"Who is Ha Tae-ung?"

"Sorry?"

Seven in the morning, the day after Chuseok.

Go Mihui and Kang Junu had come to the Ilseong chairman's house to have breakfast with the family.

While her father was alive, the two of them had not been allowed through the Go family's door on Chuseok eve or on Chuseok itself.

By her father's rules, once a daughter married, she belonged to another family.

She had lost her husband and was a widow now, but Go Mihui had kept that rule without complaint.

These days the door was open to them, and they could sit down to breakfast together.

The house stood on the lower slopes of Namsan, in a corner of Hannam-dong where few outside eyes reached.

Behind a high wall, the Ilseong family's mansion kept quietly to itself.

Around the table sat Hong Hyesuk, the mistress of the house, and Go Junyong, chairman of the Ilseong Group. Go Mihui, chief of Ilseong Hotel, sat with her son Kang Junu.

Go Miyu, the chief of Ilseong Apparel, was still on the road up from her in-laws' with her husband.

Every grandchild but Kang Junu was studying abroad. So the house felt empty.

Halfway through the meal, Chairman Go Junyong suddenly asked his nephew Kang Junu about Ha Tae-ung.

"Are you two close?"

Kang Junu put down his chopsticks and looked at his uncle, Go Junyong.

"Tae-ung and me?"

"That's right."

"Yes, we're close."

"How close?"

"Sorry?"

Go Junyong was studying his nephew with a serious look. It threw Kang Junu a little.

He had never been close enough to his uncle to talk to him about his friends.

"Is he a friend? Or just somebody you sort of know?"

"He's a friend."

Kang Junu answered right away. Something in Go Junyong's eyes shifted, very slightly.

"Your best friend?"

"Yes!"

Kang Junu didn't hesitate for a second. He had liked Ha Tae-ung from the first time he saw him.

Since then, one incident after another had shown him he'd chosen right.

Here was a friend worth building a future with!

"Oppa~"

Go Mihui cut in…