Once the currency market’s trading was suspended, inquiries from every affiliate’s finance department came pouring into the Restructuring Headquarters.

“We have no problems at all, so proceed as usual.”

“Tell them not to worry. The group holds sufficient dollar reserves.”

“There won’t be any issue with payment settlement, so tell them they can continue business as normal.”

Seong-ho stood quietly, watching the staff field the calls pouring in one after another.

Just then, a secretariat staffer came to find him.

“Head.”

Seong-ho, hands clasped behind his back, turned his head toward the secretariat staffer.

The staffer bowed slightly and said, “The chairman is asking for you.”

Understanding that Tak-hyeon would want him given the chaos, Seong-ho nodded. “Understood, go on ahead. I’ll finish up here and head to the chairman right away.”

At Seong-ho’s word, the staffer left first, and Seong-ho went to find Deputy Head Gyeong-deuk Lee.

“Deputy Head.”

“Oh, Head Kim.”

In the thick of handling affiliate responses, Gyeong-deuk wiped the sweat from his brow and spoke to Seong-ho. “What’s going on here… trading suspended in the currency market? Why did this happen?”

Though he’d been telling the affiliates not to worry, Gyeong-deuk himself didn’t actually know why things had come to this. Thinking Seong-ho would know, he asked. And just as Gyeong-deuk expected, Seong-ho did know exactly why the situation had come about.

“It hit the trading limit, so they’ve used that as an excuse to halt trading and stop the dollar from climbing any further.”

“Will that actually work?”

“Not a chance.”

Knowing well, from his experience of that former life, what such measures led to, Seong-ho shook his head. “This kind of thing is going to become commonplace going forward.”

“Trading suspensions are going to become commonplace?”

Gyeong-deuk wiped the sweat trickling down the side of his face. What had been sweat from the rush of fielding calls a moment ago had now turned into a cold sweat.

Seong-ho laid a hand gently on his back and said, “So tell everyone not to panic too much. We hold sufficient dollars, and there’s a considerable amount still sitting undrawn at our overseas branches. So reassure any overseas partners worried about payment settlement too.”

“Right, understood.”

Gyeong-deuk shook his head and clicked his tongue. “Even we, who prepared and braced for this ahead of time, are in this state — I can’t even imagine what shape other companies are in. I can’t even bring myself to call friends at other companies. I don’t know what kind of answer I’d get…”

“You did well not to. Better to hold off on that for a while. Other places must be freezing right now.”

Patting Gyeong-deuk’s raised back, Seong-ho told him to look after the staff well too, then left. He made his way to the chairman’s office to reassure Tak-hyeon, who was surely just as flustered as Gyeong-deuk.

Watching the parking lot from the guard booth, Park’s eyes went round, and he stepped outside.

Kim, who’d come to take over the shift, followed him out, calling his name. “Hey, Park, what’s wrong?”

Without answering, Park pointed a finger at a car that had just pulled in and said, “That man there. Isn’t that… the Prosecutor?”

“Huh?”

Kim looked where Park was pointing. There, the man called Prosecutor was bowing at the waist, handing a car key to the young man from the 11th floor.

Puzzled, Kim looked toward Seong-ho and said to Park, “Didn’t you say there was a huge scene this morning?”

“There was. I barely managed to calm him down and brought the key to the Prosecutor myself.”

“Then why are the two of them arriving together now? And from the look of it, the Prosecutor’s the one who drove the young fellow’s car back.”

“That’s what I’m wondering too.”

Park watched, dumbfounded, as the lawyer bowed to Seong-ho again and again. The man whose temper had seemed fit to pierce the sky that morning was now standing before Seong-ho like a docile lamb, even watching his expression carefully.

“He’s coming.”

Park quickly turned and nudged Kim. Kim, catching his meaning, hurried back into the guard booth with him. Not long after the two ducked inside, Seong-ho offered a greeting at the booth.

“Good evening.”

At his greeting through the little window, Kim and Park opened it and greeted him together. “Welcome back.”

“You’re late tonight.”

Seong-ho offered them both a brief greeting.

“Yes, I’ll head up now. See you tomorrow.”

“All right. Take care.”

“Get up safely.”

Seong-ho bowed his head to the two guards and went inside. Once he’d gone in, some time passed before the lawyer walked up to the guard booth.

Unable to hold back their curiosity, Kim and Park rushed out of the booth.

“Prosecutor, sir, what happened? Why did you two come back together?”

At Park’s words, the lawyer raised his eyebrows and shouted at him. “Hey, you. You did that on purpose to make a fool of me, didn’t you?”

“Sorry? What do you mean…”

“You didn’t tell me the man on the 11th floor was Ilhyeon Group’s son-in-law on purpose, to set me up, didn’t you?”

“Ilhyeon Group’s son-in-law? That… Ilhyeon Group? The Ilhyeon Group we all know?”

Kim, listening beside them, asked with a startled face.

The lawyer turned to him with a look on the verge of tears. “Yes. That Ilhyeon Group, the one we all know. I went in there today for work, and of all people, the very top man there turned out to be the young fellow from the 11th floor. The youngest son-in-law of Chairman Tak-hyeon Lee of Ilhyeon Group. Well? How are you going to take responsibility for this?”

The lawyer stamped his foot on the ground, pouring out his grievance.

The guards stepped back a pace, watching the lawyer with amusement.

Serves him right. Always so high and mighty, and now he’s finally met his match.

Exactly — why couldn’t he imagine anyone else might be like himself? If a young man that age bought a house in this neighborhood, shouldn’t he have at least considered the man might be better off than himself? Ugh, I don’t know how he even passed the bar exam with a head like that.

Kim and Park put on worried faces in front of the lawyer, but inwardly they thought it served him right. And thinking they ought to hurry and spread the news to the other residents, they watched the lawyer’s tearful face.

While the lawyer stood near the guard booth wearing his tearful face, Seong-ho got off the elevator and went into his apartment.

Opening the door and stepping inside, he found the lights on and Gyeong-eun humming a tune.

“Oh? Gyeong-eun, you’re home?”

Passing through the entrance, Seong-ho looked at the kitchen with surprised eyes. There, Gyeong-eun was humming as she set the table.

“Didn’t you say you’d be late today?”

“That’s how it turned out. You must be hungry — go wash your hands quickly. Everything’s ready, so let’s eat first.”

At her words, Seong-ho hung his bag and coat on the sofa, washed his hands in the bathroom, and came out to give Gyeong-eun a look asking what had happened.

“Well, it turned out there was nothing for us to do.”

“Nothing to do?”

Gyeong-eun sat down at the table and explained what had happened at the hotel that day.

“They said everything was confidential and wouldn’t let anyone near them. Even room service — their own staff came out to the elevator to take it themselves. Since we couldn’t even get close enough to provide service, there was nothing left for us to do… so I just told the staff to be careful and came home early.”

“Who did you say they were from? America?”

“Yes. They said they came from Washington, but… they don’t seem to be from the American government…”

Chopsticks in hand, Seong-ho suddenly recalled something and asked Gyeong-eun, “Were they by any chance from an international organization?”

“Ah! Right. It seemed like an international organization. Something like International Mone— UN-affiliated…”

Gyeong-eun cocked her head, trying to recall the name. But the unfamiliar name only circled in her mouth without coming out.

“Ugh, I can’t quite remember. All I remember is something about ‘currency’ or ‘monetary.'”

Seong-ho watched her frustration quietly. Because while the name was unfamiliar to Gyeong-eun, it was one very familiar to him.

“IMF. International Monetary Fund. That would be it.”

“Ah, right, that’s it. Seong-ho, how did you know?”

“I heard not long ago that an IMF delegation had gone to Thailand and Indonesia.”

“Really?”

At his words, Gyeong-eun accepted it without much suspicion and picked up her spoon to eat her soup. But that wasn’t the real reason Seong-ho knew.

So it’s finally beginning.

Watching Gyeong-eun taste her soup, Seong-ho spoke in a calm voice. “The hotel might get rather noisy going forward.”

“Noisy? What do you mean?”

“A lot of government officials will come looking to meet the IMF people, and plenty of press will show up at the hotel to cover it. And since the IMF people won’t want to meet them, there could be an uproar. Business figures might show up too, for that matter.”

Gyeong-eun understood his words and nodded. “You mean a lot of people might come, so be careful? All right, I’ll keep that in mind. More importantly, let’s eat — the soup will get cold.”

Gyeong-eun took his caution as a general sort of warning. But she’d learn, the very next day, that it had been nothing of the sort.

Arriving at work, Gyeong-eun was met with a bewildering scene.

“President, you’ve arrived.”

“What… on earth is going on here?”

Stepping out of her car, Gyeong-eun asked the general manager, bewildered at the crowd stretched out before the hotel entrance.

“Press from every country, government officials, and people from various companies are all flocking to our hotel.”

“Why are they all flocking to our hotel?”

Gyeong-eun asked, looking at the cameras set up in front of the hotel and the broadcast vans packing the parking lot.

The general manager, looking just as troubled as she was, answered. “You remember the UN-affiliated organization that checked in yesterday? This whole uproar is people trying to meet with them.”

“That… International-something place?”

Gyeong-eun offered the organization’s name, still not quite settled in her mouth, but the general manager understood at once — since only one group had checked in yesterday and caused this kind of chaos.

“Yes. People here seem to call it the IMF, generally. In any case, they’re making all this fuss trying to get a meeting with those people.”

“What’s so important about that place…”

Shaking her head, uncomprehending, Gyeong-eun made her way into the hotel, giving instructions to the general manager as she went. “Block anyone who isn’t a hotel guest from entering.”

“Should we block government officials too?”

“Don’t let anyone in — not government officials, not even Ilhyeon Group people. And make sure our own staff stay away from anywhere near those IMF people too, as much as possible.”

Having said this, Gyeong-eun pushed through the crowd and entered the hotel. Standing in the lobby, looking out at the throng gathered outside, she said, “This might actually be an opportunity for us.”

“An opportunity?”

“Yes.”

Gyeong-eun stood in place, watching the crowd, and said, “If we show that we handle this well, and that gets broadcast across cameras nationwide — or worldwide — that alone will give us enormous publicity value. So make sure the rest of the staff understand to be extremely careful.”

“Understood.”

Gyeong-eun turned and headed up toward the office area, continuing her instructions as she went. “Pay extra attention to their meals, and if there’s anything they want, give it to them, whatever it is. Since it seems they’re conducting business here, ask if they need anything else — printers, fax machines, that sort of thing — and provide whatever they want. And…”

Gyeong-eun kept pouring out instructions as she walked with the general manager toward the office. He didn’t even answer, working hard just to keep her instructions straight in his memory.

“I’ll leave it in your hands, then.”

Having finished her instructions, Gyeong-eun left a final word in front of the office and went inside.

The general manager, who’d followed her up from outside the hotel, watched her go into the office and finally let out a long breath, the tension draining from him. Turning to carry out her instructions, he muttered to himself.

“Most people would be flustered first, faced with a crowd like this…”

The general manager clicked his tongue.

“Well, the president did look a little surprised at first too. But to think of turning it straight into an opportunity like that — is there anyone else like her?”

As he spoke, one face rose in his mind.

“Right, there is one person. Ha, they do say couples come to resemble each other — that fits perfectly. The two of them are exactly alike.”

The general manager, seeing Seong-ho’s face overlaid on Gyeong-eun’s in his mind, shook his head. Then he gathered the busily working staff and relayed Gyeong-eun’s instructions.

(End of Chapter 95)