CS Chapter 9

“Huk-!”

 

With a sharp scream, Seowoo’s eyes snapped open. It had already been well over fifteen days since she had been hospitalized and was enjoying an undeserved luxury.

 

Unlike her gradually recovering body, her mind was becoming increasingly desolate. Having nightmares for several days was also a symptom of this.

 

“Noona… I want to get better. If I get rid of this illness, I’ll make both you and Mom happy. I promise, definitely. So, Noona, please just hold on until then. Okay?”

 

The nightmares always tormented her in the same form.

 

Her younger brother, repeatedly said sorry, injecting a needle into his one and only sister’s body, and

 

“No. Seowoo, you can’t leave here until your wedding. Let’s stay here together with Mom, offering prayers and studying our faith.”

 

Her mother, completely interested in a cult, ultimately selling her only daughter to an old cult leader…

 

But the end of the dream always concluded with a man’s face.

 

“Found you, my bride.”

 

She remembered relatively clearly the one phrase that came from the man’s mouth when she first asked for help in that moment she was frantically running away. The fact that even in her dreams, that scene was repeatedly replayed meant that it was deeply ingrained in her mind.

 

“Cha Minjun…”

 

Muttering the man’s name to herself, Seowoo was again lost in thought. She couldn’t understand why the man had said that to her at that moment.

 

Moreover, a few days ago, a person claiming to be Chairman Cha Jinwoong’s secretary had appeared and had meticulously learned her birth date and time of birth. When she asked about the reason, he only gave her an ambiguous reply that she would know in due time.

 

With a pale face, she checked the desk calendar. The high school equivalency exam (GED) was only a few months away. She didn’t know where her life was heading, and tears welled up in her eyes.

 

***

 

Chairman Cha Jinwoong visited her hospital room almost every day. At first, Seowoo had been quite awkward, but maybe because her hospital stay was boring, she had begun looking forward to Jinwoong’s visits at some point.

 

It was a moment of anxiety, when she couldn’t be sure of anything, but strangely, she felt at ease when talking to Jinwoong. Above all, the old man’s wrinkled face, which always smiled when he saw her, felt infinitely kind, which made her feel even more so.

 

“My dear, how are you feeling today?”

 

“Thanks to your care, I’m doing well, Grandfather.”

 

Starting with the story of how his father had acquired an auto repair company during the Japanese colonial era and developed it into today’s Daehan Group, Jinwoong shared a wide variety of stories in front of Seowoo. He was well aware that a young woman wouldn’t appreciate an old man’s useless chatter, but he seemed to have an itch in his mouth whenever he met Seowoo.

 

The woman simply listened to Jinwoong’s stories without adding any special remarks. She didn’t show any signs of being bored either. She just quietly existed and nodded at the appropriate times.

 

“Seowoo, what are your areas of interest?”

 

After Jinwoong finished his story, the conversation continued.

 

It was mainly in the form of Jinwoong asking questions and Seowoo answering them, but most of the questions were very intentional. He was trying to gauge the woman’s intellectual level. Even if it was according to Cheonsin Bosal’s will, he couldn’t bring in a simpleton as the head of the mighty Daehan Group.

 

“My younger brother had an illness for a long time, so I read many books related to psychoanalysis at the library.”

 

“Oh, dear. So, do you want to become a doctor?”

 

“I haven’t thought about wanting to be anything yet. Earning money was my priority, so I dropped out of high school and mostly worked part-time jobs. I also have experience working in a factory.”

 

“Since you were busy trying to make a living, I suppose you didn’t have any exposure to art or music.”

 

“Well… when I worked at a cafe, the owner liked classical music, so I know a little about Chopin. As for art… I don’t know much, but I remember the works of painter Lee Jungseop that were in the textbooks are memorable.”

 

“Yes, yes. Chopin and Lee Jungseop. I, too, am fond of those artists.”

 

However, the more Jinwoong talked with Ji Seowoo, the more his face bloomed with smiles.

 

Although she hadn’t lived many years, she was definitely not a child who didn’t know how to live in the world. She appeared fragile, as if she might break at any moment, but he thought that her inner strength was no different from that of the resilient common people.

 

‘Cha Minjun, that rascal’s bride, she’s more than good enough, for sure.’

 

Jinwoong secretly nodded to himself, deciding to inquire about her seemingly complicated family situation at a later opportunity.

 

***

 

“Are you alright, CEO?”

 

It was well past lunchtime. While driving, Joo Chanyeol glanced at Minjun in the back seat through the rearview mirror. Lately, the profile of the superior he served had been more sharp than usual, so he was deeply worried.

 

Minjun closed his eyes, which were heavy with exhaustion, then opened them.

 

“There’s a place nearby that makes good spicy pork bulgogi. Shall we stop by?”

 

“No, just go.”

 

Realizing that he shouldn’t bother Minjun any further, Chanyeol quietly drove to the charnel house located in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province.

 

Having driven for quite a while from Seoul, they arrived at the charnel house.

 

As soon as they got out of the car, they heard sobbing sounds from all directions. Minjun, standing tall like a mountain, soon moved with familiar steps.

 

[The late Cha Jinsu, the late Han Mirin]

 

Standing in front of the memorial tablets of the deceased, he bowed his head and remained in silent prayer for a while. Although it wasn’t his parents’ death anniversary, he always visited this place on days like these when his head was complicated, and poured out his feelings.

 

“Oh, oh! Where are you going, where are you going, leaving this little child Minjun, this babe in arms! Just take me instead, take me!”

 

The wailing grief voice of his grandfather, the subtle scent of chrysanthemums permeating the funeral hall, and the mourners casting pitying glances at Minjun, saying he had lost both his parents on the same day. Although it was death experienced at the young age of five, Minjun still vividly remembered the events of that day.

 

“The problem is this child’s mother. The root of all misfortunes came from the mother.”

 

“The mother… Are you talking about our daughter-in-law?”

 

“I see a snow-white cat? It’s crying, bleeding. Its skull is broken, its eyeballs are bulging out… Oh my goodness…”

 

“W-well, our daughter-in-law did hit a cat with her car a long time ago…”

 

“Your son was also with her. In your daughter-in-law’s womb. Tsk, tsk… If they had performed a consolatory rite back then, things wouldn’t have come to this.”

 

“If we hold a memorial service now?”

 

“It’s pointless.”

 

No sooner had his parents’ 49th-day memorial service ended than the Cheonsin Bosal had come and spouted nonsense.

 

At the time, his grandfather had told Minjun to stay in his room, but he had heard every word of the terrible story that had slipped through the slightly opened door.

 

When his mother was pregnant with him, she had hit and killed a cat in a car accident, and that karmic debt was now fully returning. Because of it, he, her son, was also cursed to live a short life, not even passing forty.

 

Despite hearing this ridiculous, third-rate story, the head of the Daehan Group, instead of scolding her, had blindly believed the shaman’s words for years.

 

So, from Minjun’s perspective, watching all of this from so close by was infuriating. Moreover, because of that very faith, he was now facing a marriage in the very near future. It was truly a difficult situation.

 

Minjun gazed intently, as if searching for an answer, at his parents’ faces, smiling innocently from within a picture frame behind the clear glass.

 

“Please, you two, try to break Grandpa’s stubbornness. At this rate, I’m going to end up marrying a snot-nosed kid.”

 

He sighed, as if troubled by the situation.