Not long after Seong-ho Kim and Mun-jong Lee had left Seongjungwon, Tak-hyeon Lee asked Do-beom Hwang,

"Did I really make the boy what he is?"

"No. How should it be your fault, Chairman, that Sang-jong turned out so? It was said in Mun-jong's agitation, so do not take it too much to heart."

Tak-hyeon Lee gave a short laugh at Do-beom Hwang's manner, looked down at the ashtray lying on the floor and said,

"Do you think me too harsh as well?"

"…"

An answer that he did not was not one Do-beom Hwang produced at once.

Tak-hyeon Lee, who had been looking down at the ashtray, raised his head to look at Do-beom Hwang and gave another short laugh.

"It's all right. I said it because I feel it, more or less, myself."

"Chairman."

At Tak-hyeon Lee's words Do-beom Hwang felt a forlornness.

"Ha ha ha."

Having let out a hollow laugh, Tak-hyeon Lee shook his head weakly.

"There was a time when I was asked whether it wasn't a fine thing to have got five children. I even worried over which of them the company should go to… but now only one is left… ha ha ha."

He had let out a laugh, but there was no strength in Tak-hyeon Lee's laughter.

A laughter with emptiness in it, and sorrow, circled about inside Tak-hyeon Lee's office.

"Chairman. Even so, Mun-jong hasn't caused any great trouble, has he."

"You call it fortunate that the fellow hasn't caused trouble?"

Tak-hyeon Lee raised his head and looked up at Do-beom Hwang.

"To your thinking, does that fellow look likely to go on not causing trouble?"

"That is…"

"Only the order in which they cause it differs; they're all the same sort. Gyeong-eun alone will be different."

"Chairman. Even so, if someone keeps close by him and talks to him properly…"

"Shall I not die, then, and go on keeping close by that fellow? Or will you keep by him?"

Do-beom Hwang could not answer at once.

Then, calling someone to mind for a moment, he opened his mouth.

"Chairman. Is there…