A Bad, Bad Act (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 5

Marry? They wanted him to get married.

[ST is going to shape its future together with Hanju and Bio. Just as In Woo took hold of Raon Soft for NFT, you take charge of ST.]

He let out a disbelieving laugh, utterly flabbergasted.

[What’s your real intention with this?]

At this point, he couldn’t help but suspect the motive behind dragging him—someone who’d chosen to live quietly in America, willing to be branded a good-for-nothing—back into the Hanju Group.

According to Chairman Cha, In Woo owed him a debt, but did that really necessitate pulling in him—the man widely seen as In Woo’s rival—into the group?

[You’re going to have to get married anyway, aren’t you? For people like us, marriage is nothing more than business. It’s just securing another contract.]

He was willing to step in as the ruthless enforcer to support the gentle-natured In Woo.

He also wanted to rescue his mother, who’d been living alone, bound by a marriage contract ever since his father’s death.

But marriage was a different matter altogether.

Especially with ST, of all things.

[Beautiful women are a dime a dozen on the streets—you could have as many as you want if you set your mind to it. But not ST.] [That kind of talk only applies to my goody-two-shoes older brother. I’m different, aren’t I?]

That’s exactly why he’d responded even more defiantly.

It had been his indirect way of refusing marriage altogether.

[A woman’s best feature is her face, after all.] [I’ll pick someone truly beautiful for you.]

That was how the condition was set.

[Once you’re engaged, you’ll have to clean up all your current entanglements anyway. In return, I’ll assign you a woman so stunning she’ll blind you—so you can secretly continue your wild ways.] [You want me to keep a mistress?]

It was clear: they’d force him into marriage no matter what.

They were determined to cast him in the role of In Woo’s rival.

But why?

[Hah, fine then. Do as you please.]

He needed to find out why Chairman Cha Ji Seop had suddenly decided to check his eldest grandson by placing his younger grandson on the chessboard.

And to do that, he’d need time.

Which was precisely why he’d imposed such an impossible condition.

[Bring me a woman I’m absolutely wild about—so perfect I’d lose my mind over her. Until then, forget it.]

The woman the Chairman’s side had presented to fulfill this condition was admittedly quite something.

He kept seeing Seo Yeo Eun’s face in his mind’s eye.

“Do Ha.”

Chairman Cha softly called out his name from the other end of the line.

Before the accident, the Chairman used to call him like that all the time.

Back when his father, Cha Kang, was still alive and hadn’t yet died in disgrace.

“Your father… it’s time we restored him to his rightful place. He deserves proper ancestral rites.”

“Out of the blue?”

He almost laughed.

It was hard to believe those words came from Chairman Cha himself.

“Didn’t you say you’d pushed him relentlessly to become president, only to erase him from the family register once he died squandering that money on secret mistresses?”

Family registers hadn’t even existed in that form for years, yet Chairman Cha had effectively wiped his second son off the Hanju Group map that way.

And now he wanted to reverse it?

What about the times he’d coldly dismissed him and his mother when they’d demanded an investigation into the suspicious circumstances of the accident?

“It’s fine.”

His mother already performed the ancestral rites with the utmost devotion, and there was no place left in this world for his father, Cha Kang, to return to.

“And that woman you assigned me.”

Do Ha thought again of Seo Yeo Eun.

He vividly recalled how her pale face had flushed crimson at just a few words from him.

The way even her earlobes had turned red, her slender fingers fidgeting helplessly.

Her slim waist, and those long, straight legs peeking out beneath her pencil skirt.

A dull heat pooled low in his abdomen.

A sadistic urge to dominate her surged through him.

“I don’t like her.”

Do Ha squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again, trying to erase her image from his mind as he spoke.

“What good is a pretty face if she’s utterly devoid of charm—just docile and obedient?”

“You rascal, saying ‘charm’ in front of your grandfather…?”

“I made it perfectly clear. Pretty alone isn’t enough. I need someone who drives me absolutely wild. So if you want to satisfy me, bring me a woman who matches my level—someone skilled in doing bad things.”

Having said his piece, Do Ha hung up the phone.

Frustration pressed heavily against his solar plexus.

Jaw clenched, he sank deeper into the car seat and turned to look out the window.

Absurdly, the image of plump lips neatly slurping noodles appeared on the glass.

And those bold, chestnut eyes that, though seemingly timid, had captured him so brazenly.

“Damn it.”

Silence filled the car.

Yet his mind was more chaotic than ever.

* * *

“That brat.”

Chairman Cha frowned, watching the phone in his hand with clear displeasure.

Do Ha had hung up on him, just as he pleased.

“Arrogant fellow.”

Despite his grumbling tone, a satisfied smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

“What’s wrong, Chairman? Did Do Ha hang up on you?”

Cha Hyun asked, observing him closely.

“He hung up without even saying goodbye—no manners at all.”

His words were scolding, but his voice couldn’t hide his contentment.

“Who in the Hanju Group would dare…”

Actually, perhaps even outside the group.

“No one else would ever behave this way toward me, Cha Ji Seop.”

Though Do Ha’s audacity bordered on disrespect, the Chairman found himself rather fond of it.

It showed he had real confidence.

Knowing exactly how the Chairman felt, Cha Hyun smiled and added with a knowing tone,

“That’s exactly why you like him—because he isn’t afraid of you, even in your presence.”

“Exactly.”

Chairman Cha abruptly rose from the sofa and walked toward his study desk.

Cha Hyun followed behind him.

“As Do Ha put it…”

With Cha Hyun’s help, the Chairman settled into his chair and continued,

“He doesn’t like that girl. Says she’s completely lacking in charm—just too obedient. Doesn’t think she’d be willing to do bad things with him.”

At this, Cha Hyun let out a soft chuckle.

“And you believe him?”

Her smile held a hint of arrogance—confidence in her own words.

“She’s been crafted from head to toe to match Do Ha’s exact taste.”

Like Do Ha, Cha Hyun showed no fear in front of the Chairman.

“As for having no ‘charm’—that’s entirely up to Do Ha himself.”

In moments like this, it was clear Do Ha took after his aunt, Cha Hyun, more than his own father.

Of course, if Cha Hyun was an imugi, then Do Ha was a full-fledged dragon.

“You really…”

Sometimes, it pained him that Cha Hyun was born a daughter.

“Even though you’re my daughter, how can you be so…”

“What’s gotten into you? Among all your children, I’m the one who resembles you the most.”

That was precisely why he often wondered:

If Cha Hyun had been born the eldest son, wouldn’t Hanju Group be a little different today?

Chairman Cha’s ash-gray eyes looked at Cha Hyun with bittersweet resignation.

Meeting his gaze, Cha Hyun gave a sharp, knowing smile.

“And Do Ha wouldn’t go through the trouble of…”

She placed her phone down on the Chairman’s desk.

“…taking a girl he dislikes out for a meal, would he?”

Tapping the screen, Cha Hyun showed him a photo.

In it, Do Ha was captured entering a restaurant with a woman at his side.

Though his expression seemed indifferent, his gaze was unmistakably fixed on her.

“Just wait and see. Do Ha will come crawling into your hands—just to claim this girl.”

Cha Hyun smiled with absolute confidence.

* * *

Loud club music blasted through Persona’s rooftop lounge.

Yoon Ji Soo, Persona’s CEO, often invited neighbors up to dance and drink whenever she felt down—and today was exactly that kind of day.

A day when melancholy surged so intensely it threatened to swallow her soul whole.

Of course, today’s real focus wasn’t Ji Soo.

It was Yeo Eun.

After leaving the Euljiro udon restaurant earlier that day, Yeo Eun returned to Persona and sat down at her computer.

She typed “Kim Hae Ri scandal” into a search portal—and was struck speechless.

Kim Hae Ri, the former idol singer hailed as the nation’s first love or national goddess, was widely considered the most beautiful woman born in South Korea today.

Five months ago, she’d sparked a massive scandal.

Paparazzi revealed she’d secretly gone on a honeymoon trip with a third-generation chaebol heir.

Photos had even surfaced of her engaging in passionate displays of affection with the man at a private pool villa in a luxury hotel.

At the time, the man’s face wasn’t clearly visible in the photos.

But soon afterward, he was identified as Do Ha Cha, head of the main office at Hanju Group—and both parties remained silent, tacitly confirming the scandal.

And she’d actually considered using a honey trap on that man—the same man who’d already captured the nation’s goddess.

“I must be insane.”

She truly was out of her mind.

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts, Yeo Eun finished off her canned beer.

She was no longer just wallowing in self-loathing—she’d fully surrendered to it.

“Seo Yeo Eun. It’s okay.”

Ji Soo tried to comfort her.

Normally, Yeo Eun would’ve quietly accepted the reassurance, but maybe it was the alcohol—useless words spilled endlessly from her lips.

“It’s not okay at all! I’m mortified enough just thinking I tried to use a honey trap in business, and on top of that, I went after Cha Do Ha—even though I’m nowhere near his league…”

How had she dared even attempt it?

“Do you have any idea how many times I changed my clothes this morning just because I was meeting Cha Do Ha?”

Even Ji Soo was surprised by that.

In all their nine years of friendship, Yeo Eun had never been so particular about her appearance.

But given that it was Cha Do Ha, she couldn’t really blame her.

No matter how much of a brute he was, with that face, who could resist?

“Hey. Stop any random woman on the street in Korea and ask: ‘If you were meeting Cha Do Ha, wouldn’t you do the same?’ Honestly, if it were me, I wouldn’t even care about clothes—I’d take a bath first thing in the morning and put on seriously sexy underwear before heading out.”

That’s just instinct.

At that exact moment,

someone who’d just entered the rooftop lounge spoke up to Ji Soo.

“CEO Yoon Ji Soo, show a little restraint. That might fly with someone else, but not with Yeo Eun.”

It was Cha Hyun.

Her dark, gleaming eyes quietly took in Yeo Eun, whose eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

“Our Yeo Eun needs to act like this sometimes.”