Mun-jong Lee set down the newspaper he had been holding on the table, and looked at Seong-ho Kim, seated beside him.

"Am I really supposed to be hearing something like this through the newspaper?"

Mun-jong Lee, pointing at the newspaper with his finger, spat out words that carried his displeasure.

[President-elect Min-gu Noh Emphasizes: The Number One Goal of the Next Government Is the Economy]

[On the First Day After His Election, He Attains the Feat of Attracting 100 Trillion Won in Investment]

[Ilhyeon Group Unwraps a 100-Trillion-Won Congratulatory Gift for President-elect Min-gu Noh]

[Ilhyeon Electronics and President-elect Min-gu Noh Share the Dream of Making Yongin the World's Foremost Semiconductor Region]

The newspaper was packed with articles about what had been said with Min-gu Noh a few days earlier.

Mun-jong Lee looked at Seong-ho Kim with eyes full of dissatisfaction, and then spoke.

"When something like this comes up, aren't you supposed to talk to me first? So I can talk to Mincheong Party and negotiate with Min-gu Noh. If you just come out with something like this on your own, what are we supposed to do?"

"I apologize."

Seong-ho Kim chose apology over defense.

"I should have first told you, Brother, and asked for your advice before speaking with Min-gu Noh. My thinking was shallow."

At Seong-ho Kim's clean apology, Mun-jong Lee lost the words he had been going to say.

"Ahem. Well. At least it's a comfort that you know you were in the wrong..."

Mun-jong Lee, who had lost his words at an apology without excuses in it, found it a shame to leave it at that and was about to throw in one more line.

Just then Yong-bae Jeong, the Executive Director seated to the side, stopped Mun-jong Lee.

"Vice-Chairman. Since President Kim has apologized, do please forgive him."

Following Yong-bae Jeong, Managing Director Cheol-yeong Jang also offered a word in Seong-ho Kim's defense.

"President Kim can't have done this on purpose. It won't happen again from here on — so in your generous magnanimity, Vice-Chairman, how about forgiving him?"

The reason the two of them…