"So? You've decided to buy this Druid place for fifty million dollars?"

"Yes. It'll be announced through the press tomorrow."

Tak-hyeon Lee sat at the dining table going over the papers Seong-ho Kim had handed him.

The housekeeper brought the sujeonggwa in. Suk-ja Chu took the cup and set it in front of Tak-hyeon Lee, then stole a look at the papers Tak-hyeon Lee had open and said, (TL Note: Sujeonggwa is a Korean cinnamon-and-ginger punch with dried persimmon in it, served cold at the end of a meal.)

"You spend it however you like, as if it were your own money. Fifty million dollars is an astronomical sum — are you allowed to throw it around like that? Without even asking the Chairman?"

"Mother. What's gotten into you?"

Gyeong-eun Lee was in the chair next to Seong-ho Kim. She weighed in on Seong-ho Kim's side.

"It was my husband's judgment, running the company, that the acquisition should go ahead. Why scold him over it?"

"It's the same money, isn't it? The company's money is your father's money."

"It's thinking the way you do, Mother, that's landing my eldest brother in prison for embezzlement."

"What did you say?"

"The company's money is the company's money. It isn't the owner's money."

Suk-ja Chu's whole face knotted at what Gyeong-eun Lee had just said.

Just then Seong-ho Kim took Gyeong-eun Lee's hand under the table and said to Suk-ja Chu, smiling,

"Mother. She was in the wrong. Please don't be angry. And don't worry — I haven't gone over the Chairman's head or spent the money without telling him."

"He told me beforehand he meant to buy it, so that's enough out of you."

Thwap.

Tak-hyeon Lee let the paper Seong-ho Kim had given him fall loudly onto the table and lifted the cup of sujeonggwa.

Tak-hyeon Lee rinsed his mouth with the sujeonggwa, set the cup down, and said,

"And you stay out of company business. Why would you butt in?"

"The youngest daughter and the son-in-law dismiss me because you dismiss me first. Isn't that how it works?"

"What have…