59. Did you really go to this guy?
Yeonju stood there.
The woman I once loved.
And now, on my worst day, she’s married to Company II, the same man who abandoned me and called me a worthless bastard.
They said we’d meet on a wooden bridge, but I didn’t think it would be like this.
No, not the enemy.
“It’s been a long time, brother.”
“Yes, it’s been a long time. How are you?”
I was expecting to be incredibly embarrassed to see him, but surprisingly, my emotions weren’t stirred.
I mean, it’s been four years.
“I’m fine, yeah. What about you? I’ve heard a lot of stories about you, is it true?”
“Uh, things have been going well since I broke up with you.”
“I see—.”
There was a mixture of regret and wistfulness on Yan’s face as he spoke.
If she had cast her rod a little further, she would have caught a walleye.
Come to think of it, Yeonju was unexpectedly dejected.
I thought he would go to a rich family and live a good life, but apparently not.
“Brother, you’ve changed a lot.”
“Really?”
“Ugh. You’ve lost a lot of weight and you look great.”
“Well, that’s because you’ve started working out again. But what are you doing here?”
“I came to look at some cars. Where’s your brother?”
“Uh, I’m buying my sister a car.”
“You’re buying your sister a Benz?”
“I was going to buy her the original Porsche Panamera, but she’s too young for that, so I thought I’d keep it simple and buy her a Mercedes Benz.”
“A cow?”
I don’t know why I do this.
I’m not pretentious, but I wanted to show him that I had a lot of money.
That I’m richer than your husband, who has good parents and a good job.
Well, it’s true.
No matter how much money her in-laws have, it’s not even a fraction of what I have now.
My husband’s inheritance will be split with his siblings, and not even that.
You left me for a rich man?
Yes, I’m the one who’s really rich.
From nob le mt l. co m
Just then, Somi, who was looking at the car, approached and asked.
“Brother, who is this?”
“Yeah, someone you used to know.”
“I see.”
Somi is a woman.
A woman’s intuition is often sharp enough to see through a prayer bead, at least in this way.
Somi put her mouth to my ear and asked in a whisper.
“That’s her, isn’t it? The one who dumped her brother and married into a rich family?”
“Yeah.”
Immediately, Somi’s expression changed and her chin rose.
The woman who dumped her heavenly brother couldn’t possibly look pretty.
“Oh, hello. I’m your sister, Kang So-mi.”
“I’m Kim Yeon-joo. Chul-shik used to brag about how pretty you were, but you’re really beautiful.”
Yeon-joo was really impressed.
Of course she is.
Our Somi’s beauty was already beyond the human realm.
And she is twenty-two years old, the most beautiful time to be a woman.
Her beauty, which blossomed with each passing day, was dangerously close to the point where I feared for her safety.
“I heard about your sister, too. It’s a shame, because we could have been a good match.”
“…”
It was the first time I’d heard Somi sound so prickly.
It was almost hateful.
In the meantime, there was one more performer.
There was a man who approached me while drying his hands as if he was going to the restroom.
It was him.
“Honey, what are you doing?”
“Nothing, just—.”
“Just what? Who are you?”
“Why—. I used to know him.”
“Hmm?”
He looks up at me with a look that tells me he’s sensed something too, and it’s not pretty.
I shouldn’t dismiss people based on appearances, but he’s the one who stole the performance from me.
It’s okay.
He doesn’t look like he’s more than 5’10” tall, and he’s got a full belly, like he doesn’t take care of himself at all.
And his face is so ugly, it’s almost unpleasant to look at.
Yeon-joo, Yeon-joo.
This is what she went to?
“Who’s this?”
“Just someone who used to know your wife.”
“How do you know?”
His tone is sarcastic, but I suck it up.
“I used to work in the baby industry, so that’s how I know, but let’s be careful what we say. You seem uncomfortable, so why don’t we just go about our business?”
“Baby clothes? If you’re in baby clothes, do you know who I am?”
“Are you trying to say Oriental Apparel 2.0?”
“Hmph, you know so much, then where do you work, there’s not a company in the baby industry I don’t know?”
“You mean I quit?”
“Where did you go to school?”
“I went to Daesung.”
“Daesung? Huh? Then what?”
My eyes widened at what he was thinking.
And a less-than-stellar performance confirmed my identity.
“Honey, I’m the guy they’re talking about, and if you don’t–“
“Oh, you mean he used to work at the castle and then came back after a few years and bought the company?”
“That’s right.”
The man’s demeanor changed as soon as he heard Yeonju’s words, which was a little strange.
Like he’s up to something.
“hahahahaha! Why didn’t you tell me about this before? I didn’t know the most talked about person in our industry. I’m Mr. Seo Kyu-man, Vice President of Dongyang Apparel.”
“It’s a steel type.”
“So you used to work for Mr. Hong, who’s rumored to be a ruthless bully? I mean, how could you work for someone like that when you have the money to buy a company, and you’ve also bought JD Style and an adult wear company and invested heavily in them?”
“…”
No matter how tyrannical Mr. Hong was, hearing it come out of this guy’s mouth made me feel even more uncomfortable.
Since today doesn’t seem to be the day, I’ll have to save the somen tea for another time and avoid this meeting.
I didn’t like his suddenly polite demeanor, but I also didn’t like the fact that he seemed to have a bone in his body.
“Mr. Hong isn’t the kind of person to just walk out on you like that, and it’s not fair for anyone else to say that. You were lucky to take over the company, then—.”
“Oooh, who’s that beautiful lady next to you?”
No, this asshole?
Where are you looking when I’m talking to you?
On my sister, too?
Oblivious to the seriousness of my expression, he continued.
“A celebrity? I’ve never seen a celebrity who’s this beautiful before. Is this Kang? hahahahaha! I’m so jealous of you! You’re so lucky to be an employee and have such a beautiful woman with you. You look young, twenty or twenty-one?”
“…”
He finally crossed the line.
Did he look her up and down as if to assess her?
His eyes were full of malice.
With his wife by his side.
No one should look at my sister like that.
No one.
I was immediately sick of playing.
He knew my love and obsession with my family.
“Hey—.”
“hahahaha—. Ya? Did you say ya?”
“Yeah, hey, asshole, shovel the snow, where did you get my brother?”
“Ah, no—. For saying something you don’t know, are you a thug?”
“Honey, stop it!”
Yeon-Joo tried to stop him, but it was no use.
“What, you’re going to hit me? Hit me, you bastard! This is why I don’t want you to be a bastard. What if you get a windfall somewhere and make money? You don’t have the basics? The basics?”
“hahahahaha!”
It was funny.
Not a chaebol, but the second generation of a medium-sized clothing company.
“Why are you laughing, asshole?”
This asshole, there must have been something about me that was tightly wound.
The bottom line is that he must have known about my performance and my past.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for him to argue with me like this, as if he had a plan.
Even if he was an asshole.
“Hey, be honest with yourself. You pretended not to know, but you know who I am, don’t you?”
“What?”
“What’s the matter with you? You know that I used to date Zheng in the past, don’t you?”
“You bastard!”
There was no mistaking it.
The first time I heard it, I would have panicked.
“This is ridiculous, this is ridiculous. Who’s the one who took what was mine in the first place? You look like an idiot, and you’re an idiot pretending to be my father’s money?”
“Yi, Ik!”
“Why? Are you going to hit me? Hit me! Hit me!”
I echoed back what he’d said earlier.
“Who do you think you’re going to hit with that fist of yours, the one that’s fattened up like a pig and can’t even be controlled?”
“You asshole, I’m going to bury your company in the industry!”
“Fuhahahahaha!”
I’ll be damned.
Bury me in the industry?
“Hey, you stupid bastard, you don’t seem to know how the world works, is the East burying me? Is my head an ornament or a hat rack? You, the vice president, don’t even know how the industry works?”
“Mu, what are you talking about?”
“You idiot, there’s over 200 billion dollars I’ve put into the apparel industry in Korea, did you see that I’m in the forefront?”
“What?”
“hahahaha, I’m tired of arguing with you dumbass. Hey, what’s the name of the company you invested in? Doesn’t it say Karma Investments? Don’t you even read the newspaper?”
“…”
Wow!
This guy really doesn’t watch the news.
“Hah—. I don’t even want to talk about it. Why don’t you go home and find out what a company called Karma Investments is, and then you can come at me? You don’t know AMD or Nvidia, do you?”
“What’s that?”
“…”
You really don’t know—.
I suddenly felt weak.
I’m the bad guy, dealing with such an idiot.
“You win. I don’t want to talk anymore, so let’s go our separate ways. And when you get home, make sure to tell your dad. Do I really have to tell him that I got into a fight with the owner of Karma Investments, and tell him I want to bury him in the industry?”
“…”
He must have thought something was wrong, because he glared at me, but didn’t say anything more.
“Somi!”
“Ugh, big brother.”
“Come on, I’ll buy you a car later.”
“Ugh.”
As I took Somi’s hand and walked away, I said something to Yeonjoo.
“I’m not going to give you some bullsh*t about how I honestly wanted you to be happy. I’m not that kind of person, but what’s this? Even if you married her for money, how could you be with a piece of trash like that?”
“…”
“Are you happy? Are you happy?”
“…”
Tears poured from Yeonju’s eyes.
Damn it!
What a stupid thing to say.
I didn’t have to break Yeonju’s heart.
That night.
My phone rang a few times, but I didn’t answer.
The number that came up was Yeonju’s number.
What would he do if I called him now?
Get us back together?
The bus had long since passed by.
He just chose a guy with money when I was a beggar.
And he has to take responsibility for that.
It’s all in the past now.
I just had a bad day.
I tried to put it out of my mind, but my serenity was shattered again the next day when an unfamiliar number popped up on my phone.
Tiri-ri-ri-ring! RING!
“Yes, it’s steel.”
– It’s me, Seo Chang-ryul from Dongyang Apparel. It’s Mr. Kyu-man calling about work.
Mr. Ai.
Why do you keep bothering people?
I’m just passing by and trying to do something that wasn’t there?