A Call to the Cheongdam-dong Mansion
“What are you thinking about?”
He asked, pressing his body close against Jaein's.
“Just congratulating him, of course. I'm attending his birthday party — what other reason could there be?”
At Jaein's plausible answer, Taeha burst out laughing.
The sudden eruption of laughter drew a few glances from the others in the living room toward the pair.
“Your congratulations look mighty impure to me,” Taeha whispered in a low voice, pitched so that no one else could hear. A smile had already spread full across his lips.
“I'm just excited. Curious what exactly you're planning to do.”
“Nothing much,” Jaein said, looking straight up at him. “Just go to celebrate his birthday. Except a few people will be tagging along.”
With those words, she gave a subtle flick of her eyes toward the filming crew. “We're doing the close-follow shoot this week, so the cameras won't get a moment's rest.”
In truth, the shooting structure Seongho had wanted centered on the contrast between an ordinary daughter-in-law and a chaebol family. After all, a household like the Daeha clan wasn't one the general public ever got a glimpse of. What thoughts and habits would arise from such different worlds? And despite those differences, how had the two become husband and wife, family?
He'd dressed it all up in polished language, but what Seongho really wanted was ratings. Conflict — the kind that exists everywhere. And a devoted husband who overcame that conflict. Because that's the dopamine people crave.
Jaein intended to season that framework with a little extra flavor. After all, so long as the ratings climbed, Seongho was more than willing to throw out the original plan entirely.
“You'll be fine, won't you, sunbae?” Jaein asked Taeha with a sweet smile.
Only then did he seem to grasp what she was scheming, and a rueful laugh gathered at the corner of his mouth.
“How on earth have you put up with it all this time?”
“Well……”
The smile that hadn't left Jaein's lips until moments ago quietly slid away. She had done her best, endured every single moment — with her eyes fixed on one man, Woo Taeha alone.
“I wanted to be recognized. As your wife. Without even knowing it was impossible.”
Time heals all wounds, people said — but for Jaein, that saying had simply never applied.
Worried her feelings might show, she moved swiftly out into the living room.
“Minseop sunbae!”
“Huh? No — I mean, yes. Jaein, did you need something?”
Minseop started to respond as usual, then caught himself and glanced past her at Taeha.
“There's an event at my in-laws' on Saturday. It's my mother-in-law's birthday.”
“……”
“I was going to ask whether you'd be following us that day,” Jaein added with a smile, and Minseop's eyes went round as saucers.
“Damn it…… Of — of course we will. You heard that, right, Director?”
Even as he said of course, the corners of Minseop's mouth trembled violently. For a salaried worker, weekend duty was a bolt from the blue.
“Aaah, weekend overtime confirmed.”
“Oh please, when have we ever gotten a day off?”
But in the entertainment bureau, that was just an everyday affair. As everyone accepted it as a matter of course, Minseop pulled out his phone and dialed somewhere — most likely Seongho, the main PD. Mid-conversation, he flashed Jaein an okay sign with his fingers. Seongho had told him to do it.
And just like that, the weekend shoot was set.
Jaein folded her eyes into two lovely crescents toward Taeha, who had somehow drawn near. Granted, the mere thought of dragging a camera crew to Cheongdam-dong over the weekend was already making her head swim — but for once, it wasn't as terrifying as usual.
Is it because sunbae's coming along?
Jaein simply looked forward to it.
A scandalous daughter-in-law who shows up at his birthday with a film crew in tow. It was obvious how the in-laws and Junhee would react. “Quit the show this instant!” They might not stop at pulling her off the program — they might go so far as to demand a divorce. The Daeha clan was more than capable of it.
Not that you'll actually be able to do anything about it.
Still, she hoped they'd put up plenty of obstacles. And if they'd kindly help sunbae get his divorce a year from now, all the better.
And so Jaein smiled, mulling over her schemes with a distinctly sly expression on her face.
At Kim-ssi's word that Junhee was out on the terrace, Ara strode purposefully toward it. Passing through the half-open door, she spotted a figure lounging comfortably on the sofa at the terrace's center. It was Junhee.
“Unnie!”
Whether it was Ara's voice that reached her or not, Junhee lifted her head from the book she'd been reading.
What is she doing here?
A look of discomfort immediately crept into Junhee's eyes as she turned toward Kim-ssi.
“Ah, Lady Ara said she had something to discuss with you, so I showed her out,” Kim-ssi said, glancing uneasily between the two of them. “Were you…… perhaps not expecting her?”
“What's that supposed to mean! Who needs an appointment to see their own family?”
Shooting Kim-ssi a waspish glare, Ara slid up to Junhee's spot and settled into the seat across from her. “Kim-ssi, you can go. I have a long talk to have with my unnie! Oh — and bring me a peppermint tea too? With lots of ice.”
At the offhand entitlement of it — ordering the household staff as if they were her own — Junhee shut her book with a sharp clap.
“Call ahead before you come next time.”
“Hm? Okay, unnie. Did that upset you? I just came because it was urgent.”
Saying so, Ara hooked her arm through Junhee's. Despite the sweetly arranged smile, Junhee remained indifferent. With a subtle push of her hand, the linked arms came apart. At that, Ara bit down on her lower lip.
She knew Junhee didn't welcome her. Hmph. She's always been like this.
It was because Ara was the child of a second wife. The other aunts never treated her with quite this much frost. She's the only one who never calls me anything. Even when they were together, Junhee almost never addressed her directly — if she absolutely had to say something, she'd simply speak without any title at all.
This is exactly why I hate Woo Taeha.
Like mother, like son. The memory of Taeha wielding that absurd threat — that he'd ship her off to America — brought a small twitch to the corner of Ara's mouth.
Ordinarily, Ara wouldn't have spared this house so much as a glance outside of special occasions. She was far too busy living her own life. But there was a reason good enough for seeking Junhee out like this.
If it weren't for that matter, I wouldn't have come at all!
Well. She was the one asking favors, so she'd just have to bear it. What choice did she have?
“Unnie, unnie — Seo Jaein wants a divorce.”
At Ara's whispered disclosure, Junhee's gaze finally turned to her.
“Did she say that herself?”
“That's what I'm telling you. I just met with her. But she says that, and yet the two of them are really filming some marriage observation reality show? Does that make any sense to you?”
The moment Junhee showed interest, Ara's stiff face melted at once. She went on with a knowing smile.
“Unnie — Dad's coming home soon.”
“……”
“Shouldn't those two get their paperwork in order before he arrives? Hmm?”
At the word Dad, the line of Junhee's mouth dropped sharply. Even the incomparable Park Junhee — always composed, always immaculate, as befitting her exalted station — reacted this way to those three syllables: Woo Byungho. A father-in-law like the sky itself, a presence one could hardly stand against.
Hmph. Disgusting, really. Quiet as a mouse in front of Dad, this one. No, wait. It's not just the new sister-in-law, is it?
Her half-sisters, who dismissed her as a concubine's daughter, were no different. The very sisters who ordinarily treated her as if she didn't exist had no choice but to fawn over her in front of Byungho.
Daaaad. Boo-hoo. Ara's so saaaad. The unnnies won't say a single word to meee. I'm just gonna leave and live on my owwn.
Whenever her sisters slighted her, she would run straight to Byungho in a flood of tears — and with that one complaint, Miyeon and Jeonghwa would be summoned to the study and kept there for ages. The roars of thunder from behind that door carried all the way to the living room. How, then, could anyone dare snub her in front of Byungho?
Before she knew it, Ara's face had transformed into one of open triumph.
“The Chairman…… is coming here?”
The look in Junhee's eyes as she repeated the question turned fiercely sharp. Chairman Woo Byungho, returning. For Junhee — no, for the entire Daeha clan — this was news that promised a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky.