IMFOBO | CH 68 | Better Not to Know

The elevator doors opened, and Eun-cho was met by the chief secretary, who had been waiting.

A middle-aged man with a familiar face nodded and greeted Eun-cho.

“Ms. Eun-cho, please go in. The CEO is waiting for you.”

“Yes, thank you.”

As Eun-cho opened the door and stepped inside, Han-mu, who was seated at his office desk, met her gaze.

His expression was calm and composed.

The man took off his glasses, pressed his temples, and gestured towards the sofa.

“The car?”

“It’ll be here soon. It’s alright.”

“Alright, what brings you here so suddenly?”

It was a stark reminder that they were father and daughter who rarely contacted each other unless it was for a specific purpose.

Come to think of it, him sitting in the groom’s father’s seat at the wedding was a special event.

If it hadn’t been for her grandmother’s insistence, it was a happening neither her father nor Eun-cho would have sought out.

“This. I came to return what you gave me through Grandma.”

His previously calm face finally showed a crack.

Eun-cho couldn’t decipher what her father, who let out a weary sigh, was thinking.

“It’s your share. Take it.”

“No. I don’t want to owe you anything.”

“I wasn’t much of a father. I want to settle this debt in my heart with this, so take it without complaint.”

Eun-cho pressed her lips tightly together.

What words had she even been expecting?

Her chest ached inexplicably.

In the end, nothing had changed.

The thought of her father feeling relieved after handing over this paltry bankbook made her even more unwilling to accept it.

“I’ve already received more than enough. You paid for my aunt’s living expenses and my tuition.”

“…So, is that why you didn’t accept the alimony you were going to receive back then? I’m not trying to act like a father with this, so take it.”

Was he bothered that she hadn’t accepted the alimony she was supposed to receive in a lump sum?

A resolute look settled in her father’s eyes.

As if he wouldn’t back down this time.

“You’re the daughter-in-law of the Baekwoon family now. You’ll have many occasions to spend money, so keep it. Asking for favors can only happen once or twice.”

“Still, I can’t accept this money. That’s something for when…”

“Don’t make me argue anymore. I’m tired. Go back.”

Han-mu, who unilaterally cut off the conversation, pressed the internal line button firmly.

Before the bell could even ring once, Chief Secretary Kim entered the office.

“Escort Ms. Eun-cho out.”

“Yes, understood, CEO.”

Eun-cho didn’t even have a chance to say anything more.

It didn’t feel right to take this, but as Chief Secretary Kim gently pushed her back, she was helplessly led out.

Having left the CEO’s office, Chief Secretary Kim handed Eun-cho the bankbook she had left on the table.

“Chief Secretary Kim, please accept this instead. I can’t take this.”

“The CEO was very upset, Ms. Eun-cho. Even though he speaks that way, he worries about you a lot.”

“…”

“I’ll be in a very difficult position if you don’t take this. What father wouldn’t want to contribute at least this much to his daughter’s wedding?”

Eun-cho bit her lip hard.

Chief Secretary Kim was someone who knew better than anyone else that the relationship between the two was far from that of an ordinary father and daughter.

Intellectually, she knew she should just accept the bankbook when he spoke like this…

“The elevator’s here. Congratulations on your marriage once again. See you later.”

Chief Secretary Kim pressed the bankbook into Eun-cho’s hand and practically pushed her into the elevator.

Behind him, she could see the secretaries busily preparing to go for lunch.

Alone in the rapidly descending elevator, Eun-cho squeezed her eyes shut.

-First floor.

An announcement echoed in the quiet space, punctuated only by the machine’s intermittent vibrations.

Eun-cho stood there blankly, as if rooted to the spot.

Until the doors opened and then closed again.

No matter how she thought about it, this wasn’t her share.

Eun-cho pressed the 18th-floor button again firmly, her lips sealed.

Unless she continued her relationship with her father, she didn’t want to be the daughter who took a large sum of money and then disappeared.

-18th floor.

The moment the doors opened, she sensed a different atmosphere than before.

The hallway, which had been as quiet as a dead mouse, was now bustling with noise.

“…?”

Eun-cho stopped in her tracks, bewildered by the situation.

Madam Jung’s sharp and piercing voice reached her ears.

It was a voice filled with unbridled anger, making no attempt to conceal her raw emotions.

“How much longer do I have to see that girl? Aren’t you being too cruel to me?”

Madam Jung’s furious voice struck her ears directly.

These were not words meant to be overheard, even by chance.

Every word she heard would only wound her.

Intellectually, she knew she should leave, but her feet wouldn’t move.

“Just because our Yuri died, are you openly claiming her as your daughter now? You said Yuri was your only daughter! To me! You said that, and now you’re doing this!”

It seemed she had narrowly missed Madam Jung by a hair’s breadth.

Whether it was unfortunate or fortunate, the difference was that she hadn’t seen Madam Jung, but Madam Jung had witnessed Eun-cho.

Eun-cho felt a suffocating wave of unease.

Today was clearly not the day to return the bankbook.

The moment Madam Jung saw her, she would unleash even more fury on her father, and Eun-cho wouldn’t escape unscathed either.

It was the moment she finally turned her back.

“Is your resentment over those Koh people taking Eun-cho still that deep-seated?”

What on earth is this?

Taken? Who took whom?

Eun-cho froze on the spot like a fossil.

Her heart pounded so rapidly it felt like it would leap out of her chest.

The outside was excessively noisy, but compared to the flood of information, Eun-cho’s brain seemed to have cooled down, unable to function properly.

Beeee-

A long, ringing sound pierced her ears.

The light in her widened eyes dimmed faintly, becoming vacant.

She didn’t even realize she had dropped the bankbook in her hand.

“You think I don’t know you still can’t forget that woman, Koh Yu-ran?”

“Stop it. This is the company.”

“Do I look like I can calm down? Why do you keep calling Eun-cho here! I tolerated her brazenly sitting in the host’s seat at the wedding, but now you’re even going to have regular visits? How much more do you expect me to endure?!”

Madam Jung acted like a person who had lost her sanity.

She was screaming as if she couldn’t hold back any longer, and their conversation pierced Eun-cho’s ears clearly, even though she didn’t want to hear it.

“If those old folks hadn’t called you a murderer who killed my daughter and demanded you hand over Eun-cho, you wouldn’t have even married me!”

My mother died in a car accident.

I heard it was a four-car pile-up.

In that accident, Eun-cho and her father survived, and her mother passed away.

It happened when Eun-cho was only five years old.

Naturally, her memories from around that time are hazy and not well-remembered.

She had only heard about it from the adults who had gone through that time.

“If I hadn’t lost the child, I would have held onto that girl who looked just like Yu-ran and lived my whole life longing for her!”

“Just stop. I’ll do as you wish, so just stop.”

My father’s voice sounded weary and heavily suppressed.

It was the unique weariness of someone who had given up and endured something for a very long time.

“Ah…”

In the end, it was a truth that would have been better left unknown.

The fact that in the beginning, she wasn’t abandoned by her father; rather, her father had been taken away from her by her grandparents, whom she had trusted so completely.

It would have been better if her father had remained the villain.

Even if everything Madam Jung said was true, it wouldn’t erase my father’s fault of neglecting and ignoring his daughter throughout her childhood.

Eun-cho felt a strange nausea and couldn’t bear to eavesdrop on their conversation any longer.

The lonely times caused by her father’s absence flashed before her eyes.

Those moments when, no matter how much her grandparents cherished and provided for her, she could never feel whole.

Even so, she couldn’t bring herself to hate her grandmother and grandfather because their feelings had also been genuine.

No matter how much they had separated father and daughter, in the end, it had also been her father’s choice.

Regardless of how it started, the person who hadn’t looked at Eun-cho throughout her growing years was also her father.

‘I need to get out of here. I can’t stay here any longer…’

Eun-cho staggered and hurried away.

Her heart pounded, and a constant nausea churned within her.

Eun-cho got into the elevator.

Perhaps because it was an elevator exclusively for executives, there was no one else inside besides her.

Only when she was alone did she finally feel like she could breathe.

-Basement level 2.

Eun-cho barely managed to step out of the elevator with vacant eyes.

Her legs were weak, and she couldn’t even walk properly.

It felt like the things she had believed in for a long time had collapsed.

She painfully realized that even her grandmother and grandfather, whom she couldn’t hate, hadn’t been entirely on her side.

Bbaaang-!

A sudden bright beam of headlights poured out from a car turning the corner.

A sharp horn blared loudly, as if tearing at her ears, but her body stiffened involuntarily.

It was then.

“Lee Eun-cho!”

It was Ryu Tae-san’s voice that she heard.