“Ah, I don’t care. I hate apples.”
Jo Mihye gently persuaded, but it didn’t work on Kang Yeonghwan. However, Jo Mihye was also persistent.
“Just meet him once. If you like the person, that’s what matters.”
“What good is it if the person’s nice when there’s no money?”
“As if there’s no money. You’re still young so you don’t know, but places like this are the real deal rather than chaebols and such. Marriage has to be between families of matching status. No matter how good the conditions are, if you go to a grand family, you won’t be able to hold your head up and live. Excessive is greed. Greed. Isn’t that right? Chaehun? Mom’s right, isn’t she?”
Chaehun, who had been quietly drinking water, nodded half a beat late at Jo Mihye’s call. He at least had the sense to know he should take his mother’s side at times like this.
“Like Mom says, marriage is right to do between families.”
Hearing his friends’ stories, marriage wasn’t something that could be done just because two people liked each other. Arranged marriages were even more so. Trait-holders were often special cases, but still, everyone said it could only last long if the families matched well.
“Fine. I’ll handle it myself. Just watch.”
Kang Yeonghwan’s stubbornness was formidable. The two continued their squabble like that, and Chaehun, who had become an outsider again, kept his mouth quietly shut. If he pretended to know and mixed in words unnecessarily, the sparks could fly to him.
Right now Jo Mihye was pouring her attention into finding Kang Yeonghwan’s marriage partner, but until recently, she’d asked Chaehun if he’d consider an arranged meeting if he wasn’t seeing anyone.
Chaehun had already revealed to his family that he was gay. It was after breaking up with his ex-boyfriend. Kang Yeonghwan, who had been playing a game on Chaehun’s phone, saw a message and found out, and it ended up reaching Jo Mihye’s ears.
Having become aware of his sexuality in high school, he’d only liked men since then. But he had no particular intention of revealing that fact to his family.
About thirty years ago, as a result of a famous celebrity’s scandalous love affair, same-sex marriage between alphas and omegas became legalized. After that, domestic partnership laws and same-sex marriage including betas also took root in succession.
However, older adults’ thoughts didn’t change easily. Especially their father, who had conservative values that a man should establish his own household and live, was even more so.
Not wanting to cause unnecessary trouble, Chaehun had said he had no one his heart matched with, so he’d live single for life. Since he had both an older and younger brother, there was no problem with continuing the family line.
But whether unfortunately or fortunately, after their father passed away, he was unexpectedly outed. Jo Mihye said the world had changed, so it could happen. His older brother Kang Suchan brushed it off saying it was his life so he should handle it himself.
However, Jo Mihye thought that even if he dated men, he could marry a woman. So she regularly asked Chaehun if he wouldn’t consider arranged meetings. When he explained that wasn’t the case, she nodded, but after time passed, she pushed arranged meetings on him again.
Each time, Chaehun painfully realized that as people age, their thoughts and values don’t change easily.
In any case, for the time being, all of Jo Mihye’s attention had no choice but to be focused on Kang Yeonghwan. The best strategy was to stay quiet in the meantime.
Not long after, Kang Suchan returned. Since the meal had all ended, they decided to head home just like that.
Kang Yeonghwan got out midway saying he had plans with friends, and Jo Mihye also said she had someone to meet, so they saw her off to her destination. Only Kang Suchan and Chaehun remained in the car.
“You can just drop me off at a convenient subway station.”
“Before that, let’s talk for a bit.”
“Is it urgent?”
“Yeah.”
The sun had already tilted far to the west. Chaehun had planned to shop on his way home and make a bunch of side dishes. But Kang Suchan’s face asking to talk was too serious for him to say let’s do it next time. Chaehun nodded, thinking he’d make the side dishes slowly.
* * *
The large franchise coffee shop located in a prime spot was a place where all kinds of people gathered. From couples breaking up, to insurance salespeople and clients, to students studying—each occupied their own seats and immersed themselves in their own business.
And sitting across from Kang Suchan, Chaehun couldn’t hide his dismay and had to ask again.
“3.5 billion won?”
“Yeah.”
Kang Suchan answered in a gloomy voice. At the not-hard-to-imagine sum, Chaehun frowned. 3.5 billion won. It was enough money to buy a large apartment in Gangnam.
And Kang Suchan had been scammed out of that money.
Instead of getting angry asking what the hell happened, Chaehun calmly listened to Kang Suchan’s story.
The scammer that Kang Suchan had called President Park and been friendly with had embezzled money through a gap investment fraud. However, if there was something slightly different from the typical form, it was that he had made Kang Suchan a joint business partner to use as a shield.
President Park, who had fled overseas with over 3.5 billion won, was a man Chaehun had also met a couple of times. He had known hyung for two years and was someone with a slightly timid and sincere impression. But real scammers couldn’t be distinguished by appearance.
Kang Suchan said he didn’t know why he fell for it, but Chaehun roughly guessed.
Kang Suchan, who grew up as the eldest son, had both the pressure to succeed and pretentiousness simultaneously. Even before graduating from university, he had gone around saying he would start a business. But after failing at both business and employment, he learned the work under their father. And after their father passed away, he inherited the lighting store as is.
The store, for which their father had laid a good foundation, rolled along without problems even after the owner changed. And Kang Suchan, whose momentum had risen, constantly talked about becoming rich. He had clearly fallen for the fraud with eyes blinded by greed to make money.
Actually, Kang Suchan’s plan was quite plausible. Establishing an investment company under joint names with President Park, receiving money from investors, buying a decent building in Seoul, giving interest through monthly rent, and when the building value rose, reselling it to pocket the profit. It was a method that slightly modified the recently popular gap investment.
For six months after buying the building, there were no problems. The monthly rent was deposited in the account without fail and the building’s market value was rising smoothly. However, at the moment everyone felt relieved, President Park sold the building and disappeared to the Philippines. And all the responsibility became Kang Suchan’s share, who remained in Korea.
The investors’ investment amount in the 3.5 billion won building was 1.8 billion won. As soon as the fact that President Park sold the building and disappeared to the Philippines became known, they each moved. Those with small investment amounts and who were friendly with Kang Suchan took the stance of waiting and watching a bit more. However, most of the investors were preparing to somehow quickly get their money back.
Kang Suchan had also been scammed, but because his name was listed as the joint representative of the investment company, he couldn’t avoid responsibility. The police he consulted with and the lawyer all said the same thing.
Especially the lawyer warned that he needed to prepare not only civil but also criminal lawsuits. Because the fraud amount was large, if he was unlucky, he could even receive an actual prison sentence.
Circumstantially, Kang Suchan was also a victim, but if he didn’t actively prove he wasn’t an accomplice, things could get tangled. Intent was very important in criminal cases.
“In mid-December when President Park went to the Philippines, I followed along too. Saying it was a golf trip. President Park said he had business and stayed there, and I came back. But President Park ran away just like that. And that’s what’s catching me. Ah. Fuck.”
Besides that, the fact that Kang Suchan had entrusted President Park with various documents and certificates without much suspicion was also a problem. But the biggest problem was something else. It was that there was no money to return to the investors.
Kang Suchan had invested all the money he earned from the lighting business into the building. 400 million won was cash on hand, and 1.3 billion won he had gotten as a loan using the store and the house he currently lived in as collateral.
Actually, when you looked at it, the one who suffered the most serious damage was Kang Suchan. Kang Suchan, who had become penniless, couldn’t repay anything to the investors who were clamoring for their money.
The lawyer recommended personal rehabilitation. The idea was that immediately repaying part of the investment with money that could be procured and reaching a settlement could be advantageous in the criminal case. And the best option was to slowly repay the rest of the money over time.
After that long story, Kang Suchan brought up the main point.
“There’s this bastard called President Yoon, and that bastard… is practically a gangster. He’s raging that he’ll send me to prison if I don’t repay the money. I can’t reach a settlement with that guy. So it looks like it’ll probably go to criminal trial…”
“Hyung?”
“If, just if. If I really have to go, couldn’t you go instead?”
“……?!”
At the unexpected words, Chaehun froze on the spot. He was a beat late in realizing that the place Kang Suchan told him to go was prison.
As the atmosphere froze, Kang Suchan began explaining with a tragic face.
“No, I mean, it’s not like I’m just telling you to take the blame. The thing is, I made a company to manage the building under your name. It’s just a shell company. A shell company. It only exists on paper. But because of that, you could also become an accomplice. Because we’re brothers. So if one of us has to go to prison between you and me, you’re better than me, right? I need to stay and run the store to repay the money. Right? You don’t know anything about the lighting store. It won’t be long. Like a few months? If you’re lucky, you’ll get out on probation. Right. Probation. If you get fired from work, you can just work at our store. Huh?”
Kang Suchan spoke without hesitation as if he had even prepared. And Chaehun was at a loss for words.
Kang Suchan’s words were logical. To repay the money, Kang Suchan had to continue operating the lighting store without closing it. Although the lighting store was affected by the economy, the profit wasn’t bad because their father had firmly laid the foundation. If one of the two had to go to prison and one had to earn money, it was right for Kang Suchan, who earned more, to stay and make money.
But that was just wordplay. Before that, the problem was that he had made him the representative of a shell company without even consulting him. Not even saying sorry and telling him to sacrifice himself because there was no other choice was wrong from the start.
No matter how much they were family, going to prison instead of hyung was ridiculous. But the situation was too bad to be cold and tell hyung to handle it himself. If things went slightly wrong, the whole family would end up on the streets.
Chaehun wasn’t heartless. When he was young, he thought it would be okay if only he endured, and as he got older, he let most things slide. Especially when family was involved, that tendency became more pronounced. Seo Jumyeong had even called it a good child complex.
Only after getting a job and becoming independent did Chaehun realize he couldn’t continue like he had until now. But when a situation like this came, even while thinking coldly, he couldn’t make decisions for himself.
Instead of refusing that he couldn’t go to prison in his place, Chaehun reflexively recalled the 2 billion won that Seunggeon had proposed. With 2 billion won, it would be an amount that would repay all the money to the investors and still have some left.
Seunggeon must have known what situation Kang Suchan was in. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have proposed 2 billion won to him. There was a reason he said “don’t you know yet” and said to meet again.
A curse rather than a sigh was about to come out. The personality of that guy who would wait for him to become desperate rather than explain the circumstances even though he knew everything was definitely twisted as hell. Of course, even if he had heard the explanation at that time, there was a high probability he wouldn’t have believed it. Still, the order of things was wrong.
