“Director Yang.”

The DMC vice president’s office, taking up the whole of a floor space of more than a hundred and sixty square metres.

Inside, it is neatly ordered with monotone office furniture in which the contrast of black and white is emphasised.

A display cabinet filled with pieces that look expensive even at a glance shows the quiet quality and the financial strength of the space’s owner.

Tok. Trickle, trickle, trickle.

Vice President Jang Jonghun, holding a putter and practising his putting, called Yang Docheol quietly.

“Yes, sir! Director!”

Yang Docheol, who only a few minutes earlier had been running Gu Miryeo down like a rat, answered in a voice with the discipline tight in it.

Jang Jonghun’s age is a good way below Yang Docheol’s, but he is the superior Yang Docheol serves.

In front of Jang Jonghun, who pulled a Yang Docheol lodged in a small agency all the way up to this place, he bowed his head low.

“Investment results lately are no good at all.”

He is pointing at the collapse in DMC’s share price caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Investment in the Korean film and drama field is doing badly too, pushed back by Newflix capital.

The cinema screens are at the point of barely keeping breath in them.

They are recording a net loss for the period two years running.

Serious pressure has come in from DM Group head office.

Had it not been for a wife who is royal family, it is a situation in which Jang Jonghun too would have found the vice president’s chair hard to hold.

“I’m sorry!”

Yang Docheol dropped his head sharply, as though it were his own oversight.

“It isn’t Director Yang’s part, is it. Every one of them incompetent…… tch.”

Breaking off in the middle, Jang Jonghun clicked his tongue.

The field in question is occupied by the many people Vice-Chairman Go Mihyeon appointed as executives.

They cannot be cleared out carelessly for bad performance.

Even Chairman Go Jaeyong, her elder brother, cannot avoid watching how it will look to a Go Mihyeon who holds a considerable share of the group.

Even in that situation Chairman Go Jaeyong split DMC off and put it into the arms of his daughter and son-in-law.

Jang Jonghun, who is now aiming at the representative director’s chair as well.

For a position that is certain, performance was needed above anything.

“Nothing good?”

“Sorry?”

“We have to put global talent up in front like the other agencies, don’t we.”

DMC, which does not hold a famous idol group fit to put out on the global market.

Whenever they took pains to raise one and it looked to be going well, it got caught up in school violence, or drugs, or a drinking incident.

Every time an incident was dealt with, Jang Jonghun’s footing narrowed along with it.

At a time like this, the one big shot was needed more than ever.

“I shall do my utmost!”

Yang Docheol bent at the waist to ninety degrees.

Jang Jonghun does not like talk that runs long.

Most business matters are decided in Jang Jonghun’s hands anyway.

Grate on him as little as possible, help him along and work the mouth, and that does it.

“That aside…… how did it go?”

“Sorry?”

“That bitch. Seo Dahui!”

“…….”

Yang Docheol’s pupils shook badly for a moment in his confusion.

Jang Jonghun is a man who has had secret meetings with several of the agency’s actresses and women singers.

All this time Yang Docheol has taken on the role of the procurer, laying the board out for his private life.

“She’s more stubborn than expected. If you would give me just a little more time…….”

“The re-signing is certain?”

“Yes, sir! D— don’t worry!”

He answered, but Yang Docheol’s voice was uneasy.

“Right. I trust Director Yang. If you can’t handle one wretched girl……. Heh heh.”

Jang Jonghun’s remark, as though he had caught the scent of something.

“I shall repay that trust for certain!”

An uneasy Yang Docheol bent his head deeply once again.

Fuck. I’m fucked.

Unlike the answer that had burst out of him, Yang Docheol’s head was crowded.

And.

Ha Tae-ung? What sort of bastard is that sponsor bastard?

This little shit!!

The voice of Jang Jiyu, one of Cheonghwa High School’s three great beauties, is soft.

When she smiled widely at the sight of Ha Tae-ung, sparks jumped in the eyes of Lee Jeongho, who was watching.

Jang Jiyu, whom he has loved on one side all this time, had sent a smile to a charity case.

An intimate voice of Jang Jiyu’s that Lee Jeongho has not once heard.

“The rumour’s been all over the place, and you really are good-looking?”

Jang Jiyu reacted openly to the sight of Ha Tae-ung and showed her liking.

There was every ground for it.

She holds the title of one of Cheonghwa’s three great beauties, and an officer’s post in the Management Studies Society with it.

More important is that she is Sindo Group’s eldest daughter.

She is the daughter of Ju Huiyeon, who worked as a singer and an actress.

Ju Huiyeon too was in her time the sweetheart of the whole nation, whom the men of the Republic of Korea looked up to.

Jang Jiyu takes after a mother like that, and is fitted with outstanding looks and an air to match.

By the look in her eyes and her voice alone she has already shown Ha Tae-ung her liking.

“Sit. My friend.”

Kang Junu pointed to the empty seat on his right with his hand.

“Right.”

Ha Tae-ung sat down in that seat without hesitating.

“…….”

The officers and members gathered by the summons all held their breath and watched.

The Management Studies Society, the society with the greatest influence inside Cheonghwa High School, unknown to the outside.

It is a meeting of the actual chaebol houses’ children, on a different plane from the make-up of the student council.

The hundred great groups’ children gathered here will, on graduating, act and grow as pillars of the Republic of Korea’s business world.

Ha Tae-ung, Haryun Group’s crown prince, who has abruptly come to sit in the vice presidency of a meeting like that.

“Everybody say hello. This is my friend Ha Tae-ung, the new vice president.”

Kang Junu, introducing Ha Tae-ung with a smile on his face, unlike his usual manner.

Ha Tae-ung, introduced, swept the officers and members over.

The look in his eyes was level.

Tension? Excitement? There is no such feeling in the gaze at all.

The pupils whose eyes met his turned their heads and avoided the look.

There is certainly a rumour that he is a deposed crown prince thrown out by his house, but the force off him was nothing of the kind.

Haryun Group, one of the ten great chaebol houses.

Ha Tae-ung, who is the present chairman’s grandson.

In this society at this moment there are only two houses fit to be set beside Haryun Group.

And on top of that, a situation in which the society president Kang Junu and Jang Jiyu have acknowledged Ha Tae-ung in front of the members.

“Nobody has any objection to my friend Ha Tae-ung taking the vice presidency, do they?”

Kang Junu, firing off a one-sided notification.

The right to name the vice president rests with him in any case.

More than that, Ha Tae-ung is a member of Haryun Group’s family.

The deposed crown prince’s label is stuck on him, but nobody knows how the future may change.

Even where a will exists on the chairman’s death, the law guarantees the right to the reserved portion.

So who could block Haryun Group’s crown prince in his later choice of line?

“I am against.”

Just then one voice of objection broke out quietly.

Everybody’s gaze turned toward the party who had given the opinion.

“L— Lee Jeongjun?”

“……??”

It is Lee Jeongjun, maternal grandson of Hanguk Group’s chairman and paternal grandson of Doa Ilbo’s chairman.

His position is an awkward one, but nobody here can disregard him.

The psychopathic leanings of his mother Ju Miju, who holds the parents’ association presidency, are particularly notorious.

“Your reason?”

Kang Junu’s face set in an instant.

He had not foreseen a situation like this.

There is ample justification for Ha Tae-ung’s appointment as vice president.

And the queer sense of a bond he felt with Ha Tae-ung at the first.

That was why he made him a friend without weighing it.

And now, to dare oppose it?

“Ha Tae-ung is a charity case.”

Lee Jeongjun had no thought of stepping back.

Behind his glasses, he ran his stubborn lips.

“Rejected.”

“Why is it rejected!”

“Tae-ung is Haryun Group family.”

“He was thrown out by the house, wasn’t he! And so what…….”

Poison settled in Lee Jeongjun’s two eyes.

Who the hell is that bastard!

Lee Jeongjun is a man who had believed the next presidency would naturally become his own.

His cousins are no match for him, with Hanguk Group blood mixed in him.

The remaining society members are children of houses that are nothing much either.

And then suddenly, in a situation that makes no sense, a competitor has appeared.

If it were a true direct line of Haryun Group he could accept it.

But Ha Tae-ung is not.

“Tae-ung-a. That’s how it is.”

Kang Junu looked round at Ha Tae-ung and wore a queer smile.

A lion proves itself at a moment like this.

If the other pupils, who hold doubts, are to be brought round as well, action from Ha Tae-ung has to follow.

Ha Tae-ung, who knew the meaning, fixed his gaze on Lee Jeongjun.

And.

A snort.

Is this bastard laughing at me right now? The son of a bitch!!

Lee Jeongjun was in a state of not yet having shaken off a memory that had been humiliating.

The moment of being wiped out by Ha Tae-ung in the great hall, with the whole school watching, came up again.

And now he is aiming at the Management Studies Society as well.

“Lee Jeongjun.”

Ha Tae-ung called Lee Jeongjun in a low voice.

“What! Ha Tae-ung!”

Lee Jeongjun’s voice, in a strong tone, tore the air of the meeting room.

In that moment.

“You — are you anything?”

“Wh— what did you say??”

(End of Chapter 110)