Chapter 4
Park Jeong-woo Oppa
You didn’t forget our lunch appointment tomorrow, did you? I’ll be waiting at the restaurant. I have something to tell you.
Disappointment flickered in Lee-jae’s eyes when she checked the message.
It was a message from Jeong-woo.
As the son of a district assemblyman, he had often come to visit this house since childhood.
Among all the guests, he was the only one who had treated Lee-jae like a person.
Yes. See you tomorrow.
Lee-jae sent a short reply and let out a sigh.
For a moment, she felt foolish for having thought it might be a message from Do-geon.
* * *
The next day.
Lee-jae entered through the hotel’s main entrance for her appointment with Jeong-woo. Over the phone, her friend Areum was continuing to vent angrily.
―You know Seo Hyo-won stole your place, right? Using her dad’s connections.
“…….”
―Hey, say something. She doesn’t even have the skills, and she’s already causing a commotion bribing people with money.
Lee-jae had originally been slated for the main role in this regular performance. But because of her ankle injury, Hyo-won had taken that position.
―Lee-jae? Seo Lee-jae! Did you hang up?
At the words that Hyo-won had ultimately taken her role, Lee-jae stopped breathing for a moment.
Her own limping reflection in the full-length glass looked especially pitiful today.
It had been half a year since she injured her left ankle and began to limp.
During a performance, a stage light had fallen directly above Lee-jae’s head. It had been a chunk of metal weighing over 100 kilograms.
She had barely managed to avoid it and save her life, but her left ankle had been injured.
She had gone from hospital to hospital, but every doctor had shaken their head.
―Are you talking to Seo Lee-jae? What’s she even doing with her life these days?
―She’ll probably marry off somewhere. She was always that pretty, but if you don’t have money, your fate gets ugly fast.
―Well, she is pretty. But so what? My dad said Seo Lee-jae might end up being married off as some older man’s mistress.
She could hear the mocking voices of friends she had known since arts middle school.
―Hey, don’t talk trash about Lee-jae. Do you want to die by my hands?
―I’ve hated her since we were little. It annoyed me how she had no money and had to wait alone in front of restaurants until we all finished eating.
―I hated how she swept all the competitions too. Did she think she was the only talented one?
―That was because Lee-jae was actually good! How is that her fault?
Hearing even Areum’s voice trying to stop them, Lee-jae ended the call. The hand holding the phone dropped limply.
As she stared at her left ankle, which felt especially weak today, for some reason her chest stung.
As if things were not bad enough, she had felt unwell from the moment she woke up. It seemed she had caught a cold.
The storage room with no heat was too cold in the middle of winter. Even wrapped in her coat, she had to sleep while shivering.
“Lee-jae!”
As she was heading toward the restaurant, she saw Jeong-woo. He had a gentle impression, with the corners of his eyes curving softly when he smiled.
“Seo Lee-jae, long time no see.”
“It hasn’t even been a week since you came to my uncle’s house.”
“Is that so? Then why does it feel like it’s been so long since I’ve seen you? Let’s eat something good today. I will treat you.”
“What did you want to tell me?”
“I’ll tell you while we eat later. But are you not feeling well? You’re breaking out in a cold sweat.”
It was just as Jeong-woo gently brushed aside the strands of hair clinging to Lee-jae’s forehead.
Ding. The chime rang as the elevator arrived. The moment the doors opened, a rich musk scent brushed past her nose.
Without thinking, Lee-jae turned her head.
The elevator doors slowly opened. And the moment her eyes met someone’s through the widening gap, her heart dropped heavily.
It was Beom Do-geon.
Yesterday, his dress shirt had hung loose and undone, lazily exposing his firm chest, but today it was fastened quite neatly.
“……U-Uncle.”
Lee-jae’s eyes widened when she saw Professor Seo standing behind Beom Do-geon.
The dress shoe of Beom Do-geon, standing right in the center, touched the marble floor first. Behind him followed powerful assemblymen from the political world.
Assemblyman Park recognized his son and asked,
“Jeong-woo, what are you doing here?”
Beom Do-geon cast an indifferent gaze over. His eyes briefly landed on Jeong-woo’s hand as it gently stroked Lee-jae’s hair, then fell away.
“I had a lunch appointment with Lee-jae.”
At Jeong-woo’s words, someone said loudly,
“Assemblyman Park, why don’t you have lunch with your son as well? We have reason enough to congratulate Prosecutor Park, don’t we?”
* * *
In the end, Lee-jae had no choice but to join the meal with the politicians.
She had said they need not mind her and that she would go home, but she was ultimately unable to resist the insistence of Jeong-woo and Assemblyman Park, who said they could not send her off alone.
A troubled look crossed Lee-jae’s face at suddenly having to share a meal with people she had never met before.
That was all the more so because the man she had secretly gone on a blind date with yesterday without Professor Seo knowing was there with them.
But the man seated in the place of highest honor did not even seem to remember Lee-jae at all.
He only took occasional drinks of alcohol and did not send a single glance her way.
It seemed Lee-jae was the only one tense, recalling their intense reunion.
She had felt it yesterday too, but Beom Do-geon’s presence was truly unmatched even among the three-term assemblymen. She could feel that even they were watching him carefully.
“She really has such a pure and pretty look. You said she’s your niece, Professor Seo, right?”
“Yes. She grew up almost like siblings with Prosecutor Park Jeong-woo here.”
“Haha, Prosecutor Park has an excellent character. Isn’t that why such a gentle man stole the heart of Seonhwa Group’s only daughter?”
“Prosecutor Park, belated as it is, congratulations on your engagement!”
Jeong-woo accepted the congratulations awkwardly, conscious of Lee-jae.
“Lee-jae should hurry and get married too, following him as an example. As for my Hyo-won, well, things seem likely to work out.”
Professor Seo looked at Do-geon with a satisfied smile.
He had dreams of entering politics. He absolutely had to attach himself to Beom Do-geon in order to pursue his ambitions.
“Now then, who would be a good match.”
Lee-jae merely rolled innocent grains of rice around with her chopsticks.
Jeong-woo spoke up.
“Professor Seo, Lee-jae is still young. She’s only twenty…….”
“Yes. That’s exactly why.”
Lee-jae cut across Jeong-woo’s words.
She could not go against her eldest uncle’s wishes in an official setting. If she did, life would become so harsh that she might not even be able to leave the storage room for quite some time.
Jeong-woo looked at Lee-jae with startled eyes, then, as if his throat had suddenly gone dry, emptied his wine glass in one gulp.
“If there are any assemblymen interested in Lee-jae, please do let me know. Wouldn’t it be fine to take her as a second wife? She’s still young and innocent. I’m sure she’d be enjoyable to teach one thing at a time.”
At Professor Seo’s crude joke, the assemblymen laughed.
The fingertips of Lee-jae’s hand gripping the knife trembled slightly. She could feel the gaze of the man seated in the place of honor resting on her. Lee-jae flinched and set the knife down on the table.
There was nothing good that could come from drawing Do-geon’s attention right now. If Professor Seo found out that his niece had gone in place of the blind date he had carefully arranged for his beloved daughter, there was no telling how furious he would be.
Even Beom Do-geon, casually swirling his glass, kept tightening her breath just by being there.
“Executive Director, this is your first time seeing this child, isn’t it? She’s my niece. In any case, since you may soon become family, perhaps it would be good for you to greet each other.”
Professor Seo continued speaking.
“What are you doing, Lee-jae. Offer your greeting. This is Beom Do-geon, Executive Director of Mujung Group. The gentleman who saw Hyo-won on a blind date yesterday.”
Lee-jae’s hands resting on her lap trembled faintly.
She smiled as calmly as she could.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you for the first time. I’m Seo Lee-jae.”
“For the first time?”
At the man’s mocking smile, the corners of Lee-jae’s mouth faltered slightly.
She looked at him, wondering if he meant to reveal the truth here.
Then his gaze turned on her as if to say, How dare you stare at me so directly, and Lee-jae hurriedly lowered her eyes. The man showed no sign of being the first to look away.
“Well, even if we do become family, she’s the sort you don’t need to pay attention to. My late younger brother suddenly showed up after having a child, so I ended up taking responsibility for her. As you know, there are far too many vermin bastards in this world.”
Lee-jae desperately suppressed the urge to get up and leave that very moment. Her stomach churned.
“Lee-jae, are you okay? Should we go out?”
Jeong-woo worried as he looked at Lee-jae’s deathly pale face. He gently wiped the cold sweat beading on her forehead with his handkerchief.
While everyone else was listening to Professor Seo speak, Beom Do-geon, who had been focused only on drinking from his glass in front of him, suddenly let out a short laugh through his lips. Then he tilted his head back and began to laugh loudly.
“…….”
The assemblymen, watching the man’s mood, laughed along with him.
It was truly laughter with no context at all.
Once again, Lee-jae felt who held the highest position in this room.
Was power something that could make people laugh so easily?
“Executive Director, whatever is the matter…….”
Professor Seo, laughing along without understanding why, finally asked in confusion.
“Because it’s amusing.”
Beom Do-geon stopped laughing and instantly wiped all expression from his face. The assemblymen in the room, once again watching him carefully, abruptly cut off their laughter too.
Lee-jae swallowed hard at the bizarre atmosphere filled with forced laughter. Her throat tightened dryly.
Beom Do-geon looked at Jeong-woo with eyes so cold they were almost icy, then stared directly through Lee-jae.
“Especially the way he looks at her, who claims to be her ‘Oppa’…….”
Without hiding it in the slightest, he mocked them openly.
“It’s filthy enough to be good.”
“…….”
“Ah, that’s turning me on.”
