Absolutely No Regrets

Was he really that suspicious?

A flicker of injustice lingered, yet when he tore the accusations apart one by one he could find nothing false, so Kang-hyun simply closed his mouth.

"Looking at that handsome face of yours still intact, I guess you haven't done the deed yet. Timing has always been my specialty."

Now he was being treated as a prospective criminal outright.

Even so, he could not bring himself to anger. He knew full well that this entire uproar sprang from concern for his safety.

It had probably begun after his mother died. William had started inviting the newly orphaned Kang-hyun to family gatherings far more often, taking greater care of him. Kang-hyun understood it was never merely about refusing to lose a capable talent.

That was why he pressed a hand to his throbbing forehead and let out a low groan.

He had no intention of laying bare every detail of his circumstances to William. Yet he could not simply leave the misunderstanding to fester either.

"It's true."

In the end Kang-hyun confessed on a deep sigh.

"I knew it. Which organization? The mafia, by any chance?"

"Not that."

"No? Then the yakuza?"

"No. I really got married."

"…What?"

The anger that had been simmering openly on William's face vanished without a trace. Staring at his friend—who looked not merely blank but utterly poleaxed—Kang-hyun felt a belated stab of guilt.

"Marriage… the marriage is real? You got married without even telling me?"

"Well, yes, but…"

"Good God. Oh Lord."

William, still asking as though he could not believe his own ears, began clawing at his hair with both hands, even dragging the Almighty into it.

Kang-hyun hurriedly spoke again before his precious friend's scalp went bare.

"But it isn't the kind of marriage you're imagining."

"What? What the hell does that mean?"

William's face was now contorted as if he were listening to some grotesque ghost story.

"It's a sort of… transaction. Not a real marriage."

Kang-hyun laid out the truth he had kept hidden from William all this time. In a dry tone, as though recounting someone else's affairs, he explained where his grudge against Chairman Baek had been born and how far he was prepared to go to bring the man down.

Even after Kang-hyun finished, William gave no reaction for a long while. He simply rested his chin on his hand with a serious expression, like a man deep in thought, and gazed at the sky beyond the window.

How much time passed like that? At last William broke the heavy silence.

"Then what next?"

"Next?"

"When this 'revenge' of yours is finished, what happens to that woman?"

Kang-hyun's gaze, which had been locked with William's, slowly dropped.

It was not a question he had never considered. Chairman Baek's downfall would inevitably drag Paeksan into bankruptcy. That meant the end of the rich young lady's role—living in luxury without ever knowing the ways of the world.

"I plan to give her a generous alimony settlement."

He did not believe Baek Yeo-eun was innocent in the face of every sin Paeksan had piled up. Even if she claimed ignorance, she had lived lavishly until now on that filthy money. Ignorance was no free pass.

Yet Kang-hyun had no right to punish her. He was no longer an innocent victim himself.

It was none other than he who had chosen to wallow in the mud. And to set out to cut a man's throat meant he was already prepared to get blood on his hands. He would not hesitate to dirty both of them.

But that resolve was limited to Baek Sang-il's blood alone. He had no intention of dragging anyone else in. That would make him no different from Baek Sang-il.

Even if he rolled in the same mire, he refused to become the same kind of trash. That was his final stubborn pride.

To a man like that, Baek Yeo-eun would be the sole blemish. No matter how mutual their exploitation, the sin of a woman who had merely wanted to possess him and the sin of a man who had approached her solely to destroy her father could never weigh the same.

The alimony was the sum calculated after that reckoning—the price of the future betrayal he would commit against her, and compensation for the sins he was about to commit.

She would never again live in the same luxury, yet so long as she did not indulge in wild extravagance she would lack for nothing for the rest of her life.

And that was all Tak Kang-hyun could still do for Baek Yeo-eun.

"Is that all?"

William, who had remained silent for a time as though expecting more, finally asked.

"What more is needed?"

Kang-hyun countered. It was not sarcasm; he was asking in earnest.

William brought both hands to his head again as if the sheer absurdity of it were too much.

"Of course, alimony from you won't be a pittance. You're not a petty man. But that isn't what I mean…"

Knowing full well the scale of the vast fortune Kang-hyun had amassed, William muttered rapidly. Then, meeting the puzzled eyes fixed on him, he started to say something more, stopped, and let out a hollow laugh.

"The girls were right after all. You're truly a woman's enemy, Kang."

Despite the sudden rebuke, Kang-hyun's face remained impassive. Watching his friend whose expression did not so much as flicker, William clicked his tongue.

"I know. That's just who you are. Ruthlessly cool-headed, rational—so rational you even calculate the future in advance."

"…"

"But listen, Kang. There's one thing smart people like you sometimes miss."

William whispered as though passing down a family secret—secretive, yet full of conviction.

"The future never flows only the way you planned. Especially the heart—it has never once knelt to reason in the entire history of mankind."

Some secret. In the end it was nothing more than a long-winded, clichéd piece of advice, one that stirred not the slightest emotion in him. As William said, he was ruthlessly cool-headed and rational.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Kang-hyun answered with a face that showed he had no intention of keeping anything in mind. At the perfunctory reply William burst out laughing in exasperation.

"Damn it, this is why guys who are only smart… They trust nothing but their brains, run wild, and only learn after they get thoroughly screwed."

After spewing curses that bordered on a hex, William shook his head as if further talk would only hurt his own mouth, and checked his phone.

"Oh, it's about time I should go."

"Already?"

"I told you I have a business trip to Tokyo. I've already burned a lot of time detouring through Hawaii for someone's sake."

"If I'd known it would turn out like this I should have ignored you until you got tired and left on your own, instead of rushing over."

"Then it would have been the trip that got canceled, not our meeting."

Even as he shot back without yielding an inch, William lightly embraced Kang-hyun, who had risen with him.

"Kang, I'm always on your side—but I still hope you don't cross the line. For no one else's sake but your own."

"…"

"Don't do anything you'll regret later."

William, who had not spared advice to the very end, waved and vanished into the bustling crowd.

Left alone, Kang-hyun stared blankly down at the cold coffee.

"Regret, huh…"

He muttered softly.

"There won't be any such thing. Absolutely not."

Perhaps because the one who should have received the answer had already gone, the monologue that scattered into empty air sounded less like a belated reply and more like a vow he was repeating to himself.

Even on the way back to the hotel Kang-hyun had to endure the traffic congestion of the evening rush. By the time he arrived the sun had already set.

When he swiped the card key and stepped into the room, the first thing that greeted him was a cool, empty silence.

He looked around for any sign of life. Then he spotted the colorful pamphlets left conspicuously on the living-room side table and narrowed his eyes.

"…"

Bright tropical fish swam freely through blue water; above the families watching them, the aquarium logo was stamped in bold relief.

So she had gone and come back safely, he thought, and was about to look away when—

"You're back?"

Baek Yeo-eun appeared a beat late and greeted him as if nothing were amiss.

Kang-hyun stared at her without answering. The gaze was persistent, as though searching for something—resentment, perhaps, or the sulking a wife abandoned on her honeymoon might be expected to show.

Yet Baek Yeo-eun's complexion was excessively clean, and the eyes that met his remained simply transparent, untouched by any emotion.

"What?"

At the silent, fixed stare she asked, sounding puzzled.

It was a question he could not answer. He could hardly claim it was strange that she was not angrily demanding to know where he had been and what he had been doing.

So Kang-hyun chose the safer option: he changed the subject.