The Director Watching the Play
Upon arriving in Pyeongchang-dong, Lee Jeong-eun took her seat with a look of pure incomprehension.
"What is this? Did they say the company went under or something?"
Sitting beside her, Cha Yeong-su tried to rein her in, murmuring that she shouldn't say such things.
But Lee Jeong-eun's bewildered stream of words refused to stop.
"The whole country's collapsing—who's to say our company can't go under too? Right? Otherwise why would Father gather all his children at this hour? He didn't call us over to watch the midnight news together, did he?"
"Honey. Please, just…"
"Did I say anything wrong? Oppa. Did I say anything wrong?"
Lee Jeong-eun turned to Lee Sang-jong as if demanding confirmation that her words were sound, half-expecting he might already know something.
But Lee Sang-jong was just as much in the dark.
"We'll find out if we wait."
"You don't know either, Oppa?"
"How would I know?"
Lee Sang-jong shrugged and glanced toward Chu Suk-ja. Lee Jeong-eun caught the meaning of that look and turned to her mother.
"Mom. You know something, don't you?"
"What does it matter whether I know or not? Your father called you here to tell you himself, so sit quietly."
"If you know, tell us ahead of time. At least then we can prepare."
"Prepare for what? What do you think any of you could actually do even if you prepared?"
Just then Lee Tak-hyeon appeared, and the words he let fall carried a thin edge of scorn.
Lee Jeong-eun's face flushed scarlet as she rose from her seat. The others stood as well and offered their greetings to Lee Tak-hyeon.
He accepted his children's bows, swept a look around the room, and said,
"Not everyone is here yet."
"I don't know why the youngest had to move all the way down across the river. That's why they're late."
Lee Jeong-eun tried to shift the topic onto Kim Seong-ho and his wife. But Cha Yeong-su, missing her intent completely, spoke up with something else entirely.
"It isn't just the youngest sister-in-law who's late. The eldest brother-in-law and the brother-in-law aren't here either… If anything, we got here early."
At that, Lee Jeong-eun's eyes sharpened into axe blades. Cha Yeong-su could not understand why she was glaring at him, while Lee Tak-hyeon watched the henpecked son-in-law with open amusement.
Time passed, and then, as if by prior arrangement, Lee Mun-jong, Lee Chang-jong, and Kim Seong-ho's couple arrived at the Pyeongchang-dong house together.
Lee Jeong-eun eyed their simultaneous entrance with suspicion.
"What is this? Did all of you make a plan? Why are you walking in together?"
"We were coming from the company, so of course we came together."
Lee Mun-jong brushed the remark off as trivial and offered his greeting to Lee Tak-hyeon.
"Father. We've arrived."
"Good. Now that you're here, sit."
Lee Tak-hyeon nodded and pointed toward the sofas in front of him. After Lee Chang-jong and Kim Seong-ho had also paid their respects and taken their seats, Lee Jeong-eun continued to stare at Lee Mun-jong and the others as if something still did not add up.
"The three of you being in the same building I can understand… but Unni and Gyeong-eun weren't even in the same building. Why did they come with you?"
"We ran into each other just outside and came in together," Bang Hyeon-ju answered with a smile. Lee Jeong-eun's suspicion did not fade.
"And Gyeong-eun was out front as well…"
"Enough."
Lee Tak-hyeon cut her off, and only then did Lee Jeong-eun's mouth close. Still, she pursed her lips and refused to drop the look of lingering doubt.
Lee Tak-hyeon swept his gaze once more over the children, daughters-in-law, and sons-in-law assembled before him, starting with the now-quiet Lee Jeong-eun, and opened his mouth.
"It's late, so I'll get straight to the point."
His circling gaze came to rest on Lee Chang-jong.
"Chang-jong has a son."
"A son?"
Lee Sang-jong and the others who had no idea what was going on all turned to stare at Lee Chang-jong, unable to make sense of Lee Tak-hyeon's words.
"I gathered you here to tell you that our family has gained a new member."
"A son? Did Unni already have a baby? How?"
The word that left Lee Jeong-eun's mouth first was not "when" but "how."
"Haven't the two of you been living apart for over a year? And you've never even been to America… Unni has never come to Korea either, has she? So how did Unni get pregnant and give birth?"
"If not you, then your mother should have said something. Why didn't she tell us until the child was already born? It isn't as if we were going to devour her."
Lee Jeong-eun remained baffled; Chu Suk-ja sounded wounded.
Lee Chang-jong wore a bitter expression as he faced them both.
"It isn't Se-a's mother's child."
"What are you talking about? Not your wife's child…?"
Lee Jeong-eun recoiled in shock.
"Don't tell me you… you… had a child outside?"
"Well… it turned out that way."
"You insane bastard!"
Lee Jeong-eun shot to her feet, jabbing a finger at Lee Chang-jong and shouting.
"Is this man out of his mind? How do you bring home a child you had outside? Are you crazy? What are you going to tell Unni? What are you going to tell our in-laws? No—what are you going to tell the world? You're dragging mud all over our family name!"
"Is it true? Did you really have a child outside and bring it home?"
Unlike Lee Jeong-eun, who had lost all composure, Lee Sang-jong kept his calm as he asked the question. Lee Chang-jong ignored every one of Lee Jeong-eun's tirades, but he answered his brother.
"Yes. It… turned out that way."
"And the mother? What does she do?"
"Eldest Brother's secretary."
At Lee Chang-jong's words, every gaze in the room swung toward Lee Mun-jong. He cleared his throat briefly and spoke.
"Ahem. I didn't know either. That he and she were… involved like that…"
"If it's a secretary… you mean Secretary Han?"
Bang Hyeon-ju, Lee Mun-jong's wife, furrowed her brow as she asked. Lee Mun-jong nodded. Bang Hyeon-ju squeezed her eyes shut, turned her face away, and made it plain she wanted no further part in the conversation.
Lee Gyeong-eun surveyed the family, then leaned toward Kim Seong-ho and whispered,
"Seong-ho, did you already know?"
"Shh. Let's just sit quietly and watch."
Kim Seong-ho motioned for her to keep silent, then watched the Ilhyeon family with an expression of pure entertainment.
Lee Jeong-eun remained on her feet, hands on her hips, continuing to scold Lee Chang-jong without pause. Chu Suk-ja pressed a hand to her forehead in sheer disbelief, while Oh Min-yeong, Lee Sang-jong's wife, stared at Lee Chang-jong as though he were some kind of insect. Lee Mun-jong kept his silence; Lee Sang-jong's eyes darted about as he tried to piece together how the situation was unfolding amid the chaos.
After the uproar had run for a while, practical questions finally began to surface.
"What about the mother? What happened to the child's mother?"
"I paid her off and sent her to America."
"Paid her off and sent her to America? What if she comes back and starts saying strange things?"
Chu Suk-ja, still holding her forehead, asked in a worried voice. Lee Chang-jong glanced briefly toward Kim Seong-ho, then shook his head.
"She won't."
"Well, if that's the case… then what are you going to tell Se-a's mother?"
"What else would I tell her? That we have a child."
"That is not what I meant."
Chu Suk-ja raised her voice sharply. She lowered the hand from her forehead and scolded Lee Chang-jong.
"You brought a child born outside into this house—are you going to hand it to Se-a's mother to raise? And what do you intend to tell everyone who knows you? That is what I am asking."
"Well…"
"You didn't even think that far?"
Chu Suk-ja looked at him as if he were hopeless, then turned to Lee Tak-hyeon.
"You say something. What do you intend to do about this?"
"What is there to do? We have one more grandson."
Lee Tak-hyeon spoke in a perfectly casual tone, as though it were nothing of consequence, then addressed Lee Chang-jong.
"You have a son now, so that's settled. A man needs at least one son. The first."
"Yes."
"No—not you, Mun-jong. Seon-myeong's mother."
When Lee Tak-hyeon called for Bang Hyeon-ju, she turned back from where she had been facing away, forced a neutral expression onto her face, and answered.
"Yes, Father."
"You should have had one more son as well. Seon-myeong alone is not enough."
"Yes, well…"
Bang Hyeon-ju managed a strained smile. Anyone looking could see her mood was anything but good.
Fearing Lee Tak-hyeon might say something further after seeing her expression, Chu Suk-ja stepped in first.
"What good does it do to say that now?"
"I'm only saying it because it's a pity, that's all."
Lee Tak-hyeon turned back to Lee Chang-jong.
"That one was the only one without a son, and now he has one, so it's a good thing. Everyone take note of that."
With that, Lee Tak-hyeon drew a hard line, making it clear there was to be no more wrangling over the matter. Reality, however, did not end with simply acknowledging Lee Chang-jong's son.
"Then who is going to raise the child?"
"Who is going to raise him?"
Lee Tak-hyeon echoed Chu Suk-ja's words as if he could not understand the question. She let out a hollow laugh and pointed a finger at Lee Chang-jong.
"You said you already sent the mother off to America. Then who exactly is supposed to raise him? Don't tell me you thought the child would just raise himself once you brought him in?"
"That…"
Lee Tak-hyeon fell silent, as though the thought had never occurred to him. Lee Chang-jong and Lee Mun-jong were equally speechless. They had considered only the simple matter of whose child the boy would be called; the question of who would actually raise him had never crossed their minds.
Not everyone, however, had failed to consider the problem. Kim Seong-ho—the only one who had thought it through from the start—watched the scene unfold with a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, taking a quiet step back. With the satisfied heart of a director watching a play he had staged perform exactly as intended, Kim Seong-ho observed the present situation.
Even though the new year had dawned, no one was in a mood to welcome it. The atmosphere of the new year had grown as cold and heavy as the weather itself.
The parade of corporate bankruptcies did not end with the new year. The collapse of a construction group and a fashion group ranked thirtieth in the business world was no longer remarkable news; the bankruptcy of a food company almost seemed inevitable. People had come to treat corporate failure as a matter of course, and even the report that the domino-effect bankruptcies had cost seven hundred thousand people their jobs left them numb.
Numbness, however, did not mean the anger had subsided. When word spread that the Blue House reporting system had been effectively paralyzed—so that twenty-three warnings issued before the foreign-exchange crisis erupted had never properly reached the president—public fury ignited. People wanted to know why the reports had failed, and why the president had never grasped the true severity of the crisis. Even though there had been ample time to respond before the nation reached this state, the failure to do so had driven the country into the desperate situation of accepting a bailout; the people's rage only continued to boil higher.
The unemployment rate plunged to its worst level since 1987, and men in suits spilled out onto the streets. University seniors postponed their graduations; students who could not afford tuition poured into the military in such numbers that waiting lists for enlistment stretched beyond a year.
It was into this nationwide depression that one slender thread of hopeful news arrived.
Lee Gyeong-eun handed Kim Seong-ho an apple as he watched the news and asked,
"What's the competition ratio looking like?"
"According to what Headquarters has confirmed, they're expecting it to come in a little over ninety to one."
Kim Seong-ho took a bite of the apple she had given him as he answered. Lee Gyeong-eun was startled by the number.
"Ninety to one? That fierce?"
Kim Seong-ho turned his gaze from the television to her.
"Well, our first-half recruitment is essentially the only one happening this year. So every job seeker in the country—new university graduates, last year's graduates, even high-school graduates—is pouring in, which is driving the ratio higher. Multiple applications are allowed as well."
"Even with multiple applications… wouldn't it still clear ten to one?"
"The actual competition ratio, measured by documents, is expected to settle around twenty to one… but we'll only know for certain once we see it for ourselves."
"Ugh, how did finding a job become this hard?"
Lee Gyeong-eun looked at the television with open concern. Yet mixed with the worry on her face was a quiet pleasure.
"Still, it doesn't feel bad. Seeing this many people want to join our company."
Kim Seong-ho turned back to the screen.
"There are that many people who want to get into our company—yet on the other side, there are also people raising hell because they refuse to come in."
"People who refuse to join our company? Where would you find anyone like that?"
No sooner had the words left Lee Gyeong-eun's mouth than the news cut to a different scene.
On the screen, people with white headbands and shoulder sashes, their faces set in grim determination, clenched their fists and shouted.