episode_0064

Initially, I had planned to head straight home or to the office, but unanswered calls and a text message that was practically a death threat made me change the direction of the steering wheel.

In a hurry, I took a taxi to the destination: a high-end Chinese restaurant located near my mother-in-law’s house.

It was eerily the same place where I had signed the divorce papers with Ahn Hayul, and also where I had last bid her farewell.

That face, which I thought I would never have to see again once the papers were signed, greeted me.

“What’s going on? I thought we’d never have a reason to see each other again.”

“……”

Ahn Hayul was seated at a reserved table, just as before.

Whether she had left immediately after receiving my text or if she happened to be nearby, she was already waiting with her arms crossed.

Even after hearing her voice and taking a seat opposite her, she kept her eyelids closed, like a stone Buddha meditating. I wondered if she was practicing some kind of spiritual discipline, but then,

“You… where are you coming from right now?”

‘…Her very first words carry a different kind of weight.’

At my ex-wife’s scolding tone, I immediately loosened my tie.

Her plump lips, barely moving, instantly made my shoulders feel heavy as lead.

Just a slight opening of her eyes to glare at me sent shivers down my spine; truly, viper-like eyes.

The moment my ex-wife opened her mouth, the surrounding atmosphere felt so heavy it was as if the very air itself had increased in density. It was uncomfortable.

With every breath I took, it felt like I was inhaling poisonous gas, my airways constricting and stinging.

“Uh, where would I be coming from? Well, I was trying to go to work this morning, but—”

“Don’t spin me any flimsy lies. I already know everything.”

“……? Know what?”

At that, Ahn Hayul let her head droop forward.

Her hair fell long and loose due to gravity, and after murmuring something with her head bowed, she abruptly swept it all back.

“Hah!”

A deep sigh, as if suppressing something within.

Soon after, she pulled out a hair tie from her handbag and tied up her long, straight hair.

“What in the world is your relationship with Mom, you son of a bitch?”

“Cough, cough!!?”

I couldn’t hide the coughing fit that surged up, as if I was about to vomit.

She struck right at the core with one blow, and I nearly gaped like a character in a cartoon, flustered.

Gulp…!

The murderous intent I felt in her text made me doubt, but her direct gaze before me was already filled with certainty.

It seemed she had caught on to something from the moment she burst into the house back then.

Even so, I hardened my facial muscles as much as possible, refusing to let them betray any emotion.

I calmly reconsidered the situation.

‘Even so… how did she pinpoint me?’

It’s true that the messy circumstances at the time were suspicious.

Therefore, her mother’s affair could certainly be suspected, but Ahn Hayul clearly hadn’t seen my face.

At most, the only clues were the cluttered dining table and my mother-in-law’s apron on the floor.

There should have been nothing there to identify me.

I had put all the clothes I’d taken off into the closet, and since this could be Ahn Hayul’s characteristic strong bluff or a leading question, I stood my ground.

“W-Why bring up my mother-in-law after suddenly calling me here?”

“You’re going to play innocent to the very end, are you?”

“It’s not playing innocent, you suddenly barrage me with texts and drag a busy person here to—”

“Back then, you know, there were suspicious shoes that anyone would notice.”

“……!”

My heart sank, but I quickly clenched my jaw again, controlling my expression.

As the net tightened around me, along with the element I had foolishly missed, lukewarm sweat trickled down my cheek.

“Loafers that were larger than Dad’s size, shiny ochre-colored loafers that clearly looked like they belonged to an outsider.”

“……”

“Those, strangely enough, looked exactly like the loafers I’ve seen you wear every time we met, didn’t they? Yes, they look just like the ones you’re wearing now, actually?”

I pretended to glance down at the table.

When I looked down at my shoes, as if seeing through the table, she drew her legs together tightly.

“Are there only one shoe factory in the world? Are you just going to keep spouting nonsense?!”

Still, that wasn’t enough.

The blade had pierced my shoulder, but it wasn’t a fatal wound yet.

She couldn’t have compared the shoes down to the size and brand; this was, purely and simply, a threat to extract a confession.

“Alright, since I figured you’d be so petty, I prepared for this too.”

“W-What else could you possibly….”

Now, she took out her own cellphone.

She tapped on the phone, whose case was decorated cutely, unlike her usual self, and thrust it towards me.

“How about this photo, just taken?”

“…………………Huh?”

A man captured in the photo.

It was me.

Today’s me, perfectly captured, down to the suit and shoes I was currently wearing.

Moreover, judging by the surrounding background, if I were to guess the location where it was taken—

“There was no CCTV at the main house entrance originally.

But since some dirty bug crawled in, I called a technician and had one temporarily installed.”

“……”

“Thanks to my secretary being stationed there since morning, your movements from coming out to taking a taxi were all caught on the black box. Now, what excuse will you try to make?”

Perfect follow-up measures taken the moment she recognized a problem.

Wicked fangs that never let go of caught prey, showing her characteristic personality.

…She should have told me that sooner.

I was already a monkey on Buddha’s palm.

Knowing everything, and wanting to observe my reaction after gathering perfect evidence, Ahn Hayul slowly laid out her cards.

Like a cat toying with a captured mouse.

“Well, are you going to try to make more excuses…?”

*Crack!*

But her face was not cute like a cat’s.

She gripped it so hard that the screen shattered with marks resembling lightning strikes, yet her face didn’t change color in the slightest.

That was a tiger, drooling with anticipation for a human hunt, not a cat.

“You know, when I first saw the dining table, I thought, no way.”

“……”

“But when I opened the master bedroom door, I heard rustling from the closet.

That’s when nausea surged up and I was 100% certain, but I just couldn’t bring myself to open it all the way. So I left for the moment… That’s when I saw your shoes in the shoe rack and completely lost it.”

“Listen….”

“After the divorce, I wondered what kind of things you’d be up to, but you crazy, good-for-nothing bastard…!”

The verdict delivered by my ex-wife.

No matter how much I racked my brain, I could only come to one conclusion at this point.

‘In a word………… I’m screwed.’

A perfect checkmate.

“Uhm, your food has arrived.”

At an truly unlucky timing, a waiter arrived, pushing a cart.

It seemed she had ordered beforehand, as the waiter, clearly on edge, served the dishes.

*Gulp, gulp, gulp!*

Ahn Hayul snatched up only the glass cup filled with cold water among the dishes and chugged it down.

Like an executioner refreshing himself with alcohol before beheading a criminal, she downed it in one cool gulp and wiped her mouth.

She took a deep breath and shouted.

“Get away from Mom, right now!”

“Listen… just calm down a little—”

“Do you think I’d listen to that?!

If you don’t stop talking and stay away, I’ll take this straight to Dad and make sure we screw you over with a civil lawsuit!”

Ahn Hayul, now refusing even conversation.

Well, it’s a natural reaction, if anything.

Because a strange man, and what’s more, her divorced husband, had been messing with her mother.

I could understand Ahn Hayul’s indignation, rising to the very top of her head.

‘…Wait, do I really need to follow those words?’

As I quietly listened, a different perspective occurred to me.

It’s true that if we were caught, both my mother-in-law and I would be in an awkward position in many ways, but no matter how I thought about it—

“Hmph… I don’t want to.”

*Slap!*

The moment I exercised my right to refuse, Ahn Hayul immediately retaliated with a slap.

At the tiger-like blow, which hurt more than I could have imagined, the staff member pushing the cart, who was about to turn back, flinched.

I rubbed my cheek, which would 99% swell up after a while, and feigned a slight bit of pain.

“Ow, ow… Even so, do you just smack me without warning?”

“Be grateful nothing’s in my hand right now…!”

“Hah… Fine, now that you’ve thrown a punch, can I say a word now?”

*Grind!*

Her molars ground tightly, as if a mere slap wasn’t enough to quell her anger.

“What words?! You should be taking off your clothes and begging right now, and even that wouldn’t be enough!

Just because you have a mouth, you’re going to try to make more excuses!?”

“No, it’s not really an excuse.”

Inside the restaurant, all eyes were on us, from the waiters to the dumbfounded customers who had their chopsticks halfway to their mouths with jjamppong.

At this point, I decided to take a serious tone, and revealed my hand to her as well.

“Actually, my feelings for your mother are sincere.”

“Sin…cere?!”

A weighty advance.

Since I was already caught, I pushed forward.

I would instead use this situation to my advantage, securing my share and practical gains.

I had no intention of accepting the audacious demand to give up Soiseol from the start, so I acted brazenly.

“Youuu…!”

*Grrrind!*

Her teeth chattering at my calm and composed attitude, Ahn Hayul couldn’t keep her trembling rear on the seat and shot up.

“You think I don’t know you?

For someone like you, there’d be enough women you’re seeing to fill a whole truck, and you dare to throw my mother into that dirty cesspool…?!”

As Ahn Hayul remembered, Cha Doyeon must have been a good-for-nothing and a philanderer beyond compare.

If it’s about excessively chasing women, I don’t deny the common ground between the past Cha Doyeon and myself.

“That’s right. I still live like that.”

“You f*cking piece of trash—”

“But tell me, was your father a saint and a devoted husband?”

“!!!”

The mention of her father immediately changed her expression.

As if I knew this dark truth, I smiled, my lips curling upwards at her pale face.

The situation was urgent, and my mind had gone blank, but looking back, I realized I had quite a few useful weapons in this situation.

That was none other than information about the people around my mother-in-law.

A byproduct I learned thanks to thoroughly analyzing my mother-in-law’s situation before approaching her, including her hobbies, interests, current circumstances, and the people around her.

Thanks to a slap from my ex-wife, my head actually cleared up completely.

“……”

*Grin.*

If my weakness was exposed to the enemy, then I just needed to stab at their weakness.

If they were coming to kill me, then we’d just descend into a dirty gutter fight, digging up each other’s hidden shames.

“Where should I start—right, you know your father has several mistresses in room salons, don’t you?”

“……Gah!”

“Let’s see… he sexually harassed secretaries, changed them out a few times, forced female employees to serve drinks and even made them stand there and kiss him, didn’t he? All just covered up with money.”

“T-That has absolutely nothing to do with this right now…….”

“Really? Are you sure it has nothing to do with this?

He practically half-raped girls young enough to be his granddaughters, covered it up with the media, and made them get abortions quite a few times, didn’t he? And doesn’t he have unofficial half-siblings that he would never acknowledge through paternity tests?”

As I rattled this off, her imperious face fell.

With the authority of a victor, I watched her, my lips stretching into a grin, then,

“So, how about it? Should I go on rambling about it in this restaurant where everyone can hear? Do you want to go all the way?”

“……”

At this point, I too rose from my seat, following Ahn Hayul’s lead.

I leaned close to her ear, making sure she was the only one who could hear this, as she was clearly disgusted by my mere presence.

‘The father-in-law’s fatal weaknesses, known to everyone who knew, had this reached my mother-in-law’s ears through me, or not?’

‘—You!’

‘Even if it seems disgusting and filthy to you, you’re honestly curious about how much your mother-in-law and I have discussed, aren’t you?’

‘…….’

Ahn Hayul’s broken facial muscles, out of control.

Information about my mother-in-law’s surroundings, gleaned by stuffing money into reporters’ pockets and not shying away from private investigators.

From the perspective of a smart daughter who knows everything, she must be insanely curious if this information had truly reached her mother.

Because if all those many misdeeds were revealed, her family might just fall apart.

*Thud!*

As I mentioned this much, Ahn Hayul’s reckless rage seemed to drain away as if a hole had been punctured.

“……”

Whether she became more curious about her mother’s true feelings, or perhaps found it awkward if I kept blabbing about her father, she quietly sat back down.

Before we descended into a muddy brawl that would only inflict wounds on each other, my tiger-like ex-wife seemed to have developed an intention to participate in an ‘adult conversation.’