“Yes.”

– Have you eaten?

“I’m full. They say I won’t be hungry for a while.”

Chairwoman Bae Jung Soon.

She must have seen the article too, so she answered the call to ease my mind. Besides, if I didn’t answer until the end, it was clear she would send someone over.

The old woman, letting out a weak laugh and clicking her tongue softly, shouted:

– Ah, why does your voice sound like you’re dying! Did you commit a sin!

“You know, Madam Bae, the capable chief secretary would have neatly summarized and shown it to you.”

– That is a conspiracy.

Her scattered excitement dissipated, and her labored breathing came through.

A heavy silence I had never experienced with Jung Soon. Soon, Chairman Bae’s determined voice, having gathered her thoughts, continued:

– Bae Jung Soon’s eye for people has never been wrong. Kang is not that kind of person. I will uncover the culprit behind this,

“Grandmother.”

Our Madam Bae, really. I wonder when she built such trust in Kang Jae Kyung, when she’s usually the type to suspect everyone first.

Hiding the loneliness washing over her with a smile, Da Hae spoke bravely.

“At times like this, just get angry. Say you’ll break that bastard’s legs, or that you’ll hire some thugs to beat him up good. That’s cooler right now.”

With a groan, the old woman’s worried voice came through.

My poor puppy… She could clearly feel the blackened insides of her stoic granddaughter who never once complained.

Jung Soon wanted to rush over and see that face right away, but she forcefully suppressed her fiery anger and hung up the phone.

“Haa.”

She felt powerless.

With only one head trying to think about many things at once, nothing was being resolved – she was experiencing a mental bottleneck.

Da Hae leaned her aching head on the steering wheel and bit her lip.

It’s all just rumors. But rumors should have no basis…

Then is it all fabricated, a meticulously laid trap targeting only the Kang Jae Kyung couple? Before she could focus on that thought, her phone vibrated again.

Da Hae leaned on the steering wheel, swiped the screen, and put it on speaker.

– Where are you?

“In hell.”

A heavy sigh flowed through. After catching his breath briefly, the voice that followed was calm.

– Don’t look at the articles. I’ll explain everything. Let’s meet first.

“Looks like there’s something that needs explaining.”

– Kye Da Hae.

“I don’t believe it. This garbage of an article.”

But, letting the words linger, Da Hae paused for a moment and bit her lip hard. Then she slowly opened up.

“Right now, I don’t want to believe Kang Jae Kyung either.”

She hung up unilaterally, telling him not to come looking for her until she contacted him first.

She did so knowing it wasn’t the wisest course of action.

Reclining the seat back fully, Da Hae leaned back and stared blankly out the window.

Explanation. He said he would explain. It was the process to resolve a misunderstanding. Yet she ran away first. Afraid that upon hearing, it might not be an explanation but an excuse.

When the man asked where she was and she answered hell, she meant it sincerely.

A churning stomach like a terrible hangover. An unknown hot mass rummaging through her whole body.

The anxiety and fear they created seemed no less than hellfire. So she closed her ears.

Suddenly, she began to gauge. The distance towards him and the distance to the wall she had been hiding behind.

If she went back and hid behind it again, even if the sweet and happy world would end, at least there wouldn’t be a thorny path of pain and hurt. While thinking such thoughts.

Da Hae turned off her obsessively ringing phone and closed her eyes right there.

* * *

The gloomy sky poured down thick rain without fail.

A desolation as bleak as an autumn shower settled heavily in Chairman Kang Cha Dol’s study.

“If you’re human, you make mistakes.”

Raindrops fiercely hitting the window. The sweet jujube scent diffusing gently in the imposingly high ceiling.

Setting his teacup down on the table, Cha Dol spoke for the first time since sitting down.

Following the low voice of solid density, Pil Seung’s head turned towards him. Then, as if afraid to make eye contact, his shoulders flinched.

It was because he felt as if those pitch-black, abyss-like eyes could see right through everything.

Not missing that expression and taking it all in, Chairman Kang calmly continued speaking.

“If you were a beast, you wouldn’t reflect on it.”

The day the scandalous rumors broke out. Chairman Kang Cha Dol summoned Pil Seung and Jae Kyung to the main house.

Centered around him seated at the head, the two grandsons sitting on either side were sparing with their words to the point of tedium.

“Pil Seung.”

“… Yes, Grandfather.”

His kindly wrinkled eyes took in his younger grandson, then,

“Jae Kyung.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

Moved on to his eldest grandson.

Pil Seung, with his hands clasped atop his politely crossed legs, had slumped shoulders and looked every bit like a rain-soaked puppy.

The kind of pitiful face that would cower and back away if you went “Roar!”

In contrast, Jae Kyung’s straight back and fists clenched with just the right amount of force exuded uprightness.

His face, devoid of any particular expression, remained aloof throughout.

Even considering the age difference, the brothers differed in the intensity of their auras from the start.

The jealous and immature younger son. Kang Pil Seung, who grew up lavished with love and lacking for nothing.

Yet he always felt inferior to his brother. It was because he knew himself the immense difference in capabilities that could never be bridged.

Though he never openly admitted it, he knew he couldn’t even dream of competing head-on, the level was so far beyond him.

Pil Seung, whose best effort amounted to such petty and shallow tricks, seemed quite pitiful in the old man’s eyes.

It felt like his delicately raised, flower-like grandson was becoming a monster because of the adults.

Cha Dol lifted his eyelids leisurely, shifting his gaze from the cooling jujube tea. Casting that gaze out the window, a low voice, as if locked away, followed.

“I’d like only human offspring under my roof. It ought to be that way.”

The nuance was as if he knew whose doing it was.

Pil Seung clenched his fists until the veins popped out and ground his molars.

If he was going to interrogate, he should have just called him alone, but insistently seating Kang Jae Kyung in front and treating him like a criminal was very displeasing.

Slowly rising to his feet, Pil Seung faced Cha Dol.

“… You think I did it, don’t you?”

Despite his polite words, his face, steeped in darkness, was rather ominous.

Instead of answering, Cha Dol stretched his wrinkled mouth into a hearty laugh.

Bowing his waist deeply and turning on his heel, Pil Seung’s voice was directed at Jae Kyung this time.

“Do you think so too, brother?”

“No.”

The immediate denial came without hesitation. This time Pil Seung couldn’t hide his expression and furrowed his brows.

“There’s no way.”

“…”

“Our Pil Seung wouldn’t.”

It was an affectionate voice, as if soothing a child. While saying he didn’t even doubt it, Brother Jae Kyung stretched his lips into a slight smile.

Facing him, our Pil Seung’s knuckles trembled.

It was disgusting. Pretending to be so calm and composed while surely anxious inside – it was unbearably loathsome.

Chewing on his lower lip, Pil Seung turned his back and left the study.

With just the two of them left, the atmosphere in the room quickly changed.

“Did you have to scratch his insides like that? Like a child.”

“It’s because you just smile like a kind old man that the kid acts that way.”

The reason for urgently summoning the grandsons was obvious.

The elder grandson, knowing it was the younger’s doing, preemptively struck to prevent any possible harm.

Knowing this, he had sat quietly to uphold the Chairman’s dignity.

Having fulfilled his duty, Jae Kyung made his stance clear.

He said he would consider what level of punishment to give.

Cursing coarsely at the words that he shouldn’t interfere no matter what he did, Chairman Kang glanced at his grandson with just his eyes.

Noticing the intention in that gaze, Jae Kyung’s eyebrows twisted slightly.

“It’s not.”

“Really not?”

“…”

“For the composite to be this flawless…”

Deepening his laugh lines, he side-eyed suspiciously. As if to say, what can you do when the technology is so good.

“Ah, lasers will come out of those ink-stained eyes.”

Kang Cha Dol played dumb, saying if not then never mind.

A breath like a sigh escaped through Jae Kyung’s teeth.

Despite news reports providing evidence that the problematic photo was a composite, suspicions did not easily subside.

They said there must be a reason why Yoon Si Ah’s agency hadn’t released an official statement.

Saying there’s no smoke without fire.

If this incident was a conspiracy, questions arose about who was behind it.

Among them, some pointed to Sammyeong Group’s second son, who had been involved in several scandals with Yoon Si Ah, but sympathetic public opinion formed, saying how could he do that using his lover.

The ill-fated second son who handed over both property and lover to his older brother, they said.

Their speculations were unimportant to Jae Kyung.

Ignoring the conjectures spewed while inciting and being incited by things that weren’t true was enough.

However, Kye Da Hae receiving sympathy along with Kang Pil Seung. His wife getting hurt was a completely different matter.

It was the reason he wanted to quash the scandal as quickly as possible.

Checking the time, Jae Kyung rose, saying he would be going now.