"……." The study, its lights out.

Ha Cheolgon, head of the house, stood at the window and looked down at his children clustered under the garden lamps.

He did not need to hear it with his own ears to know what they were talking about.

He knew what it was they were passing back and forth down there.

Long years, and not a few of them. He has held a household together and raised the Haryun Group as far as this.

He has watched those children born and watched them grow.

His daughter Ha Seonhui, greedy and able with it. But she is the eldest daughter, and because she was a daughter she broke her own ambition for the group and went along with her father's will.

Today that daughter is making a proper commotion.

The three sons, who fall short of her in a good many ways, have their heads together, taken in by a few words from their noona.

Ha Cheolgon's eyes went up to the ceiling, unconcerned.

The second floor, directly above.

The foolish grandchildren gathered up there are no different.

Like to like, gathered together and working themselves up.

What is it they are so afraid of. What is it they are frightened of losing.

He did not need to see it to know.

Not one of them is fit to take a great ship like Haryun out into a rough ocean. Not one has the nerve for it yet, or a predator's teeth.

To an old man every one of the days is precious. The moment he closes his eyes those inadequate creatures will tear Haryun to rags to defend their own rice bowls, and that is as plain as a fire seen in the dark.

He could see the Haryun Group's future after his death perfectly well.

The two who turned this house upside down today know nothing of any of it.

His youngest son, Ha Donghwi. And his grandson, Ha Tae-ung.

The two of them are quiet as dead mice. They ask for nothing.

They have not asked for the shareholding that is…