Was she lying? No, she was most likely not lying because she was not stupid enough to be caught lying by us.

So, her revelation was rather surprising.

But she surprised us even more by continuing, “And do you think I played the games alone? Why did I do it as the Mirae Group"s successor?”

“…”

“…”

Once again, there was silence. Of course, I also shut up even though I was anxious to ask her. More than anybody else here, I have been playing games alone as the successor of one of the top five business groups in Korea.

As if Bora was determined to take the initiative, she dropped another bombsh.e.l.l announcement before anyone could interrupt..

“Both I and the Mirae Group have no intention of working under China like the Daeyu Group or Youngjin. It"s not a matter of saving face or humiliation. They are simply not a reliable partner. Of course, some foolish guy has a different opinion.”

“!”

“!”

Actually I heard something about the results of the meeting led by Insu Sok the other day. At the meeting the partic.i.p.ants stressed the need to join hands to keep China at bay, warning that if something went wrong they would allow a foothold for China to advance into Korea and control them..

“Oh, no! How is this…” Youngjin lamented.

And I realized immediately that what she said was true about some stupid guy acted stupidly.

However, she continued, looking at me, Chulmin and Jinah, as if she didn"t care about that idiot"s surprise.

“Even a mouse bites a cat when driven into a dead end. As Mirae"s successor, I hope Myongjin, Daesung and Kusan won"t drive Mirae into a dead end. With narrower vision and fewer options, you will have no choice but to make stupid choices even though you know it"s a stupid choice.”

“…”

“…”

Bora was a strong-willed woman by nature and her strong personality stood out more clearly today. She was now using Mirae"s sorry situation caused by the other groups" intentional rejection as a weapon to declare war against them.

“What do you think about me? Don"t you think I"m good enough to serve as a medium to further solidify our joint front? Oh, don"t worry too much Jinah. Even if I become your senior, I won"t hara.s.s you. Brother Youngjin, I"m sorry to say this, but I am not interested in Daeyu at all, ” she said, as if she was showing her superiority to both Jinah and Youngjin.

Previously, I thought she said all she had to say because she had already made a series of shocking announcements. However, she smiled at them once, then wrapped up her speech with a bombsh.e.l.l threat like that.

Daeyu"s Youngjin first left the place 30 minutes later.

His face was still blus.h.i.+ng with embarra.s.sment and shock.

Next, Jinah Chong of Kusan also stood up and left.

What an ironic scene! Even though they both obviously hid a hideous sword inside, they were now patting each other"s shoulders and cheering each other up.

Of course, I wanted to see them continuing this act, but couldn"t because Bora saw them out of the special room.

And after that, Daesung"s Chulmin left. Bora left, saying that she would see him off. But she didn"t come back for five minutes.

Nonetheless, she said she would sit through till the end of the meeting since she wanted to see everybody off as host of this meeting.

After another couple of minutes pa.s.sed, the special room"s door opened and Bora came back in.

“Sorry, I"m a bit late.”

“No, it"s no problem.”

She then entered and took a seat at the sofa she was originally sitting at.

Then she picked up a gla.s.s of wine and brought it to her mouth. Of course, I didn"t stop her because she might leak some useful information.

“It seems like you don"t like alcohol?”

In fact, I drank a little at first because all of them clinked their gla.s.ses for cheers.

But after that, I didn"t drink because I didn"t like it.

“Well, I don"t like it .”

“Sister Suyoung drinks very well.”

“Well, my sister…”

My elder brother and I don"t like alcohol. My sister is the only one who likes alcohol.

“Brother Kiyoung and sister Suyoung are doing well, right?”

“Oh, yes, they are doing well. Kiyoung is always busy, and Suyoung also seems a little busy these days.”

I knew my elder brother was very busy, but I was not sure of Suyoung.

“Then, what about you?”

“Me?”

“Yes, what about you?”

I"m not close to Bora, so I said casually, “Well, so so.”

I glossed over her question like that.

“Really? By the way, I was serious about what I said a little while ago. In particular, what I said last…”

“…”

Bora was now being aggressive in speaking to me when we were alone.

But I just smiled slightly without responding because she might have asked the same things to Cholmin. I was certain she did so.

As if she didn"t care about my silence, she continued, “Don"t you know that I liked you when I was young?”

“Really?”

“Yes, I did. You"re certainly stupid, but you were very thoughtfu. I knew you could discern what others didn"t, so I think your father Chairman Sangman Hong made you study very hard because he thought you would make a good future Chairman who could beat Miraen.”

“….”

“I was honestly surprised that you entered Seoul National University as the top student, and that you were fluent in several foreign languages. So I wanted to contact you at that time, but I felt like it was too sn.o.bbish to do so, so i didn"t. Come to think of it now, I feel like it"s too late now for me to contact you like this…”

She paused for a moment, then continued after gulping down the remaining alcohol in the gla.s.s.

“I think you must have played Forgotten Legend, and achieved the maximum level, of course.”

“…”

At that moment her words p.r.i.c.ked at my conscience.

“Anyway! Let"s stop here. Thanks for coming today. Let"s keep in touch. And don"t forget my last words. Got it, my childhood friend?”

When she said that, the word “confession” came to my mind.

But I opened my mouth without expressing my genuine feelings at all.

“Okay. It was nice to see you after a long time, my childhood friend.”

We parted like that.

The bas.e.m.e.nt study of my main house in Cheongdam-dong.

I was alone with my dad because I wanted to inform him that Daeyu was now working under China. I thought this was a very important matter

I also told him that Bora announced something like a declaration of war by saying that other business groups should not drive the Mirae Group into a corner.

“Hmm. As expected, Mirae is Mirae!”

Obviously, after the meeting disguised as a business leaders" conference was over, managing director Insu Sok asked during the briefing that Myongjin, Daesung, and Kusan decided to join hands to pressure the Mirae Group. He specifically said that they needed to secure a clear advantage by dealing with the Mirae Group more harshly.

But the Mirae Group came up with an even more powerful response as seen in Bora"s announcement.

Their response was strong enough to overwhelm the other groups" joint pressure.

After that, I talked with my father about some other things.

Though my meeting with him didn"t last long, I told him some important things.

However, there was something I couldn"t say today.

Bora"s last words were that she could serve as a medium to solidify our relations.h.i.+p. What she wanted was clear. She wanted to marry me.

Anyway, I talked about some other stuff, then brought up a completely different topic. “There is something that needs Myongjin"s help.””

I took a long breath when I said that. I wanted to explain to my father why I needed Myongjin"s help l, but my father responded curtly, “Let me call managing director Insu Sok tomorrow. Talk to him, and he will do whatever is necessary.”

“…”

I only said that I needed Myongjin"s help. I didn"t even mention the details. But my father solved my problem with just one word.

Although I thought hard about it last night, I didn"t have to agonize anymore thanks to my father"s decisive decision.

“Thanks, Dad.”

That"s all I said to him because I didn"t have to say anything more in this situation.