With a calm voice, Taeha lightly tapped the side of the tray with his finger. In the serene atmosphere, ripples spread in the cup as if it were a still pond disturbed by gold.

“If you don’t want it replaced, drink it quickly.”

With an expression that was utterly unreadable, Taeha closed the door. Eunseo just stared in disappointment at the coldly closed door. The man’s thoughts were inscrutable.

For someone trying to catch an escaped scammer, the consideration seemed too much.

Eunseo scrutinized the lingering scent on the tray left by him. It was strange, but it seemed like he was just telling her to drink the tea without any other thoughts.

“You can go in.”

Jang, the housekeeper waiting outside the room, glanced inside and informed the employer. Occasionally, during meals, rich people might discuss important matters, so signaling when the food was being brought in was one of her tasks.

Jang Hyunjeong caught the eye of the third daughter of DongYi Construction, Hong Jisoo, with her innate sense and loyalty a long time ago. When Jisoo became the hostess of GK, Hyunjeong naturally followed along.

Even after Jisoo’s death, Kwon Gihoon didn’t send Hyunjeong away.
Kwon Gihoon, who loved his wife terribly, trusted Hyunjeong, who faithfully followed her instructions, and kept her by his side all this time.

However, the more critical reason was that she was the person who had followed and adhered to his wife’s will.

“Today, you might sense a bit of acidity in the coffee. I brewed it the way you like.”

“Thank you.”

In a brightly lit room filled with the gentle melody of a piano, the wealthy man was having a meal at a large rectangular dining table.

Taeha’s house and Chairman Kwon’s house were not far from each other. Therefore, for convenience, Taeha’s house was called Dongtaek, and Chairman Kwon’s house was called Seotaek by the employees.

When Chairman Kwon proposed the conditions for Taeha’s independence, there were several, but the most strongly emphasized condition was the issue of meals.

Taeha liked his father, but at times, his father paid excessive attention. So, instead of becoming independent, he accepted the condition of having meals with his father three times a week, sometimes even including dinner.

And immediately after becoming independent, the first thing he did was thoroughly make the employees of Dongtaek his own and enforce discipline.

As Taeha lifted a sky-blue coffee cup, Chairman Kwon, who had been watching him with dissatisfaction, put down his chopsticks.

“I told you to stop drinking coffee early in the morning, but you just won’t listen.”

“I won’t have more of the meal either.”

“You should listen well for the taste of the food to be good. When there’s only one son who doesn’t eat anything from morning to a caffeine lump, do you think it’s good for the father’s throat?”

“At this level, I listen well, Father.”

“Tsk tsk, if you can’t speak well. … I heard everything.”

“What did you hear?”

“Pretending not to know again.”

“I really don’t know.”

Taeha put down the cup and wiped his throat with a casual gesture.

Various thoughts crossed his mind, but among them, he chose to listen rather than hastily respond to what his father had heard.

His father didn’t instruct anyone to watch him, but he had many acquaintances, so there were often cases where information about him reached his father’s ears.

Moreover, since Chairman Kwon could easily find out about him if he wanted to, Taeha learned how to hire someone to block the news properly.

However, he couldn’t block everyone’s mouth, and sometimes there were intentionally leaked rumors by Taeha himself.

“I heard it from Dr. Woo.”

“Ah.”

Not Dr. Baek but Dr. Woo.

Dr. Baek was Taeha’s person, and Dr. Woo was Chairman’s person.

Fortunately, it wasn’t about the marriage proposal with Song Eunseo or the turmoil in Solnae Village, nor was it about bringing Song Eunseo into the house.

It was a relatively less urgent matter.

“If you’ve heard, you must know. They say there’s no particular pain. Probably because of stress, that’s what I heard.”

“Reduce your work then.”

“E-commerce market expansion isn’t something to reduce.”

Taeha didn’t start working at GK; he had already achieved remarkable success starting an online shopping mall during his university days.
GK Shopping, which had been observing this process, acquired Taeha through a merger, and Taeha immediately became the representative of GK Shopping, with no one opposing the decision.

Moreover, this year, he was selected as a next-generation leader by the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF).

So, the term ‘parachute’ didn’t suit Taeha.

[In the department store sector, it’s challenging to catch up with the public’s harsh luxury image. The competition will be intense. Forget about department stores. Instead, I will grow the e-commerce market. I will raise the market share to the third place within two years.]

And Taeha achieved better results than promised. Taking what he could, boldly discarding what he couldn’t.