Going back to the scene of Jung Mi O entering the office, Dae Un rewound the video from there and soon stopped it. Ga Eul was slumped over her desk.

He felt he had finally found it. This is where the problem occurred.

Dae Un started quickly rewinding the video again. A scene appeared of Ga Eul going to the office door to receive what looked like a package delivery. From there, he slowed down the speed and played the video forward.

Ga Eul returned to her desk and opened the box. Inside were a laptop and a document envelope.

Dae Un recognized it as the office laptop that the police had confiscated. Then the contents of the document envelope must be SD cards.

He could see Ga Eul connecting one of them to the laptop. Ga Eul was staring intently at the monitor. She repeated the same thing several times.

Then Ga Eul slumped over her desk.

What did Ga Eul see?

Dae Un stood up from his seat. The SD cards were downstairs. It was time to go down and find out what was on them.

As Dae Un opened the door and went out, a woman’s sharp scream pierced his ears.

“You’re laughing? You find this funny? You think you’ll be safe if our Myeong Se goes to prison? I won’t let you get away with this!”

It seemed Ga Eul was in danger. Dae Un hurried down the stairs.

“What’s wrong with you? Calm down!”

A man’s voice conveyed the urgency of the situation.

Dae Un shouted first.

“Stop right there!”

* * *

When Ga Eul finished cleaning the office and hung up the rag after washing it, she heard the sound of the office door opening.

“Welco-”

Ga Eul, coming out of the pantry behind the partition, stopped mid-greeting. Oh Sung Jin and Shin Myeong Hwa were looking around the office entrance.

“Are you alone?”

Shin Myeong Hwa asked, but Ga Eul didn’t answer. Her response could differ depending on the intent of the question. She was alone, but the boss was within calling distance, so she couldn’t say she was completely alone.

“Let’s have a talk for a moment.”

Oh Sung Jin and Shin Myeong Hwa took seats on the sofa where the boss had been sitting earlier. Knowing their purpose for coming, Ga Eul’s face stiffened involuntarily.

“You don’t come when called, don’t answer the phone, so we had no choice but to come find you like this.”

Shin Myeong Hwa’s words were prickly from the start. She seemed to have a lot pent up against Ga Eul for making them come all this way.

Ga Eul hadn’t always refused to answer the phone. But every time she did, they just repeated their plea to cover up what Oh Myeong Se had done to her, so she had no choice but to avoid their calls. They alternated between whining and shouting.

Ga Eul sat across from them but didn’t look at them properly. They were accomplices too. Oh Myeong Se should have been isolated from society long ago, but these people who called themselves parents had prevented that. Even as they watched Oh Myeong Se commit increasingly serious crimes.

“Holding out like this won’t do you any good either. The only reason you can go on as if nothing happened is because we pulled some strings. Reporters are out there with their eyes peeled for any juicy story.”

Shin Myeong Hwa’s attitude was not that of someone who had come to ask a favor. Whether she thought she had asked enough or didn’t want to ask, in any case, it wasn’t an attitude favorable to them. That’s how Ga Eul saw it.

“So you want me to pretend nothing happened?”

Ga Eul didn’t hide her disbelief that blocking reporters wasn’t even done for her sake.

“Myeong Se just wanted to scare you a little by taking you away. But because you got scared and blew things out of proportion, it’s come to this.”

“Then what about the rape video from the basement? Was that just to scare me too?”

“Don’t be so difficult. The rape is just your perception. They did that because they liked each other, but you went to the police calling it rape…”

“Listen here, Lady Shin Myeong Hwa! Have you seen that video? Are you saying this after watching it? Have you listened to the victims’ stories?”

Unable to bear it any longer, Ga Eul cut off Shin Myeong Hwa’s words and shouted. How could she distort the facts like this when she was a parent with a daughter herself! Ga Eul’s chest heaved with anger.

“The kids who claim to be victims all say the same thing. You think there weren’t girls who came claiming Myeong Se did something to them? They all quieted down when given money. In the end, they were just after money.”

Shin Myeong Hwa shouted, spitting as she spoke. There seemed to be a hint of madness in her eyes.

“You don’t know anything, so stop acting high and mighty! You’re the same. You’re doing this for money in the end. If our Myeong Se falls out of favor with the chairman, your share will be bigger.”

Normal conversation with Shin Myeong Hwa seemed impossible. She was not only convinced but also consumed by her determination to protect her son.

No matter what she heard, she would not accept that her son was guilty. Perhaps only when all the evidence was revealed in court and the judge handed down the sentence.

Ga Eul felt it was a waste of time to deal with her. So she stood up abruptly and said,

“I simply can’t listen to any more of this. Stop wasting my time and leave.”

The Oh Sung Jin couple also stood up, but they didn’t seem to intend to leave.

“Ga Eul, Myeong Se is your cousin. You may have lived apart for a long time, but he’s not a stranger. If Myeong Se goes to prison, it won’t be good for you either. You’ll become the sister of a criminal.”

Unlike Shin Myeong Hwa, Oh Sung Jin lowered his tone. He tried to soothe Ga Eul with gentle words.

“Myeong Se isn’t a bad kid at heart. He went astray because he fell in with the wrong crowd, but he was originally a gentle and timid child. He’s just going through a phase right now. If you just wait a little, he’ll return to his old self.”

But Ga Eul didn’t fall for his words. She saw the trap hidden in his gentle speech.

His son is good, and it’s other people’s sons who are bad. While waiting for his good son to return to his original self, any harm caused can be resolved with money.

In the end, it’s all about money.

If they didn’t have money to resolve things, Oh Myeong Se would have been locked up in prison long ago. The reason he could roam around freely and continue his crimes was because he had wealthy parents who followed him around cleaning up his messes. That’s what Oh Sung Jin was conveying to Ga Eul in gentle words.

Ga Eul wanted to shout at them to put themselves in her shoes.

“You want me to cover it up because he’s my cousin? If my mother had suffered something like this, would you have told her sister the same thing? To cover it up because it was her cousin who did it? Or is it because my mother is Chairman Oh Kyu Baek’s daughter that there’s no need?”

“See? I told you this kid doesn’t listen to reason. So young and already twisted. You provoked Myeong Se and made things turn out this way. You’re trying to oust Myeong Se from the chairman’s favor so you can take the heir’s position, aren’t you? How cunning. I saw it from the first time I met you. Your eyes were full of greed.”

“What are you saying? You just be quiet.”

“I’m twisted? I made things turn out this way by provoking Oh Myeong Se? Oh Myeong Se insulted me first, threatened Gyeo Ul first. Oh Myeong Se even scared us with his car on the way back. How can I not be twisted when I have to deal with someone like Oh Myeong Se?”

“Ga Eul, calm down. This person’s nerves are on edge because of Myeong Se’s situation. That’s why she’s saying things she doesn’t mean.”

“I can’t calm down. Apparently it’s okay to say horrible things when your nerves are on edge, well my nerves are on edge too. Oh Myeong Se just wanted to scare me by taking me away? Is that why he told his gang to film themselves raping me?”

The memory of that time made her feel so angry and humiliated that she felt like crying. Ga Eul clenched her fists so hard her nails dug into her palms, trying to hold back tears.

“Oh Myeong Se was trying to blackmail our boss and Chairman Oh with that. To force them to cover up his crimes. Is that all? He ordered them to set fire to a convenience store with people inside, didn’t he? Not caring whether the part-time worker inside lived or died. Are you going to ask that part-timer to cover it up too?”

“What do you mean Myeong Se ordered it? They did that on their own. You think Myeong Se would have told them to set a fire when there were people inside?”

“There’s a limit to how much you can stubbornly insist. Are you saying when he ordered them to set fire to the convenience store, he didn’t think there would be someone at the counter? That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. Did you think you could get Oh Myeong Se out with such bullheaded arguments? You think that would work on prosecutors and judges?”

“Watch your mouth!”

“Just go home. I have to see Oh Myeong Se go to prison. You said you saw my eyes full of greed? I’ll return those words to you exactly. That’s your own greed reflected in my eyes.”

“What did you say? You ill-mannered thing. Children raised without parents really do show it.”

“That’s right? But at least I’m not a criminal. Oh Myeong Se, who has both parents, is about to rot in prison as a criminal.”

“What?”

Slap! Ga Eul’s cheek burned. Shin Myeong Hwa’s hand had struck, aimed at Ga Eul who wouldn’t back down a single word. Ga Eul hadn’t expected Shin Myeong Hwa’s movement to be so fast and couldn’t avoid it.

Still, I guess all that walking lately has made my lower body stronger. I didn’t fly off when hit. Ga Eul found herself laughing at the fact she was having such thoughts right now.

“You’re laughing? You find this funny? You think you’ll be safe if our Myeong Se goes to prison? I won’t let you get away with this!”

“What’s wrong with you? Calm down!”

Shin Myeong Hwa shook off her husband’s attempt to restrain her and was about to lunge at Ga Eul. If not for the shout that rang out at that moment, she might have.

“Stop right there!”

Dae Un was coming down the stairs in a tracksuit. He approached, dragging his slippers with a flapping sound. Despite the volume of his shout, his expression seemed calm.

As he approached, Dae Un saw Ga Eul’s red, swollen cheek. Fire immediately blazed in his eyes.

The parents of that criminal bastard are hitting people? And Ga Eul of all people! The girl who’s precious just to look at!

Dae Un sauntered over to Ga Eul’s side and sat down, crossing his legs. Just you try it! I’ll show you what it really means to go all out today.

“Lady, at your age, what are you doing picking on kids? Did you team up with your son to interfere with other people’s business? The son destroys and sets fire to my office and business, and now the mother assaults my employee.”

Dae Un’s appearance seemed to have shocked Oh Sung Jin and Shin Myeong Hwa, as they showed no reaction. Dae Un waggled his fingers at them.

Dae Un also gestured for Ga Eul to sit down. After confirming Ga Eul had sat, he gestured to the Oh Sung Jin couple.

“Sit down over there. I was just about to go see you anyway. Please excuse my rudeness. I grew up without parents, so I’m a bit ill-mannered.”

Startled by his thuggish demeanor, the Oh Sung Jin couple couldn’t sit. They weren’t the only ones surprised.

Ga Eul had never seen this side of her boss either. She was curious. Was the boss pretending to be a thug, or was he revealing his hidden true nature?