Chapter 9
After every grain of sand in the upper half of the hourglass had fallen, Father opened his eyes.
Then, in a low voice, he asked Seongsik,
“If your car broke down right now, could you fix it yourself?”
“……”
Seongsik merely pouted, unable to give an answer.
The anger in Father’s voice grew even stronger.
“Tell me exactly what Jaegyeom lacks in terms of qualifications, experience, or ability. I said I would give the position at Motors to whichever of my two sons knows cars better, so why are you making such a fuss?”
“No, Father, but still…”
“What exactly is the problem?”
Seongsik couldn’t argue with his father and clamped his mouth shut like a clam.
Father’s expression grew even more severe.
“Pathetic. How can you bare your fangs like this at the only brother you have? Tsk, tsk. Get out.”
Seongsik awkwardly stood up and left the sauna.
“Jaegyeom, you stay a little longer.”
Yoon Dongman, Jaegyeom’s father, was the chairman of Daeyoon Group, the fourth-largest conglomerate in Korea.
He presided over numerous major subsidiaries, including Daeyoon Telecom and Daeyoon Chemical.
Daeyoon Motors was an automobile-related corporation currently being prepared for establishment.
Chairman Yoon flipped the hourglass over once more and spoke quietly.
“Wrap up your life in the countryside quickly.”
“I don’t want to get involved in the company. I’ll continue taking care of myself and living as I do now.”
“Don’t be insolent. You’ve rebelled enough. Come up to Seoul. You need to learn the business. Motors is yours. I created it for you in the first place.”
“I don’t want it. I’ll be going now.”
Jaegyeom stood up.
“This isn’t something you can avoid simply by refusing. Come to Seoul while you’re still young and claim what is yours. Go out and make up with Seongsik. Tomorrow, your mother will be joining us too, and we’ll all have breakfast together, so eat before you go back down.”
It was already evening, after the dinner celebrating Father’s birthday.
One uncomfortable, indigestion-inducing meal had been more than enough, and now he was being told to stay for breakfast tomorrow as well.
Jaegyeom was just about to refuse again when Father spoke.
“Your birth mother… Younghee. Isn’t this what she wanted? For you to blend into this family as though you’d always been one of us? So eat breakfast tomorrow before you go.”
“……”
“No matter how much you struggle and say you don’t want it, the fact that you’re my son doesn’t change. If you intend to live as Yoon Dongman’s son, the son of Daeyoon Group’s chairman, accept that there are things you have to do even when you don’t want to. Your mother’s last wishes were meant to include that as well. The Human Resources Department will contact you, so prepare to start work.”
Just as his father said, before his mother passed away, she had told Jaegyeom,
“Don’t think you’ve been left all alone. I want you to live as though you had been your father’s son from the very beginning.”
Because of those words from his mother, who had wanted him never to feel lonely, Jaegyeom had come to this place in the first place.
Without giving an answer, Jaegyeom left the sauna first.
“You fucking bastard. Did you sweet-talk Father into giving you Motors?”
It seemed Seongsik had deliberately waited for Jaegyeom just so he could throw an insult at him.
Jaegyeom wasn’t soft enough to quietly listen to words that crossed the line.
If anything, he was firm and sharp.
That was probably why Seongsik was so wary of him.
“If you were doing your job properly, would Father have to create a company that doesn’t even exist yet and a position that doesn’t exist yet just to give it to me? Instead of wasting your time exploding with jealousy over me, why don’t you try doing your job better?”
“W-What? Jealousy? Me? Of you?”
“You still stutter whenever someone hits the nail on the head.”
“Y-You bastard!”
Seongsik swung his fist in anger, but Jaegyeom caught his wrist and stopped him.
He released Seongsik’s struggling wrist with a toss, then walked outside first and headed upstairs to his room.
It was a suite at Daeyoon Hotel where Jaegyeom stayed whenever he came to Seoul.
He attended family events as Chairman Yoon’s son, yet he didn’t even have a room in that house where he could lay his head.
That was Jaegyeom’s position within the Daeyoon Group family.
The Seoul nightscape seen from the hotel room was made entirely of light, without any of the noise, and it was pleasing to the eyes.
But even looking at something beautiful did nothing to improve his mood, and Jaegyeom’s face remained expressionless.
Just as he wondered whether a drink might make him feel better, the vibration of his phone broke through the gloomy atmosphere.
[Yoon Jaeㅐㅕm]
[Jaegyeo]
[Jaegyeom-ahhh]
[I got rid of the piece-of-junk car??]
[You did well lol]
[Thak you all becauz of you]
[Wow]
“Seriously, she’s this cute?”
The words slipped out the instant he read the messages.
His voice was filled with laughter, which seemed to bounce back into his ears like a boomerang.
The Yoon Jaegyeom who had looked utterly miserable just one second ago seemed to have vanished.
The smell of alcohol seemed to waft right through the phone screen, making Jaegyeom feel as though he were getting drunk along with her.
He immediately called her.
— Hello.
“Yeah, honey. Did you drink?”
— It’s my first time getting drunk. Alcohol is really fascinating and nice. Is this why people get drunk?
“Is it a celebratory drink for getting rid of the piece-of-junk car?”
— How did you knowww? I drank with Eunmi. Eunmi fell asleep. Eunmi is my friend.
Jaegyeom deliberately covered his mouth and rubbed his face because his reflection in the window was wearing such a broad smile.
The drawn-out endings of her words tickled his ears—something that would never have existed in the normally neat and composed speech of Lim Jisoo.
He didn’t dislike how her voice seemed to disarm even him.
This unfamiliar feeling was new and a little frightening.
At the same time, he found himself curious about just how soft Jisoo could make him.
“Jisoo. Can I come see you right now?”
Jaegyeom immediately grabbed his car keys.
Repeating Jisoo’s home address in his mind, he quickened his pace.
It was the middle of the night, so if he drove as fast as reasonably possible, he thought he could get there in twenty minutes.
— It takes forever to get here from Gyechon. It’s so far away. I want to see you, though.
“If my wife says she wants to see me, I have to go.”
— But who are you, really? You’re not my classmate. Eunmi said there was no Yoon Jaegyeom.
That was true.
There hadn’t been a Yoon Jaegyeom back then.
There had only been Kim Jaegyeom.
He would have to tell her when they met this time.
Of course, whether he was Kim Jaegyeom or Yoon Jaegyeom, Jisoo didn’t know him at all.
Lim Jisoo had always had her face buried in books.
“I told you, I really am a Gyechon High School graduate.”
— Nooo. You don’t exist. If Eunmi says you don’t exist, then you don’t exist.
“……How much did you drink? You talk really cutely when you’re drunk. Although Lim Jisoo is cute even when she’s sober.”
— There’s one beer can here, two, three, four…
As he drove toward Jisoo, they continued their light conversation.
Jisoo did most of the talking while Jaegyeom listened.
Her drunken rambling was so cute that he found it entertaining.
Of course, none of it connected to anything else, as though the context had been torn apart and scattered in every direction.
— I met Kim Youngbaek during the day, and he drank half of my Americano. He gulped it down while saying it was expensive and tasted bad.
“He’s a bad guy.”
— Eunmi says she’s relieved because she doesn’t see that piece-of-junk car anymore. She called it a piece-of-junk car. Puhahaha.
“Kim Youngbaek or whatever his name is, he’s definitely a piece of junk. If someone else recognizes it too.”
— No, not that piece of junk. I mean the actual car. But I put an air freshener in that car. I should’ve taken it out before giving it back. It’s mine.
“I’ll buy you one. Forget about it.”
— Yoon Jaegyeom, I’m sorry. I deleted your phone number.
Her confession was so perfectly cute that Jaegyeom laughed again.
— But I’m sleepy.
“Jisoo. Don’t fall asleep. I’m almost there.”
— Don’t lie. It’s so far from Gyechon to here. I’m going to sleep. You go to sleep soon too.
There was a neighborhood full of similar-looking studio apartments just one block ahead, and Jisoo’s home was at the very end of it.
But the call suddenly ended without a sound.
“Did she really fall asleep?”
Still smiling, Jaegyeom continued toward Jisoo’s home.
By the time sunlight filled the windows of the studio apartment, Jisoo woke up first.
“Ah, my head. Ugh…”
I take back what I said about alcohol being good.
If she had known it would leave her with a hangover like this, Jisoo would never have poured so much beer into herself so recklessly.
It felt as though someone had implanted a samulnori percussion ensemble inside her head.
The percussion instruments were each fiercely asserting themselves, pounding away in chaotic rhythms.
And on top of that…
—3 missed calls—
[Yoon Jaegyeom: Looks like you really fell asleep.]
[Yoon Jaegyeom: If you wake up before seven, come downstairs for a moment. I want to see you.]
[Yoon Jaegyeom: I have plans this morning, so I’ll wait until seven and then leave.]
[Yoon Jaegyeom: I bought some hangover soup and left it in front of your house.]
[Yoon Jaegyeom: I didn’t know what you liked, so I bought several kinds. Eat with your friend.]
[Yoon Jaegyeom: Save my number again. I’ll call you later.]
Still unable to close her wide-open mouth, Jisoo hurriedly checked her call history as well.
