episode_0065

Ahn Hayul ordered another glass of cold water and drank it down.

However, perhaps just water wasn’t enough to soothe her burning insides, so she even ordered Chinese baijiu.

Gulp!

“Kuh-euh-eut!”

It seemed difficult for her to endure sober, so in the morning restaurant, she poured it into a ceramic cup and took a fiery shot.

Her insides must have heated up instantly upon drinking, as her cheeks flushed slightly red. She then switched to the yangjangpi that came with the meal, using it as an anju, and chewed it loudly.

It seemed she was replaying and sorting things out in her mind countless times, as her heavy lips only opened after that ‘buffering’ period.

“Did you really… tattle on me to Mom?”

It seemed she was quite curious if it had truly reached her mother-in-law’s ears.

I answered, stretching my lips into a smirk as if to mock her.

“You want me to tell you something you’re dying to know, for free?”

“You—!”

“Now, now.

It means don’t rush ahead, let’s go slowly. As family and as a daughter, isn’t there one more important thing we need to address?”

“Ha!”

She openly scoffed, then,

“Right now, some son of a bitch is tearing my family apart. What could be more important than this?!”

“Well, isn’t it your mother-in-law’s happiness?”

“!?”

Her eyes literally rounded like a full moon.

To call it brilliant bullshit would be an understatement; my next testimony was as serious as an ink stroke.

“No matter what you think, I’m not forcibly continuing my relationship with your mother-in-law.”

“…….”

“Furthermore, I told her my feelings weren’t light.

At first, she was burdened, but slowly, she opened her heart.”

“Don’t make me laugh!

Mom has a naive side, so you must have cajoled her like how idol companies sweet-talk innocent kids!”

“But as you saw, she eventually even opened her house door, didn’t she?”

*Smirk.*

“And she allowed more and more as time went on.”

Slam!

She slammed down the long wooden chopsticks with enough force to break them.

Even though I had tried to phrase it delicately, Ahn Hayul’s eyes trembled.

“If you say anything dirtier, I’ll really kill you!?

Besides, that’s because Mom was─”

“Ah! Just so you know, your mother-in-law is also aware of my promiscuous past.”

“!!!”

Before my ex-wife could rage like a bull again, I pulled the reins tighter.

I shrugged my shoulders, scratching at her as if to provoke her.

“How could she not know?

She slandered our marriage so much, they say. Of course, she must know all about my past.”

“She… she told you even *that*…?”

My ex-wife trembled in a shudder, then flinched! and shook.

In a voice that had dropped about 2 degrees from its heated temperature,

“………………So, she’s meeting you knowing everything?”

To that, I just smiled.

I smiled boldly, like a victor.

“Yes, now you understand what I meant by ‘serious’ earlier, don’t you?”

“…….”

My mother-in-law is meeting me, knowing everything about me.

I approached her without reservation, but the connection that continues to this day is her own will.

Having spoken at length to make it easy for her to understand, I was hungry, so I also picked up a piece of anju with my chopsticks.

“Ugh, Mom, why on earth…!”

“That, if you think about it, is natural.”

“Hey! What’s natural about that?!”

“It means your mother-in-law was that lonely.”

“!”

After picking up just one piece, I found it didn’t suit my taste and quietly put my chopsticks down.

“Think about it carefully. Even with family around, it was meaningless, wasn’t it?

The husband who was supposed to take care of things was out all day, and the cherished daughter, after quickly graduating from university, was busy preparing to inherit a large corporation while taking business classes.”

“……,”

“Have you ever considered the lonely mother’s position? Alone in a large house, cleaning and doing laundry, chatting with friends, then preparing dinner late at night and waiting for her family?”

It was an easy thing to understand if one just considered it from someone else’s perspective.

However, this perspective seemed fresh to Ahn Hayul, as she opened her mouth into a round shape, then closed it.

That’s right.

If it were Ahn Hayul, she would probably have run down the path of becoming the head of a large corporation, a path decided for her since birth.

Because there was a long journey ahead, following in her father’s footsteps, she would have run while looking at her father rather than her mother.

Therefore, the eyes of this elite family were directed in different places.

A family publicly called ‘family,’ but one that knew each other far less.

It’s not rare.

A family that is no different from strangers merely sharing a house.

“Alright, I’ll drop a bomb here.”

“What… what else?!”

“I should tell you what you were curious about earlier.

Whether I reported your father-in-law’s disgraceful secrets to your mother-in-law or not.”

Here, I immediately became serious.

It felt like she might slap me again depending on my answer, but,

“I didn’t.”

I quickly denied it, cutting off that possibility.

I only spoke the honest and plain truth.

“I didn’t approach her by necessarily badmouthing your father-in-law, so there was no need to mention that far.”

“…You want me to believe a guy who, not content with ruining my marriage, is now trying to break up a family?”

“Well, whether you believe me or not is your freedom.”

To her blunt attitude, I retorted, implying that I was not the one at a disadvantage.

“But you seem to be mistaken about something. It was your father-in-law who broke up and neglected the family.”

“…….”

Every time her father-in-law’s name was called, Ahn Hayul’s mouth closed in vexation.

“And you, like your father-in-law, are shifting the burden of a ‘harmonious family’ onto your mother.”

However, Ahn Hayul is not merely a witness who condoned the crime, but an accomplice.

I pointed a finger, declaring the facts.

“What?!”

Naturally, she rebelled.

But this time too, I quickly added an explanation to block her complaints.

“Didn’t I mention earlier that your mother-in-law’s personal happiness comes first?

I’m only saying this much because he’s my father-in-law, but it’s 20 years next to a husband who doesn’t care for the family at all. 20 years of silently enduring a husband who fools around with young girls outside, and you growing up alone, trying to protect the family.

Through this absurdity, possible only in older times, she has maintained a non-existent ‘harmonious family’ all this time. Are you saying your mother should endure it alone for the rest of her life?”

“………………………….”

Here, her mouth was completely shut.

No matter how hard she tried, she seemed to have no counterarguments on this point, or perhaps she was furious that I knew more about her own mother. She bit her lips until just before they bled.

This was especially true for a daughter who had entered society and learned of her father’s dark side.

Because she would know better what kind of person her father was, there was nothing she could say as a daughter.

“To add, your mother-in-law isn’t entirely naive; she vaguely knows.

Of course, she’d be shocked if everything, including extremes like a college student’s abortion, were laid bare. But for now, she’s at a stage where she understands it as entertainment for a businessman.”

“…….”

Information I was providing as a bonus.

Through conversations with my mother-in-law, that’s about how much I had gathered.

A level where she understood that getting involved with bar women while working outside was unavoidable.

She doesn’t know the deeper darkness.

And I don’t particularly want to tell her.

Trembling, trembling, trembling…!

“You keep blabbering about Dad all the time… Are you any different?”

“Of course.

I don’t ruin the lives of the women I meet and then heartlessly cast them aside.”

I said that, then said “Ah.” and regretted it.

Because there was a victim right in front of me.

Even if it wasn’t me, the previous scoundrel Cha Doyeon was the one who had most excellently ruined a life, so I felt awkward.

“…Humph.”

However, Ahn Hayul herself didn’t seem to care, treating her marriage as a completely erased memory.

Riding that flow, I quickly cleared my throat and moved on,

“Alright, let’s finish this conversation like adults.

What are you going to do? Are you going to go and tell your father-in-law that his former son-in-law was fooling around with his mother-in-law?”

“…….”

Ahn Hayul, who had heard everything to the end, agonized.

She must have thought she held the hilt of the sword when she thoroughly secured evidence of infidelity.

She wouldn’t have known it was a double-edged sword that could also stab her own heart.

“…You know, recently, I saw news about you.”

“Hm?”

“Even though I didn’t want to see it, it kept catching my eye while I was working.

Coins, internal disputes within the owner group, whatever… I thought that scoundrel’s life was finally over, but what are you, really?”

Her tone and narrowed eyes were as if she was scolding me.

“Suddenly, you had foresight in coins, earned trillions from investments, even inversely acquired a family company… How is this even happening? You were an idiot who ruined every investment and couldn’t even utter a word in front of me.”

“Are you saying a person changed?”

To that, I nodded as if reluctantly admitting,

”…Yes, I’m different.

The reckless atmosphere is similar, but I’m completely different from before. My brain didn’t used to work like this.”

Ahn Hayul, in terms of overall ability, resembled the eldest daughter Cha Seonmi, and her drive and personality came from the second daughter Cha Hwaryeon.

Perhaps because of that keen eye, she was sharp.

She glared at me as if the more she scrutinized, the less things matched, but,

“No matter what… I suppose a different person won’t appear if I take off my mask.”

No matter how sharply she stared with those keen eyes, this face wouldn’t change.

Because anyone could see that the one in front of her was the scoundrel Cha Doyeon.

Inescapably, she let out a final, earth-shattering sigh, “Hoo…”, then,

“…One week.”

“One week?”

“I swear I won’t tell Dad about what happened with Mom, and about meeting you today.

Instead, don’t meet Mom for one week. No, even contact is forbidden.”

“What?!”

A sudden restraining order from the daughter on her mother.

The part about forbidding contact, let alone approach, was quite significant.

“…Why should I listen to that?”

“Otherwise, I’ll immediately contact Dad and we’ll dance a sword dance until we both die.”

“…….”

As I tried to refuse a compromise, she immediately bared her fangs.

Then she pressed her brows, as if her own situation was difficult too.

“It simply means I need time to think.

As for me, there’s more I need to find out. Until then, it’s a non-aggression pact… meaning a personal reservation.”

“…Alright, I’ll concede that much.”

“Fuck… ‘concede’ is even funny.”

She whispered to herself, then,

“Hoo… anyway, I’ll be going now.”

She quickly grabbed her handbag and stood up.

Perhaps not wanting to owe anything, she headed for the counter, but she wasn’t that strong with alcohol, as she swayed while walking after just one glass.

Or perhaps the topic was so intense that the emotional shock was great, as she quickly boarded the car with the support of the driver she had called outside.

The started car leisurely disappeared beyond the transparent glass window of the restaurant.

“Haaahhh……”

‘Did I… barely get through it?’

Only when my ex-wife disappeared did I finally breathe freely.

I completely undid my loosened tie.

Actually, I bluffed a bit.

Now, when my connection with my mother-in-law wasn’t yet strong, if Ahn Hayul went out like a bulldozer without hesitation, this relationship would most likely be over.

No matter how ardently I pursued my mother-in-law, she probably still saw it as just a fling.

As the saying goes, ‘an arm bends inward’ (blood is thicker than water), no matter what, how could this unstable relationship overcome a child’s love that had lasted for over 20 years?

‘Child’s love, huh….’

Picking up the outerwear I had loosely put on, I also stood up around this time.

Once this grace period proposed by my ex-wife passes, I’ll need to deepen my relationship with my mother-in-law even further.

*Smirk.*

Because one child can be forgotten by another.