The secondary financial sector. There were no investments to speak of that showed any notable results. Quite literally, if Kwon Gi-jeong hadn’t brought it up, Chairman Kwon would have had difficulty even knowing of them. They looked like nothing more than a family that dabbled in moneylending. That alone made them unworthy as a match for Kwon Gi-jeong.
“……”
A deep displeasure settled around Chairman Kwon’s eyes.
It was not something that sat well with him.
And yet — this was the first time Kwon Gi-jeong, who until now had never even entertained the thought of marriage, had shown any willingness at all.
“Put a call in to Secretary General Kim.”
“What shall I tell him?”
It seemed Chairman Kwon’s focus had now shifted away from Kwon Gi-jeong.
His wrinkled fingertip pointed to the photo of Park Seo-in resting on the sofa table.
“Tell him I want to see that person.”
Seo-in entered the Horim Tower building, stepped off on the 17th floor, and walked into the Strategic Planning Division with familiar ease.
“Good morning.”
Jang Yu-hwan spotted Seo-in coming in and rose from his seat, bowing at the waist.
“Good morning. Jang Yu-hwan, aren’t you coming in even earlier than before?”
Seo-in made his way to the desk by the window and settled into the chair.
He pressed the button to raise the blinds, and long ribbons of sunlight filtered their way inside.
“It’s still manageable.”
If anything, Jang Yu-hwan now had more things to keep track of than before.
On top of that, the desk directly across from Jang Yu-hwan’s was currently vacant.
Only office supplies sat atop it, as though holding the place.
No one had been put there to fill that seat any longer.
Even so, most things had been handled by Jang Yu-hwan in line with Seo-in’s wishes all along. In that sense, things were not much different from before, and the absence of a person didn’t show.
“Is there anything I should be reviewing?”
In the past, once Seo-in had married, he had stopped coming into the office.
Naturally, he had drifted away from the work he was doing now.
A sense of déjà vu coexisted alongside the familiar-yet-unfamiliar surroundings.
“Don’t we always present the previous year’s performance at the start of each new year?”
“Ah, that’s right.”
Seo-in nodded.
Jang Yu-hwan’s words brought a string of memories flickering before him — including how, no matter how carefully Seo-in had prepared his investment proposals with the new year’s plans, they had always been filtered out at the level of Division Head Park Beom-yeong.
In truth, the reason Seo-in couldn’t produce results was also because he wasn’t free from Park Beom-yeong’s influence.
Whenever Seo-in wanted to try anything, he absolutely needed the approval of his older brother, Park Beom-yeong.
Even the investment proposals Seo-in had worked so hard to put together — Beom-yeong would glance at them without a second thought and deny them outright.
— If I just accept things like this without question, people will think I’m giving you special authority. It won’t do anyone any good if it gets around that you’ve been given privileges because you’re Father’s child. So I hope you understand that I don’t have a choice in this.
And yet, the investment ideas among Seo-in’s proposals that looked profitable — those, Beom-yeong would take and run as his own separate ventures.
So naturally, the department Seo-in was in had nothing worth calling a result.
On top of that, the things Beom-yeong had mishandled in the course of running those ventures would come back down to Seo-in to clean up, as though that were his job.
Last year’s performance was, in a word, in the negatives.
Not that anyone blamed Seo-in for it.
Only his father’s gaze — that alone was painful.
He had always felt inadequate and lacking, but in those moments, it cut deeper, like something sinking into his bones.
“The thing is, the investments our department made last year……”
Jang Yu-hwan’s voice trailed off, and Seo-in finished the sentence.
“None of them succeeded.”
“Yes……. Most of them resulted in losses.”
“Write it up exactly as it is and submit it.”
“Just as it stands?”
Jang Yu-hwan asked, visibly surprised.
Seo-in recited it plainly.
“Without leaving a single thing out.”
“Should we at least reduce the figures a little?”
In the past, Seo-in would have done that himself before Jang Yu-hwan even had the chance to suggest it.
Following his mother’s words — that things at home and outside would only go smoothly if his older brother, Park Beom-yeong, was seen to do well, no matter what.
“No. I’d like the person responsible to see it and feel something.”
“……Are you referring to Division Head Park?”
Jang Yu-hwan’s voice dropped without him realizing it as he continued.
He glanced back at the closed door, as though checking that no one might overhear.
He didn’t think the staff were unaware of who had truly caused losses of this magnitude.
Jang Yu-hwan was just about to add something more.
Bzz—
A vibration from the phone made Seo-in look down at the desk.
He didn’t pick it up right away, just stared at it — and Jang Yu-hwan rose to his feet.
“I’ll go brew some coffee.”
It seemed he was stepping out to give Seo-in space to take the call comfortably.
Bzz—
An unsaved number.
But Seo-in knew very well who it belonged to.
Secretary General Kim.
And he knew who was behind that, too.
[You’ve finally picked up.]
With the phone held to his ear, Seo-in switched the file open on his monitor — from the performance report full of losses to a life sciences investment report.
[Chairman Kwon Bu-geon wishes to meet with Park Seo-in.]
A voice that carried weight.
In contrast, Seo-in’s calm tone slipped through.
“Where should I go?”
As he asked, the image of Chairman Kwon Bu-geon flickered before his eyes.
During the time they had spent together at the estate, the Chairman had been every bit as difficult a person as Kwon Gi-jeong.
It was easy to guess where Kwon Gi-jeong had gotten that nature from.
[We’ll send a car to pick you up. You can simply come in that.]
Go Eun-ju hadn’t been wrong.
Hadn’t she said that Kwon Gi-jeong resembled the Chairman more than anyone?
2
Seo-in stepped inside Yeonbaek Pharmaceutical Group.
He had come here by the car sent at the appointed time, driven by a hired driver.
The driver hadn’t explained the destination, but Seo-in had been able to anticipate that he would end up here.
Because it had been the same way in the past.
Secretary General Kim came down to the first floor to escort Seo-in up.
Along the way, Seo-in watched as people passing by bowed at the waist to Secretary General Kim.
The environment was not the least bit different from before.
His gaze lingered on the document envelope he held in his hand.
It was something he had taken from the office before coming here.
What was inside had not existed in the past.
Back then, Seo-in had come bearing a gift — wild ginseng of the highest grade, wrapped in a cloth of gold.
It had been difficult to obtain, but Chairman Kwon had not so much as glanced at it.
The Seo-in of that time had felt an anxiety almost unbearable to endure.
He had worried that Chairman Kwon might have somehow learned of the secret agreement between him and Kwon Gi-jeong, and that was why he’d been called.
And he remembered clearly — the question Chairman Kwon had asked when they finally faced each other.
— Where did you meet Gi-jeong?
It had been as though the investigation into Seo-in himself was already complete, and all the questions were solely about matters related to Kwon Gi-jeong.
Even so, Seo-in had been completely withdrawn and deflated.
The awareness that he had to make a good impression on Chairman Kwon by any means necessary only made him shrink further.
If this marriage fell through because of Seo-in’s mistake — what disappointment his father would feel toward him, and what kind of resentment Min A-ran would take out on him — the fear of that had weighed heavily on Seo-in.
But the Seo-in of now felt no such pressure.
……The elevator reached the top floor and came to a stop.
As the doors opened, the atmosphere was markedly different from the lobby.
Landscape paintings hung along the long corridor.
Knock, knock.
An employee, watching Secretary General Kim approach, rose and knocked on the door.
