As far as Hyunwoo knew, the relationship between Juwon and Hajin had become so strained it wouldn’t be easy to repair. Juwon’s betrayal was an unforgivable wound to Hajin, and since Hajin had imprisoned Juwon under the pretense of protecting him, their relationship seemed to be heading toward disaster. However, with Juwon’s memory loss changing him into a completely different person, their relationship had begun to shift little by little.
Although this was fortunate, it was also true that watching from the sidelines was unsettling, not knowing when their relationship might sour again.
Juwon was a wanted fugitive, and the brothers were fighting over him. If things went wrong, Hajin might fall into a quagmire he couldn’t escape.
“Hajin.”
Hearing the concern in Hyunwoo’s voice, Hajin smiled gently and said, “It’s okay. We’re working things out well, and both Hahyun and I hope things won’t fall apart because we’re really happy with how things are now.”
“Hey, man. That’s not a normal relationship.”
“Who decides what’s normal or abnormal? Everyone has different standards.”
“Sigh… I’m always the only one worrying.”
“That’s why I only trust you.”
“Enough! Let’s think about how to handle this.”
Hyunwoo handed Hajin the materials he had received from Madam Song. With an expressionless face, Hajin played the most interesting-looking video among the materials. The video contained scenes that were difficult to watch.
“Wow… I knew roughly, but this is huge.”
Beside Executive Kim Cheolwoo were not only the group’s outside directors but also several well-known figures from political and business circles. Hajin spoke sarcastically.
“That’s quite the lavish entertainment.”
“At least none of our people are there. That’s fortunate.”
“Gambling, illegal drugs, money… It’s truly disgusting to even mention.”
“With just this, they’ll fall into ruin even without other charges, right?”
Hajin’s gaze shifted from the monitor to Hyunwoo. From Hajin’s relaxed, almost languid gaze, Hyunwoo realized there was something more.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
“There’s more?”
“You’ll find out later… Now that my charges have been cleared, we need to call a board meeting again.”
Hyunwoo rubbed his chin and looked troubled.
“That’s true, but… just having the charges cleared isn’t enough to call a board meeting. We need some other justification. Secretary Kim’s scandal is limited to him alone. Hahyun is the current CEO.”
“It’s simple, isn’t it? Did you forget we have Chairman Seo’s will? The unedited full transcript.”
Hyunwoo nodded as if he had just remembered.
Now all preparations were complete.
* * *
They released the unedited transcript of Chairman Seo. The transcript contained Chairman Seo’s clear voice stating that despite various shortcomings, the company should be run by Seo Hajin. The directors naturally agreed to hold a board meeting, which was scheduled for a week from now.
It wasn’t ample time to prepare. They had to investigate the directors who had sided with Secretary Kim and persuade them.
Since Juwon would worry excessively if Hajin stayed out overnight, Hajin tried to return home regularly no matter how busy he was.
Today as well, after organizing his work and meeting secretly with Prosecutor Lee, Hajin was able to return home only at 2 AM. He thought both would be asleep due to the late hour, but Hahyun was waiting for him.
“Hyung, let’s talk for a moment.”
“You’re not asleep yet?”
“Yeah. It’s important.”
Seeing Hahyun’s uncharacteristically serious expression, Hajin sat on the sofa without even changing his clothes. Hahyun handed Hajin the documents he had already placed on the table. When Hajin raised his eyebrows, Hahyun said, “You’ll understand when you look at it. Do you know how hard it was for me to prepare this?”
Hajin tilted his head and accepted the file. The document was filled with the weaknesses of Secretary Kim’s directors.
“What’s this? When did you do such a clever thing?”
“I didn’t do it for your sake, so you don’t need to thank me.”
“Huh?”
“Fuck.”
Hajin couldn’t understand Hahyun, who immediately cursed after doing something good. To avoid provoking him further, Hajin quietly focused on the documents. After a while, Hahyun spoke up.
“Now be honest!”
“About what?”
“You’re asking because you don’t know? You deliberately lost at the last board meeting, didn’t you? To get Yoon Juwon’s sympathy, right?”
Hajin closed the file with a thud. He loosened his tightly fastened tie and leaned back on the sofa. His closed lips remained stubbornly shut.
“Be honest. I’ll forgive you.”
“I need something to talk about to speak. On what basis are you saying this?”
Dumbfounded by Hajin’s brazenness, Hahyun stared at him for a while, then barely composed himself and continued.
“At the board meeting, you made an unreasonable request of me and made things difficult, all to gain Yoon Juwon’s sympathy.”
Eyes full of mockery looked at Hahyun’s face contemptuously. Hajin’s mouth curled up on one side in an annoying smirk.
“Seo Hahyun, do you think everyone in the world is like you?”
“What do you mean? Explain so I can understand.”
“You think I did all that just to gain some sympathy? Say something that makes sense. With my pride, wouldn’t I rather choose to run away with him than watch Juwon pity me?”
Hahyun’s shoulders flinched. He had never once doubted his own thinking until now. Being obsessed with winning Juwon’s heart, he had naturally assumed it was Hajin’s scheme. But when the word ‘escape’ came from Seo Hajin’s mouth, his mind became complicated, fearing they might actually run away together.
“…Fuck, just try running away. I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth and bring him back.”
“No matter how immature you are, how could you think I deliberately wanted to show my weakness…”
As Hajin once again backed his argument with strong logic, Hahyun fell silent.
Watching Hahyun, Hajin inwardly smiled in satisfaction. He knew that explaining to Hahyun that he needed preparation to decisively crush Secretary Kim and had asked him to do those things at the board meeting for that preparation would not work.
The thing that worked best with Hahyun was relating everything to Yoon Juwon.
“Hahyun, I always want to be a reliable adult in front of Yoon Juwon. I didn’t want to show my weakness either.”
Still not completely free of doubt, Hahyun narrowed his eyes and asked in a smaller voice than before.
“…Even though you know Juwon likes weak and pitiful people?”
“That’s just your misconception. He’s been very anxious since the memory loss. So he’s changed to liking someone he can trust and depend on. You didn’t know that?”
“Fuck.”
Though cursing, Hahyun inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever the case, it was fortunate they weren’t plotting to run away together. Still feeling a bit uneasy, he was about to probe further when Hajin waved the file and said, “Anyway, thanks. I’ll use this well.”
“Resolve it quickly. If you mess up this time too, I’ll really hide away with Juwon hyung somewhere no one knows.”
“It won’t happen this time because I’m going to put him away completely.”
Hahyun’s chest heaved greatly.
“I understand.”
* * *
The board meeting was three days away. The brothers increasingly spent days leaving at dawn and not returning home until late at night. Hajin silently did his work and only occasionally bothered me, while Hahyun begged for love at all hours but didn’t suddenly return home from the company or contact me every five minutes.
So these days, I was enjoying quite peaceful days.
After being harassed by Hahyun last night, I woke up late to find that both brothers had already left for work. I ate the meal Hahyun had prepared and sat on the sofa with a cup of coffee. I turned on the news out of habit, but seeing the scene on the screen, I almost dropped my coffee cup in shock.
“What the hell… what is this…”
On the screen, a social affairs reporter continued with the explanation accompanied by the sensational caption, ‘Breaking News – Leaked video of entertainment scene involving conglomerate executive. Targets include corporate chairmen and members of parliament.’
[Breaking news. This morning at around 7 AM, a shocking video arrived at SBC’s tip-off email.]
I fixed my gaze on the screen, swallowing hard. Soon, the screen was filled with a heavily mosaiced video.
[The drinking party is filled with whiskey. Glasses are exchanged, and conversations can be heard. Seemingly excited, illegal…]
Though mosaiced, the person sitting in the center did seem to be Secretary Kim.
“So that’s why Hajin was so confident.”
I changed the channel. The video seemed to have been distributed to more than just one or two broadcasting stations, as almost all channels were busy airing news about Secretary Kim’s video.
While I felt truly relieved, at the same time, I recalled the brothers’ conversation I had overheard a few days ago.
A few days earlier at dawn, I woke up and habitually turned to my side, but Hahyun wasn’t there. I went downstairs to get a drink and suddenly heard Hajin’s voice, which made me hold my breath.
<Would I really have wanted to show a weak image in front of Yoon Juwon?>
Even though I hadn’t heard what was said before, I could guess enough. It seemed Hahyun had finally spoken about his delusion that Hajin had a separate plan. Hajin must have been exasperated to hear it…
<Yoon Juwon likes mature people.>
If Hajin truly thought that, he certainly wouldn’t have deliberately created a situation to gain my sympathy. It was indeed just Hahyun’s delusion…
