Chapter 211: Conditional Survival (2)

A black luxury sedan left the airport and headed into downtown Seoul. Lucas, who had been looking at the scenery flowing past outside the window, asked.

“When is the board of directors meeting?”

The arrangement was that whenever Yoon-kyung, seated in the passenger seat, answered calmly, Ginny Soroso would relay it to her husband.

“It is tomorrow. The preparations are finished, so we will send every document you need to the hotel.”

Lucas looked at his wife and nodded.

“My husband says that is fine. And before that, there is one thing he would like to confirm.”

“Please, speak freely.”

“My husband says looking only at the books is not enough if he wants to understand Daehan Group’s real financial condition. He wants to see the sites.”

Yoon-kyung fell silent for a moment. Lucas’s request was within the range she had expected. But she still could not know how far it would extend.

“Which side would he like to examine first?”

At Yoon-kyung’s question, Ginny relayed it to her husband. Lucas answered immediately.

“He is the department in charge of Daehan Telecom’s overseas subsidiaries and Daehan Capital.”

He probably intended to check the places that had been put up as collateral. He was trying to verify how closely the assets matched their value on paper. Yoon-kyung nodded as if it were nothing and answered.

“Understood. I will coordinate the schedule and let you know.”

Lucas said nothing the entire way. But his eyes were already fixed somewhere. The car they were riding in quietly drove toward the heart of Seoul.

The black sedan stopped in front of the main entrance of Daehan Hotel. As the car door opened, employees in neat uniforms bowed in unison.

“Welcome.”

Lucas Soroso walked straight across the lobby without even putting on a perfunctory smile. His gaze had already swept over the entire place. Nam Yoon-kyung followed behind him and gave separate instructions to an employee.

The room the Soroso couple would be staying in was a top-class suite.

Even within Daehan Hotel, it was considered one of the most luxurious. Once the employee carrying the couple’s luggage had brought it into the room, the manager who had followed them spoke politely.

“If there is anything inconvenient, please let me know at any time.”

Ginny Soroso took out a tip and handed it to the employee.

Nam Yoon-kyung looked toward the manager standing beside her and instructed him.

“While these two are staying here, make sure their comfort takes top priority. Report even the smallest matter to me immediately.”

The manager bowed and answered.

“I will keep that in mind.”

Yoon-kyung smiled.

“While these two are staying here, make sure their comfort takes top priority. Report even the smallest Lucas again.

“You must be tired from the flight, so please rest well today.”

Lucas only gave a short nod, and Ginny answered in his place with a gentle voice.

“Thank you for taking care of us.”

With that greeting, Yoon-kyung left the hotel.

As much care as Daehan had taken, the room they were using was extremely luxurious. Through the full-length glass windows, the scenery of Seoul spread out in a refreshing panorama. But Lucas seemed to have no interest in any of it. He opened his laptop on the table and immediately began working. His fingers moved busily over the keyboard.

A little while later, his brow slowly narrowed. Ginny Soroso had been quietly drinking tea and taking in Seoul, but her gaze shifted to her husband. She shook her head, placed the cup she was holding on the table, and rose from her seat. She approached her husband, closed the laptop, and said,

“Honey.”

Lucas let out an irritated sigh and raised his head.

“This is important right now….”

“I know. But can’t you rest a little today?”

Ginny gave him a soft smile.

“We don’t have much time before our appointment. Let’s go have dinner.”

Only then did Lucas seem to remember, and he nodded.

“Right.”

The Soroso couple headed to the restaurant inside the hotel. Since they had requested a quiet seat in advance, they were assigned a spot by the window. A middle-aged woman who had arrived first rose from her seat and welcomed the two of them.

“Oh my, Jin-hui.”

Ginny Soroso’s face lit up brightly.

“Auntie!”

The person she called Auntie was Lim Young-ok. She was the chairperson of Taeseong Medical Foundation and the younger sister of the chairman of Taeseong Group.

The two exchanged greetings with a light hug. They were so warm with each other that anyone who did not know them would have believed they were mother and daughter.

In truth, they were not related by blood. Ginny Soroso’s mother, Seo Myeong-ja, and Lim Young-ok had known each other since high school.

The two had gotten along unusually well since their school days, and they continued to keep in touch after graduating. Even after Seo Myeong-ja immigrated to the United States with her husband, their connection was not severed.

Whenever Lim Young-ok went to the United States on a business trip or for an academic conference, she never failed to visit Seo Myeong-ja. Even amid a busy schedule, she would make time for at least one meal together, and at times, she had even stayed at Seo Myeong-ja’s home.

Because that bond had continued even in a foreign country, Ginny Soroso had arranged to meet her here.

To Lim Young-ok, Ginny Soroso was her friend’s daughter. To Ginny, Lim Young-ok was her mother’s longtime friend and an adult she could lean on at any time.

They were not connected by blood, but their relationship was already no different from family. That was why Ginny had called Lim Young-ok Auntie ever since she was young. No one had told her to do so. It had simply felt natural.

Lim Young-ok looked over Ginny’s face and smiled.

“It has been so long, and you have become even prettier.”

“You too, Auntie. You were always so busy whenever you came to the United States.”

“Maybe it is because I am getting older now, but if I overdo it like I used to, it shows right away.”

The three sat down and fell into lively conversation after such a long time apart. Lucas watched the two of them in silence.

The two women mostly spoke in Korean, but Lucas felt good just from the atmosphere alone. His gaze rested on his wife for a moment. He knew that his wife became particularly comfortable whenever she met Lim Young-ok.

Dishes began to appear on the table one after another. The conversation naturally drifted to life in the United States, then back to recent happenings in Korea.

From the outside, it looked exactly like a family meal after a long time apart. But no one yet knew what effect this meeting would have on Daehan, Taeseong, and Lucas Soroso.

It happened not long after the meal began in earnest. From the very start, something had felt wrong to Lucas.

How should he put it? The employee was moving with far too precise timing. Before their water glasses were even half-empty, they were refilled. Once a plate was emptied, he approached and cleared it away. Taken by itself, it was excessive kindness.

The problem was his gaze. The employee stood close to the table and remained there. He maintained a distance of two or three steps, exactly close enough to hear their conversation. And his gaze was not on the food, but on people’s lips and expressions.

Even as Lucas ate, his brow gradually narrowed, and he deliberately lowered his voice. Then the employee’s body leaned toward them. As if to hear exactly what they were saying.

At that moment, the employee lightly pressed one hand to his earpiece. Then he nodded and spoke. The sight looked as if he were reporting to someone.

Lucas’s brow furrowed even more deeply. He was certain. This was not being done to provide good service. It was surveillance. He placed the fork and knife he had been holding down on the plate.

Lucas raised his hand and said,

“Excuse me.”

The employee rushed over at once. Lucas asked with a sharp look in his eyes,

“Who exactly did you just report to?”

Unable to hide his fluster, the employee said,

“Sir, I don’t quite understand what you’re referring to….”

He forced a smile, acting as if he did not understand what Lucas was talking about. But Lucas did not back down an inch. His gaze moved to the radio in the employee’s hand and the button he had hastily pressed a moment before, then returned to the employee’s face.

“Who exactly are you reporting to?”

It was a question asking exactly who he had just reported to. To Lucas, it did not look like the employee had done it simply to check something. Then Ginny Soroso tried to restrain her husband. The employee bent deeply at the waist and said,

“I apologize. If I have made you uncomfortable in any way….”

Then Lucas spoke in Korean with a slightly awkward pronunciation.

“This is not merely uncomfortable. You were monitoring what we were talking about.”

The air above the table froze in an instant. Only then did Ginny grasp the situation and quietly take her husband’s hand.

“Lucas….”

At that moment, Lim Young-ok cautiously stepped in.

“Could it be because I am here?”

She smiled with an embarrassed expression.

“Since I am someone from Taeseong, perhaps unnecessarily….”

“No.”

Lucas answered immediately.

“This is because of me.”

He slowly raised his head.

“Daehan Group is monitoring me.”

Lim Young-ok’s expression stiffened.

“Surely….”

“It is certain.”

When Lucas spoke in English, Ginny answered in Korean.

“My husband seems to think they are monitoring us because of work. He says it feels like they are checking who we meet and what we talk about.”

Lucas swept his gaze around the table. A little distance away, another employee avoided his gaze and turned his head. When Lucas said something, Ginny translated it.

“He says that no matter how important a VIP is, this is not how you treat them.”

He had already made up his mind. A moment later, the manager approached and bowed, looking utterly restless.

“I am truly sorry for the inconvenience. We will take immediate action.”

But Lucas did not believe him. He spoke to his wife in a low voice.

Ginny Soroso spoke with a worried look in her eyes.

“He says we will have to stay in Korea for about half a year, so how are we supposed to live in this kind of environment?”

Lim Young-ok hesitated for a moment before cautiously opening her mouth.

“Then would you stay at my house?”

Ginny’s face brightened.

“Auntie, really?”

She immediately looked at Lucas and spoke with him. Lucas thought for a moment, then nodded.

The Soroso couple did not stay at Daehan Hotel that night. It did not take them long to pack their luggage again. Since they had barely unpacked in the first place, they simply gathered their things as they had brought them and left. Ginny politely said to the employee,

“Please check us out.”

The employee panicked and called the manager, but it was already too late. Lucas said nothing. Wearing only his coat, he took his luggage and walked toward the main entrance with his wife.

Soon, they got into a taxi and left the hotel. Only after that did the news reach Nam Yoon-kyung’s ears.

Nam Yoon-kyung hurried to the hotel. She questioned the manager as if interrogating him.

“What did you do to make them leave the hotel?”

The manager kept bowing and said,

“It seems one of our employees made a mistake.”

At that, Nam Yoon-kyung’s expression twisted sharply.

“So where did they go?”

“Well….”

When the manager hesitated, Nam Yoon-kyung’s gaze turned even fiercer.

“Tell me. Now.”

“It seems they went to Chairperson Lim Young-ok’s home.”

“What?”

Nam Yoon-kyung let out a deep sigh. Of all people, it had to be Lim Young-ok. The fact that they had gone somewhere connected not to anyone else, but to Taeseong Group, made her even angrier.