01
The sky at the end of May—too ambiguous to call the beginning of summer, more like the tail end of spring—was endlessly high.
Yeon Taeju pressed hard on the accelerator of his Maserati, which had over 50 lease payments remaining—or rather, it would be faster to count the payments already made.
The heavy engine roared powerfully as the car shot forward as if being yanked ahead.
Thinking about the remaining lease payments made his jaw ache. Of all times, he had impulsively signed the contract just as his father’s business started struggling.
His father’s business had been facing increasingly severe financial difficulties for the past few months.
Thanks to having two older brothers, Yeon Taeju had absolutely zero interest in the family business. But seeing the gloomy expressions on his brothers’ and father’s faces during their weekend breakfast gatherings—which felt more like family obligations—he couldn’t just ignore it completely.
Then, in the midst of all this, his mother jabbed him in the ribs. The ribs of an idle rich kid who poured time and money carelessly into drinking and meeting people, calling it “networking” and “investment for the future.”
‘That bitch sister-in-law of mine is such a vixen, honestly, your mom has to live with this humiliation.’
Because of the lease payments approaching 2 million won per month, Yeon Taeju’s attendance rate at his parents’ home was remarkably good.
‘What’s the matter?’
Yeon Taeju’s voice was indifferent. His mother wasn’t the type to be humiliated anywhere. Yeon Taeju, who had lived twenty-four years as the son of Madam Seok Hyeyeon, knew this better than anyone.
‘Your father’s business seems really tough these days, so I went to ask my brother for a favor, and you know what that bitch sister-in-law said.’
Madam Seok Hyeyeon’s expression turned venomous, completely at odds with the elegant pearl necklace around her neck, as she glared. Yeon Taeju found his mother’s appearance rather adorable and let out a small laugh.
‘What did she say?’
‘Well, she said, “What company isn’t struggling these days? If a company can’t manage a crisis like this, it deserves to be weeded out!”‘
His slightly curved eye corners widened in surprise. Yeon Taeju lowered the corners of his mouth and nodded. It was quite a valid point.
For a company with weak liquidity flow, appropriate risk management was essential. In that sense, both his father and brothers lacked the qualities of a business manager.
When he showed a face that seemed to agree it was a fair point, Madam Seok Hyeyeon let out an angry squawk.
‘Yeon Taeju! Your mom just heard all this humiliation and you’re making that face?!’
It seemed more like his father’s humiliation than his mother’s, but Yeon Taeju didn’t say that.
He had lived his entire life without lacking anything. Though not chaebols, his father was a self-made entrepreneur. He had built a fairly substantial business and was called “President” wherever he went. His mother was born into the royal class.
Moreover, Yeon Taeju, who stood out anywhere without being overshadowed—no, who stood out even when sitting still—and had the perfect appearance to match, possessed an innate talent for ordering people around with just the tip of his foot.
‘Is it that serious? You’ve always hated going around asking for help.’
Despite having just yelled at Taeju, Madam Seok Hyeyeon’s face became tearful. Their eyes met directly, hers moist.
‘Are you crying?’
‘I’m not crying! Who’s crying?’
‘Why would you cry over something like that? It’s not the first time Aunt has acted like a fool.’
Taeju stroked the back of her hand. At her youngest son’s comfort, Madam Seok Hyeyeon’s eyes immediately welled up. Yet she snapped back with a stubborn voice.
‘Don’t even call her Aunt. That vixen has ruined everything since she entered our family.’
‘Hey, if she’s Aunt, what else am I supposed to call her? Still, what Aunt envies most about you is that you have three sons.’
The chairman of SL Global, a company praised for playing a leading role in driving domestic exports, was Seok Hyeyeon’s father and Yeon Taeju’s grandfather.
Seok Yongsik, vice chairman of SL Global and its actual manager, was Seok Hyeyeon’s older brother and Yeon Taeju’s uncle. And according to his mother, a puppet who had given everything—his liver and gallbladder—to that vixen.
‘That’s true. When you see her talking about her son, you feel sorry for her again.’
Yeon Taeju had been completely removed from SL Global’s succession structure simply because his surname was Yeon.
It was ironic. His mother, who had given birth to three sons, was completely excluded from the succession, yet some random woman with a child married into SL Global as its mistress, and her son with an incurable disease became the first successor.
‘Should I go visit?’
At her son’s quiet voice, Madam Seok’s eyes widened in surprise. This was her youngest son, who had a significant age gap with the eldest and second sons. Only the youngest had fairly good social skills and was gentle.
Of course, this kid had shamelessly caused trouble during his school days and smoothed it over with charm, and as an adult, had made her blood run cold with women problems more than once or twice.
‘You, Taeju?’
‘Aunt likes me. She says Iseo hyung likes me.’
It was true. Yeon Taeju gently rubbed his mother’s hand while smiling brightly.
His mother’s tearful eyes suddenly lost all moisture and widened in surprise.
‘Well, that’s true, but…’
‘At the beginning of the year, Aunt asked me. If I could stay at Iseo hyung’s villa for a few days and keep him company. She said he’s depressed because there’s no one his age there…’
It had been at a SL Global corporate event he’d attended at the beginning of the year just to make his face known. To Taeju, who was like a kite without a string within that organization, the one who noticed him wasn’t the vice president or executive director, but his aunt.
Taeju recalled his aunt speaking to him somewhat submissively. At the time, he had flatly refused, thinking what a trashy request to make at a corporate event. With a smiling face, of course.
He had gone there anxious to secure a position, so he was even more pissed off. Thinking that all he could do there was be a conversation partner for the vice chairman’s stepson with an incurable disease.
‘That vixen?! Why would she call you to such a backwater? No, why would she ask you to be a conversation partner? That’s ridiculous! Asking my precious son to waste his time being a conversation partner?!’
Even as his mother threw a fit, Taeju remained calm. Because he had thought the same thing when he heard it.
‘If I attend to him this summer and they give me a position in the company, I’d be grateful. They wouldn’t make me work for free, would they?’
‘Oh my, Taeju. My son, you had such thoughts?’
Madam Seok Hyeyeon, who had been red-faced with anger, smiled cheerfully as if she’d never been upset. Taeju, whose eye corners were long like his mother’s, smiled a smile that resembled hers.
Their eye-smiles were identical, but the thoughts behind them were completely different. Yeon Taeju laughed, his shoulders shaking, at his mother’s naive reaction.
‘Who knows. If I get on Seok Iseo hyung’s good side there, maybe he’ll help Father’s business too.’
Oh my, my son is wonderful. How admirable, the best. His mother’s face and eyes conveyed all this. Still, Seok Hyeyeon couldn’t readily say she was so pleased and proud.
‘Still, how can our precious son do such difficult nursing, even wasting his time…’
Yeon Taeju’s job was to pour down alcohol for networking and create false hopes for rich families’ daughters as an investment in the future.
Compared to such things, buttering up the youngest son of a chaebol vice chairman was the wisest investment. And Yeon Taeju was curious about the current state of his cousin whom he hadn’t seen in nearly ten years.
How extremely his uncle must dote on a son who didn’t share a drop of his blood. Seeing how he protected his wife, it was inevitable. No, it was an even more pitiable child with an incurable disease.
‘They’re not going to make me nurse him and clean up his shit and piss. I can do whatever they tell me to.’
The navigation announced they were near the destination. Yeon Taeju, recalling his conversation with his mother, gradually slowed down.
The ocean surrounded the road going up the hill. After driving for 10 minutes along the blindingly blue sea, a vehicle control barrier blocked the road.
‘How may I help you?’
“This is Yeon Taeju.”
Even as he pressed the bell and spoke into the microphone, Taeju was uncertain. Should he have said he was family?
But soon the barrier opened wide with a click. Taeju drove the car onto the connecting road. The vast field reminiscent of a golf course appeared after driving up for another 10 minutes.
The rectangular building looked almost like a container box at first glance. As the gray container box grew closer, the mocking thoughts inside him dissipated.
It was enormous. So much so that he wondered if this was really a house for convalescence.
Up close, its size was even more intimidating. Getting out of the car, Taeju tilted his head back to gauge the ceiling height.
“Hello.”
A middle-aged man standing at the main gate bowed his head in greeting. Taeju also walked around the car to stand before the massive iron door, nearly 2 meters tall.
“Yes.”
“I’ve been informed. That you’ll be staying here starting today…”
He answered by taking out a trunk from the car instead.
Taeju scanned the exterior of the mansion and also observed the appearance of the man who came to greet him. Ordinary. He didn’t seem like an employee of such an enormous villa. The man hesitated briefly in his actions, as if unaccustomed to visitor arrivals.
