He Made the Same Choice Again
Lee Sang-jong looked at Lee Gyeong-eun lying on the hospital bed.
“How is she? Is she all right?”
Gyeong-eun almost nodded at his question before she could stop herself, and her face twisted in pain.
“It will still be difficult for her to answer just yet,” Section Chief Kim Chang-mu said in her place. “But she has regained consciousness, and her awareness of her surroundings appears normal.”
He brought his hand up in front of Gyeong-eun’s eyes.
“Ms. Lee Gyeong-eun. Can you see this? Do you know how many fingers I’m holding up?”
“Two… fingers.”
Kim Chang-mu nodded, lowered his hand, and asked again.
“Do you know where you are right now?”
“The hospital… the hospital. But Seong-ho… where is Seong-ho?”
Gyeong-eun searched the faces around her for her husband. Kim Seong-ho stepped forward from where he had been standing back, took her hand, and answered.
“I’m right here.”
“Seong-ho. Why am I lying here? I clearly came to help you with your health checkup… so why am I the one in bed?”
“A blood vessel in your head suddenly ruptured, and you had to undergo surgery. Fortunately, Section Chief Kim Chang-mu here was available, so we were able to operate without delay, and he says the surgery went extremely well. So you don’t need to worry about a thing now, Gyeong-eun. Just focus on recovering.”
“I’m really going to be all right?”
“Right now you’re only disoriented because it’s still so soon after the operation. Rest and concentrate on getting better. Once you recover, you’ll be back to normal.”
Seong-ho reassured her, then turned to look at Kim Chang-mu. The surgeon, who had been quietly listening to their exchange, spoke to everyone present.
“Seeing that she can speak this well, I believe everything went smoothly.”
Her speech was clear and her cognitive function did not seem impaired. The surgery had gone even better than they had feared, and as long as her recovery proceeded well, there appeared to be no obstacle to her returning to her former self.
Still holding Gyeong-eun’s hand, Seong-ho rose and bowed once more to Kim Chang-mu.
“Thank you. I will never forget this kindness.”
“Kindness? I only did what any doctor should. I’ll take my leave now. Recovery is what matters most at this stage, so please don’t make her talk too much. Well then…”
After confirming that Gyeong-eun’s condition was stable, Section Chief Kim Chang-mu left the room.
“Let’s step out so she can rest a little. Father. Mother. Outside, please…”
When Cha Yeong-su suggested they leave, Lee Tak-hyeon, who had been silently looking down at his youngest daughter, nodded.
“Yes. Let’s go.”
As Lee Tak-hyeon walked out, Lee Mun-jong and Lee Sang-jong followed him into the family waiting area prepared beside Gyeong-eun’s room.
“Get well soon.”
Oh Min-yeong said her goodbyes to Gyeong-eun and left. Bang Hyeon-ju watched her sister-in-law’s retreating back and muttered something unintelligible under her breath.
“Brother-in-law. You should come out too. That way your wife can rest properly.”
At Cha Yeong-su’s words, Seong-ho nodded, leaned close to Gyeong-eun’s face, and spoke softly.
“It must be hard. Close your eyes for a while. If anything feels wrong, press this button. I’ll come right away.”
He placed the call button in her hand and straightened up. Gyeong-eun laboriously lifted her hand to look at the button, then blinked at him. Words still would not come easily, so she conveyed her understanding with her eyes alone. Seong-ho gave her hand one more squeeze and stepped out of the room.
“This place is nice.”
Lee Jeong-eun sat on the sofa and surveyed the surroundings.
“It’s perfect for people with money to rest. Honey. Should we stay here a few days ourselves?”
“Why would a perfectly healthy person like you want to hang around a place meant for the sick?”
Chu Suk-ja snapped at her daughter, who clearly liked the VIP suite of Ilhyeon Hospital. Jeong-eun, however, kept looking around without pause.
“Mom, people come to hospitals even when they’re not sick these days. They come for checkups, get care from doctors—that kind of thing. Father should get a full workup while he’s here.”
“Did you come here to play? Your little sister is lying in there and that’s all you can think about?”
“No—everyone already saw that she’s fine and came out. She’s okay. Even the hospital director said so. If she rests well here she’ll be better in no time. And the doctor who operated on Gyeong-eun is supposedly the best in the country, right? If the best says the surgery went well, what is there left to worry about?”
Jeong-eun spoke as if she could not understand the fuss. She glanced around at her siblings, looking for anyone who might agree with her. They all averted their eyes. Even if they privately shared her opinion, saying so out loud risked drawing their father’s ire onto themselves.
Then an unexpected voice sided with her.
“Yes. Jeong-eun is right about that. Starting tomorrow, none of you need to come to the hospital.”
Lee Tak-hyeon made it clear he shared his eldest daughter’s view.
“Honey!”
Chu Suk-ja stared at him as if to ask what he thought he was saying.
“You saw for yourself that she’s all right, didn’t you? And we heard she was fine… Coming once on the day of the surgery and once when she was brought down to the room is enough. Why come every single day?”
“Even so…”
“All of you take note. From tomorrow, come as much or as little as you like on your own. And put more attention on company business.”
Without so much as a glance at his wife, Lee Tak-hyeon told them to stop coming. Chu Suk-ja gripped Oh Min-yeong’s hand tightly and raised her voice at him.
“Is the company more important to you than Gyeong-eun?”
Lee Tak-hyeon turned on her and shouted back.
“If every person who is supposed to lead this company is gathered here, do you think the company will run properly? We already heard Gyeong-eun is fine—do you think we should keep hundreds of thousands of Ilhyeon employees standing idle?”
“That’s not what I—”
“Us being gathered here won’t make Gyeong-eun sit up in bed this instant. We have to keep moving on our own. How long do you intend for us to sit around here fretting over nothing?”
At his words, Chu Suk-ja only squeezed Min-yeong’s hand harder. There was much she wanted to say, but she could not, so she clung to her daughter-in-law’s hand instead. Min-yeong looked uncomfortable and glanced at Lee Sang-jong. He too frowned as if something sat badly with him, and for a moment the family waiting area fell silent.
Then Lee Tak-hyeon, who had been raising his voice only moments before, spoke to Kim Seong-ho in a somewhat calmer tone.
“Director Kim, you should get back to company work as well.”
“Me… as well, sir?”
Seong-ho had not expected the order to return to the office to include him; he looked at Lee Tak-hyeon with a momentarily startled face. The chairman nodded.
“Yes. Next week the Blue House will gather representatives from the five major groups again.”
“What is the meeting about this time?”
Lee Mun-jong asked with a curious expression, as if this was news even to him. Lee Tak-hyeon turned his head slightly toward his eldest son and answered.
“The Big Deal will begin in earnest.”
“The Big Deal…”
“You mean the restructuring of the business world?”
Lee Sang-jong said in a startled voice. Lee Tak-hyeon nodded.
“Yes. It seems this administration intends to push forward with the project it has been so ambitious about.”
“Now that the stumbling block that was Doa Motors has been pulled out, they mean to move in earnest.”
“Exactly.”
Lee Tak-hyeon nodded and looked at Seong-ho.
“The Blue House has decided that the early confusion of the new government has been settled. So now we need to move seriously. I want you to handle it.”
“Father—no, Chairman. You’re saying Director Kim will take charge of it?”
Lee Sang-jong stared at Lee Tak-hyeon in open surprise. Lee Mun-jong was equally startled, but unlike his brother he did not make a scene; he merely watched carefully, trying to read their father’s intentions.
“Director Kim knows better than anyone what our group doesn’t need and what we should bring over from the other side. So of course he should handle it.”
“But still…”
Sang-jong shot a sidelong glance at Seong-ho. He regarded the man as an ally—after all, the advice that had restored him to his position after the Lee Chang-jong affair had all come from Seong-ho. Even so, Seong-ho’s steadily growing influence within the group was not entirely welcome. Deciding he could not stop Lee Tak-hyeon himself, Sang-jong turned toward Chu Suk-ja and sent her a look that pleaded for her to intervene. But she said nothing. The line Lee Tak-hyeon had drawn between outside affairs and household matters was one she still could not easily cross. Sang-jong turned away in frustration.
Lee Mun-jong sank into thought at their father’s words. Lee Chang-jong, still little more than a sinner in the family’s eyes, stood alone among the couples and said nothing at all.
Sang-jong looked at Lee Jeong-eun, whose usual manner of needling people with irritating remarks made her the most likely person in the room to push back against Lee Tak-hyeon. But Jeong-eun’s attention was elsewhere.
“Then what about Ilhyeon Department Store and Ilhyeon Hotel?”
“What?”
“With Gyeong-eun lying there like that, can she properly manage the department store and the hotel? You can’t tell a sick person to keep working. That would leave those posts vacant…”
“Why? Do you want them for yourself?”
Lee Tak-hyeon looked straight at her. Jeong-eun’s mouth twitched before she answered.
“No. I’m not saying I want them… it’s just, you know. They’re not some second- or third-tier subsidiaries. The department store and the hotel are still among our group’s core companies. You can’t leave the top executive seats of two places like that empty…”
Hearing the ulterior motive in her words, Sang-jong turned his head away. He understood that Jeong-eun cared nothing about whether Seong-ho’s power grew; she was simply chasing whatever immediate benefit she could seize for herself.
“That is none of your concern. Stay out of it.”
Having sensed her greed, Lee Tak-hyeon cut her off cleanly.
“If I decide something is needed, I will take measures. Even if a new top executive has to be appointed, it will not be you, so you need not worry about it.”
“Not me? Why not?”
“You just focus on running Ilhyeon Card properly.”
“Father.”
Jeong-eun put on a pitiful face. Lee Tak-hyeon did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.
“Even Ilhyeon Card is more than enough for you. Vice President Cha.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
Cha Yeong-su shot to his feet. Lee Tak-hyeon looked up at him and gave his instructions.
“Are you properly sorting out the other entities absorbed into Ilhyeon Card?”
“The absorption of Ilhyeon Capital, Ilhyeon Debu Finance, and the rest is entering its final stage. On that foundation we intend to bring the customer base to ten million this year.”
“Ten million. Good.”
After hearing Cha Yeong-su’s report, Lee Tak-hyeon turned back to Jeong-eun.
“When the customer count reaches ten million, we can talk again. Until then, don’t set your eyes on anything else.”
At that, Jeong-eun lowered her head. Having drawn a clear line in front of her, Lee Tak-hyeon turned once more to Seong-ho.
“Next week. Represent Ilhyeon and bring back something good.”
“Yes. I understand.”
Hearing Seong-ho’s reply, Lee Tak-hyeon rose from his seat.
“I’ve seen that Gyeong-eun is awake and said everything I needed to say, so I’ll be going first.”
He finished speaking and looked at Chu Suk-ja, asking with his eyes whether she would come home with him.
“I’ll stay a little longer and then go.”
“Do as you like, then.”
He did not ask twice. He simply turned and left. His children, daughters-in-law, and sons-in-law all stood to see him off. After remaining a while longer, they began to leave Gyeong-eun’s hospital room one by one.
Once Lee Mun-jong and his wife, Lee Jeong-eun and her husband, and the solitary Lee Chang-jong had departed, Chu Suk-ja and Lee Sang-jong’s couple—the last to remain—looked out at the darkening landscape beyond the windows and finally rose.
“Take care of yourself.”
“If you have to prepare for next week, you should go home early as well.”
Oh Min-yeong and Lee Sang-jong each spoke to Seong-ho in turn. Seong-ho returned Min-yeong’s greeting and answered Sang-jong.
“This place is spacious and comfortable, so I plan to stay here. I’ll commute from here as well.”
“Hmm… all right.”
Sang-jong left it at that short reply and turned away. Escorting Chu Suk-ja, who had come out after looking in on Gyeong-eun one last time, they finally left the hospital room.
When the once-crowded family waiting area stood empty, Seong-ho murmured to himself.
“As expected, Second Brother has attached himself to Mother-in-law.”
Ever since he had encouraged them to move into Pyeongchang-dong, Seong-ho had anticipated exactly this outcome. Watching Sang-jong try to build power by leaning on Chu Suk-ja’s back, just as he had predicted, a smile rose to his lips.
“Last time, too, when he decided Chairman Lee Tak-hyeon would never work out for him, he tried to pull Mother-in-law to his side and grow his strength.”
He knew the results of that choice all too well.
“More importantly… the Big Deal.”
Setting aside his thoughts about Sang-jong, Seong-ho turned, recalling the new mission he had just been given. He would need to dig out his leather diary and sort through what they should take and what they should give up in the Big Deal. With that in mind, he walked back toward the room where Gyeong-eun lay.