The Rumor

"Jin Seo-ah!"

The bright voice calling her from across the café belonged to her cousin, Jin Se-yeon.

"Unnie."

The moment Seo-ah spotted Se-yeon, she rose from her seat, the rims of her eyes reddening.

"How long has it been? Since your father's funeral was the last time... a little over four months now."

"Yes, I guess so."

Se-yeon sat down and looked her over with concern.

"Are you even eating? Why is your face so drawn?"

She reached out and gently stroked Seo-ah's cheek.

Seo-ah smiled shyly beneath her touch. To her, Se-yeon's warmth was a rare moment of rest after far too long.

As a child, there had even been times she'd desperately wished Se-yeon were her real sister.

And it made sense — whenever the most dangerous and difficult moments of Seo-ah's life came, it was Se-yeon who had been by her side.

From the memory of being five years old and lost, wandering during a family trip, to the inexplicable bullying that began in elementary school, to being seventeen and unfairly branded a bully herself back in her trainee days when she'd dreamed of becoming a singer. Through all of it, Se-yeon had always stood guard over her, strong and unshaken.

"My Seo-ah. My little sister Seo-ah."

That dependable older sister, standing with her back to her, shouting down the villains.

That warm way of addressing her, still so vivid in her memory, soothed her aching heart today of all days.

"I missed you so much, unnie."

Se-yeon took hold of the trembling hand that looked ready to spill tears at any moment.

"I know. You've been through so much, my sister. And I'm sorry I couldn't make it to Dong-ha's funeral. I found out far too late."

"No, it's fine. Really."

Seo-ah couldn't bring herself to say it — that she'd only learned about it because someone who wasn't even family had contacted her.

How miserable was that? She may have been a wife in name only, but being treated like this still stung.

Swallowing the hurt, Seo-ah studied her cousin's face, the first time in months. And then...

Was unnie's makeup always this heavy? Even when I saw her before Dad's funeral, her face never looked like this.

She couldn't pinpoint what exactly had changed, but the thick perfume that clung to Se-yeon and her vividly painted red lipstick felt somehow foreign.

"So — why did you want to see me?"

"Oh... oh?"

Seo-ah, who had been staring at Se-yeon's face, snapped out of it, flustered.

"I thought something must have happened, you reaching out so suddenly."

"Ah. Right."

Seo-ah had contacted Se-yeon because the last conversation with Dong-ha — the one he never finished — kept weighing on her mind.

"Don't trust Jin Se-yeon."

No matter how hard she tried to forget, that day's words kept resurfacing. In the end, that was why she'd reached out to Se-yeon first.

"Unnie."

"Mm?"

"Did... did something ever happen between you and Dong-ha?"

"Something? Like what?"

Unsure how to phrase it, Seo-ah couldn't quite bring herself to speak.

"It's just... the last conversation I had with him was strange."

"A conversation?"

"Yes. In the middle of it, he suddenly brought you up. Out of nowhere."

For an instant, Se-yeon's brows narrowed — then snapped back into place just as quickly.

"What did he say?"

"Well..."

A brief silence stretched between them.

Am I blowing something trivial out of proportion? Seo-ah worried she might only be upsetting Se-yeon for no reason.

What should I do? Should I just swallow what I came to say? But the question of what Dong-ha had been trying to tell her at the end kept rekindling her resolve.

"It's fine, go ahead. Judging by your face, I should probably hear it."

Only slightly reassured by Se-yeon's response, Seo-ah cautiously laid it out.

"I asked if he knew anything about Dad's accident. And he told me not to trust you. Just like that."

"What?"

Se-yeon's raised voice made Seo-ah flinch.

"Ah — sorry, unnie. Are you angry?"

Se-yeon, perhaps startled by her own outburst, quickly smoothed her expression and answered gently.

"N... no, of course not. It's just such an absurd thing to hear."

"Right? That's exactly how I felt. But he couldn't finish what he was trying to say, and it's been eating at me. That's why I wanted to see you."

"Is that all?"

...Did I mishear that?

Se-yeon's voice was so cold that Seo-ah flinched for a moment.

It was the kind of voice that made everything that had seemed strange about her moments ago feel less like a misunderstanding after all.

And yet, if anyone had a right to feel slandered, it would surely be Se-yeon herself.

Seo-ah quickly reached out and lightly took her cousin's hand, her expression turning awkward.

"I'm sorry for upsetting you, unnie. I shouldn't have brought it up."

"It's just... it leaves a bad taste. A nasty feeling, you know?"

Beneath Seo-ah's thin, worn fingers, Se-yeon subtly slid her hand away.

It was probably nothing — but to Seo-ah, the gesture didn't read as wounded feelings. It read as something else entirely.

She couldn't have explained what, exactly.

But before Seo-ah could untangle the question, Se-yeon's next words came.

"Do you know that Dongha Motors released the same product as Won Electric? I wonder if Lee Dong-ha ever mentioned that to you."

Seo-ah's heart plummeted.

It was something she herself had only wrung out of Dong-ha by clinging to him, begging.

Her cousin knew about something that had never once appeared in a single article? How? Why?

Seo-ah ran a hand down her chest, trying to calm her racing heart, and forced her lips to move.

"Wh... where did you hear that?"

The corner of Se-yeon's mouth curled up, thin and sharp.

"I didn't think he'd actually tell you. Impressive."

"What... what is that supposed to mean?"

"Hmm."

Se-yeon folded her arms, leaned back against her chair, and swayed her crossed legs idly, all while quietly studying Seo-ah's flushed face.

Seo-ah studied her cousin back, seized by an unfamiliar feeling.

What could she be thinking right now?

Though her gaze rested on Seo-ah, Se-yeon seemed to be looking at something far beyond her.

Then, in that very moment, a flicker of a sneer crossed Se-yeon's lips — there and gone.

What was that just now?

Seo-ah's anxious heart could wait no longer.

"Unnie?"

At the sound of her voice, Se-yeon returned her wandering gaze to its place.

"Ah, sorry. I was just organizing my thoughts."

Se-yeon straightened her slouched posture and fixed her eyes on Seo-ah.

Then, slowly, her brows softened into a gentle arc.

"Don't tell me the heir to Dongha Motors actually claimed he knew nothing? If he weren't looking down on you, he wouldn't have brushed you off with such an obvious line. Right?"

"...!"

Seo-ah's gaze wavered.

Just as Se-yeon said, Dong-ha had insisted he knew nothing at all. That he had merely obeyed his father's command to marry her — nothing more.

And yet Seo-ah hadn't entirely believed him, either. The situation was too strange, and his words rang hollow.

After all, this was the man who had deceived her and entered a sham marriage with her. Her distrust of him had only deepened since; nothing had been resolved.

While she stood mired in confusion, Se-yeon dropped a name.

"Do you know a man called Kang Tae-kyung?"

"...Hm? Who?"

The name felt strangely familiar. Where had she heard it before?

"Kang Tae-kyung. Head of the Future Strategy Division at Taeyu Motors."

"Taeyu? The one that sent Dad's company a unilateral notice of contract termination..."

"That's the one. He's the head of that division."

"...!"

Seo-ah's hands began to tremble.

It was the very company she had heard about through Dong-ha as well — the company at the center of everything.

"Then... why are you telling me about him?"

"I don't know if saying this will help you, but there is one rumor going around."

"A... rumor?"

"Yes."

Afraid Se-yeon's voice might be drowned out by the pounding of her own heart, Seo-ah swallowed dryly again and again.

"Kang Tae-kyung is the second son of the Taeyu Group. He finished his studies abroad, and six years ago he started learning the business at Taeyu Motors."

"Okay..."

"But about four years in, he was exiled to an overseas branch. Demoted over a money problem."

"A... money problem?"

Se-yeon gave a small nod, lowering her voice.

"Third-generation chaebol or not, when a man starts funneling company money into a slush fund, did you think Vice Chairman Kang Min-chul would just sit still? He was his son, so he shipped him off overseas and smoothed the whole thing over."

Seo-ah drew a shallow breath at the unbelievable story.

"But a leopard doesn't change its spots. Stuck overseas with no one watching him and no one to report to — how convenient is that? He went sniffing around for money to skim, and that's when he found Won Electric. Just like that."

Seo-ah clapped both hands over her mouth at the sound of her father's company's name.

"His real goal was money laundering through the branch. So he crushed a small company like Won Electric and went looking for a new one to take its place. Dual contracts — that was the point. It makes siphoning off a slush fund so much easier."

Seo-ah didn't notice that a story that had begun as a mere rumor was, somewhere along the way, hardening into something that sounded less like gossip and more like fact.

"If that's not why Dongha Motors became a Taeyu partner, then what else could it be? A company that never even had an EV developer to begin with."

Just what did Se-yeon do for a living, that she knew all these inside details?

This was the cousin Seo-ah had believed worked at some small company in Seoul. How much of this could she believe — and how far?

Confusion clouded Seo-ah's eyes.