“What did he seem like? Did you talk much? Since you were already there, you should have stayed and talked things through more thoroughly. No, let’s sit down first. Sit and tell me everything.”
Yeo Heejin took his hand and pulled him toward the living room. Eunwon sat on the sofa and looked at her as she waited expectantly for him to begin.
“I asked him to give me about another week.... Fortunately, he agreed....”
“A week? Time for what?”
“...Father said he needed time to get the company situation under control.... Um... wouldn’t that mean the article due out Wednesday will stay under embargo until next week?”
“Yes.... That’s right. That’s good. Thank you, Eunwon. But is that all?”
“What?”
“Didn’t you discuss anything else? S Group must have sent him there to talk about marriage.”
No matter how many times Eunwon heard the word, marriage remained overwhelming in a way that made his future feel impossibly bleak. He fidgeted with one hand in his lap, rubbing it absently with the other as his lips parted.
“...Yes.... He said he... wants to get married....”
“My goodness, really? He told you that directly even after meeting you?”
“Yes.... But I didn’t go there... intending to get married. So I told him I needed to think about it and managed to gain us another week.... We agreed to meet again next week, and... I’m going to tell him then. That I can’t marry him....”
The moment he said it, silence settled over them.
Finding her lack of response strange, Eunwon, whose gaze had been resting somewhere around Yeo Heejin’s knees, slowly looked up.
“....”
“....”
It was an expression he had never seen once since entering this house. No—it was even colder than the face she had shown him six years ago.
Startled by the rigid chill of her expression, Eunwon could do nothing but stare.
“...Yes. Of course you should.”
Her tightly sealed lips parted and curved into a smile, as though the expression from a moment ago had been nothing but an illusion. Eunwon squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. As though confirming that he had simply seen it wrong, Madam Seo was wearing the same gentle smile as always.
“Thank you for buying us this much time, Eunwon. Let’s leave the rest to your father. He’ll find a way somehow.”
“...All right....”
“You must be tired. Go upstairs and rest. I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”
“All right....”
Eunwon rose, bowed, and climbed the stairs. As he ascended one step at a time, a gaze saturated with coldness clung thickly to his back.
Eunwon did not turn around, as though afraid he might see something wrong again if he did.
After showering, Eunwon sat at his desk to work on an assignment, but he could not concentrate at all. His mind was too tangled, and the shocks of the day still lingered so vividly that none of the words on the screen registered.
He closed the laptop and stared blankly at the pen lying on his desk. The edges of his vision blurred, and Cha Sejin’s smiling face rose in his mind.
You think all you have to do is avoid me somehow.
You avoid me, and there’s no middle ground after that. You drop straight into the worst possible outcome. Right now, it’s marriage. But if marrying me falls through, what comes next is a sale.
A sale....
Marriage was shocking enough, but the next stage was being sold.
Eunwon turned Sejin’s words over and over in his mind. Of course his father would never sell him, but the thought that he might be handed over to a complete stranger made his heart constrict sharply with anxiety.
Compared with that, Cha Sejin—someone whose face he had seen several times and with whom he had at least exchanged a few words—seemed preferable, if only because he felt marginally less unfamiliar.
That did not mean Eunwon could marry him, of course.
He did not believe a single week would change much. He knew nothing about how companies were run or what it would take to save one, but even he could understand that much.
“....”
Eunwon opened his laptop again and typed Baum Construction into the search bar. Every headline published over the past few days was negative.
Baum in Crisis.
The Challenges Baum Must Overcome.
Baum Denies Bankruptcy Rumors.
Baum Share Price Falls.
And his father’s name appeared in every article.
Feeling as though something had clogged his chest, Eunwon closed the laptop again.
No one else was at the dinner table that evening.
Eunwon ate alone. He had no appetite whatsoever, but felt guilty leaving untouched the food someone had prepared for him, so he forced down barely a quarter of a bowl of rice before rising.
“Young Master, if you don’t have much of an appetite, shall I bring you some cake? Please try the cake Chauffeur Oh brought earlier. The strawberry cake was so beautiful. Would you like to see it?”
Housekeeper Kang, who had been watching Eunwon eat from a distance, approached carrying a cake dome containing a beautiful whole strawberry cake. Eunwon had thought the box seemed far too large for two slices. Apparently, Sejin had sent him a new cake rather than the two slices from the table.
“....”
Eunwon remembered Cha Sejin asking whether he wanted to eat the cake there, take it with him, or simply have it thrown away. He lightly shook his head to scatter the thought.
“Isn’t it beautiful? The cakes from the café at S Group Gallery are famous for being both pretty and delicious. It looks like the young heir from S Group arranged it especially for you. Please have a slice. All right? I’ll bring it upstairs with some warm tea. You haven’t been eating nearly enough lately.”
“...All right.... Thank you....”
“There’s nothing to thank me for. Go to your room, and I’ll prepare everything and bring it up.”
Eunwon bowed lightly to Housekeeper Kang, then turned and left the dining room with weak steps.
He was about to pass through the living room when he saw Yeo Heejin sitting there, drinking whiskey despite the early hour.
“Eunwon.... I’m so upset.... Your father didn’t come home yesterday either. And today he won’t answer his phone. No one can reach him. Even when I called his secretary, all they could tell me was that he left work alone.... I don’t know what he thinks he’s doing....”
Yeo Heejin tipped the whiskey bottle and poured herself another drink. Then she lifted the small glass and emptied it in a single swallow.
Alarmed, Eunwon hurried over and sat beside her.
“...Please stop drinking, Madam Seo.... Something terrible could happen if you keep—”
“...Madam Seo?”
“....”
“Yes, of course. To you, I’m still Madam Seo! I’m the only one who thinks of you as my son, while to you I’m still just Madam Seo. Yes, that must be it. Because I’m Madam Seo. Even though we live together and call ourselves family, I’m not family to you!”
“That isn’t it.... It’s just... still difficult for me to change what I call you....”
“Are we even family to you?”
Yeo Heejin shoved away Eunwon’s arm when he tried to stop her and poured herself another drink. After swallowing it, she glared at him through the heavy haze of intoxication.
“If it had been Yunhan, he would have agreed to that marriage.”
“....”
“If his mother and father were suffering like this... he would have stepped forward first. Because he was our son. Because he truly cared about his mother and father.”
“....”
“It’s at times like this that I realize you’re still a stranger.... Yes.... What could we possibly expect from you when you’ve barely been part of this family at all? And there’s the way we treated you six years ago.... Of course it will take you a long time to grow accustomed to us and open your heart.... Yes, I understand.... I understand everything.”
Her sharp-edged lamentations struck Eunwon with cruel precision. Each word burrowed into his weakest point and drove him toward the edge.
That isn’t it. It isn’t because I don’t think of them as family.... It really isn’t....
“Even so... is there really no way?”
“....”
“Eunwon, can’t you save your father? I’m afraid he might do something terrible to himself. This company is everything to Junhyuk. He worked so hard to build it.... Do you understand? If he loses it like this, he won’t survive. Eunwon, please.... Please make this one decision for us. All right? Please, I’m begging you. Save Junhyuk, Eunwon! I’ll spend the rest of my life on my knees at your feet.... Eunwon.”
Madam Seo burst into tears and dropped to her knees, clutching Eunwon’s legs. She bowed her head as she begged him, and moisture gathered in Eunwon’s eyes as well.
He could not stop hearing her say that Yunhan would have agreed to the marriage.
“Madam Seo! Please get up, Madam Seo. You’ve had far too much to drink. I’ll take you to your room. Oh, Madam Seo, hold on to me.”
“No, Housekeeper Kang. I have to beg Eunwon more. Without Eunwon, Junhyuk will die.... Eunwon, please save us....”
Housekeeper Kang and the household staff came running at Madam Seo’s cries. They supported her and lifted her from where she knelt on the floor.
Even as they led her toward her room, Madam Seo’s sobbing pleas to Eunwon echoed through the living room.
“....”
The focus faded from Eunwon’s tear-slick eyes.
He wanted to cry. He desperately wanted to let everything pour out, but contrary to the pain inside him, not enough tears came.
His eyes grew wet, and whenever he closed them he could feel the dampness on his lashes, but nothing more would break free.
It felt strange.