After the pheromone scenting was finished, I entered the bathroom and washed away the fatigue accumulated over several hours.
After finishing my shower, I plopped down on the sofa with a somewhat relieved feeling. The luxury table and wooden furniture, the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the Han River. This space that had only been unfamiliar was now quite familiar.
With a languid feeling, I leaned my back against the sofa. Water dripped from my wet hair, but I didn’t particularly feel like drying it. I hadn’t even properly processed what happened this morning.
“So…, what about the meal?”
The face of the Chairman who had suggested a meal flickered in my mind. And the relationship between Baek Sahyun and that person. I definitely needed to look into it in detail. Beyond what I’d heard from Chae Eunwoo, I felt I needed to investigate it myself.
First, I decided to open my phone’s search bar and explore. When I entered the word “seedbed,” multiple related search terms appeared.
K Group seedbed
Chairman Baek Seonghee
Baek Seonghee’s second generation
K Group factional fighting.
Ooh. I pursed my lips and let out a small exclamation. It seemed Chae Eunwoo’s story wasn’t entirely nonsense. Like surfing waves, I clicked on the related search terms one by one. After reading a few articles, it seemed K Group was suffering from complicated internal circumstances different from its new-generation image.
The end of family management, K Group’s long-standing internal strife.
Shareholders sacrificed to corporate factions.
The headlines were filled with negative words. Though I had no way of knowing the specific details, it seemed they roughly operated the company in a structure where the family divided things up amongst themselves. Was it like the power struggles in the Joseon Dynasty royal court?
“For a novel, this is unnecessarily realistic.”
Even so, it’s just a world inside a third-rate gay novel. What meaning is there in them fighting and bickering amongst themselves? Well, I suppose this place is reality for them.
As I continued checking K Group’s recent news, my gaze was stolen by a particularly eye-catching related search term.
Baek Seonghee’s only son
Unless there was an illegitimate child like Nam Hyungman-ssi had, it clearly referred to Baek Sahyun. When I clicked it, old news articles and numerous posts from anonymous communities appeared.
I was instinctively drawn to the community posts filled with internet slang. Click. I opened the posts.
Baek Seonghee when young.jpg
They say her son gives off this vibe now, but I don’t know since there are no real pics.
(Photo)
(Photo)
└Wow ㄹㅈㄷ looks like a Hong Kong movie star lololololol pretty and handsome, has it all
└No wait crazy; she really became chairman based on her face didn’t she
└└The son has a completely different vibe lol Not like dad’s side or mom’s side? Insanely handsome though ㅇㅇ Saw him last time in Cheongdam
└Son is handsome, I know because I go to Korea University
└└Korea Uni alumni ㅎㅇㅎㅇ
└But for real Baek Seonghee’s son is famous at Korea University, face attack is insane they say
I really love this story about Chairman Baek Seonghee.jpg
Had a girlfriend he dated as a freshman
But apparently loved that person for almost 10 years since middle and high school
Hid his feelings worried she’d feel burdened by his family situation, then confessed in college ㅠㅠ Back then paparazzi shots appeared and it was total chaos… All deleted now but ㅈㄴ shame
└Omg crazy but why didn’t they marry??
└└Who knows… They’re chaebol so there must be circumstances we don’t know
└lololololol calling this circumstances…. These days this kind of thing is all~~~marketing~~~~~
└└22…. Honestly I’m a bit uncomfortable with it being glorified like this ㅠ That place has lots of talk about tax evasion and stuff… I didn’t like seeing people go Queen Seonghee Queen Seonghee from before
It was a parade of posts that could rival popular celebrities. I was amazed. I knew the company had high recognition, but I didn’t know it received this much public attention.
When I was chuckling at a post saying ‘Let’s just restore the monarchy and give Baek Seonghee a position, Queen Seonghee as head of state ㅇㅇ,’ the posts below caught my eye.
They were posts with unsettling titles suggesting rumors.
Baek Seonghee is so pitiful
So pitiful because of that son bastard… Honestly if you look at interviews or usual eating habits? You can tell she’s modest and kind right? Somehow got stuck with a terrible son and suffers like hell ㅅㅂ Gets criticized by the family and has to clean it up ㅠㅠ Ah really just pitiful, protect Queen Seonghee forever
I really find the kids who worry about Baek Seonghee’s son the most fascinating;
Worry about Baek Seonghee, why worry about the son? He commits crimes and lives well eating well lol Ah seriously, how is that different from a mouse worrying about a cat~~!
The nuance was entirely that Baek Seonghee suffered terribly because of Baek Sahyun. And what was this about committing crimes? My heart pounded. It felt like I was accessing information I shouldn’t access.
Conglomerate Chairman P’s worries. An inappropriate relationship between son and wife?
Then suddenly my eyes were stolen by an article from several years ago located in the corner of the site. It was an article from some unknown entertainment weekly, where the company name and parties involved were replaced with initials.
Business figure P, beloved by the nation, recently announced a divorce from C.
The official reason for divorce was revealed to be personality differences, but the securities industry’s perspective was different. They unanimously placed responsibility on the only son A.
The claim was that the only son A had an inappropriate relationship with C, and the opposing faction seized on this weakness.
It was a series of hard-to-believe content. So P is Baek Seonghee and A is Baek Sahyun, and the reason the family fell apart was because Baek Sahyun had an inappropriate relationship with C? …If C is Baek Seonghee’s spouse, isn’t that…?
A famous analyst added that eldest son A and spouse C were not in a blood relationship. Unlike what was publicly known, eldest son A was not born of C but was an illegitimate child.
Repertoires that would appear in dramas also showed up. Secrets of birth. Illegitimate child. So in short, it was simple. Illegitimate child Baek Sahyun coveted his mother’s spouse—wasn’t that it?
Since Chairman Baek Seonghee said she likes women, that means, his own stepmother?
The posts with the nuance that Baek Seonghee was pitiful began to make rough sense. What they meant by son Baek Sahyun committing crimes must also refer to such an unseemly incident.
However, wasn’t this a story that lacked credibility? It was like food made by mixing sensational elements haphazardly. Stories created purely for the purpose of being chewed up and torn apart, with no regard for truth whatsoever.
Honestly, I wanted to deny it even forcibly. I don’t know why. Was it the psychology of not wanting to admit that this bastard I’d been dealing with all along was such a rotten person? The status of being an illegitimate child or whatever didn’t suit him either. Looking at his facial features and bearing, he seemed unmistakably born a noble, so what.
It was right when I was thinking thought after thought. My phone emitted a vibration sound. It was an unregistered caller. After swallowing dry saliva, I answered the phone.
Actually, I thought about not answering, but I had a premonition that would make things even more fucked.
“Wh-who is this?”
[It’s me. Sahyun’s mom.]
When I answered the phone, a sweet-toned voice was heard.
As soon as I heard the other party’s self-introduction, I bolted upright from my seat. My heart was pounding. For the subject I’d just been spying on to call me. Did she perhaps have the ability to look down upon all things?
“Yes. Yes! What can I do for you?”
I politely held the phone with both hands as I responded to the Chairman. Haha. I heard laughing sounds. It was when I was wondering whether I could possibly continue the call safely.
Bzzzz. A text from Nam Hyungman-ssi came at the same time.
You bastard. If Chairman Baek calls, absolutely don’t answer.
Oh, Hyungman-hyung. Your timing isn’t great…. I already answered.
❖ ❖ ❖
The knife split through the center of the steak. Steam rose up between the red flesh.
“Eat up, Heejae-gun.”
An elegant middle-aged woman picked up a piece of meat and held it out to me. Her smiling eyes gave off a strange atmosphere. I smiled awkwardly and accepted the meat.
I don’t know exactly what was written in the report Baek Sahyun submitted, but in any case, even though there must have been a report about my real name, the fact that she put the name ‘Heejae’ in her mouth seemed strict.
The moment the meat juices burst, a light flavor spread throughout my mouth. It was a thrillingly delicious steak, but I had no leisure to savor it slowly.
“It’s been a while since I’ve shared a meal with someone this young, so I’m excited.”
“Pardon?”
“As you can see, that bastard Sahyun and I don’t have a good relationship. He even hates eating with his mom. Because he hates being nagged. Is there any other unfilial child like this?”
It was because of Chairman Baek Seonghee in front of me.
The tranquil classical music of the restaurant could be heard. The Chairman continued eating with careful, refined gestures. Other than that, there wasn’t much conversation. It seemed she tended to refrain from conversation during meals.
Somehow I ended up having Friday night dinner with the head of K Group. I chewed and munched on the messily cut steak while thinking of the origin of this situation.
Actually, there was nothing to question. In a way, it was something I brought upon myself.
That day at the hotel when I was searching for tabloids about the Baek family. After receiving a sudden phone call, I couldn’t help but freeze.
[I contacted you to see if we could have a meal. What I said then, at least for me, wasn’t empty words.]
Chairman Baek had gone ahead and suggested a meal.
Since I’d been reading unseemly stories, I was considerably reluctant. The story about Baek Sahyun being illegitimate was one thing, and the articles I additionally read planted suspicion.
The hidden side of the K family, power struggles within the family rivaling the royal family.
Waging a mudslinging fight for decades over successor selection issues….
Former K Group general secretary says, “Chairman Baek Seonghee is negative about the marriage system, desperate to find a seedbed….”
Though it was an article from a third-rate media site without a clear source, combining various reactions, it didn’t seem entirely false. Moreover, Hyungman-hyung’s text was also concerning.
Inseok-ah! Why no reply? Absolutely don’t meet her. Chairman Baek.
