Chapter 13 — The Nouveau Riche Park Pan-soo, the Tycoon Kim Kang-jin

Once my father received information about a situation he could not easily understand, he finally quieted down. It made me think that perhaps, at last, we could actually have a conversation.

—Your father-in-law… said that if you accepted everything according to what he told you and quietly wrapped everything up… he would pretend our debts and the interest on them never existed… So he asked me to persuade you… He threatened that if you kept being stubborn like this, they would start charging us interest and demand the immediate repayment of the principal we borrowed… I didn’t know what was going on, but I thought maybe you were the one who had told Na-young you wanted a divorce…

A pain pulled at the back of my head. My face automatically twisted as my throbbing headache worsened.

—Either way, wouldn’t it be even better if the opposite were true? If you were told you were getting divorced, then just go over there and grovel for whatever you did wrong, like your father-in-law said, and it’ll all be over. Yeah, the result is the same anyway. I didn’t even need to hear your side of the story. All you have to do is get down on your knees, and everyone will be happy. Isn’t that right, son?

“Get down on my knees?”

I had spent ten years being deceived because of one mistake.

And in the first place, an affair—two people falling for each other and betraying their spouses—could not be considered a mistake.

I would rather someone told me they had accidentally hit another person with their car.

“I can’t do that. Getting down on my knees won’t solve anything. And…”

—Jin-ho… if you’re going to be this selfish, what are we supposed to do…?

I was about to get divorced after being betrayed, yet I had no one on my side.

Even if I tried to tell him something as absurd as my daughter not actually being my child, I couldn’t see any point in it.

Besides, this person called my father wasn’t even willing to listen to me.

There was no talking to him.

“Haa…”

I had never been stuck in such a hopeless mess.

It felt as though my entire body had sunk into a swamp, sticky and suffocating.

It was disgusting.

“Father. Please try to think about my position. I’m asking you to consider how I must have felt.”

Without realizing it, my voice rose.

—You bastard!!! After I raised you with such difficulty, you’re saying you only think about yourself!! There will be no divorce. Not while I’m alive!! You understand me?! Grovel and beg. No matter what.

My father shouted even louder than I did, delivered the only words he wanted to say, and hung up.

I never even had a chance to tell him that Min-hee wasn’t my biological daughter.

I didn’t have a chance to explain the situation, either.

I felt like I was going crazy from frustration, and for some reason, sadness began to settle over me.

If this matter remained unresolved, there was no doubt my father would suddenly appear within a few days.

Without even giving me notice.

He had always been like that.

My brothers, after hearing about it from my father, would obviously come and make my life miserable as well.

They were people who stood to suffer enormous losses because of my divorce, too.

‘They must have a fire under their feet by now… And he calls me selfish? What a joke.’

I was sick of it.

My father, my brothers—I was sick of all of them.

Even now, for the sake of their own well-being, I was being forced to make sacrifices.

‘Should I cut them off…?’

How much longer was this going to continue?

Cutting off ties with someone was easy enough to say.

But actually putting it into practice required more courage than anything else.

Still, they were family.

Bzzzz—

As expected, this time calls began pouring in from my brothers.

Apparently, they had heard everything from my father.

I irritably flipped my phone face down as it continued ringing on its own accord.

‘Come to think of it, my father-in-law really did a good job rescuing these hopeless people…’

That was why I had always been grateful to my in-laws and had tried even harder to treat my wife well.

But now, all that sense of indebtedness had disappeared without a trace.

I still couldn’t forget the disgusting physical affection Park Na-young—or rather, that woman—had attempted after returning from her business trip.

The image of that new necklace swaying around her neck was still vivid in my mind.

“You were way too careless, you damn woman. Just how insignificant did you think I was?”

If the incident with Min-hee rolling her tongue had never happened, I wouldn’t even have suspected anything.

I had been that trusting, and I had believed in my wife.

But when things start going wrong, there’s no end to it.

That day, every circumstance had pointed toward the truth.

Bzzzz—

The phone rang again.

This time, it was Park Na-young.

“Hello.”

“It’s me.”

“Yeah. I know it’s you.”

“……”

There was silence for a moment.

But what she was going to say next was obvious.

“We’ve been together for so long. Oppa, just let me go quietly.”

“Right. So pay the appropriate price for that.”

“Ha… You’re saying the same thing again. I asked you, how much do you want?”

Judging by how desperate she sounded, I really was holding the winning hand.

I decided to make a few demands.

“Fine. Then… let’s see… realistically…”

“……”

“The money my family borrowed. Pretend that debt never existed. And our house. Make it my house.”

“What? Oppa, aren’t you being too much? Do you really think my father will do that?”

Scrooge would obviously refuse.

That much was easy to predict.

“And on top of that, one hundred million won a year as compensation. One billion won for ten years. Clean and simple. How about it?”

“Ha… Oppa, were you always this detached from reality? Do you seriously call that a reasonable demand?”

“Hey. This entire situation is surreal and completely outside the ordinary for me. Forget about talking to me about reality.”

They were clearly afraid.

And from my perspective, it made no difference whether they accepted or refused.

I was just throwing out an offer.

“If you don’t accept, I promise I’ll make as much noise as I possibly can. Na-young.”

“Make noise? Do you really think that’ll make me or my father even blink?”

Park Na-young’s voice rose.

And it trembled slightly.

Her true feelings had slipped out.

“No. Rather than blinking, I think you’ll accept my demands. I don’t know what kind of ridiculously prestigious family you’re marrying into, but judging by how desperately you’re clinging to this, your reputation with them must be worth quite a lot. Isn’t that right?”

Her trembling emotions suddenly turned into silence.

“Choose. Either you enter your new family as the glorious new daughter-in-law, or you become the daughter of a petty nouveau riche who ruined her family’s face just to save a little pocket change. Choose.”

“Ha… Oppa, you’re really being too cruel…”

“Then there’s nothing more to say.”

I had delivered my conditions.

“Think it over and decide when we meet next. I’m hanging up.”

“You bastard. You piece of shit…”

Park Na-soo’s father, Park Pan-soo.

He was known as one of Seoul’s most prominent nouveau riche.

He had just heard Lee Jin-ho’s demands from his daughter.

The muscles in his clenched jaw wrinkled like a walnut.

“Fuck. That damned bastard. Lee Jin-ho… I picked up a stray dog soaked in the rain and raised it, and now it bites its master?”

He was a man who had survived through turbulent times.

People variously called him a self-made man, a businessman, or Chairman Park.

But behind the scenes, there was nowhere he had not reached out his hand.

“They say you shouldn’t take in a black-haired beast. And this bastard doesn’t even know his place…”

His hair, streaked with gray and left unmanaged, was roughly swept backward.

The deep wrinkles across his forehead and his fierce eyes revealed the nature of his character.

“Chairman… has something happened?”

“……”

“Chairman, is there anything I can help with…?”

A tall, somewhat thin man dressed in a black suit asked him again.

Before he could even finish his second question, the nameplate on Park Pan-soo’s desk came flying toward him.

“Ugh…”

The heavy nameplate struck the tall man squarely in the head before falling to the floor with a loud clatter that was completely disproportionate to his groan.

“Stop making so much noise. Get out, Min-soo.”

“Yes, Chairman. I’m sorry.”

Kim Min-soo calmly bowed before leaving the office without even wiping away the blood seeping from his head.

“That bastard’s problem is his excessive loyalty. He needs to learn how to read the room. What the hell does he think he can help with?”

Park Pan-soo clicked his tongue and closed his eyes.

“One billion won… And forgiving the family’s debts, too… On top of that, the house…”

Wrinkles formed between his brows, and the creases on his forehead deepened.

“Should I scare that bastard a little? Or… bury him? That would actually be cheaper… No. What kind of world is this nowadays… If I handled things like I used to and something went wrong, I’d be finished… I can’t cause trouble for my in-law…”

Lee Jin-ho’s former father-in-law, Park Pan-soo, was much closer to the darkness than Jin-ho realized.

And Park Pan-soo had mentioned his in-law, Daewoo Electronics.

He did not want to miss this opportunity.

Even if the heavens themselves collapsed, this was one opportunity he absolutely had to seize.

“I told them to establish the relationship as quietly as possible… But if that Lee Jin-ho bastard does something crazy… my daughter could get discarded, and I might even lose my granddaughter…”

There was no choice.

What did a little money matter when he was establishing a relationship with one of the country’s leading chaebol families?

Park Pan-soo decided to accept Lee Jin-ho’s demands.

However, he was not particularly pleased about taking the money out of his own vault without any resistance.

He picked up the intercom and called Kim Min-soo back into the office.

“Heh heh. I was worried when I heard he was a seedless watermelon, but this is fortunate.”

“Yes, Father. Whose son am I? Looks like I’ve still got one good move in me. Ha ha.”

Kim Soo-hyuk and his father sat on an expensive sofa, talking.

A magnificent house.

And servants who appeared to be attending to their every need nearby.

Was this the daily life of a chaebol family?

The fragrant aroma of the black tea poured by a servant filled the room.

Even the soft clinking of the teacup sounded beautiful.

“Since things have turned out this way, let’s do our best. You explained things properly to the girl who will become the new daughter-in-law and her father, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I told them to handle everything quietly and make absolutely sure the former husband kept his mouth shut.”

“Can I trust you?”

The father of Kim Soo-hyuk had a partially bald head.

His gaze was cold.

Did he not trust his own son?

“Yes. I made it very clear. I even warned them that if things became noisy, we would have no choice but to proceed without being connected to our Daewoo family, and that they might end up losing only their daughter. Did I do well?”

Chairman Kim Kang-jin stared coldly at his son, who had asked if he had done well.

His expression suggested that he still found his son immature.

Nevertheless, perhaps because he was his own flesh and blood, his expression soon softened.

“Hmm… From what I’ve heard, the new daughter-in-law’s ex-husband doesn’t seem like an ordinary man. If a guy who started with nothing managed to climb that far, we have to assume he’s fairly capable. Things could become troublesome if we’re not careful. So keep an eye on him until the very end and take care of it properly.”

“Yes, Father. And I saw my daughter. She’s pretty. I wonder who she takes after. Was she about this tall?”

Kim Soo-hyuk estimated the height with his hand and smiled.

An unpleasant expression immediately crossed his father’s face.

“You. What did I tell you?”

“What?”

“Did I or did I not tell you not to meet your granddaughter in person until this matter was settled? I told you that even trivial things could turn into a scandal. How many times do I have to tell you?! Yet you!!!”

Despite his polished appearance, Kim Soo-hyuk became frightened and raised his hands to cover his head.

He trembled pitifully.

“N-No, Father. No. I only heard about her. I just meant that her height and face looked like that from the photographs. That’s all, Father.”

“Hoo…”

“You need to be careful about your conduct… Before I cut you out of the family register. Listen when you’re told something, and think before you act…”

Using his anger as a walking stick, Kim Soo-hyuk’s father, Kim Kang-jin, rose from his seat.

He was the chairman and owner of Daewoo Electronics.

But he was deeply dissatisfied with having a son who looked polished on the outside yet was so immature within.