Seong-ho stood with his father, Pan-seok Kim, looking out over the paddies spread wide across the plain that ran from Buin-ri to Deokpyeong-ri.

“You always said the soil here was good, that the rice grows well.”

“That’s right. So it does.”

“This is your land now, Father.”

Gazing over the broad stretch of paddy, Pan-seok turned his head to look at Seong-ho and asked, “Is it really all right to take this? A whole 20,000 pyeong?”

Pan-seok had never in his life owned a single pyeong of land. The new house built not long ago had been built with his son’s money; he’d lived his whole life in the station of a poor tenant farmer. So when his in-law offered a gift of a full hundred majigi — twenty thousand pyeong of land — it wasn’t gratitude that rose in Pan-seok so much as an unaccountable fear.

“You didn’t do something wrong, did you?”

Seong-ho smiled and shook his head. “Where in the world does anyone give land away because you did something wrong?”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

Pan-seok hesitated a moment, then glanced back at Gyeong-eun, arm linked with Myeong-ja, talking behind them. He lowered his voice. “I hear rich families offer money to make you split from their daughter or son — this isn’t them giving us this so you’ll leave the new girl, is it?”

He looked at Seong-ho, his face full of worry.

Seong-ho took his father’s hand. “If they were going to make me leave her, they’d have done it long ago. It’s nothing like that, so don’t worry.”

“Is that… really so?”

Even at the denial Pan-seok wasn’t convinced, and Seong-ho set him at ease, then gestured out at the land. “It’s a gift my father-in-law gave me because I brought his family a great profit and he was pleased with my work.”

“You… can do a thing like that?”

“I told you when I came last time, didn’t I? My wife’s family doesn’t look down on me — they handle me like a piece of fine jade, something precious.”

After coming to live his life over again, Seong-ho had gone to Nonsan, where his parents’ home was. Seeing his father’s face, which he’d missed, and his mother’s, toward whom a lingering sorriness remained, he had shed tears for a while.

Pan-seok and Myeong-ja had watched their son and thought he was suffering hardships he couldn’t put into words, married into the Ilhyeon house as a live-in son-in-law. Their son, of ordinary country stock, had entered a formidable family, and they imagined he must be walking on eggshells and taking a good deal of abuse.

Weeping a while like that, Seong-ho had made a promise to Pan-seok and Myeong-ja: that the people of the Ilhyeon house would come to handle him like fine jade. Pan-seok and Myeong-ja had let their son’s words go in one ear and out the other, thinking he must have had a terribly hard time to be saying such things.

And now Seong-ho was telling them he’d kept that promise.

“So you’re saying your wife’s family gave you this land as a gift because you did well by them?”

“Why else would they give this much land? Even reckoning it at just 20,000 won a pyeong, it comes to 400 million won.”

But Pan-seok couldn’t believe it, and asked again and again. Through all the repeated questions Seong-ho never wearied, smiling and giving the same answer each time.

“At my wife’s family, I’m going to become someone they can less and less do without. So take it with an easy heart. I earned this honestly, through my work.”

Only then did Pan-seok relax, and he looked out over the broad sweep of paddy. His past — a lifetime scraping by on other men’s land — passed before his eyes like a turning lantern. And picturing himself from now on as one of the handful of prosperous farmers not just in the village but in the whole district, living large, he couldn’t hide his joy.

They were still gazing at the paddies when a power tiller came chugging up to where they stood. The man driving it hailed Pan-seok and Seong-ho.

“Aigoo. Who’s this? Seong-ho, you’re here.”

“Headman. Have you been keeping well?”

As the village headman came over and made his greeting, Seong-ho greeted him back.

“Brother, why didn’t you tell me Seong-ho had come?”

“He’s only here for a short while.”

“Come now. A short while is still coming, isn’t it?” From atop the tiller, the headman asked Seong-ho, “Did your bride come along too?”

“Yes. She’s over there.” Seong-ho pointed out Gyeong-eun, standing with Myeong-ja.

The headman nodded as if pleased and said to Pan-seok, “It’s been ages since your family gathered — why don’t we all share a meal?”

“Aigoo. Why go to needless trouble?”

“What needless trouble? It’s just that I’m seeing Seong-ho and his bride after so long. I’ll tell the village folk, so let’s gather at the village hall this evening and grill some meat. All right?”

The headman didn’t even wait for Pan-seok’s answer before he got the halted tiller moving again. Leaving Seong-ho a word about seeing him later, he departed amid the noise of the machine.

Pan-seok looked at Seong-ho as if to ask whether it was all right, but Seong-ho smiled and told him not to worry, then headed over to where Gyeong-eun and Myeong-ja were.

Hearing about it, Myeong-ja wore the same awkward look as Pan-seok — but unexpectedly, Gyeong-eun was delighted, her face saying she looked forward to the evening. Already entertaining thoughts of coming down to live here someday, she was pleased to have a chance to grow close to the village people.

And so the family of four, having toured the land Tak-hyeon had handed over, set off for the village hall where the meal would be laid out.

Byeong-jin Jo greeted Seong-ho warmly, seeing him back at work after a while. “Have a good holiday? Coming in early, and on the very first day of the year.”

Byeong-jin had documents he’d meant to report on in hand; he passed them to Seong-ho himself and went into the office with him. “Did the trip to the country house go well?”

“It went well.”

“Your parents were happy?”

“Why wouldn’t they be? So hurry up and get married yourself. Your parents must be waiting for it too.”

“They’re waiting, all right. But marriage isn’t something I can pull off on my own… what am I to do when there’s no suitable person?” Byeong-jin, who did seem to want to marry, spoke with regret on his face.

Seong-ho looked at him and offered, half-teasing, “Shall I ask Gyeong-eun to set you up?”

“Aigoo. Don’t.” Byeong-jin waved his hands hurriedly. “Any young lady in Gyeong-eun’s circle would be a young lady of the same caliber… I couldn’t handle it.” He lowered his hands and looked at Seong-ho as if he were a marvel. “It’s only you who can handle it. I haven’t the confidence. I just want to live an easy life.”

Seong-ho was smiling quietly at that when Manager Byeong-ju Jeong came into his office. “Heard you were back — did you get plenty of rest?”

Seong-ho pointed to the seat beside Byeong-jin. “I was just about to send for you, and you’ve come right on cue. Have a seat.”

“What’s this? You wanted me?” Byeong-ju looked at Seong-ho as if to ask, and sat down next to Byeong-jin.

Seong-ho looked between the two of them and began to tell them what he’d settled with the Ilhyeon family. “At year’s end, the chairman and the whole family gathered in Pyeongchang-dong.”

Byeong-ju and Byeong-jin both tensed slightly at the words whole family gathered.

Seong-ho told them what had happened there. The two listened to all of it without a word, then wore stunned expressions.

“So you… you’re saying you’re quitting the company?”

“Yeah. That’s how it’s turned out.” Seong-ho answered as if it were nothing.

At that, Byeong-jin’s face twisted. “So that family’s finally starting its mad business — they saw you doing a little too well and threw you out?”

Even after the explanation, Byeong-jin’s hostility showed, and Seong-ho smiled. “Where did you take my story? I’m quitting because I want to.”

“That’s what I’m saying — they left you no choice but to quit, didn’t they? That crazy family—”

Byeong-ju, seated beside him, calmed Byeong-jin down. “From what I hear it doesn’t sound like that, so don’t get worked up — listen to Director Kim properly.”

At that, Byeong-jin let out a heavy sigh and nodded.

Knowing all of this was for his sake, Seong-ho looked at Byeong-jin with a warm gaze and said, “I’m only stepping back for a while. So you and the manager give our Gyeong-eun a good hand.”

“Stepping back for a while — does that mean you could come back?” Byeong-ju, quietly analyzing the words, put the question.

Seong-ho nodded. “Yes. I’ll come back.”

“If you come back… when? How?” Byeong-jin followed Byeong-ju with his own question.

Seong-ho turned his head to look at the calendar. The one on the wall showed the new year. Looking at the year printed on it, he said with a light smile, “There’ll be all sorts of extraordinary things this year, so it won’t take long. And as for coming back…”

He turned back to Byeong-ju and Byeong-jin. “I’ll come back when the company comes looking for me, asking me to return. Until then, just stay a while by Gyeong-eun’s side and help her run Ilhyeon Hotel on a stable footing.”

Byeong-ju and Byeong-jin didn’t understand what he meant by the company coming to beg him back. They only figured that, as much as Seong-ho was anticipating such a thing, it would come to pass.

“Then what becomes of our Strategic Planning restructuring team?” Byeong-ju pointed his finger in turn at Byeong-jin, himself, and Seong-ho. “It was only the three of us, a shabby little team inside Strategic Planning — but we put up some pretty good results with Ilhyeon Watch and Ilhyeon Hotel, you know.”

“As it happens, that’s exactly what I meant to bring up.” Seong-ho clasped his hands and turned to the matter of the team. “First, I asked the Chief to have you both promoted. You, Manager, to Deputy Head, and Assistant Manager Jo to Manager.”

“Really? I’m to be a Manager? My years of service are still short — is that all right?”

Seong-ho turned to the startled Byeong-jin. “Your service years fall short of the standard, but I asked that you be included as a special-promotion case. The Ilhyeon Hotel job is more than enough to warrant it.”

Byeong-jin nodded. That they’d posted results too high for even the company to object to was an undeniable fact.

“Barring anything out of the ordinary, you’ll both be promoted, and — I’m sorry to say — our restructuring team will have to disband for the time being.”

“So it is, then?” Byeong-ju said, letting the regret show. He’d found real pleasure in restructuring, working alongside Seong-ho. The process of reviving a collapsing company, setting it right and standing it back up, had given him a fulfillment beyond anything else, and he’d come to wish, if he could, to keep doing this kind of work. He’d even fallen deep enough into it to wonder whether he might have a talent for the field. But hearing Seong-ho was leaving the company, he could foresee that the restructuring team was, in the end, finished. It was a team made possible by Seong-ho; the moment he vanished, all its meaning vanished with him.

“Director Kim asked me to serve the incoming president well, so I expected it… but it’s a shame.”

As Byeong-ju’s face filled with regret, Seong-ho leaned in over his clasped hands and put his head forward toward the two of them. “That, too, is only for a while.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Byeong-jin sensed there were several meanings folded into that word while.

Seong-ho gave the two of them a deep smile. “When I come back, I’ll build the restructuring team bigger than it is now.”

“Bigger? Not just the three of us — bigger?”

“That’s right. By then I’ll come back not as a team, but as a Division.”

“A… Division?”

Even the Strategic Planning Office was only an “office.” And the restructuring team was one of several teams beneath that office. But at the word that he’d return at the level of a Division — larger than the Strategic Planning Office itself — Byeong-ju and Byeong-jin were more astonished than they’d been at Seong-ho saying he’d quit. Having worked at Seong-ho’s side all this time and watched every word he uttered come true, they knew his talk of coming back at division level was no idle boast. In a situation where they couldn’t even imagine when or how he’d return, the claim that he’d come back as a Division pushed their imaginations to the limit.

Seong-ho eased his forward-leaning body back and, smiling, turned his eyes to the calendar. There it was in his sight — a calendar opening onto a year that would be written deep into the history of the Republic of Korea.

(End of Chapter 55)