HTMB 07

 Chapter 07

“Oh my. I got a call too.”

Sui pretended to answer the phone and suddenly let go of Jin-suk’s body, which she had been supporting with her arm.

Jin-suk fell for the third time, and judging by the cracking sound, it seemed one of her arms was broken.

What a waste. Both of them should have broken.

“Aaagh! Y-you brat! You! Do you want to die?! Aaaagh! Let’s see who dies today, you or me! You brat!”

Jin-suk, who seemed to have twisted her back as well, couldn’t move and began screaming at the top of her lungs, unable to contain her anger.

She was cursing so roughly that it made Sui’s ears ring.

‘If it’s about cursing, that’s my specialty too, Jeong Sui. If you really went up against me, auntie, you’d be dead.’

Jin-suk’s actions, way of speaking, voice—all of it was something Sui hated.

“Hey! M-my arm won’t move! Call 119! Right now!”

When it came to give-and-take, Sui was certain. She had been hit with a tissue box, so it was only right to return the favor.

Sui spoke languidly again.

“You have two perfectly fine legs, why call 119? That’s a waste of taxes and manpower.”

“You brat? You! You! Aaaagh!”

Looking at Jin-suk screaming and cursing, Sui thought.

A person who can’t even control her own anger. A person like this will eventually collapse on her own.

And it will be a dirty collapse. Splashing filth on everyone around her.

No matter how much she’s Yuna’s mother on paper, she was someone who shouldn’t be by Yuna’s side.

However, all Sui could do right now was trip her and break one of her arms.

How should she deal with this woman?

“Be quiet for a moment, I need to take this call.”

At Sui’s words, Jin-suk started screaming at the top of her lungs again, drowning out even the ringtone. Sui ignored it anyway and answered the phone.

“Hello.”

[…Why is it so noisy?]

Wow. What is this coquettish, low male voice that comes through clearly even amid Jin-suk’s hysterical noise?

Is it that man? Kang Tae-hoon…?

“Who is this?”

[It’s Kang Tae-hoon.]

“…How did you get my number?”

[Did you think I wouldn’t know one phone number, Im Yuna?]

Right. Whether he knew her contact information or not, it wasn’t strange. But since she had already been rejected by Hwaja, Sui had nothing to lose.

“What do you want? Just tell me what it’s about.”

[Where are you? I’ll come pick you up.]

“Pick me up? Why?”

[It’s hard to explain over the phone. Let’s meet first.]

“What are you going to do when we meet? I don’t have any business with you.”

[Are you at your mother’s house?]

Tae-hoon, who had guessed from Jin-suk’s screaming alone, was impressive.

“Yes, I am.”

[Hurry up and get out of there. I’ll head toward where you are.]

“No, I’m asking what you want to say that we need to meet.”

[I’ll say it again. Just hurry up and get out of there first.]

He hung up abruptly after that.

Well, it was already difficult to continue the call with Jin-suk screaming at the top of her lungs, but hanging up after saying only what he wanted to say—that wasn’t quite right either.

Now Hwaja Entertainment was out of Sui’s operational scope.

How should she put it? She wanted to see Choi Hwaja, but Tae-hoon seemed somehow dangerous.

First of all, she couldn’t read him, and he was excessively… handsome.

Being handsome was a very serious matter. For Sui, who would soon leave, it could create a very dangerous situation where she developed lingering attachments to the world.

Should she call back and say she wouldn’t meet him? As Sui was worrying—

“Why is that director doing this? What? He says he won’t do the film?”

Jin-suk had somehow crawled to the living room and was shouting into her cell phone.

“Why is he suddenly rejecting Yuna? Is he crazy?”

Oh. She was saying something welcome for once.

“What? Ruined? How is that possible overnight?”

Sui perked up her ears toward the living room.

Oh-ho. It seemed something wasn’t going as planned.

If it was a film director, it would be the adult film director, and it seemed that director had rejected Yuna.

Jin-suk must have really hurt herself when she fell earlier, because she kept clutching her back and was screaming at the top of her lungs again. The moment she hung up, she looked ready to run at Sui and grab her hair.

Anyway, what was this?

Had Tae-hoon somehow foreseen all of this?

First, she needed to get out of here. They weren’t even feeding her, so there was no reason to stay.

Sui took advantage of the moment when Jin-suk was on the phone, almost out of her mind, and gathered up the seal, bankbook, and all the other miscellaneous documents related to Yuna that were in front of her.

Thankfully, they had been laid out for her, making things easier.

***

Yuna had chosen death in the worst possible situation. And Sui had taken over Yuna’s life in those worst conditions.

Sui had wandered the nine heavens and had never once dreamed of a new life. All she did was drift meaninglessly through the silent deep sea.

To Sui, Im Yuna became a shackle.

This was absolutely not good fortune.

In this child’s body, she couldn’t achieve the dreams she had failed to achieve, nor could she go freely wherever she wanted.

The things that were choking Yuna here and there were also constricting Sui.

The wisest thing Sui could do was simply face the present and push through it. Without any choice.

In the midst of all this, she met Tae-hoon. She had a premonition that he might help her, someone who was still being pushed around without any progress.

It was Sui’s lifelong principle to return what she received, and to make sure she got back what she gave.

Even she, who had rolled around in the shadows, was like this—how much more so would that businessman Kang Tae-hoon be? He wouldn’t be less, only more.

If she received help, she had to give equivalent compensation.

Moreover, it was hard to predict what that man was thinking.

Something felt off, but she couldn’t think of any other way.

‘Should I meet Kang Tae-hoon?’

By the time Sui got away from the apartment entrance, Jin-suk must have realized the documents and seal were missing, because she was calling until her phone was about to catch fire.

Sui snorted.

‘Are you crazy? You think I’d answer this call?’

Sui lightly pressed the power button. And when she was walking, almost running, quickly toward the bus stop—

“Yuna.”

She was startled by a man’s voice coming from behind her.

When she slowly turned around, Lee Hwan-su was getting out of a black sedan and speaking.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

Sui glared at him with a sour expression.

“The madam summoned you. Weren’t you supposed to see her together?”

“……”

“Your mother said she wants to renew the contract. She said if Yuna works hard this time, she’ll give a generous signing bonus, and she said she understood.”

The one who would work hard was Yuna, so why were they discussing the signing bonus and renewal among themselves? It really was a sight to behold the more it went on.

Just then, Lee Hwan-su glanced sideways at the seal and documents Sui was holding.

He was a quick-witted human. In front of this man, she shouldn’t do anything foolish.

“Let’s go in. This time, let’s check the contract together. You were curious last time, weren’t you?”

“I’m not going to sign with you. I have somewhere to be, so move.”

Lee Hwan-su smiled like a sly snake.

Looking closely, he didn’t seem that old. Early to mid-thirties? But why did he speak so greasily, like he was handling a baby?

He’d been obnoxious from before.

“You shouldn’t do that.”

“……”

“The madam said to drag you back if I saw you.”

“……”

“You stole the seal and documents, broke the madam’s back, and ran away?”

“Stole? They’re mine to begin with!”

Lee Hwan-su took a step closer to Sui.

“Why has our Yuna been doing things she never used to do lately? Did you hate filming adult films that much?”

Sui felt like her stomach was turning. It was the first time she felt goosebumps from something so greasy.

Anyway, was this what they called being backed into a corner? Lee Hwan-su took another step closer to Sui.

When his large, thick hand approached her face, Sui immediately stepped back in a defensive posture.

“W-what are you doing. Don’t come closer.”

Lee Hwan-su laughed as if she were ridiculous.

No matter how much Sui had lived by her guts alone, when a sturdy man a head taller than her approached like this, it couldn’t help but be threatening.

And… something about the atmosphere was strange.

This man’s eyes—how should she put it—they weren’t the eyes of someone looking at an entertainer under his agency whom he was trying to exploit.

“Yuna.”

He grabbed Sui’s slender wrist forcefully.

Even when she struggled and exerted strength, Lee Hwan-su easily pulled her arm toward him, as if it were amusing. And he whispered coercively.

“You can’t escape me.”

“……”

“So you need to listen well, like before. Hmm?”

Now his true colors were beginning to show.

Just as he was about to brush Sui’s hair with his less-than-innocent touch—

A harsh horn blared from behind.

Sui took advantage of Lee Hwan-su’s momentary distraction at the sound to free her arm and pull away. Goosebumps covered her entire body, and her heart pounded.

This was definitely Yuna’s emotion. The fear she had of Lee Hwan-su.

She should kick Lee Hwan-su in the shin and run, but Sui’s feet wouldn’t move at all.

Just how scared had she been to make even Jeong Sui frightened!

“You were here. Im Yuna.”

When Sui was frozen like ice, unable to move, a coquettish voice came from afar.

It was Kang Tae-hoon.

Sui and Tae-hoon met for the second time.

His knife-straight attire resembled his strict and cold face. He looked like a wax doll, with no emotion or expression.

But the moment Sui saw Tae-hoon, her heart was instantly put at ease. Even though she didn’t know what kind of man he was.

“K-Kang Tae-hoon…”

When Sui tried to walk toward him, Lee Hwan-su grabbed her arm again.

“Where are you going, Yuna. You need to come with me.”

Lee Hwan-su spoke in a low voice.

No matter how much she tried to free her arm, the more she exerted strength, the more her poor arm turned red, as if it would bruise.

“Let go of that arm. You’ll hurt her.”

Tae-hoon said, sounding rather concerned.

But Lee Hwan-su seemed to have no intention of letting Sui go, and instead just smiled like a sly snake.

“Long time no see, Executive Director Kang. But what brings the head of Hwaja Entertainment all the way here?”

“I’m here to collect my entertainer.”

Lee Hwan-su’s eyebrows rose oddly, as if he didn’t understand Tae-hoon’s meaning.

“…What do you mean by that?”

“Im Yuna. I’ll be taking her in. So let go of that hand.”

“Executive Director Kang? How should I interpret this?”

“I’ve said it once. As you may have heard rumors, I don’t say things twice.”

Whether that was true or not, Lee Hwan-su hesitated for a moment and then, like a lie, released Sui’s hand.

Sui clutched her wrist at the tingling pain, as if electricity had run through it.

“You act so clean, but are you offering to be her sponsor?”

“It’s not a sponsor offer. Hwaja Entertainment is offering Im Yuna a contract.”

Lee Hwan-su spoke with a sneer in his upturned eyes.

“Executive Director Kang, you must not know because you only concern yourself with management, but our Yuna is not a child who fits with your side. I think you’ve come to the wrong place. I’ll step aside so you can be on your way.”

“Then where does Im Yuna fit?”

“Executive Director Kang, Yuna has nowhere higher to go. Not even for you, Executive Director Kang of Hwaja. If you recruit Yuna, the losses will be enormous—and you’re saying you’ll take her?”

“Then would it be different if I said this as the overall president of JC Group?”