A Gram of Trust Accumulates
Kim Seong-ho and Lee Gyeong-eun watched Park Dae-su on the living-room television screen.
“Dae-su handles the camera better than I expected.”
“Doesn’t he? He almost looks like a different person.”
The two of them sat fixed on the broadcast as Park Dae-su stood before the cameras and delivered the interim findings of the Jisan Group corruption probe.
Lee Gyeong-eun turned from the screen and asked her husband, “So what happens to Jisan Group now?”
“Now that the embezzlement and other crimes are confirmed, the investigation will widen. If it also comes out that they secured loans through illegal lobbying of the financial sector, the damage will be severe. They might even collapse.”
Gyeong-eun looked at him with fresh curiosity. Seong-ho rubbed the back of his neck with an awkward smile under her gaze.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because you suddenly seem so sharp. Like I’m seeing a side of you I never knew existed… That’s why I was staring.”
“Sharp, you say… So I wasn’t before?”
“Come on. Between us we can be honest—you were never exactly the smart type, Seong-ho. You were just a good person.”
“Fine, brains aside—what about the face?”
“The face is absolutely my type. But that’s just my personal taste. Objectively handsome? Not really.”
He laughed. “Ha ha ha. Understood. As long as I look good to you, that’s enough, right?”
“Exactly. That’s all that matters.”
They sat together in the living room, watching television in easy companionship.
Someone, however, found the sight thoroughly unpleasant.
“What are the two of you smirking about?”
Chu Suk-ja—Seong-ho’s mother-in-law and Lee Tak-hyeon’s wife—approached with a scowl, eyes flicking between them in open disapproval.
“Mother. You’ve arrived,” Seong-ho said, rising from his seat.
She looked him up and down. “Is your schedule so empty? Or are you laughing like that because nobody bothers giving the chairman’s son-in-law any real work?”
She kept spitting out baseless complaints, clearly annoyed that he was simply at home. Gyeong-eun stepped in for him.
“Mom, leave Seong-ho alone. It’s a holiday—of course he’s resting.”
“Resting because it’s a holiday? My, how soft the world has become.”
Chu Suk-ja clicked her tongue. “When the chairman was your age he ate and slept at the company. And your eldest brother—Gyeong-eun’s big brother—did the same. Sang-jong too—”
A knock at the door cut her off. She turned. The man who stepped inside was precisely the son she had been about to mention: Lee Sang-jong.
Chu Suk-ja eyed him with mild surprise. “What brings you here at this hour?”
It was a holiday, yes, but not one of their regular Sunday gatherings.
Sang-jong loosened the top button of his suit jacket. “Mom. Father’s home, right?”
“Your father is always home. Why? Something you need to see him about? Did you cause trouble again?”
She frowned. Sang-jong waved a hand, irritated by the scrutiny.
“Do you still think I’m a child? Trouble—what trouble—”
“Don’t give me that. Looking at your face, you definitely did something. Out with it. What did you mess up this time?”
She tugged at his sleeve, trying to get a better look at him. Sang-jong kept twisting away and finally shook off her hand.
“Aigoo, stop it already. I need to see Father—I’m going in.”
“…Fine.”
The mention of Lee Tak-hyeon made her release him. Curiosity burned, but she figured she would learn everything soon enough.
Sang-jong straightened his clothes with his free hand, then pointed a finger at Seong-ho.
“You come in too.”
“Me?”
“Yes. You too.”
He scowled at the television, where Park Dae-su’s press conference was still playing, clicked his tongue once, and headed for the study.
Gyeong-eun and Chu Suk-ja watched him go, both wondering what on earth was wrong with him. Seong-ho told Gyeong-eun he would be right back and followed Sang-jong into the study.
Inside the study, Sang-jong bowed to Lee Tak-hyeon seated at the desk.
“Father. No—Chairman.”
He hesitated, unable to spit out the reason for his visit. Tak-hyeon simply stared without asking a single question. Sang-jong kept his head lowered and finally spoke.
“Jisan Group… looks like it’s going under.”
“Going under?”
Tak-hyeon barked a short, humorless laugh and hurled the documents he had been reading straight at his son’s bowed head.
The papers fluttered down in a cascade, smacking Sang-jong before scattering across the floor. They were the very summary the secretariat had prepared on Jisan Group’s insolvency.
Tak-hyeon roared at the trembling figure still staring at the ground.
“You call that a report?!”
One section of the scattered pages caught Sang-jong’s eye.
Loans secured from nearly every institution. Total loan amount estimated between 800 billion and 1 trillion won. The financial sector, having assessed Jisan Group’s repayment capacity as essentially zero, is currently coordinating the timing of the bankruptcy announcement.
“One trillion?!”
Sang-jong’s head snapped up, eyes wide. Tak-hyeon regarded him with pure contempt.
“So you dashed over here the moment you heard the word ‘bankruptcy’ without even checking how much damage we’re looking at.”
“I was just so shocked—”
“Enough.”
Tak-hyeon’s gaze flicked briefly to Seong-ho, who was quietly gathering the scattered papers, then fixed again on Sang-jong.
“You really had no idea this could happen?”
Sang-jong pointed an accusing finger at Seong-ho, voice rising with grievance. “Who could have known that Assistant Manager Kim’s friend would suddenly pull a stunt like this?!”
As the blame swung toward him, Seong-ho finished stacking the documents neatly on the chairman’s desk and spoke with calm precision.
“Chairman. I had no idea either. And from what I understand, the bankruptcy was already locked in before Prosecutor Park Dae-su even opened his investigation.”
Tak-hyeon studied Seong-ho’s face for a long moment, then rounded on Sang-jong again.
“As far as I know, the bankruptcy came first and the investigation second. Are you trying to pin your own mess on someone else?”
“Father…”
Tak-hyeon’s face darkened further. “When a company goes bankrupt and the prosecution steps in, you bring countermeasures—not empty hands and a vague ‘Father…’ You didn’t even check the damage before showing up!”
He snatched the papers Seong-ho had just stacked and flung them into Sang-jong’s face once more.
“Are you telling me to clean up your own shit?!”
Sang-jong’s head dropped again under the rain of paper. Tak-hyeon kept shouting.
“We’re about to lose every last won of the hundred billion we put down as a deposit—who takes responsibility for that? Are you going to pull it out of that fancy wallet of yours?”
“Fath— Chairman. How am I supposed to come up with eighty billion—”
“Then earn it and pay it back!”
Tak-hyeon stared at him with undisguised disgust. “You run here after the fact and expect me to fix it? That hundred billion is already sunk in Jisan. You should have brought a solution, not a problem. What the hell are you even good for?”
Sang-jong’s face burned. He had racked his brain on the way over and come up with nothing. All he had wanted was to avoid a scolding for reporting too late.
Tak-hyeon was finished with him. He jerked his chin at Hwang Do-beom.
“Chief Hwang. Drag him out. And until I say otherwise, don’t let that face appear in front of me again.”
“Father—”
“Don’t you dare call me Father, you bastard!”
Tak-hyeon’s roar filled the study. “Do you even understand what that hundred billion you pissed away really is? It’s the blood and sweat of workers in coveralls under the name of Ilhyeon Construction—men who dig tunnels from overseas sites all the way to Jirisan! And you threw it away like an idiot! You have no right to open your mouth.”
He waved Hwang Do-beom to hurry. Then he turned away, muttering under his breath.
“You check what kind of shape a company is in before you even think about acquiring it. Charging in blind… moron. If you had half a brain you’d ask yourself why your older brother backed off so cleanly. Ugh. With a fool like that sitting in the president’s chair, no wonder the company can’t run straight.”
Sang-jong left without lifting his head, Tak-hyeon’s monologue still ringing in his ears. Throughout it all Seong-ho had continued gathering the scattered papers in silence.
His disappointment in Lee Sang-jong just grew a lot heavier, didn’t it?
This was exactly the reward Seong-ho had wanted. He had never desired the crude revenge of plunging a knife into someone’s gut on impulse. What he wanted was the long, patient construction of pressure—and then the single, clean blow that shattered everything.
With the Jisan Cement affair he had earned Lee Mun-jong’s trust while driving a crack through the trust placed in Lee Sang-jong.
If I keep walking this path, the day will come when I can drive a blade into their backs with my entire body behind it.
Seong-ho thought of it as patient tempering—layer upon layer of carefully forged steel. He finished collecting the last sheets, set the tidy stack on Tak-hyeon’s desk, and turned to leave. The chairman’s voice stopped him.
“You stay a moment.”
Seong-ho turned back and returned to his place.
“I hear you’ve settled well into the new department.”
Seong-ho lowered his head. “Yes. Thanks to the many people around me, I’ve adjusted smoothly.”
“I was worried, since you’d only ever worked in sales. I’m glad to hear it.”
Seong-ho lifted his eyes in quiet surprise. He had never expected the word “worried” to leave Lee Tak-hyeon’s mouth.
Has the trust that fell away from Sang-jong landed on me?
Looking into the chairman’s gaze, Seong-ho felt a thin new thread of confidence forming. Tak-hyeon’s next words confirmed it.
“You may not like being stuck at assistant manager, but the moment you became my son-in-law I ordered that no one make you a director or managing director overnight—it would look far too ugly. Keep performing the way you are now, though, and no one will be able to say a word when your rank rises. Continue as you have.”
“Yes. I will keep that firmly in mind.”
Seong-ho bowed, forcing his racing heart into stillness beneath the weight of that hard-won trust.