The Underground Secret Room
When Kim Seong-ho came down from the second floor, Chief of Staff Hwang Do-beom was already waiting for him at the foot of the stairs.
Seong-ho stepped off the last stair, took in Hwang’s unusual expression, and asked with mild curiosity,
“Chief Hwang. Were you waiting for me?”
“I was. The Chairman wants you downstairs.”
“Downstairs?”
“You’ve never been there, have you?”
Seong-ho hesitated a moment, then nodded.
“No. I’ve only heard about it. I’ve never actually gone in.”
“I see.”
Hwang answered shortly and turned on his heel.
“Even Vice President Cha has never set foot in that place. That’s how high the Chairman’s expectations of you are.”
“I understand. I’ll make sure I live up to them.”
Hwang nodded at the reply and started walking.
The basement level of Lee Tak-hyeon’s Pyeongchang-dong residence was no ordinary space. Its entrance stood completely separate from the house proper, and the entire structure had been built as a perfect sealed chamber. Because it was never used for daily living, the door remained locked and cut off from the outside world except for those rare occasions when the Chairman or Hwang entered to settle private business.
“Here we are.”
They left the house, circled around behind the garden, and stopped in front of the heavy steel door that led underground. Hwang ran through the three-stage security—fingerprint, iris scan, and password—then swung the door open.
“After you.”
Seong-ho stepped through into the subterranean corridor. There were no windows at all, yet the bright lights banished every shadow; the hallway stretched ahead of him in stark, even illumination.
As he walked, a quiet thought crossed his mind.
It’s been a while.
The place was familiar. In the previous life, when Lee Mun-jong had been Chairman, the work Hwang was doing now had been Seong-ho’s own. The underground chambers held no mystery for him.
Hwang glanced back at the man following calmly behind him.
He ought to be curious, even a little startled…
A windowless maze of twisting corridors would have made anyone else ask questions, yet Seong-ho trailed him in complete composure. Watching that unshakable calm, Hwang decided he had done well to suggest that the Chairman speak with Seong-ho. A man who kept his head in any situation could offer the cold, precise analysis Lee Tak-hyeon needed.
After several turns through the narrow passages, a single door appeared. Once more Hwang cleared the triple security lock and pushed it open.
“Chairman. I’ve brought Mr. Kim.”
“Both of you, come in and sit.”
Lee Tak-hyeon motioned them forward. Seong-ho entered carefully and took the seat to the Chairman’s left. Before explaining why he had summoned them, Lee Tak-hyeon asked about the chamber itself.
“Have you heard anything about this place?”
Seong-ho nodded.
“When they first showed me around the estate I saw the outer door, but I was told it was a space the Chairman managed personally and that entry was allowed only on special occasions. After that I never gave it another thought.”
“I see.”
A faint smile touched Lee Tak-hyeon’s lips. He drew out a cigarette, lit it, and took a slow drag.
Even in a sealed room without a single window, the rising smoke vanished near the ceiling as though swallowed by the air itself. Every surface was closed off, yet the ventilation was so perfect that the space never felt stifling.
Hwang watched Seong-ho again, waiting for some reaction. Once more Seong-ho sat perfectly still, eyes fixed on the Chairman, giving the drifting smoke not even a glance.
Lee Tak-hyeon himself looked faintly surprised. Then his gaze sharpened with decision.
I can speak freely.
He crushed the half-smoked cigarette into the ashtray and spoke.
“This room exists for company business that must never leave these walls—or for conversations that cannot be allowed to reach the outside.”
I know that well enough, Seong-ho answered silently. Aloud he only said, carefully,
“Then the reason you called me here today is because the matter cannot be allowed to leave this room.”
“That’s right. And also because I want to hear what you think of it.”
By framing the summons as consultation rather than a one-sided order, Lee Tak-hyeon set the tone. In a calm voice he laid out the secret that could never leave the chamber.
“The Dubo Steel problem has the President’s son tangled up in it.”
The moment Kim Seong-ho returned to their room, Lee Gyeong-eun hurried toward him.
“I heard you went down to the underground chamber?”
“You already knew?”
Seong-ho sat; Gyeong-eun took the chair opposite him.
“Father used the intercom to call you—something he almost never does—so I thought it strange and went to the study. He wasn’t there.”
Seong-ho smiled at the concern in her voice.
“Were you worried the Chairman might give me a hard time?”
“Of course I was.”
He had meant the question half in jest, but she answered with complete seriousness, then explained why the fear had risen so quickly.
“Before my second brother got married… he made a real mess of things once. Father called him over the intercom the same way—out of the blue. He was scolded within an inch of his life. That memory just came back. I was afraid something serious had happened.”
“Something serious did happen.”
“What? Something serious?”
Her eyes went round. Seong-ho only smiled and nodded.
“Why else would he call me into the sealed room?”
“Ah… that makes sense. If a real problem had come up, Father would take you there.”
Even though the Pyeongchang-dong house was guarded with extreme care, servants moved through it every day and other family members lived under the same roof. No conversation could stay completely secret. Yet Lee Tak-hyeon had never minded discussing important company business in the open study or living room. He possessed the confidence that even if others overheard, they could do nothing about it—and by speaking openly he reminded everyone that every thread still lay in his hand.
There were, however, matters even he preferred to keep buried. On those occasions he used the underground chamber. Knowing that, Gyeong-eun asked,
“What was the sealed room like? Is it… really that frightening?”
She leaned in, curious now rather than worried.
“My brother once said that even in midsummer the place is so cold it raises goosebumps. He claimed a chill pours out from every wall.”
“That’s probably just the air-circulation system. There aren’t any windows.”
“Really? Walls on every side, no windows at all?”
Worry had already left her eyes; only pure curiosity remained. She stared at him, wide-eyed.
“I’ve never been allowed in. Most of my brothers haven’t either. I’ve only ever heard stories, so I’ve always wondered what it actually looks like.”
“You’re not curious about the conversation we had?”
“Of course I am. But I’m not going to pry.”
She shook her head firmly.
“If Father called you all the way into that room, the talk must have been truly important. Asking you to tell me would be wrong. Better to leave the things I’m not supposed to know alone and care only about what you can safely share. Don’t you think so?”
Her consideration warmed him. Seong-ho smiled gently.
“No matter how important the matter is, there’s nothing I can’t discuss with you, Gyeong-eun.”
“Really? You’re allowed to tell me what you and Father talked about?”
“The Chairman never ordered me to keep silent.”
She hesitated, then spoke carefully.
“Seong-ho… some things don’t need to be said out loud. He called you into a sealed room so that no one else would hear. That alone—”
He laughed softly.
“Do you think I don’t know that? Besides…”
He glanced at the clock on the wall. A full hour had already passed since he and the Chairman had finished speaking. More than enough time for Hwang Do-beom to have reached the company and begun to move.
Seong-ho looked back at his wife.
“Enough time has gone by that I can talk about it now.”
“Enough time?”
“Yes. Chief Hwang should be starting his work about now.”
He nodded and gave her a concise account of the conversation that had taken place underground.
“The Dubo Steel loan involves the President’s son. The current President’s second son pressured three banks into granting illegal loans to the Dubo Group…”
Gyeong-eun’s mouth fell open. The story had long since passed “important” and entered the realm of pure shock.
“The President’s… second son ordered illegal loans? The son of the sitting President?”
“You’ve heard his nickname, haven’t you?”
“Of course. They call him the Little President. People say the country is really run by the Little President rather than the actual one, but… is that actually true?”
“It is.”
His calm confirmation made her shake her head in disbelief.
“We’ve seen presidential aides commit corruption before, but for the President’s own son to order illegal loans…”
For a moment she was speechless. Then her practical mind reasserted itself. She could not believe Lee Tak-hyeon had summoned Seong-ho merely to share gossip.
“He wouldn’t have called you down there just to talk about the President’s son. What did Father actually want from you?”
Seong-ho smiled at her sharp intuition.
“The Blue House has asked us for help.”
“Help?”
“They want us to bury the matter of the President’s son.”
“Bury it? How are we supposed to make an illegal loan disappear?”
She frowned, puzzled. The Ilhyeon Group was not a judicial body; simply “covering it up” would not turn an illegal loan into a legal one. Seong-ho only smiled and continued.
“The connection between the President’s son and the loans hasn’t become public yet. But if investigators dig into how Dubo Steel managed to borrow more than five trillion won, the trail will eventually lead straight to the President’s son. That would deal a severe blow to the President himself. So they’ve asked us to acquire Dubo Steel. If the company survives, the illegal-loan scandal can be quietly buried.”
“That makes no sense. They’re asking us to take over a company that’s already gone bankrupt?”
She fell silent, thinking, then spoke in a quieter, steadier voice.
“Father isn’t the sort of man who’d miss something like that. If he called you in to ask for your opinion, the government must have made an offer worth serious consideration.”
Seong-ho regarded her with quiet admiration.
Gyeong-eun was always wasted on household management alone.
He nodded.
“Yes. The government made a proposal even the Chairman has to think about carefully.”
“What was it?”
“They’re offering to hand over Dubo Construction and Dubo Energy as well—the two crown jewels of the Dubo Group.”
“Dubo Steel plus Dubo Construction and Dubo Energy… that would definitely give anyone pause. So what did you say? That it looked acceptable? Or that we should hold out and squeeze the government for even more?”
Even though bankrupt Dubo Steel sat under a mountain of debt, receiving the construction and energy arms as well would hardly be a loss. Solving a crisis that entangled the President’s son might open the door to still greater favors. Gyeong-eun waited, eyes bright with curiosity.
Seong-ho simply repeated the words he had spoken earlier to Lee Tak-hyeon.
“I told him we should walk away from three hundred billion won.”