Chapter 10

The next morning, Okhyun appeared at the breakfast table looking much more at ease than she had the day before.

“Sunwoo, did you sleep well last night? How are you feeling?”

Okhyun believed that the talisman Yonghwa the shaman had attached to Sunwoo the previous day had helped with his recovery, so she had calmed down again.

“I don’t feel too bad.”

Sunwoo had also put the argument from last night out of his mind. He had gone through similar things countless times during the past three years, the period of his samjae.

“How’s your wrist?”

“They said I only need to wear the splint for three weeks. Honestly, it doesn’t hurt enough to need a splint, so it’s just uncomfortable.”

He moved his wrist back and forth as if to prove that he had no trouble moving it.

“Still, you have to listen to the doctor. Even if it’s annoying, don’t use your left hand for three weeks. You’re the pillar of our family, so you need to take care of yourself.”

“Yes.”

“If you make it through this year safely, I’ll give you everything I have come January, so just endure a little longer. You’ve endured for two years and eleven months. Surely you can endure another two months.”

Next year, when his samjae ended, Sunwoo would take over as the CEO of a subsidiary within Samjung Group. Everything was going according to the plan Okhyun, the real power behind the scenes, had laid out.

“We can only secure the future of the Jung family because we have you. So always be careful.”

“Yes.”

The shares of Samjung Group were intricately intertwined through a circular ownership structure among four affiliates.

Electronics, Trading, Construction, and Motors each served as holding companies for their respective businesses, while Samjung Group’s Strategic Planning Office had managed all the affiliates together.

People believed that once Sunwoo stepped into the forefront of management, Samjung Group’s controlling shares would begin moving and the succession process would take place.

But the group’s succession process had already been underway for more than ten years and was now nearing completion.

Next year, Sunwoo would become the president of Samjung Resort, a subsidiary of Samjung Trading. The privately held company was where Samjung’s controlling shares had been concentrated.

By becoming the representative of Samjung Resort, Sunwoo would only have to pay gift tax on his shares in the resort while gaining control of the group’s controlling shares through another route.

That was the grand design behind Samjung’s ten-year succession plan.

For ten years, they had gradually placed controlling shares into Sunwoo’s hands through tiny transactions that were too insignificant to affect the stock market.

Everything had been done over the ten years following Chairman Jung Geuncheol’s death to eventually hand control of the group to Sunwoo.

During that time, Sunwoo entered his samjae, and Yonghwa had insisted that he had to be thoroughly hidden and protected.

She said samjae brought scandals and legal troubles.

Since the transfer of management control had to be carried out secretly and away from public attention, they had to avoid the kind of scandals and legal problems that supposedly came with samjae.

Above all, they had to be wary of the eyes of the media and legal predators constantly watching Samjung, looking for something they could feed on.

Okhyun had seen numerous politicians and businessmen brought down through media manipulation. She had therefore hidden her only heir thoroughly, making sure he would never become prey for them.

After Chairman Jung Geuncheol’s death, Samjung Group adopted a professional management system and the Jung family acted as though they had no involvement in running the group.

The media and public praised Samjung’s professional management system, which was unusual for a Korean conglomerate family.

But in reality, they had merely been lying low until Sunwoo grew up.

Starting next year, the Jung family intended to put their fully grown Sunwoo at the forefront and begin taking control of the group in earnest.

“You learned a lot while working at the Strategic Planning Office, but once you take over as president of the resort next year, that’s when the real thing begins. You understand that, right?”

“Yes.”

Rather than having thirty-two-year-old Sunwoo immediately take over as the representative of Electronics, Construction, Trading, or Motors, which accounted for most of Samjung’s revenue, it looked much better from the outside for him to begin his management training as the head of a subsidiary.

Sunwoo would become the head of Samjung Resort, a subsidiary that attracted less outside attention. He would build up a year of successful management there before naturally moving on to become the head of one of the group’s core affiliates.

“They said great fortune would follow once you endure your samjae. I’m only saying that you need to be careful for one more month. Understand?”

Unlike Okhyun, Sunwoo didn’t believe in saju or fate.

His reason for not believing in fate was simple: it made no logical sense that the destinies of hundreds of millions of people on Earth could all be determined by the date and time they were born.

“Yes, Mother.”

Even so, he had no choice but to answer reluctantly because Okhyun’s faith was sincere.

Okhyun consulted shamans and fortune-tellers before making decisions about both her own affairs and her son’s.

Sunwoo had worked hard since his first year as head of the Strategic Planning Office and had achieved respectable results, but Okhyun had made him conceal those accomplishments and continue lying low.

After hiding for so long, Sunwoo would become the president of Samjung Resort, a subsidiary of Samjung Group, as soon as his samjae ended. He would then take hold of the controlling shares of Samjung Group.

Okhyun had spent all these years keeping her head down and pretending to be a tiger without teeth, waiting for the day her own son would stand at the very top of Samjung Group.

“Seonghwan’s wife, bring our Sunwoo some more soup. Put plenty of meat in it.”

“Yes, Madam.”

Seonghwan’s wife filled a bowl with plenty of beef brisket and placed it beside Sunwoo’s rice bowl before taking away the soup that had gone cold.

“Let’s eat.”

Even after telling everyone to continue eating, her eyes never left Sunwoo as he ate his soup.

Just watching her son eat was enough to make her feel full.

Sunwoo was the son she had struggled to have when she was nearing forty.

Samjung Group had been founded during her husband’s generation because it was said that three men from the Jung family would lead it together.

But in front of great power and wealth, the bond between brothers was meaningless.

For more than ten years, Okhyun had watched her husband endure an exhausting battle over shares and bloody purges.

Whenever her husband was pushed around by his elder brother or younger brother-in-law, Okhyun lost the children in her womb.

She borrowed money and power from her own family, which had produced several politicians, to support her husband.

She could never relax because she believed that if her husband fell, even her own family would be in danger.

In the end, her husband, Jung Geuncheol, took control of the group.

Her husband had died, but Okhyun still held the shares tightly, so the power remained in her hands.

After going through several economic crises, public opinion became increasingly favorable toward Samjung Group’s professional management system rather than family-run management.

But the professional management system would only last this long.

The professional managers were now nothing more than Sunwoo’s hands and feet.

Her son Sunwoo would sit above them all.

Samjung had started with the three Jungs, but now it would be led by one man alone: her son, Jung Sunwoo.

She had lost five children from her womb, but whenever she looked at the grown Sunwoo standing before her, none of that past pain mattered anymore.

Looking back now, she felt that every sacrifice had been made so she could have her son, Sunwoo.

“So, that’s why I’m saying this, Sunwoo……”

As soon as Okhyun began speaking, Sunwoo and Jaye, who had been eating across from each other, both raised their heads.

“I’ve thought about this all night, so don’t take what I’m saying lightly.”

Whenever Okhyun hesitated like this, it was usually followed by talk of performing another gut ritual or making another talisman.

Sunwoo stopped using his chopsticks and stared at her seriously.

“Jaye.”

Contrary to his expectations, Okhyun was calling Jaye.

“Yes, Mother.”

“You’ll have to stay with Sunwoo.”

“What?”

Jaye’s eyes widened at the unexpected words.

“I’m worried because Sunwoo had an accident. His samjae ends in just one month now, doesn’t it? They say samjae becomes even more troublesome when it’s about to end. On top of that, they said a powerful disaster would come because of Sunwoo’s saju, yet he’s made it this far without anything happening. So we need to be even more careful from now on. Until his samjae ends, Sunwoo will take leave and stay at home, and Jaye, you should take a break from school for the time being and stay right beside him.”

“……Yes.”

“You know I don’t mean that you should simply stay beside him. You need to pass your energy on to Sunwoo, who has great things ahead of him.”

“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Jaye nodded obediently, but Sunwoo, sitting beside her, could not agree.

“Mother, why are you doing this again?”

“Didn’t Bosa-nim say so yesterday? That Jaye strengthens your energy. I won’t be able to relax unless the two of you stay together for the rest of this period.”

She hadn’t even taken a single bite of her food, but Okhyun put down her spoon and got up from the table.

As if she didn’t want to argue about this any further, she immediately turned around and left the dining room.

Once again, Yonghwa’s words had influenced Okhyun.

And it wasn’t only Okhyun.

Jaye’s college life and Sunwoo’s private life were now restricted as well.

With her throat feeling dry and scratchy, Jaye could no longer eat and got up from her seat.

Chapter 10 — Continued

“I have my final exams in two weeks…… What am I supposed to do?”

Jaye suddenly found herself in a difficult situation.

As a third-year university student, Jaye was going through one of the most important periods of her life.

She would divorce Sunwoo on the first day of the first lunar month and begin standing on her own two feet.

Once their marriage contract ended, she and Sunwoo would become strangers, meaning she would have to attend school entirely on her own starting the next semester.

She could take out a student loan, but if she accumulated debt, it would take even longer to bring her mother out of the mountain hermitage.

So she had to somehow earn a scholarship.

And to do that, she couldn’t miss her final exams.

Yet of all times, she was being told not to go to school right before her final exams……

If she had been told to take a few days off at any other time, Jaye would have obeyed without complaint.

But right now, with her third-year, second-semester final exams approaching, Jaye simply couldn’t take time off from school.

“I’m sorry.”

If this had happened at any other time, Sunwoo would have tried until the very end to persuade Okhyun.

But because his accident had happened so recently, it was obvious that Okhyun wouldn’t back down.

He had experienced this before.

Whenever he tried to persuade Okhyun in situations like this, she would eventually become so stubborn that she would get a splitting headache, collapse in bed, and turn the entire household upside down.

“You’re ready to go to school, right?”

“I just need to change my clothes.”

“Then let’s leave together. I’ll take you to school.”

“Is that really okay? Mother told me not to leave the house.”

“How are you supposed to stay cooped up at home when you’ll be bored? I’ll tell her I’m taking you to school and waiting near your lecture hall.”

Sunwoo intended to tell Okhyun that and then go to the office to work.

He was officially on sick leave, but with his appointment as president of Samjung Resort approaching next year, even choosing the right people to appoint was already giving him a headache.

He had already selected people he trusted from the Strategic Planning Office, but he still needed to separate the capable ones from the rest.

To shake off the label of being a hereditary executive, he needed to outperform professional managers during his first year as president.

And to do that, he needed talented people to work alongside him.

“Then I’ll just go change my clothes.”

Jaye immediately headed toward the dressing room.

She planned to get to school quickly before her mother-in-law noticed that she was going out with her husband.

She could compromise on other things, but when it came to her education, Jaye was desperate.

And since Sunwoo had said he would handle things if she got caught, she decided to trust him.

She took out the clothes she planned to wear to school and grabbed the hem of the sweater she had put on that morning, pulling it upward.

Just as she was taking off her sweater, the dressing room door opened with a click.

“Mom! How can you come in without even knocking?”

Startled, Jaye turned around while covering her chest, which was only clad in her underwear, with both arms.

But the person who had entered the dressing room wasn’t Sunwoo.

“It really was true.”

Okhyun’s gaze was fixed on the faded samjae talisman visible outside the strap of Jaye’s underwear.

“That tattoo…… So there really was something wrong with that tattoo.”

“!”