SATURDAY 35

“Mr. Taeseon…?”

Despite having been treated so poorly, I ended up calling him Mr. Taeseon again. When I flinched and curled my body inward after calling out, Mr. Taeseon looked at me and, for some reason, hesitated as well.

However, he wore an expression that suggested he could not bear it without calling out himself. He… looked extremely devastated. It feels ridiculous to describe it this way, but he looked soul-sick, as if he had been possessed by a ghost on his way here.

Mr. Taeseon, who had been motionless without saying a word for a long while, slowly entered the hospital room and closed the door. Startled by his silhouette in the dim light, I ended up calling him Mr. Taeseon again. He was soaking wet as if he had been caught in a heavy downpour. To the point that water quickly pooled on the floor where he stood.

“Wh—why are you like this? Did something happen?”

Flustered, I tried to get down from the bed, but he slowly shook his head as if telling me not to. Becoming even more at a loss, I looked at Mr. Taeseon’s face, and my eyes met his pitch-black ones.

The smell of rain wafted in strongly as if a wind had blown from somewhere. The scent of murky earth and dust too. His eyes were deeply sunken. They were eyes whose depths were unknown, revealing almost no emotion.

Mr. Taeseon stared at me with those eyes for a long time before slowly opening his mouth. A heavily cracked voice flowed out.

“I heard… you miscarried.”

“….”

I had no words to answer. After standing there in silence for much longer, he walked toward me as slowly as a hallucination, leaving a trail of rainwater behind him.

I had absolutely no idea what to explain, or from where and how. I didn’t even know if Mr. Taeseon would listen even if I did explain….

Before I knew it, he had come close. The smell of earth and rain grew even thicker, and it felt as if the moisture was being transmitted to me.

“I heard you miscarried.”

Mr. Taeseon, having steadied his voice a little, spoke again. I, who had been hanging my head, reflexively looked up at him. It was strange. His way of speaking… was different from usual.

“I heard you miscarried….”

“….”

“…Inyoung.”

Outside, there was a flash, turning white and bright before the world went black.

∞ ∞ ∞

It was a week after Yoon Inyoung’s death that Lee Taeseon heard the news of his passing.

As part of his family’s social contribution projects, they were providing their company’s food supplies and developing drinking water in remote areas of developing countries. Lee Taeseon was the face of that project, and because of it, business trips to remote areas where neither phones nor the internet worked were scheduled from time to time.

This time, too, he was on his way to find candidate sites for the drinking water project.

In fact, because he always carries a satellite phone, it is rare for communication to be cut off to such an extreme. However, heavy rain fell in the remote part of Africa he visited—a small country whose name most wouldn’t even know.

Fortunately, Lee Taeseon’s group did not suffer direct damage from the heavy rain, but the roads were completely cut off, and the only telephone in the village, as well as the phones they had brought, became useless due to flooding.

His only thought then was that Inyoung and his family would be very worried. He never imagined in his wildest dreams that such a thing would happen to Yoon Inyoung in the meantime.

When he finally made it to a country where the water had receded and phone signals were working, he thought it was strange while checking his mobile phone. It was because there wasn’t a single message from Yoon Inyoung. For an entire week. He felt an eerie chill run down his spine.

Instead, what filled his inbox were messages from his parents. Starting from expressions of worry… several messages were piled up telling him to call as soon as he saw them.

And just as he was about to make a call while getting out of a car, a local employee was waiting for Lee Taeseon with a somber face.

Lee Taeseon, slowly lowering his phone, tilted his head and asked.

‘…Is something wrong?’

‘Director, that is….’

Mr. Yoon Inyoung passed away in a car accident a week ago.

Tinnitus rang out like a sharp scratching on glass. Lee Taeseon staggered, and Shin Jeong-ho supported him. After enduring a week of literal hell, that was the news he heard.

He had thought it was something he never wanted to experience again, but if only someone would tell him this news was a lie, he could endure it for a year, or even two.

He searched for flights immediately, but even though he found the fastest plane, it was a route that took over a day. By the time he arrived in Korea, it was already the second day of Yoon Inyoung’s funeral. Should he say it was a relief that the funeral had been delayed for some reason?

He had never once felt dissatisfied with this business that started with his grandfather. He didn’t think it was unnecessary or useless. Rather, it was rewarding. Even if he had to go on business trips to far-off places on the other side of the globe amidst a busy schedule.

But this time, while waiting for the plane, for the first time he wondered what he was doing in this distant land. He was resentful of the situation where he had been isolated.

He had to transfer three times to get to Korea. Even after using a full 24 hours, it took several more. He couldn’t even remember with what state of mind he went through that process, or what thoughts he had on the plane. Only the feeling of anxiety comes to mind.

He heard he died in a car accident, but he suspected it might be suicide. It was because of what Yoon Inha had said. Yoon Inha had come to him and said exactly that. That he would make Yoon Inyoung commit suicide.

It was common to change the wording to “car accident” out of consciousness for public perception even if it was suicide. No, even if it looks like a car accident, it can be a suicide at any time….

He even heard the driver died. There was only one witness, Yoon Inha. How easy it is to disguise a suicide as a car accident.

Yoon Inha was serious. He truly wanted to kill his twin brother, whom he had tormented so much until now. He couldn’t understand what kind of thought process it was to kill someone you’ve been bullying—though he might understand if it were the other way around. He didn’t want to understand either.

‘He’ll probably want to commit suicide anyway, won’t he? Living like that, what kind of lingering attachments would he have for this world? Haha, if it were me, I would have died long ago rather than live like that, but I don’t know why he’s so greedy.’

That is what Yoon Inha said when he came to see Lee Taeseon.

‘You’re curious why I’m talking like this, aren’t you?’

‘….’

‘It’s because I hate him.’

‘There is no reason to hate him, is there?’

‘Why wouldn’t there be? He says he’s marrying you.’

‘What?’

Lee Taeseon doubted his own ears.

‘Living like a groveling worm and struggling to act kind, act harmless, and keep from getting on the bad side of the elders… I hated all of it from the start. Seeing a beast who isn’t even human pretending to be a person makes me sick.’

‘….’

It was an excessive thing to say after having tormented Inyoung to his heart’s content until now. Lee Taeseon, with a furrowed brow, watched Yoon Inha as he chattered away with a snickering laugh.

‘But then, that deficient object is suddenly having a love marriage with the Head of the Korean subsidiary of J&J. It was originally my marriage match. For a nobody like him, it’s not even funny…. He stole the person I was supposed to marry.’

‘You have the order of events wrong. I had no intention of marrying Mr. Yoon Inha whatsoever. It’s the same now.’

‘Even so, the Director is a partner far too good for Yoon Inyoung. Yoon Inyoung is also ridiculous. How dare he step out of line.’

‘…In short, you are saying you’re jealous?’

At that, Yoon Inha’s face distorted, and he began to scream and get angry.

‘Jealousy? You call it jealousy? Jealousy is something people do in an equal relationship! Yoon Inyoung is our house’s livestock. Livestock that brings nothing but bad luck! He’s a trivial burden who should be grateful just for being fed and housed.’

Yoon Inyoung’s treatment at home was not good. He already knew this. Down to exactly what kind of treatment he received. The “Shaman” residing in that house, and the insane bunch being manipulated by that cultish shaman. That was Yoon Inyoung’s family.

Yet, such an Inyoung was set to marry Lee Taeseon. At first, they were rejected. It was only when they visited a second time that they reluctantly accepted the marriage.

They didn’t just accept it. In exchange for the marriage, Lee Taeseon had to hand over quite a lot, including a food line with a solid foundation. It was closer to buying Yoon Inyoung away from his crazy family.

However, Lee Taeseon decided to think of it as the price for rescuing Yoon Inyoung from among the madmen.

Regardless, the one who was most enraged by the decision for the two of them to marry was Yoon Inha, Inyoung’s twin hyung. Even though they were twins, the shaman pointed exactly at one side and said, “A beast born by stealing the womb.” There was no basis or supporting evidence, but Inyoung’s family believed it.

And they raised him while abusing him. You couldn’t even call it raising. Yoon Inyoung grew up on his own amidst harsh contempt. Inyoung’s growth process was miserable to an unbelievable degree, considering his current wise and upright nature.

The one who played a leading role in that misery was none other than Yoon Inha. Children, when there is an existence lower in rank than themselves, sometimes become intoxicated with a sense of superiority and torment them to their heart’s content. There were many cases where they regarded them as their toys.

If it had been outside the home, they could have been separated, but since it happened inside the house, it means Yoon Inyoung lived while receiving the most severe torment from his closest relative.

Generally, children are like blank sheets of paper. Because they act on instinct with no distinction between good and evil, they can sometimes appear wicked. However, their nature was innocent and pure.

But, some children, like Yoon Inha, are truly born wicked from birth.

Yoon Inha could not bear to see Yoon Inyoung, whom he had tormented and ignored so much, rise to a position higher than his own in an instant, or to see what he wanted fall into Inyoung’s hands.

For that reason, he even resolved to kill Yoon Inyoung. And in a very absurd way at that.

A way to kill Inyoung while gaining all kinds of sympathy for himself and without dirtying his own hands. Making Inyoung commit a grave mistake and commit suicide. The fact that he could think of such a complicated method was chilling.

‘There is a limit to how preposterous things can be.’

‘Preposterous? I wonder if that’s really the case?’