Hambaek Flower Restaurant - Chapter 50

Park Jae Sun remained silent.

Choi Yoon, clutching his phone, glared at the cars occasionally entering the parking lot and the dimly lit shops beyond.

– Put Tae Rin on.

“A large sum of money changed hands between you two, I hear.”

– Whether money changes hands or shit changes hands, it’s none of your business.

“It is my business. Your answer will determine whether I turn Kim Tae Rin over to the center or not.”

Park Jae Sun burst out laughing. He spoke in a husky voice.

– You can’t report it. If you were going to, you would have done it already. Right?

“I believe Kim Tae Rin is an impersonator, and you’re abetting her.”

– Wow, that’s accurate.

He didn’t even attempt to deny it.

“Director. Identity impersonation is illegal. So is abetting.”

– Tae Rin couldn’t have been careless. She went undetected for a very long time. Are you just particularly sharp?

“Not at all. You made the mistake first.”

At that moment, in the protest headquarters, Kim Tae Rin had looked Choi Yoon straight in the eye. Her attitude, her gaze, defiantly asking why there would be an impersonator in the first place. Suppressed and taut, as if about to grab him by the collar.

It was utterly sloppy. Like baring her neck and charging in.

Park Jae Sun sighed.

– So in the end, it’s all about those damn emotions? Tae Rin should have hated you a little, right?

Park Jae Sun didn’t seem to feel any sense of crisis. Even though Choi Yoon held the upper hand, he acted as if he was above him.

– Tae Rin didn’t just make a mistake. She made a mistake because it was you. I told her to be so careful.

Choi Yoon gripped his phone tighter. He was on high alert.

– The kid sometimes can’t control her emotions. Especially with you, or Hae Woo.

There must be a reason why Park Jae Sun is acting so nonchalant.

– By the way, why are you curious about the money exchanged between Tae Rin and me? If you think Tae Rin is an impersonator and I’m abetting her, why don’t you just report it?

Before Choi Yoon could react, Park Jae Sun clicked his tongue.

– Wait, did you investigate me? This is disappointing. Ah, I’m not saying you’re on the wrong track.

Park Jae Sun continued brightly.

– Because I performed Tae Rin’s surgery.

A car parked right next to them pulled out. Its shadow obscured the streetlight, then revealed it again, pale.

Choi Yoon exhaled slowly.

– But it seems like that’s not all you’re curious about. If it was, you’d ask about Kim Tae Rin, not what our relationship is.

Choi Yoon sensed that Park Jae Sun had long prepared for this situation. He was relaxed and showed no signs of impatience.

Kim Tae Rin had entered the food service industry right after leaving the orphanage. That means she must have met Park Jae Sun around that time. If so, the two have known each other for over a decade.

Choi Yoon bit the inside of his lip.

It’s quite a long relationship.

He might be the only long-term person in Kim Tae Rin’s life, who had moved countless times and focused solely on business.

Park Jae Sun and Kim Tae Rin must have discussed and prepared for countless scenarios over the years. It means their trust is deep and……

It was unpleasant.

Kim Tae Rin is an impersonator, and Park Jae Sun is helping her. The two have known each other for a long time.

It was much more unpleasant than expected.

He was just confirming what he had already suspected, but he couldn’t understand where this emotion was coming from.

– Shall we hear your thoughts? Yes, how do we appear to you?

“You appear to be in a romantic relationship.”

Park Jae Sun laughed as if amused.

– Tae Rin does like me quite a lot.

His prediction was correct. Despite hitting consecutive singles, his mood didn’t improve at all.

– Why. Did it look like Tae Rin was clinging to me? The money mostly came out of my account, you know.

Choi Yoon furrowed his brow. Park Jae Sun seemed to be toying with him. Am I thinking wrong?

“Are you two not lovers? Then why did such large sums of money change hands?”

– I invested in Tae Rin.

“Invested? What kind of…, ah.”

Choi Yoon remembered the thick documents that Han Seo Jung had picked up and kept.

An old, faded dream.

With the core stolen, only the husk remained.

– You’ve tasted it, so you know, right? Tae Rin’s cooking skills are quite good. It’s not just at the level of inviting a few acquaintances to eat. She has a talent for developing items. Her business acumen is quite sharp too.

He sounded proud, like he was boasting about a well-raised daughter.

– It all went bust because Hae Woo set her sights on it, though.

His tone suggested that if it weren’t for Hae Woo Foods, Kim Tae Rin’s Hambak Flower Steak would have spread worldwide and then some.

It’s not such a far-fetched idea. In fact, Hae Woo acquired Kim Tae Rin’s patent and hit it big.

– I’m just like that. They say whenever I buy land or stocks, they fall. If someone else had invested in Tae Rin, the results might have been different.

Park Jae Sun added nonchalantly.

– For example, someone like you?

Me? What a ridiculous notion. Even as a joke, it’s absurd.

“But Kim Tae Rin has no intention of restarting that business now. That doesn’t explain the money exchanged afterwards.”

– Do you abandon people just because they failed? You still have to save their life, don’t you?

Choi Yoon stared intensely ahead. He spoke coldly.

“If that’s the price of a life, it’s quite expensive.”

– Tae Rin saved my daughter. So I want to save Tae Rin too.

For a moment, Choi Yoon didn’t understand what he meant. He blinked slowly.

Park Jae Sun’s daughter must refer to Park So Won. A stylist who worked with Choi Yoon for a long time, and also Yoo Ji Ho’s lover.

– There was a big news story. She almost died after falling onto the subway tracks, but Tae Rin went down herself and pushed her up with her whole body.

“I heard about it from So Won. But she said she couldn’t find out who her savior was. She disappeared without a trace right after, so they couldn’t find her.”

It became a topic of conversation due to the woman’s incredible strength, despite being female. However, she had pulled her hood down low so her face wasn’t caught on CCTV, and she vanished into the crowd right after following Park So Won up, forgotten thereafter.

– I found her by asking around the nearby shops. I couldn’t tell the press. Tae Rin was planning to impersonate someone at the time, so she was reluctant to expose her face.

So that was Kim Tae Rin.

– So Won doesn’t know either. Keep it a secret. Only Tae Rin and I know.

“Why keep it a secret?”

– So Won absolutely hates that I perform surgeries for impersonators. She thinks it’s dangerous. And Tae Rin also disliked forming relationships with many people before the surgery. Because it’s dangerous.

Choi Yoon exhaled deeply. He was surprised at himself for feeling relieved right after.

Was he relieved that Kim Tae Rin wasn’t in a romantic relationship with Park Jae Sun, or was he relieved to finally know the truth about Kim Tae Rin? He couldn’t tell.

– And she said if it was revealed that she was a yokai, public opinion would change. She worried about false rumors like deliberately pushing and then saving her because she knew she was a famous doctor’s daughter.

It was a reasonable concern for Kim Tae Rin.

For example, even if you get a lost wallet returned, if the person who found it turned out to be a yokai rather than a human, you’d be suspicious before grateful.

– Do you know how many people were there when the accident happened? There were so many. But only Tae Rin moved.

Choi Yoon thought of Kim Tae Rin rushing over, panting, for Han Seo Jung’s sake. The desperate weight with which she had grasped Choi Yoon’s arm then. She would certainly do something like that.

– You think impersonators are dangerous. I don’t think so. That’s why I’m helping Tae Rin.

For a moment, Choi Yoon felt a corner of his heart twist.

The conversation he had with Kim Tae Rin was now being repeated. But compared to his resolute self then, he now somehow lacked conviction.

Because he knew too much about Kim Tae Rin now. Because she had cultivated his father’s restaurant in that way. Planting hambak flowers all over the yard and hanging a swing from the paulownia tree branch. Keeping the bed his father made as a shelf.

Her scarred hands. Her densely black eyes that welled up with tears when talking about Han Seo Jung. Her honestly pale cheeks as she dozed off.

He took a deep breath.

Nothing changes.

“Director, powerful Class 1 yokai transform into social disasters when cornered after their manifestation point is removed. Every impersonator who has attempted escape so far has harmed people……”

– But isn’t that the same for humans?

Park Jae Sun said, as if sighing.

– No one forgave them. Right? So the situation was always the same.

“Do we have to forgive?”

– Why can’t we?

“Couldn’t they just not live as impersonators in the first place?”

– Aren’t you too harshly attributing social constraints to individual problems?

“Director, all escaped impersonators have harmed people. There were no exceptions.”

– I know you excel at acting. Have you ever once tried to think from an impersonator’s perspective? Why they make that decision and get on the operating table. Many yokai die without waking up. Even if they’re lucky enough to live pretending to be human, their final destination is still the execution platform. Imagine how they feel when they escape right before that. All the media treats them like potential nuclear bombs. There’s nowhere to run.

“I don’t want to defend criminals in any situation. I was injured today. By an impersonator.”

– They wouldn’t have attacked first. That’s my guess.

Choi Yoon felt sweat forming in his palm. When they first encountered each other, the eagle certainly backed off. It took the same attitude as Choi Yoon. Perhaps they could have just distanced themselves like that.

But because the police barged in……

– Because the situation was the same, the result was the same.

Choi Yoon tried to gather his thoughts. It’s sophistry.

– The yokai you’re trying to protect from the government and the impersonators who gave up being yokai aren’t that different.

If he had heard this talk before coming down to Jangcheon, he would have scoffed. He wouldn’t have wavered. If it was before meeting Kim Tae Rin.

– Tae Rin, sometimes regretted it. Cutting off her tail.

Choi Yoon held his breath. He listened intently.

– But when Tae Rin first came to the hospital, she said it was okay to regret. To me, they’re both the same. Whether she has a tail or not, that kid hasn’t changed.

The dry sensation of flipping through documents in Han Seo Jung’s room came alive at his fingertips.

The Kim Tae Rin portrayed on those pages was full of life. She dynamically grew along with her business. However, the process of Kim Tae Rin’s dream being completely uprooted from her life was long and arduous.

It wasn’t just a process of giving up on a dream, but facing the fact that her past choice to take on the risk of identity impersonation for that dream was clearly a misjudgment.

What remained for Kim Tae Rin afterwards was just one thing. An unstable identity due to a moment of arrogant judgment. When survival becomes the priority, one can only curl up inwards.

She must have wanted to leave this place.

That’s why money continued to change hands between Park Jae Sun and Kim Tae Rin even after she closed her business. And the fact that Kim Tae Rin is still in Korea despite this process means……

“She already tried to flee overseas and failed.”

– She failed again this time.

Kim Tae Rin’s hurried attempt to leave Jangcheon today wasn’t a vague escape, but a pre-arranged exit route with Park Jae Sun’s help.

– As you said, Tae Rin might become a social disaster too? Her last chance to live flew away today. The ship has sailed. It’s not a metaphor. It really sailed away.

Ah, Kim Tae Rin was……

He roughly rubbed his forehead with the hand not holding the phone.

……here now, having given up more than I thought.