Chapter 8
Almost as soon as she finished speaking so calmly, her whole face felt like it was burning. Biting her lower lip, Se-im averted her gaze for no reason, then twisted her toes a moment later.
She was about to step away, but her wrist was suddenly grabbed.
“Where are you going? You’re not even listening to me.”
Se-im scowled and looked up at Taemok.
Just as their gazes clashed in mid-air without a gapā
“…Director?”
A not-unfamiliar voice cut through the tense atmosphere.
Startled, Se-im instinctively hid her captured wrist. When she looked, there was a familiar face.
She knew Manager Kim well, but the people behind him were almost all strangers. The men in suits scattered among them were probably employees of Hoemok Group.
Manager Kim scratched under his chin and blinked rapidly.
“Se-im? How come you two are together…”
As his puzzled gaze turned to Taemok, Se-im stepped forward as if to block him.
“Hello, Uncle.”
Behind her back, invisible to others, she was struggling to escape his grip. But he wouldn’t let go. Se-im hissed at him quietly, “Let go.”
Cha Taemok instead pulled her tightly held wrist closer. He showed no interest whatsoever in the people around them. When her back, helplessly yanked, collided with his hard chest, she was half resigned.
“I said let go.”
“How can I let go when you’re going to that bastard’s house?”
He didn’t realize that “that bastard’s house” was also Manager Kim’s house. Or rather, even if he knew that the bastard was Manager Kim’s son, Cha Taemok was exactly the kind of person to say that.
Swallowing a few choice words with a sigh, Se-im twisted her captured wrist.
“I’m not going there. I’m going home.”
Only after she gave a definite answer was she freed from him.
“Then take the car.”
“…”
“Get in, hurry.”
Aware of the curious stares, Se-im had no choice but to approach the parked car. If she resisted any longer, she’d only put innocent people in an awkward position.
She walked around the hood and opened the passenger door. Only then did she hear his voice, acknowledging the employees’ greetings.
“It’s hot out there. Thank you for your hard work.”
His actions were smooth. As if nothing had happened.
She saw Cha Taemok, wallet open, pressing a card into an employee’s hand. The polished man now looked like the perfect owner. His light gestures and courteous smile felt utterly natural.
It was a moment when the five-year gap truly hit her.
How far was this short distance, really?
It felt immeasurably far.
Watching him, Se-im didn’t get into the passenger seat. Instead, she closed the door. She walked around the hood again and climbed inānot the passenger side, but the driver’s seat.
She immediately locked the doors and rolled up the window that had been down. As the window glided up and stopped at about eye level, Cha Taemok, having sent off the subordinates, strode over.
As the distance closed, their eyes met. His straight eyebrows slowly lifted. The question: why had she gotten into the driver’s seat?
Without answering, Se-im simply buckled her seatbelt. Only after firmly gripping the steering wheel did she finally glance at him through the window.
“You said to take the car.”
The black sedan immediately started cutting through the alley.
The cold rear of the departing car turned a corner and disappeared. Taemok let out a bewildered, hollow laugh, then ran his tongue over his teeth in amusement.
“Got caught.”
That quiet, devastating counterpunch was so like Han Se-im. She must never know about this tiresome sickness that made him cling to her even more the more she did things like this. Nor about how far his thoughts had gone regarding that brat in her group just now.
Cha Taemok grimaced and let out a short, mocking laugh.
Fucking hypocrisy…
He’d been acting like a highly cultivated man, but the truth was he had no hobby of enduring. If he hadn’t learned through past history that the more he acted arbitrarily, the more trouble Han Se-im would be in, he would have crushed this situation his usual way as well.
The clash between his two selves didn’t feel bad.
What that tiny woman liked and hated, what kind of things she found terribleāhe’d never in his life considered any of that. Craving affection while racking his brain made him feel exactly like a fool, and it wasn’t bad.
Pushing both hands into his pants pockets, Cha Taemok dragged his scuffing shoes and began to walk slowly.
The one and only stationery store.
The snack bar where the slushie machine spun round and round.
His toes passed the piano academy with its faded signboard and reached the empty park.
A vibration came from his jacket’s inner pocket. The phone he took out had an unwelcome call waiting.
Already tired, the man’s jaw muscles tightened visibly.
Then, slowly rubbing the back of his neck, he sat on a bench and put a cigarette in his mouth. Only after clicking his lighter to the tip did he accept the call.
āĀ How can you go all the way there and not make a single phone call?
His mother’s voice was sharper than usual, as if her neurosis had flared up again.
The path she had drawn for him was a ladder, she said. All he had to do was climb it, so what was his problem? Before she’d even finished that argument, her son had left the mainlandāso her insides must have been thoroughly worn down.
A lax smile crumbled, and a bitter stream of smoke spread from Taemok’s lips.
“Have I ever called?”
āĀ Cha Taemok.
“Yes, Mother.”
A sigh came through the line. He could almost see her holding her throbbing forehead.
āĀ Cut your losses and come to Seoul right now. You have no idea how much the chairman is investing in that island, and you’re running wild.
The project to build a resort on this backward island was something everyone had been reluctant to take on. The expected returns were low compared to the massive capital investmentāthat was one reasonābut the real reason was that the project was tied to the grandfather’s honor.
It was well-known as the grandfather’s long-cherished project, so expectations from the outside had to be met. If they failed, the responsibility would fall squarely on the person in charge. That was already decided.
Everyone knew it, and that was why, even within the Hoemok family, which had many mouths to feed, no one stepped forward to take it.
And yet, recklessly, Cha Taemok had raised his hand.
āĀ The old man is already not in his right mind. Who knows what will happen if you rub him the wrong way? It’ll be a stain on your record. You’ve watched your father get mocked his whole life because of that ski resort in Gangwon-doādoes that mean nothing to you?
“I don’t want to argue anymore. Let’s end the call here.”
āĀ What’s wrong with you, always making your parents worry…!
Her words trailed off, and for a while, his mother didn’t even breathe. Taemok knew what memory was flickering through her mind at times like this.
The incident where he’d shaved his own head with clippers and enlisted without noticeāthat must have been quite a shock.
After that, her meaningless lament of “How did my son…” had completely disappeared, so it was a pretty good outcome.
Tapping off his ash lazily, Cha Taemok drew leisurely on his cigarette again.
“I’ll contact you again later.”
His distorted tone was enough to convey disbelief.
āĀ I’m sure you will.
“Go inside.”
āĀ I knew you’d be like this. Do you think I don’t know you? Come pick me up at Yeondo Port by eight.
A moment of silence passed.
Then, furrowing his brow sharply, the man roughly wiped his face. Grinding out his cigarette slowly, as if assessing the situation, he finally sprang to his feet.
“Don’t do this.”
But through the receiver, the sound of a ship’s horn blared loudly.
āĀ Don’t be late.
There was no way to stop her nowāshe’d already boarded the boat to Mangul-do.
Looking down at the ended call screen, Cha Taemok ground his molars. Checking the time with a twist of his wrist only fueled his anxiety.
His mother was coming to Mangul-do. Just chewing over that premise made his head throb.
“Ha…”
Yanking down his tie harshly, the man quickly headed to the roadside. Unable to bear the urgency crushing his chest, he had to go to Han Se-im right away.
Cha Taemok hurriedly flagged down a passing taxi.
“Ah, sir, I don’t go that way. Even if the road’s been paved, it’s still rough and…”
Veins rose on the back of his hand as he gripped the driver’s seat.
“I’ll pay triple. Will you go then?”
“Well, that’s not…”
“Ten timesāno, fucking a hundred times. I’ll pay itā”
Suppressing his ragged breath, the man belatedly composed himself.
“Please, sir
