The Problematic Helper (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 1

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A hotel coffee shop with a gentle melody flowing through the air.

Ji Wan roughly rubbed his pale face.

In front of the man with a cold expression, the woman kept wiping away her tears.

The woman, who was the seventh marriage candidate and the one he had hoped would be the last, had sent numerous calls and messages filled with desperate confessions of love the previous night.

“So, am I really eliminated just like this? Just one more chance…”

“Shall I go over the terms of the contract again?”

As if annoyed, Ji Wan deeply closed and opened his eyes.

Standing at the entrance of the coffee shop, his eyes met a man who was glancing this way.

It was the chief secretary, Woo Seok.

The phone number the woman thought was his actually belonged to Woo Seok, and it was Woo Seok, not Ji Wan, who had been harassed by calls and messages all night.

Judging by the dark circles under his eyes, he had hardly slept, and it was clear he was burning inside at the thought of having to find an eighth candidate.

“Everyone makes mistakes. Can’t you overlook it just this once? I was drunk and accidentally let my true feelings out.”

“There’s no guarantee you won’t make the same mistake again, and more importantly, I’m not generous enough to tolerate such mistakes.”

“Calling late at night was a mistake, but the confession was sincere. I really, truly like you, Ji Wan.”

Just as Ji Wan lifted his head and curled the corner of his mouth at the love confession from a woman he had only met three times, it happened.

Perhaps because it was a quiet weekday afternoon, or perhaps unintentionally, the conversation from the table behind him came through clearly.

“We’ve only been dating for three months, Mother. You kept pressuring me to get married, so I brought her to show you. Please don’t ever set me up on another blind date again, understood?”

“How could I not when you never brought such a lovely young lady to show me? Fine, I’ve seen her, so that’s enough. It was nice meeting you; I can finally relax. Come visit home sometime.”

“Yes, I’ll find time with Young Woo.”

Whether it was children or grandchildren, pressuring men of marriageable age to wed was a universal repertoire across time and cultures.

After the middle-aged woman left, the conversation of those who remained took an unexpected turn.

“Thank you for all your hard work until now. I thought all helpers from dating agencies were pretty much the same, but I never expected to meet someone as wonderful as you. You even dealt with my friends, my grandmother, and my parents. My friends from last time were so jealous of how much they liked Do Um. Even Grandmother was very fond of her. You’ve really been a huge help.”

“Not at all. I truly hope a good girlfriend comes into Young Woo’s life soon.”

It seemed every method of dealing with marriage pressure was more or less the same.

At the word “helper” that drifted over from the opposite side, Ji Wan coldly scanned the woman sitting in front of him.

Unlike him, whose vision had gone dark, he almost envied the man over there who had neatly resolved the situation using a dating agency helper.

He heard the woman behind him stand up.

“This must be fate, Do Um. Have you ever considered dating me seriously? I may look like this, but I have a solid job, and as you know, my family is more than decent. It’s just that my parents and grandmother are a bit… particular about me…”

The man’s voice, urgently appealing, sounded sincere.

“Park Young Woo.”

The woman who had been soft-spoken the whole time now spoke in a voice so cold it was almost icy.

“I know very well that you are outstanding in looks, education, and career. Your family is excellent, as you said. Unfortunately, however, I am not in a position to hand my business card to your parents.”

“…Pardon?”

“Apart from the appearance and age that were provided to you through Happy Helper Agency, is there anything at all that you actually know about me?”

“That you’re a university student and doing this as a part-time job…”

“Yes, I do desperately need money, but that doesn’t mean I’ll just lie down anywhere. I make sure of where I lie down, and I check whether it’s crap or soybean paste first. I also know my place precisely, so I’ll pretend I didn’t hear what you just said.”

Her voice, clearly distinguishing between work and personal matters, was confident.

The calm tone that excluded any personal feelings and the resolute firmness that left no room whatsoever—it was exactly the kind of person he had been looking for.

“It seems we’re done talking, so please stand up first.”

Ji Wan murmured to the woman whose eyes were dripping with lingering attachment.

By now, she’d had enough time to collect her emotions.

“…Still, please at least keep in touch—”

Ji Wan shook his head, his brows deeply furrowed.

It was both a refusal to stay in contact and a kind of warning not to cling any further.

The seventh marriage candidate stood up from her seat.

At the same moment, the woman at the table behind did as well.

Hair neatly tied back in a single bun, wearing a modest light pink dress.

Height around 163 cm, weight about 48 kg. Age probably mid-to-late twenties.

Two men simultaneously watched the woman walking with an appropriate stride.

“Do you know her?”

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Woo Seok, now beside him, followed Ji Wan’s gaze.

“Soon.”

“…Sorry?”

“I’ll know her soon enough. Go and bring her to me. That woman.”

*****

Bando Group, ranked third in South Korea’s business world.

Centered around Bando Tower in Samseong-dong, with Bando Construction and Bando Electronics spaced three blocks apart, and even the relatively small but famously unignorable Eden Entertainment & Media in Nonhyeon.

When people thought of “Bando Group,” they usually pictured the globally renowned Bando Electronics, but in the past three years, the rapidly rising Bando Construction had also become a social hot topic.

At the center of that topic was the second son of Bando Group and the CEO of Bando Construction, Seo Ji Wan.

Having graduated from a top-tier American university and earned a doctorate in business administration, he was on a smooth path in management. At thirty-four, apart from his outstanding looks, nothing else was publicly known about him.

That was because he had not been born as the legitimate heir of Bando Group.

No one was unaware of the natural playboy tendencies of Bando Group’s chairman, Seo Myeong Han.

It wouldn’t have been surprising if another of Chairman Seo’s illegitimate children had appeared somewhere; he was that infamous for his womanizing. Even the core pillar of Bando, Chairman Seo’s mother Chairwoman Jang Ho Mook, was said to have completely given up on him—such rumors were openly circulated.

In that situation, the year after the legitimate eldest son Gi Hyuk was born, the birth of the illegitimate child Ji Wan had to be thoroughly kept secret.

The baby who entered the Bando family was sent away from his mother’s side to grow up in a distant foreign country before he was even old enough to remember.

He learned management at Bando Group’s overseas branches and returned to Korea at the age of thirty.

That was the moment the infant had been thoroughly reborn as a true member of the Bando family.

“No need for other words—get married right now.”

Contrary to expectations that his future in Korea would be smooth sailing, there was one major obstacle.

It was Chairwoman Jang Ho Mook, the mother of Bando Group’s Chairman Seo Myeong Han and the real power behind the group.

Even approaching ninety, she was stubbornly fierce, and even the seventy-something Chairman Seo would practically die at a single word from her unless it concerned women. It was no exaggeration to say that no one could enter Bando without stepping over Chairwoman Jang’s threshold.

Not only did she involve herself in all major and minor affairs of the group, but her influence in distributing shares of affiliates and placing her people in the right positions was considerable.

“You know very well that marriage isn’t something as simple as picking up a spoon from the dinner table.”

To the only person who never bowed his head to her, Ji Wan was naturally a thorn in her side.

For an illegitimate child, one would think he should try every trick to get in her good graces, yet Ji Wan remained coldly aloof.

Tsk tsk.

Because of this, the sound of Chairwoman Jang clicking her tongue in Anseong-dong had become the nickname she used when summoning Ji Wan—it was no empty rumor.

“That’s why you don’t even pick up the spoon from the table so easily.”

It was a jab reported to Chairwoman Jang, who monitored her grandchildren’s every move, that Ji Wan often skipped meals because of his busy work.

“Tsk tsk, what a hopeless fellow.”

The eldest grandson Gi Hyuk, only one year older than Ji Wan, overflowed with ambition.

Even though he held the most important Bando Electronics, he was desperate for more.

Things like hotels or entertainment, for example.

Chairwoman Jang had declared that businesses without an official family representative and run by professional managers would be fairly distributed according to the two men’s abilities.

In order to solidify his position, Gi Hyuk married Seo Hyun, the daughter of Jin Han E&C, and placed his wife’s name as the hotel’s representative.

Even though the hotel had been snatched right from under his nose without proper competition, and Ji Wan remained leisurely about it, Chairwoman Jang still clicked her tongue at him.

Swallowing the word “good-for-nothing,” she had ultimately resorted to marriage as her final card.

A thirty-four-year-old man who had never once brought a woman home naturally attracted all sorts of rumors.

That he was gay.

That there was a reason he didn’t even blink at countless women’s advances, that the scandals with famous actresses were just a smokescreen to hide the truth, and so on.

Given all those rumors, it was only natural that Chairwoman Jang issued her final ultimatum with the marriage card.

“Did I ask you to bring home some extraordinary woman from a good family? All I’m saying is that a man should have what every other man is born with—don’t bring shame on the family with that kind of talk just because you don’t want to hear it.”

He almost retorted, “So is that why Father married twice?” but barely held it in.

“The reason you’re acting so arrogantly must be because you have strong backing.”

She was talking about his mother, Eun Hee.

When the legitimate daughter-in-law and Gi Hyuk’s mother passed away, Chairwoman Jang officially registered Ji Wan’s mother, Eun Hee, as part of the Bando family.

A full fourteen years after she had given birth to Ji Wan.

“Do you know what happens when you bare your claws in front of a tiger?”

The claws she clearly revealed surely referred to his mother, Eun Hee.

“All I have to do is cut them off. Cut them short so they can never be used again.”

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It was a fierce spirit unbelievable for a ninety-year-old.

“Three months. If you don’t get married within that time, you’ll step down from the CEO position at Construction, of course, and your mother will have to come live under me in Anseong-dong. You wouldn’’t want to see your own mother suffer until she bleeds, would you?”

The past three years of hardship that Ji Wan had endured to raise the once-struggling Construction to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with top domestic and international firms—using that achievement, he had only just managed three years ago to have his mother appointed as curator of an art museum on the outskirts of the city.

The threat to rip out all of Eun Hee’s claws was no empty words.

After all, she was an old woman who had only ever schemed to bring her back to her side.

Ji Wan swept his gaze over the woman in the light pink dress pacing in front of the suite’s floor-to-ceiling window.

The woman Woo Seok had barely managed to bring looked around warily—either because the hotel was unfamiliar or because she was guarded against him—and eventually took a seat by the window as far from him as possible.

In front of what had to be the eighth and final marriage candidate, Ji Wan heavily opened his mouth.

“What would you like me to call you?”

The suspicion of why he had brought her all the way to a hotel room was written plainly on the woman’s face.

“Whatever is comfortable for you. If it’s not necessary for conversation, you don’t have to call me anything at all.”

Lowering his broad shoulders, placing both arms on his seated knees, Ji Wan fell into thought for a moment.

He had just remembered that in the coffee shop, the man had called her “Helper.”

“Alright, let’s do that. Helper.”

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