CHAPTER 9
“Seol Jaejun sunbae, w-why are you here…?”
“I should be the one asking. Why do you keep hovering around wherever I am?”
Seol Jaejun raised one eyebrow crookedly as he stared at Hong Yumin.
His eyes, deeper than the abyss, were so indifferent that it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Unlike her, who looked flustered like someone caught stealing, he appeared completely at ease.
“I asked why you’re hovering.”
“Seol Jaejun sunbae is the one hovering in front of me.”
Silence fell, and Hong Yumin tightly shut her eyes.
What did I just say?
At that moment, a low chuckle escaped him.
Hong Yumin, as if frightened, clenched her teeth and cautiously lifted one eye.
As expected, he was sneering coldly.
“……No, I mean, what I’m trying to say is, I came here because I had something to do….”
“Looking at loan shark flyers is your business?”
Hong Yumin’s face turned bright red.
She was so embarrassed she wished she could crawl into a hole.
Earlier, she had been caught on a blind date with that bald middle-aged man in his 40s.
And now she had been caught showing interest in loan sharks too.
Hong Yumin chewed her lips and lowered her gaze.
“What have you been doing for the past five years to end up like this?”
Hong Yumin slowly raised her eyes.
His expression was blank, but his voice was sharp with hostility.
He was clearly still furious about her ghosting the assignment five years ago.
“Gambling? Crypto? What did you do to end up so desperate for money that you’re going on blind dates with men old enough to be your uncle and even looking into loan sharks?”
His voice was flat, yet colder than frost, making her shrink.
It wasn’t just Hong Yumin who felt it, as even the people smoking nearby quietly moved away.
“Hong Yumin.”
When she didn’t answer, Seol Jaejun pressed her.
Hong Yumin clenched and unclenched her fists, not knowing what to say.
She couldn’t bring herself to say that she came to see her father, that she wanted to leave her uncle’s house, and that she had been tempted by loan sharks because of her father’s hospital bills.
Five years ago, she had only told him that she was adopted into her uncle’s family.
She hadn’t told him anything about her father.
Because talking about her father meant revealing her unfortunate and painful family history in detail, she had deliberately avoided it.
She was afraid that the man who once liked her for no reason might leave if he learned about her miserable background.
“Hong—”
Perhaps frustrated by the silence, he called her name again.
Hong Yumin cut him off.
“W-we’re not even going to see each other again, so there’s no need for me to tell Seol Jaejun sunbae everything about my personal life.”
Seol Jaejun’s eyes turned chillingly cold.
Hong Yumin was scared, but she pretended otherwise and gave a small nod.
“I’m really sorry about the assignment. If there’s any way to repay it, I’ll do it somehow, so please contact me.”
After blurting everything out in one breath, her face flushed, Hong Yumin hurried past him.
Then she started running with all her strength.
It was shameful and devastating that she had shown her worst side twice to her first love.
Watching Hong Yumin run off without even waiting to be called, Seol Jaejun let out a hollow laugh.
“She still throws around empty promises.”
She told him to contact her but didn’t even leave her contact information.
He watched her back until she disappeared, then raised his phone.
And made a call somewhere.
“Yes, Young Master.”
It was Kwon Yongil.
“Are you looking into that guy Kim Byungtae or whatever?”
“Yes, I will report by this evening.”
“And look into Hong Yumin in detail as well, from how she lived after going to Germany to her current financial situation, everything. Ah, and also dig up all the details about her biological parents before the adoption.”
After receiving confirmation, Seol Jaejun ended the call.
In fact, even at the hotel lounge café, he had considered letting go of his interest in her.
It was too sudden of a meeting, and he thought they would never cross paths again.
However, on the way to the hospital, the thought of her marrying some shady man kept bothering him, making it hard to even focus on driving.
And then, as soon as he arrived at the hospital, he saw that familiar figure again.
Hong Yumin, bending awkwardly, quietly staring at an ashtray that reached up to her waist.
Dumbfounded, he slowly closed the distance.
To confirm whether it was really her.
As he got closer, pushing through the cigarette smoke, the faint fruity scent that tickled his senses gave him the answer to why she had been on his mind.
That running into Hong Yumin like this must be fate.
That the heavens were giving him a chance to make up for the wrong she had done to him.
Thinking that way made his blood boil as if his veins would burst.
It felt as though adrenaline surged through him, and his mood soared explosively.
In that state, he closed the distance between them.
“I wonder how much they’d lend. How high would the interest be….”
She muttered.
While looking at a loan shark flyer.
The one who once drove me crazy.
What kind of situation are you in to be struggling at rock bottom like this?
My pride, which once went crazy over you, is completely shattered.
At that moment, the phone in his hand rang.
It was his mother.
He rejected the call and took a step forward.
“Ah.”
Then he stopped again and took a photo of the loan shark flyer attached to the ashtray.
Arriving at the VIP ward, Seol Jaejun passed the guards standing in front of the room and walked up to the door.
As he opened it, he made eye contact with Seo Jeonghwa, who was sitting on a luxurious hospital bed, sniffling.
“My son… why aren’t you answering your mother’s calls? Hm? Do you want to see your mother go crazy?”
At Seo Jeonghwa’s resentful voice, Seol Jaejun let out a quiet sigh only he could hear and approached the bed.
Seo Jeonghwa tapped the bed sheet as if telling him to sit next to her.
However, Seol Jaejun dragged a chair nearby and sat down instead.
“You look healthy. Your makeup is perfect. Your beauty is still the same.”
“……What?”
“You don’t seem sick. What’s the diagnosis that got you hospitalized? Stress-induced gastritis?”
Seo Jeonghwa pouted her lips.
“Your grandmother.”
He had expected that.
The real power behind Taehyun Group, Madam Lee Wangrae.
His paternal grandmother and his mother’s greatest rival.
Although his late grandfather, the founding chairman, was the official head, everyone in the group knew that the real authority was in her hands.
So no matter how much one loved their children, they had no choice but to obey her words.
His father, the eldest son, followed his grandmother’s words especially well and never defied her.
Because of that, his mother was always under stress.
As the eldest daughter-in-law of Taehyun Group, she had her own share of hardships.
“This too shall pass.”
At Seol Jaejun’s consolation, Seo Jeonghwa shook her head.
“No. This time, she really dropped a bomb.”
Madam Lee Wangrae had always made unreasonable demands on the eldest son’s family, but his father had somehow managed to resolve them every time.
“No, trust father.”
“Even your father can’t handle this one!”
“What is it?”
“The eldest grandson’s marriage.”
“……If it’s the eldest grandson, you mean my marriage?”
“Yes. She said to get you married within this year and push the hotel’s stock price to its maximum!”
“Who’s the bride?”
“Oh, I don’t know.”
Seo Jeonghwa rubbed her temples, complaining in frustration.
“No matter how good a bride candidate I bring, do you think she’ll just accept it? Hm? She’ll definitely oppose it with all kinds of excuses! Your grandmother hates me!”
“…….”
“I can’t even choose my own son’s bride freely!”
Seol Jaejun grabbed her wrist as she struck her chest repeatedly.
“Don’t worry. I’ll find a bride that you’ll absolutely love.”
Seo Jeonghwa, her eyes already bloodshot, looked at him and let out a deep sigh before continuing.
“And you think that’s all?”
