Chapter 184
Chapter 184
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 184
Chapter Title: All Parents Are Different
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All parents are different.
The city had fallen into a deep slumber late at night.
Go Miran's home was as silent and dark as if every noise in the world had evaporated.
In the pitch-black living room with the lights off, she sat at the small two-person table in front of the tiny kitchen, tilting her shot glass of soju.
Her gaze was fixed on the incongruous objects in the center of the table—items that didn't belong in her shabby life.
A stack of white checks issued by a bank.
A rough estimate put it at thousands, at least.
And perched precariously on top, a gold business card made of pure gold that seemed to glow on its own even in the unlit darkness.
[Blue Sky Investment]
[CEO Kim Cheolsu]
A name she'd never heard before—her son's.
She replayed the day's events over and over in her mind.
The moment she dragged her exhausted body home after an all-nighter, suited-up police burst in.
Without a word, they slapped handcuffs on her under some absurd charge of drug trafficking, then threw her into a holding cell after hours in a frigid interrogation room.
That was when she heard her daughter's voice from outside.
"That's not my mom! What the hell are you doing? Let her go!"
Yuna—her precious daughter—grabbing the collars of burly cops and screaming. The sight filled her with despair.
She could endure them cursing or hitting her.
But seeing that child suffer because of her? It was worse than death.
Hours later, after she'd given up on everything, the holding cell door suddenly swung open. A squad of lawyers straight out of a movie appeared.
And they addressed her with a title so foreign it felt alien.
"Ma'am."
And the name they handed her: "Kim Cheolsu"—a stranger's name.
In that instant, she remembered the real name of the child she'd buried deep in her heart for decades.
The son she'd given birth to,
The one she'd held in her arms for only four short years.
Ko Seongju.
When she'd clumsily boiled doenjang jjigae and mixed it with rice for him, he'd munch away—even if it wasn't hot—grinning like he owned the world.
That child's face floated into her mind.
But the son she'd met today didn't smile.
"It was shit meeting you. Let's never see each other again."
Go Miran downed her soju in one gulp.
It burned inside.
Her heart ached even more.
She'd fled the home she hated for its poverty and feared for its violence.
In a rundown room with a runaway crew, a child had taken root in her belly—without even knowing who the father was.
Still, that child was her "hope."
Life had been so damn harsh that after four years, she'd let go of that hope herself.
Tears streaming, she'd set the child down at the orphanage door.
At first, just for a month...
Then half a year...
Then a year...
Deceiving herself like that, she worked day and night.
Finally, after two years, she'd scraped together a tiny nest for just the two of them and gone back to the orphanage.
But the child was...
Gone—her "hope" vanished forever.
"Mom..."
As Go Miran tilted her glass in quiet solitude, a faint voice echoed in her ear.
It was a memory from a winter day when she'd lost Seongju and drowned her days in booze after giving up on everything.
In the corner of the bathroom at the entertainment joint where she worked.
A nameless child, sweat and grime streaming down, covered in deep bruises on arms and legs, staring up at her with hollow eyes, skin and bones.
One of the customers had discarded him as "useless."
In those empty eyes, she saw her own son, abandoned at the orphanage.
When she came to, she was clutching the child and running through the blizzard.
Thus, her newly found hope:
Yuna.
At her hope's voice, Go Miran hastily wiped her tears and forced a bright smile.
"Yeah? Baby, still up? You gotta sleep early for school tomorrow..."
"...I dropped out. Been working at the factory lately."
Yuna's calm confession made Go Miran's heart sink.
"Oh... tuition? You should've told Mom..."
Go Miran's voice trembled.
Yuna gently took her mother's hand.
"It's fine. I'll make money. More importantly... Mom, can't you quit that job now?"
At her daughter's mature words, Go Miran finally burst into the tears she'd held back.
Unable to speak, she just clung to her daughter's hand and sobbed for a long while.
Much later, when her crying subsided, she pleaded with a quivering voice.
"Umm... just a bit longer... I've paid off all the debts... umm... just a little more and... I can open a little shop or something? My girl... even if you're ashamed of Mom's job... just bear with it a bit more... okay?"
Yuna shouted in frustration.
"When did I ever say I was ashamed of you?!"
"......I know, I know my girl doesn't think that way... I know you're saying it out of worry for Mom."
Go Miran gripped her daughter's hand tighter.
Yuna sighed and nodded toward the stack of checks on the table.
"...Just a bit longer, and you'll open a shop?"
"Yeah, Mom's saved a ton~"
"......Then fine. This looks like thousands at least. Add it to yours and open a salon or something. You worked at one before, right?"
At Yuna's practical suggestion, Go Miran's face went pale.
She shook her head, unable to even look at the bundle—like it was poison.
"......Th-this... umm... Mom... can't use it... Sorry."
"Why? What kind of money is it?"
Go Miran couldn't answer Yuna's question.
She just recalled the face of the son she'd met for the first time that day.
She'd always imagined it.
My son must've been adopted into a good, wealthy family...
And grown up happy. She had to believe that to survive each day.
That little wish had shattered today.
He carried the unmistakable aura of a "bottom-rung" life—the kind you could never escape, just like hers.
The stench of wounds and deprivation etched into the soul, no amount of money could mask.
'Did he become a thug? Or...'
Whatever it was, how much suffering had it taken to earn that money?
Like her, he'd probably clawed through the filthy underbelly of this rotten world, swallowing bloody tears to get here.
Because she'd abandoned him. Because she hadn't protected him.
Go Miran stared at the stack of checks.
This wasn't money.
It was her son's blood, sweat, and tears.
A mother couldn't live off her child's bloody tears.
"Mom...?"
Yuna called worriedly again, but Go Miran just shook her head.
"No... we can't use this money..."
"Then what? Just leave it enshrined on the table?"
"Umm... could my girl... return it for me?"
Her mother's desperate plea left Yuna silent for a moment.
"........."
"Please, okay?"
"...Fine."
Yuna nodded reluctantly at her mother's earnest request.
Honestly, that guy was the worst.
Every other word a curse, calling her mom a "bitch mother," saying they "came from the same cunt."
He grumbled like a dick the whole time...
But it was true he'd gotten her precious mom out of that damn police station.
And...
Yuna was curious.
Just what kind of person was this "real son" her mom tearfully called for whenever she got drunk and lost it...
Ko Yuna genuinely wanted to know.
'Probably some fucking trash thug bastard anyway...'
She concluded that, then stood up with resolve.
She picked up the stack of checks and gold business card from the table—like artifacts from another world.
The road to return them
Would probably help her understand that man
And her mom's past a little better.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Fucking emotional explosion, dramatic as hell.
The furious drive back from Busan to Paju ended,
Of course,
With me locked in a cage next to some shitfaced ajusshis in the police station holding cell.
Fuck, drunk driving!!!!
No, fuck...
First time drunk driving in my life, and I get fucking caught right then?
It was the result of flooring the accelerator like a maniac the whole way from Busan to Seoul, drowning the shitty emotions churning in my head with booze.
How much time passed?
The bars opened, and I was released.
In the corridor outside the holding cell stood Han Yura, arms crossed, tsking at me like I was the world's most pathetic fuckwit.
Fuck...
I was too embarrassed to even snap at her.
"Where's Choi Yang? Why'd you come?"
"You ever see a dog clock out?"
"Ah..."
She gets overtime pay till 9 PM, but after that? I shook my head at the sight of that secretary who doesn't get fired no matter what.
Fuck, pulling tens of billions in salary while having zero professional pride.
"Pissed? Fire me then."
Han Yura read my mind and sneered.
"......"
I shut up for a sec, then asked about the real worry.
"...What about the kids' mom? You know?"
"Think I'd know?"
Ah, fuck...
Gonna get my ass absolutely smashed...
She coolly puts up with me whoring around—threesomes, foursomes, 10:1 gangbangs...
But 'crimes' or anything risking my body? My wife Chae-won unleashes endless nagging without mercy.
Her wrath scared me more than any of Cheon Myeonghwan's attacks.
I trudged out of the station behind Han Yura.
This must be what it feels like marching to the execution grounds.
"Hey, got a smoke?"
Even if I'm dying, a last cigarette's fair, right?
I asked, but Yura shook her head.
"You chain-smoking bitch, you don't carry smokes?"
"Quit, dumbass."
"Why? Wanna get pregnant too?"
"Not yet. Bad for my businesswoman image."
"Bullshit, you moron bitch."
The convo died, and we walked in silence for a bit. She broke it first.
"...Anyway, what now?"
"What else? Gotta keep grinding that old fuck Cheon Myeonghwan into shit chow."
"No, not that..."
"Then what?"
"Your mom."
That one word stopped me dead.
"......Why bring up a woman I got no business seeing again."
"I know you."
"........."
"Don't make it a hassle later—just be straight now?"
I dodged her eyes and changed the subject.
"...Forget that. Bullets ready?"
"...Yeah. Shut down all overseas APIs. Took some losses, but whatever?"
"That's nothing..."
We got in the car, and she asked again.
"So, what're you gonna do?"
I stared out the window and answered low.
"Hasn't the pecking order in the business world shifted a bit?"
Cheon Myeonghwan, that old fox, got it wrong from the start.
I don't want Taesung.
I want that 'name' after I smash Taesung flat.
Taesung?
Who owns it doesn't matter.
Hell, in a few years, my wealth'll surpass Taesung's entire assets—why bother?
I just need to drill it into Korea Inc.: "Fuck with me and you're fucked."
That's a goddamn huge win.