CHAPTER 48………………………………….
After the discovery of that man’s father, suppressing the news was easy—one word from Chairman Choi, and that was that.
The incident never made it to the press, but there was no way to stop word of mouth. If someone asked around the neighborhood where they used to live, it wouldn’t take long to hear about it.
“……”
Hyeon-ha quietly looked down at Juran. There wasn’t a hint of emotion in his gaze. Even someone watching a worm crawl along a dirt path would look livelier than that.
If only he had been a son from a previous marriage—or a child she had brought from somewhere else. She couldn’t believe that that thing had come out of her own body.
Unlike her mother-in-law, who comforted herself by saying that her son, Choi Su-hyeok, was just a little sick and self-centered, Juran knew exactly what Hyeon-ha was. That boy was not a human being like her.
If her son had been at least somewhat human, Juran would have used other methods long ago. She could have wrapped him around her skirt, turned him into a mama’s boy, made him take care of his poor, mistreated mother with tears in his eyes. Or terrified him enough to make him hand over every bit of property that came his way.
But even as a child, Choi Hyeon-ha had defeated Juran—completely devoured her.
Her torment was having to struggle against a monster who had already, by the age of six, placed his own mother under his feet. She had met the wrong opponent. More precisely—she had given birth to the wrong opponent.
“Where are you keeping them?”
At last, Hyeon-ha took his hand off the inner door handle, though his expression clearly showed annoyance. His silence was laced with the unspoken question: Why are you wasting my time with this pointless talk?
“Let’s sit and talk first. Have some tea.”
Juran pulled him toward the living room. She tried to tug him with all her strength, but the difference in power was clear—it was more like he allowed himself to be led.
On the tea table, cups and a teapot had already been prepared. The tea was freshly brewed, yet there wasn’t a soul in sight. The servants in this house knew Hyeon-ha’s temperament—no one dared make a sound near the young master.
When he sat down, Juran poured the tea. Drip. The tea swirled in the ornate cup, and as he watched it, Hyeon-ha murmured,
“You just have to stay quiet. Why can’t you—or Baek Yeong-in—do that?”
Juran’s lips froze awkwardly. She should have smiled as usual, but the corners of her mouth twitched the wrong way.
Because of you!
She imagined flipping the table and pointing a shaking finger at him—at that sleek, perfect face he had inherited from her—and screaming.
You! You! Do you have any idea how much I’ve suffered because of you? How hard it still is?
If only she could grab him by the collar and shake him until she felt better.
But his piercing gaze bore straight through her. Flinching, Juran turned her head and forced down a sip of tea. It was so hot it nearly peeled the skin off her mouth.
She wanted to spit it out, but she swallowed it instead. Seok Juran was that kind of woman. If she hadn’t been, she never would have managed to marry Hyeon-ha’s father in the first place.
“Come with me.”
“Huh?”
Her tongue was scalded, and she answered slowly, not even sure what he had just said.
“To where your mother hid Baek Yeong-in. Secretary Kang In-chan’s holding her there, right? I’ll go see for myself—and decide after that.”
He spoke as though he had been watching every one of her schemes unfold.
It wasn’t how Juran had pictured it. She had intended to lead this negotiation—she was supposed to be in control.
After all, Hyeon-ha was the one pressed for time.
But Choi Hyeon-ha only seemed to be indulging her in some tedious game of make-believe. His attitude was familiar. People said that Hyeon-ha was a mirror image of his father, but Juran disagreed.
Compared to Hyeon-ha, Choi Su-hyeok had at least been charming. His desires were simple, and if she flattered him, he found her adorable.
“If you want to keep pretending, go ahead. If this was about using her as a hostage to trade, you’d have to name your terms eventually. I don’t know why you’re bothering to act innocent, but—I’ll find her myself.”
Of course she intended to deny everything to the end, to act as though someone else had done it while secretly pulling the strings behind the scenes.
But the moment the girl disappeared, Hyeon-ha had come straight to her—mocking her petty little tricks.
Juran took another sip of tea, now slightly cooler. Her mouth still burned.
“I think I can guess what your condition is,” he said.
The tea scraped down her throat like sandpaper.
What in the world had Baek Yeong-in done to bewitch him?
If only she could open up that girl’s skull and look inside—it was her mind, not Hyeon-ha’s, that she wanted to see. Hyeon-ha’s brain was surely filled with horrors, but if she could learn the trick that woman had used to ensnare him, there wouldn’t be a man alive she couldn’t bring to his knees.
If only Choi Hyeon-ha were a boy she could move at will. If that had been the case, Juran might already have…
“So, if you think you know what it is, that means you’re willing to hear it?”
Setting down her teacup, Juran’s eyes curved into a smile. Whatever else, the current reality was this: her son was not as easy to handle as his father—but even Choi Hyeon-ha now had a weakness.
“Yes,” Hyeon-ha replied.
Juran’s smile deepened.
“My son really is so understanding…”
But words were such pitiful, powerless things.
“From the mansion, it took a little over four hours. I checked the time before we left.”
Yeong-in spoke quickly into the phone.
She had managed to make a call—and it hadn’t been disconnected. She was determined to hold on to this one chance with everything she had, just as she had planned long before arriving here.
Counting time from the trunk wouldn’t have helped, so she had prepared ahead. There had been clocks in the mansion, after all.
And if she could get her hands on a phone, she could check the time and roughly calculate the distance.
Yeong-in had no idea where she was. She had been told their destination, but she couldn’t be sure it was true. Instead of asking for rescue right away, she kept feeding the person on the line whatever definite bits of information she could.
“I think it’s a place connected to Hyeon-ha’s mother.”
Probably a property Juran owned. That woman wouldn’t risk doing something like this on someone else’s land.
“I saw her usual secretary earlier.”
The man loitering near the warehouse had been Kang In-chan. Ironically, it was Yeong-in’s own mistrust of others’ kindness that had given her a chance to escape. She felt a bitter laugh rising—but she was still grateful not to have been fooled completely this time.
“I’m hiding in the mountain behind the building now. I keep moving, but I don’t know if I can get down the other side.”
Bare trees brushed against her as she moved. The hill wasn’t high—more of a mound than a mountain—but the unpaved path was rough.
Her calves already ached, her breathing was ragged, yet she kept heading east—toward the rising sun. That was the direction she had run when she escaped, so at least she wouldn’t end up circling back to the warehouse.
The surroundings were slowly growing brighter.
Listening to the voice on the phone, Yeong-in wiped the sweat from her face. What had Seok Juran planned to do with her? Surely she hadn’t gone to all this trouble just to hide her away from Hyeon-ha.
Suddenly, she heard a rustle. Another sound mixed with her own footsteps.
She quickly looked around for a place to hide. Passing trees and piles of leaves, she spotted a large stone mound and crouched beneath it.
“Baek Yeong-in!”
The mountains echoed with Kang In-chan’s voice. Yeong-in pressed herself under the rocks.
[Don’t make a sound. I’ll call you later.]
She ended the call and immediately switched her phone to silent—but she couldn’t be sure. In a place like this, even a faint electronic beep would be like shouting her location aloud.
She strained her ears toward the sound. Left? Right? It was hard to tell in the mountains.
Fortunately, she saw him before he saw her. Kang In-chan was walking right past the spot where she had been moments earlier. She clamped a hand over her mouth.
“I won’t hurt you! Just come out!”
If she could believe that, she wouldn’t be here at all. She would have stayed in the mansion, eating her meals and playing piano, waiting for the day Choi Hyeon-ha loosened his grip.
“Madam plans to send you abroad. It’s not bad for you either, right?”
He kept talking, glancing around as if he knew she was nearby.
“Let’s not make this harder than it needs to be. Help each other out. If you come out now, we can drive straight to the airport. You can hop on a plane like getting into a cab.”
