67. Karma

Park Yoon-hwa sat alone on the bed, his eyes wide open.

He hadn’t slept properly yesterday either. No, he couldn’t even remember the last time he had slept soundly. His head throbbed as if it would break, and his body was weary.

Moreover.

‘Do you understand? You can no longer do whatever you want with anything I have!’

Whenever he thought of Yoon Haerin’s words, his blood boiled with anger. But it wasn’t just his granddaughter-in-law’s harsh words that bothered him.

Day and night, whenever he closed his eyes, his deceased eldest daughter-in-law appeared. If she would come out and say something, it would at least relieve his frustration, but the dead woman just stared at him silently.

When he was pinned down by nightmares and groaned before jolting awake, it wasn’t the end of it. Memories of the past unfolded before his eyes like illusions, following the dreams.

Especially the memory of Kang Yeon-hee, who had cried and pounded on the door on a rainy day, repeated relentlessly.

‘Mother, please don’t do this. Please don’t take my family away from me. Please.’

It was the day he had forcibly taken his grandsons away, saying that he couldn’t entrust the children to someone as inadequate as her.

Park Yoon-hwa had disliked Kang Yeon-hee from the start.

His eldest son, who was sickly and docile and had always obeyed his words without resistance, had rebelled for the first and last time in his life regarding his spouse.

At first, he had thought she would obediently break up as he ordered.

After all sorts of threats and insults, the woman he had separated from his son turned out to be pregnant.

When he had finally found and dragged his son back from a remote rural village somewhere, because his son insisted he couldn’t live without this woman, Kang Yeon-hee was holding a newborn baby in her arms.

As the saying goes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; the baby boy Kang Yeon-hee was holding had a face that looked exactly like her deceased husband, as if he had come back to life.

He didn’t like the woman at all, but Park Yoon-hwa coveted the child.

The following year, a second child was born. That child had many similarities to Park Yoon-hwa, seeming to have inherited his personality. He was magnanimous, unrestrained, and even at a young age, he overwhelmed his peers and was never intimidated by anyone.

He truly coveted him.

He felt that with these children, he could make up for his failed attempt at raising his own children. He didn’t care in the slightest that they weren’t his biological grandchildren.

Throughout his life, he had never failed to get what he coveted. He was in a position to obtain anything, and he thought there was no one on this earth who would dare to defy his will.

When the children were around four or five years old, Park Yoon-hwa went to his eldest son’s house and took the children away, saying that he would raise them himself from now on.

He conveniently added Woo-shik’s words.

‘The daughter-in-law’s astrological sign is incompatible with the children, so their luck will be blocked.’

‘Mother! You don’t actually believe that, do you?’

As soon as he heard it, Taehoon stood up abruptly, shuddering.

Naturally, no one present truly believed those words. Park Yoon-hwa, who was speaking, needed some kind of excuse, and his son and daughter-in-law listening knew that well.

He had taken the children away from his daughter-in-law, who couldn’t grasp what was happening, and his son, who vehemently opposed it.

Yeon-hee, who had believed her husband would persuade his mother, waited for a day or two, but as that period grew longer, she came to the main house herself.

The mother who had lost her children came to the house every day, knocking on the door and crying. Later, she even pleaded to just see her children once, promising not to take them away.

‘Mother, I know you see me as inadequate. I know you don’t like me. But they are still my children. Please... sob sob.’

Looking at Kang Yeon-hee prostrating herself at his feet and pleading, Chairman Park was intoxicated with the victory of having won. The daughter-in-law, who had initially pleaded, later cried out with resentment.

Only after Taehoon came and begged before him, vowing to unconditionally obey his mother’s words, did the matter finally come to an end.

Park Yoon-hwa made his son and daughter-in-law come to the main house every weekend for meals. And he discriminated against his daughter-in-law by not allowing her to sit at the same table.

However, after that incident, Taehoon never again sided with his wife or said or did anything to displease Park Yoon-hwa in his presence.

Even when his mother mistreated his wife and his siblings insulted her in front of him.

‘Chairman! Don’t cross the line any further!’

The nerve.

Remembering Soohyun, who had blocked his path, Park Yoon-hwa trembled again. It was clear that his granddaughter-in-law, who looked so much like Kang Yeon-hee, was manipulating his grandson.

“Insolent thing!”

Chairman Park, who had unknowingly shouted, clutched his throbbing head and opened the drawer of the bedside table.

He couldn’t sleep a single day without taking nerve stabilizers and sleeping pills. The doctor had told him several times that he had to take them as prescribed, but he felt like he was about to die and couldn’t bear it.

He poured some pills into his mouth haphazardly and lay down, feeling the strength slowly drain from his body.

________________________________________

“Ugh! Aaaaargh!”

He thought he was finally falling asleep, but not long after, Chairman Park let out a scream and sat up again. His whole body was drenched in cold sweat.

It was still dawn, before the twilight had fully faded.

Im Woo-shik had clearly said that if he filled the house with the energy of water, the nightmares would go away, but it was obviously useless. Anger surged within him. In his irritable state, he had to vent this rage on someone.

In his still-dazed mind, he frantically searched for his cell phone and called Im Woo-shik. It seemed to be the middle of the night, seeing as it was still before dawn, but Park Yoon-hwa didn’t care at all.

-Chairman.

As soon as Woo-shik answered the phone, Park Yoon-hwa started yelling.

“What’s going on! How many more puddles do I have to dig in the house for these things to disappear!”

-Chairman. Please calm down first. I’ll come over.

“Get rid of these things first! Do something!”

-I’ll be right there. Just a moment.

After hanging up, Park Yoon-hwa was startled to see Kang Yeon-hee’s face staring at him from directly in front.

Her bloodshot eyes were silently looking at him.

“You wench! You’re finally trying to kill me! Aren’t you? Aren’t you?”

As he pointed a finger at Kang Yeon-hee, he saw a new figure standing next to her. It was the deceased Lee Hyun.

‘Grandmother. Why did you do that to me?’

The moment the pale, gaunt figure opened his mouth and resented him, Park Yoon-hwa gasped for air.

“Ugh! Ugh!”

Park Yoon-hwa frantically ran out of the room. His steps headed relentlessly towards the pond under construction.

“Chairman!”

He thought he heard someone calling him from behind, but he didn’t turn around. He felt like his eldest daughter-in-law’s face was stuck to the back of his head.

“You think I’m going to die? You think I’ll die that easily!”

Park Yoon-hwa, his eyes rolled back and white, ran mindlessly and threw himself into the pond.

His body sank into the cold water in an instant. Only then did he snap to his senses.

Ghosts and whatever else, as the water rushed into his nostrils and blocked his throat, he only had a strong desire to live.

The pond under construction didn’t have completed railings, only piles of dirt. He thrashed around, clawing at the piled-up dirt, but it only crumbled, with soil sliding down towards his face.

Because the area, which had originally only come up to his waist, had been dug deep during the new construction, his feet couldn’t reach the bottom. Park Yoon-hwa started screaming frantically.

“Save me!”

“Chairman!”

He heard someone calling him urgently. Just as he thought. Park Yoon-hwa waved his hand, relieved that he was alive.

________________________________________

Rrrr.

The frantic ringing of the telephone woke Woo-shik.

Woo-shik groped around for his phone, found it, and checked who was calling. It was Park Yoon-hwa calling at 3 AM.

He felt annoyed by the yelling as soon as he answered, but his survival instincts, honed over a long period, made him polite.

Woo-shik spoke to Park Yoon-hwa without upsetting him, ended the call, and quickly got dressed.

The atmosphere in the house had been ominous lately due to rumors that Chairman Park wasn’t in his right mind. There were many talks that if he ended up being hospitalized, most of the employees would be laid off.

There was no doubt that his name would be on that list.

Everything he had been plotting had gone to waste because of that Yoon Haerin or whatever, whose sibling had died.

If Chairman Park went completely crazy like this, it was only a matter of time before he would be kicked out without any time to plan for the future.

Woo-shik’s steps quickened as he headed towards Chairman Park’s residence. In any case, Chairman Park had to remain sane until he got his share.

Heading towards Chairman Park’s bedroom, Woo-shik saw someone running frantically in the distance. The person running in their pajamas was Park Yoon-hwa.

“Chairman!”

Woo-shik ran after Park Yoon-hwa, who kept running without answering.

“Chairman!”

But Park Yoon-hwa ran like a madman towards the pond under construction and threw himself in without looking back.

Could he have thrown himself in?

The scene he had witnessed in the middle of the night was so shocking that Woo-shik rubbed his eyes for a moment. Soon after, he heard a cry for help, and only then did he realize something was wrong.

Approaching the pond, he saw Chairman Park flailing in the water. Woo-shik quickly looked around and grabbed a wooden pole, extending it towards Yoon-hwa.

“T-thank you. I would have been in big trouble if it weren’t for you.”

Chairman Park’s face brightened as he grasped the end of the pole. The old man’s complexion was pale, showing how terrified he had been even for that brief moment in the water.

“Chairman, please wait a moment...”

Woo-shik, who had grabbed the pole with both hands to pull him in, suddenly stopped moving.

“Pull me out quickly. What are you doing?”

“Chairman.”

Woo-shik didn’t move despite Chairman Park’s urging and slowly opened his mouth.

“Didn’t you say there’s a secret safe in your office, Chairman?”

“Why are you asking that?”

“Please tell me the password.”

“What?”

“I’m saving your life, Chairman. Can’t you give me that much? I won’t take much.”

“Im Woo-shik!”

Chairman Park yelled as soon as he heard Woo-shik’s words, but his blood ran cold when he saw the immediate change in Woo-shik’s eyes.

The octogenarian, who had gone through all sorts of hardships, could instantly recognize what the eyes of the person holding his lifeline were saying. He had to live first.

“I’ll tell you right away. It’s not an easy method.”

“You’re not lying, are you?”

“Would I lie in this situation?”

Woo-shik turned on his phone and recorded the method Chairman Park described for opening the safe. The secret safe in the office was made in a very old-fashioned way, requiring a complex combination of turning the dial multiple times to open.

Just you wait until I get out. You’re fired immediately.

Chairman Park gritted his teeth inwardly, while Im Woo-shik, putting his phone in his pocket, smiled thinly.

“Chairman. Thank you for everything.”

“What are you ta...”

And before Chairman Park could finish his sentence, Woo-shik pushed Chairman Park’s chest with the wooden pole.