The Story Behind It
Seong Ha-yeong sifted through her memories in silence.
Last time, in order to bring back Baek Gang and Jo Gwang-il, Kang-hae had set fire to a cargo ship. And to save Kang-hae, Seong Ha-yeong had called Seong Hun and asked him to move one of Ilseong Shipping’s bulk carriers that was nearby.
In return, Seong Hun had summoned his granddaughter to his house. Seong Ha-yeong had ended up eating a meal surrounded by relatives who were barely better than strangers.
And then, when her grandfather had offered to make room for her in Ilseong Group—
“Ilseong Trading, too?”
—she had thrown that back at him.
She hadn’t truly been interested in Ilseong Trading. She’d only said it to turn the stomachs of the relatives sitting at the table.
Ilseong Trading was the majority shareholder of Ilseong Life. Ilseong Life, in turn, held shares in Ilseong Group’s core affiliates. If you seized Ilseong Trading, you could become the owner of Ilseong Group itself.
Seong Hun’s children were still locked in a fierce covert struggle for that seat.
Seong Gi-hyeon, Seong Hun’s second son, was no different.
Just moments earlier, after hearing his father’s words, he had thought bitterly, What the hell... no way... is he getting dementia or something?!
But the look in Seong Hun’s eyes as he watched Seong Ha-yeong was deadly serious.
And Seong Gi-hyeon realized his father wasn’t speaking idly.
He turned and glared at his niece, who sat across from him.
Silence spread through the room.
Only after quite some time did Seong Ha-yeong finally speak.
“I don’t have to answer right this second, do I?”
“Ha ha ha. So you’re not saying no.”
“……”
Seong Hun seemed pleased with her answer.
And in that instant, Seong Ha-yeong felt a strange, inexplicable embarrassment.
“I’ll be going first. We’ll eat together next time. Stay and finish your meal.”
With that, Seong Hun rose from the table.
Seong Gi-hyeon followed behind him.
Once again, only Kang-hae and Seong Ha-yeong were left in the dining room.
“I’m sorry……”
Seong Ha-yeong apologized to Kang-hae.
“You don’t need to apologize.”
Kang-hae answered without a trace of concern.
And yet Seong Ha-yeong still couldn’t shake the bad feeling in her chest.
It wasn’t only the sudden meeting with her grandfather. It was also that she felt as though something shameful about herself had been exposed in front of Kang-hae.
“Let’s eat.”
Kang-hae pressed the bell and called over a server.
He ordered short ribs.
A little while later, the server brought out the side dishes and the meat.
Sizzle—
The meat browned on the grill.
For something that cost over 100,000 won a portion, it looked and smelled excellent.
But Seong Ha-yeong had no appetite.
Kang-hae placed a slice of meat onto the small plate in front of her.
“You’re supposed to eat your fill before a fight.”
“……?”
Seong Ha-yeong looked at him as if to ask what he was talking about, but Kang-hae only kept eating in silence.
“Kang-hae.”
“Yes.”
“You’re not even asking what happened.”
“I was taught that politics, religion, and family aren’t things you bring up lightly.”
“Ha ha ha.”
That made Seong Ha-yeong snort out a laugh.
“Everyone lives with at least one story they can’t talk about.”
As he spoke, Kang-hae ate another piece of meat.
Of course, Kang-hae was curious, too.
It wasn’t ordinary for a woman from one of South Korea’s most prominent chaebol families to have gone through ROTC, served in the military, and then worked at the National Security Office after discharge.
And what had just happened at the table wasn’t the warm, affectionate picture of a grandfather and granddaughter, either.
As he’d said a moment ago, it was obvious there was a story she couldn’t speak about.
But he had no interest in prying into something the other person hadn’t chosen to reveal.
“You know, Kang-hae.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you say that to my grandfather earlier?”
“Say what?”
“When he told you to leave... I mean, I’m not saying he was wrong. Honestly, it was the first time in my life I’d ever seen anyone talk to my grandfather like that……”
“Because that’s how you treat people, isn’t it?”
Kang-hae said it simply, but that wasn’t the whole answer.
Watching Seong Ha-yeong fluster and not know what to do after seeing Seong Hun—and then seeing Seong Gi-hyeon stare at her as though he wanted to kill her—had given Kang-hae the impression of a grazing animal caught in the crosshairs of predators on the open plain.
He had wanted to stand beside her.
“Do you maybe know my father?” Seong Ha-yeong asked cautiously.
“No.”
Kang-hae answered.
It was unexpected.
With even a little searching online, he could have found out exactly who Seong Ha-yeong’s father was.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“……”
“Ha-yeong.”
“Yes.”
“If you want to say something, you can.”
“Thank you……”
Seong Ha-yeong looked as though she wanted to unburden herself of something.
Kang-hae waited for her to go on.
A moment later, Seong Ha-yeong spoke the story she had kept hidden inside her.
“Four years ago, my father died in a traffic accident on his way to a factory in Yeosu. But I don’t think he died in a traffic accident.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean he did die in a traffic accident... but it wasn’t just an accident.”
“……”
Seong Ha-yeong’s father, Seong Jae-hyeon, who had been the president of Ilseong Trading, had collided with a dump truck on the Seohae Expressway and died at the scene.
“What happened then?”
“My grandfather was planning to hand the company over to my father.”
Ilseong Group’s core affiliates were defense, life, energy, and trading.
Ilseong Trading was the majority shareholder of those core affiliates, and being appointed president of Ilseong Trading meant becoming the heir to Ilseong Group.
“My grandfather never intended to divide the affiliates evenly among his children. One person was supposed to take everything.”
Before Seong Jae-hyeon was appointed president of Ilseong Trading, he had, like any other chaebol heir in Korea, bought up unlisted affiliates at bargain prices and boosted the companies’ value through insider work assignments.
After that, through mergers among the affiliates, Seong Jae-hyeon became the largest shareholder of Ilseong Trading.
Of course, the prosecutors launched an investigation.
Seong Jae-hyeon was cleared of all charges.
Seong Hun was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for five years.
But it had all been something he had prepared for in advance.
It was still better than paying tens of billions of won in taxes.
“The dump truck involved in the accident was suspicious, too... It belonged to a company that had a subcontract with Ilseong Plant. And the president of Ilseong Plant was Seong Gi-hyeon, my uncle—the same man Kang-hae saw earlier.”
“What about the dump truck driver?”
“He died in an accident while receiving mechanical repair training in prison.”
“……”
“But apparently, while he was in prison, he told the other inmates he’d made a lot of money.”
“Who did you hear that from?”
“The detective who was investigating the case at the time. But my grandfather covered all of it up.”
“What happened to the detective?”
“He quit the police and disappeared……”
“That’s suspicious enough.”
“……”
Kang-hae didn’t ask what happened after that.
From the look of things, Seong Ha-yeong had stopped looking into her father’s death after a certain point.
He could understand why.
She must have been afraid of what the truth would reveal—of whether her father’s brothers had been involved in killing him... and whether, perhaps, her grandfather had been part of it too.
Kang-hae placed another piece of meat onto her small plate.
“Thank you……”
It wasn’t because of the meat.
She was grateful simply for being listened to.
It felt, in its own way, like comfort.
And at that same moment, Seong Hun and Seong Gi-hyeon were riding home together in a car.
“Father.”
“Yes.”
“What you said earlier, about Ha-yeong coming to Ilseong Trading... that was a joke, right?”
Seong Hun silently looked at his second son.
“Father...! You said you were definitely going to give Ilseong Trading to Jun-hee!”
Seong Gi-hyeon’s eldest son, Seong Jun-hee, had graduated from Stanford Business School in the United States a year earlier, joined Ilseong Trading as deputy head of the Strategy Team, and just recently been promoted to assistant managing director.
“Gi-hyeon.”
“Yes, Father.”
“Your brother...”
“Why bring up my dead brother all of a sudden?”
“If you hate Ha-yeong that much, wouldn’t your dead brother be saddened by it?”
“……”
Seong Gi-hyeon said nothing more.
He had no idea what might come out of his father’s mouth next.
And he decided he needed to take measures before Seong Ha-yeong ever came to Ilseong Trading.
* * *
The next day.
Government Complex Gwacheon.
The working-level task force members trickled in one by one.
“Good morning~”
Kim Jeong-min greeted Seong Ha-yeong with a smile.
Seong Ha-yeong found Kim Jeong-min’s cheerful greeting, as though nothing had happened, utterly nauseating.
But there wasn’t much she could do about it.
After Kim Jeong-min arrived at work, the task force team began their duties.
Seong Ha-yeong dug through the files she had sorted so far.
Among the companies that had been based in the Kaesong Industrial Complex, there were a few that still hadn’t been reached.
One of them was a company called Hanshin Textile.
Unlike the companies that had simply gone dark, however, Hanshin Textile hadn’t even filed for closure.
It was still generating income.
The company’s headquarters were located in the Banwol Industrial Complex in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.
There was no choice but to go there in person.
Seong Ha-yeong requested an outside assignment, and after lunch she headed there with Kang-hae.
* * *
Banwol Industrial Complex, Danwon District, Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.
From Gwacheon to the Hanshin Textile headquarters marked on the map, it took forty minutes by car.
Hanshin Textile was tucked away in one of the most remote corners of the Banwol Industrial Complex.
There was a barricade at the factory entrance, but the path for pedestrians remained open.
Kang-hae and Seong Ha-yeong parked at the entrance and went inside.
Perhaps because of the fog, the place felt desolate and eerie.
The office building was nowhere to be seen, and all that remained was a single factory with its doors shut.
Forklifts and pallets were strewn carelessly around the entrance, and at first glance it looked like an abandoned plant.
But the tire tracks in the dirt floor showed that it wasn’t an empty factory at all.
“Anyone here...?”
Seong Ha-yeong pushed open the factory door.
The moment it swung open, both of them grimaced.
An unfamiliar chemical smell hit them head-on.
“Are clothing chemicals really supposed to be this strong...?” Seong Ha-yeong said, pinching her nose.
The smell was like melted plastic, and the deeper they went into the factory, the stronger it became.
Kang-hae looked around.
There were machines that clearly hadn’t run in a long time, and miscellaneous junk scattered across the floor.
He grabbed Seong Ha-yeong by the wrist.
“……?”
“Ha-yeong.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go back first.”
“What? But we came all the way here. We should at least meet someone.”
“This isn’t a textile factory.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s get outside first. Then I’ll explain.”
“……”
Seong Ha-yeong was confused, but when she saw the seriousness in Kang-hae’s eyes, she agreed.
And just as she was about to follow him out of the factory, she heard something from somewhere nearby.
Tap, tap, tap—
Tap, tap, tap—
Footsteps. Lots of them.
Moments later, people began to emerge one by one, each carrying a steel pipe or an adjustable wrench.
Their faces were hidden under caps and masks, but their slight builds, heavy double eyelids, and weathered skin made it clear that they were foreigners.
Seong Ha-yeong froze in fear.
Kang-hae stepped in front of her.
Then he raised both hands toward them and said, “I came here by mistake. I’ll go back.”
He wasn’t afraid of a fight.
But Seong Ha-yeong was with him.
And however small the chance, she might get hurt.
Kang-hae didn’t want to take that risk.
But despite his gesture, the foreigners slowly began to encircle the two of them.
Their eyes were savage.
Kang-hae let out a quiet sigh.
Then he measured the distance to the nearest man.
Five meters.
Like lightning, Kang-hae moved, driving his foot into the nearest man’s abdomen.
Thud—
And just like that, the fight began.