Not long after returning to the past, Seong-ho Kim had fallen into deep thought over the matter of “revenge.”

He’d deliberated whether the target of his revenge should be Mun-jong Lee, the chairman in that other timeline, or the entire Ilhyeon Group.

That deliberation hadn’t lasted long.

Because he’d made up his mind to make every member of the Ilhyeon Group’s owner family, save Gyeong-eun Lee, the target of his revenge.

Of course, he had no intention of throwing everything aside and hurling himself at it like a moth to a flame, revenge for revenge’s sake alone.

He believed he was owed compensation for his past life as well, and he wanted that compensation to be the Ilhyeon Group itself.

In the end, as he carried out his revenge, only Gyeong-eun Lee would be left standing.

Seong-ho Kim had, in effect, decided to seat himself atop the vast whale that was the Ilhyeon Group.

Just as Seong-ho Kim had settled these thoughts and set his course going forward, Tak-hyeon Lee’s children gathered at Pyeongchang-dong.

“Ilhyeon Watch has shaken off a great deal of debt and fixed costs through the recent factory and head-office sales, and is now in a normalized state. It looks like concrete results should start showing from next year.”

Mun-jong Lee brought up the matter of Ilhyeon Watch to Tak-hyeon Lee.

Following him, Sang-jong Lee chimed in, seconding him and cutting into the Ilhyeon Watch discussion.

“That’s right. On top of that, the image has improved thanks to the time-signal ads and TV commercials, so word is we can expect a swing to profitability as early as next year. So…”

Trailing off for a moment, Sang-jong Lee glanced at Tak-hyeon Lee to gauge his mood before speaking again.

“I think it might be about time to wrap up the restructuring.”

Having finished speaking, Sang-jong Lee asked Seong-ho Kim before even seeing Tak-hyeon Lee’s reaction.

“Kim — no, Assistant Manager Kim, what do you think?”

He’d thought securing Seong-ho Kim’s agreement first would make it easier to persuade Tak-hyeon Lee.

Seong-ho Kim knew exactly why Mun-jong Lee and Sang-jong Lee were bringing this up.

Ilhyeon Watch was growing steadily healthier through the restructuring, and there was no denying that Seong-ho Kim had played a huge role in that success.

Which was precisely why Mun-jong Lee and Sang-jong Lee were uncomfortable with Seong-ho Kim’s ever-rising standing at Ilhyeon Watch.

So they were bringing this up because they wanted the restructuring wrapped up as quickly as possible, to get Seong-ho Kim out of Ilhyeon Watch.

Having read the two men’s thinking, Seong-ho Kim played along lightly.

“I think the same. I believe it would be good to wrap up the restructuring around here and move forward normally.”

“R-right? I knew you’d think the same way.”

Since Seong-ho Kim had never intended to stay at Ilhyeon Watch for long anyway, he could play along with Sang-jong Lee’s words with ease.

Utterly unaware of this, Sang-jong Lee, seeing Seong-ho Kim agree with him, wore a pleased expression at the thought that things were going his way, and opened his mouth toward Tak-hyeon Lee.

“Chairman, so that means…”

“You be quiet.”

Tak-hyeon Lee cut off Sang-jong Lee just as he was starting to speak.

“Ilhyeon Watch has nothing whatsoever to do with you — why are you the one stepping in?”

“No, I was just…”

“Are you perhaps connected to President Do and the others somehow? Did you take a cut from President Do?”

“N-no, absolutely not!”

Sang-jong Lee waved both hands with a startled face.

“How could I possibly dare do such a thing? No. I truly have nothing to do with any of it.”

Having said his piece, Sang-jong Lee quietly retreated.

He’d decided that continuing to talk might invite strange suspicion, so he chose to keep his mouth shut instead.

Curious about the expression of the actual man who’d taken the payoffs, Seong-ho Kim studied Chang-jong Lee’s face.

Chang-jong Lee, beads of sweat forming on his brow, kept his head bowed, glancing anxiously this way and that.

Watching him, Seong-ho Kim let out a quiet laugh.

Chang-jong Lee’s flustered uncertainty over whether Tak-hyeon Lee knew he was the one who’d taken the payoffs struck him as simply funny.

Just then Tak-hyeon Lee looked at Seong-ho Kim and asked,

“Do you genuinely think it’s best to wrap things up here too?”

Hearing Tak-hyeon Lee’s voice, Seong-ho Kim stopped thinking about Chang-jong Lee and turned his head.

Meeting Tak-hyeon Lee’s gaze, he nodded and said,

“Yes. We’ve already done everything that can be done. Rather than tightening the screws any further here, I think it would be better to let the business run normally and see the results. That way the company’s momentum will improve too.”

“Right. That would be good too. It’s good to check how much fruit a tree bears after all the effort put into raising it.”

Tak-hyeon Lee nodded in agreement at Seong-ho Kim’s words, then looked at him with a meaningful gaze.

“How about it? Would you like to take charge of Ilhyeon Watch yourself?”

“Father!”

Mun-jong Lee cried out, startled.

Tak-hyeon Lee, who’d been smiling at Seong-ho Kim, frowned at Mun-jong Lee’s voice.

His displeasure at having his words interrupted showed plainly on his face.

Seeing Tak-hyeon Lee’s expression, Mun-jong Lee realized his mistake only then.

But this time, he couldn’t back down easily.

It was uncomfortable enough that Seong-ho Kim had established himself at Ilhyeon Watch through the restructuring’s success — but for him to take charge of the newly restructured Ilhyeon Watch was something that must not be allowed to happen.

Mun-jong Lee, meeting Tak-hyeon Lee’s uncharacteristically irritated gaze, didn’t back down.

“Chairman. I think that would be too much, even so.”

“Too much? How is it too much?”

“Restructuring and running a company are matters of an entirely different order. And in Kim’s case, his rank is still assistant manager — if we skip procedure and have him join the ranks of company presidents in one leap, the backlash will be severe.”

Mun-jong Lee was, uncharacteristically, standing firm.

Sang-jong Lee, apparently thinking he shouldn’t stay silent either, backed Mun-jong Lee up.

“There’s never been anyone in Ilhyeon Group’s history who went from assistant manager straight to president in one leap. Even we, as your own children, climbed the ladder step by step to reach where we are now — so no matter how impressive what he’s done is, I think there’d be a problem with jumping him straight to a president’s seat too.”

Once Sang-jong Lee finished speaking, Tak-hyeon Lee’s face crumpled deeply and he said,

“You two talk as if you weren’t there when I made my promise.”

“A promise? What promise are you…?”

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

Sang-jong Lee didn’t seem to remember, but Mun-jong Lee did.

“I clearly promised Kim that if he normalized Ilhyeon Watch, I’d give him an executive seat. You two were there too, and now you’re telling me it can’t be done.”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s words, Sang-jong Lee, still not reading the mood, spoke as if he’d only just remembered.

“Ah, that. I do remember that, but…”

“So you’re telling me you want me to become a man who can’t even keep his own promises!”

At Tak-hyeon Lee’s roar, Sang-jong Lee stopped mid-sentence, bowed his head, and only watched the room nervously.

Snorting at the sight of Sang-jong Lee, Tak-hyeon Lee turned his gaze to Mun-jong Lee.

“This is something no one has ever done before. Which is why I mean to keep my promise — so on what grounds are you telling me it can’t be done?”

“Chairman. The promise was to raise him to an executive seat, not the president’s seat at Ilhyeon Watch. I’m only saying there’s no reason to ignore the backlash from the existing president’s office and seat Kim in the Ilhyeon Watch president’s chair.”

Mun-jong Lee turned to Seong-ho Kim and asked,

“Don’t take it personally if what I say hurts, but understand — there’s never been a case in Ilhyeon Group’s history of someone rising from assistant manager straight to president’s seat in one leap, and there shouldn’t be.”

“I know.”

Seong-ho Kim smiled lightly at Mun-jong Lee’s words and opened his mouth.

“The Ilhyeon Watch president’s seat is a burden to me too, Chairman.”

“A burden?”

When Tak-hyeon Lee turned his gaze to him, Seong-ho Kim said to him in a calm voice,

“Yes. I believe the Ilhyeon Watch president’s seat should go to some other capable talent, not to me.”

Mun-jong Lee and Sang-jong Lee looked startled, apparently not expecting Seong-ho Kim to refuse.

However free of ambition a person might be, turning down an affiliate president’s seat wouldn’t be easy — and yet Seong-ho Kim showed his refusal with a face that seemed entirely untroubled by it.

Tak-hyeon Lee was just as surprised.

“Do you mean that sincerely? This isn’t just any seat — it’s the president’s chair of the very place you cleaned up and remade yourself. And still you’re saying no?”

“However many times you ask, my answer is the same. The Ilhyeon Watch president’s seat should go to a capable talent who can lead the company better than I could. I’m not suited to the Ilhyeon Watch president’s chair.”

At Seong-ho Kim’s words, not just Managing Director Jeong-eun Lee of Ilhyeon Fashion, who’d been quietly listening, but even the anxiously-watching Chang-jong Lee lifted his bowed head and looked at Seong-ho Kim.

Seong-ho Kim looked at the gazes gathered on him and smiled without a word.

‘Gyeong-eun would have made a scene if she were here.’

Had Gyeong-eun Lee heard Seong-ho Kim’s words, she would surely have jumped up and down in her seat, demanding to know why.

She might even have gotten into a full-blown fight after hearing Mun-jong Lee and Sang-jong Lee’s objections.

Which was why Seong-ho Kim hadn’t brought Gyeong-eun Lee to this gathering.

To smoothly turn down the Ilhyeon Watch president’s seat, Gyeong-eun Lee’s absence had been necessary.

Leaping from assistant manager straight to an affiliate president’s seat in one bound would certainly have been an astonishing thing.

Since it had never happened even once within a chaebol family before, if Seong-ho Kim had actually done it, it would have set the whole country talking.

But that wasn’t what Seong-ho Kim wanted.

Ilhyeon Watch was indeed an Ilhyeon Group affiliate, but not a core one — which meant that if he weren’t careful, he could end up spending his time in the backwater that was Ilhyeon Watch.

For Seong-ho Kim, the present moment was more important than any other.

Right now, he needed to raise his standing and solidify his surroundings, laying the groundwork for his revenge.

He couldn’t afford to spend his time in a place like Ilhyeon Watch during a period like this.

On top of that, the watch business was one of the declining industries.

Though it had entered normalization now through the restructuring, Seong-ho Kim knew it would only grow harder as time passed.

This was something happening amid a shift in the industry itself, something beyond even Seong-ho Kim’s control.

So Seong-ho Kim had no intention of tying himself down to Ilhyeon Watch.

“Chairman.”

Seong-ho Kim spoke in a calm voice to Tak-hyeon Lee, who wore a curious expression, and to the rest of the family, still watching him with startled faces.

“In carrying out Ilhyeon Watch’s restructuring, I’ve learned a great deal and found real enjoyment in it as well. So I find myself wanting to do the same kind of work somewhere other than Ilhyeon Watch.”

“The same kind of work — you mean restructuring?”

“Yes.”

Seong-ho Kim looked around at the people seated there and spoke.

“The Ilhyeon Group has a great many affiliates. Some are thriving, and some are not — like Ilhyeon Watch was, before. If I could bring places like that back to normal, the way I did this time, I believe it would be a good thing for the group as well.”

“So you’re saying you’ll go around hunting down the rotten parts of the group, for the group’s sake?”

“Yes. I came into this family with nothing, after all. I’d like to be of use to the group, even if only in this way.”

Seong-ho Kim bowed his head to Tak-hyeon Lee and made his request.

“Chairman. I ask this of you. Please allow me to continue carrying out affiliate restructuring, for the group’s sake.”

At Seong-ho Kim’s words, Tak-hyeon Lee gazed at him intently.

Merit didn’t accumulate simply from carrying out a restructuring and reviving a company.

In the present era, real results only truly accumulated once the revived company normalized and its profits grew.

In other words, what Seong-ho Kim was doing was no different from setting the whole table and then withdrawing on his own before the meal was served.

Mun-jong Lee and the others could only watch in silence, unable to understand why Seong-ho Kim was doing this.

But Seong-ho Kim knew, from his experience in his past life, exactly how important the restructuring knife was.

He remembered clearly just how much power the person holding that restructuring knife came to wield at the center of the group.

It was to prepare for that very moment that Seong-ho Kim intended to lower himself and head toward difficult ground.

(End of Chapter 29)