Seong-ho explained, in a calm voice, why he’d summoned the fuming Mun-jong here.

“There are too many watching eyes at headquarters for me to go there. If I went to head office to see you, of all people, Brother, what would people think? And if word of it reached the chairman, what would he make of it?”

Still not following, Mun-jong shouted, “What’s the difference between you coming and me coming? Spare me the excuses!”

But Seong-ho held steady, answering with the same expression he’d worn from the start. “There’s a difference. If I go to head office, it looks like I’m the one persuading you. If you come to the hotel, it looks like you’re recruiting me. Whether I’m the one driving the matter or you are — that’s a considerable difference.”

“Persuading? Recruiting? What are you talking about?”

Seong-ho smiled at the still-uncomprehending Mun-jong and explained. “I want to be on your side. And if that’s so, wouldn’t a picture of you drawing me in look better than one of me walking in on my own two feet?”

“You want to be on my side?”

“Yes. Because I support you.”

Mun-jong let out an incredulous laugh. “You, on my side? Why? You think siding with me gets you the hotel presidency?”

Bang!

He slammed his palm on the table and shouted, “Not a chance! You put up a little performance and now you’ve got your eye on the president’s chair — but a man like you will never sit in it. Never.”

“I feel the same way.”

“…What?”

Mid-shout, Mun-jong pulled up short at Seong-ho agreeing with him. “What did you just say?”

“Same as you, Brother — I don’t think I should be sitting in the hotel president’s chair either.”

“Is that… true?”

“Of course. I’ve not the slightest appetite for the position. If anything, the chairman seems ready to hand it to me, and it’s put me in a bind. That’s exactly why I asked you to come here.”

Catching the tension ease from Mun-jong’s hands, Seong-ho went on. “With the chairman using the word gift in front of the entire body of presidents, my situation right now is a very awkward one.”

Mun-jong narrowed his eyes and studied him.

“You may or may not remember this, Brother, but I’m a man who takes real pleasure in restructuring work.”

“Right. You said as much back during the Ilhyeon Watch business.”

“So for someone like me, sitting in the hotel president’s chair is as good as having my hands and feet tied. Would I truly want a seat like that?”

Mun-jong bored into his face, trying to read whether the words were sincere — but staring got him nowhere. Through all those years, Seong-ho had bent every effort to keeping his heart hidden in front of this man.

When Mun-jong finally gave up and eased back, Seong-ho spoke again. “And there’s more I’d like to do together with you, Brother.”

“With me?”

“Yes. Aren’t you the next master of Ilhyeon Group?”

The set line of Mun-jong’s mouth twitched. “That’s true. I am the next in line.”

“I’m working under the chairman’s direction for now, but looking to the future, I’ll spend far more of my days working under yours. That’s why I want to keep a good relationship with you. That’s my honest feeling.”

“Hahaha. Now you’re finally making sense. Yes — just as you say, my time with you will outlast my time with Father. So if you’re going to fall in behind someone, it’s only natural it be me.”

“I’ve been standing behind you ever since the Jisan Cement affair.”

At the mention of Jisan Cement, delivered with a slight bow of the head, Mun-jong nodded. “Right. That’s true. I’d forgotten for a moment.”

Feeling that all his past wariness toward Seong-ho had been so much wasted effort, Mun-jong unknit his brow and looked at him afresh. “All right. So what do you want? Don’t tell me it’s nothing — of course there’s something you want, or you wouldn’t be lining up beside me.”

“I won’t deny it. There’s something I’d like your help with.”

“I like the honesty. Speak. If it’s within reason, I’ll grant all of it.”

Seong-ho gave a faint smile and began to lay out what he wanted.

Tak-hyeon set aside every Sunday for a family meal, but across twelve months there was no way to get everyone there at once. The eldest, Mun-jong, and the second son, Sang-jong, were forever away on business trips, and the others no different. Occasions with all five children and their spouses present could be counted on one hand.

Tak-hyeon knew this, and had never once made an issue of it. Yet for this meal, for the first time, he’d ordered that not a single person be absent.

“That’s the best driving you can manage?”

Stepping out of the car, Jeong-eun raised her voice in irritation, and the driver who’d taken Seong-ho last time came rushing over to drop to his knees before her.

“I’m sorry, ma’am.”

“Sorry?”

At the apology her eyes flew up, and she cracked him across the cheek.

Slap!

Head knocked aside, the driver could only keep repeating that he was sorry. Even so it didn’t cool her, and she went on shrieking.

“You think I pay you good money to drive like that? If you’re going to eat up my money, you earn every bit of it! You take me for a fool? Huh? You think I’m some pushover throwing cash at you!”

Thrashing about, she struck the driver with her handbag and her feet. Head bowed, he took the kicking in silence. He had old parents, young children, a wife caring for those parents in his stead, and an ailing younger sibling — a whole household leaning on him.

The beating had gone on for some while when the door opened and Seong-ho appeared.

“Sister-in-law. You’ve arrived? You’re here — why aren’t you going in—”

At his appearance, Jeong-eun’s husband, Yeong-su Cha — who until then had stood off to one side feigning ignorance of the whole scene — came over to Seong-ho.

“Kim. Been a while.” Cha caught him briefly and drew him away from Jeong-eun, lowering his voice. “Let’s wait until her temper cools a bit before we go in.”

Seong-ho looked at Jeong-eun, still aiming kicks at the driver, and asked, “Why is she like this? Did something happen on the way?”

“Well…” Cha glanced back at his wife, grimaced, then said with a sour look, “Driver Kim changed lanes more times than she’d told him to on the way over. She didn’t like it, so — this. Ugh.” The reason was so absurd that Cha shuddered even as he said it. Then, pitched so only Seong-ho could hear: “Is your wife the same?”

Seong-ho felt he understood the whole situation just from listening. He’d seen Jeong-eun brutalize drivers more times than he could count in that former life.

A temperament like that doesn’t go anywhere.

Swallowing a private laugh, he nodded. “We all carry the same Lee surname, don’t we? Much alike.”

“Right?”

Delighted to have found a comrade, Cha laid a hand on Seong-ho’s shoulder. “You must have it rough too. Let me tell you one thing, as your senior — no amount of time changes that wretched temper. Early on I held out hope she’d come around. Never happened. If it changes at all, it only gets worse. Never better.” Cha shook his head as if thoroughly worn out, and Seong-ho just nodded along, going through the motions.

The truth was that Gyeong-eun’s nature was nothing whatsoever like Jeong-eun’s. Where Jeong-eun regarded the driver — everyone, really — as her inferior, Gyeong-eun treated high and low alike with unfailing courtesy. She was so loath to reveal whose daughter she was or which family she came from that Seong-ho hadn’t the faintest idea, until they married, that she was Chairman Tak-hyeon Lee’s daughter.

Opposite as the two women were, Seong-ho forged common ground with Cha on the word alike.

I need Cha.

With so much ahead of him inside Ilhyeon Group, Cha was someone Seong-ho couldn’t do without. So he played along, building rapport, working to brand himself into Cha’s mind as a fellow traveler.

“Ah, well. You poor devil…”

Feeling a strong kinship now with someone in his own predicament, Cha looked at Seong-ho with a how did we ever marry into this family sort of gaze — and, unlike himself, saw a man with no one at his back, and pitied him for it.

“Haah. Haah. Where do you get off…”

Only when she was gasping for breath did Jeong-eun’s assault finally stop. Seeing it, Cha decided it was safe now to call her over. “Let’s go in. Kim’s come out too, and the chairman won’t be pleased if we’re late.”

“Hoo… let’s go.”

Straightening her clothes, Jeong-eun raked her eyes up and down over Seong-ho, gave a snort, and went in through the door.

She hadn’t so much as offered a greeting. Cha shook his head, patted Seong-ho lightly on the back, and followed after her.

Once the two had gone inside, Seong-ho approached the driver — soil ground into him head to foot — and held out a handkerchief.

“…Thank you.”

Tears falling in fat drops, the driver took it and wiped his eyes.

“Have heart. Endure, and something good is sure to come.”

Seong-ho offered the words of comfort and rose to his feet. Then, a moment later, he stepped toward a house where a storm was about to break.

“Dad. We’re here.”

Opening the door and stepping in, Jeong-eun shouted it as she took off her shoes.

Inside, Gyeong-eun had been preparing food with the housekeepers; at her sister’s voice she came running to the door still in her apron. “You’re here?”

Shoes off, Jeong-eun looked her over with contempt. “What are you doing?”

“Helping out.”

“Why are you helping? Are you the hired help?”

“No, that’s not — I just—”

“We pay people for this. Why are you butting in to lend a hand?”

“It’s nice to set out the food for the family myself…”

“Ugh.”

As if there were no getting through to her, Jeong-eun sighed and shook her head. Then she turned to Seong-ho, coming through the door behind, and muttered to herself, “Husband and wife, exactly alike. Well, that’s why they met and married, I suppose. Pathetic suits pathetic perfectly.”

She shook her head and went in.

At that, Gyeong-eun called after the back of her retreating head, “Insult me all you like, but don’t insult my Seong-ho. Who are you to talk down my Seong-ho? I told you I wouldn’t stand for it if you did!”

Gyeong-eun shouted, but Jeong-eun didn’t so much as pretend to listen, digging at her ear as she walked on.

“Sister! Can you not hear me!”

“Gyeong-eun.”

As she made to follow her sister in and confront her, Seong-ho gently took hold of her shoulder. The heat went out of her at his touch, and she flushed.

“I’m sorry… I think I got a little carried away.”

“I know it was because you were thinking of me. But today, you have to hold it in.” Seong-ho looked straight into her eyes and smiled. “Because today is an important day for you.”

“Hoo… I know. But…”

She trailed off, then shook the agitation loose and nodded at him. “You’re right. We’ve decided to do this, so we should do it well. All right. I trust you, and I’ll bear it.”

That she would simply believe him and follow — no persuading required — gave Seong-ho enormous strength.

Now, then. Shall I lift Gyeong-eun up to the top?

Thinking ahead to what was soon to come, Seong-ho let a deep smile spread across his face.

(End of Chapter 52)