An incoming call beeped on Ae-Kyung’s smartphone on Thursday morning at 6:30 AM.0

Still half-asleep, Ae-Kyung reached groggily for her phone on the nightstand next to the bed, squinting at the screen. She tapped the answer button and held the phone to her ear.0

“Hello?”0

—Ae-Kyung.0

The moment she heard that deep, resonant voice, marked by the passage of time, her eyes flew open. It was impossible to forget despite not hearing it for over ten years. 0

It was her father’s voice.0

Ae-Kyung pulled the phone away from her ear to check the caller, but it came from an unknown number. She took a quick, sharp breath in surprise when she saw the face of a man in his mid-fifties on the screen.0

In her half-asleep state, she had answered a video call, not a regular one.0

Just as she was about to quickly press the end call button, her father spoke again.0

—Who’s the man beside you?6

***0

In the SG Group Chairman’s Office, a man in his fifties leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. The luxurious, mother-of-pearl nameplate on his desk read “Chairman Moon Gwang-Ho.”0

With over twenty subsidiaries in electronics, chemicals, and telecommunications, SG Group was a company even a passing three-year-old...0