She Must Stand at the Press Conference
The story of the illegitimate child spread through the streets even faster than the Doa Motors bid ever had.
“Come on. What chaebol doesn’t keep a mistress or two on the side?”
“True enough. With that kind of money, of course there’d be women.”
“Exactly. It’s not some wild fantasy.”
“Getting caught, though—that’s the problem.”
Two men nursing drinks at a table spent the evening trading stories about Lee Mun-jong.
“Whether a guy’s seeing a woman or a man outside the house, who cares? As long as nobody knows, it doesn’t matter. But this time they got him. And there’s a kid involved.”
“Yeah, the kid’s the real issue.”
The first man nodded in agreement, tossed back a shot of soju, and asked his friend, “Is this story even real, though?”
“Every single news outlet is screaming about it. You think they’d go that hard without any proof?”
“Fair point. If they ran their mouths without evidence, Ilhyeon Group’s ad money would vanish overnight. Still weird, though. Usually when it’s a chaebol, they kill stories like this before they get this far. How did they just let it get this big?”
“That’s the mystery for me too. Even if it was false, a rumor this ugly only hurts you. They should’ve snuffed it out before it spread. What the hell were they thinking, just sitting on their hands?”
The two men tipped their glasses again, faces full of genuine bewilderment.
They weren’t the only ones asking. Everyone who heard the Ilhyeon Group scandal felt the same unease. And that very unease made the story feel more and more like hard fact as it traveled from mouth to mouth.
Gathered in the Pyeongchang-dong house, Lee Tak-hyeon’s family looked thoroughly rattled by the scandal.
“It’s not just the broadcasts anymore. My own friends are calling to ask if it’s true—if we’ve really got a new nephew. I’m so embarrassed I can’t even speak.”
Lee Jeong-eun flushed at the memory of those phone calls and turned on Lee Chang-jong.
“What are you going to do about this?”
“What do you expect me to do?”
“You’re the one who made the mess. You clean it up.”
“It’s already out there. What am I supposed to do?”
“Oh my God, look at this shameless creature.”
Lee Jeong-eun found his attitude so outrageous that she looked around at the rest of the family and jabbed a finger at him.
“You all saw that, right? This is the kind of man he is. He goes out and knocks some woman up, then walks back in here and sits there with his chin up like nothing’s wrong. Can any of you understand what he thinks he’s done right?”
She seized the moment and poured abuse on Lee Chang-jong without restraint. Everyone’s brows furrowed, but since he was unmistakably the cause of the disaster, their eyes still filled with blame as they looked at him.
“I must have raised my children wrong.”
“Mother, what are you—”
“What am I? You little bastard!”
Chu Suk-ja grabbed her hanbok skirt, rose from her seat, and strode toward Lee Chang-jong. She brought her open palm down hard on his back as she shouted.
“Looking at the son who came out of my own belly—not only chasing skirts but scattering seed everywhere—makes the blood boil in my gut. I raised him wrong. I’m the crazy bitch here.”
“Mother—ah! Mom, stop it already!”
Lee Chang-jong blocked her hands and looked around at his siblings.
“What is this? When I first told you, nobody acted like this. Why the sudden change? Did the press start talking and now everyone’s rewritten their opinions? It doesn’t add up.”
He stared at his brothers and sisters, unable to understand how the family that had once treated the matter lightly now looked ready to kill him. Lee Jeong-eun and the others had no answer. Silence hung over the room until Lee Tak-hyeon broke it.
“That’s enough, all of you. Let’s talk about what we’re going to do. Director Kim.”
“Yes, sir.”
“That countermeasure you proposed last time—what’s the status?”
Lee Sang-jong, Lee Jeong-eun, and the others who had not been present for the earlier study conversation looked at Kim Seong-ho with open curiosity. Seong-ho’s face tightened with difficulty as he answered Lee Tak-hyeon.
“I’m afraid… it may not be easy.”
“Reason?”
Seong-ho glanced sideways at Lee Chang-jong. Chang-jong answered for him.
“Sea’s mother is going crazy.”
“Going crazy?”
“She says she absolutely will not do it…”
As Chang-jong’s voice trailed off, Lee Jeong-eun looked back and forth among Lee Tak-hyeon, Chang-jong, and Seong-ho, curiosity plain on her face.
“What did you order her to do that has her saying she absolutely won’t? Director Kim—what is this thing she refuses to do?”
She directed the question at Seong-ho, who looked the least intimidating of the three. Seong-ho checked with Lee Tak-hyeon first; the chairman answered the silent question.
“Just tell them. At this point there’s nothing left to hide.”
On the chairman’s order, Seong-ho repeated everything that had been discussed in the study. When he finished, Lee Jeong-eun’s face went blank with disbelief. She spun on Chang-jong.
“Is what Director Kim just said true?”
“Yes…”
Confirmation in hand, she turned to her father, still looking stunned.
“Father, what kind of insane woman would hold a press conference and claim the child her husband brought home from outside is her own?”
She rounded on Chang-jong again and shouted.
“You are shameless beyond belief. You want your own wife to stand up and say that bastard you fathered outside is hers? Do you have any conscience at all?”
“Does conscience put food on the table? And there’s no affection left between me and that woman anyway. I don’t feel a shred of guilt no matter what I order her to do.”
“You…”
Lee Jeong-eun realized scolding him was useless and simply shook her head. Bang Hyeon-ju, Oh Min-yeong, and even Lee Gyeong-eun joined in condemning him, but Chang-jong took every barb without so much as a twitch of an eyebrow.
Once the storm had passed, Lee Tak-hyeon turned back to Seong-ho.
“So what do you intend to do now? Do you have another option?”
The fact that the chairman immediately sought a new plan from Seong-ho alone left every family member in the room looking startled; it was a clear measure of how much trust he placed in his son-in-law. Seong-ho glanced at their shocked faces, then answered Lee Tak-hyeon directly.
“There is no other option.”
“None?”
“No, sir. We have no choice but to put my sister-in-law in front of the press. That is the only way for Ilhyeon to break through the situation we are in right now.”
He finished speaking and straightened, meeting the chairman’s eyes. Lee Tak-hyeon’s mouth twitched. That was exactly the attitude he had always wanted from Lee Mun-jong and the rest.
Visiting Future Asset for the first time in a long while, Kim Seong-ho looked around the completely transformed office and let out a low whistle of admiration.
“You can feel it growing day by day.”
“All of it is thanks to you, Director.”
Jo Chung-sep offered a deep bow of gratitude.
“If you hadn’t shown me the answer sheet, I never would have dreamed of reaching this point.”
“Not at all. You would have gotten here even without me.”
Knowing the Jo Chung-sep of the previous timeline, Seong-ho meant every word. Chung-sep, however, remained convinced that without Seong-ho the man he was today simply would not exist. He guided his mentor inside. The firm that had once occupied a single floor now filled three; Seong-ho stepped into Chung-sep’s private office with that expansion still in mind.
“Before long this building is going to feel too small.”
Seong-ho settled onto the sofa and spoke. Chung-sep asked the secretary for two coffees, sat opposite him, and said, “As it happens, Director, there is something I need to ask of you.”
“Something you need from me?”
Seong-ho looked at him questioningly. Chung-sep gave an awkward smile.
“That building you purchased recently—would it be all right if we used it?”
“That one?”
Seong-ho pointed through the window at the building across the way. He had been steadily buying properties that came onto the market. The worst of the crisis—the sense that the entire country might collapse—had passed, yet companies and capitalists still desperate for cash continued to dump buildings. Seong-ho had been picking them up at fire-sale prices; Chung-sep wanted one of them.
Chung-sep followed the pointing finger and nodded.
“Yes. Expanding further in our current location is difficult… we need a new place, and the building you just acquired looks perfect. Would that be acceptable?”
He asked carefully, watching Seong-ho’s face for any sign of reluctance.
“Of course it’s fine. Far better to have the space occupied than sitting empty. How many floors do you need?”
At the easy agreement, Chung-sep’s face lit up and he shared the plan he had already calculated.
“It’s much larger than where we are now, so two floors should be enough.”
“Two floors?”
Seong-ho folded his arms and thought for a moment. Once the mental arithmetic was finished he spoke again.
“Then start with two and add floors as you need them. I’ll keep six floors vacant for you. That way you won’t have to move again when you grow, and it will be far more convenient.”
“You’re going to leave six floors empty?”
In a fifteen-story building on Gangnam-daero, very few companies occupied eight floors by themselves. Firms that owned an entire building were rare; even those using half a building were uncommon. Yet Seong-ho spoke as if Future Asset’s future were so bright it would expand explosively in the near term—and therefore six floors should be held open.
Delighted yet burdened, Chung-sep tried to refuse.
“Director, you really don’t need to go that far. The rental income you’ll lose on six empty floors… I understand you care about us, but there’s no need to sacrifice that much.”
“Sacrifice? Having Future Asset as a tenant only raises the building’s value. That’s pure gain for me, not a loss.”
Having declared his decision correct, Seong-ho went further and offered a new proposal.
“And this is exactly the moment we should be expanding our scale.”
“Expanding our scale?”
The phrase had lived in a corner of Chung-sep’s heart for some time. Even the growth so far had been astonishing; he had been hesitating, wondering whether accelerating still more was wise. And now Seong-ho was suggesting it first, as if he had read the man’s mind.
Chung-sep looked at him like someone whose secret had been exposed. Seong-ho, recalling Chung-sep’s trajectory from the previous life, continued.
“I can’t think of a better environment for growth. Top-tier securities firms, starting with Goguryeo Securities, have gone under, and talent is flooding the market.”
“You’re right. It has never been easier to recruit good people.”
“Sweep them all up.”
“I was already thinking of bringing in another twenty or so.”
“Not twenty. Don’t set a ceiling. Keep hiring even if the number goes past a hundred.”
“That many?”
Chung-sep stared at him in shock. When the two men first met, Chung-sep had been nothing more than an assistant manager at a branch office of a securities firm. In barely two years he had founded an investment advisory company and grown it to a hundred employees. Now Seong-ho was telling him to hire hundreds more; surprise and anxiety rose together in his chest.
Seong-ho calmed him.
“There’s no need to worry. Right now it’s better to move aggressively and occupy the vacancies left by the collapsed securities houses.”
“Occupy the vacancies… I see. Because this is the best moment to fill those gaps, we should start by scooping up the talent. Understood.”
Chung-sep grasped the intent and let the anxiety drain away. Exactly as Seong-ho said, this was opportunity; the thought rose clearly through the earlier fear.
Watching him steady himself, Seong-ho delivered one more startling remark.
“And while we’re recruiting talent, we might as well be even bolder.”
“Bolder how, exactly?”
Chung-sep tilted his head. Seong-ho smiled and explained the weight he had packed into the word “boldly.”
“We acquire a securities firm.”
“A securities firm?”
“Yes. This is the best time to recruit talent—and at the same time the best time to step up into a full securities company. Right now the market is littered with dying firms that still hold securities licenses.”
Jo Chung-sep sat frozen, mouth hanging open, unable to take his eyes off Kim Seong-ho.