Do-beom studied Tak-hyeon’s face carefully and asked, “Shall I look into it a bit more?”

“No, that’s fine.”

Setting aside the sour taste, Tak-hyeon signaled to Do-beom that it wasn’t necessary.

Knowing well how rare it was for Tak-hyeon to be this unsettled by something, Do-beom pressed him once more. “The things you’ve called unsettling have always turned out to have a problem, haven’t they? It’s not too late even now, so I’ll take another look. In the rush to check, I only confirmed the debt within the formal sector — but if I grasp the private loan market, the secondary financial sector, and inter-group debt as well, I’ll be able to confirm the details more thoroughly.”

“You would, yes. If there were time, that would certainly be the right thing to do.” Tak-hyeon nodded without unfolding his crossed arms. Then, presently, he shook his head. “But that’s not what I’m uneasy about.”

“Sorry? You weren’t worried that Dubo Steel has a lot of hidden debt?”

“Dubo Steel is a company already destined to fail.”

“Destined?”

Do-beom looked at him with a startled face.

Still with his arms folded, Tak-hyeon said, “What kind of man is Chairman Jeong of Dubo? If he can lay hands on money, he’s the kind who’ll bribe his way into pulling loans from the banks. He did prison time for exactly that and still didn’t stop doing the same thing — a madman, that far gone. And a man like that stretched out his hand not to a bank but to us? Handing over a stake, no less?”

Tak-hyeon curled the corner of his mouth up. “It means he’s reached the point where he can’t borrow from the banks. Does a company like that seem sound to you? Even if we pour investment in, its going under is as good as decided.”

“Surely… it wouldn’t be that bad?”

“No. It’s that bad.”

At the answer full of conviction, Do-beom felt puzzled. “Then shouldn’t we not put money in? Since we might not recover it.”

“The company going under and failing to recover the money we put in are separate matters.”

“Separate matters?”

Tak-hyeon unfolded his arms and, tapping the sofa’s armrest with a finger, said, “Yes. Even if the company goes under, the money we put in can be recovered. No — if anything, the company going under would be better for us. We’d recover more, and more easily.”

“How…”

Do-beom started to ask how that was possible, then stopped. Because he recalled there was no reason to hold any further doubt once Tak-hyeon said so. He closed his mouth and waited quietly for Tak-hyeon’s thoughts to settle. All the while he wondered, unable to tell what it was Tak-hyeon was mulling over.

The money can be recovered, so what’s the problem?

Tak-hyeon had judged that even if Dubo Steel collapsed, the money could be recovered. With the risk gone, there seemed to be nothing to deliberate — yet Tak-hyeon was deliberating, and that puzzled Do-beom.

Reading Do-beom’s thoughts, Tak-hyeon slowly explained the reason for his hesitation. “It all looks fine. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing, either. But… Kim’s expression nags at me.”

“His expression?”

Recalling that Tak-hyeon had mentioned Kim’s expression a moment ago too, Do-beom said, “Chairman. From what I saw, there didn’t seem to be anything strange about it…”

“You didn’t see it, then?”

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

Do-beom cocked his head and answered. “Just a sort of faint smile? That’s the expression I recall, but I didn’t get any particular feeling from it.”

“That’s exactly it.”

Tak-hyeon gave Do-beom a gesture that he’d seen it right, and said, “That smile nags at me.”

Confirmed that he hadn’t misseen it, Tak-hyeon felt the unease all the more intensely. “When I recall that smile, I get the feeling we might take a hit bigger than expected.”

“Then do you mean to cancel the investment?”

“…I can hardly throw away good prey just because Kim’s expression nags at me.”

Tak-hyeon gave Do-beom one more instruction. “Instead, look into it a bit more closely. And stay on standby at all times, so that if anything happens, we can respond at once.”

“Yes. Understood.”

Do-beom answered, thinking he couldn’t treat Tak-hyeon’s instruction lightly. And, watching Tak-hyeon still unable to shake the unease, he thought.

Is he thinking of Director Kim as someone special?

He’d gotten the sense that Tak-hyeon was paying more mind to Seong-ho than even Do-beom would have supposed. If Dubo Steel were to wobble here, Tak-hyeon’s view of Seong-ho might change further still. His estimation would rise, and perhaps he’d even win trust.

Thinking that if it came to that, the succession fight could sink into a maze, Do-beom left the chairman’s office.

But at Dubo, something was unfolding that outran even the thinking of Do-beom and Tak-hyeon.

Coming out of Tak-hyeon’s office, Seong-ho didn’t head home but stopped by the vice-chairman’s office on the floor below the chairman’s.

“Brother. You wanted to see me?”

“Yes.”

Mun-jong gestured for the secretary who’d guided Seong-ho in to close the door and leave, then pointed at the sofa before him. “Come, sit.”

At Mun-jong’s word, Seong-ho went over to the sofa and sat.

Mun-jong watched him sit a while, then asked, “Do you really approve of acquiring Dubo Steel?”

“Is that what you wanted to see me for?”

“Yes.” Mun-jong nodded, examined Seong-ho’s face closely, and said, “I thought you’d oppose it. Gyeong-eun has no thoughts of her own, so she’d approve, and I figured you’d be against it. Yet you approve. Why on earth?”

At the question, Seong-ho cocked his head and answered. “There’s no reason to oppose it, is there?”

At the counter-question, Mun-jong could say nothing. Because Mun-jong too agreed there was no reason to oppose taking a stake in Dubo Steel and investing money. And yet it wasn’t a good thing for Mun-jong.

“Yes. It’s a good thing for Ilhyeon Group. But not for me. If anything, it might be a bad thing for me.”

At that, Seong-ho looked at him and said carefully, “Is it because of second brother?”

“Yes.” Mun-jong nodded. “The problem is that the one leading this is Sang-jong.” He bit down hard on his back teeth and opened his mouth. “If this goes well and, by some chance, Dubo Steel falls into our hands… you know how that would turn out too.”

“The scales would tip heavily toward second brother.”

“Yes…” Mun-jong nodded and clenched his fist. “A thing like that must never come to pass.” He set his teeth hard and said to Seong-ho, “Father calling you to that gathering today was surely to ask whether you had any other thoughts. Which is to say — had you opposed it, Father might have reconsidered this matter too.”

“Brother.” Seong-ho looked at him quietly and said in a low voice, “There was no ground to oppose this from the outset.” Shaking his head as if there was no way around it however he thought it over, he went on. “You know it too, don’t you? That even if the worst situation unfolds, for us that’s actually the best situation. The chairman may be hoping all the more that Dubo Steel goes wrong.”

Understanding his meaning, Mun-jong nodded. Because whichever way the talk flowed, this matter was, for Ilhyeon Group, as good as a no-lose hand. And that was exactly why Mun-jong felt all the worse.

“I know. But if you had voiced the reason Gyeong-eun gave for opposing, it might have been different.”

“Do you truly think so?”

At the question, Mun-jong could say nothing. Because he knew that even had Seong-ho opposed it, the situation wouldn’t have changed. It was just something he’d said out of grievance, and he could only hold his tongue in silence.

Seong-ho offered him a different proposal. “Brother. Why not change your thinking instead?”

“Change my thinking?”

Mun-jong looked at him with a gaze that asked what he meant.

Seong-ho glanced back toward the door. And after confirming there was no one, he said in a low voice, “The Dubo Steel matter can’t be changed. In that case, rather…”

“Rather…?”

Seong-ho lowered his head and spoke in an even smaller voice. “Rather, wouldn’t it be better to make the Dubo Steel investment turn into a loss?”

“Make it a loss? How?”

Mun-jong shifted his seat to the edge of the sofa.

Seong-ho spoke to him in a still smaller voice. “Better yet, we have them invest a large sum, and create a situation where none of the invested money can be recovered. To take a loss on a thing everyone was certain would profit? If it earns an assessment worse than if we’d never invested in Dubo Steel at all, the chairman’s view of second brother will change completely.”

At that, Mun-jong’s eyes went wide. “Yes. If it comes to that, it becomes a case of a blessing in disguise for me instead!”

“It won’t be merely a blessing in disguise.”

Seong-ho reached out and took Mun-jong’s hand.

Delighting in the thought that he’d found a way, Mun-jong was startled when Seong-ho suddenly took his hand, and looked at him.

“Through this, we might deal second brother a fatal wound.”

At his words, Mun-jong felt his chest grow hot. A thing everyone was certain would profit. If a situation of failure unfolded here, the disappointment would clearly come doubled.

“Yes. It’s just as you say. Right now, that seems the best choice for me.”

“That’s right. So don’t oppose it — on the contrary, make them invest even bigger.”

“Yes. Best of all to have them invest a full 200 billion.” Recalling the conversation they’d had a little earlier, Mun-jong nodded. “Losing 10 or 20 billion out of 100 billion makes Sang-jong’s blunder look smaller than losing 20 or 40 billion out of 200 billion.”

The more Mun-jong talked, the more he came to feel the present situation wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for him. If anything, the thought even occurred to him that it might be a chance to deal Sang-jong a fatal wound. Before he knew it, unlike when Seong-ho had first come into the office, Mun-jong wore a smile on his face.

And he threw Seong-ho a final question. “But how do we make them take the loss?”

It was the most crucial question and the most difficult one. Yet coming last of all, the sense of difficulty had been much diluted — because the great profit visible ahead was erasing the difficulty.

Seong-ho smiled back at Mun-jong, who asked as easily as a man asking for directions, and said, “It’s simple.”

“Simple?”

“What would Dubo’s reason for borrowing money be? That they’re desperate for it. They’ve run up debt in many places, and when that debt became unmanageable, they stretched a hand even to us.”

Seong-ho trailed off a moment and gazed quietly at Mun-jong. Then, in an insinuating voice, he opened his mouth. “In that case, what happens if, even though we provide the money, that problem isn’t solved?”

It wasn’t exactly telling him the method, but this alone was enough for Mun-jong to see what to do.

“Yes. That would do it.”

The smile on Mun-jong’s face deepened. The moment he heard Seong-ho, several methods began surfacing in his head. And when even the image of Sang-jong collapsed on the floor surfaced, a smile of delight formed of its own accord.

Seong-ho watched him and smiled just as brightly. But in Seong-ho’s eyes there was one more thing visible, beyond what Mun-jong saw.

It was the sight of Mun-jong, collapsed on the floor right alongside Sang-jong.

(End of Chapter 61)