Coverage of the Dubo Steel affair didn’t stay confined to the business pages.

If anything, after Dubo Steel went insolvent and the Dubo Group’s dissolution was decided, articles about the Dubo affair poured out of the political pages more than the business ones.

[President’s Second Son, Aides to Be Summoned]

[Full Reinvestigation Ordered Into Dubo Group Affair]

[President Raises Son’s Matter at Ruling-Party Leadership Election]

[Public Apology Expected Soon]

It had come to light that the sitting president’s second son had exerted influence in the course of Dubo Group taking out loans exceeding 5 trillion.

Corruption implicating the family of a sitting president — a son, no less — was the first such case since the founding of the Republic of Korea, and people bitterly condemned the president. They argued that supporting the Dubo Group with mobilized tax money was something that must not happen.

With the Dubo Group chairman and the president’s second son’s aides taken into custody, a rumor spread far and wide that the second son would soon be arrested too.

In the end, the president himself stood before the people. He delivered a ten-odd-minute address and bowed his head in apology before the nation. On the principle that all are equal under the law, he promised there would be no privilege for being the president’s son. And to minimize the chaos, he promised a swift and fair prosecutorial investigation.

Reassured that the president wasn’t seen shielding his son, people turned their gaze to Ilhyeon Group. They were curious what choice Ilhyeon Group — which had gone in to secure a stake by investing the huge sum of 300 billion in Dubo Steel — would make to protect that 300 billion.

And to that public gaze, Tak-hyeon handed down an answer.

“Sang-jong, you step back from the company for a while.”

At that, Sang-jong shot to his feet and shouted, “Step back from the company? What do you mean by that!”

“What do I mean by what! I mean take responsibility for this affair and step down from the presidency of Ilhyeon Construction — is that so hard to understand?”

“Father!”

Sang-jong turned his head, glared at Seong-ho and Mun-jong, then said to Tak-hyeon as if aggrieved, “What did I do wrong, that you tell me to step back from the company?”

“What did you do wrong?”

At that, Tak-hyeon’s gaze shifted to the aggrieved Sang-jong. Feeling the contempt in it, Sang-jong let his head drop at last.

“Since you seem to know without my saying it, I’ll say no more. Step down from your current post and sit in reflection.”

At the order, Sang-jong could say nothing. Of course, he too felt, to some degree, the weight of responsibility for losing the huge sum of 300 billion through this affair. But he didn’t think it was all his fault.

Head bowed, Sang-jong lifted it again. “Understood. I’ll step down. But since it can’t be said the entire responsibility rests with me alone…” He looked at Mun-jong. “I think eldest brother — who inflated it from 100 billion to 300 billion — should step down from his post too.”

“What did you say?”

Mun-jong, who’d only been listening quietly, shot to his feet. “Wh-what nonsense are you spouting! Why should I step down!”

“I clearly said 100 billion. So I’ll take responsibility for the 100 billion — but the one who raised the investment from 100 billion to 300 billion was you, Brother, so you ought to take responsibility for the other 200 billion.”

“That makes sense.”

Jeong-eun, sitting quietly, chimed in with Sang-jong. “If eldest brother had stayed out of it, it would’ve ended with losing just 100 billion, but 200 billion more was lost — so eldest brother should take responsibility too.”

“You…”

When Mun-jong looked at her, Jeong-eun smiled brightly, as if teasing him. At her smile, Mun-jong’s face turned bright red.

“I agree with sister too.”

Just then Chang-jong, who’d been quiet, sided with Jeong-eun. “Eldest brother can’t dodge responsibility either.”

With even Chang-jong joining the debate over Mun-jong’s responsibility, Seong-ho watched it all with amusement. And he anticipated the situation about to unfold.

Now then — time to sink your teeth into me too?

Seong-ho turned his gaze to Sang-jong. As it happened, Sang-jong was turning his head toward Seong-ho as well. Their eyes catching, Sang-jong twisted the corner of his mouth up and, jabbing a finger, said, “And Kim has to take responsibility too.”

The eyes in the room turned to Seong-ho.

“What did Kim tell us? Didn’t he say we should just stay put? And staying put, how did it turn out? We lost every bit of it, not a single ten-won coin to be recovered.”

“That makes sense too.”

Jeong-eun chimed in with a round-and-round smile. Figuring that the more people took responsibility and stepped down, the better for her, she was chiming in and enjoying the situation.

At her support, Sang-jong spoke louder still. “So along with eldest brother, I think Kim has to take responsibility too.”

“Brother! What are you saying?”

Gyeong-eun flared up and stepped in. “Why drag Seong-ho into a matter that’s already all over! And Seong-ho holds no post at all in Ilhyeon Group — what responsibility could he possibly take?”

“If he holds nothing, then he should hand back what he’s received so far.”

“What he’s received so far?”

“Yes. The things Father gave Kim — the money, the land, and… the Ilhyeon Hotel you sit in. He can hand those back.”

At that, a faint smile came to Seong-ho’s lips. As anticipated, Sang-jong sinking his teeth into him too had come to pass.

Seong-ho turned his gaze to Mun-jong. Still red-faced, Mun-jong nodded at Seong-ho’s look as if to say he understood. And in Seong-ho’s stead, he stepped forward against Sang-jong.

“Who are you to tell Father to take back what he gave Kim?”

Everyone in the room was more than a little taken aback.

“Brother…?”

Sang-jong, who’d been sinking his teeth into both Mun-jong and Seong-ho, was startled all the same. Because he’d had no idea Mun-jong would step forward for Seong-ho.

“Kim received the Ilhyeon Hotel because he saved a collapsing Ilhyeon Hotel — and when you get down to it, the one who received it wasn’t Kim but our Gyeong-eun. It’s got nothing to do with Kim.”

When Mun-jong used the word our in referring to Gyeong-eun, not only Gyeong-eun but even Tak-hyeon wore a dumbfounded expression. But the one who’d brought it up, Mun-jong, wasn’t finished.

“And those things have nothing whatsoever to do with this affair. Yet you’d have him hand back what he received before, as responsibility for this? Do you think that’s a sound argument?”

Sang-jong stared blankly at Mun-jong with a face that couldn’t understand why he was taking Seong-ho’s side. Then, soon shaking his head, he shouted, “So I’m to shoulder it all alone, unfairly?”

“Unfairly?”

At that, Tak-hyeon — who’d only been listening — snorted as if he could bear no more. “You carry on exactly like a man who left goods in someone’s keeping.”

Sang-jong flinched. And when Tak-hyeon raised a hand, he covered his face with his own. The fear that Tak-hyeon might hurl something brought out a defensive posture of its own accord.

Hand still raised, Tak-hyeon looked at Sang-jong a moment and snorted once more. “Witless fool.”

He said it to Sang-jong as if in contempt, then brought his hand to the water glass before him. Tense that the glass might fly, Sang-jong watched Tak-hyeon through the gap in his covering hands.

Tak-hyeon gulped the water down and set the glass back on the table. Rising, he shouted at Sang-jong, “Do you think I spoke because I wanted to consult you? This is an order! Wrap it up and step down by the end of this month!”

Turning to leave, Tak-hyeon muttered to himself, “A fellow who couldn’t turn a profit if he tried, blows the money and then raises his head to run his mouth. Good for absolutely nothing.”

The low, carrying mutter rang in the ears of everyone present. At Tak-hyeon’s contempt, Mun-jong’s reddened face subsided, while Sang-jong, by contrast, swayed as if about to collapse.

Once Tak-hyeon left the office, Jeong-eun was the first to rise. Looking at Sang-jong standing there with the face of a man who’d lost everything, she snorted, then turned her gaze to Mun-jong. “But since when were you so close with your brother-in-law, eldest brother? Until just recently you were itching to devour him.”

Looking between Mun-jong and Seong-ho as if it were strange, Jeong-eun said with a smirk, “Shall I ask Father to move me over to Ilhyeon Construction?”

Having said it in a way meant for Sang-jong to hear, Jeong-eun looked back at him, let out a sneer, waved a hand, and turned. “I’m busy, so I’ll go first. Ah, I don’t know why I’m so cheerful today. Ho-ho-ho.”

After her, Yeong-su Cha said goodbye to the remaining family and followed out.

“That sister of mine, really…”

Chang-jong shook his head watching Jeong-eun and rose. “Brother, I’ll be off first too. And second brother…”

About to say goodbye to Sang-jong as well, Chang-jong — seeing him still half out of his wits — gave up on the farewell and left.

Mun-jong looked at the blank-faced Sang-jong a moment, then came over toward Seong-ho. Patting his shoulder, he said, “I said I’d help you, didn’t I? So just trust me and follow along.”

“Thank you, Brother.”

Satisfied at the sight of Seong-ho bowing his head, Mun-jong turned to look at Sang-jong. “Idiot. Itching and fretting like that… well, serves him right.”

A sneer had hooked itself onto Mun-jong’s face. Because now that Sang-jong had come down from the presidency of Ilhyeon Construction, he felt the gap between them had widened greatly. But Seong-ho knew that, while Chairman Tak-hyeon simply hadn’t handed down an official punishment, Mun-jong too had taken a serious scratch.

“Is it all right to leave second brother like that and go?”

Gyeong-eun looked with worry-filled eyes at Sang-jong, who’d flopped down into his seat.

“Leave him. He needs time alone to think about what he did wrong. Let’s go now.”

Mun-jong laid an arm over Seong-ho’s shoulder and moved to go.

As Seong-ho and Mun-jong turned to leave, Gyeong-eun hesitated, then offered Sang-jong a farewell. “Brother. We’ll go on ahead.”

But even at her goodbye, Sang-jong only gazed at some distant point without a word. Gyeong-eun looked at him a moment, then followed after Mun-jong and Seong-ho.

Once everyone had left the meeting room, the mouth of Sang-jong, left alone, slowly opened. “I’m the only one who was wrong…?”

Sang-jong truly believed Mun-jong and Seong-ho were at fault too. And yet that he alone had been made to step down from the Ilhyeon Construction presidency was, he thought, because they regarded him as the most worthless of all.

“Just wait… I’ll put every one of you beneath my feet…!”

Sang-jong swore to place everyone who slighted him beneath his feet. And within that “everyone,” Tak-hyeon was included too.

Sang-jong, seated, slowly rose. His chest burning as if aflame from the injustice and the disdain, he set off to return not to the company but home. Because at home he could calm his about-to-burst chest a little.

“Today a 7-iron would be good.”

Muttering to himself, Sang-jong left the meeting room.

(End of Chapter 70)