TLR 02

Chapter 2…

Looking at Donghee, whose face was soaked in tears, Seol thought of how she used to be like an innocent child.

“My husband is my first love.”

Remembering how Donghee used to brag about her husband whenever she got the chance, Seol felt her breath catch and her heart shatter.

Even though it was something they should look into once Donghee calmed down a bit, there was no way her husband would have secretly stashed away money behind her back.

“Just get some sleep for now. I’ll figure things out. I’ll call some of our relatives, too.” “Okay.”

Seol supported Donghee and led her toward the master bedroom. She laid her on the bed, pulled the blanket over her, turned off the light, and walked out after closing the door.

Then, she stood there in silence for a long time. What should she do first? First, she needed to check the registry to see if the house was actually sold…

“Crazy bastard.”

An oath finally slipped out between her clenched teeth.

They had lived together their whole lives; she knew his character. It was obvious her father and younger brother were probably already out of South Korea.

“How could he do this…?”

Seol muttered with a blank face.

Her older sister had died a month ago. The cause of death, strangely enough, was a gunshot wound.

There had been two other bodies alongside her sister’s at the scene, and a week ago, the police announced the results of their investigation.

Murder-suicide driven by an affair and a scandalous romance. The culprit pointed out by the police was one of the three dead, Seol’s older sister, Han Leeju.

About two months later.

“Mom, I’m heading out. Get some rest.”

Seol spoke gently to Donghee right before leaving the apartment.

Donghee, who was lying on the bare floor with only a blanket over her, didn’t even turn around.

“The weather’s gotten a lot warmer, so let’s go out this weekend. Think about somewhere you’d like to go, okay?” “Just… let it be.”

Her reluctant reply clearly revealed her irritation and apathy. Seol quietly murmured, “Okay,” and left the place.

Walking down the stairs and opening the glass door, a gentle spring breeze blew past her.

The place they newly moved into was a run-down, multi-family villa at the edge of Seoul. Her search to find her father’s whereabouts had failed.

As a college senior about to graduate, Seol didn’t have much money in her bank account. The same went for Donghee, who had lived her entire life keeping house on the money her husband provided.

In the end, to scrape together even a little cash, they sold off their household items for cheap, and when that wasn’t enough, they even sold Donghee’s bag.

“This is really not okay! Shin-cheol bought this for me as our 30th wedding anniversary present!”

Seol had ruthlessly pulled away Donghee’s hands as she wept and hugged the bag tightly.

She barely swallowed the words that the man who was her mother’s husband would have happily sold off gold bars and luxury bags and skipped town if he only had enough time.

The death of her daughter, the horrible crime that daughter supposedly committed, her husband’s betrayal, the son who was taken away, and the sudden plunge of her life. The result was depression.

She comforted and coaxed her mother, who had lost her smile.

Things would get better because she was going to get a job soon. They would move to a nice place, and she would buy her mother all new bags.

She truly believed it would turn out that way. She trusted that if she worked hard and scrimped, even if it wouldn’t be as affluent as before, she and her mother could live a small, happy life together.

Then one day, the company where she had been pre-approved for a job called to cancel.

“What is the reason?”

• Per company policy, we cannot disclose the reason. “No, even so, this is way too sudden. At least give me a reason…”

• I am hanging up now.

Was it her imagination that she felt contempt underlying that businesslike, cold voice? She had spent months pondering over it, but she couldn’t find the answer.

A man and woman in their sixties—a chaebol chairman and his wife—along with a female secretary in her twenties, were shot and killed on the same day at the same time and place.

Because the chairman was already notorious for his womanizing, the case immediately drew everyone’s attention the moment it hit the news.

Even before the police announced the exact details, various rumors were floating around on the internet. Most of them were dirty and vulgar stories.

The personal details of a certain twenty-something surnamed Han became public property starting the very day after the first report.

That was also the reason why Han Shin-cheol, who used to brag quite a bit about his eldest daughter working in the corporate chairman’s secretariat office, chose to run away.

The case that had shaken all of South Korea ended with the suspect’s death and no right to public action.

“Good morning, Executive Director.” “Yes, good morning to you too, secretaries.”

Junhyuk quickly walked past the secretaries standing in a row to greet him. The moment he raised his hand to grab the doorknob, his executive secretary, Park Kyung-chul, opened the door a step ahead, just like every other day.

What is this, are we back in the Joseon dynasty? Junhyuk couldn’t hide his leaking chuckle as he stepped into his office.

Morning greetings performed in a line were the preference of his father, Moon Pil-yong, who had been obsessed with somehow flaunting his overwhelming wealth and power.

He should really get rid of that greeting soon. Junhyuk paused while unbuttoning his jacket. The thought of Pil-yong bubbling up in his mind was making his blood boil.

“Even when you drop dead, you have to go out in such a pathetic way.”

The more he chewed on it, the more absurd it felt. A one-in-a-million fool who messed around with a woman young enough to be his child and dragged his own wife down to the underworld with him. That was his father.

He had received the sudden news of his parents’ death while away on a business trip to the US. After frantically rushing back, he had been up to his neck in dirty work and damage control until today.

Inheritance taxes, fluctuating stock prices, his uncle’s rebellion, and dealing with the media. The countless other miscellaneous problems were finally coming to an end.

Junhyuk tossed his jacket onto the sofa and sat down in front of his desk. Wondering how much of a headache he would have to deal with today, his hand moved roughly as he typed in his computer password.

Knock, knock—the sound of knocking echoed.

Junhyuk didn’t say, “Come in.” It wouldn’t have reached them anyway.

Soon the door opened, and Secretary Park bowed deeply and respectfully.

“Excuse me, Executive Director.” “Yes, what is it?” “Overnight, Lady Hyemi got herself mixed up in an unpleasant incident.”

Lady, my foot. Junhyuk sneered under his breath without looking at Secretary Park.

His step-sister, Moon Hyemi, who was a senior in college this year, deserved to be called a delinquent or a criminal.

Given their significant age gap, whenever they occasionally met, all he had to do was say, “Our Hyemi is pretty today, too. Are your studies going well?”

Yet the true nature of the younger sister who had suddenly fallen under his supervision was beyond anything he could have imagined.

When he first received reports that Hyemi had hit someone, he had simply thought she was acting out due to their parents’ deaths.

Unlike him, who had lost his biological father and stepmother, Hyemi had lost her biological parents.

And yet, how many incidents had that troublemaker caused in less than three months? Theft, abusing her power over others, assault. The nature of her offenses was terrible across the board.

Turns out, Hyemi’s behavior had been just like that all along. That was when he finally realized that their stepmother had been plastering money over everything to keep it tightly hidden.

“Well, she was drinking at a club and caused property damage and…”

When Junhyuk didn’t end up asking, “What is it?”, Secretary Park finally started speaking.

Junhyuk raised his right hand to gesture for him to stop talking.

“For the next year. For the next year, no matter how much money it takes, handle it quietly just like Mother used to, and don’t bring reports of it to me.” “Understood.” “Let’s just sweep it under the rug until people forget a little bit about how Moon Pil-yong died.” “Understood.”

Throughout the beginning and end of the conversation, Junhyuk only stared at his monitor.

Having a conversation with his sister, sending her to counseling—

Seeing his boss completely fail to consider any solutions that could bring a positive outcome, Secretary Park felt a chill run down his spine.

“Why are you standing there staring like that? It’s spring already, my heart flutters just from breathing.” “Ah, my apologies. I’ll take my leave.”

Secretary Park hurried toward the door. Soon, the quiet sound of the door closing echoed.

Amidst the momentary silence, Junhyuk clicked on a folder on his desktop.

The folder was named H. Inside were the personal background reports on Han Leeju and her family.

He entered the one labeled ‘Han Lee Seol’ among the five new folders. Then, as always, he pulled up a photo of Han Lee Seol looking straight ahead and smiling on his monitor.

Junhyuk rested his chin in his hand and leaned back in his chair.

‘Do you have a light?’

He hadn’t approached her because he was scoping her out as a woman.

He had been sick and tired of the accidents popping up day after day. He had stepped out for a moment to clear his head and ended up walking all the way to the cafe across from the company building.

Since he was already there, he figured he should buy snacks for the employees who had been working overtime for weeks. Even if it was just making a show of things, sometimes you needed to toss them a carrot.

Yet the woman standing right in front of the cafe door had been in his way.

It would have been simple to just ask her to move, but instead, he had just stared at the woman’s fair profile, which looked as though face powder might drift off it.

Thick, lush eyelashes underneath light double eyelids. Lips that looked fresh and moisturized even in the dry winter wind.

Because the woman wouldn’t turn to look at him, his mouth felt dry. He found himself wanting to taste something. He needed an excuse to talk to her.

‘I don’t.’

At the woman’s indifferent voice, a wave of self-mockery had washed over him at the moment, making him wonder what on earth he was doing.

His parents were dead, his uncle was coming at him with a cutthroat attitude, and his younger sister was running around beating people up.

If circumstances had been better, would he have asked for her contact info? With a shallow hint of regret, he had returned to the office empty-handed.

And then, a few days later, he received a report.

‘Here are the personal details of Han Leeju’s family.’

As he was skimming through it absentmindedly, his hand stopped. He deliberately pulled out the photo fastened with a paperclip and brought it close to his eyes.

Han Lee Seol.

That was the name of the woman who had been staring at the MS Group headquarters with a sorrowful yet resolute gaze.