Chapter : 9
“Se-Se-Senior, why are you here…?”
“I’m the one who wants to ask. Why do you keep hanging around wherever I am?”
Ja Joon raised one eyebrow crookedly as he stared at Yumin.
His eyes were deeper than an abyss, so emotionless that it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Unlike her, who looked flustered like someone caught stealing, he seemed completely relaxed.
“Why do you keep hanging around?”
“You’re the one hanging around in front of me, Senior.”
Silence fell, and Yumin squeezed her eyes shut.
What did I just say?
Then she heard a low chuckle.
As if frightened, Yumin clenched her teeth and cautiously raised one eye.
As expected, he was coldly sneering at her.
“……No, what I mean is, I came here because I had something to do….”
“Is looking at loan-shark flyers what you came here to do?”
Yumin’s face turned bright red.
She wanted to hide in a mouse hole out of embarrassment.
First, he had caught her going on a blind date with a bald eagle of a man in his forties.
And now he had caught her showing interest in loan sharks, too.
Yumin bit her lips repeatedly and lowered her gaze.
“What have you been doing for the past five years?”
Yumin cautiously raised her eyes.
His expression was blank, but his voice was filled with sharpness.
He was definitely furious because she had taken off with his assignment five years ago.
“Gambling? Crypto? What did you do that left you so short of money that you’re going on blind dates with men old enough to be your uncle and even looking into loan sharks?”
His voice had no rise or fall, but the icy chill in it was colder than frost, making her shrink back.
Perhaps it wasn’t only Yumin who felt it. Even the people smoking nearby slowly began moving away.
“Hong Yumin.”
When she didn’t answer, Ja Joon pressed her for a response.
Yumin didn’t know what to say, so she repeatedly clenched and unclenched her fists.
She couldn’t bring herself to tell him that she had come to see her father and that she had been tempted by the loan sharks because she wanted to escape her uncle’s family and needed money for her father’s hospital bills.
Five years ago, she had only told him that she had been adopted by her uncle’s family and lived there.
She had never told him anything about her father.
If she talked about her father, she would have to explain the painful and unfortunate history of her family in detail, so she had deliberately never brought him up.
She was afraid that if the man who had liked her for no reason learned too much about her unhappy family situation, he might leave her.
“Hong—”
Perhaps her silence was frustrating him, because her name was called once again.
And Yumin cut him off.
“E-Even if you put it bluntly, we’re not going to be seeing each other anymore, so I don’t have to tell you everything about my personal life, Senior.”
Ja Joon’s eyes became frighteningly cold.
Yumin was scared, but she pretended not to be and gave him a small bow.
“I’m sorry again about the assignment. If there’s any way I can repay you, I’ll do whatever I can, so please contact me.”
Yumin blurted it all out without even breathing, until her face turned red, then hurriedly passed him.
She squeezed out every last bit of strength she had and began running.
It was humiliating and despairing to have shown her first love the absolute worst version of herself twice.
Watching Yumin run away without even giving him a chance to call her, Ja Joon let out a hollow laugh.
“You’re still handing out bad checks.”
She told him to contact her, yet she had left without even giving him her contact information.
He watched her back until she disappeared completely, then raised his phone.
And called someone.
“Yes, Young Master.”
It was Yongil.
“You’re looking into that Kim Byungtae bastard or whatever his name is?”
“Yes. I’ll report to you by this evening.”
“And investigate Hong Yumin thoroughly, too. Everything from how she lived after leaving for Germany to her current financial situation. Ah. And look into all the personal information on her biological parents before she was adopted, too.”
After Yongil answered that he understood, Ja Joon hung up.
In fact, even at the hotel lounge café, he had wondered whether he should stop being interested in her.
Their reunion had been far too sudden, and he had decided that there was no reason they would ever cross paths again.
But the entire drive to the hospital, he couldn’t stop thinking about her marrying that lousy bastard, and it bothered him so much that even driving had become difficult.
And then, as soon as he arrived at the hospital, he saw a familiar back again.
Hong Yumin was standing there awkwardly, bent over at the waist, silently staring at an ashtray that came up to her waist.
It was so absurd that he slowly closed the distance between them.
Just to make sure it really was her.
The closer he got, the more he noticed the faint fruity scent that slipped through the cigarette smoke and tickled his heart.
And he finally found the answer to why Hong Yumin had been bothering him so much.
Running into Hong Yumin this many times had to be fate.
It was as though the heavens were giving him a chance to make her make up for what she had done to him.
Thinking that way made his blood boil as though his veins were about to burst.
His mood exploded with happiness, almost as if adrenaline were rushing through his body.
He approached her in that state.
“How much would they lend for something like this? I wonder how much the interest would be….”
She was mumbling to herself.
While looking at a loan-shark flyer.
You, who once drove me crazy.
What on earth happened to you that you’re struggling at rock bottom like this?
To the point that you’ve wounded the pride of the man who was once crazy about you.
Just then, the phone in his hand rang.
It was his mother.
He rejected the call and took another step forward.
“Ah.”
Then he stopped again and took a picture of the loan-shark flyer attached to the ashtray.
Ja Joon went to the VIP hospital room and passed the bodyguards standing guard outside before reaching the door.
When he opened it, his eyes met Jeonghwa’s.
She was sitting on the luxurious hospital bed, sniffling.
“Son…. Why do you keep ignoring Mom’s calls? Huh? Do you want to see Mom go crazy?”
At Jeonghwa’s resentful voice, Ja Joon sighed quietly enough for only himself to hear and approached the hospital bed.
Jeonghwa patted the sheet beside her, clearly telling him to sit next to her immediately.
Instead, Ja Joon pulled over the temporary chair beside him and sat down.
“You look perfectly healthy. Your makeup turned out well, too. And your beauty is still the same.”
“……Whaaat?”
“You don’t look sick at all. What are you hospitalized for? Stress-induced gastritis?”
Jeonghwa pouted.
“Your grandmother.”
He had expected it.
The true power behind Taehyun Group, Madam Lee Wangrae.
Ja Joon’s paternal grandmother and his mother’s natural enemy, with whom she was always at odds.
Although his grandfather, the deceased first chairman of the group, had officially been the chairman, everyone in the group knew that the real power had rested in Wangrae’s hands.
Therefore, whenever Wangrae gave an order, even her beloved sons and daughters had no choice but to obey.
His father, the eldest son, was particularly obedient to his grandmother and was also the least capable of defying her.
That was why his mother was always the one suffering from stress.
As the eldest daughter-in-law—and the eldest daughter-in-law of Taehyun Group at that—his mother had her own share of difficulties.
“This too shall pass.”
At Ja Joon’s words of comfort, Jeonghwa shook her head.
“No. This time, she really dropped a bomb.”
Wangrae always made unreasonable demands of her eldest son and his wife, but somehow, his father had always managed to deal with everything.
“No. Trust Father.”
“Your father can’t do anything about this either!”
“What is it?”
“Your eldest grandson’s marriage.”
“……You mean my marriage?”
“Yes. She told us to get you married within this year and push the hotel’s stock price to its maximum!”
“Who is the woman?”
“Ugh, I don’t knowww.”
Jeonghwa rubbed her temple as though thoroughly fed up and began complaining.
“Even if I bring you the best possible daughter-in-law, do you think that woman is going to happily approve of her? Huh? She’ll definitely oppose her, making up one excuse after another! Your grandmother hates me!”
“…….”
“I can’t even choose a daughter-in-law for my own son anymore!”
Ja Joon grabbed Jeonghwa’s wrist and lowered her hand as she pounded her chest in frustration.
“Don’t worry. I’ll find a bride who you’ll absolutely love.”
Jeonghwa, whose eyes had become bloodshot in the meantime, looked at Ja Joon, then let out a deep sigh and continued.
“You think that’s all?”
