CHAPTER 65

Kyungrok looked at Leeseo, who stood somewhat stiff and pale beyond the desk, with thinly veiled eyes. In Kyung-rok’s gaze, she appeared like a child unaware of the world’s dangers, immersed in her somewhat unfortunate life.

Having dealt with the boundaries of various illegal and legal activities throughout his life without dirtying his own hands, handling such a fragile item was beneath him. 

Kyungrok withdrew his hands from tapping on the desk, clasped them together, and stood in silence to observe Leeseo’s reaction in the stillness, enduring his cold gaze.

With a composed expression, she feigned nonchalance, but her pale, bloodless face strangely provoked a sense of unease. This woman, that woman—she was the kind of person who could easily captivate the attention of the son of a conglomerate family, teasing him lightly and offering to be the family’s sl*t.

Watching that pretty face contort with his own two eyes was a momentary amusement. He stuck out his tongue to moisten his dry lips, then slowly removed them.

“I’ve been thinking about my dead wife all night. Miss, meeting the lustful Vice President Kwon Taegyeom, who doesn’t even know his place, is like meeting the dead mother of a deceased executive.”

At the mention of this, Leeseo’s shoulders trembled slightly.

“You’ve probably heard the story that Kwon Taegyeom’s mother died a long time ago in the United States. It’s quite a famous tale. It’s also the indelible shadow of Kwon Kyungok.”

Kyungrok’s lips twisted in a sharp line.

“But do you know how that woman died?”

The chairman who had asked the question stared at Leeseo as if expecting an answer. His piercing gaze seemed to prickle her skin. The stories Taegyeom had told her last night in his dry tone echoed painfully in her head—his sick mother, spaghetti, financial struggles.

The jumbled words stabbed at her heart like sharp shards. Whatever Kyungrok was about to say, she didn’t want to hear it. Something beyond her capacity to handle seemed to slither out of the chairman’s mouth like a serpent, agilely flicking its forked tongue.

“Kwon Taegyeom’s mother starved to death.”

Leeseo’s eyes widened significantly. Chairman Kwon’s voice penetrated her eardrums horrifyingly.

“While Taegyeom wore a vibrant school uniform and slept on the soft bed in the dormitory, that woman, his mother, couldn’t move her ailing body and lay on a worn, smelly bed for several days, unable to drink a drop of water, until she died. Her mouth, wide open like a hole, spoke of her misery.”

The president opened his mouth as wide as a monkfish. He let out a soundless scream. The man sitting like a king at the old-fashioned desk, with all the luxuries behind him, looked like the devil.

It was terrifying. So terrifying that her entire body began to tremble like a leaf in the wind. However, Leeseo, as if transfixed, stood there unmoving, unable even to consciously acknowledge the quivering.

“Taegyeom was the first one to find her corpse. The stench was so unbearable that even after removing the body, the putrid smell didn’t leave the room for over a month. Yet, that foolish guy spent a whole night embracing his dead mother before calling someone to remove the corpse.”

Chairman Kwon clicked his tongue. A wicked smile appeared on his grim face.

“You’d think a ten-year-old boy would go crazy after spending a night with a corpse, wouldn’t you? But Taegyeom didn’t go crazy, he was perfectly sane.”

The vague smile now became a thoroughly satisfying expression. An odd sense of pride in his own blood came through.

Leeseo felt a pit somewhere in her stomach crumble. Taegyeom’s past, his terrible loss, had carved an indelible mark on her heart.

She felt a surge of disgust at herself for taking such a dark pleasure in his twisted, warped, and broken side, for wanting him to never regain his characteristic ease and normalcy again.

“As for the funeral, I arranged it extravagantly. By then, my divorce had already been settled on paper, so I had no obligation, but I did it out of courtesy and sincerity. I didn’t want to be dragged into unnecessary gossip. About a year after the funeral, Taegyeom said something to me that I hadn’t heard in almost a year.”

His eyes stared off into the distance as if recalling a day in the distant past, a look devoid of anger, rage, or any other emotion.

“He said he wanted to kill me.”

In an indifferent tone, Leeseo clenched her fist, holding onto her crumbling body. Her nails dug deep into her palm, but she felt no pain. The tales pouring out of the devilish man in front of her were the pain itself.

His gaze slowly shifted from the expensive artwork on the wall to look directly at her. His lips moved in a slow whisper as his harpoon-like gaze pinned her to the spot. Though the words were spoken by Chairman Kwon in front of her, it felt as if a young boy was whispering dreadful secrets into her ears.

“And after confirming the moment my breath was completely cut off, he said he wanted to die too.”

A despicable, shallow-looking smile tugged at his lips.

“That’s when I decided not to abandon Taegyeom. He’s got a lot of spirit, doesn’t he? He’s a son of mine, and I thought it would be a shame to bundle him up with his dead mother and just throw him away. He was born with my blood, after all, and it would be nice to have one more, like an insurance policy.”

Chairman Kwon pursed his lips, rounding them as if savoring a taste, and spat out with a grimace. He mumbled, as if half of his words were irrelevant musings and the other half were muttered to himself, indifferent to how much Leeseo understood. However, she knew that he had already completed all calculations and was articulating meticulously crafted words like a script.

It was a clandestine tale not easily disclosed to anyone. It was a narrative revealed only to those carefully selected based on special criteria, individuals intertwined in complicated relationships, mutually ensnared in each other’s traps, who would never lightly mock each other. This was the reason for whispering the confidential tale into Leeseo’s ears.

The weight of the story alone was a terrible threat. It made the clichéd picture of water being thrown in her face or a palm being slapped across her cheek along with a thick envelope of money seem stupidly innocent.

The chairman was making it clear that he intended to tear her apart for daring to offend him and sink her completely until she completely vanished from his sight.

“That must be the moment that changed his life, that made him the man he is today.”

He silently fiddled with his interlocked hands, then suddenly clapped them together in the air. Leeseo’s shoulders visibly tensed.

“Now, then, let’s talk about the present. As you are well aware, both of us are alive and well, despite his bravado in threatening to cut off my breath. Taegyeom is alive and well, parasitizing on my wealth.”

Chairman Kwon spread his palms out wide and pressed them against his chest. The silk robe draped over his shoulders, once so broad and firm but now shrunken with age, shimmered in the light.

“All the clothes he wears, the cars he drives, the watches on his wrist, and all the delicacies and drinks he enjoys—none of those are achieved without my money.”

The eyes staring directly at Leeseo overflowed with pride in the accomplishments and business success he had achieved.

“That boy, Taegyeom, is a very ambitious and greedy human being.”

The scrutinizing gaze that had been fixed on Leeseo’s rigid face now disdainfully scanned her short-sleeved shirt and creased slacks, as if finding them repulsive.

“So, while claiming I killed his mother, he’s been sucking up to me, enjoying the benefits under my favor and feigning kindness. I highly appreciate his dedication to money.”

Kyungrok suddenly reached out to the corner of the desk. Among the piled documents, he grabbed the one on top and flicked his finger. The paper fluttered, landing at the edge of Leeseo’s foot.

“You have to be obsessed with money to keep your head above water, to figure out how to make more money, to cleverly get it without settling for what you have. At least until now, that guy has acted quite cleverly.”

Under the pressure of the piercing gaze, Leeseo hesitated before bending down to pick up the fallen paper.

“I brought Taegyeom back to Korea because I decided it was time to recoup some of the money I’d invested in him, and he knew that very well. The young lady on that paper was the one who was supposed to marry him until yesterday.”

Leeseo’s eyes unconsciously dropped down. Attached to the meticulously crafted resume was a photo. It was the woman Taegyeom was rumored to be engaged to, a topic of discussion among the employees.

Although Leeseo tried to convince herself that it had nothing to do with her, she couldn’t help but look closely at the photo, remembering the moment when her heart sank at the news of his marriage. When she looked up from the paper, her eyes met the narrowed, serpent-like gaze and scrutiny.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t know what’s happening inside these walls?  That I wouldn’t know about the illicit affairs continuing within my own kingdom?”

Under the sharply penetrating gaze, Leeseo barely managed to open her dry mouth to let out a stifled voice.

“… Chairman.”