One Step Back for Ten Steps Forward
After Lee Tak-hyeon left the room, Lee Chang-jong turned to Lee Mun-jong with a bewildered look.
"Hyung, what on earth was that supposed to mean? Gyeong-eun as President of Ilhyeon Hotel?"
"Were you even listening when we talked, or were you just sitting there spacing out?"
Mun-jong spoke as if he found the question pathetic. Chang-jong answered at once.
"That's not what I mean, hyung. How is Gyeong-eun supposed to be a president? She's just a housewife."
"Just a housewife? Have you forgotten that before she got married she took the same management training and worked just like the rest of us?"
"That was… more like playing house…"
"There's no such thing as playing house when it comes to actual work."
Cutting Chang-jong off, Mun-jong looked around at his other siblings.
"I proposed it, and Father approved. Anyone else have an objection?"
At Mun-jong's words, no one present dared voice further complaints. With even Mun-jong in agreement, they all believed there was no way left to reverse Lee Tak-hyeon's decision.
That did not mean they were prepared to step back here, however. Unlike the rest of them—who were forever scrambling to win favor with Lee Tak-hyeon and scrape together whatever extra scrap they could get—Lee Gyeong-eun had simply been handed a major company like Ilhyeon Hotel without lifting a finger. There was still plenty of time before Lee Tak-hyeon stepped down, and in that interval who knew what else Gyeong-eun might walk away with? They all felt the need to put an end to this with Ilhyeon Hotel and nothing more.
Lee Jeong-eun spoke first.
"Fine. Let's call Ilhyeon Hotel Gyeong-eun's share."
As if she had just made some grand concession, she turned her head toward Kim Seong-ho.
"I'll accept Gyeong-eun taking the president's seat, but I draw the line at Kim Seobang. I want him out of his position."
"I second that."
When Chang-jong chimed in, Mun-jong looked back and forth between the two of them.
"Why are you stating the obvious? Once Ilhyeon Hotel is back on its feet, of course Kim Seobang steps down."
"That's not what I mean."
Mun-jong looked at Jeong-eun as if to ask what else she could possibly mean.
"I want Kim Seobang completely out of the company's affairs."
"What?"
"Unni!"
Lee Gyeong-eun, who had been quiet until now, raised her voice.
"Unni, what are you talking about? Why should our Seong-ho have to step away from the company?"
"Father already gave him land in Nonsan, didn't he? Tell him to take that and go back to farming like he used to."
"Unni!"
"You're already sitting in the president's chair. Do a husband and wife really need to both work at the company?"
"You're at the company with your husband too, unni!"
Gyeong-eun pointed to Cha Yeong-su's case, demanding to know why only Kim Seong-ho was being singled out. Jeong-eun turned her head toward Cha Yeong-su sitting beside her. She let out a short sigh and muttered under her breath.
"It's different when the person's barely there in the first place…"
Gyeong-eun had been about to demand what made the cases different, but the words died in her throat. It was, after all, an admission of her own husband Kim Seong-ho's capabilities.
When Gyeong-eun fell silent, Chang-jong spoke next.
"I agree with noona. If Kim Seobang steps away from company work… then I'll acknowledge that Ilhyeon Hotel is your share."
"Oppa!"
Lee Sang-jong, who had been quietly watching the mood shift, joined in as well.
"Yeah. Don't get too greedy. Back off at this point. Getting Ilhyeon Hotel as your share is already a huge win, isn't it? Be content with Ilhyeon Hotel."
Seeing all of them united in wanting Kim Seong-ho out, Gyeong-eun felt her heart sink. She had always known what her older brothers and sister thought and how they behaved, but she had never imagined their blades would turn against her as well.
Gyeong-eun looked at Kim Seong-ho with eyes full of apology. Guilt surged up from deep inside her. At that look, Seong-ho simply smiled and took her hand.
After gazing at her for a moment, he turned his head and locked eyes with Mun-jong. Mun-jong had been calmly watching the situation unfold exactly as Seong-ho had described. Meeting Seong-ho's gaze, he slowly opened his mouth.
"If that's how everyone feels… then there's nothing for it. Kim Seobang. You understand, don't you?"
"Yes. I understand."
Seong-ho nodded and looked around at everyone seated there.
"To be honest, I've been wanting to rest for a while anyway. I'll take some time off, look into other opportunities, recharge a bit."
"Glad you understand, Kim Seobang."
Mun-jong wrapped things up quickly.
"We'll settle the Ilhyeon Hotel matter with Gyeong-eun as President and Kim Seobang stepping away from Group affairs. That's the end of this. No more arguments."
Jeong-eun, who had opposed the hardest, wore a faintly unsatisfied expression, but she had no choice but to accept a conclusion that had gone her way. Chang-jong and Sang-jong also nodded at Mun-jong's words.
Ilhyeon Hotel had shown remarkable growth after the restructuring, but its weight within the vast Ilhyeon Group was still relatively minor. The idea of knocking out one competitor by handing over a hotel didn't seem like a bad deal, so they all accepted Mun-jong's decision.
Seong-ho looked at them and thought,
People talk about one step back for two steps forward, but that's not me. This is one step back for ten steps forward. Just wait. You'll come crawling back, begging me to return to the company.
Lee Gyeong-eun sat tense and drawn on the long-overdue visit to her in-laws' home. No matter that she was a daughter of the Ilhyeon Group, a married woman's husband's family was still a place that weighed on her. And because Seong-ho had entered the household as a live-in son-in-law, she carried the heavy sense of having wronged his parents, which only made her more nervous still.
"It's all right," Seong-ho reassured her. "My parents like you, Gyeong-eun."
"Even so… I should have bought Mother one more present. I wanted to get a couple of Birkin bags…"
"We're bringing something far bigger than that, so don't worry."
At Seong-ho's words, Gyeong-eun looked up at him with shining eyes.
"Will they really like it?"
"They will. People who've spent their whole lives tenant-farming someone else's land are finally getting land of their own."
"If that's the case, I'm glad, but…"
Gyeong-eun still seemed worried; the whole drive toward Nonsan she kept fretting. Her anxiety, however, was misplaced. The land Lee Tak-hyeon had handed Seong-ho was a gift beyond any comparison to clothes or handbags. The plot he had bought—twenty thousand pyeong of rice paddies and three thousand pyeong of dry fields—was an immense present for Seong-ho's parents, who had never owned so much as a single pyeong in their lives.
Only after Seong-ho reassured her several more times did Gyeong-eun finally relax and turn to the window. "It's so beautiful," she murmured. Harvest was over; soft white snow lay thick over the empty paddies. She rested her head against Seong-ho's shoulder and gazed at the landscape outside.
"Seong-ho… what if we came down to Nonsan to live? With Mother and Father. Farm a little, raise cows and chickens… just a quiet life. How does that sound?"
She turned her head and looked up at him. Seong-ho knew she was not speaking lightly. She genuinely wanted to leave the complicated, fiercely competitive city behind. Knowing that, he wrapped an arm warmly around her shoulders and answered.
"All right. But not yet."
"Not yet?"
Seong-ho looked down at her for a moment and thought to himself,
When the Ilhyeon Group is in our hands—when my revenge is finished—that's when we'll come down.
He kept the answer inside and only smiled at her. Gyeong-eun gazed up at him a little longer, then buried her face against his chest. Waiting for that day, she closed her eyes for a short rest.
The car that left Seoul reached Seong-ho's family home after roughly three hours on the road. Gyeong-eun had been stiff with nerves from the moment they entered the village; the instant she saw Seong-ho's parents waiting outside, she put on the prettiest smile she could manage and stepped out of the car.
"Mother. Father. We're here."
Her voice was a full two tones higher than usual as she greeted them, then hugged Seong-ho's mother and father in turn.
"Aigoo, child. You'll get dust on your clothes."
Seong-ho's mother gently tried to push Gyeong-eun back, afraid of soiling her fine outfit. Gyeong-eun only held her tighter. At the sight of her daughter-in-law embracing her so gladly, the older woman smiled and patted her back.
"You must have had a hard time getting here. Was it tiring?"
"Tiring? I slept so hard on the way I didn't even know how long it took."
Gyeong-eun linked arms with Seong-ho's mother, Jang Myeong-ja, then turned to his father, Kim Pan-seok.
"Is that the new house? It looks wonderful."
Kim Pan-seok stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the house with a contented expression.
"It is. We finished it not long ago, and it's very fine. But…"
He turned his head toward Seong-ho, who was unpacking gifts and overnight bags from the trunk with the driver.
"That boy sent the money to build it, but I still don't know if we should have taken it."
"Child, I'm sorry," Jang Myeong-ja chimed in, patting Gyeong-eun's hand where it rested on her arm. "Did Seong-ho talk it over with you? Do you know he sent us that huge sum to build a house?"
Both parents looked at Gyeong-eun with the same anxious hope. If Seong-ho had sent money home without telling her, it could easily have sparked a serious marital fight.
Still linked arm in arm with Jang Myeong-ja, Gyeong-eun smiled at the two of them.
"Of course I was the one who told him to send it first. Mother, Father—were you really worried Seong-ho might have sent money behind my back?"
Jang Myeong-ja let out a sigh of relief.
"Aigoo, then that's all right. I was afraid that boy might have sent it without even telling you… That would have been a real problem."
"Don't worry. Seong-ho doesn't hide a single thing from me, and I don't hide anything from him either."
Gyeong-eun laughed brightly, took Jang Myeong-ja's arm, and started toward the new house. She glanced back at Kim Pan-seok with a smile.
"Father, will you give us the tour?"
With his worries gone, Kim Pan-seok strode ahead, smiling.
"All right, come this way. Let's start here. The things from the old house that didn't belong in the new one, I planned to put in this shed. And…"
His face lit up as he began introducing the newly built house to his daughter-in-law. After they had walked the whole place once, Gyeong-eun glanced at Seong-ho carrying bags inside and steered Kim Pan-seok and Jang Myeong-ja into the house so she could give them the gifts she had brought.
"Director, I'll wait in town, then. Call me anytime you need me. And I'll leave the car keys here."
"No. Take the car with you. You'll be more comfortable coming and going that way."
The driver looked at Seong-ho as if to ask whether it was really all right. Seong-ho glanced briefly at the three people already chatting in the living room, then smiled at the driver.
"We have a car at the family house as well. We'll use that if we need one."
"Then call me the moment you need anything. Day or night, I'll be standing by."
"Thank you."
Seong-ho saw the driver off and came back inside to sit beside Gyeong-eun. In the middle of talking with her in-laws, she finally wore an expression of pure ease.
"Once Driver Kim left, I finally feel like a free woman."
She flung both arms wide and laughed radiantly, feeling the weight of everything that had been bound under the Ilhyeon name slip away.
"Father, Mother—I even told Seong-ho on the way here—I really want to come live here with the two of you."
"Child, even hearing you say it is enough to make us grateful."
Kim Pan-seok looked back and forth between Gyeong-eun and Seong-ho, flustered.
"I mean it."
Gyeong-eun spoke with such sincerity that she even started to set a date for when they would move down. Seong-ho smiled, took her hand to gently stop her, and explained to Kim Pan-seok and Jang Myeong-ja why they had come today.
"We can talk about that later… The reason we came today is that Father-in-law has a gift for the two of you, and we wanted to deliver it."
"Your father-in-law?"
The moment Lee Tak-hyeon's name came up, Gyeong-eun's earlier remarks were instantly set aside.
"Yes. He bought some land and said he wants to give it to you as a gift."
"Land? Wh-what do you mean?"
"He said he's giving you twenty thousand pyeong of rice paddies and three thousand pyeong of dry fields in Buin-ri and Deokpyeong-ri."
"What? Twenty thousand pyeong of paddies and three thousand of fields…?"
Kim Pan-seok and Jang Myeong-ja were so stunned by Seong-ho's words that they dropped the forks they had been using to pick up apples.