Chapter 13
“Grandmother…?”
Ilbong approached Seung-ah with a bright smile.
“That’s right. I knew it—the moment I heard your voice from a distance, I thought it sounded just like Teacher Choi. If you came to my house, you should have looked for me first.”
“This is your house? Here?”
Ilbong nodded vigorously and pointed to the koi swimming in the pond.
“These are the ones I feed every day! Aren’t their colors splendid?”
“Y-yes, they are.”
That these expensive-looking koi, the vast garden, and the dazzling mansion all belonged to her grandmother…
When the assemblyman mentioned “Chairman Geum,” the thought had briefly crossed Seung-ah’s mind—but she hadn’t imagined it would come to this.
Seung-ah subtly signaled toward Yujin standing beside her.
“I only came here because Mr. Han Yujin brought me. He didn’t tell me anything like that.”
Ilbong, as if she had already guessed, replied,
“So that’s how it was. Well, if you had known this was my house, Teacher Choi, you would have sought me out first. Looks like Yujin wanted to surprise the both of us.”
“Indeed, Grandmother.”
For a fleeting moment, Ilbong gave Yujin a sharp look, but he only smiled easily.
Watching their warm interaction in a daze, the assemblyman’s aide hurried back to Pil-du.
“Sir, that young lady seems to be on especially close terms with Chairman Geum.”
“Impossible!” Pil-du denied immediately.
Ilbong was not the type to trust others easily, nor did she open her heart readily. If a young woman were truly close to her, Pil-du would have known about it.
After all, anyone who wanted to ask Ilbong a personal favor had to investigate her associates first.
And yet—how could a woman who wasn’t even on the guest list be friendly with Geum Ilbong, chairwoman of Hanwool Group? Instinctively, Pil-du rejected the notion.
But what about that gentle smile Ilbong had just shown?
While Pil-du swallowed dryly, his aide kept whispering,
“She’s usually stiff as a pole, but look at her treating that young lady like a granddaughter-in-law. What if that woman says something unfavorable to Chairman Geum?”
Pil-du shook his head. No matter how he looked at it, Seung-ah didn’t seem like someone who could divulge private matters to the chairman.
She’s not even her granddaughter.
With that thought, Pil-du strode over to Ilbong.
“Oh, Madam Chairman, how have you been? This is Assemblyman Park Pil-du, here to pay his respects after a long time.”
He bowed stiffly, his usually unbending head lowered with precise formality.
And he didn’t forget to add a line to flatter her.
“Your grandson has grown even more handsome since I last saw him. Such a princely face! Of course, what else could we expect from your bloodline, Madam Chairman? Hahaha!”
His booming laughter rang out like a steam whistle.
But no one responded.
An awkward silence stretched. Pil-du smacked his lips and glanced around, realizing no one intended to answer. He cautiously spoke again.
“By the way… may I ask what relation this young lady has with you, Madam Chairman?”
He snapped his head toward Seung-ah, suspicion etched on his face.
Until then, Ilbong had stood proudly, not batting an eye. At last she opened her mouth.
“Assemblyman Park Pil-du, you must be busy with parliamentary affairs. What brings you all the way here?”
Her voice was calm, but her piercing gaze was icy.
The stark contrast from the warm demeanor she’d shown Seung-ah moments ago was obvious to everyone.
Pil-du felt a trace of intimidation from the old woman, who was half his size.
Still, he quickly plastered on his signature oily smile. Winning Ilbong’s favor was essential if he wanted to ease the party leader’s hostility toward him.
“How could I not come, when Madam Chairman herself is hosting a banquet? I’d be remiss. I’d be so hurt if you thought otherwise.”
Ilbong arched an eyebrow, her eyes slowly shifting between Pil-du and Seung-ah.
“I hear there was some disturbance just a while ago.”
“Disturbance? In your garden, Madam Chairman? Impossible!”
“Then why, Assemblyman, did you happen to soil such an embarrassing spot?”
Following her gaze, Pil-du looked down.
His trousers were still damp at the crotch, where Seung-ah had spilled water on him earlier.
It looked for all the world as though he had wet himself.
And now he had shown such a shameful sight in front of Ilbong and her grandson Yujin.
Heat rose in his chest like molten lava. He barely restrained his face from contorting and waved his hand as though joking.
“Oh, Madam Chairman! Please, it’s not what you think!”
There was no need to bring up his run-in with Seung-ah. Suspicious as he was about her identity, Ilbong seemed to welcome her as a guest.
Pil-du thought to stay silent and let the matter pass, believing it could be forgotten as long as he kept his mouth shut.
What he never expected was for Seung-ah herself to speak up.
“I was the one who spilled water on the assemblyman’s clothes.”
Ilbong turned to her.
“How did that happen?”
“I didn’t realize he was behind me. When I turned around, I bumped into him and dropped my glass of water.”
“My, my. In this vast garden with no one else around, you just happened to bump into him?”
Her words implied: why would Pil-du approach her in the first place? Ilbong looked puzzled.
But Pil-du couldn’t answer.
Because she might have overheard me talking about nominations, golden turtles, and Chairman Geum…
That was the only reason he had approached her, but he couldn’t admit it. He had been gossiping about the chairman behind her back.
Above all, irritation flared that Seung-ah dared to open her mouth.
She was at fault for spilling water; shouldn’t she have kept silent?
If not for her, he could have smoothly broached the subject of nominations already. But now the conversation had shifted away.
Seung-ah, catching his twisted lips, continued,
“I apologized to him, but he insulted me, so we had a bit of an argument.”
“What? An argument? With Assemblyman Park Pil-du, a public servant, against a young lady?”
“He called me trash and a bug, then told the person next to him to get rid of the bug.”
Any attempt to silence her had failed. Both Yujin and Ilbong turned their gaze on Pil-du’s aide, who was sweating profusely.
Pil-du bowed to Ilbong, groveling.
“A misunderstanding, Madam Chairman. I didn’t mean it like that. The young lady must have misunderstood.”
But Seung-ah pressed on.
“More precisely, he said: ‘To think you’d let such trash into the party—Chairman Geum must be losing her wits!’”
Repeating his words exactly, Seung-ah finally drew a ferocious glare from Pil-du.
“That’s not what I—!”
Ilbong cut him off.
“There is an old saying: The mouth is the gate through which misfortune enters. One must always guard one’s words.”
Her gaze locked on his, as if to pin him in place.
“Apologize.”
“No, I… well, it was just a trivial matter…”
“Are you truly so frivolous, Assemblyman, as to raise your voice over a trivial matter in someone else’s front garden?”
She turned her eyes toward the pond, frowning slightly, and spoke softly,
“People never realize that even trivial matters can alter the course of their future. They strut about arrogantly, and when regret comes, they still blame others.”
Pil-du’s jaw twitched.
So my aide didn’t even properly check who she was.
With those words, Ilbong had stripped away even his chance to scold his subordinate.
This old woman has a silver tongue…
There was no way to respond. Any bluster would only sour her mood further.
Throughout their exchange, Ilbong kept Seung-ah standing protectively behind her.
It was clear she cherished the girl, and Pil-du needed to soothe her displeasure if he wanted to bring up his own requests.
He stammered,
“Ah, well… what I meant was…”
Fine. Just admit I spoke harshly—that would be enough…
But Pil-du’s arrogant nature balked. Even the word apology was foreign to him.
Perhaps he could bow to Ilbong herself.
But to lower himself before some woman whose family he didn’t even know? His iron-tough pride wouldn’t allow it.
He opened and closed his mouth like a gasping carp, until Ilbong said mildly,
“If you have nothing more to say, then we shall take our leave.”
It was a clear dismissal.
“W-wait, just a moment!”
