Embedded Files
Psst! We're moving!
Joo-Hyuk stared at Sena with his mouth slightly agape, looking utterly bewildered.
Sena tilted her head at him.
“I’ve never thought about it like that.”
“Not even a little?”
“Not at all.”
“Then I guess I was wrong…”
“No, I think you’re right. That’s why I’m so surprised...”
Joo-Hyuk’s panicked eyes darted left and right as he covered his mouth with his hand.
Honestly, how could someone so sharp in other ways be so oblivious?
Sena picked up a piece of grilled abalone and placed it on Joo-Hyuk’s rice bowl.
“Eat. Since you’re shocked, you should eat something hearty.”
“You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”
Even as he spoke, he picked up his spoon and began eating the abalone and rice heartily.
Watching his mouth move as he chewed, Sena couldn’t help but smile.
“It’s nice living with a counselor. There’s someone who understands my mental state better than I do.”
“That might comfort you sometimes, but there are moments when it might bother you.”
“When would that be?”
“There are times in life when people don’t want their inner thoughts exposed. But when you’re close to someone, those thoughts can become painfully clear to them—especially to me.”
“I wouldn’t be able to lie even if I wanted to.”
“Were you planning to?”
When Sena asked with a serious expression, Joo-Hyuk quickly waved his hands dismissively.
“What do you think will happen next?”
“First, the Ministry of Justice will likely order an internal investigation into the Chief Prosecutor. My father’s company will also undergo a thorough accounting audit and a full-scale prosecution investigation.”
“And what about KMS and you?”
To be honest, the Chief Prosecutor and Chairman Choi weren’t that important to Sena.
The only people who mattered to her were Joo-Hyuk and the KMS he was trying to protect.
“It’ll get a bit annoying and busy, but we’ll be fine.”
“Do you really think it’ll end just like that?”
“People will talk, and some will call for investigations, but since I’m currently unemployed, I’ve got plenty of time on my hands.”
“Hmm…”
Sena wrinkled the bridge of her nose slightly.
She wasn’t confident that exposing Chairman Choi, despite his resolve, wouldn’t have any negative repercussions for Joo-Hyuk. Some might praise him as a righteous hero, but others would surely criticize him for betraying filial piety.
At that moment, a piece of grilled abalone appeared on her rice bowl. Joo-Hyuk had placed it there after noticing her worried expression.
“Eat. We’ve got a long road ahead.”
The two burst into quiet giggles as they faced each other.
What did it matter if the road ahead was long? As long as they had each other, nothing seemed frightening anymore.
---
Sena stared intently at the face of Chairman Kang, seated across from her.
Chairman Kang gulped down the cold drink in front of him repeatedly, saying nothing.
“I told you not to look for me,” Sena finally said in a cold voice, growing impatient.
She had explicitly told him not to contact her when she left his house last time, but as usual, he had completely ignored her words.
Seeing him show up at the counseling center genuinely shocked her.
His once-plump face and body had grown thinner and more gaunt. He had come alone without his secretary and cautiously asked for her.
Despite knowing he was her father, she had brushed off Joo-Ah and Seol-Young’s attempts to bring him inside and instead led him to a nearby café. She didn’t even glance back at him until they entered the café and sat down.
“Why are you here?”
“I kicked those two out of the house.”
He was referring to Ji-Chul and Oh Yeoja.
“So?”
“So? Now you’re the only family I have left.”
“…Family?”
“Yes, family.”
Sena clenched her jaw tightly, fearing that if she didn’t, a torrent of curses would spill out.
How dare he call her “family” with that mouth…
It wasn’t just her mouth she clenched—she bit down so hard on her teeth that her jaw began to ache.
“I’m sorry for hurting you.”
“…”
“I should’ve paid more attention to you…”
“Stop it.”
Unable to bear hearing any more, Sena cut him off.
His words felt like empty apologies, grasping at straws. She didn’t want vague apologies that failed to address exactly what he had done wrong.
“If you want forgiveness, you need to confess every single one of your wrongdoings.”
“Every single one?”
“Yes, from start to finish.”
“Hmm…”
The groan that escaped his throat and the furrowed brows revealed that he had expected a simple apology to suffice.
“To be honest, you probably don’t even know what you did wrong, do you?”
“…”
“Shall I tell you?”
Sena took a sip of her coffee, cleared her throat, and adjusted her posture.
“Let’s start with how you betrayed Mom and me. Not only that, but you also brought another child into the house—someone older than me.”
“I didn’t know he was my son…”
“Regardless, you were in a relationship with that woman long before I was born.”
“I’m sorry. She was a woman I dated when I was young. After we broke up, I found out she was raising my son alone…”
“I don’t want to hear your excuses.”
Sena abruptly cut off Chairman Kang’s attempt at a cowardly excuse.
“Because of those two, you abandoned Mom and me.”
“Abandoned? It was your mother who left the house with you…”
“So you think we could’ve all lived together under one roof? Do you really believe that would’ve been possible?”
“Well, no, but… if your mother had just waited a little longer, I would’ve settled things with that woman and only registered Ji-Chul in the family registry.”
“How many women would calmly accept raising a child from another relationship?”
“You were there. Your mother had you. I thought she’d accept it for your sake.”
Chairman Kang spoke as if he were the victim, grinding out his words bitterly.
“I never imagined she’d leave the house with you. Because of that, that woman took your mother’s place. I didn’t abandon your mother!”
“You’re awfully confident, aren’t you? Did you even try to convince her? Shouldn’t you have kept her place open so she could return, even if she refused at first?”
As she pressed him, Sena marveled at herself. Her father had always been someone she feared to some extent, yet here she was, speaking her mind freely.
Once she started, the words poured out like water breaking through a dam.
“That’s… Ji-Chul refused to separate from his mother…”
She didn’t need to hear the rest to know how predictable it was.
A child brought into the house under false pretenses, claiming to be his son, naturally coveted the position of mistress. With the rightful wife conveniently leaving the house with her daughter, it wouldn’t have been hard for Ji-Chul to manipulate Chairman Kang into accepting the situation.
The sheer idiocy of Chairman Kang falling for such an obvious scheme filled Sena with frustration and disgust, causing her to furrow her brows deeply.
“It’s because of your stupidity that Mom died.”
Her voice trembled with anger.
She clenched the armrest of her chair so tightly that her knuckles turned white, resisting the urge to storm out of the café.
“Even so, Mom probably believed you’d keep her place open. She thought that if you sincerely repented and apologized, she could return.”
Her voice quivered with rage, but Sena forced herself to continue speaking clearly.
“Mom’s hopes… were betrayed by you. That’s why she died. Do you understand?”
His bewildered eyes met hers.
He had no idea. No, he hadn’t cared to know. Mom hadn’t died simply from betrayal—there was more to it!
Sena vividly recalled the memory of the day she found her mother.
It was an unusually chilly autumn evening when she returned home after finishing school. From the moment she opened the door to their small apartment, where she and her mother had lived together, Sena felt something was terribly wrong.
The air inside was colder than the chilly outdoors, devoid of any sign of life. The lone potted plant they kept in the house looked like a painted picture, its green leaves artificial and lifeless.
“Mom…?”
Young Sena, about 10 centimeters shorter than she was now, called out for her mother, who had smiled and waved her off that very morning. But there was no response.
Her mother always left a note on the small bulletin board next to the shoe rack whenever she went out, but today there was none.
So Mom must still be home, yet there was no answer.
Standing in front of the tightly closed bedroom door, Sena swallowed hard.
Don’t open it, Sena. Don’t open it.
But she unfurled her tightly clenched fist, grabbed the doorknob, and pushed the door open. The coldness of the doorknob matched the temperature of the house as she stepped into the darkened room.
“I truly had no idea…”
Chairman Kang bowed his head, his voice trailing off weakly.
“Do you know how many pills Mom took that day? Hundreds. Do you know how many tear stains were on the family relationship certificate lying next to her?”
Sena bit her lip hard to hold back the tears threatening to spill.
She didn’t know how the divorce had been finalized without her mother’s consent, but on the family relationship certificate, Oh Yeoja’s name had replaced her mother’s.
“I’ve never requested a family relationship certificate since that day. You’ll never understand how horrifying it is to see Mom’s name erased.”
“Why did she have to die?”
After a long silence, Chairman Kang finally raised his head. His eyes were wet with tears, but they burned with anger.
“She should’ve lived. Even after taking you away, why did she throw her life away over something as trivial as the position of the legal wife?”
“What did you just say?”
“Isn’t that right? She should’ve found a way to survive. She could’ve cursed me, cursed that woman, anything! If she had lived, you wouldn’t have gone through such a terrible ordeal.”
“Are you blaming Mom now?”
Unbelievable.
His shamelessness knew no bounds. Sena wanted to hurl the coffee cup she’d been drinking from straight at his face.
“Let’s say I caused the problem—am I the only man like that in this world? Do all the wives of such men kill themselves?”
“Because Mom loved you that much.”
“Does love put food on the table?!”
Google Sites
Report abuse