The Smile Behind the Mask
At that very hour, Yoon Jae-gyeom's mother on the family register — Madam Jin Song-hwa — had shut herself away in her study with a book. To anyone watching, it would have looked like the graceful reading hour of a refined lady of the house, but in truth not a single word on the page registered in her eyes. She simply turned the pages, slowly, mechanically, one after another. It was her own private way of wrestling her fury back under control.
"How dare he walk out before I'd even finished speaking. Like mother, like son. A vulgar, low-born pair, the both of them."
It had been nearly thirty years since she began chewing down her rage alone in this room, and every last drop of that poison had always flowed in one direction — toward Kim Jae-gyeom.
She had accepted the marriage arranged between their two families as a matter of course, long before she'd even finished university. Her husband, by contrast, had refused it outright. She had even discovered that there was another woman he actually wanted to marry.
So in this study — kept separate from her husband's own — she would spit out her curses to no one and let the stress bleed away. It was a method Madam Jin had perfected from the very moment she accepted that she was to marry a man who did not want her.
"What? You'll marry whoever you please? The likes of you? Let's see how much of this world ever goes the way you want it to."
Though her voice trembled, her fingertips kept turning pages at the same unhurried pace, and her posture never so much as wavered. At last the final page of a thick volume fell shut. With a long sigh she slid the book back into its place on the shelf and picked up her phone. The instant the other end picked up, she put on her mask and began to perform.
"CEO Kang, how lovely to hear from— well, hello. I received the truffles you sent for Chuseok. They arrived in perfect condition."
"Madam Jin! It's an honor. You're keeping well, I hope? The gift was such a small token that I only left a message with your secretary, so for you to call me personally — I'm deeply flattered. After all, it's the introductions you made among the society wives that have made me the finest couple manager in the industry. And Chairman Yoon, I trust he's well too?"
A few more rounds of utterly hollow pleasantries drifted back and forth between the mistress of Daeyun Group — the nation's fourth-ranked conglomerate — and CEO Kang, the matchmaker whose connections sprawled across politics, business, and high society, known in the trade as the Matchmaking Madame.
"You know better than anyone that I'm a busy woman, CEO Kang... I didn't call today simply for idle conversation. I have a matter to discuss."
"Of course, Madam. Please, go ahead. How may I be of service?"
The moment had finally come to close her hand around Kim Jae-gyeom's throat. She would strip from him every single thing he possessed — and the first of those things would be his freedom. Still smiling through her voice, Madam Jin raised the subject with studied lightness.
"You may have heard the rumor already — though not many people know yet. But then, this world has never been good at keeping secrets... My husband and I have another son."
"I... see."
In a calm, solemn voice, she laid out the essentials about Jae-gyeom: that he was a son Chairman Yoon had fathered outside the marriage, yet was quite properly entered on the couple's family register; that he was twenty-eight this year; and that he would soon be starting work within the group.
"I'd like to marry him off quickly and see him settled with a family of his own."
"Yes, Madam, of course. Then the bride's family will need to be of a caliber that can stand alongside Daeyun Group in every respect—"
"My, CEO Kang. I never took you for someone so slow on the uptake?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"I explained it quite clearly a moment ago. A son the chairman fathered outside the marriage. Surely that remark about caliber applies only to my own son?"
She rebuked CEO Kang for the tactlessness that had coaxed such naked words out of her own mouth. The air had frozen for a moment, but it thawed quickly enough once Kang scrambled to grovel.
"Madam Jin, I am truly sorry. I've been in this business for so many years, and still my instincts fail me. What sort of candidate shall I prepare for you? Would a somewhat humbler family background suit you better — or would you prefer someone a shade lacking in wealth or refinement?"
Only then did Madam Jin's expression ease. On the far end of the line, CEO Kang added, her heart thudding:
"Or... what about someone from the entertainment world? An actress, perhaps, or a model — a reasonably pretty celebrity from a family even plainer than average?"
"Now we're speaking the same language, CEO Kang."
In a voice of impeccable dignity, Madam Jin stated her terms and ended the call.
"I have no use for girls who think too deeply, or who take an interest in the business. Bring me someone who knows to be afraid of money. I don't care for a clever daughter-in-law. You understand exactly what I mean, don't you? A girl who listens to me... that's the kind of daughter-in-law I want to see."
"Yes, Madam. Perfectly understood."
Gazing down at the severed call, Madam Jin curled her lips into a smile that chilled the blood.
She would destroy Yoon Jae-gyeom — no, Kim Jae-gyeom. She could not leave him be, that great stain smeared across her life. But not a soul must ever know her heart. To the world, she would remain forever the kind and cultivated stepmother, the magnanimous woman who had embraced even her husband's illegitimate son without a flicker of resentment.
To the very end.
It had been almost two weeks since they agreed to call each other lovers — and two weeks since they had last seen each other's faces.
After they began dating and Jae-gyeom returned to Gyechon-ri, the two of them had each spent honest, diligent days on their own turf. He threw himself into the work at the auto shop; she threw herself into finding a new job. With the Chuseok holiday due to begin in just two days — when Ji-su would finally head down to Gyechon — both of them were counting off the hours, wishing only for tomorrow to be over and done with.
"Long-distance relationships... they're barely even a thing. Every time I hear your voice I miss you more. What am I supposed to do with this? I really need to get myself to Seoul, and fast."
At the utterly grave tone of his voice, Ji-su burst out giggling. She missed him every bit as much as he missed her.
"Don't laugh. It's torture just hearing you laugh, Im Ji-su."
"Torture? What's so torturous about it?"
"You know perfectly well, so quit pretending you don't. Haah... this is agony. I wish you were sitting next to me right now."
"...You're right. I want to be with you too."
"Ji-su. Did you manage to get a seat on the train?"
"Oh, right. Did I never tell you? Of course I got one!"
The truth was, she hadn't booked anything for this Chuseok — the original plan had been to ride down to her mother's with Young-baek. Right up until then, she'd assumed she'd be driving down in the car Young-baek had given her.
But after she had cut things off with Young-baek completely and handed the car back, the very first thing Ji-su did was go hunting for a Chuseok train ticket home. She haunted the booking site day after day, and a few days ago she'd managed to buy round-trip standing tickets — then today, at long last, she'd secured an actual seat.
"Although... from Seoul Station all the way to Gyeongju, it's standing room."
"...So you only get to sit from Gyeongju to Gyechon? A whole thirty minutes?"
"Oh, come on, Yoon Jae-gyeom. Think positive for once, will you? Getting the ticket at all is the miracle here! I get to sit a little either way. That's a win!"
In a bright, lively voice, Ji-su boasted that she'd snagged a seat for the trip coming up from Gyechon to Seoul as well. More than half of that stretch would be on her feet too, but even so, she counted it as a genuine stroke of luck.
"You're right. Our Ji-su is absolutely right. Gotta look on the bright side. Those tickets must've been near impossible to get. Clever girl, Im Ji-su."
"Ever since I started dating you, my life has been nothing but good things. Thank you, Jae-gyeom."
That was her honest heart. She had been terrified that she'd fail to get even a standing ticket and end up stranded alone in Seoul for the entire holiday, so she was simply glad to be making it down to Gyechon at all. And ever since beginning this new relationship with Jae-gyeom, an interview offer had come almost immediately — she'd attended the interview just last week.
Because of Kim Young-baek, she had been forced to walk away from an excellent company — the top asset management firm in the country. His mother's face floated up in her memory, tears streaming: "I want my son to be looked after, you see. Watching a daughter-in-law who works live under my roof — it breaks my heart to see it." That was no reason to cave to such coercion and hand in her resignation... Ji-su shook her head hard, shaking off the last of her regret over the past.
"You haven't forgotten your promise to buy me something delicious if I pass, have you? Better start picking out what you want now."
"Ahh, our Ji-su is seriously the cutest thing alive. If only you were next to me right now. I'd kiss you until you couldn't breathe. Your lips, your forehead, the tip of your nose, your neck — and everything below that..."