Chapter 380: Father
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 380: Father
“Hahahaha! Father! Isn't today a day for celebration?!”
Inside the car heading to the main house.
I let out a boisterous laugh, but no one bothered to answer me.
Father and Big Hyung both wore complicated expressions. Since Big Hyung was driving himself instead of using a chauffeur, there was no need to watch my tongue.
“Father, you’ve gained three grandchildren all at once. I wonder what we should name them.”
“……”
“……”
“Well, do you have any advice for me? I heard diapers are expensive these days, so I’m glad my father is a chaebol.”
“……”
“……”
“At least we won't have to worry about the kids getting bullied. Who would dare pick on them if the three of them stick together?”
As I continued to pour out words, Big Hyung, his hands tightening on the steering wheel, finally spoke.
“Woo-jin, my head is spinning, so just shut up for a second.”
“What? This is something to celebrate.”
“Sigh, it’s not like you took a hit to the head or something…”
Big Hyung stole a glance at Father.
Father was staring blankly out the window.
Reflected in the glass, Father’s expression was heavy with deep thought. Seeing that, the heat in my own head began to cool down.
“……Now that I think about it, you’re right.”
Getting three women pregnant at the same time—from a common-sense perspective, wasn't that insane?
Of course, I intended to take responsibility.
But to the outside world, it would just look like the result of the youngest son of a chaebol family having a damn promiscuous sex life.
“Haa.”
Big Hyung let out a long sigh.
We finally arrived at the main house. As we stepped inside, Mom was waiting for us.
“Why is it that every time our troublesome youngest leaves the house, he causes an accident?”
And she was holding a cane.
“Wait! Mom! Hold on!”
Despite my cry, Mom didn't hesitate and charged straight at me.
“You brat! Three?! Three?! I told you to pick one person, not to take in all three! What are you going to do about this?!”
“Who told you? Big Hyung? You snitched?!”
“……”
Not wanting to get a thrashing with the cane, I tried to bolt back outside.
“Dinner.”
Father spoke indifferently as he walked past.
“Let’s eat dinner first.”
“Ah…… okay.”
Perhaps sensing the unusual atmosphere surrounding Father, Mom lowered the cane and slunk toward the dining room.
It wasn't like she was going to cook the food herself anyway.
‘I want to go to the girls.’
It was already 7 PM.
If I went back now, would they still be there?
I tried to suppress my urge to see them immediately and reach for my phone to send a text.
“Don’t even think about contacting them.”
Big Hyung snatched my phone away and glared at me.
“What? Why?”
“Father hasn't said a word yet. If you blabber nonsense right now, those girls will only get hurt more.”
“What do you mean by nonsense?”
“For instance……”
Big Hyung hesitated for a moment before answering with a sigh.
“Saying you’ll take responsibility for all of them. That kind of talk.”
“Shit, of course I’ll take responsibility for all of them. Who am I supposed to abandon?”
When I snapped back, Big Hyung replied with annoyance for the first time.
“Don't be so naive. This is South Korea.”
“We’ve already transcended things like that.”
“Haa.”
“People always point fingers at great men and call them delusional.”
“I’m telling you to act with some common sense.”
“I’m not hurting anyone, am I? No matter what you say, Hyung, I’m keeping them all. The girls agreed to it, too.”
“They…… agreed?”
Hyung looked at me with an expression of pure disbelief, but I just grinned and gave him the middle finger.
“I’m kind of a big deal, you know.”
The announcement that dinner was ready rang out.
When we reached the dining room, Little Hyung and Second Sister-in-law were already seated, and Big Hyung’s wife had also quietly taken her place.
It seemed they had been told in advance to be here.
‘I’m going to need three more chairs.’
If all the girls were going to sit here, that is.
Or maybe we just shouldn't eat here at all.
I didn't want them to feel like they were eating while walking on eggshells.
Clink.
Father picked up his spoon and took a sip of soup, signaling the start of the meal.
It was a somewhat late dinner.
The table was silent.
However, it was far from peaceful.
Everyone was either gauging Father’s mood or cursing me with their eyes.
If the sound of eyes darting around could be heard, I’m sure it would have been deafening.
After dinner was over.
“Woo-jin, to my study. You too, dear.”
Father called Mom and me separately.
On the way, Mom slapped me on the back, but I entered the room regardless.
Father sat in his usual chair in the study.
Mom brewed some tea and served it simply. Only after taking a sip did Father speak.
“I hoped you would succeed me.”
His voice was devoid of inflection.
However, it lacked its usual heavy weight.
“I thought you were a child who took after me exactly. The kind of child who would grow the company even larger.”
“…….”
“If I.”
After pausing to catch his breath, Father dropped a question after much deliberation.
“If I were to say I do not approve?”
“I don't need your permission, Father.”
“Woo-jin!”
Mom shouted from the side, asking what kind of way that was to speak, but Father raised a hand to stop her.
“I’m going to be with those girls no matter what. Money? It might be a bit tough without the backing of Uju Group right away.”
But.
“Do you really think I can't earn that much?”
Though it was laced with a bit of bravado, I was quite confident.
“It won't be that easy. Being thrown out into the world with nothing.”
“You haven't forgotten who you were planning to entrust the company to, have you?”
“…….”
“There’s only one reason I’m confident. Because you acknowledged me, Father.”
Chairman Kim, the man who wrote the legend of Uju Group, one of South Korea’s leading conglomerates.
Father, a man truly called a titan, had taken note of my talent.
“Your eyes are never wrong, Father. So, I’m going to work like a dog with that confidence.”
When I answered coolly, Father pondered for another moment before asking.
“What if, as the price for my approval, I told you to take my seat?”
“Then I’d have to do it.”
“Hmm.”
“I talked big just now, but I don't want to live at odds with my family either. If there’s a way for us to live peacefully, I’ll choose that.”
If Father told me to lead Uju Group as the price for his approval, I would do it.
I would do my best and somehow move in the direction Father wanted.
Hearing that, Father let out a hollow laugh and nodded.
“That is enough.”
“Pardon?”
“Woo-jin, you are……”
He seemed reluctant to admit it, but Father spoke honestly with a bitter smile.
“You are a figure far too large for me, or for our Uju, to contain.”
“…….”
“If I tried to hold you, the vessel called Uju might shatter.”
It was the first time.
Truly the very first time.
Father looked at me, unable to hold back a simple, genuine chuckle.
“Live however you want. I assume you’re capable of handling things so that no scandals break out.”
“Does that mean……”
“I will not do anything for you. Dealing with public perception, persuading the in-laws, the family registry—you will have to handle all of it yourself.”
But then, Father added with a smile, as if he could already imagine it.
“Still, bring your daughters-in-law by later to pay their respects.”
Daughters-in-law.
Upon hearing that answer, the corners of my mouth slowly curled upward.
“Ah, of course!”
I nodded confidently.
“Now get out. If I look at you any longer today, I feel like I’ll pick up the cane for the first time in ten years.”
“Got it!”
I quickly turned and headed for the exit.
Just before grabbing the doorknob to open the door, I turned my head back toward Father.
“You know, I don't want to be a father like you.”
“…….”
“You were a Chairman, but you weren't a parent.”
He didn't deny it.
Even Mom, standing beside him, seemed to have no excuse for that.
“But please, do a good job as a grandfather.”
With those final words, I opened the door and stepped out.
* * *
Creak.
Thud.
“Father, did you call for me?”
A few minutes after Kim Woo-jin left.
Kim Jae-un entered the room.
The atmosphere was stiff, hardly seeming like a meeting between parents and their child.
Mrs. Kim didn't particularly like it, but she didn't intervene and quietly watched the situation.
Between the smile he had shown while dealing with Kim Woo-jin and everything else.
She could feel that her husband was changing.
“Humans are fickle.”
Chairman Kim, moistening his throat with the tea his wife had brewed, spoke calmly.
As if he were making a confession.
“I have seen countless such people, and I wanted to be a different breed from them.”
“…….”
“But in the end, I too was merely a fickle human being.”
Chairman Kim chuckled.
He looked as though he had finally let go of something.
“A person’s eyes always wander toward the small things they lack, rather than the great things they already possess.”
“…….”
“Jae-un, that is what you were to me.”
Why was it?
What was the reason?
Even with such a reliable eldest son before him.
The reason his eyes always wandered toward the youngest, who did whatever he pleased.
Chairman Kim felt as though his eyes were finally opening.
Kim Woo-jin had a talent for enchanting people.
That was likely the reason he had ended up with three wives.
But if one were to ask who the very first and greatest victim of that talent was.
It was undoubtedly himself.
“Jae-un, I wasn't always right either.”
The moment one acknowledges their own foolishness, they naturally look back at the past.
Chairman Kim was a man who knew how to learn.
“You are already doing more than your share. Do not feel the need to chase after my shadow.”
With a gentle smile, Chairman Kim made a request to his eldest son once more.
“I’m leaving the company in your hands.”
“…….”
Kim Jae-un’s eyes grew misty.
His whole life.
The one sentence he had wanted to hear his entire life.
From the figure he had respected most in his life.
The figure he had most wanted to resemble.
At those few words from his father.
Kim Jae-un bowed deeply to hide the tears that were about to fall and shouted.
“Thank you!”
After Kim Jae-un left.
Chairman Kim tapped his finger on the desk and muttered.
“I must be going senile.”
It was a side of him that didn't feel like himself.
He mocked himself self-deprecatingly, but his wife beside him gently took his hand.
“You’ve finally become a father.”
“……Is that so?”
Squeeze.
Holding his wife’s hand, he felt a sensation that wasn't half bad.
“So this is what it feels like.”
He had thought that if he let go of what he held in his hands, nothing would be left for him.
That was why he had gripped it so fiercely and tried so desperately to pass it on to his successor.
But in reality.
Letting go of what he held brought a sense of liberation.
“I suppose that brat Woo-jin is going to give me quite a headache from now on.”
“Sigh, I don't even know what to say to the in-laws. If it comes down to it, should we go together and kneel before them?”
“……I suppose I should practice.”
“You’re going to practice that?”
“I’ve never knelt before anyone in my life.”
“Are you joking right now?”
The elderly couple locked eyes and shared a small smirk before letting out another long sigh.
“Are you really not going to help Woo-jin with anything?”
“I have to be firm with Woo-jin.”
“Aha?”
“The daughters-in-law’s only sin was meeting the wrong man, after all.”
He intended to take care of everything except for Kim Woo-jin himself.
In particular, he would need to strictly protect them so that they wouldn't be exposed to the eyes of the public.
“……At least it’s nice having more grandchildren.”
When she mentioned finding at least one silver lining, Chairman Kim wore a dazed expression before nodding blankly.
“That, haha…… yes, that is good.”