"It really has been a while since everyone's gathered like this. Wouldn't you say?"

"Call on us more often, then."

"Do I only come when I call? Couldn't you come on your own, for once?"

"Then from now on we'll come find you ourselves."

Tak-hyeon Lee offered up a joke, and President An-bang Kim played along with it, working to smooth over the awkwardness in the room.

But he couldn't shake off all the tension hanging in the conference room.

Every president there simply watched Tak-hyeon Lee with a rigid face.

"Gathered like this, it brings back the old days. President Lee. Do you remember? Back when we had no semiconductor technology to speak of, and we struggled to make our very first chip."

"How could I forget? I couldn't have gone home more than three days that whole year, could I? Thanks to that, I even missed my son's middle school graduation."

"That's right. That's how it was."

Tak-hyeon Lee dwelled for a moment on those days gone by, then spoke to Chung-do Lee.

"Just like back then, I need you to help Ilhyeon Electronics one more time."

"Brother. Just say the word. I'm ready to do anything for Ilhyeon Electronics."

Chung-do Lee said it as though he were ready to lay down his very life.

Tak-hyeon Lee looked at him and said, smiling:

"Good. Then let me speak plainly. Leave the company, for its own good."

"Sir? Leave? Leave where?"

"Don't pretend you don't follow. I don't believe a man as sharp as you failed to understand me."

Having told him not to play dumb, Tak-hyeon Lee turned to the rest of the presidents and said:

"The same goes for the rest of you. Leave the company. It's the last thing you can do for Ilhyeon Electronics."

"Chairman. What on earth do you mean by that, all of a sudden?"

The presidents all demanded at once to know what he meant, but Tak-hyeon Lee, without so much as a twitch of his brow, gave Do-beom Hwang an order.

"Bring the mutual termination agreements."

"Yes, sir."

Do-beom Hwang left…