Having finished a simple meal, Tak-hyeon’s family had gathered in the living room.

From the outside it might have looked like a happy family get-together, but an unreadable tension ran between them.

“Agh! I can’t take it.”

In the end, it was the short-tempered Jeong-eun who broke first. “This is stifling — let’s just get it over with.”

Yeong-su Cha, seated beside her, tried to hold her back, but she wouldn’t listen. “Doesn’t this suffocating, maddening situation drive you crazy?”

Rebuking her husband as if daring him to say she was wrong, she turned to Tak-hyeon. “Dad. Just tell us. Why did you call everyone here today?”

Tak-hyeon frowned. “I’ll say it when I see fit. If you can’t even wait for that, what great thing do you imagine you could ever accomplish?”

“Fashion is a world where you don’t survive unless you move fast. It’s because it’s me that I survive in a place like that. Someone like second brother over there would’ve gone under a hundred times by now.”

At that, Sang-jong — deliberating whether to eat a piece of fruit — flared up. “I’m sitting here minding my own business. Why drag me in?”

“Well, it’s true, isn’t it? Is there anyone here who doesn’t know Ilhyeon Construction’s numbers are bad right now?” Jeong-eun swept her gaze over the room. “Honestly, it holds on only because it’s a company the size of Ilhyeon Construction. If you’d run Ilhyeon Fashion the way you manage, you’d have been thrown out ages ago.”

She turned her head slightly and muttered, “If you’re going to be incompetent, at least be incompetent in moderation.”

“What?“

But it was a mutter everyone in the room could hear.

Sang-jong shot to his feet, and Jeong-eun only snorted and looked up at him. “Did I say something wrong? It’s true. Everyone knows Ilhyeon Construction’s trouble comes from your lack of any management philosophy — so why get so worked up?”

“You… what kind of way is that to speak to your older brother?”

“Oh, how frightening. Nothing to say, so now you’re scolding me for dropping the honorifics? Act like an older brother and I’ll treat you like one.”

As Jeong-eun talked back, Sang-jong’s wife, unable to watch any longer, stepped in. “My. Sister-in-law. Say what you will, your older brother is still your older brother. And incompetent? Who’s incompetent? Ilhyeon Fashion is a speck next to Ilhyeon Construction, so there’s no managing it well or badly to speak of. Compare like with like. And… when you get down to it, aren’t you an executive at Ilhyeon Fashion, not its president? What has Ilhyeon Fashion doing well got to do with you?”

“Oh my — is the sister-in-law stepping in because her husband’s too dim to? Shall we hash it out, then?”

As the squabble among the siblings spread to their spouses, Gyeong-eun glanced at Seong-ho, at a loss for what to do.

But contrary to her worry, Seong-ho was watching the quarrel with interest.

I did think they were a strange family the first time I saw it.

He glanced over at Tak-hyeon. As much as Seong-ho himself, Tak-hyeon was watching his children fight with an interested eye.

In that former life it had struck Seong-ho as strange that these siblings — who once trembled at a single word from Tak-hyeon — would fight the moment they all gathered, even in front of him; and stranger still that Tak-hyeon, who would normally snap at the noise, only sat and watched when everyone was assembled.

But over long years spent beneath the great roof that was Ilhyeon Group, he’d come to understand why.

It’s a test Tak-hyeon sets, plain and simple.

Trample one another, climb up, and wrench Ilhyeon Group from my hand.

That was precisely the sight Tak-hyeon wanted from his children, and so he let their fights run rather than stopping them. A man who prized not warm fraternal affection but a survival-of-the-fittest, winner-take-all order, Tak-hyeon regarded his children’s quarrels as a kind of after-dinner dessert, sitting on the sofa and watching with a pleased face.

When the fighting had gone on a while and then subsided into a lull, at last the mouth that had only watched began, slowly, to open.

“Are you finished now?”

Jeong-eun’s eyes returned to Tak-hyeon. Meeting them, he asked, “May I speak now?”

With the heat gone out of her, Jeong-eun couldn’t bear to meet his gaze and only bowed her head.

Tak-hyeon looked at her a moment, then spoke. “The reason I called you all is none other than Kim, my son-in-law, over there. No — our Director Kim.”

The instant Tak-hyeon called him our Director Kim, the eyes in the room changed. The word our made them feel Seong-ho’s position as a rival in the succession contest.

Tak-hyeon smiled quietly at his children’s altered looks and went on. “The hotel Director Kim restructured is projected to post very positive results. And so…”

He turned his gaze to Seong-ho. Looking straight at him, he curled the corner of his mouth up.

Seeing it, Seong-ho thought to himself, There it is. Of course. The chairman was never a man to give something for nothing.

He knew his reading had been correct. Reflecting that what he’d prepared had not been wasted effort, he waited for Tak-hyeon’s next words.

“I intend to seat Director Kim in the president’s chair of Ilhyeon Hotel. I called you here to tell you as much, so take it as settled.”

“Father!”

“Chairman!”

“What do you mean? President?”

The moment Tak-hyeon finished, objections burst out on every side.

“What has he done to become president?”

Jeong-eun’s opposition was the fiercest of all. Jabbing a finger at Seong-ho, she shouted, “A man who never got a proper upbringing in a proper family, without even the usual master’s or doctorate, who came into Ilhyeon Distribution and ran errands for supermarket managers — he’s to be president of Ilhyeon Hotel? Dad. Are you ill?”

“Jeong-eun!”

Suk-ja Chu, who had said nothing at Tak-hyeon’s side, shouted at her. She was of the very same mind as Jeong-eun, but this — speaking so bluntly in front of Tak-hyeon — she had to stop, or they’d all catch worse from him.

At the question of whether he was ill, Tak-hyeon laughed lightly. “Hahaha. Yes, perhaps I’ve gone senile.”

“Father. What are you saying? Jeong-eun, apologize to Father at once for your rudeness.”

Startled, Mun-jong spoke up, but Tak-hyeon raised a hand to cut him off. “No. Jeong-eun’s right. I have gone senile.”

He turned his head toward her. “The fact that I still have you sitting in the managing director’s chair at Ilhyeon Fashion — that proves I’ve gone senile.”

“What… what do you mean…?”

“How were Ilhyeon Fashion’s numbers this year? Still flat? And still in the red on top of it?”

“That’s…”

“Have you the face to insult Ilhyeon Construction? Ilhyeon Fashion is a place where a dozen times a day I wonder whether it’s better to shut it down or leave it be — and there you sit, not even president, only a managing director, prattling on about management!”

Jeong-eun couldn’t get out a word.

“Compared to you, Director Kim not only turned Ilhyeon Hotel into the black but doubled its revenue as promised. And you think that’s all? Next year Ilhyeon Hotel’s projected revenue is 350 billion. Three hundred fifty billion. That means he grew the company nearly tenfold in two years. Do you understand what that means?”

“Three… 350 billion?”

Jeong-eun stared at Seong-ho in disbelief. Every other sibling in the room looked at him exactly the same way.

“Not 250 billion — 350 billion?”

The 250 billion that had come out at the presidents’ meeting was already astonishing, and now they said 350 billion was projected; Sang-jong could only wear a look of pure incredulity.

Tak-hyeon looked around at his children, snorted, and said, “It’s something not one of you has done, or could do. He accomplished a thing like that, so naturally I mean to give him the presidency of Ilhyeon Hotel. Does any of you object?”

Tak-hyeon had looked around expecting that no one could object — but the objection came, unexpectedly, from another quarter.

“Chairman. I’m not suited to the president’s chair of Ilhyeon Hotel. It’s an immensely gracious offer, but I’d ask you to withdraw the decision.”

It was Seong-ho, sitting quietly, who voiced his refusal.

At Seong-ho’s unexpected refusal, Tak-hyeon let a faintly flustered look cross his face. “What did you just say? Did you say you don’t want it?”

“I’m a man ill-suited to serving as a company’s president.”

Tak-hyeon bored into him. Meeting that stinging gaze, Seong-ho began the piece he’d prepared.

“As I told you before, I’m a man who finds his pleasure in restructuring. For a man like that to be president… it doesn’t suit.”

“So you’re telling me you don’t want to stand out front yourself — you’d rather just clean up the messes others leave behind?”

“It’s a coarse way to put it, but… yes. I only want to work quietly, behind the scenes, for Ilhyeon Group.”

Tak-hyeon looked at him with surprise. Vexed as he was at having his offer refused, the words pleased him greatly — they were about as close to a model answer as could be given from Seong-ho’s position.

“Father.”

After Seong-ho’s model answer, Mun-jong spoke up. “Director Kim has said since last time that he has no interest in management. So let’s have the hotel presidency withdrawn here.”

Tak-hyeon looked at him with an expression that said of course you’d say that. But what followed was something even Tak-hyeon hadn’t foreseen.

“That said, we can’t dismiss Director Kim’s contribution. So I’d suggest that, in his place, we seat Gyeong-eun as president of Ilhyeon Hotel.”

“The youngest?”

Tak-hyeon looked at Mun-jong, taken aback.

Mun-jong nodded, glanced briefly at Seong-ho, and opened his mouth again. “Yes. They’ve said since old times that husband and wife are one body, haven’t they? So raising Gyeong-eun to president of Ilhyeon Hotel amounts to seating Director Kim there. And should any difficulty arise, Director Kim — who has the experience of having run Ilhyeon Hotel — will be right beside her to help, so she’ll settle in far better than anyone else would.”

Tak-hyeon looked in turn at Seong-ho, Gyeong-eun, and Mun-jong. The corner of his mouth twitching, he said, “But wouldn’t that dull the meaning of my giving Director Kim a gift? To an outsider, wouldn’t it look as if some miser worked his son-in-law to the bone just to seat his daughter in the president’s chair?”

“It would not.” Mun-jong shook his head and pressed his case. “If we make it clear that the hotel is Gyeong-eun’s due… no one will be able to say a word against the decision.”

Tak-hyeon narrowed his eyes.

“Were it not for Director Kim, Ilhyeon Hotel was a situation where withdrawal itself had to be considered. Director Kim saved that hotel, so I think of the hotel as the youngest’s due.”

“You…”

Tak-hyeon started to ask Mun-jong whether he knew what he was saying — then realized that up to now, Mun-jong and Seong-ho had exchanged not a word about it, and nodded. “I see. So that’s how it is.”

He wore a knowing look and nodded. “Yes, that wouldn’t be bad either. As of today, Ilhyeon Hotel is Gyeong-eun’s. Take it as such.”

“Dad. What about me…?”

When Jeong-eun looked at him as if to ask why there was nothing for her, Tak-hyeon rose to his feet. “You bring me a definite result like Director Kim’s. Then I’ll give Ilhyeon Fashion to you outright. And — Director Kim.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“That said, it wouldn’t do to give you nothing at all, so let’s do this.” Tak-hyeon lifted his head a moment, sorting out in his mind what to give, then spoke. “There’s a plot of land I bought near Nonsan around the time you married. I’ll give you that, so let your parents farm at their ease. It won’t do for Ilhyeon’s in-laws to go on tenant-farming other people’s land, will it?”

“Thank you, Chairman.”

At Seong-ho’s thanks, Tak-hyeon nodded, looked around at his seated children, and said, “My business here is done. Rest a while before you go, or as you like.”

Watching Tak-hyeon turn and head up to the study, everyone rose and bowed their heads.

Then each of them worked to make sense of the situation they were now in.

After Tak-hyeon had gone, the siblings — Mun-jong excepted — could only look at one another with bewildered faces.

(End of Chapter 53)