GBH 87

3 hours earlier.

Though seated comfortably in the plush seat of the sedan, Song Yi-heon kept twisting his waist as if uncomfortable. He hadn’t noticed when hurriedly dressing to meet Se-kyung’s dress code requirement, but it was a proper formal suit complete with a vest.

He hadn’t dressed this formally even for a dead boss’s 60th birthday party. Having only worn semi-formal suits during his gangster days, wearing a suit that fit his body’s contours perfectly felt as awkward as if he’d stolen someone else’s clothes. Song Yi-heon fidgeted, trying to find a comfortable position, and ended up crossing his legs. The chestnut-colored suit stretched tightly.

Every time light flashed through the car window, darkness pooled at the joints where his limbs folded. The silhouette of his long leg resting on the opposite thigh appeared and disappeared repeatedly.

It was an attractive physique. However, Se-kyung always saw beyond the physical, beyond flesh and bone, to the white star of a vibrant soul. With eyes gleaming brightly even in the darkness, Song Yi-heon rolled his head, resting against the backrest, towards Se-kyung.

“What? Got something to say?”

“No, just looking.”

Se-kyung, wearing a black suit with his hair half swept back, added an air of nobility to his already delicate features. His gentle smile bloomed like a fully opened lily.

“Just looking at you.”

Se-kyung moved closer to Song Yi-heon and gracefully bent his waist to match his smaller frame. Then he unfastened the watch on his wrist. After undoing the clasp integrated with the metal watch strap, he hooked the loosely opened strap around four fingers and took Song Yi-heon’s hand.

Through the held hand, Se-kyung’s watch was fastened onto Song Yi-heon’s wrist. The watch strap, adjusted to fit Se-kyung’s wrist, was loose on Song Yi-heon’s. This was because he had rather thin wrists for a man. He held his wrist up to the light coming through the window to examine the watch.

“What’s this?”

“A gift.”

Recognizing the brand from the logo embedded in the center of the watch face, Song Yi-heon was startled and tried to take it off.

“You crazy kid. Don’t go around giving such expensive things to others.”

“It’s not to others if it’s you.”

“Are you insane? What are you saying?”

Afraid the driver might hear, Song Yi-heon whispered through clenched teeth like a ventriloquist. However, Se-kyung turned the watch so the face was on top of his wrist. Though loose, the watch wasn’t unpleasant to wear.

“It’s to help you do well. Don’t feel intimidated.”

“Intimidated? Me?”

Song Yi-heon smirked as if he’d heard something not just ridiculous but amusing.

When they arrived at the hotel where the bazaar was being held, hotel staff lined up on both sides of the carpet bowed politely. After checking their invitations, a staff member guided them to the hall where the bazaar was being held, but Se-kyung pulled Song Yi-heon towards the elevator going up to the guest rooms.

There was still plenty of time before the bazaar started. Even so, Se-kyung alternated between checking the descending elevator and her phone. Soon, he boarded an elevator opening at the lobby floor and pressed the button for a high floor. As the other passengers got off and they were left alone, Song Yi-heon poked Se-kyung’s side.

“Isn’t your father coming?”

“Father doesn’t like these kinds of gatherings.”

While he used to attend various meetings to build connections and establish a foundation when he was younger, once he had secured his social position and gained the power to assert his opinions, there was no need to attend such troublesome events. Especially since Choi Myung-hyun had no intention of entering politics, he tended to avoid gatherings where political and business circles mixed.

Se-kyung’s mother was the same. Although she occasionally attended due to work or family obligations, she showed no enthusiasm. On days like today, when Se-kyung offered to attend in place of her busy mother, she was glad.

The elevator stopped. Se-kyung, who had received the room number by message, knocked on a door and opened it after a moment.

“Excuse me.”

They were greeted by a postcard-like view of the city’s night landscape visible through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The elderly woman sitting beside the night view was as beautiful as one might see in a postcard. Only when she turned her head to greet the guests did her face overlap with the one often seen in the media.

She looks better in person than in photos. This was Song Yi-heon’s first impression upon meeting Shim Su-jin, the chairman’s legal wife and the real power behind the construction company. An air of authority flowed from her that couldn’t be felt in the photo from the files. Song Yi-heon licked his lips slightly at the presence that belied the physical distance between them. He wondered if this was what Se-kyung meant by telling him not to feel intimidated.

“I wondered why Se-kyung wanted to meet… You brought a friend.”

Shim Su-jin was gentle, like the soft wrinkles around her eyes, but not entirely kind. She pointedly remarked on Se-kyung bringing an unscheduled guest to this sudden meeting request.

“Whose son is this friend that I’ve never seen before?”

She didn’t recognize Song Yi-heon. Although she received regular reports about Song Min-seo and Song Yi-heon, she paid no attention as long as they didn’t challenge her management rights. She had also lost interest after hearing that Yi-heon was such a timid child.

Assuming the boy was some nouveau riche’s son based on his expensive chestnut-colored suit and watch, she showed annoyance as Song Yi-heon bowed to her.

“I’m Song Yi-heon.”

Song Yi-heon, Song Yi-heon… Shim Su-jin mulled over the name several times. She furrowed her brow at the lukewarm discomfort that felt both familiar and unfamiliar. Due to his completely different appearance from the photo she had seen before, it took her time to connect ‘this’ Song Yi-heon with ‘that’ Song Yi-heon. Irritation seeped into her furrowed brow soon after.

“Se-kyung, did you know who he was when you brought him?”

She had thought well of Se-kyung, raised politely in a good family, and readily agreed to the sudden meeting request, but to bring an illegitimate child born of an affair… Given that he brought him directly, Se-kyung must have known about Song Yi-heon’s birth. Having given his time out of goodwill only to be backstabbed, Shim Su-jin shed even the gentleness she had maintained to keep her dignity.

To prevent misplaced resentment, Song Yi-heon stepped between Se-kyung and her.

“I asked for this. I asked to meet you.”

Although Se-kyung couldn’t possibly be hidden behind Song Yi-heon’s frame, he tried to shield him.

“I did this because I thought you wouldn’t agree to meet me if I asked directly.”

In Se-kyung’s room, the person Song Yi-heon had asked to meet after seeing the files from Choi Myung-hyun’s investigation was none other than Shim Su-jin. From Shim Su-jin’s perspective, Song Yi-heon was no different from the result of a broken home, so Se-kyung tried to dissuade him, but Song Yi-heon’s stubbornness couldn’t be swayed.

In the end, it was Se-kyung who surrendered. After arranging the meeting as Song Yi-heon wanted, Se-kyung, his role finished, bowed silently to Shim Su-jin and turned around. Soon, intimate personal matters would be discussed. If an outsider like Se-kyung were present, they couldn’t openly reveal their private affairs and make a deal.

“…”

Se-kyung left the room as if he had never been there. As the door handle clicked back into place after the door closed, Song Yi-heon also moved his feet.

Throughout Song Yi-heon’s journey across the short corridor and around the reception room, the two people’s gazes remained connected like a single line. The reports had said that Song Yi-heon was so timid he never raised his head, but the Song Yi-heon before her held his chin high and firm.

When he sat down across from her without permission, Shim Su-jin decided to treat Song Yi-heon as if he were invisible and averted her gaze. The act of smoothing down her dyed black hair pinned up and lifting her teacup was intended to ignore Song Yi-heon.

At her age, approaching her sixties, it was inconceivable to be swayed by a fledgling like Song Yi-heon. However, Shim Su-jin’s composure crumbled when Song Yi-heon addressed her.

“Madam.”

“Cough.”

Since she had never acknowledged Song Yi-heon’s existence, she hadn’t considered how he might address her. But she didn’t expect him to use a term typically used by men in their 40s, and in her surprise, she choked on her tea, causing her nose to sting.

Song Yi-heon, having earned a glare from Shim Su-jin with a brief laugh, pulled out a tissue from the table and pushed it towards her.

“Yesterday, as I was walking down the street, I met a beggar…”

Following the unusual form of address, this anecdote was not something a high school student would typically experience. Shim Su-jin took out her own handkerchief to cover her mouth and clear her throat.

“When I gave him 10,000 won even though he only asked for soju money, the man changed. He said he was originally an ascetic from Mount Jiri and wanted to repay the favor by reading my fortune. He looked at my face and said a noble person would come from the east.”

His brazenness was off the charts. It was clearly a fabricated story, and she was curious to see what kind of nonsense he was trying to pull with such an absurd tale.

“What’s so special about a noble person? If I consider someone noble, they are noble. So, I intend to treat you, Madam, as a noble person.”

Song Yi-heon leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. Bending his previously straight back forward, he lowered his voice as if making a secret proposal.

“I will remove what bothers you the most.”

“Do you even know what bothers me?”

Shim Su-jin, who had unconsciously focused on his secretive attitude, sneered as if it were ridiculous. It was amusing that Song Yi-heon, whose very existence irritated her, would say such a thing. It seemed his youthful vigor had made him overly confident.

Youth is good indeed. To be able to charge in so recklessly. While disparaging Song Yi-heon, Shim Su-jin showed interest in his youth. She was curious to see how far this impudent boy would try to climb. However, when she imagined the board members meeting Song Yi-heon and taking a liking to him as she had, a chill ran down her spine. Shim Su-jin waved her hand to prevent her interest from turning into fondness and asked:

“No, before that. What do you want? You must want something to be saying such flattering words.”

“Money, of course. I want the same financial support that the chairman is currently giving me.”

Song Yi-heon’s thumb and index finger met to form a circle. It was an honest and understandable reason. Just as they hadn’t given Song Yi-heon affection, Song Yi-heon wanted nothing from them except financial support.

He’s just trying to change the source of his money. From the chairman to Shim Su-jin. If he stayed put, he could continue receiving financial support from the chairman as he had been, but Song Yi-heon had no plans to leave the chairman alone, so he needed a new source of funds.

“And 1 billion won in cash. Please send it to this account.”

Song Yi-heon tore a page from the notepad on the table, wrote down the bank, account number, and account holder, and pushed it towards her. Shim Su-jin glanced at it but didn’t pick up the note. One billion won. It wasn’t an unreasonable amount for Shim Su-jin. If she could get rid of this troublemaker, it was an amount she could cleanly transfer from her personal assets, dealing with tax issues and all.

However, it was too large an amount to simply give away as charity. It seemed unrealistic that Song Yi-heon, who had nothing to his name, could do anything significant with just youthful spirit. Anyone could talk big, but there were limits to what a high school student who wasn’t even an adult could actually push through with actions.

“What makes you think you can do this?”

As if fully understanding Shim Su-jin’s feelings, Song Yi-heon nodded.

“Surely, a person like you, Madam, hasn’t left the chairman in place because you couldn’t remove him…”

Based on the files from Choi Myung-hyun’s investigation and his guess about the situation, Song Yi-heon figured Shim Su-jin hadn’t kept the chairman in his position out of affection. She probably couldn’t take the chairman’s position due to the board’s insistence that a male figure was better as the company’s face, but she must have been expecting one of her three daughters to succeed the chairmanship.

Then Song Yi-heon was born. A boy, they said. He could clearly imagine how pleased the executives who had kept the chairman in his position would be. To Shim Su-jin, Song Yi-heon was nothing but a thorn in her side, potentially taking the chairman’s position instead of one of her three daughters.

“Isn’t what bothers you the most… me?”

Shim Su-jin’s shoulders, crossed arms and all, stiffened. Like a boomerang returning after hitting its mark, Song Yi-heon curved his lips.

Every time he was hospitalized, Lee Mi-kyung would make an unusually big fuss, and when the chairman met the changed Song Yi-heon and persistently tried to persuade him, Kim Deuk-pal realized that Song Yi-heon held some value. And that this value was advantageous to the chairman.

And what was advantageous to the chairman meant it was disadvantageous to Shim Su-jin. Perhaps feeling that she had been caught off guard by this young boy, Shim Su-jin glared fiercely at Song Yi-heon, pulling her chin in. However, Song Yi-heon had no intention of backing down and smiled gently. At a glance, it seemed as if he was pleased, having made Shim Su-jin an offer she couldn’t refuse.

“I will remove myself for you.”

A chess piece that had been kicked around outside the board had now entered the game. This chess piece, armored in bright red anger, held a blade of revenge. The target of that blade was the chairman, the root cause of Song Yi-heon’s “death.”

Back to the present.

The chandeliers hanging from the ceiling of the hotel’s grand hall where the bazaar was held shone from multiple angles. The finely shimmering lights blended together like baby’s breath flowers, playing their part in concluding the bazaar in an elegant atmosphere. The entire amount raised at the bazaar was to be donated. Perhaps due to the sense of achievement in practicing the spirit of modern noblesse oblige, the following banquet also flowed with dignity.

Amidst this, Song Yi-heon, who had been recalling his meeting with Shim Su-jin, blankly introduced himself to the girl pointing at him.

“Me? Song Yi-heon.”