DH ✦ Ch 33

✦ Chapter 33 ✦

Even while being dragged out into the hallway, Ga-young did not stop screaming.

“Let go! Let go of me! I’ll have you thrown in jail for school violence and make sure you can never have a normal social life again!”

“You fucking bitch! Just because you’ve got a mouth, you think you can say whatever you want?”

“Are you even human?! You bastard who threw your conscience into a cesspool!”

“Listen to the daughter of the ashtray murderer talking about conscience.”

“Hey! Did I kill anyone? Did I kill anyone?!”

The boy slammed Ga-young onto the schoolyard.

Looking like a madwoman who had just clawed her way through a thorn bush, Ga-young abruptly raised her upper body.

“You thug. I’m never letting this go.”

The boy crouched down and grabbed the crown of Ga-young’s head.

Her neck bent backward, and as she looked up at him, his face was filled with a vicious sneer.

“What? You gonna kill me?”

It felt as though someone had smashed her head with a hammer.

That’s right. I’ll kill you.

She wanted to spit those words back at him.

For everyone else, it would have been nothing more than an angry threat.

But those words were forbidden in Ga-young’s vocabulary.

Even saying them felt like a sin.

Ga-young clenched her teeth to keep herself from crying.

It’s the twenty-first century. How can guilt by association still make any sense? Was I born because I wanted to be born to someone like him? Why do I have to be punished for my father’s crime when I can barely even remember his face anymore?

At that moment, school violence was a crime.

You criminal bastard.

The insult formed in her mind, but she could not bring herself to say it aloud.

Instead, she simply glared at him with wide-open eyes, expressing her contempt through her gaze.

In the end, seeing Ga-young maintain her proud composure made the boy’s face twist viciously.

“This is why you can’t be forgiven.”

Ptooey.

The spit he spat landed around Ga-young’s eye.

“If you’re the daughter of a murderer, keep your head down and live like it.”

Even touching those scars was painful.

From that day until she graduated from high school, Ga-young chose submission simply to survive.

She gave up resisting. Whenever they demanded an apology, she obediently apologized. She never reported the bullying to the school.

She silently endured every form of harassment and waited for that devastated period of her life to finally end.

She was accepted into Seoul National University through the early admissions process, but she gave up her enrollment and instead decided to study in the United States.

The label “murderer’s daughter” had become a torture device.

She wanted to escape.

She wanted to live an ordinary life somewhere no one knew that Yoon Jeong-ho and Yoon Ga-young were related by blood.

When she left for America, she intended never to return to Korea.

“Ga-young, there you are. I was wondering where you had gone.”

At Soon-hee’s voice, Ga-young hurriedly pulled herself out of her memories.

As she wiped away the few tears gathered around her eyes, Soon-hee approached.

Her gaze fell upon the items inside the open drawer.

“You saw them.”

“Why are those things here?”

Ga-young asked accusingly, and Soon-hee crouched down in front of her.

“My Ga-young… you were upset, weren’t you?”

There was unmistakable guilt on Soon-hee’s face as she examined Ga-young.

“I didn’t put them there for you to see. A long time ago, Jeong-ho told me not to throw away your clothes and photographs, so I kept them in storage. He called yesterday and said he was coming to pick them up soon, so I moved them here.”

“He’s coming to pick them up?”

“Jeong-ho is getting released next month. Didn’t you know?”

Already?

Ga-young’s head spun.

She knew this year marked the end of his fourteen-year sentence, but she had never calculated the exact date.

She had vaguely thought it would be sometime in the autumn, but his actual release date was earlier than she had expected.

Ga-young shuddered and snapped irritably.

“Why do you even keep in contact with him?”

“I’m the only blood relative he has in this world. How could I stop him from contacting me?”

“If people find out that he’s your brother, do you think you and Uncle will be able to keep living here?”

“That’s why we have to be careful about what we say.”

A quick Internet search would bring up Yoon Jeong-ho’s face in full.

This wasn’t something that could be completely hidden simply by keeping quiet among themselves.

Ga-young abruptly grabbed the princess dress from inside the drawer.

“Tell him not to come. Tell him he has nothing here.”

As she moved to tear the dress apart, Soon-hee grabbed her hand and stopped her.

“Ga-young.”

“How dare he think he has the nerve to come and take this…”

“Don’t.”

“Tell him never to come anywhere near us. Tell him to go to some deserted island where there’s nobody around and live like he’s already dead!”

“Ga-young, calm down. Calm down.”

Soon-hee finally managed to take the dress away from her.

She pulled a cloth wrapping from the back of the drawer and unfolded it.

Ga-young huffed angrily, frustrated that she hadn’t been able to tear the dress apart.

Soon-hee carefully wrapped the princess dress, ballet shoes, and framed photograph together, watching Ga-young’s expression.

“I understand how you feel. I don’t want to see that bastard either. But there’s something weighing on my conscience, so I feel I have to do at least this much for my little brother.”

“What could possibly be weighing on your conscience?”

“I couldn’t even afford to hire him a lawyer.”

“Unbelievable. He has some nerve. A lawyer, seriously?”

A murderer, of all people.

Even thinking the words made her sick.

As Ga-young breathed heavily with anger, Soon-hee placed a hand on her shoulder.

It was a comforting touch, telling her that she understood everything she was feeling.

“You’re right. Just pretend that bastard never existed and forget him.”

“He never existed.”

“Exactly. You and Jeong-ho have nothing to do with each other anyway. You said you’re going to get a job in America and live there permanently.”

“Yes. I will.”

Ga-young gave a firm, angry answer.

Soon-hee gave a bitter smile and pushed the wrapped bundle deep into the drawer.

Knowing that Ga-young became agitated even at the mere mention of Yoon Jeong-ho’s name, she ended the conversation there.

Not long afterward, Ga-young shared a heartfelt embrace with her aunt and uncle before getting into a taxi.

Throughout the entire drive back to Seoul, her heart felt as though it were being crushed in a press.

She thought of the Yoon Ga-young from that morning, smiling foolishly as she replayed the passionate night she had spent with Hyun-jae.

What a pathetic state of mind.

It wasn’t even something she had the right to dream about sweetly.

Ga-young rested her forehead against her hand.

The more than two months remaining in her marriage suddenly felt impossibly long.

During that time, no one could discover her blood relationship with a murderer.

That was the anguish brought on by the news of Yoon Jeong-ho’s release.

Nothing can happen.

A single day might feel long, but two months was short.

Surely she would at least be allowed two months of peace.

She didn’t want to believe her life was cursed to that extent.

As she saw the sign announcing their entry into Seoul, Ga-young tried to empty her mind.

Don’t worry about things that haven’t happened.

Because of Yoon Ga-young, there was no way that man or his family would end up covered in filth.

Once the agreed-upon date passed, she would never go anywhere near Shin Hyun-jae again.

She made a vow to herself to keep just one thing intact so that she could leave without regrets.

Give him my body, but never give him my heart.

[Was an overseas business trip always this boring?]

[Are you already asleep?]

[Sleep well.]

On her way toward the main house, Ga-young looked down at her phone.

They were the messages Hyun-jae had sent five minutes apart around midnight the previous night.

There were only three speech bubbles in the message window.

There was nothing from Ga-young.

She had spent an hour debating whether she should reply before finally putting down her phone.

Exchanging messages with him felt like the fluttering behavior of a couple in love, and ignoring his texts because she felt unnecessarily burdened by that had been rather rude.

Should I send something now?

As she hesitated, she had already arrived at the entrance to the main house.

“Welcome back. Chairman Kwon is waiting for you.”

The butler approached with impeccable courtesy.

Ga-young gave up on replying and slipped her phone into her pocket.

She had come to the main house because Chairman Kwon Seon-jin had contacted her and invited her to have brunch with him.

During the phone call, he had said they would eat on the second-floor terrace, but the location had apparently changed.

The butler led her to Chairman Kwon’s office instead.

A round table a short distance from the desk was beautifully set with an assortment of food.

Chairman Kwon Seon-jin was seated at the table, deep in conversation with his chief secretary about business matters.

When Ga-young entered, Chairman Kwon looked toward her.

“Come here, dear.”

The corners of Chairman Kwon’s eyes curved kindly.

It was an excessive amount of affection she had been fortunate enough to receive ever since she began submitting summaries of overseas economic news twice a week.

Over the past week alone, Chairman Kwon had invited her to eat with him three times.

Whenever they happened to cross paths, he would call her “dear” and express his familiarity with her.

Ga-young responded with a polite bow and asked appropriately for the situation.

“You seem busy. Should I wait outside?”

“No. Something came up unexpectedly, but I’ll finish it soon. Sit down and wait for a moment.”

Chairman Kwon’s attention returned to his chief secretary.

His previously gentle tone instantly changed into one of stern reprimand.

“If this is the first climate disclosure since the company was listed, you should have prepared for it in advance. Why is the final product taking so long?”

“The person in charge was recently dismissed because of a personal matter. Because of that, they weren’t able to complete the handover and had to rush to redo the entire thing from the beginning.”

“What kind of work is that supposed to be…”

The serious discussion between Chairman Kwon and his chief secretary continued across the table.

Ga-young was able to understand what they were discussing from the title of the documents spread across the table.

GB Energy’s American subsidiary had prepared the final version of its climate-change disclosure in accordance with the guidelines of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and had urgently requested Chairman Kwon’s approval.

As a business student, the subject naturally piqued Ga-young’s interest, and she found herself drawn toward the documents despite trying not to intrude.

As she skimmed the writing, Ga-young tilted her head slightly.

The format did not conform to the global standards recently proposed by the International Sustainability Standards Board.

Taking a small liberty, she carefully pulled the document closer and turned to the following page.

Her first impression had been correct.

Ga-young cautiously called out to Chairman Kwon, who was still engrossed in his conversation with the secretary.

“Excuse me, Chairman.”