A Beggar at the Gate, A Devil at the Table

It had been days since Seo-ah first hung off the gate of Dong-ha's family estate, begging to be let in.

Needless to say, his family had no warmth to spare for her visits.

After the funeral, she had clung to her in-laws, demanding answers about Won Electric — and what she got back was curses and violence. When she finally worked up the nerve to ask about Kim Ki-young, her mother-in-law drove her out onto the street.

"Ma'am! Please, just open the door, okay? I'll only take my things and go — I promise!"

Hours into Seo-ah's pleading today, the housekeeper could bear it no longer and picked up the intercom. What came back was a venomous shriek punching straight through the gate.

Even Dong-ju, who had shown Seo-ah what kindness she could, seemed powerless against a household unraveling under the death of its sole heir across three generations.

"Father! I want the truth! Please — Mother! Stop listening only to that woman and talk to me!"

But after that last cry, no sound came through the intercom at all.

Dong-ha's family were devout believers in shamanism. So devout that even the conception of Dong-ha himself had been timed to a shaman's divined date.

His marriage was no different. When the shaman received Seo-ah's fortune, she declared that the girl carried a fate that would drag calamity and misfortune wherever she went.

Only, the shaman added, Seo-ah could be used to pry Ki-young away from Dong-ha — so take her in, get a child from her, then cast her out with a divorce.

But the son was dead. And Ki-young had turned up at Dong-ha's funeral in the end, letting every whisper and stare land on the family. To Dong-ha's mother, all of this misery stemmed from a single source: Seo-ah's ill-starred fate.

Seo-ah threw herself at the intercom one more time and screamed into it.

But however raw her voice grew, the gate never opened. Instead, her phone buzzed with a message.

"Why are you all so cruel to me? This is too much — it really is……"

Wretched and hollowed out, Seo-ah crumpled where she stood. Then she lifted her sunken, hollowed eyes — worn thin from days without rest — and stared at Dong-ha's house.

This was the finest country home in all of Pyeonghan City. She had never lived through all four seasons here, but she knew its garden from late summer through winter.

Had anything good ever happened to her while she lived here?

As she sat quietly sifting through the past, Seo-ah recalled an afternoon of tea in this very garden with Dong-ha. The colors of late autumn, the wind at just the right temperature — and her husband's face, wearing what she remembered as a faint smile, whether thanks to the weather or something else.

The smile hadn't been for her. Still, she remembered that the day itself had felt pleasant enough.

Whether that memory could survive as a keepsake to the end, though, was another question. After all, her husband's final thoughts had been filled with nothing but Kim Ki-young.

"And what did any of that amount to."

Knowing she had never loved Dong-ha seemed to offer Seo-ah a small sliver of comfort. Sitting in silence with her memories, she resolved at last to put down the one thin thread of attachment she'd been clinging to.

Just then, another message arrived on her phone.

An abrupt summons — but there was no time to hesitate. Still seated on the ground, Seo-ah ignored the pins and needles in her legs and broke into a run toward the main road.

"Could you sleep with Kang Tae-kyung?"

"What?"

Seo-ah doubted her own ears. She had sprinted straight over the moment the urgent message arrived — and before she could even ask what this so-called rumor actually was, Se-yeon had sat her down and asked whether she could sleep with a man.

"Sleep with — with who, and why?"

At that, Se-yeon — who had been gnawing at her lip as if wrestling with something — reached out and gripped Seo-ah's hand tightly where it rested on the café table.

"Seo-ah, listen to me carefully. There's going to be a meeting between Kang Tae-kyung and someone from Dongha Motors. In Pyeonghan."

Two names, side by side, each one capable of setting her heart in turmoil. Seo-ah nodded slowly.

"I've come up with a plan. It's dangerous, but knowing how Kang Tae-kyung operates, I don't think anything else could work as reliably……"

Se-yeon's voice was as thick with tears as Seo-ah's own trembling eyes. When the hand gripping hers began to shake, it was Seo-ah this time who gently stroked the back of Se-yeon's hand.

"I'll listen, unnie. Go on — tell me."

What sincerity had Seo-ah ever seen in Se-yeon, all those years? Her trust in this woman wasn't rooted only in the bond of having grown up together. No one — no one — would ever suspect that every gesture and every glance could be an act.

"There are three things Kang Tae-kyung is obsessed with."

"Three things?"

"Yes. Booze, money, and women. A madman who loses his mind over women — that's Kang Tae-kyung."

"God. So he's that kind of trash?"

Her chest went tight and hollow. Her father had lived his whole life by the spirit of sacrifice and service — and he had been destroyed, and killed, by the scheme of a man like that. Seo-ah clutched at the ache splitting her chest.

"That's the flaw in him we're going to exploit. There's no way people like us could touch a third-generation chaebol heir with money."

"That's…… true."

To Seo-ah, nodding with tears held stubbornly back, Se-yeon laid out the rest with visible reluctance — as though the very architect of this plan found it agonizing.

"There'll be a drinking party that night. I know a place — it's called Edge. You're going to be one of the hostesses there."

A hostess?

Seo-ah's eyes went wide. So this was what the rumor about her and Kang Tae-kyung had meant. Suddenly it felt as though a heavy breath had lodged itself in her throat.

"You're telling me to…… pose as an escort?"

"In a manner of speaking. You pour his drinks, flatter him, and once the mood softens — well, you know how men get. They start posturing in front of a woman, showing off, and the liquor just pours the truth out of them. Why they came, what business they're in, all of it."

"……"

"That's the moment we're after."

Seo-ah had never had a proper romance, but even she knew how her old classmates used to strut and brag, desperate to impress her back in university.

But a hostess and a guest were a different matter entirely.

And if it really came to actually sleeping with him……

Sensing the dread creeping over Seo-ah's face, Se-yeon cupped her cheeks in both hands and held her gaze.

"Think carefully, Seo-ah. You're the only one who can do this."

"I…… what?"

"What really happened at your uncle's company. What lay behind the death of an uncle you believe was murdered. Who else could face Kang Tae-kyung with that kind of desperation but you?"

"Oh……"

Only then did Seo-ah come back to herself. She had been so swallowed by the words sleep with a man that she'd forgotten what she actually wanted.

Just yesterday she had prayed she'd give her own life if only she could learn the true cause of her father's accident. And now here she was, hesitating over a single body — the thought of herself made her sick with contempt.

How could a person grow so wretchedly selfish?

Shame prickled over her until her skin crawled.

The moment guilt had fully swallowed her, Se-yeon spoke.

"Honestly…… I even thought about doing it myself."

"What? Unnie, why? If anyone does it, it has to be me. I'm the one who ruined Dad — why would you……"

Seo-ah's mind was already dominated by a single conviction: that she herself had destroyed everything. Which meant that if this was the only way, then so be it. The conclusion settled into place as naturally as breathing.

"I'm sorry. Truly — there's no other way to get close to Kang Tae-kyung."

Seo-ah understood what Se-yeon meant. The man was a third-generation chaebol heir, an executive of Taeyu, a corporate giant. What power did an ordinary civilian have to approach him?

She was sure Se-yeon had reached this conclusion only after long, painful deliberation.

And yet one thing still remained, caught in her throat.

"Um…… unnie."

"Yes?"

"The truth is, I…… it's just……"

The words would not come. How was she supposed to say this, even to a woman like a sister to her? More humiliating than confessing she was a virgin was admitting that in her entire marriage, nothing had ever happened between her and her husband.

But then — strangely — Se-yeon seemed to realize it before she could speak.

"Seo-ah. You and Dong-ha…… never once, did you?"

"Huh?"

"In bed, I mean. Six whole months — not even once?"

"……!"

How does she know? That Dong-ha was gay — surely she couldn't know it went that far?

In the instant Seo-ah froze, caught utterly off guard, Dong-ha's words surfaced in her mind.

Don't trust Jin Se-yeon.

Why now? She had never once doubted Se-yeon in her life — so why did that warning rise up now, sharp as instinct?

"Don't tell me — you're serious? How could he just leave a woman like you untouched?"

Was she imagining it? The corner of Se-yeon's mouth, tilted faintly to one side, looked almost — delighted.

But the moment Seo-ah blinked, Se-yeon's lips were back where they belonged.

As if Seo-ah had merely imagined the whole thing.