When Seong-ho came down from the second floor, Chief Do-beom Hwang was waiting at the foot of the stairs.

At his unusual manner, Seong-ho put on a puzzled look and asked, “Chief. Were you waiting for me?”

“Yes. The chairman says to come down to the basement.”

“The basement?”

“You’ve never been, have you?”

Seong-ho hesitated a moment, then nodded. “No. I’ve only heard of it — never been.”

“Right.” Do-beom answered briefly and turned. “Vice-President Cha hasn’t been there yet either. That’s how great an expectation the chairman holds for you.”

“Yes. I know. I’ll work hard so as not to fall short of it.”

Do-beom nodded at the answer and set off.

The basement level of Tak-hyeon’s Pyeongchang-dong residence could be called a special place. Its entrance existed separately, outside the house, and it was built as a perfect sealed chamber. Since it wasn’t a living space, the door always stayed firmly shut and cut off from the outside, except when Do-beom entered to sort matters out with Tak-hyeon.

“Here we are.”

Coming out of the house and around to the back of the yard, Do-beom and Seong-ho stood before the door leading to the underground space. Before the firmly shut iron door, Do-beom cleared a three-stage security system of fingerprint, iris, and passcode, then opened it.

“Let’s go in.”

At Do-beom’s word, Seong-ho went through the open door into the underground space.

Not a single window existed, yet under the bright, blazing lights, a corridor without a trace of darkness stretched before Seong-ho’s eyes.

Walking that corridor, he thought, It’s been a while.

Seong-ho was familiar with this place. In that former life, when Mun-jong was chairman, Seong-ho had done the very work Do-beom did now — so this space was no stranger to him.

Do-beom glanced at Seong-ho following behind with a composed air.

He must find it strange, curious…

In a space of nothing but a maze of winding, windowless corridors, he must have many questions — yet Seong-ho was calmly, quietly following behind. Watching him, Do-beom thought that suggesting to Tak-hyeon he talk things over with Seong-ho had been well done. A man who kept his composure in any situation, he felt, could aid Tak-hyeon’s judgment with cool analysis.

After passing through the narrow corridors this way and that a while, a door came into view. Standing before it, Do-beom again cleared the fingerprint, iris, and passcode security and opened the door.

“Chairman. I’ve brought Kim.”

“Both of you, come and sit.”

Tak-hyeon directed Do-beom and Seong-ho to sit. As Seong-ho carefully came in and sat to his left, Tak-hyeon, before stating why he’d summoned him, first asked about the underground space. “Have you heard about this place?”

Seong-ho nodded. “When you showed me around the residence, I saw as far as the entrance out back, but hearing it was a place you managed separately, enterable only on special occasions, I paid it no further mind.”

“Right.” Tak-hyeon smiled lightly, drew out a cigarette, put it to his lips, and lit it.

Though it was a sealed chamber without a single window, the rising smoke vanished cleanly around the ceiling. Everything was enclosed, yet the air circulated so naturally that not a trace of stuffiness could be found.

Do-beom studied Seong-ho again — to see whether this time he’d show a reaction. But once more Seong-ho sat calmly, waiting for Tak-hyeon’s next words. He didn’t even glance at the cigarette smoke, only looking at Tak-hyeon.

At that, Tak-hyeon too sent him a look of surprise. I can talk to him.

His mind made up, Tak-hyeon stubbed out the more-than-half-remaining cigarette in the ashtray and spoke. “This place is set up for conducting the company’s special matters, or for discussing the kind of important things that mustn’t get out.”

I know that well.

Seong-ho answered only inwardly. Betraying nothing outwardly, he said carefully, “Then the reason you called me here today must be because it’s a matter that mustn’t get out.”

“Yes. And I called you to ask what thoughts you have, too.”

Having first shown that this was to consult rather than to give a one-sided order, Tak-hyeon, in a calm voice, brought out the thing that mustn’t get out. “The president’s son is tangled up in the Dubo Steel matter.”

When Seong-ho returned to the room, Gyeong-eun quickly came to him.

“They say you went to the underground chamber?”

“You knew?”

As Seong-ho sat in a chair, Gyeong-eun sat across from him. “It was strange that Dad went so far as to use the intercom to call you, so I went to the study — and he wasn’t there.”

At strange, so I went to the study, Seong-ho smiled and asked, “Because you were worried the chairman might say something bad to me?”

“Of course. Naturally.”

He’d said it half in jest, but Gyeong-eun nodded with a serious face and answered. Then she explained why she worried so. “Before second brother married… he once caused an incident, you see? That time, unlike usual, Dad called him over the intercom… and he got scolded terribly. I remembered that, is all. I was afraid something big had happened.”

“Something big did happen, actually.”

“Sorry? Something big happened?”

To the round-eyed Gyeong-eun, Seong-ho smiled lightly and nodded. “Isn’t that why he called me to the chamber?”

“Ah… true enough. Some problem came up, so Dad called you there.”

However thoroughly the Pyeongchang-dong residence kept its security, the staff were more than one or two, and there were other, unrelated family members besides — so however much one hid a thing, it was bound to leak out. And yet Tak-hyeon hadn’t minded discussing the company’s important matters in open places like the study or living room. He had the confidence that whatever they learned, what could they do about it — and by talking in open spaces, he displayed instead that every matter rested in the palm of his hand.

But even Tak-hyeon had matters he wanted kept from others. Knowing he used the chamber at such times, Gyeong-eun asked Seong-ho about it. “What’s the chamber like? Is it really… all scary and such?”

She asked about the underground chamber. “I heard that even in the height of summer it feels chilly enough to raise goosebumps. Second brother said a cold air blows out from all directions and gives you the shivers.”

“That’ll be because the air-circulation system is running. The chamber has no windows.”

“Really? It’s truly all walls, no windows on any side?”

By now the worry had vanished from Gyeong-eun’s eyes, leaving only curiosity. She looked at him wide-eyed. “I’ve never once been. Among my brothers too, probably more of them haven’t been than have. So I’ve only ever heard of it, and I’ve been so curious what it looks like.”

“Not curious about what was discussed there?”

“I am. But I’m going to leave it be.” Gyeong-eun shook her head. “If it’s a conversation Dad called you all the way to the chamber for, it’d be truly important, so it doesn’t seem right to ask you to tell me just because I’m curious. Rather than souring my mood over something I can’t know, isn’t it better to take an interest in what can be told?”

At the sight of her lightening his heart, Seong-ho gave a warm smile. “However important a matter, there’s nothing I can’t share with you, Gyeong-eun.”

“Sorry? You can tell me what you discussed with Dad?”

“Because the chairman didn’t say to tell no one.”

At his answer, Gyeong-eun hesitated a moment, then spoke. “Um, Seong-ho. There are things you can tell even without them being said out loud, aren’t there? He called you to the chamber so no one would hear the conversation…”

Seong-ho smiled lightly. “Do you think I wouldn’t know that? And…” He turned his head and looked a moment at the clock on the wall.

Already an hour had passed since his talk with Tak-hyeon in the chamber — enough time that Do-beom, who’d come out of the chamber with him, would long since have reached the company.

Looking at the clock, Seong-ho turned back to Gyeong-eun. “Enough time has passed now that I can tell you.”

“Enough time has passed that you can tell?”

“Yes. Because Chief Hwang will have started moving by about now.”

Seong-ho nodded and gave Gyeong-eun a simple account of the conversation in the chamber. “They say the president’s son is tangled up in this Dubo Steel loan matter. The current president’s second son pressured three banks into ordering illegal loans to the Dubo Group, and…”

Hearing it, Gyeong-eun’s mouth fell open. What Seong-ho relayed went far beyond the level of important into the realm of the appalling.

“The president’s… second son ordered illegal loans? The son of the sitting president, of all people?”

“You’ll have heard the nickname for the president’s second son too, Gyeong-eun.”

“I have. Little President. They call him the Little President. There’s talk that the running of the country these days is done not by the president but by the Little President… but that’s true?”

“Yes. It was true.”

At his flat answer, Gyeong-eun could only shake her head. “There’ve been cases of a president’s close aides committing corruption, but the president’s son ordering illegal loans…”

She lost her words a moment at the stunning account. But soon she found it hard to believe Tak-hyeon had called Seong-ho to the chamber simply over this. Quickly regaining her composure, she put a question. “He surely didn’t call you just to talk about the president’s second son… What’s the reason Dad called you?”

At the quick-witted question, Seong-ho answered with a trace of a smile. “The Blue House side has come asking us for help, they say.”

“Help?”

“Yes. To bury the matter of the president’s second son.”

“Bury? How would we bury illegal loans?”

Gyeong-eun asked with a puzzled look. Ilhyeon Group was no judicial body, and its burying something couldn’t turn illegal loans into legal ones.

She looked at him as if it were strange, and Seong-ho smiled quietly. “The matter of the president’s second son hasn’t been made public yet, but if you dig into how Dubo Steel could take out loans exceeding 5 trillion, in the end the trail leads to the president’s second son. If that happens, the president too could take a heavy blow… so they’ve asked us to acquire Dubo Steel. Because as long as Dubo Steel comes back to life, the illegal-loan problem can be put to rest.”

“What nonsense is that? Asking us to acquire a company that’s already gone insolvent?”

Stopping a moment to think quietly, Gyeong-eun said in a calm voice, “Dad’s not a man who wouldn’t know this… so his calling you to ask your opinion means the government made a proposal worth deliberating over.”

Seong-ho gazed at Gyeong-eun, who’d grasped the reason Tak-hyeon called him. Gyeong-eun really is someone it’s a waste to keep at housework alone.

He nodded. “Yes. The government made the chairman a proposal worth deliberating over.”

“What is it?”

“They said they’d hand over even Dubo Construction and Dubo Energy — the ones considered the real gems within the Dubo Group.”

“Handing over Dubo Construction and Dubo Energy along with Dubo Steel… there’d be no helping but deliberate over it. So what did you say, Seong-ho? Did you say it seemed fine? Or that we should hold out a little more and wring more from the government?”

Insolvent though Dubo Steel was, buried under a mountain of debt, if Dubo Construction and Dubo Energy came with it, it felt like no losing bargain. And on top of that, solving a matter the president’s second son was tangled in might let them gain still more besides.

To Gyeong-eun, looking at him curiously to know what he’d answered, Seong-ho told her exactly what he’d said to Tak-hyeon a little earlier.

“I said we should give up the 300 billion.”

(End of Chapter 68)