Chapter 5 (Part 4)

Do-jin pondered how to explain the situation of Hwa-woong hiding Seo-hye’s mother.

She would surely be very surprised. She might even suspect him.

If not, she might get angry and ask why he hadn’t told her sooner.

But knowing sooner wouldn’t change anything.

She was in a position of weakness, with no financial or temporal means to find her mother, whom Hwa-woong had hidden intentionally.

“It seems that Paintor Lee has hidden your mother.”

Despair spread across Seo-hye’s pupils in an instant.

“Ah… W-what… do you mean by that?”

She tried to take out her phone with a severely trembling voice.

However, her hand kept slipping, and she repeatedly dropped the phone onto her thigh.

Do-jin pulled over to the side of the road.

Seo-hye’s eyes were brimming with tears. She seemed half out of her mind, her lips trembling uncontrollably.

“I’ll find her for you. I can find her quickly.”

Seo-hye shook her head and fiercely wiped away the tears that were about to fall.

“I’ll ask grandfather. You could be deceiving me…”

As Seo-hye tried to grasp her phone, Do-jin wrapped his hand around hers and took the phone away.

“What are you doing…? Give it to me!”

Seo-hye shouted at him to return it.

“Calm down first. I didn’t tell you right away because I was worried this would happen. This won’t change anything, and I’m looking for her, so just—”

“Just give me the phone!”

Seo-hye looked at him with a contemptuous gaze, different from how she had looked at him before.

“The call you received at the restaurant earlier, was it about my mom? Isn’t it??”

“……”

“It was, wasn’t it? It seems like it was…! Won Do-jin, are you really insane? You should have told me as soon as you knew! I…”

Seo-hye reached out to forcibly grab the phone from his hand.

“I didn’t even know my mom was missing, and here I am, getting involved with you at her house…”

She felt like throwing up.

The sincerity in her words caused a slight crack in Do-jin’s composure.

Taking advantage of his weakened grip, Seo-hye quickly snatched the phone. She urgently dialed Hwa-woong’s number.

However, the message said his phone was turned off.

Confusion deepened on her face.

Do-jin grabbed her hand and pulled her excessively toward the driver’s seat.

The expression on Do-jin’s face, seen from a distance so close their noses could almost touch, was quite fierce.

“I started looking as soon as I got the call earlier, so I’ll find her soon.”

Seo-hye bit her lips tightly and glared at him with resentment in her eyes at his low, calm tone.

Receiving that glare, Do-jin abandoned any attempt at comfort and spoke coldly.

“Don’t cry all the way to Seoul. It distracts me from driving.”

After letting go of Seo-hye, he immediately pressed the accelerator.

The drive began at such a speed that it seemed the car might overturn at the slightest bump.

Seo-hye’s stomach continued to churn, and she bit her inner cheek so hard to hold back tears that the tender flesh tore, with Do-jin’s words to stop crying echoing in her ears.

She knew, in fact, that it wasn’t Do-jin she should be angry with.

Her grandfather, who had taken her sick mother out of the hospital, was the bad person, and she should be grateful that Do-jin had obtained that information first and was searching for her.

But perhaps it was because he was in front of her. The emotions she couldn’t control came out as a childish plea to him.

It was a complaint she wouldn’t have been able to make if it weren’t for him.

Feeling sorry for him driving so recklessly as if they might crash, tears began to fall endlessly.

***

Mr. Kim glanced at Hwa-woong through the rearview mirror.

Whatever was making him so happy, he smiled with his brows all relaxed, like a Hahoe mask.

The sight was truly bizarre.

Having moved Seo-hye’s mother, Hyo-young, to the home of his long-time colleague, Director Park Dong-cheol, who runs a general hospital, he was grinning as if he were in paradise.

Just an hour ago, Mr. Kim had taken Hwa-woong to the Korean hospital, as he had mentioned wanting to meet Professor Seong, Hyo-young’s long-time attending physician, after a long time.

And while waiting for him in the outdoor parking lot, smoking, he returned with a very angry face.

It was an absurdly short time to have met with the professor.

“Sir, did you not see Professor Seong?”

“We’re moving her to Dong-cheol’s place. Professor Seong agreed to help with the transfer, so we can just go to Dong-cheol’s house.”

“…What do you mean by that, Sir?”

“Seo-hye, that girl, came to this hospital with Seonghan’s grandson. If that sly fox of a girl asks to treat her mother, it would be a disaster.”

“But, Sir, Hyo-young’s condition right now… What if she goes into shock when moved?”

“That’s none of my business. Seo-hye, that girl, started it. Even if her mother dies after being taken away, if I insist she’s alive, how would that girl ever know?”

He was truly a cruel and atrocious old man.

Even if Hyo-young were to really die, he intended to hide her death and keep Seo-hye trapped.

Mr Kim. had always thought Hwa-woong’s treatment of the mother and daughter was excessive, but today he had crossed the line.

The backs of Mr. Kim’s hands, gripping the steering wheel, were full of bulging veins.

It wasn’t that he pitied Seo-hye. Mr. Kim actually disliked Seo-hye.

For nearly ten years, having worked as a servant in this artist’s house, he felt that Hyo-young had become unhappy because of Seo-hye. He was quite displeased with Seo-hye, Hyo-young’s daughter.

So he had taken the lead in suffocating, pressuring, and monitoring Seo-hye.

But this was too much.

“Mr. Kim. What kind of place are we heading to now?”

Swallowing his anger at Hwa-woong’s voice coming from the back, Mr. Kim responded.

“Are you asking about the restaurant menu, Sir?”

“Yes, yes. Solving one of the headaches makes me feel at ease, so I guess I’m hungry.”

Trying to sever the natural bond between mother and daughter, and then claiming to be hungry.

He truly was a repulsive old man.

“Mr. Kim?”

“Oh, yes, Sir. When I briefly searched earlier, it seemed to be a tuna place.”

“Haha, tuna, that’s good.”

Hwa-woong chuckled heartily and smacked his lips.

***

Arriving about ten minutes earlier than the scheduled time with Chairman Won, Hwa-woong tidied up his appearance in the restroom, neatly combing back a few stray hairs.

Today, he planned to tell Eung-soo that he could marry Do-jin to his eldest granddaughter and suggest they hasten the ceremony to next month.

After dining with Eung-soo, he intended to go home and warn Seo-hye that if she was seen meeting Do-jin privately one more time, she wouldn’t even know whether her mother was alive or dead.

Everything was going smoothly.

As he left the restroom and headed to the assigned room, he saw Eung-soo and his secretary turning the corner and closing the distance.

Hwa-woong quickly approached Eung-soo and bowed.

“Chairman, you’ve arrived.”

“Oh, Artist. You’re already here. Am I a bit late?”

“No, Sir. I just arrived as well. Please, let’s go in, Chairman.”

Hwa-woong humbly lowered himself before him.

Eung-soo, seemingly pleased with such humility, entered the room with a faint smile.

Instead of exchanging pleasantries about how they had been, the two men started by pouring drinks and wetting their throats.

After watching Eung-soo eat a few pieces of tuna, Hwa-woong gradually brought up the main topic.

“Chairman. Are you proceeding with this marriage? Haha, I must be getting old and timid. Since you visited Cheongun-dong, there hasn’t been any word from you.”

Eung-soo, with his gaze fixed in the air, brought the glass to his lips once more.

Savoring the drink leisurely in his mouth, Eung-soo only met Hwa-woong’s eyes after swallowing.

“I’m not sure if we should proceed as is. Do-jin is so headstrong.”

Eung-soo’s displeasure was directed at Do-jin, not Hwa-woong.

Hwa-woong immediately sensed this and offered words that would pique his interest.

“Even if Do-jin is interested in our second child… if the second child refuses him, isn’t that enough?”

“Reject? I heard that Do-jin personally enrolled your second granddaughter in the program conducted at the hotel. And your second granddaughter eagerly accepted. Doesn’t that mean she also fancies Do-jin?”

“No, Chairman. In fact, Do-jin initially asked me to take charge of that program. So I intended to proceed with it.”

Hwa-woong extended his hand, which was in a cast.

Eung-soo glanced at Hwa-woong’s hand, then refilled his own glass, speaking out of courtesy.

“So, what happened to your hand?”

“I clumsily fell at my age… haha. That’s why my second granddaughter is doing it on my behalf. Do-jin suggested we use the title of her being the granddaughter who inherited Lee Hwa-woong’s talent.”

“Hmm.”

Eung-soo closed his eyes in dissatisfaction, chewing on the tuna in his mouth.

“I made a promise with the second child. She said she would never set her eyes on Do-jin. So, Chairman, if you don’t mind, how about moving the ceremony up to next month? If it seems like this marriage might face obstacles, I’ll send the second child abroad temporarily.”

Apparently finding the proposal quite appealing, Eung-soo, who hadn’t been making eye contact with Hwa-woong, opened his eyes and looked directly at him.

“Send her abroad, you say.”

“Yes, frankly, even if the two of them have feelings for each other, what can they do if they’re apart? Don’t worry about the second child and proceed with the marriage between our Hae-mi and Do-jin as planned.”

Eung-soo paused for a moment and spoke in a flat tone.

“You must be able to keep that promise.”

“Of course.”

“Good. Then we’ll proceed with the marriage with the first granddaughter as planned, and can you create a painting?”

Hwa-woong nodded vigorously.

“It has to be a painting that hasn’t been shown anywhere. The process of its creation must not be known. It must be shown to me first.”

Hwa-woong, with an excited face, sat up straight, saying that was easier than eating porridge. He then poured a drink into Eung-soo’s glass.