Chapter 7
“Grandpa, I really don’t feel good about this. Please go to the hospital, right now. If I keep feeling uneasy, my health will suffer too.”
When it came to his only grandson, Dong-in’s grandfather was something of a hypochondriac, so Dong-in’s words carried more weight with him than anything else.
After ending the call, his grandfather walked into the hospital and came out in a wheelchair.
Fortunately, he had suffered his first heart attack in the hospital lobby, which meant he was rescued in time.
Once Dong-in became an adult, he began wondering whether his premonitions might extend to investments as well.
Curiosity turned into genuine interest, and eventually, drawn in by the mystery of it all, he made his first foray into futures trading.
The result?
Naturally, it was an enormous success.
That was the beginning of Miracle Investment Finance.
That didn’t mean Dong-in blindly invested based solely on his premonitions.
Naturally, he first assessed the value of whatever he intended to invest in and carefully analyzed all the relevant factors.
Alongside the data he gathered, he examined the local circumstances and political situations of more than 190 countries every single day, keeping track of global trends.
He even incorporated worldwide weather changes and countless other pieces of investment-related information into his analysis.
Reviewing even the smallest details was the foundation of Dong-in’s investment strategy.
His premonitions were simply the final touch that completed the picture.
Something is wrong!
Even today, that premonition kept warning him.
“No. I’ll meet her.”
Something seemed likely to go wrong.
—“Pardon?”
“We can’t rule out the possibility that the certificate is forged. Let’s meet and talk. When are you available?”
—“…….”
His prospective fiancée hesitated, perhaps because she was reluctant to answer or perhaps because she was extremely offended by his mention of possible forgery.
“…….”
From Dong-in’s perspective, that only made the situation feel even more suspicious and uncomfortable.
—“Anytime.”
Her voice……
“Then I’ll send you the meeting place by message.”
Something was definitely wrong.
But what?
He skipped the pleasantries and ended the call.
Still, because of that premonition, he continued to tilt his head slightly in puzzlement for quite some time afterward.
Anyway, I think it would be better to call off this marriage.
Dong-in had never disobeyed his grandfather.
Naturally, he had absolutely no intention of doing so this time either.
But if my grandfather is the one who calls off the marriage, that’s a different matter, isn’t it?
Getting his grandfather to cancel the marriage would be extremely easy.
All he had to do was ask him to investigate Im Arang.
His grandfather had stepped back from the front lines of business and influence.
At present, he was enjoying a quiet retirement in a mountainous area on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
Nevertheless, if he wanted to, Dong-in’s grandfather still occupied a position from which he could exert enormous influence at any time in this small country.
Is being so blunt just a habit of this man?
Ji-i clicked her tongue inwardly and lowered the arm holding her phone.
He hadn’t even said whether he was calling things off, nor had he bothered with a goodbye.
Tsk.
After trembling slightly for a moment, she gripped her phone tightly and entered the club.
The club was packed with people and overflowing with heat and noise.
The frantic strobe lights were painful to the eyes, while the electronic music seemed powerful enough to burst her eardrums.
“Not a bad-looking face.”
Boom, boom, boom.
A random guy approached Ji-i while swaying his body to the dazzling lights and pounding music.
She instinctively hesitated for a moment but soon relaxed her guard.
No matter how big and strong a man was, if he was drunk, he wasn’t an opponent she couldn’t handle.
“Are you alone?”
“…….”
Ji-i silently walked past him toward her destination.
If things had ended that simply, with each of them going their separate ways, it would have been ideal.
“This fucking bitch is playing hard to get.”
Judging from the emphasis in his swearing and the way the profanity rolled off his tongue, he clearly wasn’t some Seoul native who sounded awkward when cursing.
More importantly, perhaps he’d been swallowed whole by the alcohol, because he reached out toward Ji-i’s shoulder as she passed.
Ji-i had learned several lessons that increased one’s chances of survival during a violent confrontation.
One: Never make the first move.
Two: If the other person attacks first, any punch you throw afterward is self-defense.
Three: When defending yourself against an attack, never hold back.
Four: Punish them thoroughly. Doing it halfway is worse than not doing it at all.
Five: The moment an appropriate opening appears, leave the scene immediately.
“…….”
Following those principles, she suddenly pushed backward, closing the distance between them.
The man’s hand, which had been reaching for her shoulder, passed harmlessly beside Ji-i’s face.
Just as she’d learned through practical experience, she raised her arm and wrapped it around his, pressing it downward.
Then, with a split-second delay, she drove the elbow of that same arm into his chest.
Oh.
This technique works whether I’m inside or outside the prison.
Sure enough, the man collapsed on the spot.
Fortunately, the power of the subwoofers swallowed his cry of pain, while the strobe lights made it difficult for the people around them to see what had happened.
Before anyone could fully grasp the situation and the atmosphere could turn ugly, Ji-i quickly left the scene and headed toward the private room.
#3.
The moment Ji-i opened the door, the sound and strobe lights that had been shaking the entire club poured into the room first.
As a result, three pairs of eyes turned toward her.
Once she closed the door behind her, most of the ear-splitting bass was blocked out.
“Did you make the call?”
At the same time Arang spoke, a message notification sounded from Arang’s phone, which Ji-i was holding.
“…….”
“What did he say?”
Arang asked loudly while sitting with men on either side of her.
Ji-i and Arang were clearly identical twins, but at that moment, no one could tell because of the lighting, makeup, and obviously different clothes they were wearing.
“…….”
Moreover, Ji-i was wearing a cap.
“Who was it?”
Perhaps because of that, one of the men sitting beside Arang asked.
“Move over.”
Apparently displeased that the man was showing interest in Ji-i, Arang shoved him aside and glared unnecessarily at Ji-i.
“Are you angry, Noona?”
Ugh. The cutesy voice.
“…….”
“Don’t be angry, Noonaaa……”
“…….”
That nasal voice is unbearable!
“Move. And you, come here.”
Arang patted the spot beside her several times.
Suppressing her urge to gag, Ji-i obediently walked over and dropped down beside her.
“Noona, you two……”
Only then did everyone seem to realize how incredibly alike the two women were, and they looked somewhat surprised.
“Mind your own business.”
Arang, who generally disliked being reminded that Ji-i was her identical twin except when Ji-i had some value to her, reacted irritably.
“Okay, okay. Don’t be angry, Noona.”
Perhaps because Arang kept calling her Noona, the men she’d been sitting with suddenly looked surprisingly young to Ji-i.
Whoa! They must be adults, right?
Ji-i’s brow twitched slightly.
“Pour me a drink.”
They must be adults. That’s why they can be here—or working here.
Ji-i desperately tried to convince herself of that.
After eight years of surviving in confinement, she had become almost half-delinquent herself.
But that didn’t mean she intended to justify breaking the law.
Nor was she in any position to impose her moral standards on others or play the role of some overzealous youth counselor.
She had absolutely no intention of interfering.
She simply hoped that the men in this entertainment establishment—especially the ones sitting in Arang’s arms—were adults.
