The chairman wears an apron
"Then I'll take my leave."
"Yes. Team Leader Kang."
Thud—!
The moment the door closed, the smile drained from Kwon Junyong's face.
"……"
Kang Suho. The man of the hour who had turned Yeouido upside down in a remarkably short time since joining Daeseong Securities. Now that he'd finally met in person the figure he'd only ever known through reports, his impression was simple—
"Truly not an ordinary man, after all."
What exactly Director Geum's relationship with him was, or where the two had met—Kwon Junyong hadn't bothered to ask. It simply wasn't important. In a situation like this, only one thing mattered.
Direction.
Where were they headed? And as the answer to that question, Kang Suho had poked the hornet's nest that was Ilseong Group.
That unreadable young man wanted chaos. He had been deliberately stirring the previously dormant beehive called Ilseong, intent on igniting an enormous conflagration between Daeseong and Ilseong.
And who would profit from all that confusion?
"Director Geum, of course."
Divide and conquer. Using one savage to take down another. Word was already coming in that Ilseong was absolutely furious with Daeseong. From their perspective, it could only look like Daeseong had borrowed headquarters' power to stab Ilseong in the back. The explanation that this had all been a scheme to drive out Director Geum Gaho and Kang Suho would never fly—not when, judging by the results alone, Daeseong had landed a massive blow to Ilseong's back. Twice, no less!
"And his answer was remarkably firm, too."
Kang Suho had declared he would never stop. There had been genuine resolve in his eyes—a will to see it through to the very end. This was hardly a venture born of some paltry five billion won, after all.
If the current chairman and his family were swept away and Director Geum was enthroned as the new emperor, Kang Suho would stand as the hero of the hour, rewarded beyond anything his current position could offer. That was why he'd been able to accept, with perfect equanimity, the news that a new headquarters would be created with him at its head.
"……Was even this part of Kang Suho's plan?"
The All-Rounder. Even in Korea, a position treated as the stuff of legend. How could any single human being master every field of finance?
And yet Suho had proven himself one—dazzling analytical ability in the Research Center, bold investment instincts in the Trading Division, and even meticulous structuring in Delta One. That was why CEO Kwon had personally established a new headquarters to push him properly forward. To tell him, in effect: now take up the sword yourself and step onto the front lines.
And yet somehow, Suho had likely foreseen even this. The thought sent a chill down Kwon Junyong's spine.
Where on earth had Director Geum unearthed such a terrifying monster during his time in seclusion?
"Still, in the end, it's the finish that matters."
All of this was well and good—for now. But once the succession was settled and the company entered calm waters, the dream of making Director Geum chairman would evaporate. Then, no matter how much money Suho made through his brilliant investments, it would only end up lining the pockets of the chairman's family.
"So it's an all-or-nothing gamble……"
Kwon Junyong sat in silence, gazing out past the window. The price of provoking the giant called Ilseong would be anything but small.
But the dice had already been thrown. And his own fate was riding on them.
Strangely enough, though, Kwon Junyong felt no fear. The thought that a man like Kang Suho stood on his side made him feel as fortified as if he'd been handed ten thousand troops. For the first time in a very long while, his blood was burning again.
Just like in the old days.
The same hour.
The air in the upper reaches of Daesung Group headquarters was colder and more tension-laden than it had been in years.
"Vice Chairwoman. Please, spare me."
"That's what you have to say to my face? I told you to take down Geum Gaho, and instead you went and stabbed me in the foot!?"
Vice Chairwoman Kim Inyoung hurled a stack of documents at Managing Director Park, who stood cowering before her desk, gaunt and begging for his life.
She had every reason to. Kim Inyoung was the chairman's wife, and she had staked everything on raising her own son, Geum Doyoon, to the chairman's seat.
"Be honest with me. Weren't you Geum Gaho's plant from the very beginning?"
"N-no, absolutely not!"
"No? You did everything you were told, and all you accomplished was handing Geum Gaho the perfect pretext to make his return!"
Geum Gaho's comeback was a nightmare too horrifying for the vice chairwoman even to imagine. Consider it. Geum Gaho held group shares. Even within the circular shareholding structure of the group, if the man holding the core controlling stake came back and formally declared his candidacy for the chairman's seat himself?
Of course, it wouldn't be easy. Since Geum Gaho's departure, the group's governance structure had been rebuilt tighter than ever before.
But what if Geum Gaho threw his weight behind one of the chairman's blood relatives—the ones scheming to push aside his half-brother Geum Doyoon and claim the throne for themselves?
That would be a catastrophic threat.
"Our chairman is lying in a hospital bed with one foot in the grave. Which means Doyoon needs to secure the succession as quickly as possible. His brothers are already circling the chairman's seat as it is—and now you've gone and summoned Geum Gaho back into the game?"
"Vice Chairwoman, I've been wronged. You know as well as I do that this plan was entirely—"
"Enough!"
At the vice chairwoman's razor-edged rebuke, Managing Director Park's shoulders crumpled.
"I've heard enough excuses. The results speak for themselves. Because of you, Geum Gaho and that deputy of his have become untouchable sacred figures inside Daeseong Securities!"
Geum Gaho and Kang Suho were being treated like saviors within the company. The two men who were supposed to have wrecked the firm had instead become heroes.
And all because of the man standing before her!
"Vice Chairwoman, please compose yourself."
"Does it look like I can compose myself right now? He colluded with Director Geum and stabbed me in the back!"
"There's no need to waste your energy on a piece of trash less useful than that."
"……"
The one who stopped the vice chairwoman's tirade was a man who had been in the room from the start. Her right hand, he had watched the situation unfold in silence, as if he'd always known it would come to this, and had risen from his seat the moment the timing was right.
Director Gu Daeho shot Managing Director Park a look that said get out of my sight. Park, unable even to salvage a scrap of dignity, fled the vice chairwoman's office at once.
"Whew. How is it that my life keeps filling up with men like that?"
Vice Chairwoman Kim Inyoung drained a glass of cold water, but the fury refused to settle. Ambitious wolves gunning for the chairman's seat were everywhere she looked, and now Geum Gaho had surfaced on top of it all. Anxiety had been robbing her of sleep for days.
"Director Gu."
"Yes, Vice Chairwoman."
"That deputy—Kang Suho, was it? He's not just an ordinary trader, is he?"
"According to the investigation…… there's nothing notable. An ordinary family, no backing, and his academic credentials aren't even particularly impressive."
"And a man like that appears out of nowhere and shakes our entire Daeseong Group to this degree?"
"That's what's so uncanny. To be perfectly frank, Managing Director Park's trap was airtight. Yet this Kang Suho pinpointed the peak and the bottom with almost supernatural precision. And above all, this rare earth DLS matter…… the structure itself was chillingly flawless."
Kim Inyoung frowned.
"Are you trying to tell me that deputy is brilliant?"
"I hate to admit it, but it's talent you can't deny. The results he's produced at Daeseong Securities were unbelievable even in the reports. Kang Suho is the sharpest blade Geum Gaho honed during his years in seclusion."
"And that blade is now standing in my Doyoon's path?"
"Yes. Exactly that."
Kim Inyoung closed her eyes for a moment and steadied her breathing.
She had married into wealth as the remarriage partner of a chairman deep in money, borne him a son, and clawed her way to this point with the single goal of making that boy the new emperor.
The other princes of the chairman's bloodline, sideline relatives like Geum Gaho, capable outsiders—everyone else was simply a target for elimination.
"You understand as well as I do, Director Gu, how hard I've worked to make sure no Yi Bang-won ever rises up inside our group."
When King Taejo had tried to place his young youngest son on the throne, Yi Bang-won had drawn his sword and seized the crown with his own hands. What law said such a thing couldn't happen inside Daesung Group?
"You needn't worry about that. The factions inside the group supporting you and Director Geum Doyoon are rock solid."
But what was more frightening than any Yi Bang-won was Geum Gaho himself. To the vice chairwoman, he was something of a Prince Suyang.
"The problem is…… the internal factions have started to waver at the news of Geum Gaho's return. His old influence ran so deep that some are whispering that for the company's future, Director Geum Gaho would make a better next chairman than Director Geum Doyoon……"
"What did you just say? You're telling me this to my face!?"
"Of course, it's only a faint undercurrent. But Geum Gaho did send a warning our way."
"A warning?"
"He said he'd let this slide, but if we pulled another stunt like this, the next time he'd step out onto the front lines himself."
"!?"
The vice chairwoman was dumbfounded. And he had the gall to say that to her face?
Who didn't know he'd been pulling every string from behind the scenes using Kang Suho as his front? And yet he brazenly talked as if he were the wounded party!
"He said that he intends to honor the promise he made with his brother, so we should stop provoking him."
"The promise he made with him……?"
"Before Director Geum Gaho left the company after 'that incident,' he made one promise with the chairman. He would take no interest in the group's management—so in exchange, the chairman was never to drive out his people. That's why the old Geum Gaho loyalists still hold a seat in each of the affiliates to this day. They were talented enough that even the chairman never found them a burden."
Vice Chairwoman Kim Inyoung let out a long sigh.
"What a fool. He never realized all of that would come back as poison."
"It's true those people did serve the group well, in fairness. But if Geum Gaho returns, the calculus changes entirely."
"Is there anyone on this earth more shameless? He claims he has no further interest in management, yet the moment his brother lies bedridden, he schemes in the shadows like some conniving weasel."
"That's simply the nature of power, I suppose. His absence was long, born of grief over losing his son—but in the end, he could never bring himself to abandon the desire to be chairman."
Taking care to choose the moment when the chairman lay too ill to manage the company, Geum Gaho had fetched some kind of monster from who-knows-where and was quietly expanding his influence. All the while pretending to do nothing at all, and even lording it over the chairman's own family.
"So. Where exactly is Director Geum Gaho right now, and what is he doing?"
Team Leader.
Team Leader, of all things.
Ever since I'd heard the words from the CEO a few days ago, I couldn't seem to get any work done. No—that wasn't quite right. Whenever I even tried to do something, the Delta One staff would snatch the task out of my hands, telling me to take it easy, what with my recent promotion.
'Getting promoted from intern to deputy was fast enough, but now Team Leader, out of nowhere?'
Even people who'd been grinding away at a securities firm for over a decade struggled to make team leader. Granted, brokerages promoted aggressively based on performance, but this wasn't the kind of team leader who ran a single team—this was closer to heading an entire headquarters. It was on a completely different level.
'I'll just work hard, I guess.'
I decided not to overthink it. After all, I'd made it this far thanks to a sense of smell that might as well have been a superpower.
'……Maybe I should get my nose professionally maintained before it gives out for good.'
Oh, right. And I wondered if our chairman knew. I should give him a call and share the good news in person—
"Welcome! How many in your par—……huh?"
"!?"
I had left work early and come to Mom's diner to help out, and for a moment I doubted my own eyes.
"Ch-Chairman?"
"Ah, ah. S-Suho. You're here early?"
I looked the chairman up and down. He was wearing one of the aprons the diner staff wore—and he was serving tables.
"What— what are you doing?"
"Ahem. I came for a meal, but the place looked so busy. So I've been lending a hand."
"WHAT!?"
I hastily shrugged off my suit jacket.
"I'm here now, so you can stop. Hand over that apron."
"No, no. You must have worked all day yourself. Rest a bit."
"Good grief, what are you even saying? Just give it to me already."
Just then, Mom's voice drifted out from the kitchen.
"Ga-ho-ssi~? Could you come give me a hand with this for a second?"
"Yes! Right away!"
Before I could even snatch the apron away, the chairman darted off toward the kitchen.
"……"
What was this. Was I dreaming?
My brain froze for a second. But why did the chairman's face look so… delighted?
And the way Mom had called out to him, too—was I imagining things, or did it sound remarkably soft?
"Hey."
My sister jabbed me repeatedly in the back, and that was what snapped me out of it.
"Come here."
She pulled me toward the empty storage room at the back of the diner.
"That man you keep calling 'the Chairman.'"
"Yeah."
"He's decent, right?"
"Why?"
"What do you mean, why? You said he's loaded, right? One look at him and the old-money refinement just pours off him. He looks like a man who's never touched a drop of dishwater in his life."
Well… fair enough. The man was family of one of the top three financial conglomerates in all of Korea.
"And a man like that volunteers to put on an apron and help run a diner? What do you think that means?"
I had no idea either, so I just blinked at her.
"It's because of Mom, you idiot!"
"Mom?"
"You should have seen the two of them together. Seriously, they were practically dripping honey out of their eyeballs—"
"W-wait, hold on. So you're saying the chairman helping out at our diner is entirely because of Mom?"
"Yes! I thought something was off ever since he randomly started showing up to eat here every single day. And Mom's been going on and on about that man at every opportunity lately, too!"
Only then did the whole picture snap into focus for me.
"Between the Chairman and our mom…"
…there's a pink tide rolling through?