Their First Meeting
“Then why would the vice chairmanship of Songhwa go to… President Song Chi-hwan, Chairman Song’s illegitimate son?”
Song Seung-hyun, Songhwa Group’s sole legitimate heir and Yeon-ha’s father, had crashed on a rain-slicked road. Drowsy driving from overwork.
Listening to the adults talk, Yeon-ha forced her tears back. Standing before her father’s portrait made her heart slam against her ribs and her ears ring until nothing felt real, so she fled and hid.
She curled into herself in an out-of-the-way corner of the funeral hall. No one could hear her cry. She pressed her burning eyes hard into her drawn-up knees.
“Is that so? You really do have to live a long time to see everything. An illegitimate son as the head of the group…”
The funeral home hummed with whispers about who would become the next vice chairman. Everyone pretended not to listen, feigning indifference while mouths and ears worked overtime.
“Still, you never know. All of Vice Chairman Song Seung-hyun’s shares will go to his daughter. As the heir, he only has Yeon-ha.”
“True. In the succession line Yeon-ha actually ranks higher than President Song Chi-hwan… but she’s still so young…”
“Who bothers with legitimate or illegitimate these days? As long as the blood is there and they have ability, they’ll put anyone in the seat. Some people even adopt a distant relative’s child just so the fortune doesn’t leave the family.”
“Ugh. Do you think the senior madam will just sit still for that?”
At the man’s words the woman across from him waved a dismissive hand.
“Tsk. Either way, when the market opens tomorrow the stock’s going to go insane.”
“But it’s Songhwa. It’ll recover.”
Yeon-ha stayed curled in the corner where no one would notice her. The atmosphere had been almost identical at her youngest grandmother’s funeral—her grandfather’s second mistress. People had speculated about how much of the chairman’s fortune had gone to the woman, what benefit that would bring her aunt, and how far the ripples would reach inside and outside Songhwa.
Today, too, they were not mourning. They were calculating profit and loss.
I understand why, in my head. But it still feels too much.
If she did not bite her lip hard she might have marched over and sunk her teeth into the back of a hand still lifting a wineglass. Only after the gossipers drifted away did Yeon-ha slip outside.
People who had never noticed her crouched among the coat hangers stared in surprise, but Yeon-ha simply bowed her head and returned to the funeral hall.
“Mom…”
“What.”
Yeon-ha called to her mother, Jang Eun-ju, who was glaring fiercely at her father’s memorial portrait. Resentment and grief churned in her mother’s clouded eyes. A moment later she turned toward arriving mourners, face carefully blank, and returned their bows as though nothing were wrong.
“Madam.”
A secretary approached Jang Eun-ju and murmured something close to her ear. She told Chairman Song she would step out briefly, then walked straight past Yeon-ha.
What’s going on…? Mom’s expression looks strange. She’s not going to collapse again, is she?
Yeon-ha hurried after her mother, whose strides had lengthened unnaturally. Jang Eun-ju passed the family room and the restrooms, heading toward an unused waiting area beside a remote, empty parlor.
Her pace kept quickening; Yeon-ha could barely keep up. Just as she rounded the corner where her mother had vanished—
“……!”
Lightning flashed beyond the window, followed by a rolling peal of thunder. Yeon-ha froze where she stood.
“Madam… I’m so sorry.”
Uncle?
Yeon-ha hid behind the wall and peeked out with only her eyes.
Go Eun-jung knelt before Jang Eun-ju, head bowed. Beside him a young boy clutched the rain-soaked shoulder of his father’s suit with both hands.
Why is Uncle apologizing? And who’s that…
It was not only the two of them who were shaking. Her mother drew a deep breath and crossed her arms, determined not to let anyone see the tremor.
“…We both know Go Eun-jung isn’t the only driver in our household, don’t we?”
Her mother’s voice was sharper than anger, stabbing into him again and again.
“Yes…. I know.”
Was she going to fire him? Yeon-ha hated the thought. He had watched over her for eight years, since she was five. The man could not bring himself to lift his head. It was not his fault Father had died.
This is unbearable…
He looked smaller even than the son standing beside him. Guilt filled every tear.
“Even if he insisted on driving himself! With that body, long-distance driving—the person who knew his schedule better than anyone should have thought it through!”
At last a voice thick with tears burst free. The boy flinched and stepped back, staring at her mother with eyes full of fear.
At the same moment Yeon-ha curled her toes that had almost run to the child. Her grandfather’s scolding—never meddle in the affairs of adults—echoed like thunder in her skull.
She could not tear her gaze from the trembling boy. A conversation from only days earlier, eating ice cream with Go Eun-jung outside the school gate, rose in her mind.
“He’s three years younger than you, Yeon-ha. Poor kid—his mother died before he even turned one. You didn’t know that, did you? Uncle was married once.”
“Ahh, no wedding ring and you never mentioned a son, so I had no idea!”
Perched on the car’s hood, Yeon-ha had swung her legs and squeezed a pear-flavored ice pop.
“I’ve been so busy I left him with his aunt’s family, and I think they treated him pretty roughly. He doesn’t even go to kindergarten…”
“Ah, that explains it. So that’s why you’ve been taking so much leave lately?”
“Yeah…”
“To look after your son?”
Go Eun-jung had nodded with a bitter smile. Songhwa paid far better than anywhere else, but the nature of the job made it impossible to care for a preschooler alone.
“Our Je-yoon still can’t read the easy words, and he struggles with speaking…. I neglected him… me too.”
“Uncle… then! Take every book in my room! Or I can teach him sometimes!”
“Haha, thanks for saying so. Actually, I’ve been looking at real estate lately.”
“What! You’re not quitting, are you?”
“Goodness, of course not! But don’t tell the young madam we had this talk, all right? Uncle will get scolded.”
Seeing the unusually sad look in Go Eun-jung’s eyes, Yeon-ha had exaggerated a pout even more.
“Eeeh—one ice cream isn’t enough! Show me what your son looks like! If he takes after you he must be pretty!”
“Uncle’s pretty?”
At Go Eun-jung’s signature smiling eyes, Yeon-ha had nodded rapidly.
“You should have been an actor. I think that sometimes, you know?”
“Oh, thanks? Let’s see, a photo…”
He had pulled a thin wallet from his chest and shown her a picture. A beautiful woman smiled while holding a newborn baby.
Yeon-ha’s eyes had gone round.
Now, as the memory flashed, her father’s face overlapped Uncle’s.
Last summer Uncle’s bright smile had looked so much like the warm gaze Father gave Mother and Yeon-ha.
Yeon-ha’s eyes stung; she clenched her fists.
Father and Uncle had often drunk whiskey in the study, talking frankly like friends when Mother was not around.
Maybe Uncle lost a friend too?
Not only I lost a father.
You, who will become the master of Songhwa, must weigh every thought, every word, every action with care. She had heard it until her ears grew calluses, yet Yeon-ha’s patience ended there.
“Mom!”
“…What are you doing here?”
Having just learned that Grandmother, who had collapsed moments before Yeon-ha followed her mother, had woken again, Yeon-ha’s mind raced.
“Grandma’s back! You should go right away!”
At the word “Grandma,” Jang Eun-ju’s raised shoulders dropped.
“…With her only son dead she’ll squeeze me dry. The illegitimate sons are about to take everything. Why is my life like this—”
Clutching her heated forehead, Jang Eun-ju saw her daughter watching and hurriedly spoke as though catching herself.
“You come too. Don’t stay here.”
She straightened her clothes and walked past Yeon-ha. But leaving her receding mother behind, Yeon-ha went to Uncle.
“It’s not your fault, Uncle….”
Small hands carefully took both men’s hands.
At Yeon-ha’s sincere words, Je-yoon, who had kept his eyes fixed on the floor, looked up at her. His unusually dark, sparkling eyes brimmed with tears—perhaps from the injustice done to his father.
“So you’re Je-yoon! Um… I’m sorry. My mom is just so sad… But still, it isn’t Uncle’s fault either, right? I’m sorry.”
Yeon-ha carefully drew Je-yoon’s hand and pulled him into her arms. When she patted his back, his tears fell onto the shoulder of her mourning clothes.
Yeon-ha’s own chest ached as though it would split from the grief of losing her father. The thought that she would never see him again made tears threaten to spill any second. Yet she knew the arrow of anger must not fly in the wrong direction.
Even at her young age she understood how vast the injustice of being unable even to offer an excuse must feel. She hugged him a little tighter.
Je-yoon looked up at his father. It’s all right. Comfort her. Yeon-ha must be sad too. Reading the nod that said as much, the boy soon carefully patted Yeon-ha’s back the way she had patted his.
Then Yeon-ha buried her face against Je-yoon’s shoulder and rubbed her eyes hard to hold back the sobs that wanted to burst free.
You must show that you are someone worthy of becoming master here. Show a strong face. Do not cry. If you cry, your father’s fortune will go to someone else.
No one knew how long she had held everything in under her grandfather’s commands.
In the warm embrace filling her arms, tears fell drop by drop from ten-year-old Yeon-ha’s eyes as well. No one had hugged her. Not even her mother.
“Waaaah, hic. Daddy…. Daddy….”
Yeon-ha finally cried her heart out right there, unable to let go of Je-yoon for a long while.
“……”
After crying for a long time, Yeon-ha sat side by side with Je-yoon on a chair in a corner of the waiting room.
“Thank you.”
“……”
She locked her own sorrow behind reddened eyes and carefully watched his reaction. As if the sense of injustice had not fully left him, a transparent film like tears still sparkled in Je-yoon’s gaze.
Yeon-ha puffed her cheeks and tilted her worried face with a soft hum.
“Still tears……”
She reached toward eyes that sparkled like glass beads reflecting light. Without thinking she carefully rubbed the reddened rims of Je-yoon’s eyes with her thumb.
Thank you for comforting me. I’m sorry for making you feel wronged.
But even after she rubbed, nothing came off on her hand. She had thought it was tears, yet they were simply beautiful eyes.
“Oh? You’re not crying. That’s a relief!”
Yeon-ha felt something that had been tightly clogged inside her ease and settle.
“Just like Uncle said?”
“……”
“He said you’re a really pretty and precious kid.”
He really is. I have a dad who used to tell me I’m pretty and precious too, but my dad is gone now… Yeon-ha tried to force a bright smile. It did not work very well.
“……”
“I’ll take responsibility. I’ll make sure you don’t cry. Because Uncle said your smiling face is the prettiest in the world. Uncle… I’ll talk to them so you can keep working at our house.”
Yeon-ha lifted the corners of her tear-streaked mouth and brought her face close to his, tilting her head. “Okay? You get it?”
“Ah, Yeon-ha, Je-yoon.”
“Uncle!”
Go Eun-jung handed them yellow chocolate-drink cans he had fetched from somewhere.
“Yeon-ha, thank you. We should go now.”
Yeon-ha shook her head.
“I want to be comforted too. I want to stay with Je-yoon. You still have to pay your respects, Uncle. Just five minutes. I want to stay here just five minutes.”
Looking at her, Go Eun-jung smiled bitterly. He had worked at Songhwa for nearly ten years. Having watched Yeon-ha grow, he stroked both children’s heads gently, as if he understood.
“I’ll come back as slowly as I can.”
When Yeon-ha nodded, Je-yoon tightly took her hand.
It was Song Yeon-ha and Go Je-yoon’s first meeting.