Ring ring ring. Ring ring ring.
“Yeah.”
Kyungwoo, who had just arrived at the Holdings building, answered the phone in a good mood.
-What did Chairman Taeryoung say?
“As expected. He said he’d yell at Vice Chairman Jung Taesu and handle Chemical directly. He told our side to manage media and image too.”
-Really? So nothing major then.
“He brought up your name. Asked what the hell kind of bastard you are.”
-A prosecutor? Or your son’s lover?
Kyungwoo smiled as he entered the office.
“Anyway, your name came out of the chairman’s mouth several times, so be prepared.”
-A mere ordinary prosecutor working at a branch office receiving attention from Chairman Taeryoung, is this what success is like? What about President Jung’s side?
“Jung Kyunghyun turned the household upside down, so the atmosphere isn’t one where they can bring up bad topics with each other.”
-Then your mother is okay too?
“They won’t bring up the main point right away. They’ll have to start with old stories first, step by step.”
-You’re saying something adult-like for once.
“Thanks to someone. I suddenly had to step foot into the adult world.”
A low laugh came from the other side.
-Have a good talk. I’ll come up next weekend. Keep your schedule clear.
“What about this weekend?”
Tomorrow was already Friday.
-It’ll take a while for the Chemical matter to wrap up. Can’t leave my post. It wouldn’t be good if we got caught meeting personally in this situation. You know?
“Wouldn’t it be fine if we don’t get caught?”
-This neighborhood is small. Don’t come for no reason. Even if you come, I won’t meet you. Take this opportunity to spend some time with your mother.
“That’s different from our promise.”
-File a complaint if you’re upset.
Jaeha, who countered with a joke, hung up first. A slight irritation arose. Even more so because what he said wasn’t wrong at all.
He opened his laptop for work. Jaeha was busy, but Kyungwoo was equally without leisure. He had to run the image improvement project right away. He had to share what he’d just heard from the chairman in the hastily created executive chat room.
The work laptop that automatically logged into the network displayed email and incoming message notifications. Before checking them, Kyungwoo first compiled and posted brief communication items to the group chat.
Next, he accessed his email to check what reports the strategy team that had entered the emergency meeting had submitted. Brief reports had come in despite the short time. After checking and writing a reply, just as he was about to move on to another email, Kyungwoo discovered a familiar name.
Joan: Hi
When he clicked the email subject, a long message appeared along with an attachment mark.
Rob. Are you doing well?
I’m sending the data you requested before. It took quite a while to scan because they were old handwritten notes and aged photographs. Chris helped.
I’m sorry, but as your attending physician, I looked through your records first. All I have to say is this: There’s another victim in that terrible incident, and they’re probably still hurting.
You were young. Whatever actions you took, it was because of the trauma from the incident. It’s not your fault. Remember that.
I hope both of you will be happy.
Stay healthy. Contact me again.
With love, Joan.
There were more than ten attachments. Before clicking on them, Kyungwoo needed mental preparation.
After the argument with Kyungrok, curiosity about his mother arose for the first time.
After her young son suffered a terrible accident, did mother really never come to America even once?
It wasn’t a situation where buying a plane ticket was difficult, and at first glance, it was hard to understand with common sense.
‘I didn’t expect something like this.’
After putting it off repeatedly, the point when he actually sent the email was when Jaeha told him to say thank you for the abalone porridge.
Perhaps it would be reopening an old wound. There was a high possibility it was a foolish act of reconfirming how cold his father and mother had been.
But Joan’s reply delivered a strong message that the reality would be completely different from expectations.
‘Whatever actions I took, it’s not my fault?’
He sensed an ominous feeling from that sentence. Did it mean the twisted and tangled relationship wasn’t only because of his parents?
‘I’ll know if I check.’
Kyungwoo, who had been glaring at the laptop screen, clicked on the attachments. The image files that downloaded instantly appeared on the screen in sequence.
And he carefully read down through the English records written on a typewriter with pencil additions.
*
“What should I do, hyungnim?”
With a face without makeup and hair a complete mess. His sister-in-law, still in indoor clothes, grabbed Jungok and wailed.
“Why would she do such a thing? Other families aside, doesn’t she know Taeryoung is strict about crime?”
“The child turned pale and begged to be saved… I could only think about saving him first, thoughts or whatever… Hyungnim. Please save our Kyunghyun. Please?”
His sister-in-law looked at Jungok with a red face covered in tears.
“It’s not like he’s dying right now. And if he committed a crime, he has to be punished.”
“Hyuuuungnim… Pleeeease…”
His sister-in-law came down from the sofa and knelt in front of Jungok. Then she clasped her hands together and pleaded desperately.
“Why are you doing this? Don’t do this.”
Even when Jungok tried to lift her up, his sister-in-law shook her head and persistently pleaded with clasped hands.
“Just once to the chairman… Please ask him to overlook it just once. Our Kyunghyun… made a mistake… Pleeeease…”
“A person died. The one you should be begging isn’t me, it’s that victim. Go beg the person you should be begging.”
Jungok couldn’t hide her uncomfortable feelings. She came to offer condolences after hearing the circumstances that her son had become a criminal, and to tell her to steel her heart and properly teach her son from now on. She didn’t expect her to cry and plead like this.
“Sister-in-law, if you keep acting like this, I can’t stay here. I’m leaving.”
“Hyuuuungniiiim.”
“It’s drunk driving hit-and-run. A fatal accident! A person died! This isn’t a matter to solve by crying and begging! Kyunghyun turning out like that is partly your and the vice chairman’s fault! You know? You shouldn’t have spoiled him rotten!”
She replied coldly toward her sister-in-law clinging to her legs. Then resentment showed in her two eyes pouring with tears.
“So how well did hyungnim teach that Kyungwoo turned out like that?”
“Sister-in-law!”
“Frankly speaking, what does our Kyunghyun lack compared to Kyungwoo? You’re worried our Kyunghyun might inherit Chemical, so you’re doing this on purpose, right? Right? Kyungwoo is a half-breed…!”
“Hey!”
Jungok shouted and pushed her sister-in-law away with her foot. The other person, who had tumbled, looked up at Jungok with startled eyes while lying down. Jungok’s head burned white-hot. Her whole body trembled.
“Our Kyungwoo is a victim, not a perpetrator. How dare you compare him to your delinquent murderer son?”
Jungok swiftly snatched up the bag she had placed next to the sofa.
“Arrest investigation will start immediately. A criminal can’t act like a normal person. As a crime victim’s family member, I can’t forgive him. Jung Kyunghyun, prepare to pay for your crimes completely. And you, I’ll make sure you can’t hold your head up for the rest of your life as a mother who raised a criminal. Just wait and see.”
“Aaah… I’m sorry… Hyungnim! Hyuuungniiiim!”
Jungok firmly pushed away her sister-in-law who grabbed on while wailing again belatedly and stormed out of the house. As she crossed the garden after leaving the entrance as if about to collapse, the gate opened and Vice Chairman Jung Taesu appeared.
“Sister-in-law.”
Jungok, who brushed off his hand as he was about to grab her, picked up her bag that had slipped down.
“I won’t come to this house anymore. Know that.”
“Hyuuungnim!”
Jungok, who glared at her sister-in-law chasing out barefoot, threw a sharp look at Jung Taesu catching his wife and came out.
The waiting driver secretary immediately opened the door. Jungok, who got in the car, didn’t care that her sister-in-law, who had shaken off her husband, was clinging to the car door.
“Hyungnim. Hyungnim. I was wrong. I’ll beg like this. Please tell the chairman to save our Kyunghyun… Hyungnim!”
“Art museum.”
“Yes, Director.”
After checking the back and outside the car through the rearview mirror, the driver secretary started the car. Vice Chairman Jung Taesu, who came out belatedly, caught his wife wailing with an ashen face. Other employees also came out to support the mistress. Even seeing that, the driver secretary remained silent.
The car drove for a while and arrived in front of an art museum at the entrance of a traditional culture village near Gwanghwamun. Jungok entered a building without even an elevator.
An employee bowed upon seeing Jungok.
“You’re here?”
“Nothing unusual? The exhibition preparation?”
“The artist confirmed just now. We’ll submit the revision report soon.”
“Really? I’ll be in the office.”
“Yes.”
The three-story art museum was a small scale for a chaebol chairman’s wife to operate. It was a building where everything from site selection to every foundation stone went through Jungok’s hands.
Jungok, who went up to the third floor, entered a refined office with simple decorations on a white background. Behind the European-style desk with only a laptop was a chair that was a famous artist’s work. Behind that was a large window overlooking the old palace.
“Damn bitch. How dare she say such things…”
Jungok, whose anger still hadn’t subsided, ground her teeth while crossing her arms.
While Kyungwoo was in America, the eldest grandson position naturally shifted to Kyunghyun. The expectations of the family elders also flowed toward that side like water.
Kyunghyun had a good academic attitude, a manly personality, and above all, grew up without any problems. He had many friends and dated quite well. He was his parents’ pride.
No matter how well Kyungrok did, she was treated as a daughter who would be done once married off, and Kyungwoo who returned was cold and didn’t let anyone close. He often didn’t even greet the elders, so he quickly fell out of favor.
The attention of elders who held many stocks was always Kyunghyun’s, and the family shareholder elders who held Chemical stocks, Taeryoung’s core business, naturally considered Chemical to be Kyunghyun’s. That’s why they were officially designing the succession structure in earnest following the Kim Gilsu accident.
She had half given up. Kyungrok was strong in food, and Kyungwoo showed distinction in distribution. Even if the golden apple called Chemical was handed over to the vice chairman’s side, she was satisfied that the Kyungrok and Kyungwoo siblings had established themselves in their own way.
“It would be good for Kyunghyun to learn abroad, but for Korean-style companies, it’s better to learn in Korea after all. They say it’s fine to just get an MBA from America, so I’m troubled that he insists on entering a domestic university.”
When he entered the chemistry department of a domestic university with academic ties to Taeryoung, her sister-in-law specifically came to the art museum and provoked Jungok with such words.
“In the end, he’s just a murderer’s spawn.”
Jungok burst out in ridicule. It wasn’t just a drunk driving accident—he killed a person and disposed of the body. Her sister-in-law covering for such a psychopath gave her chills.
