Representative Chu swept her gaze over him and let out a laugh of sheer disbelief. Her sharp eyes landed on him with precision. Munyeong’s back went rigid.
“Ha…. I can’t believe this.”
To think that the person her son had gotten involved with was that child — that same boy from back then.
She had looked over the personal information and the few covertly taken photographs, and found herself tracing back through the past again and again as a memory stirred. She’d been certain she’d seen that face somewhere before, and when she read the name of the high school listed in his file, it came back to her with perfect clarity. The troubled school Haejeong had briefly attended.
And the young boy who had so thoroughly ruined her plans. The one who had refused to let go of Haejeong even while being beaten nearly to death. The one who had held on until the very end, even as a tool had been swung at his hands again and again to force him to release his grip.
“…Does Haejeong know everything?”
About what happened back then. Whether word of it had even reached her son’s ears — including the fact that the person had saved him, and had been framed as the assailant instead — Representative Chu asked quietly.
Munyeong, frozen stiff, shook his head with rigid movements.
“……No.”
“…Are you approaching Haejeong now out of resentment? Looking for some kind of payback for what happened back then?”
Munyeong’s eyes went wide at the question he hadn’t anticipated, and he shook his head again.
“…N-no. I’m not.”
“Then… are you saying the two of you running into each other again was a coincidence?”
Representative Chu, who had heard everything about Munyeong from her eldest son Yeon Juhyeok, could barely contain her shock. It was already enough to make her faint — that the person her son was apparently seriously involved with was a cleaning employee with no parents — but then she’d heard that on top of that, he had caused a scene in the seventh-floor office full of employees all because of this one worker, and had even assaulted Director Hwang. And that wasn’t all. He had paid off the man’s debts, was currently housing him in his home, and had recently had him admitted to a VIP room at Baekil Hospital while pressuring the hospital’s deputy director. Representative Chu clutched the back of her neck, feeling the blood drain from her head.
“How could someone like you… with our son…….”
Still unable to believe it, Representative Chu stumbled over her words in dismay. The fine eyes so similar to Haejeong’s were full of confusion and shock. Munyeong, caught entirely off guard, simply sat there hugging Sunggil’s bag of misugaru tightly against his knees, head bowed low like a man awaiting sentencing.
“Do you have no sense of your place?”
“…….”
“Even if that child has completely lost his head, shouldn’t you have at least handled the situation properly on your end?”
“…….”
“I suppose you were just thrilled to have a chaebol interested in you? Thought you’d stumbled into a dream, lost all sense of where you stood and threw yourself in headfirst? Is that it?”
Representative Chu could not fathom it — that someone with no home, no foundation, no education, no parents, nothing at all, had dared to become entangled with the bloodline of Baekil Group. And not even an ordinary company employee. A cleaning employee. Not even full-time — a contract worker, a day laborer.
No matter how much she despised Haejeong, this was a matter of the company’s honor. It was tied to Representative Chu’s own pride. Even if she thought of Haejeong as her own mistake, her own stain, he was still her blood. As much as she loathed it, on the surface he was the youngest son of Chairman Yeon, the head of Baekil Group. Her hatred of him and this situation were two separate things. This was the kind of thing that didn’t just tarnish the company’s image — it demolished it.
“Leave. Leave that house right now.”
And they were living under the same roof, on top of everything. It was enough to make her collapse. If anyone were to find out, if it were to surface in the press, the fallout would be too dreadful to contemplate.
“Who do you think you are, daring to set foot there — daring―!”
It wasn’t just her son she had a problem with. The very existence of Munyeong, who had dared to walk through that door, was repellent to her. How did someone like this ever become a person my son could possibly want? My son? The second son of Baekil Group? How little must he think of himself―.
The lips under Representative Chu’s clear gloss trembled faintly. The shock sent a tremor through her hands as well. No matter — no matter that she had once tried to have her own son erased with her own hands — someone this insignificant had no right to reach for him. For the sake of her own pride, for the face and honor and authority of Baekil Group, this absolutely could not be allowed. And now that she thought about it, the fact that he was a man wasn’t even the real issue. Not compared to everything else stacked against him.
“Are you not hearing me?”
When Munyeong didn’t answer, Representative Chu pressed again.
“Ha…. You can’t just walk out of there?”
“…N-no, that’s not it.”
“Of course. Hard to let go of a big catch once you’ve got your hands on it, isn’t it. You’ve spent your whole life with nothing, and then you meet someone like Haejeong, and suddenly it feels like your luck has turned. Isn’t that right?”
Venom pooled in Representative Chu’s eyes. Whether even the sight of him sitting there fidgeting was repulsive to her, she let her disdain show openly, scrutinizing Munyeong’s appearance with undisguised contempt.
His face was decent enough, but the shabby, worn-down way he was dressed made his lowly origins plain for all to see. And the plastic bag he was clutching to himself looked every bit the fitting accessory to complete the picture.
“What a pathetic sight…….”
Representative Chu muttered it almost to herself. Munyeong tightened his grip on Sunggil’s misugaru.
…It’s not pathetic….
He repeated it silently to himself. He thought of Sunggil’s smiling eyes as she pressed the bag into his hands. Wrinkled eyes, a face marked by the passage of time — and in it, a warmth, a gentle kindness. It wasn’t pathetic. It was precious.
“How serious are the two of you, really.”
Representative Chu took a sip of cold water and, tamping down her fury, asked again.
Munyeong drew in a long breath. His chest rose and fell visibly.
“…We’re not… like that.”
“Ha. He paid off your debts. He’s living with you. And you’re telling me you’re not like that?”
“……That was a matter of circumstances…….”
“Even if you say it isn’t, there’s clearly something along those lines.”
“…….”
“The boy is turning down marriage because of you, and you’re saying you’re nothing to each other?”
Representative Chu pressed harder, exaggerating her assumptions to corner him.
“Or — is it that you don’t feel that way, but Haejeong alone is serious?”
“…N-no. That’s… even less true.”
“Then you.”
“…….”
“If you’re nothing to each other, why are you clinging on like a parasite?”
Haejeong and Representative Chu were unmistakably mother and son. It was the first time he’d ever felt so viscerally what bloodline could mean. The way they spoke down to people, the tone — all of it was similar. But sharing blood didn’t make them the same. The malice behind their words was different. Haejeong, at the very least, had never directed contempt at him with that kind of intent.
“Could it be that you’re sticking around because of what happened back then — hoping for some kind of compensation?”
It was a complete misreading, but Munyeong could see how it might look that way to her. Still, he had never had any such intention, not even a sliver of it, so he shook his head once more.
“No….”
“Enough.”
Representative Chu exhaled sharply and extended a hand into the air. Her secretary, who had been standing behind her, automatically reached inside the breast of his suit jacket and produced a thick white envelope, placing it into her outstretched hand. In the same motion, the envelope was tossed onto the table in front of Munyeong. Through the open flap, a thick stack of fifty-thousand-won bills slid into view.
“What is this…….”
“I think that should cover the compensation.”
“…….”
“We gave you compensation back then too, didn’t we. Quite a sum handed over to that facility, if I recall.”
She seemed to be referring to the money paid out to bury the incident. But Munyeong hadn’t taken it. Taking it would have made him truly feel like the perpetrator.
“If you want more, say so. I’ll give it to you. Grudging as it is. This sort of thing tends to work best on people like you.”
“……I have never wanted anything like this.”
“You can be honest. I won’t say a word to Haejeong.”
“…….”
“I heard from the deputy director at the hospital where you were admitted. Your hand has been disabled for over ten years. It seems like it was from what happened back then…. That much, yes — I understand why you’d hold onto it. That’s why I added more, so you shouldn’t feel short-changed.”
“…What is this supposed to mean.”
At that moment, a low and chilling voice cut clean through the café’s jazz music. Munyeong’s hunched shoulders and Representative Chu’s poised ones flinched in unison. Every sound was cut off — even the air seemed to hold its breath. In that terrifying silence, Munyeong slowly raised his bowed head.
“……Haejeong…….”
