Accepting Him as Family
Though darkness had settled thickly over the city, the lights in the Ilhyeon Group chairman’s office burned bright.
Kim Seong-ho sat across from Lee Tak-hyeon, recounting everything that had taken place at the Ministry of Finance and Economy.
Lee Tak-hyeon sat without leaning against the backrest, arms folded, gently rocking as he listened. When Seong-ho finished, he stopped rocking and fixed his gaze on him.
“So they agreed to write off three point five trillion won in debt, and of the remaining seven trillion, convert three trillion into equity?”
“Yes. We convert three trillion into Doa Motors stock, and three years from now we acquire the creditors’ shares. That is how we finalize the acquisition.”
Lee Tak-hyeon gave a slow nod.
“So we take Doa Motors without spending a single won. And with the three-point-five-trillion write-off already promised, it is as if they are paying us to take it…”
“Are you satisfied?”
“Satisfied?”
He unfolded his arms and spread his hands wide.
“Who else could have brought back a better result? Even I could not guarantee it. Writing off debt is only natural under the circumstances—I’ll grant them that—but an equity conversion that lets us take the company without putting up a single coin right now? What could possibly be better? Well done.”
Lee Tak-hyeon offered the praise without reservation. Seong-ho inclined his head slightly and continued with the finer points.
“When we acquire those three trillion in shares, the price will be fixed at the contract-date valuation, no matter where the stock stands at the time.”
“Even if the share price falls, we still buy at the original contract price?”
A faint smile touched Lee Tak-hyeon’s lips.
“Not bad at all. That also means if the price rises, we still buy at the contract price.”
“In return, the creditors—led by Modeul Bank—will finance the entire purchase amount with loans.”
“Hahaha!”
Lee Tak-hyeon burst into open laughter.
“So the equity conversion was nothing but window dressing.”
“Yes. It is only a temporary measure to reduce the debt load and clear the capital impairment. What they truly want is to shift the loans that are tied up in Doa Motors—loans whose fate no one can predict—onto us.”
“And what do you think? Is this enough?”
Still smiling, Lee Tak-hyeon asked Seong-ho for his assessment of the deal.
Seong-ho nodded.
“In my judgment, this is the greatest concession they could accept. The write-off is one trillion larger than we expected, and because no cash is required up front, the burden of the acquisition has dropped sharply. We also secured the union’s agreement, so the plan to cut forty-five hundred jobs can proceed. Even the equity conversion that looks favorable to the creditors will, in the end, work to our advantage.”
“To our advantage?”
“Because we buy at the contract price whether the stock rises or falls, the terms cannot hurt us. Doa Motors’ share price has nowhere left to fall.”
After the bankruptcy scare, Doa Motors stock had plummeted through the basement and straight into the earth’s core. Any further drop would simply mean the company was finished—so from Ilhyeon’s standpoint there was no downside left.
Lee Tak-hyeon slapped his knee and turned to Chief of Staff Hwang Do-beom.
“Have the car ready.”
“The car, sir?”
Hwang Do-beom looked at him with the silent question of where anyone could possibly be going at this hour. Lee Tak-hyeon glanced at Seong-ho and smiled.
“This boy has done everything up to this point. I will finish it myself. Tell the Blue House I am coming in.”
“Right now?”
“Tell them it concerns Doa Motors and that I need to discuss it. They will come out in their pajamas if they have to. Just make the call.”
“Understood.”
Hwang Do-beom bowed and withdrew to carry out the order. Lee Tak-hyeon watched him go with open satisfaction.
“At last Doa Motors falls into my hands—and for free. Hahaha!”
Seong-ho smiled back and shook his head. Lee Tak-hyeon’s delight was beyond words; he kept laughing as he rose from his chair.
“I will go settle it with the president myself.”
“The president will have no room to object.”
“Of course he won’t.”
Lee Tak-hyeon looked at Seong-ho, who had also stood.
“I hear they are cooking up something called a big deal or a small deal. To move that forward they first have to clear Doa Motors off the board. What other answer could they give? They ought to be thanking us.”
At the words “big deal,” Seong-ho’s mind drifted back to the previous timeline and the big deal that had once involved Ilhyeon Group. He sank into thought for a moment. Lee Tak-hyeon watched him with a faint, pleased smile—pleased that a single topic was enough to set Seong-ho’s mind racing and organizing itself on the spot.
“I will be back. You go home and rest.”
“Yes, Chairman. Please take care.”
“And on Sunday, you will stand in front of the entire family and report everything that has happened.”
“Understood.”
When Seong-ho bowed in acceptance, Lee Tak-hyeon studied him for a long moment before speaking again.
“And why is there still no news of a child? You two are the only ones without one—it looks bad. Pay as much attention to home as you do to the company.”
Seong-ho’s head snapped up in open surprise. Lee Tak-hyeon met that startled gaze, then simply turned away.
“I am leaving for real this time.”
With that, he walked out the door where Hwang Do-beom waited. Once the master of the room had gone, Seong-ho remained standing alone in the center of the chairman’s office, still wearing the same stunned expression.
“…He spoke of a child?”
He could not calm the shock. A remark that they should have a child soon was as good as a declaration that Lee Tak-hyeon intended to accept him fully as family.
Feeling that the chairman’s long trial of him was finally drawing to a close, Seong-ho paced the empty office for a long while, unable to settle the swell of emotion in his chest.
On the fourth day after the Doa Motors crisis shook the market, the Ilhyeon Group and the Blue House each released a statement.
At the same hour the Ilhyeon Group announced its bid, the Blue House confirmed that the sale would go forward as planned. From the twin statements the market drew a single conclusion.
Whether Ilhyeon had made the first offer or the Blue House had asked for help, no one could say. What was clear was that the two sides had already conferred over Doa Motors, and that Ilhyeon Group had been chosen as its new owner.
The market exhaled in relief. The news was only of a bid, not a completed acquisition—yet the mere fact that Ilhyeon was entering the race carried enough weight that people felt the new owner had already been decided.
As Lee Tak-hyeon had ordered, Seong-ho stood before the entire family that Sunday and laid out the Doa Motors acquisition in full. Lee Mun-jong and the others stared at him in open shock.
“They really agreed to a debt write-off?”
“And the equity conversion means no cash outlay right now?”
“The union actually approved the layoffs?”
Questions poured out of them. Simply deciding to acquire Doa Motors would have been a major victory; the terms that came with it were so staggering that even calling them a “success” felt inadequate.
“Please ask one at a time. The write-off? Yes—three point five trillion won. No immediate cash outlay is correct. After the acquisition we will proceed with layoffs on the order of forty-five hundred employees.”
“What on earth…”
Lee Mun-jong turned a bewildered face toward Lee Tak-hyeon. The chairman, who had been quietly watching his children’s astonishment, finally spoke.
“I have finished talking with President Kim Dae-sang. We are taking Doa Motors. From this moment you will handle everything related to the acquisition.”
The order left Lee Mun-jong as motionless as if his power had been cut. Lee Tak-hyeon eyed him with open contempt and raised his voice.
“What is the matter? Do you not want the job?”
The sharp crack of his father’s voice snapped Mun-jong back to himself.
“No, sir. I was simply too shocked for a moment. I will begin preparations at once.”
Lee Tak-hyeon gave him a look of lingering dissatisfaction, then addressed every child present.
“All of you take this to heart. Doa Motors is an enormous opportunity for us. We can finally push Sunwoo completely out of the domestic market and plant our feet in overseas markets as well. Every one of you will keep your eyes on Doa Motors. If Vice Chairman Lee asks for help, you will run to him barefoot if you have to.”
“Father, then who gets the auto company?”
At Lee Jeong-eun’s question, Cha Yeong-su, sitting beside her, tugged at her sleeve. She shook him off.
“What?”
“This is not the place for that kind of talk…”
“What is wrong with this place?”
Jeong-eun glared at the frowning faces around the table and raised her voice.
“Am I the only one thinking it? Say something, older brother. Aren’t you curious whose hands Doa Motors ends up in?”
“Ugh…”
When she pointed at Lee Mun-jong, he only let out an uncomfortable groan and turned his head. Jeong-eun shifted her gaze to Lee Sang-jong.
“And you, second brother? Aren’t you curious?”
“Do you really have to bring that up right here?”
“I am bringing it up precisely because we are here.”
She turned back to Lee Tak-hyeon.
“Father, speak clearly.”
“Speak clearly about what?”
“If Ilhyeon Motors swallows Doa Motors, Ilhyeon Construction will look like a lightweight. It will grow as large as Ilhyeon Electronics—maybe larger.”
“That is true enough.”
“Exactly. So decide who gets it.”
“You seem more interested in the scraps than the acquisition itself.”
“It is not scraps—it is reality.”
Jeong-eun did not so much as blink at her own shamelessness.
“Father, you put the youngest in charge of Ilhyeon Hotel and Ilhyeon Department Store—isn’t that because you intend to hand both over to her as her share?”
Lee Tak-hyeon said nothing. Everyone present understood that his silence was itself an answer. Jeong-eun shot a knowing glance at Lee Gyeong-eun, who sat looking mortified and uncertain, then pressed on.
“Fine—Kim Seong-ho has done enough to please you, so I will not begrudge her that. I am not that greedy. But second brother—”
At the mention of Lee Sang-jong every eye swung toward him.
“He was thrown out of Construction and then put right back in. Isn’t that because Ilhyeon Construction was always meant to be his?”
“You…”
Sang-jong started to scold her, then stopped and watched Lee Tak-hyeon’s face instead. He had always believed Construction was his, but he wanted to know what his father truly thought. So he held his tongue and waited for a sign.
When Sang-jong remained silent, Jeong-eun continued.
“Except for the youngest and second brother, Chang-jong and I have nothing settled. Of course I am curious.”
“Dear…”
Cha Yeong-su, reading the room, caught her sleeve again to stop her. Jeong-eun flung his hand away harder than before and shouted at him.
“Enough! Do you think Father is going to give you Ilhyeon Electronics? Sitting in a vice-president’s chair there means nothing. This is family business—just sit there and listen. Interrupt me one more time and I will not let it go!”
Irritated at having been stopped twice, she shouted without caring who else was in the room, then turned back to Lee Tak-hyeon.
“Chang-jong at least has a post in the company, so leave him aside. What about me? You know exactly why I am asking.”
Frustration seemed to have climbed all the way to the top of her head; she even rose from her seat. Lee Tak-hyeon remained seated and looked up at her for a moment. Instead of answering her directly, he first put a question to Kim Seong-ho.
“What empty seats do we have in the group right now?”
Every ear in the room pricked up. At last the chairman was responding to Jeong-eun’s outburst. Seong-ho, who had been sitting quietly, felt the weight of every gaze turn toward him and looked up at Jeong-eun.
I was wondering how to drop her into it—perfect timing.
He had already prepared an ant-hell for her and had only been searching for the right moment to push her in. Watching her rush toward the pit of her own free will, he answered Lee Tak-hyeon.
“As it happens, the president’s seat at Ilhyeon Card—freshly restructured—is vacant.”
With those words Kim Seong-ho set the carefully prepared ant-hell down directly in front of Lee Jeong-eun.