Ha Donghun came out of Damheon but didn't get straight into the car.

The cold winter air brushed his face.

His driver stood holding the rear door open, but he raised a hand: one moment.

He took a cigarette from his pocket.

Click. Tsss.

The lighter's flame lit his face for an instant. He drew on it, and the tip burned red.

Hoooooo.

Ha Donghun pulled the smoke deep into his lungs, then let it out in a long stream.

He couldn't get the face of the nephew who'd sat across from him out of his head.

It had been strange from the first moment he saw him. From the photos, he'd taken him for just a young, good-looking nephew, nothing more.

Face to face, he was a completely different person.

The look in his eyes, the way he dealt with people, and above all that air of never being cowed by anyone — none of it was unfamiliar.

His father, Ha Cheolgon. No wonder the image of his father as a hot-blooded young man had come to mind.

He'd never raised his voice in front of people for no reason. Nor had he tried to show off his power. And yet the people around him had been on edge.

And now he was seeing exactly that side of his father in his nephew Tae-ung.

Blood will tell, as the saying went. The saying existed for a reason.

And that wasn't the only problem. It wasn't just that the boy resembled Father as a young man.

Judging by what he'd accomplished, he had ability, too. He'd heard the boy had made a good deal of money. He'd gathered people around him whose names everyone knew.

Last fall he'd brought Dongmyeong to its knees, and this Lunar New Year he was shaking Hyundo.

The talk that he was connected to European finance didn't seem to have come out of nowhere, either.

His nephew was running this entire board on his own strength.

Hoooooo…….

The cigarette smoke spread wide into the winter air.

Ha Donghun's face slowly darkened and hardened.

He and…