PHUW 145

The Professor could not hide his bewilderment, Jeong Mok’s expression was gradually hardening, and Haeri was so stunned it felt like his breath was caught in his throat. Only the Chairwoman remained calm. She did not budge an inch, like a towering mountain. It was by no means a compliment.

There were many kinds of mountains. Some had rugged slopes, some were gentle. Some were fertile mountains that embraced life with abundant water and soil. Others, though there might be a few trees at the base, grew barer and barer as one climbed, until nothing remained but hard, cold stone, the peak stripped bare, so barren not even weeds could grow.

The Chairwoman was the latter. If she had been a man, she would have had the impression of a bald head.

“Are you going to keep standing?”

She asked while pouring her own tea. It was not kindness, but neither was it cold. More like, “Why be so startled over this?” or “It hurts my neck to look up at you, sit down.”

Years of part-time jobs had honed Haeri’s bad-customer radar. And this was the most dangerous kind, the worst kind. The type who would quietly listen to complaints and nod, then go off to flood the district office, city hall, anywhere possible with endless complaints until a store was forced to close. Because there had been no argument to their face, the owner never suspected them and suffered helplessly.

Only later, when the store was gone and rumors spread about what had happened, did people realize it had been that person’s doing.

In short, the type who ruined you not with words but elegantly with action. Absolutely not someone you should go against.

Haeri sat down quietly.

“Chairwoman, you can treat me however you like. But not Haeri.”

Unlike Haeri, Jeong Mok pressed on with his protest. An aura of “bad customer” began to rise around the chairwoman like a shimmering halo. The kind of energy that would pile up and pile up until it turned into overwhelming complaint power. If it was the Chairwoman making the complaint, it would not just be a district office that moved, but the National Assembly, the prosecutor’s office, even the police. They might not be able to live in Korea at all.

Haeri slapped Jeong Mok’s hand as fast as someone jamming the “close” button in an elevator while holding in a sudden case of diarrhea.

“Apologize at once, what are you doing?”

Jeong Mok had been ignoring him and continuing to talk, but when Haeri clung to his arm and pulled him down to sit, he finally stopped and turned to him.

“I was a little shocked, but I’m sure she said it with my good in mind. Right, Chairwoman?”

The Chairwoman looked at Haeri again with surprise. This was the crucial moment. If he could not shift her here, it would become impossible.

“Hm. You’re more reasonable than I thought.”

It was a good sign that she had backed off a little. But now was not the time to say he had been hurt. He had to bow down, crawl softly, erase every last trace of resistance. Otherwise she would evolve into a higher-level villain, one who both scolded and filed complaints at the same time.

Now was the time. Haeri stood up, bent ninety degrees, and apologized.

“Of course. I’m truly sorry for replying rudely earlier.”

“No. On second thought, I may have been a little… hasty myself.”

This was a family that seemed like a living testimony of cultural heritage. But that didn’t mean they were narrow-minded. His social studies teacher had once said that surprisingly, scholars of old were often more open. Looking at the Chairwoman and the Professor, who perfectly upheld the old husband-wife structure of “outside man, inside woman,” yet in fact had inverted the gender roles, it made sense.

So the Chairwoman was not unyielding in every respect. Not that she wasn’t an old-fashioned authoritarian. But if you gave way, she knew how to step back as well.

The Professor seemed to accept Haeri’s change of attitude well enough. But Jeong Mok did not. He clearly didn’t understand why Haeri was bowing his head to the Chairwoman.

“Why are you doing this? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I’ll explain everything when we get home, so just do as I say for now.”

“…Alright.”

The Chairwoman’s eyes grew dangerous again as she watched them whisper. Are you mocking me by whispering in front of me? Are you just humoring me because you see me as a bad customer? That was it exactly.

“Hyung is overly sensitive about my problems. We went to the museum earlier. Even when a tiny kindergartener came close, he pushed them away. I was really shocked.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes. I was so embarrassed I thought I’d die.”

Haeri pressed down firmly on Jeong Mok’s foot, just in case he ruined the mood again. The man was not entirely clueless, and as hoped, he kept his mouth shut.

Haeri smiled brightly at the Chairwoman, who still looked doubtful. “I harbor no disrespectful thoughts at all. Please rest assured.” If he had had a little pompom, he would have shaken it.

He was so nervous it felt like his breath might stop, but then the Chairwoman faintly smiled.

“The in-law, I did find out where she is and what she’s doing. But I didn’t say you were looking for her. She might not even know you exist.”

Jeong Mok flinched as if that part had angered him, but thanks to Haeri’s foot pressing on his like a brake, any rash response was shut down early.

“So. When will you meet your mother?”

So the meeting was already decided?

“Not yet… I’m not ready. I don’t have any memories of her. Since I have no memory, there’s no real longing either. It feels like she just fell from the sky.”

Haeri answered as pitifully as possible.

“Her face then? Do you remember her face?”

The Professor cut in.

“No. My mom ran away not long after I was born. There aren’t even photos.”

“Oh dear.”

“Honestly, even if I met her, I wouldn’t recognize her as my mom.”

“A DNA test was done. She’s your mother.”

What. Absolutely what.

“You already went that far? Say you somehow got my biological mother’s DNA, but how did you get mine?”

Jeong Mok asked her. This time Haeri was so dumbfounded he didn’t even think to step on Jeong Mok’s foot to stop him.

“Haeri’s DNA is all over hospitals.”

“You should have at least told him, or at the very least given me a hint.”

“I’m telling you now.”

She’s impossible to reason with. Hyung, endure it, you’re better looking. Chairwoman, please stop. If I lose my temper, I’m the one who’ll suffer later.

Pleading directly with her would be useless. In these cases, it was more effective to appeal to the company of the bad customer, not the bad customer herself.

Haeri’s eyes naturally turned to the Professor. But instead of helping him, he stood up. “What, you’re abandoning me in this situation? Forget Jeong Mok, shouldn’t you at least keep the Chairwoman in check?”

Just as he was silently cursing, the Professor checked outside the folding door, then smiled brightly.

“Come now, let’s go to dinner.”

Curses withdrawn. Thank you, Professor. I’ll study hard from now on.

At the dinner table, Choi Jieon and her husband joined them. Like Jeong Mok, Choi Jieon was beautiful, but her expression was mostly cold and blunt. In contrast, her husband Baek Seunghyeon was a handsome man whose features exuded refinement, though of a completely different type. Pale-faced with a round, gentle look, simply put, he had a “tofu face.”

Come to think of it, the Professor also had sharply defined, deep features like an old-fashioned classic beauty, but his overall impression was kind and gentle. Haeri himself wasn’t the type who got by on looks.

On the other hand, there was the Chairwoman, whose round face still radiated energy like the sun, Choi Jieon, who fully displayed the power of her slender face and well-defined features inherited from the Professor, and Jeong Mok, who looked like a carbon copy of the obsessive madman who had entered the chaebol family with his face alone, succumbed to morbid jealousy, and killed his wife.

The contrast was striking. So striking that Haeri wondered if the reason Jeong Mok was obsessed with him came from family history.

The food looked as if it had been taken straight from the pages of a royal cuisine book, refined yet aromatic and appetizing. Haeri’s mouth watered. Normally he would have vacuumed it up in “cleaner mode.” Unfortunately, right now he wasn’t confident he could digest it.

“What’s with the atmosphere? Did something happen while I was gone?”

Unable to stand the clinking of utensils over a silent table, Choi Jieon spoke. The Chairwoman ignored her, and so did Jeong Mok. Since Haeri wasn’t in a position to speak, it naturally fell to the Professor to briefly explain what had just happened.

“The Chairwoman dropped a bomb without warning.”

“Watch your mouth. Don’t call your in-law a bomb when you haven’t even properly greeted her yet.”

“I mean the Chairwoman is the bomb, not the in-law.”

Choi Jieon corrected herself. The Chairwoman stopped mid-motion with her spoon and stared at her daughter. Jieon only shrugged, but her husband Seunghyeon, sitting beside her, fumbled awkwardly with his spoon, startled. The sight was somehow pitiful.

“So, when’s the formal meeting?”

“The person concerned will decide.”

Jeong Mok answered. But something had been bothering Haeri for a while. It wasn’t the sudden matter of his mother. His instincts told him he should object immediately, but he didn’t even know to what.