Chapter 215
Chapter 215
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 215
Chapter Title: People Leaving, People Staying, Chaos (3)
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Even after the private jet landed in Korea, I couldn’t bring myself to get off.
“…….”
My feet refused to move.
Unlike my thighs, frozen stiff as ice above the knees, everything below trembled wildly, like aspen leaves half-covered in frost.
Pancreatic cancer. And the grandmother’s death, drawing ever closer.
The evening darkness had already settled in. Staring at my hollow reflection in the window, I parted my dry lips and muttered to myself.
“Haa… This wasn’t supposed to happen in the original future. What went wrong?”
My grandmother, who should have lived healthily for several more years.
But was it because of the causal chains I had altered? Cancer cells, the seeds sown by that causality, had taken root in her body and were devouring her life.
“Chairman….”
Yoo Se-na, my aide, approached me. Unable to stand it any longer, she handed me a hot towel.
I buried my face in the white towel, steam rising like heat haze.
Only after a long while did I regain a sliver of composure and turn to Yoo Se-na with questions about the current situation.
“Phew, Yoo Se-na Aide. What’s the word from Ammunition Medical Center? What’s her exact condition right now?”
“The tests confirm late-stage pancreatic cancer. The tumor’s position is unusually placed, so she hasn’t felt much pain.”
At least, unlike other cancers, she’d been spared severe pain. Was that the silver lining in this misfortune?
I forced down the report that barely registered in my ears and let my thoughts spiral onward.
Not as a worried grandson fretting over his ailing grandmother… but as the chaebol heir bearing the weight of the vast Ammunition Group.
‘That Han Hwa-gi fellow. Looks like he’ll get paroled. It’s the Director’s dying wish, apparently.’
A phone call with Uncle Kim Won-cheol flashed in my mind.
He’d already sorted through his emotions and helped me view the situation more coldly.
Including the risks this posed to the group’s management control.
“Phew, even in this situation, I have to crunch the numbers tooth and nail. Destiny or not, it’s brutally harsh.”
The destiny laid upon me.
It wouldn’t be just drowning in sorrow and bawling my eyes out.
No matter what storms raged inside or out, I had to walk the path ahead in silence. That was why I’d regressed in time.
“Of course, Uncle Kim Won-cheol didn’t say it because he wanted to. So, I need to do what must be done… one step at a time.”
Decision made.
Snapping back to reality, my hand stung slightly—I must have gripped the towel so tightly the moisture had all evaporated.
I stood up at once, straightened my necktie, and headed for the plane’s exit.
“Yoo Se-na Aide, let’s move out now.”
“Are you sure you’re okay, Chairman…?”
“Whether I’m okay now or not, from here on out, I have to be.”
That’s right.
Regardless of my emotions, I… had to be okay.
Because.
“The last image my grandmother sees of her grandson… can’t be a foolish one lost in despair.”
* * * *
We reached the Pyeongchang-dong family estate in no time.
I was so out of breath I didn’t even take off my shoes until I’d crossed the entryway, making straight for the first-floor living room.
“Huff, huff… I’m here.”
“Seo-jun-ah…!”
My mother’s face, after so long.
Pushing aside the brief joy of reunion, I asked right away about Grandmother.
“Where’s Grandmother? She’s home instead of the hospital?”
“She’s in the study. She insists on dying in a familiar place all at once rather than clinging to life on a hospital bed. What can we do….”
The study… So typical of Grandmother. It worried me, but in a way, it brought relief too.
Because the Seo Taehu I knew, the one I’d experienced, was still holding on, frail but firm.
“Oh, Chairman’s here? Go up quick. She’s been waiting since earlier.”
Uncle Kim Won-cheol, descending the second-floor stairs, greeted me.
I had a lot I wanted to say, but Grandmother came first.
As I hurried up the stairs after him, he grabbed my sleeve.
“Uh, hold on a sec.”
His face, painted with rare seriousness and complexity.
With great difficulty, as if forcing out hard words, Uncle Kim Won-cheol spoke cautiously.
“You’d better brace yourself a bit before going in.”
“What do you mean…?”
“How should I put it—the Director right now isn’t Seo Taehu. She’s just an ordinary elderly mother.”
* * * *
Grandmother looked gaunt when I entered the study and faced her.
She tried to maintain her dignity, holding her back straight… but it was clear her insides were rotting away.
“There you are. Sit.”
“Grandmother, your health right now…”
“No need to rehash what we both know. Everyone dies—it’s a given. More important is.”
Even in the cold weather, sweat beaded on her forehead.
Her emaciated form, making the moniker Seo Taehu feel hollow, pressed on with effort.
“What you leave behind before you go.”
“…….”
“I pondered and pondered. In the end, it feels like I’ll just dump homework on you and crawl into my coffin.”
Before I could reply, two slender fingers extended before my eyes.
“Holding company conversion. And.”
The first finger pointed to what I’d expected.
The Ammunition Group, still trapped in its circular investment structure, vulnerable to outside capital raids on management control.
Unlike that pressing first task, the second finger indicated… a far more tangled problem.
“Your uncle. No, my youngest son.”
“Grandmother, that matter needs deeper thought before deciding…”
“Enough.”
And her manner in assigning this task was utterly resolute, defying her frail state.
Perhaps because, in this moment, it wasn’t Seo Taehu… but a mother.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Seo-jun. You’re already shining so brilliantly as Ammunition Group’s Chairman.”
“Grandmother….”
“That’s why what I can’t trust isn’t you, but the situation surrounding you. If not now, your uncle can’t come out.”
I couldn’t voice the lie: That won’t happen.
The weight of the Ammunition Group chairmanship was no light thing, leaving no room for pity.
“It’s been three years since he went in. His wings should be clipped by now. And the parole conditions fit perfectly.”
Parole.
The uncle who, in my past life, had kept me behind bars for over a decade was warming up to return to the outside world.
My ears rang dully.
As dizziness crept in and Grandmother’s voice faded, she continued, even more drained than before.
“Phew… I’ve spoken to my Minister of Justice to handle it. So, Seo-jun, you cooperate fully this time too…”
“Grandmother? Are you okay?”
Thud—like a lie, her head slumped limply onto the chair’s armrest.
Snapping alert as if doused in ice water, I shouted.
“Grandmother? Grandmother! Is anyone outside? Grandmother’s collapsed!”
“Oh dear lord! What in the world!”
Cheongju-ssi, waiting beyond the door. As she rushed in, I gave trembling orders.
“Get the attending physician now. No—call an ambulance! Contact Ammunition Medical Center. Right away!”
* * * *
“She should have been hospitalized long ago. Even now, we need to go for maximum life-prolonging treatment.”
The attending physician’s somber expression.
A professor at Ammunition Medical Center’s cancer ward, he reported Grandmother’s MRI results to me.
“The metastasis speed is completely unpredictable. In this state… anything could go wrong at any moment.”
“Understood for now. Could you… step out for a bit?”
Drip, drip. IV drops fell like tears.
Beyond the misty steam from the humidifier on the hospital room table, Grandmother lay.
I held her bony hand and spoke to Uncle Kim Won-cheol beside me.
“Maybe I’ve only ever seen the shell she wrapped herself in.”
“What do you… mean?”
“You said it before going up to the study. Grandmother now isn’t Seo Taehu—she’s just one mother.”
No need for more words; the silence said it all.
As the wall clock’s second hand ticked faintly in my ears, I asked Uncle Kim Won-cheol point-blank.
“Holding company conversion. Possible?”
“It’ll take time. But more than time, what matters is… the Chairman’s control itself.”
Control.
Unlike circular investments that dominate the group with minimal shares, a holding company needed far more equity.
Control meant… funds.
“Five trillion won. That’s the estimated amount needed personally by major shareholder Han Seo-jun.”
“The group’s gotten so massive. If we hunt around, a path will appear. The issue’s the risks while gathering it.”
Her hand, thin enough to show blue veins.
Decision made, I looked at Uncle Kim Won-cheol with a sad smile.
“Well, we’ll have to bear it somehow.”
“Haa, no telling what that Han Hwa-gi fellow will pull… He’s been communicating with outsiders from prison, after all.”
The uncle had used a cell phone inside. No surprise there—his external connections were surely intact.
“Could reconnect with the China side too. That’s the biggest worry.”
“Shanghai Capital should hold for a while. James Wang’s suspension is dragging on. More than that.”
“More than that?”
“Her final path. Let her go peacefully. How agonizing to leave one child in prison.”
“Urgh….”
“The pain she’ll endure… the tumor in her flesh is more than enough. That’s how I see it.”
“Ehey, fine. Let’s do as the Chairman wishes.”
Uncle Kim Won-cheol raised both palms in surrender.
Perhaps he felt the same as me.
Better to shoulder a heavier risk… and honor Grandmother’s final wish in this moment.
He pulled out his phone, saying he’d handle the wrap-up, and made a call.
“Yes, Minister. Kim Won-cheol here.”
The Minister of Justice he’d mentioned earlier. Discussing the uncle’s parole.
“What our Director mentioned… about former Headquarters Director Han Hwa-gi. Please take care of it.”
Call ended.
And so, the situation’s outline took shape.
Whatever form it took… all that remained was for me to carry it forward.