PHUW 113

The Chairwoman fell into thought. Had she been like this when meeting alone with Choi Sangeon too? Or was she sparing in her words only because it was him? The study’s soundproofing was so complete that he had never known what kind of conversations had taken place inside.

“Sit down.”

The Chairwoman pointed at an elegant chair with traditional patterns nearby. Through the intercom, the only modern object in the study, she ordered the kitchen to bring tea. It was a sign that the conversation would be long.

The kitchen staff, already waiting, quickly prepared lotus tea, her favorite, then left. Her hand, adorned with a top-grade jade ring worth hundreds of millions, grasped a round white porcelain teacup.

“Drink.”

It was not a suggestion, but an order. The white porcelain cup was perfectly sized for her hand, but in Jeong Mok’s hand it seemed far too small, like holding a soju glass. Yet the tea inside was so hot it could not be swallowed immediately. He rolled it around his mouth and swallowed slowly.

“I had thought there might come a day when I would have such a conversation with you. But not in this way.”

The Chairwoman spoke.

“So did I.”

So had Jeong Mok. Even after hearing that she had been furious, he had not imagined she would summon him to the family study. She had always looked down at him with cold eyes, and even after he grew tall, she only ever delivered her words through the professor. Even that had been rare.

“Why do you think that?”

“Pardon?”

Not knowing what she meant, he asked back.

“If the one who caused all this trouble didn’t know, who would?”

“Ah, you mean this private meeting.”

At that, the Chairwoman’s gaze sharpened.

“Why, do you dislike facing me directly?”

“That’s not what I meant. It’s just…”

“Just what?”

Jeong Mok set down the cup he had still been holding.

“I’m surprised that you are seeing me properly.”

“Seeing you properly?”

“Yes.”

Understanding what he meant, the Chairwoman let out a scoff.

“So you mean I hadn’t before. I wasn’t blind. If you mean I lacked the sense, then… let’s be honest. I never looked kindly on you.”

Her slender shoulders, wrapped in hanbok, settled calmly.

“You have the face of that lunatic I still regret not tearing apart with my own hands, and now you carry the same eyes my sister had when she caused trouble. How could I ever look kindly on that?”

The Chairwoman’s lips curved upward, amused by something.

“What kind of eyes do you mean?”

“The kind that say, whether you allow it or not, this person is mine. So don’t interfere. Foolish, arrogant, and dangerous eyes.”

“I didn’t know my mother had that side.”

“She was remarkable. She even bested our father, a man I never dared to oppose, and went to live with that scoundrel.”

The Chairwoman sipped her tea again. Jeong Mok wondered how she could drink something so steaming hot as if it were nothing.

“Your mother, Heejae, once she made up her mind, no one could stop her. Even that stern father had to yield before her. She was my sister, but I can’t count the times I wanted to throw her down and spank her. But she was my only sister, so in the end both Father and I lost to her. If nothing else, we should have opposed her marriage to the very end.”

The Chairwoman gazed into the air for a moment, lost in thought, then let out another brief laugh.

“We did try something. Father sent men to beat that bastard half to death, and Heejae was dragged off, her head shaved, and locked in a hermitage in Jirisan. We thought that would be the end of it. But those wretches were a step ahead of us. The monk at the hermitage wrote to say, “Sir, sir, the young lady seems to be with child.” Ha! We were utterly beaten.”

“I never heard of that.”

“Of course not. We panicked, rushed the marriage through, and then it turned out to be a lie.”

“What? What do you mean?”

The Chairwoman let out a short sigh.

“At that time, what unmarried girl would go to an obstetrician? She pretended to have morning sickness and insisted she was pregnant, and we had no choice but to believe it. Noh Heejae, that wench, deceived us all. Even the hermitage monk.”

“Ah.”

There was nothing to say. They beat the young man who dallied with their daughter, shaved her head and locked her in a hermitage, and then the false pregnancy that had broken through every barrier.

“The wedding was rushed through before her belly could show. Only afterward did we find out. If you count from the date you were born, it was at least half a year after the marriage. If there had been a real child, she should have already delivered one or at least shown by then.”

“……”

It felt somewhat shameful. Not that it was anything Jeong Mok had reason to be ashamed of, but somehow it felt that way.

“Looking back, that’s how it was. If it was a bond that was bound to end anyway, we should have left them alone. They would have burned themselves out and broken apart. But beating him, shaving her head, forcing them apart only made her dig in her heels like a stubborn frog.”

The Chairwoman refilled her empty cup with tea.

“What I regret even more is that after watching Heejae make such a spectacle, I foolishly thought, surely my own child wouldn’t be the same.”

She was speaking of Choi Sangeon.

“Your hyung and sister-in-law’s romance is still gossiped about at headquarters.”

“Truly shameful.”

Her face actually flushed.

“And it was Sangeon who first… Hm. Come to think of it, it was Heejae who made the first move on your father. Same with Jieon. What kind of ridiculous family history is this?”

If one thought carefully, wasn’t she the one who had started by taking her own spouse first?

Theirs had been an arranged marriage through the elders, but the ambitious Chairwoman, who had at first intimidated the professor enough to make him decline, had taken to him immediately. Inspired by the then-new idea of fish-farming in pens, she had made it look as though she let him free, but in fact confined and raised him until she claimed him. Jeong Jieon had once boasted of it.

“Was it you who started it? Did you lay hands first on that poor boy who had lost his memory in an accident?”

Ah. So it wasn’t simple hypocrisy. That was the issue. That was something she intended to check.

“No. I absolutely did not touch him first… There were one or two moments that may have caused misunderstanding, but I kept myself in check, in the sense that I dealt with him clear-headedly, not as a man to a woman, but with my mind steady.”

“Nonsense. Sangeon, Jieon. Even your mother Heejae. With such a history in this family, how could you be any different?”

The Chairwoman clearly did not believe him. Even though appearances alone made it seem natural to think otherwise, he felt frustrated.

Should he confess that it had been Ahn Haeri, with his eccentric streak, who had forced himself on him first, despite all his efforts to draw a line, to resist, and still to endure even now? Beyond the shame, he hated the thought of laying bare his private life, and besides, she would not believe him anyway. As long as he lived with Ahn Haeri, it was a misunderstanding he would have to carry forever.

His face warmed with embarrassment and resentment. He lowered it, brushing it with a soft sigh.

“Is that why you called me here?”

“It was one reason.”

“What else do you want to know?”

The Chairwoman pointed at one of the open files. It was a report on Hongil Trading.

“What are you going to do about it?”

“I intend to treat it as if it doesn’t exist.”

“Is that so?”

She gave a sly laugh, the corners of her mouth curling as though savoring something.

“Yesterday, you know, that eldest son from the second branch, who used to just toss a gift to his secretary at holidays called me in person.”

Only then did Jeong Mok realize what she truly wanted to ask. The eldest son of the younger branch was the son of Noh Jutae, the younger brother of the late Noh Yeongtae, and her cousin. He was a most troublesome man, constantly butting heads with her over the leadership of Hyeonsan. He also led the entire second branch on behalf of his father, who was still alive but barely breathing.

“What did he say?”

“He asked if all was well, and bragged that soon he would have two more grandchildren. Then he asked if I meant to leave the Vice Chairman’s seat vacant like this.”

Vacant, he said. Even though Jeong Mok was sitting in it, if only in an acting capacity. But he had long grown used to being treated as nonexistent, so he felt no particular offense.

It was the Chairwoman who was angered instead.

“He says he doesn’t see this big lump of a man here. I thought of recommending him a good place for cataract surgery, but he waved it off. Instead, he asked me when I last had a dementia checkup.”

It seemed an exchange of words more insulting than curses had flown between them. The Chairwoman pretended otherwise, but her painted lips twisted with rage.

“He said carrying around a burning coal inside my skirts as if it were pretty made me look like a senile patient. Insolent bastard. With his slippery tongue he feeds poison sweetly, exactly like his father.”

The burning coal must have meant him. The fire not going out likely referred to the investigation into his past violence having already ended.

“So you just listened?”

“Me? Hah. As if.”

The Chairwoman sneered.

“Compared to our coal, the rotting fruit on their tree, heavy with branches, is the real worry. From long ago it was infested with worms, and now even foreign worms have flown in from across the sea. They poured poison on it, but instead of cleansing, it only rots further. To the point the stench spreads all the way here. When I said so, he lost his temper and cut me off.”