TAMC 18

Chapter 18

After checking the message from his mother, Sunwoo immediately pressed the call button. She was undoubtedly going to talk about creating the Coordination Planning Office to oppose the Strategic Management Division.

Rumors were already circulating within the Samjung Group that Sunwoo had fallen out of favor with Madam of Unamjae and that his position as heir was becoming unstable.

Now it was time to hear what his mother had to say.

Just then, her voice answered from the other end of the phone.

—Yes, Sunwoo.

“Mother. Are you free to talk?”

—Have you been doing well?

Contrary to his expectations, her voice was peaceful.

Sunwoo had hoped that his mother wouldn’t be so angry about him moving out that she would make herself sick, but he hadn’t expected her to sound this relaxed, either.

“I’ve been getting used to the new house.”

—It must feel like you’re starting your newlywed life.

Rather than a newlywed life, it was closer to sharing a house with someone, but Sunwoo gave Okhyun the answer she wanted to hear for now.

“I suppose it is…”

—After all, I thought it might be better for the two of you to live freely together outside Unamjae rather than staying together at Unamjae. So I’ve decided to change my mind. I think it’ll be more comfortable for both of you to be together that way.

Before they moved out, Okhyun had said that she wanted the two of them to stay together until the period of Samjae was over.

She had even advised them to be more physically intimate with each other.

Was this situation simply another extension of the same thinking?

“More importantly, I’m curious why you created the Coordination Planning Office.”

—Isn’t Mom always someone who puts you first? I created this new advisory organization because I want you to step away from work until the period of Samjae is over.

“If you restructure the organization unilaterally through a top-down order like this, people are bound to make assumptions. The people in the division head’s secretarial office are worried.”

—There must be rumors that you’ve fallen out of favor with me as the heir.

“You already knew that. Why did you do it?”

—Let’s consider it punishment for not listening to me. Besides, you know my heart well. You’re not going to be shaken by rumors like that, are you?

Mother and son knew each other far too well.

One of the reasons Sunwoo wasn’t anxious was because he knew that his mother would never truly try to shake his position.

No matter how pathetic his mother’s actions were, going around looking for shamans and doing all sorts of foolish things, Sunwoo couldn’t turn his back on her.

Because one thing was undeniable: her feelings for him were genuine.

Likewise, his mother would never be able to abandon her son simply because of something he did.

That was simply what the relationship between parents and children was like.

—From your perspective, isn’t it actually easier for me to trouble you instead of Jaye, rather than tormenting Jaye?

“If you had troubled Jaye, I would’ve rebelled even more strongly.”

—Yes. You probably would have. But, Sunwoo, there are things you don’t know about your mother. I am not someone who is willing to compromise when my son’s safety is at stake…

In other words, if Sunwoo refused to listen to her from this point onward, she might start troubling Jaye or apply even greater pressure on him at the company.

Even this relatively limited exercise of power had Manager Park and Assistant Manager Kim trembling in fear in the division head’s office.

For Sunwoo, it wasn’t just his own freedom of movement that mattered.

The safety of the people who worked under him mattered as well.

Sunwoo’s expression changed, and he straightened his posture.

“Tell me what you want. What should I do?”

[A picture of your husband.]

[I’m asking you to show me a picture of your husband, not pictures of the house.]

Jaye thought it was more important to absorb even a single additional character of the lecture into her head, but the person sitting beside her—who called herself her friend—kept scribbling all over her notebook and major textbooks.

[Just once.]

Ever since Jaye had told Minjung that she had moved out with her husband, Minjung had been pestering her to show her a picture not of the house, but of the amazing husband who had provided such an amazing home.

[If you don’t have a picture of his face, show me his lower face! No, I’d even be happy with just his forehead. At the very least, show me his hand!]

While this was going on, the class ended and the professor left the room.

The classroom remained noisy for a while as all the students stood up at once.

As soon as class ended, Minjung openly threatened Jaye to give her a picture.

Jaye ignored her and put her writing utensils into her crossbody bag.

When she finished class and came down to the Engineering Building lobby, a group of students from another department happened to be entering the building.

“Did you see that man in front of the building?”

“The guy wearing the coat?”

“Yeah. That businessman… What was his name again…? You know, that businessman…”

The students murmured among themselves, but Jaye walked past them, assuming that whatever they were talking about had nothing to do with her.

The only thing that mattered to Jaye right now was which menu she would eat for lunch at the student cafeteria.

Lunch had just begun, so if they hurried, they would have a wider selection of food.

“Oh, right. They have pane at the cafeteria today, don’t they?”

At Minjung’s words, Jaye’s eyes widened.

“Jung Minjung, you already checked today’s cafeteria menu?”

“Yep. I walked around the campus buildings this morning as part of my diet.”

“Give it up, give it up. If you’re dieting but checking the cafeteria menu first thing in the morning, there’s no hope of you losing weight.”

“What are you talking about? You call yourself my best friend but won’t even show me your husband’s face. And now you’re insulting me, too? Do you want to fight?”

Jaye grabbed Minjung’s hand and pulled her along.

“Let’s eat first and fight afterward.”

Now was not the time to fight.

They had to get to the student cafeteria as quickly as possible and buy their pane meal tickets before they ran out.

“I think Shin Jaye must have the ghost of someone who died without ever getting enough food attached to her.”

“Look who’s talking.”

They were walking quickly toward the stairs leading from the Engineering Building down to the campus when—

“Shin Jaye.”

A voice calling her came from behind.

Did I hear that wrong?

It wasn’t a voice she expected to hear on a university campus.

Yet Jaye instinctively turned her head from side to side, searching for the owner of the voice.

There’s no way that person could be here.

Then she saw Sunwoo standing in front of an evergreen euonymus tree.

“!”

Standing in front of the evergreen tree that remained green even in winter, he wore a chestnut-colored coat.

The sight of him was dazzling.

“Why are you here…?”

This was the time he should have been at work.

He had texted her earlier that he would leave work in time for dinner, which was why she had even told him that she would make beef radish soup.

“Who is he?”

Minjung looked back and forth between her dazed friend and the handsome man who had attracted the attention of the Engineering Building students.

“Who is he?”

“……”

“Jaye, I mean, who is that handsome man calling you?”

“……”

When Jaye didn’t immediately answer, Minjung stared at Sunwoo for a while before reaching her own conclusion.

“No way! No way! No way! He’s the heir to the Samjung Group! Jung Sunwoo!”

There had once been a time when changes in the ownership structure of the Samjung Group had dominated the headlines of major news outlets.

After Sunwoo achieved several notable accomplishments as head of the Strategic Management Division, major media outlets unanimously predicted that ownership shares in the Samjung Group would shift and that Sunwoo would emerge at the forefront as the representative of the holding company.

But all their predictions had been wrong.

Sunwoo did not step into the forefront of group management during the period of Samjae.

And so, those rumors remained nothing more than rumors.

However, Sunwoo’s handsome profile photo had been plastered all over the media and had set the internet ablaze as the image of a “typical chaebol second-generation heir.”

Not only that, but this university’s College of Engineering was conducting joint R&D with Samjung Electronics.

Every quarter, they prominently displayed photos of Sunwoo alongside their research and development achievements as part of the university’s promotional materials.

So it wasn’t strange at all that Minjung recognized him.

“Huh? But why would that chaebol heir be calling our Jaye?”

At Minjung’s question, Jaye was rendered speechless.

“What is going on, Shin Jaye? What’s your relationship with him? Your cousin? A guy from church? A guy from the temple? Or your secret fiancé?”

“So…”

By then, Sunwoo had approached Jaye and Minjung.

He looked down at the two women, each of whom was about a head shorter than him.

“So, what are you to Jaye…?”

Despite Minjung’s ridiculous question, Jaye couldn’t laugh.

There was simply no way to explain her relationship with Sunwoo.

While Jaye hesitated, Sunwoo stood before them and extended his right hand toward Minjung.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Jaye’s husband, Jung Sunwoo.”

“What?”

Even though the husband she had been so curious about was standing right in front of her, Minjung didn’t answer immediately.

She stood there in silence for quite some time.

“So…”

It was because she hadn’t immediately understood what Sunwoo meant.

“You’re… Jaye’s husband?”

After several minutes of processing his words, Minjung finally understood and her eyes widened.

“Holy crap!”

Her husband!

Her husband!

Her best friend’s husband was Jung Sunwoo, the heir to Samjung Group, the third-largest conglomerate in South Korea!

Minjung let out a dolphin-like shriek for quite some time, repeated the words holy crap about five more times, and only then finally accepted Sunwoo’s handshake.

“Wow, wow, wow! You’re seriously handsome. You look even better in person. Wow, this is incredible. Waaah.”

She had been curious about Jaye’s husband for three years, but apparently Minjung found his handsome face more fascinating than the fact that he was actually Jaye’s husband.

“This is my first time meeting one of Jaye’s friends.”

“Yes! It’s my first time meeting Jaye’s husband, too!”

Unlike the composed Sunwoo, Jaye was so flustered that she hesitated for a while before introducing Minjung.

“This is Jung Minjung. She’s my closest friend.”

“Jung Minjung, whether you read it forward or backward.”

If they had been an ordinary married couple, Jaye would have told Sunwoo about her friends.

But Jaye had never once told Sunwoo anything about her university life.

She worried that Minjung might find that strange, but fortunately, Minjung was so mesmerized by the presence of Jung Sunwoo standing before her that she couldn’t think about anything else.

“Did you come here to go on a date with Jaye?”

“I came because I thought we could have lunch together.”

At the word lunch, Minjung let out a loud cry.

“Brother-in-law!”

“Yes?”

“We were just about to go eat, too! Since you’re here, you can buy us lunch!”

“Lunch?”

“Yes, Brother-in-law! Please buy me lunch, too! I know all the good restaurants around here!”

It wasn’t exactly a lie.

Minjung was on a diet 365 days a year, but whenever a new restaurant opened nearby, she was always the first person to rush over and review it.

Since restaurants around the university were relatively cheap, she couldn’t afford to give up her restaurant-hunting hobby even when money was tight.

“I’m Jaye’s best friend, so I’m entitled to a free meal, right? And this is my chance to have lunch with the heir to the Samjung Group!”

Sunwoo let out a small laugh at her shamelessness.

“Ah, yes. Of course I should buy you a meal. Let’s go eat.”

“Buy us something delicious!”

Before Jaye even had a chance to stop her, Minjung hurried across the university district toward the restaurant.

Even as they walked, Minjung shamelessly declared that Samjung Electronics was her number-one desired workplace and asked Sunwoo to give her special consideration as Jaye’s best friend if she applied for a job there.

Jaye pinched her, making her shut up for a brief moment.

But Minjung couldn’t hold herself back for long and asked another question.

“But how did you and Jaye meet—”

At that moment, Jaye, who had been walking while looking straight ahead, suddenly stumbled in surprise.