“What the heck is this?” asked Minhye.

There was nothing that Yonggu didn’t answer when she asked, but he didn’t answer when he was asked twice today. He turned his back as if he wouldn’t answer her question anymore.

And then he said something unexpected, “I had a great time working here.”

He said goodbye to Executive Director Youngsu and other staff in the office. As they were not prepared at all to part with him, Yonggu just went around the office unilaterally and exchanged parting words with them.

“Thanks for helping me so far. I wish you good luck.”

“Oh my god! What’s wrong with you?”

Everybody had a blank expression. And Yonggu disappeared from the office.

Only then did Youngsu stand up abruptly and told Minhye, his cousin. It was only Minhye who could solve the situation.

“What the hell are you doing now? Just follow him and get him back!”

Minhye came to her senses and quickly left the office.

At that time, Hyunwoo was in Haenim School.

Today, too, he was analyzing Taeho’s failed experimental notes when he received a sudden call from Yonggu.

“I’m coming down to Ansan. Let’s have dinner if you have time.”

“Of course!”

Hyunwoo closed the diary on failed experiments and left the room.

Suddenly, he noticed a student named Namsik Cho. He was originally assigned as an assistant for Taeho Min, but reassigned to Duyoung’s room several days ago because he said he was more interested in Duyoung’s research.

But Namsik was shoving his nose into Duyoung’s research room in the hallway.

The research center enforced several rules, and one of them was that the research room was off-limits.

Duyoung, Kuroda and Taeho had a research room of their own, and if anyone wanted to enter the room, he or she needed the researcher’s approval.

That made Hyunwoo suspect Namsik’s behavior.

Hyunwoo approached him and said, “Oh, it’s you, Namsik. What are you doing here?”

Namsik was quite surprised.

“Oh, nothing. I am just curious…”

“If you’re curious, you can talk to your researcher and enter the room. Why are you peeking outside the room like this?”

“Oh, I just changed my main researcher the other day, so I was afraid he might suspect me…”

Namsik stammered, with poor excuses, as if he made a big mistake.

Was it the reason? Though Namsik made various excuses, each of them didn’t make any sense. Why did he fear when he said he wanted to look at the researcher’s materials?

Hyunwoo felt he could understand Namsik’s behavior in some respects.

Namsik didn’t adapt himself to a regular school because of his personality, so he transferred to Hyunwoo’s alternative school.

But he had great potential. Hyunwoo was confident that Namsik could bring about a big achievement if he developed his potential.

Stroking his hair, Hyunwoo said, “Hey, we’re a family. Who is doubting whom? If you need any help, just let me know anytime without hesitating.”

“…Yes.”

Then, Hyunwoo took him to Duyoung. There were three assistants for Duyoung, including Mingyu.

Hearing from Hyunwoo that Namsik peeped outside his research room, Duyoung thought nothing of it. He also stroked Namsik’s hair like Hyunwoo and said, “I understand. Next time when you want to see my research materials, just let me know. We’re a family.”

Namsik was still daunted for some reason.

“…Got it.”

Hyunwoo stoke his hair again and left the room, when Namsik stopped him.

“By the way….”

“Uh? Do you have anything to say to me?”

Hyunwoo stopped walking and turned his head.

But Namsik didn’t bring it up easily.

“Just relax and tell me,” said Hyunwoo.

Namsik still remained silent. Though he wanted to say something, it seemed he couldn’t because of his timid character.

At that moment, there was heard a small explosion in Taeho’s research room. Though the sound was not big, clearly there occurred an explosion.

And then ensued Taeho’s shouting.

“What the heck did you, man?”

Stunned, Hyunwoo rushed to Taeho’s research room.

Fortunately, nobody was hurt as the explosion was not big.

But Taeho was very much upset.

“Tell me. Why are you causing trouble like this? I clearly warned you not to do that. Why are you not listening to me?”

The subject of Taeho’s anger was a student named Jaemin Yu.

Jaemin was the biggest troublemaker in Haenim School. His personality was not bad, but he was very much curious about anything and lacking in self-control. So, when he noticed something, he couldn’t stand it and caused trouble.

That’s what happened.

Hearing Taeho’s explanation, Hyunwoo realized that the explosion occurred when Jaemin put wrong substance in the material of the organic electrode.

“I really can’t have him as my assistant. I’ve got too many dangerous experiments to retain him,” said Taeho.

As Taeho already made the decision to expel Jaemin, Hyunwoo couldn’t let him stay at his office anymore.

“Got it. Let me transfer him to another place.”

Hyunwoo then took him to Duyoung’s research room. He could take him to Kuroda’s but he didn’t want to give the impression that he was shifting the responsibility to Kuroda.

Duyoung gladly accepted Jaemin with one condition.

“As you know, my main research is automobile cell. It is vulnerable to explosion when I experiment with it. If you feel curiosity, don’t experiment alone. You have to discuss with me first. Okay?”

“Got it. I’ll bear it in my mind.”

“And I won’t open my room to anybody. You can come here only with me.”

“Got it, sir.”

Jaemin became Duyoung’s assistant now.

As he was busy dealing with Jaemin, Hyunwoo completely forget Namsik’s suspect behavior.

Besides he had a dinner appointment with Yonggu.

Although Namsik looked at Hyunwoo slightly, Hyunwoo didn’t notice it and left the room.

***

“Damn it. She is throwing a tantrum again.”

Hyongsun vented his anger after he hung up the phone. His brother, Hyongdae asked, grinning at him, “Is it Minhye? Is she refusing to meet you?”

“You know Yonggu, right? That guy quit and moved to Hyunwoo’s company. She is in low spirits because of it.”

“Good for you! You can now make her your woman. Just go to sleep with her and make her pregnant. If she gets pregnant, she can’t resist your moves any longer. You can gobble up Space Design and her father’s company Aurum easily, man.”

Hyongsun curled his lips and said, “I’ve got a good idea.”

“What is it?”

“If I leak it to you now, it won’t go anywhere. So, just sit back and watch it.”

Several days later Hyongsun met Jaewoo Kim, the representative of Dream Korea, KOVE DREAM’s rival, and said, “Let’s do business together.”

Jaewoo didn’t feel good about his offer.

“I can do it by myself. I don’t have any reason to do business with you.”

Revealing his white teeth, Hyongsun smiled at him.

“Let’s frankly exchange our opinion. How long do you think Dream Korea can sustain itself?”

“What do you mean?” asked Jaewoo with an unpleasant expression.

What Hyongsun tried to persuade him was that Dream Korea would collapse soon.

“Well, If any company now belonging to Dream Korea is competent enough, it will move to KOVE DREAM. How many such companies will stay with Dream Korea to the end?”

Jaewoo made a frown at that because he was too aware of Dream Korea’s situation. What Hyongsun pointed out was like the Achilles tendon of Dream Korea, but there was no way for Dream Korea to fix it. From the start, it was a consortium of failed companies.

At the recent trade fair in Seoul, Dream Korea clearly planted a perception into the minds of the people that Dream Korea was an imitator of KOVE DREAM.

That was Dream Korea’s sore spot as well as Jaewoo’s.

But Hyongsun touched on it repeatedly.

“I can say this clearly. If any of the Dream Korea companies can improve their product quality, they will definitely move to KOVE DREAM. In other words, they are temporarily staying under the umbrella of Dream Korea.”

“I think you’re going too far,” said Jaewoo sharply.

“Am I? Do you really think so?” asked Hyongsun.

Jaewoo was speechless, though. He just stared at Hyongsun with a sullen look.

“What do you feel is business?” asked Hyungsun.

When Jaewoo was making a blank expression, Hyongsun said,

“Business is basically to use each other for one’s own interests. Do you think there is any company on the list of Dream Korea that is willing to sacrifice for Dream Korea even at the risk of taking a hit?”

Of course, it was almost impossible to find such a company. Hyongsun touched the core.

But Jaewoo still could not find out Hyongsun’s intention.

“I guess you’re beating around the bush. Can you tell me your conclusion? Are you going to cheat me?”

“Cheating you? No way. I just want to propose taking the risk. Why don’t we create Dream Korea Fund with me?”

“Dream Korea Fund?”

Hyongsun’s logic here was simple.

Currently, many Korean technicians were immigrating to Vietnam, which helped the companies belonging to Dream Korea improve their technical prowess.

Improvement in their technical prowess was supposed to lead to an increase in the value of the companies.

In that respect, those companies of Dream Korea had better potential growth, compared with KOVE DREAM companies that already reached a high technical level. That meant Dream Korea companies were much more attractive targets of investment.

“If we invest in those companies with potential growth, the possibility of success will go up, right? If we publicize it widely, lots of people will invest in Dream Korea Fund.”

“Good idea! But you know it carries a high risk at the same time, right?”

That was true. If Dream Korea companies succeeded in improving their technical ability, the proposed fund would hit the jackpot. If they didn’t, they would go bankrupt overnight.

And they would lose their investment at the same time.

But Hyongsun said in a composed manner, “That’s why I mentioned you needed to take the risk. But if you go in the right direction, you can never fail.”

Jaewoo tilted his head.

Hyongsun continued, “We are the main agents of investment, right? We just reap the fruits of success, and let the investors take care of the failed companies.”

Jaewoo’s eyes opened wide at that.

Hyongsun quickly cut in when Jaewoo tried to reply.

“I don’t see any trouble here because we can find a protector here. Did I tell you that Hyunwoo Jang, the president of KOVE DREAM, was my high school alumnus? Probably he is going to invest in the fund.”

“Even Hyunwoo Jang of KOVE DREAM?”

“Yea, let me draw him into this project by all means.”

The problem was how to secure the money. To create the Dream Korea Fund, it was necessary to attract a huge investment, but Jaewoo had no clue.

Hyongsun grinned at that.

“Oh my god! Who is going to do business only with one’s own money these days? We can have the member companies of Dream Korea in Vietnam chip in.”

Hyongsun opened his eyes wider, saying, “Oh, I didn’t know that.”

“Let me invest 500 million won for the fund. We won’t make a big success like KOVE, but we won’t lose the money.”

Jaewoo made a satisfied smile at that.

“Let me meet Hyunwoo one of these days then,” said Hyongsun.

It was when Hyunwoo was being briefed by Sonjong when he had a call from Hyongsun.

Yonggu happened to be with him in the office. Learning that the caller was Hyongsun, Yonggu frowned and said, “Why did you pick up his call? Just hang it!”

In fact, Hyunwoo’s perception of Hyongsun was the same as Yonggu’s because Hyungsun had a bad name even when he attended the same high school, such as “conceited guy,” “a bully ignoring chicken-hearted friends” and “a guy feeling like a con.”

“Hey, Hyunwoo. I happened to be here in Ansan now. Can we see each other if you have time?”

“Sure.”

Pretending not to have heard Yonggu complain, Hyunwoo accepted his proposal right away.

“What’s the point in seeing that creature?” said Yonggu grudgingly.

“If you know your enemy and yourself, you can win every battle, dude. I don’t have any reason to run away from him. You can be a big man when you show your generosity. Do you want to see him with me?”

“No thanks.”

After all, Hyunwoo went out to see Hyongsun alone.

Yonggu looked at him with a concerned eye.

Looks like Hyunwoo is too confident. I’m afraid he is going to be sucked in by him. Should I have accompanied him? he thought.

Still, he didn’t want to see Hyongsun’s face at all.

I guess Hyunwoo will take care of it well.