An Opportunity to Inflict a Fatal Wound
Hwang Do-beom carefully studied Lee Tak-hyeon's face before asking,
"Shall I look into it a little further?"
"No. That will be enough."
Lee Tak-hyeon swallowed the bitter taste in his mouth and signaled to Hwang Do-beom that it was fine.
Knowing full well how rare it was for Lee Tak-hyeon to feel this uneasy about anything, Hwang Do-beom pressed him once more.
"Whenever you've said something felt off, Chairman, there has always been a problem, hasn't there? It isn't too late. Let me examine it again. We only checked the liabilities inside the regulated system because we were in a hurry. If we also dig into the private loan market, the secondary financial sector, and inter-group debts, we should be able to see the full picture."
"You're probably right. If we had the time, that would of course be the proper way."
Lee Tak-hyeon nodded without uncrossing his arms. Then he shook his head and said,
"But that isn't what's bothering me."
"Sir? Weren't you worried that Dubo Steel might be hiding a mountain of debt?"
"Dubo Steel is already a company doomed to fail."
"Doomed, sir?"
Hwang Do-beom stared at Lee Tak-hyeon in surprise.
Lee Tak-hyeon kept his arms folded as he continued.
"What kind of man is Chairman Jeong of Dubo? If he can get his hands on money, he'll grease palms and force banks to open their vaults. He even went to prison for it, and he still never stopped. A lunatic like that. And yet that same man came begging to us instead of the banks—and offered equity on top of it?"
Lee Tak-hyeon's mouth curled upward.
"It means the banks won't lend him a single won anymore. Do you really think a company like that is still sound? Even if we pour investment money into it, its collapse is already written."
"Surely it can't be that bad..."
"No. It is that bad."
The absolute certainty in Lee Tak-hyeon's voice left Hwang Do-beom puzzled.
"Then we shouldn't put any money in at all, should we? We might never get it back."
"A company going under and failing to recover the money we put in are two different matters."
"Different, sir?"
Lee Tak-hyeon uncrossed his arms, drummed his fingers on the armrest of the sofa, and said,
"That's right. Even if the company collapses, we can still recover what we invested. In fact, it would be better for us if it does collapse. We would be able to reclaim far more, far more easily."
"How...?"
Hwang Do-beom started to ask how that was possible, then stopped himself. There was no reason to doubt Lee Tak-hyeon once he had declared it so.
He closed his mouth and quietly waited for the Chairman's thoughts to settle. At the same time he could not help wondering what Lee Tak-hyeon was still wrestling with.
If we can recover the money, what is there left to worry about?
Lee Tak-hyeon had already judged that even if Dubo Steel fell, the money could be recovered. With the risk gone, there should have been nothing left to deliberate over—yet the Chairman was still brooding, and that struck Hwang Do-beom as strange.
Reading those thoughts, Lee Tak-hyeon slowly explained what was troubling him.
"Everything looks good. I don't think it's a bad deal either. But... Seong-ho's expression is stuck in my mind."
"His expression, sir?"
Hwang Do-beom recalled that Lee Tak-hyeon had already mentioned Kim Seong-ho's face earlier.
"Chairman, I didn't notice anything strange..."
"You didn't see it?"
Lee Tak-hyeon lifted his head and looked straight at Hwang Do-beom.
Hwang Do-beom tilted his head and answered,
"Just a faint suggestion of a smile, I think. That was all I remember. Nothing particularly stood out."
"Exactly."
Lee Tak-hyeon gave him a small gesture of approval and continued.
"That smile is what bothers me."
Now that he was certain he had not imagined it, the unease grew sharper.
"Whenever I picture that smile, I get the feeling we might take a far harder hit than we expect."
"Then do you intend to cancel the investment?"
"...I can't throw away a fine piece of prey just because Seong-ho's face bothers me."
Lee Tak-hyeon issued one more order to Hwang Do-beom.
"But keep a closer watch. Stay on standby at all times so we can respond the moment anything happens."
"Yes, sir. Understood."
Hwang Do-beom answered, knowing he could not treat the Chairman's instruction lightly. As he looked at Lee Tak-hyeon, who still could not shake the lingering unease, a thought crossed his mind.
Is he regarding Director Kim as someone special?
It felt as though Lee Tak-hyeon was paying far more attention to Kim Seong-ho than Hwang Do-beom had realized. If Dubo Steel were to stumble now, the Chairman's gaze toward Seong-ho might shift even further. His evaluation would rise, and he might even win genuine trust.
Hwang Do-beom left the chairman's office with the thought that, should that happen, the succession battle could plunge into a maze.
Yet at Dubo Steel, events were already unfolding that would surpass anything either Hwang Do-beom or Lee Tak-hyeon had imagined.
After leaving Lee Tak-hyeon's office, Kim Seong-ho did not head home. Instead he stopped by the vice chairman's office one floor below.
"You asked for me, hyung-nim?"
"I did."
Lee Mun-jong gestured for the secretary who had escorted Seong-ho to close the door and leave, then pointed to the sofa in front of him.
"Sit."
Kim Seong-ho obeyed and took a seat. Lee Mun-jong watched him settle onto the sofa before speaking.
"Do you truly support the acquisition of Dubo Steel?"
"Is that why you called me here—to ask that?"
"Yes."
Lee Mun-jong nodded and studied Seong-ho's face intently.
"I expected you to oppose it. Gyeong-eun never thinks about anything, so of course she would agree, but I was certain you would be against it. Yet you supported it. Why?"
Seong-ho tilted his head slightly.
"Is there any reason to oppose it?"
Lee Mun-jong had no answer. He himself agreed that there was no reason to reject receiving equity in Dubo Steel in exchange for an investment. Even so, the deal was not good for him.
"True. It's a good thing for the Ilhyeon Group. But not for me. It might even be bad for me."
Seong-ho looked at him carefully.
"Because of Second Hyung-nim?"
"Yes."
Lee Mun-jong nodded.
"The problem is that Sang-jong is the one driving this."
He clenched his molars and spoke through gritted teeth.
"If the deal goes well and Dubo Steel somehow ends up in our hands... you know what will happen."
"The scales will tip heavily toward Second Hyung-nim."
"Exactly..."
Lee Mun-jong nodded and tightened his fist.
"That must never be allowed to happen."
He ground his teeth and fixed his eyes on Seong-ho.
"Father called you into that meeting today precisely to ask if you had any different thoughts. In other words, if you had opposed it, Father might have reconsidered the whole thing."
"Hyung-nim."
Seong-ho met his gaze and spoke in a low voice.
"There was never any justifiable reason to oppose this from the start."
He shook his head as if to say there was simply no other way, then continued.
"You know it yourself, don't you? Even in the worst-case scenario, that would actually be the best outcome for us. The Chairman may be hoping more than anyone that Dubo Steel fails."
Understanding the implication, Lee Mun-jong nodded. No matter which way the story went, this deal was a free win for the Ilhyeon Group. That was exactly why his mood was so foul.
"I know. But if you had voiced the same objections Gyeong-eun raised, things might have been different."
"Do you truly believe that?"
Lee Mun-jong fell silent. He knew perfectly well that even if Seong-ho had opposed the deal, nothing would have changed. The words had only been spoken out of resentment, so he simply shut his mouth and said nothing more.
Seong-ho offered him a different suggestion.
"Hyung-nim. Why not try changing your perspective instead?"
"Changing my perspective?"
Lee Mun-jong looked at him as if asking what that was supposed to mean. Seong-ho glanced toward the door, confirmed they were alone, and lowered his voice.
"The Dubo Steel matter cannot be stopped. In that case..."
"In that case...?"
Seong-ho bowed his head and spoke even more quietly.
"Wouldn't it be better to turn the investment in Dubo Steel into a loss?"
"Turn it into a loss? How?"
Lee Mun-jong shifted forward until he was perched on the edge of the sofa. Seong-ho dropped his voice still further.
"Have them invest as much money as possible, then create a situation where none of that money can be recovered. Everyone was certain this would be profitable—and then it becomes a loss? If the evaluation ends up worse than if we had never invested at all, the way the Chairman looks at Second Hyung-nim will change completely."
Lee Mun-jong's eyes flew wide open.
"Yes. If that happens, it would turn into a blessing in disguise for me!"
"It would be more than just a blessing in disguise."
Seong-ho reached out and took Lee Mun-jong's hand. Startled by the sudden contact, Lee Mun-jong stared at him.
"Through this, we can inflict a fatal wound on Second Hyung-nim."
At those words, heat rose in Lee Mun-jong's chest. A deal everyone had been certain would bring profit—if it failed, the disappointment would hit twice as hard.
"You're right. Right now that seems like the best choice for me."
"Exactly. So don't oppose it. Push them to invest even more."
"Yes. Let's make them put in a full two hundred billion."
Lee Mun-jong nodded, recalling the earlier conversation.
"A loss of ten or twenty billion on a hundred-billion investment is nothing compared to a loss of twenty or forty billion on two hundred billion. It will make Sang-jong's mistake look far larger."
The more he talked, the more he began to feel that the present situation was not entirely bad for him. It might even be an opportunity to deal Sang-jong a fatal blow.
Before he knew it, a smile had appeared on Lee Mun-jong's face—completely different from when Seong-ho had first entered the office. He posed one last question.
"But how do we make them take the loss?"
It was the most crucial question, and the most difficult. Yet because it came last, the difficulty felt greatly diluted. The enormous gain glittering ahead had erased the sense of hardship.
Seong-ho smiled back at Lee Mun-jong, who was now asking as casually as if he were asking for directions.
"It's simple."
"Simple?"
"Why is Dubo trying to borrow money? Because they need it desperately. They've run up debts everywhere, and once those debts became unmanageable they reached out even to us."
Seong-ho let the sentence trail off and simply looked at Lee Mun-jong. Then, in a suggestive tone, he asked,
"So what happens if we provide the money and the problem still isn't solved?"
He had not spelled out the method in detail, yet that alone was enough for Lee Mun-jong to understand what needed to be done.
"Yes. That will work."
The smile on Lee Mun-jong's face grew deeper. The moment he heard Seong-ho's words, several approaches began forming in his mind. And when the image of Lee Sang-jong collapsed on the floor rose before his eyes, a smile of pure delight spread across his face of its own accord.
Kim Seong-ho watched him and smiled just as brightly in return.
But in Seong-ho's eyes there was one more sight that Lee Mun-jong could not see—Lee Mun-jong himself lying collapsed right beside Lee Sang-jong.