That's When the Real Beginning Starts
Jo Byeong-jin spoke with open amazement as they drove back toward Ilhyeon Hotel.
“How do they always take the bait exactly the way you said they would?”
He kept marveling at how Lee Mun-jong and Lee Sang-jong had walked right into the trap Kim Seong-ho had predicted, pouring out one impressed exclamation after another.
“They could have called you aside and said all that, but no—they had to try crushing you right in front of the Chairman and ended up getting burned themselves. Serves them right!”
Jo Byeong-jin laughed heartily, then glanced over at Kim Seong-ho in the passenger seat.
“But how did you know the Vice Chairman would pick on sales figures and occupancy rates during the meeting?”
Kim Seong-ho recalled the scene, the corner of his mouth lifting as he answered.
“In this world, no one knows that man’s heart better than I do. Better even than he knows himself…”
For more than twenty years Kim Seong-ho had stood at Lee Mun-jong’s side and watched everything. He had seen every step of the climb that carried the man all the way to the Chairman’s seat. That was why, in a situation like this, he knew with absolute precision what decision Lee Mun-jong would make.
Jo Byeong-jin decided Seong-ho was once again saying something no ordinary person could understand.
“Well, at least this one blew over cleanly… but what if the Vice Chairman decides to hold a grudge?”
This was not just anyone—this was the Vice Chairman of the Ilhyeon Group. Rumor had it that once Lee Mun-jong was humiliated, he stored the insult deep in his chest and repaid it years later without fail. There was no way he would simply let a public disgrace in front of the entire executive board slide.
Yet even at Jo Byeong-jin’s sudden worry, Kim Seong-ho’s expression never shifted from its calm smile. Lee Mun-jong’s vindictive nature had already been factored into his calculations.
“Don’t worry. I’ve already thought of something.”
“You really have a plan ready?”
“Of course. You think I would publicly humiliate him without one?”
“Then tell me ahead of time, will you? I was the only one shaking in my boots.”
Only then did Jo Byeong-jin’s face relax.
“So what exactly is this method of yours? I’ll feel a lot better once I hear it.”
Curious what ingenious scheme Seong-ho had prepared this time, Jo Byeong-jin kept glancing sideways while still holding the wheel. Kim Seong-ho let out a soft laugh and, looking utterly at ease, finally spoke of the plan he had already decided upon.
“Once the restructuring of Ilhyeon Hotel is finished, I’m going to resign.”
The car swerved left and right for a moment. Kim Seong-ho lunged forward and grabbed the wheel for him.
“Hey! Drive properly. You’re going to get us killed.”
“You’re the one spouting nonsense!”
Jo Byeong-jin seized the wheel again and demanded an explanation for what he had just heard.
“What did you mean just now? You’re going to quit the company?”
“Exactly what I said.”
“You’re really quitting?”
“Yes. And that’s when the real beginning starts.”
“The real beginning? What are you talking about now?”
Jo Byeong-jin shot him a look that said he understood nothing. But Kim Seong-ho answered the question only inside his own head.
That’s when the real revenge begins.
Arms folded, he simply stared through the windshield. Jo Byeong-jin glanced at him several more times, then stopped asking. Even resigning, he realized, was clearly part of the plan.
Having successfully closed the executive meeting, the two of them returned by car to Ilhyeon Hotel.
Meanwhile, the two men standing on the opposite side of the boardroom gathered in the Vice Chairman’s office at Ilhyeon Group Headquarters.
“Hyung-nim. What do we do now?”
Lee Sang-jong dumped the entire mess of Kim Seong-ho’s performance onto Lee Mun-jong.
“You brought it up for nothing and couldn’t even get your money’s worth.”
Angry that he himself had been dragged into it, Lee Sang-jong kept pouring out complaints.
“You could have called him aside and said all that privately, couldn’t you? Did you really have to bring it up with everyone sitting there?”
Just remembering the executive meeting made embarrassment and irritation surge through him.
“How do you think the other affiliate presidents looked at us? A few more days and the numbers would have spoken for themselves, but you couldn’t wait… And Father already told us that if we were going to act like that we shouldn’t bother attending meetings anymore.”
They needed every scrap of favor they could get from Lee Tak-hyeon; instead they had only earned his dislike. Staying silent would have been better.
Lee Mun-jong listened to the stream of complaints in silence for a long while before finally opening his mouth.
“Are you finished?”
One look into his older brother’s cold eyes made Lee Sang-jong realize he had gone too far.
“Ahem… So what do you intend to do now?”
“The gift the Chairman said he would give Kim. What do you think it is?”
“A gift?”
Lee Sang-jong rewound Lee Tak-hyeon’s words from the meeting and tilted his head.
“A gift… money, I suppose? Same as last time when he handed over a hundred million for the Ilhyeon Watch success.”
Lee Mun-jong snorted.
“Money? If it were only money there would have been no need to announce it officially in front of every affiliate president. And you bark with a mind that small.”
“That’s—hyung-nim… Fine. Then what do you think the gift is?”
At the question, Lee Mun-jong’s brow furrowed so deeply it looked painful just to speak the answer. Lee Sang-jong watched him, still confused—until he heard the words and his own face twisted into the same expression.
“President of Ilhyeon Hotel…”
“What?”
“Father intends to seat Kim as president of Ilhyeon Hotel.”
“That’s absurd!”
Lee Sang-jong shot to his feet.
“What kind of nonsense is that? Putting Kim in the president’s chair at Ilhyeon Hotel?!”
“Then what else? Do you really think Father would have said those things in front of the entire board for any lesser reason?”
“Even so—”
“There is no ‘even so.’ If he actually hits 250 billion… no, even if sales merely double, Father will put Kim in as president of Ilhyeon Hotel.”
Lee Sang-jong’s face filled with pure disbelief.
“It took me a full fifteen years to become president of Ilhyeon Construction. The same for you, hyung-nim. Chang-jong and Jeong-eun still haven’t even sat in a president’s chair!”
Still standing, he stamped his feet in agitation.
“If it were president of Ilhyeon Watch I could understand. But Ilhyeon Hotel? Even if it isn’t what it once was, it’s still one of the Group’s flagship companies on the front line!”
His fury only grew hotter; the space between his brows knotted tighter.
“When Father gave Cha the vice-president seat at Ilhyeon Electronics because of the political connections behind him, he hammered in the condition that Cha was never to eye the president’s chair. You remember that too!”
Lee Sang-jong looked down at his silent, brooding brother, then finally sat again. He leaned in close.
“Hyung-nim. That absolutely cannot happen. Even Cha, with all that solid backing, never got the president’s seat—and now some guy who only became family through marriage is going to be a president?”
“I know. I feel the same way.”
Lee Mun-jong stared straight at him.
“But if Father decides to do it, can we stop him?”
“That’s…”
Lee Sang-jong had no answer. Once Lee Tak-hyeon made up his mind, no one in the Ilhyeon Group could overturn it.
Lee Mun-jong let out a long, heavy sigh.
“If the Chairman is handling Group business, there is no way to stop him.”
“So we just sit here and watch Kim become president of Ilhyeon Hotel?”
“…We can’t allow that.”
“Do you have some method?”
A deep furrow carved itself between Lee Mun-jong’s brows.
“Not right now…”
“If you don’t have one, then what?”
Lee Sang-jong’s voice rose with frustration. Lee Mun-jong sighed again.
“Haa… We don’t have one now, but we still have time. We think of something before then. Given enough time, a method we never imagined might appear.”
Lee Sang-jong knew there was little else they could do except wait and search for a solution. Yet he could not believe that mere passage of time would produce one. Lee Mun-jong felt exactly the same.
The two of them could only sit, hands idle, hearts tight with frustration and unease, watching the clock tick away.
Ilhyeon Hotel grew with terrifying speed.
The moment the service philosophy Kim Seong-ho had named Before Service began to shine and produce results, public perception of the hotel shifted almost overnight. Just as the idea that Ilhyeon Hotel was the finest hotel in the Republic of Korea was taking root, an event overseas turned that growing belief into absolute certainty.
Sitting beside Kim Seong-ho and watching the news, Lee Gyeong-eun excitedly tapped his arm.
“Ilhyeon Hotel is going to be completely full now, isn’t it? Seong-ho, you’re amazing. Father must be pleased too, right?”
“Well… I imagine he is.”
Kim Seong-ho smiled at his wife, who was celebrating as if it were her own triumph, then glanced toward the study where Lee Tak-hyeon would be.
Inside that study, Lee Tak-hyeon was watching the same broadcast. Seated on the sofa, eyes fixed on the television, he addressed Hwang Do-beom standing nearby.
“What’s the occupancy rate right now?”
“I’ve already received a report that reservations have surpassed eighty percent.”
“And last year?”
After hearing the hotel was running at a loss, Lee Tak-hyeon had stopped paying it any attention. Now that he was asking about last year’s numbers, Hwang Do-beom realized Kim Seong-ho had delivered results far beyond the visible figures.
“At this same time last year, the reservation rate was not even thirty percent.”
“From under thirty percent to eighty percent now? That’s almost too impressive to call merely surprising.”
Hwang Do-beom had one more astonishing detail ready.
“What is even more remarkable is that the eighty-percent figure was recorded before FIFA’s announcement.”
“It will climb higher after the announcement, I assume?”
“Yes. Achieving a reservation rate above ninety-five percent appears entirely possible.”
“At that level it might as well mean every single room is gone.”
“Correct. In the hotel industry, even a ninety-percent rate is commonly called a full house once rooms under repair or held for emergencies are excluded. Yet Ilhyeon Hotel is expected to exceed that and reach ninety-five percent… a truly extraordinary result.”
Lee Tak-hyeon nodded and returned his gaze to the television.
“How much time remains until the World Cup?”
“Roughly five and a half years by the calendar.”
“So this state of affairs will continue for five and a half years.”
“That is the Secretary’s Office assessment as well.”
Lee Tak-hyeon lifted one corner of his mouth and drummed his fingers on the armrest.
“Five and a half years…”
Murmuring the remaining span of the World Cup period, Lee Tak-hyeon sank into thought.