Fully Accepted into the Ilhyeon Family
Before leaving Pyeongchang-dong, Lee Mun-jong and Lee Sang-jong exchanged a few brief words with Kim Seong-ho.
"You made the right call. Building results like that will serve you far better for the future."
"Ilhyeon Hotel? It's a good place. The only problem is that it's been losing ground to the competition lately… but that's exactly why you're going there, isn't it? You'll handle it well. Right, hyung-nim?"
"Yeah. You already fixed Ilhyeon Watch, so you'll do the same with Ilhyeon Hotel."
When Lee Mun-jong and Lee Sang-jong spoke as if they truly believed in him, Kim Seong-ho smiled and bowed his head toward the two of them.
"Then I'll continue to rely on your guidance and counsel going forward."
"Of course. Don't worry—we're here."
"If anything difficult comes up, contact us anytime. We'll help as much as we can."
Lee Mun-jong and Lee Sang-jong clapped him on both shoulders and congratulated him on his move to Ilhyeon Hotel.
Kim Seong-ho saw them all the way outside, telling them to take care as he watched the two men recede into the distance.
The two cars that left Pyeongchang-dong pulled up side by side beneath Bugak Octagonal Pavilion.
Lee Mun-jong and Lee Sang-jong stepped out and stood looking down over the brightly lit streets of Seoul as they talked.
"Hyung-nim. What do you plan to do?"
Lee Sang-jong asked the question while Lee Mun-jong stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing out over the city.
Lee Mun-jong never took his eyes off the view as he answered.
"What do I plan to do? Is there even a way for us to do anything right now?"
"Still…"
"We tried to push Kim out and ended up installing him deeper inside the company instead. If we'd just left him alone he would've stayed an ordinary assistant manager forever. Instead we practically made him an executive of the Ilhyeon Group."
Just as he had promised after the successful turnaround of Ilhyeon Watch, Lee Tak-hyeon had promoted Kim Seong-ho to executive rank.
His affiliation, however, remained with the Strategic Planning Office, and the scope of his work was strictly limited to group restructuring.
When Lee Mun-jong's face twisted with open displeasure at Kim Seong-ho's promotion, Lee Sang-jong carefully watched his older brother's expression and spoke.
"Hyung-nim, don't worry too much. He's an executive in name only—just the powerless head of some brand-new team. Think of it as Father forcing the appointment to keep a promise."
"I hope you're right…"
Lee Mun-jong still couldn't shake the uneasy feeling.
No matter how hard he tried to put a positive spin on a plan that had gone wrong from the start, the answer he wanted never appeared.
"Huu… For now we watch. We see how well that guy does at Ilhyeon Hotel and then decide our next move."
"Then what about kicking him out of Pyeongchang-dong…"
When Lee Sang-jong asked what they should do about the original plan to force him out of the family compound, Lee Mun-jong waved a hand and turned away.
"We put that on hold too. If he stays near Father, he might end up annoying him on his own. That could actually work in our favor."
"Yes, sir… Then I'll take it that we're just watching for now."
"Yeah. Let's do that."
A faint smile touched the corner of Lee Sang-jong's mouth.
Then I can start moving on my own, can't I?
Once Lee Mun-jong decided on a wait-and-see approach, Lee Sang-jong concluded that he himself was free to act first.
One brother who wanted to watch. One brother who wanted to strike first.
The two men stood on the pavilion with completely different thoughts, looking down over Seoul.
While Lee Mun-jong and Lee Sang-jong were talking, Lee Tak-hyeon was also in his study discussing Kim Seong-ho with Hwang Do-beom.
"Is that bastard insane?"
By Lee Tak-hyeon's standards, anyone who turned down the presidency of Ilhyeon Watch could not possibly be in his right mind.
No matter how he turned it over, it made no sense from his point of view.
"He doesn't want the president's seat of the company he just turned around himself?"
Lee Tak-hyeon let out a disbelieving laugh and looked at Hwang Do-beom.
"Hey, Chief Hwang. What do you make of it?"
Hwang Do-beom, who had simply listened quietly from the side during that earlier conversation, recalled the moment and opened his mouth carefully.
"I find it just as hard to understand, sir. But if I were in Assistant Manager Kim's position… I think I might make the same choice."
"You might make the same choice? Why?"
Hwang Do-beom briefly pictured Kim Seong-ho's situation in his mind, then looked at Lee Tak-hyeon and spoke.
"Assistant Manager Kim is the Chairman's son-in-law, not his son. Above him he has older brothers-in-law and an older sister-in-law, and unlike Vice President Cha he has no family power backing him up."
"What does any of that have to do with refusing a president's seat?"
"It has a great deal to do with it."
Hwang Do-beom met Lee Tak-hyeon's eyes.
"The Chairman may not understand, but I understand Assistant Manager Kim's feelings completely. A man with nothing has no choice but to keep his head down."
At those words, the expression of the man who had claimed he couldn't understand hardened.
"So what you're saying is he's reading the room."
"Mun-jong and Sang-jong are hardly ordinary children, are they? Assistant Manager Kim has been here long enough to have sensed that for himself."
"True."
The idea that Kim Seong-ho had refused the presidency of Ilhyeon Watch out of consideration for Lee Mun-jong and Lee Sang-jong brought a pleased smile to Lee Tak-hyeon's face.
He tapped the armrest with his fingers as he continued.
"If he read Mun-jong and Sang-jong's natures and deliberately lowered himself, then turning down the president's seat of Ilhyeon Watch actually makes sense."
Lee Tak-hyeon fell silent for a moment, then spoke again.
"That son-in-law of mine is a pretty decent fellow. He has a head for work and real ability. He's someone I can trust with important matters. And if he has that kind of political sense on top of it, that's the icing on the cake. I expect I'll have plenty of use for him going forward."
Hwang Do-beom realized that Kim Seong-ho's test was over.
He had passed with high marks. Now, in Lee Tak-hyeon's eyes, he had become a useful piece whose deployment was simply a matter of careful consideration.
Lee Tak-hyeon stopped his thoughts, looked up at Hwang Do-beom, and issued an order.
"Tell the son-in-law he did well, and give him a hundred million won."
"A hundred million, sir? You're giving him money?"
"Yes."
Lee Tak-hyeon clasped his hands and smiled as he spoke.
"He gave up a president's seat just to keep the peace. We ought to soothe him a little. That way he'll work even harder."
"You're right. A reward like that will certainly motivate him."
"Tell him to use it to help his parents who are farming out in the countryside."
The smile on Lee Tak-hyeon's face grew deeper still.
"And have the Secretariat look after the son-in-law's family as well. Now that he's fully one of us, we should take care of his people too."
"Understood."
When Lee Tak-hyeon ordered that even Kim Seong-ho's family be placed under the care of the Ilhyeon Group Secretariat, Hwang Do-beom knew Kim Seong-ho had been completely accepted into the Ilhyeon family.
But even within a family there were ranks and levels.
It's only beginning now.
Hwang Do-beom left the study thinking that Kim Seong-ho's path as a member of the Ilhyeon Group would remain a difficult one, carrying out the Chairman's orders.
He carefully closed the door behind him, glancing back at Lee Tak-hyeon, who was smiling to himself as he considered how best to make use of Kim Seong-ho.
"Chief, what is this?"
Lee Gyeong-eun looked at the envelope Hwang Do-beom held out and asked.
She and Kim Seong-ho had just returned from an outing when Hwang Do-beom suddenly appeared and handed them the envelope; both of them wore puzzled expressions.
"It's from the Chairman."
"From Father? Why would Father…?"
At the mention of Lee Tak-hyeon, Lee Gyeong-eun opened the envelope.
When she saw the check inside she gasped.
"A hundred million? He gave us a hundred million?"
"Yes."
Hwang Do-beom turned his head toward Kim Seong-ho and continued.
"The Chairman said he hopes you won't feel too disappointed."
"Disappointed? About what?"
Lee Gyeong-eun asked, but Hwang Do-beom kept his eyes on Kim Seong-ho as he went on.
"He also said to give it to your parents who are farming. Whether it's land or farm equipment, buy them whatever they want. And… if your parents in Nonsan ever run into any trouble, tell me right away. The Secretariat will handle it immediately."
From Hwang Do-beom's words, Kim Seong-ho understood that his own parents had now been brought under the Secretariat's protection network.
Looks like Father-in-law is pleased with what I've done.
Kim Seong-ho inclined his head slightly in gratitude.
Lee Gyeong-eun looked back and forth between the two men, then down at the check again.
She tilted her head and said,
"Why on earth is Father suddenly giving Seong-ho a hundred million? And since when has he ever paid any attention to the parents in Nonsan?"
Lee Tak-hyeon and Chu Suk-ja had never even held a formal meeting with Kim Seong-ho's parents; they hadn't so much as looked them in the face on the wedding day.
For that same Lee Tak-hyeon to suddenly hand over a hundred million with instructions to give it to those parents—and on top of that to place them under special care by the Secretariat—left Lee Gyeong-eun thoroughly confused about the sudden change of heart.
"Gyeong-eun… it's because…"
Kim Seong-ho briefly explained the reason Lee Tak-hyeon had changed his mind.
When she heard it, Lee Gyeong-eun let her arms drop in pure disbelief and turned on her husband.
"So you're saying you stepped forward and refused the presidency of Ilhyeon Watch yourself?"
"Well…"
Kim Seong-ho gave an awkward smile and glanced at Hwang Do-beom, silently asking for help now that the man was already here.
"Ahem. Well, I've delivered everything I came to say, so I'll be going. Assistant Manager Kim, I've already spoken to Ilhyeon Hotel. You can report for work there next week."
"Ch-Chief Hwang!"
As Hwang Do-beom tried to leave, Kim Seong-ho reached out to stop him.
But Hwang Do-beom never looked back. He simply walked out of their room, and from the room he left behind came Lee Gyeong-eun's raised voice.
"Seong-ho! Do you have any sense or not?!"
Hwang Do-beom stared at the closed door for a moment, shook his head, and muttered to himself.
"Even Gyeong-eun is still an Ilhyeon through and through."
He knew that while Lee Gyeong-eun appeared demure in front of Kim Seong-ho, her temperament was anything but ordinary. Feeling a twinge of pity for the man, he left.
Even after Hwang Do-beom was gone, loud voices continued to rise from Kim Seong-ho and Lee Gyeong-eun's room for quite some time.
Most of them belonged to Lee Gyeong-eun, demanding to know why he hadn't taken the presidency of Ilhyeon Watch.
Kim Seong-ho spent a long while persuading her.
Lee Gyeong-eun was more frustrated and aggrieved about it than if it had been her own opportunity.
Kim Seong-ho insisted that the joy of the work he did mattered more to him than family status, and only after a great deal of time did Lee Gyeong-eun finally sigh and accept his decision.
"Huu… What can I do? If that's what you want…"
It was closer to resignation than true persuasion, but Kim Seong-ho decided it was enough.
"Still, I've been made a director, haven't I? Straight from assistant manager to director in one leap."
"What good is being a director? You're not even a registered director—just a contract employee they can fire whenever they feel like it. There's nothing good about that."
"I'll climb the ladder step by step."
"But you could have gone straight to the top in one jump—why bother climbing ste—"
Lee Gyeong-eun was about to demand why he would climb step by step when he could have become president in one go, then realized it was too late to reverse the decision. She let out another sigh.
"Huu… Fine."
She held out the hundred-million-won check to Kim Seong-ho and said,
"You should be the one to give this to your parents in Nonsan. Your father mentioned that buying some land would be nice—are you going to buy them land?"
"I have something better to use it for."
"Something better?"
"I happened to need money right now, and the Chairman just gave me some. Perfect timing. I'll use it where it's needed first and give something to my parents in Nonsan later. Land isn't going to run away."
Lee Gyeong-eun stared at him, unable to understand what on earth he planned to do with such a large sum.
Kim Seong-ho took the check and turned his head toward the table.
There, still open, lay the leather-bound diary he had been examining only moments earlier.