s affection.

Having piled slump upon slump, it had by now sunk to being the worst-selling, deficit-riddled company among the group’s affiliates — yet its steady investment and the treatment of its executives and staff were still among the best in the whole group, enough to be counted on one hand.

Because it was such an Ilhyeon Watch, many executives had stepped forward saying they’d reform the place.

Because they knew that if they could just revive this deficit-riddled company, their standing in the group would become solid in a single stroke.

But of those who’d tried, not a single one had made it out of Ilhyeon Watch alive.

They’d all sunk into the swamp of Ilhyeon Watch, floundered about, and been swallowed whole by it just as they were.

Gyeong-eun Lee was not unaware of this, so she pushed back hard against Mun-jong Lee’s words.

“Brother. What are you even saying right now? Handing Seong-ho a task no one has ever succeeded at?”

Gyeong-eun Lee shifted over to sit beside Tak-hyeon Lee and grasped his arm.

“Father. How could Seong-ho do a thing that so many executives have tried and failed at? The earlier matters were possible because luck was on his side, but Ilhyeon Watch is different. It’s impossible for Seong-ho alone.”

Gyeong-eun Lee glanced sidelong at Seong-ho Kim and sent him a look asking him not to take what she’d said the wrong way.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Seong-ho Kim — it was that Ilhyeon Watch’s problems were that far from easy.

Having sent the look, Gyeong-eun Lee gazed at Seong-ho Kim as if urging him to say he couldn’t do it.

At the sight of her, the one to open his mouth was not Seong-ho Kim but Mun-jong Lee.

“This is the Kim who not only stopped the danger of Jisan Cement but edged out the Homyeong Group to win Daeguk Fertilizer. Do you think all of that is possible with luck on your side? That’s how outstanding Kim’s insight is. So he’ll surely be able to find Ilhyeon Watch’s problem too.”

Mun-jong Lee dismissed Gyeong-eun Lee’s words and said to Tak-hyeon Lee,

“Father. I believe the reason Ilhyeon Watch’s reforms have failed until now is a lack of fresh thinking. Since it was people who’d sat comfortably in executive chairs for a long time who stepped forward, they surely failed to grasp the problems properly. So I believe a fresh, insightful person like Kim needs to go into Ilhyeon Watch as a reform appointee.”

Mun-jong Lee turned his head toward Seong-ho Kim.

“How about it? You think so too, don’t you?”

Having explained at length, Mun-jong Lee asked Seong-ho Kim with a smile.

Within that smile of Mun-jong Lee’s, Seong-ho Kim could pick out his true intention.

‘You’re hoping I’ll refuse.’

Seong-ho Kim could tell, having worked alongside Mun-jong Lee for a long time in his past life.

That right now, Mun-jong Lee was hoping Seong-ho Kim would say, in front of Tak-hyeon Lee, that he couldn’t do it.

But Seong-ho Kim had no intention of moving the way Mun-jong Lee wanted.

And of course, he was confident when it came to Ilhyeon Watch, too.

‘Because reforming Ilhyeon Watch was the very work I did the longest in my past life.’

“Chairman.”

Seong-ho Kim, who’d come into the study and only listened quietly, opened his mouth in a calm voice.

And, glancing once at Mun-jong Lee, he began to speak with a smile.

“Brother trusted me and recommended me — how could I betray that intention of his?”

“Seong-ho!”

At his words, Gyeong-eun Lee cried out, startled.

“It’s not as though I’m going off to war — I’m only going to a place within the group that’s having difficulties, so there’s no need to worry like that.”

Seong-ho Kim reassured her and continued to Tak-hyeon Lee,

“Chairman. If you entrust the Ilhyeon Watch matter to me, I’ll give it a try.”

“Can you really do it?”

“Since it’s a task even people more capable than me couldn’t manage, I think I can actually take it on with a light heart. And should I fail, please just don’t scold me too much.”

Clap!

At his words, Tak-hyeon Lee struck his knee with his palm.

“Fine spirit.”

Tak-hyeon Lee praised Seong-ho Kim in a hearty voice.

“A man ought to know how to talk like that. Good. As the vice-chairman says, I’ll appoint you restructuring officer, so give it a try.”

Since the matter had come up, Tak-hyeon Lee — as if to settle it in one stroke — called for Do-beom Hwang and instructed him to handle the affairs related to Seong-ho Kim and Ilhyeon Watch.

Then he rose from his seat, went to the front of his desk, and said to Seong-ho Kim,

“If you get Ilhyeon Watch back on its feet, I’ll promote you straight to executive.”

“Thank you.”

“So do it well.”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s words, Seong-ho Kim bowed his head to convey his gratitude.

Mun-jong Lee, at a turn of events different from what he’d envisioned, was at a loss for words and could say nothing.

Only Gyeong-eun Lee fretted and stewed over Seong-ho Kim taking on Ilhyeon Watch.

Coming out of the study, Seong-ho Kim bowed his head to Mun-jong Lee in thanks.

“Brother, you’ve given me such a fine opportunity, so I’ll work hard to live up to your expectations.”

“Huh? Ah. Right. You should.”

Mun-jong Lee, flustered for a moment, nodded and told him to do well.

And, with a face gone heavy with thought, he left the house.

“Brother.”

Sang-jong Lee, who’d come out of the house after him, hurried over and asked,

“Sending him to Ilhyeon Watch — was that the method you had in mind?”

Passing through the yard, Mun-jong Lee stopped in place, looked at the house, and said,

“No. The method I had in mind wasn’t sending Kim to Ilhyeon Watch.”

“Then why did you bring it up in front of Father?”

“Because naturally I thought he’d refuse.”

Mun-jong Lee turned his head and looked at Sang-jong Lee.

And, shaking his head with a face that didn’t understand it, he said,

“I never dreamed that fellow would accept the Ilhyeon Watch proposal. Refusing Ilhyeon Watch — I was going to use that as a pretext to pack him off to an overseas branch. That was the plan from the start…”

Knowing Seong-ho Kim wouldn’t be able to refuse twice, Mun-jong Lee had brought out the unacceptable Ilhyeon Watch matter first.

But unexpectedly, Seong-ho Kim had accepted the Ilhyeon Watch proposal he’d predicted couldn’t be accepted, and with that, everything he’d planned from the start had gone awry.

Still, Mun-jong Lee didn’t think this was greatly wrong.

“If anything, it might have worked out well.”

“Worked out well?”

Sang-jong Lee said to Mun-jong Lee with a flustered face.

“Did you not hear what Father said? He said if he handles the Ilhyeon Watch business well, he’ll raise him straight to executive. If he becomes an executive, it might turn into a different story from when he was just some assistant-manager nobody.”

“You can’t figure out why Father said he’d bump him all the way up to executive?”

At Mun-jong Lee’s words, Sang-jong Lee blinked for a moment.

At Mun-jong Lee asking whether he couldn’t figure out the reason, he thought it over in his head for a bit, but nothing in particular came to mind.

Mun-jong Lee looked at him, laughed, and turned around.

“Never mind. Thinking like that will only give you a cramp in your brain. Let’s go.”

“Brother.”

Passing through the yard and out the main gate, Mun-jong Lee said,

“Don’t worry — there’s no way he’ll revive Ilhyeon Watch. It’s absolutely not a place easy enough for that fellow to save. In the end, he too will throw up both hands like all the others, and we just use that as a pretext to make sure he can never approach company affairs again. So don’t fret over useless things — go home, wash your feet, and sleep.”

“Really? So I just have to trust you, Brother?”

“If you can’t trust me, then go back right now and have it out with Father.”

Mun-jong Lee, as if he had nothing more to say, opened the gate and went out.

At the sight of him, Sang-jong Lee spoke in a cowed voice and turned his head.

“No, well, there’s no need to go that far… Brother. Let’s go together.”

Sang-jong Lee followed after the departing Mun-jong Lee out the main gate, and Do-beom Hwang, who’d been watching the two of them, turned and reported to Tak-hyeon Lee.

“They’ve left.”

“Right.”

Tak-hyeon Lee twitched the corner of his mouth and laughed as if amused.

“The elder one worked his head pretty well. But since Kim accepted it, he’s probably rattled.”

“But is it really… going to be all right?”

Do-beom Hwang asked Tak-hyeon Lee in a worried voice.

“All right in what way? Are you worried about Ilhyeon Watch, or worried about Kim?”

“That’s…”

Do-beom Hwang glanced back at the window through which he’d been watching Mun-jong Lee and Sang-jong Lee, and said,

“It’s that I wonder whether it’s right to send Assistant Manager Kim off to Ilhyeon Watch on a happy day like this, having just won Daeguk Fertilizer.”

“Didn’t he say he’d do it himself?”

Tak-hyeon Lee leaned back in his chair, clasped his hands, and looked up at Do-beom Hwang.

“I didn’t push him into it — he stepped up saying he’d do it himself, so just leave it be.”

“Then shall I also halt the sale of the company?”

Tak-hyeon Lee had been trying to sell off Ilhyeon Watch, thinking there was no more hope for it.

Clasping his hands, a smile at the corner of his mouth, Tak-hyeon Lee said,

“For now, just halt everything. It won’t be too late to watch how he does for a bit and then decide. Just keep it ready to be sold at any time. If it looks like it’s going worse than expected, clear it out right away.”

“Then what about Assistant Manager Kim?”

“What do you mean, what about him? If he can’t take responsibility for his own words, he’ll have to take the punishment for it.”

“Punishment?”

“Did you think I said I’d make him an executive for nothing? When a reward that big comes with it, you have to consider that there’s a counterweight too.”

Do-beom Hwang felt sorry that Seong-ho Kim — who’d won Daeguk Fertilizer — was, far from being praised, being made to shoulder a great burden.

But contrary to Do-beom Hwang’s thinking, the Ilhyeon Watch matter was a gift to Seong-ho Kim.

If anything, Seong-ho Kim was in the midst of savoring his delight that this business had been set in motion through Mun-jong Lee’s mouth rather than his own.

(End of Chapter 21)