The Patriarch's Bargain

Faced with the mysterious woman who had moved into Unit 1, Baek Ah-jin rolled her eyes with the busy, appraising look of someone reading a fortune, then pursed her lips. She was secretly envious of the woman ringed in by three tall, handsome men. Hair, irises, even the brows—the color looked like neither dye nor contacts, and the strangeness of it fascinated her.

“Ah. Yes.”

Cha Seol-woo received Dr. Choi Woo-seok, chief of plastic surgery at Cha Hospital, one of the CH affiliates, with a thoroughly lukewarm face, and took the hand that was offered.

“Hello, Ethan. Chen. And who is this?”

After a light greeting to the two he already knew, Woo-seok looked down at Sun Woo-yeon, who stood a good deal below his eye line. Yeon tucked half of herself behind Ethan’s broad back.

“She’s a younger sister. She’ll be living with us at Felice from now on, so we’d be grateful if you looked after her, Ah-jin.”

Seol-woo couldn’t be bothered to open his mouth, so Chen stepped in. Matters like this were always his to handle.

“Of course. My wife will take good care of her.”

Anyone could tell at a glance that she was nobody’s blood sister, but Woo-seok let none of it show and smiled. Seol-woo was a man one had to keep close, no matter what.

“Hello. I’m Baek Ah-jin.”

Catching her husband’s urgent glance—greet her, now—Ah-jin spoke first.

“Sun Woo-yeon. You need to say hello.”

Yeon, who had been clinging to Ethan’s back and dithering, sprang forward at Seol-woo’s call as if she’d been flicked, and bent at the waist.

“Hello.”

Seol-woo’s brow twitched. Where on earth did she learn a greeting like that? He disliked her taking the posture one used with an elder, and he disliked it just as much when, the moment the greeting was done, she scurried straight back to Ethan’s side.

“Go pick out some snacks.”

Ethan caught her tense shoulders and eased her forward, and she let herself be moved, unresisting.

“Will you be at this month’s regular gathering? Everyone was disappointed you didn’t come last month. You ought to get out on the course at least once before the weather turns.”

“Ethan’s the one who enjoys golf.”

“The hospital director is counting the days. Please make a little time, President.”

“If I have time, I’ll call.”

Ah-jin turned her face from her husband as he piled the most extreme honorifics onto the young man of power, and watched Yeon, who looked ready to pick up and inspect every one of hundreds of snacks. She was the sort who stirred one’s curiosity.

“In his place, all three of us will attend this month.”

“Chen.”

“That’s welcome news. I’ll pass it along. We’ll have to book a better place than usual. Your sister won’t be joining you?”

“We’ll think about it.”

“Then we’ll be going. My, your sister really does seem to love snacks.”

Woo-seok, who had meant to call Ah-jin and looked at Yeon only by accident, laughed awkwardly.

Only then did the three men check the snack aisle, and a stunned little huh escaped them. Yeon was stacking square boxes of snacks the way one played Tetris, rows and columns fitted so tightly that not a gap showed, and she was already on her fourth tier.

“Cute enough to kill me. Seriously.”

Ethan covered his mouth, snickered, and went to her first. He caught the brim of her cap and shook it up and down; she flung both arms through the air in protest. He scooped the wildly windmilling girl clean off her feet and spun her once in place. The mischievous trick must have delighted her, because a bright, bubbling laugh burst from between her red lips.

“We’ll be off, then.”

“Ah, yes. We’ll see you at the gathering. Honey, what was it you said we had to buy?”

“Steak.”

In gossip-ridden, trouble-prone Felice, the two of them ranked among the couples who actually got along, and they walked off with a fair show of affection. The moment they vanished from sight, Seol-woo turned a crooked look on Chen.

“Why even go. It’s nothing but a nuisance.”

“If we go and mention her, Yeon can move around freely.”

Seol-woo accepted that with a slow nod, then glanced sidelong at Yeon and Ethan. Ethan had joined in, and the two of them were building a tower of snacks.

“Are their mental ages about the same?”

“Could be. I’ll have to go get another cart.”

Chen stared, faintly desolate, at the cart on the verge of overflowing, and turned toward a fresh one.

“Did you finish picking?”

“Yes, this is plenty!”

“It had better be. You filled the whole thing.”

“Let’s try another aisle. Do you like things like yogurt?”

Chen, the most composed of the three, was the one who asked after her tastes.

“But this one’s full.”

“Chen’s bringing another. The yogurt’s over there.”

Seol-woo set a hand lightly on Yeon’s shoulder and drew her toward him. He couldn’t have said what kind of jealousy it was, only that it rankled to see her easier with Ethan than with him.

Seol-woo handed his keys to an attendant for parking and cut across the garden. All five detached houses at the highest point of the Hannam-dong residential enclave belonged to CH. One was the home of Cha Seong-tae, honorary chairman and great elder of the Cha clan; beside it, the chairman’s bloodline lived gathered together, by order of the greedy old man himself. The only one who lived alone, out from under that shadow, was Seol-woo.

“Seol-woo, you’re here?”

“Hello, Aunt.”

“Oh, me. Same as ever.”

“You’ve come?”

President Cha Hyun-soo’s wife and her daughters-in-law, all in identical aprons as they prepared dinner, wiped the water from their hands and came out to greet him. Chairman Cha was patriarchal to a degree that made other people click their tongues. He was notorious enough that a documentary had aired under the title of the CH Group Daughters-in-Law Ten Commandments. Park Hwa-jin, who had lived an assertive, self-directed life, could not accept a family culture carved deep with the belief that men stood above women, and she had made that the decisive reason for their divorce.

He was trading greetings with family he had not seen in some time when he caught sight of a woman hurrying out in small, quick steps, and his face tightened.

“You’re here?”

“Why is she here.”

“Why else. She’s soon to be my grandson’s wife, so she’s come early to learn.”

“Shouldn’t you change your clothes? I’ll go up with you. I’ll help.”

“Hahaha! Mayor Han raised his daughter beautifully. So polite. So modest.”

Seong-tae came out of the study and praised her with a great booming laugh, and Han Joo-hee brushed her own cheek as if embarrassed. Watching how well the two of them suited each other, Seol-woo felt his nerves draw taut.

“I’m not a seven-year-old. Why would I need help changing my clothes. That’s enough—go finish what you were doing.”

“Offering to wait on you, and still so blunt. Tsk.”

So this was why he had been summoned out of nowhere. Seol-woo went into the room, took off his jacket, and sat for a moment on the edge of the bed. Joo-hee, already carrying on as if she were his wife, made his skin crawl. The marriage was for the advantage a single sheet of paper could buy: a tie made in public, and in private a tie he was never to lay a hand on. It had been promised as business from the start, and still her behavior had gone too far. From now on Yeon would have to be part of this as well. Will that woman ever allow it? He didn’t trust her. Once they were bound as husband and wife, she was the sort who would cross every line as she pleased and turn into a nuisance, without even noticing she had shown her hand.

Through the receiver came loud music and laughter.

Knock, knock.

“Seol-woo, dinner’s all ready.”

At the thin voice beyond the door, he left the room.

“Eager to start your life as a daughter-in-law before you’re even married?”

“Daughter-in-law life? I’m doing it because I like it. No one makes me do anything hard. All I do is portion the side dishes and set out the spoons. That’s all, for me.”

“I wonder how long ‘that’s all’ is going to last.”

“Pardon?”

“Let’s go down.”

A smile lay all across Joo-hee’s face. Standing here like this, it truly felt as if she had already become Seol-woo’s wife. She wanted to put on the dress and stand at his side, and she resented how slowly the time crawled toward that.

“Let’s eat.”

They sat at a table packed tight with more side dishes than ten fingers could count, and began the meal as one. A silence filled with nothing but the knock of dishes was broken by Chairman Cha, seated in the place of honor.

“Electronics. Construction. Lost to Hyunjin in both, I hear.”

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

Cha Hyun-soo, president over all of CH Group, bowed his head. He had drunk water only a moment ago, and already thirst was rising again.

“Your ex-wife really does seem to have a gift.”

“She’s someone with an exceptional sense for business.”

Cha Hyun-joon, the second son and Seol-woo’s father, president of CH Motors, answered as if it hardly mattered and went on with his meal. Ever since Hyun-soo had taken the overall presidency, revenue had fallen, and on top of that CH Trading had come under suspicion of accounting fraud and been searched—one blow after another, without a break. CH Paradise’s high returns were keeping them clear of a deficit, but they were losing the industry’s top seat to Hyunjin one sector at a time, and lately Hyun-soo’s standing was in tatters. Chairman Cha, who had set the inadequate eldest son in that chair for no reason but birth order, was being forced to turn the problem over and over.

“I’d prefer you didn’t fall behind any further.”

“Yes, Father.”

He had put it gently, but it was no different from a last chance. At the fear that the company might be taken by his younger brother, Hyun-soo clenched both fists, and his eyes shook hard.

“Seol-woo, see that the wedding is prepared without a hitch. Next year’s presidential preparations will go more easily that way.”

“What is there to prepare. I only have to stand in the hall.”

“The girl who’s to be your wife is running herself ragged, and I hear you won’t even make time for a single meal together. From now on, eat with her once a week.”

Joo-hee smiled the smile of a private victory. She was certain the remark she had let fall, lightly, while presenting a gift of yakgwa—those honeyed traditional sweets—had done its work. Seol-woo neither refused nor let his displeasure show, and the old man’s influence seemed stronger than she had expected.

When the meal was finished, Seol-woo looked at his grandfather with a meaningful eye. So he knows. He did not avoid Seong-tae’s straight stare, the stare of a man making an unreasonable demand out of nowhere, and with a thin little laugh he nodded.

“Fine.”

“Really? Ah—!”

Startled, of all things, by how easily the consent had fallen, Joo-hee raised her voice before she knew it. The moment every eye turned, she clapped a hand over her mouth and laughed awkwardly.

“Follow me into the study.”

Chairman Cha murmured it low, and Seol-woo followed at his back as if he had been waiting.

“So you found her after all.”

“It would have gone more easily if you had helped me, Grandfather.”

Eyes cut smooth and sharp met in the empty air, each man hiding what he intended. Was it because he had been lonely, unloved by his parents? The grandson who otherwise kept no lingering tenderness showed an attachment to the children of the Sunwoo family that was strange in its strength. But that child, truly…

The moment Seol-woo found Yeon, Chairman Cha had been given her photograph as well. Curiosity toward the little girl who had once been so lovable turned, almost at once, into worry. It was only a picture. And still the child, lovely as ever, was beautiful enough to bewitch a person. Had she drifted into the entertainment world, she would have set the whole country boiling; had she drifted into the pleasure quarters, she would likely have driven men mad with wanting.

“I hear you took her into Felice.”

“Yes.”

Whatever one wants, one can have. Those at the peak of the pyramid have taken so much that they are bored by the having, and so they go wild for rarity. The thing you cannot possess, and I can. An East Asian girl with blond hair that seemed to ripple like water, and mysterious eyes—a child with a specialness anyone would be desperate to close a hand around. Even setting the old tie aside, the value of that rarity alone would wear Seol-woo down to the bone in the end.

“It was only three years. Why is that child so dear to you.”

“That’s what I keep asking myself.”

“What if you took her in as an adopted daughter.”

“Then Yeon becomes my aunt?”

“Don’t be sarcastic. Send her to the main house. A groom on the verge of marriage, living with a girl under his arm—what do you think you’re doing. Let her finish the studying she never got to do, let her do what she wants, and keep her in CH’s shade. That will do.”

“The marriage is nothing but business. We already settled it: no interference in private life. Yeon has to stay with me.”

“Put away any other intentions.”

“You know how greedy I am. CH will be mine. I have no thought of placing it in the main house’s hands. For that, I need Han Joo-hee. Yeon is only the same younger sister she was then.”

Chairman Cha’s eyes narrowed, full of the desire to see through even the single thread of feeling his grandson was hiding.

“Don’t worry.”

“Whatever the case, bring her to the main house once. There’s no one here but pitch-black men, and it’s too quiet—I’ll have to count it as gaining a granddaughter. Poor thing.”

The calm on Seol-woo’s face twisted, and only for an instant. If you had truly pitied her, you should have protected her then. At the very least, you should have told me there had been an accident. He swallowed the words that had risen to his throat and fiddled, for no reason, with his watch.

“So your not making a fuss meant you wanted a bargain with the child as the stake.”

“You made the offer because you knew I would come out like this.”

“Fine. I’ll pretend not to know, so don’t forget a meal once a week with Mayor Han’s daughter.”

“Wouldn’t something else profit you more? For you, Grandfather, it’s a trivial condition. Not like you at all.”

“She must have gone and acted spoiled with her father. At the gathering, Mayor Han was whining. He doesn’t want to be treated like a toothless tiger. One has to save face.”

He really does do everything. At that age, sulking to his parents over a man. Seol-woo let out a scoff and rubbed the corner of his eye. He didn’t want to show that he was stirred, but a crease kept forming between his brows.

“I’ll be going.”

“And Paradise is all right?”

“Of course.”

He answered with confidence and left the study without a backward glance.

“Let’s go together, Seol-woo!”

Joo-hee, who had been clearing up in the dining room, hurried out after him and linked her arm through his. He didn’t bother to hide a face full of irritation, and he pushed her off.

“Are you angry?”

“I told you not to be a nuisance. It’s an arranged marriage everyone else treats the same way. Why are you the only one making a scene.”

“I—if the other person were you, everyone would have acted the way I do!”

Even under Seol-woo’s threatening tone she was not cowed, and she shrieked. Finding no value in an answer, he walked toward the car an attendant had already started.

“Seol-woo!”

“Move.”

“Let’s make it every Friday. The day we meet.”

“Wednesday. I’m warning you. You’d better not test my patience any further.”

When that blade-cold gaze touched her, Joo-hee took one step back. It seemed to say he could break this engagement whenever he wished.

Tap, tap, tap. Chen mixed the hotcake batter evenly in a stainless bowl and poured a measured amount into the frying pan. As the oil wrapped the batter, bubbles began to rise across the surface. Turned with the spatula two or three times and baked to a golden brown, the hotcakes stacked up one on another, and each time the soft, fluffy bread multiplied, Chen’s satisfaction doubled with it.

“What are you doing.”

Seol-woo, finished dressing for work, stepped into the dining room. A savory, sweet smell he had never once caught since moving into Felice hung thick in the air.

“We bought the ingredients yesterday. You’re not eating, right?”

“No. She slept quietly again last night. Maybe it was only bad that one time. She was worn out from being chased.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you spreading whipped cream on that again?”

The corner of Seol-woo’s eye tightened. Just looking at the hotcakes, he could taste a sweetness that would melt his tongue. Chen spread the cream evenly, laid another cake over it, and spread cream again. After building five layers that way, he finished by setting two strawberries on top.

“They’re Yeon’s. Her palate is pure elementary school. At dinner last night—ham, eggs, ribs. She picked out only those three things and ate them.”

“She’s filled out a little, so her appetite must have come back.”

A laugh rose as he remembered the face that had boasted she ate her vegetables well, too.

“Good morning, brother.”

Ethan, a towel around his neck, came down the stairs to a rhythm.

“You want hotcakes?”

“You know I don’t like sweet things. Oh—none of the three of us do.”

“Hotcakes!”

“There she is. The owner of the hotcakes.”