"Chairman. Was it really necessary to ask the children to put up 10 billion won?"

Do-beom Hwang asked carefully, standing behind Tak-hyeon, who was looking out the window.

"Why? Worried they might not have that much money?"

"I don't think they'd lack that much money. As you said, Chairman, they could borrow it from their in-laws, or, at the very least, they could go to a bank and borrow 10 billion won without much trouble. What I'm worried about is..."

Tak-hyeon, who had been looking out the window, turned his head.

And, looking at Do-beom's bowed head, he asked, "What's got you so worried?"

"Chairman."

Do-beom, who had been bowing, slowly lifted his head.

Then, with the sound of rain falling outside the window as his backdrop, he spoke to Tak-hyeon.

"The children might end up fighting."

"That's what worries you?"

Do-beom recalled the way Mun-jong and the other siblings had looked before coming here today, and continued.

"On the surface, they look like a warm, close family sharing a meal together every week — but in reality... you know as well as I do, Chairman, that it isn't so."

"So you're saying our family is currently caught up in discord?"

"I'm saying the seeds of discord are already sprouting."

Do-beom had made up his mind to say everything now that he'd started.

The sound of rain, growing steadily heavier, pierced through the window into the quiet office.

"Once money leaves a person's pocket, greed inevitably follows. Why do you think gambling addicts can never leave the table? Because once their own money is in the pot, they can no longer make sound judgments. And the game only ends once they've taken the money out of the other person's hands. With no one ever truly becoming the winner."

"So what is it you're trying to say?"

"Rather than have them pay in and then divide it up, why not simply give them the shares outright?"

"Just hand them out for free?"

Do-beom nodded and spoke to Tak-hyeon with a worried expression.

"They are siblings who share the same blood. Should…