A Kind of Family Counseling
I guess you could call it a kind of family counseling. Or something like that.
144 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. A fifteen-story old building near Yeoksam Station. The exterior looked a little worn-down and the interior facilities were nothing special, but despite that, the sale price easily topped twenty billion won. The whole area was a business district, and the subway station was just a five-minute walk away. Prime real estate in a prime spot.
“Hello, sir.”
With all those thoughts drifting through my head, I stepped into the building entrance. Through the small window of the first-floor security office, a middle-aged man poked his head out.
“Ah, it’s Jun. Here to see your aunt?”
“Yes, that’s right. Has she already come in?”
“Of course. She’s always the first one through the door.”
“Ah~”
She really never slowed down. I played along with a polite laugh, gave him a quick nod, and headed inside to catch the elevator. My destination was the eleventh floor—the headquarters of Kim Won Publishing, my aunt’s workplace. The same company that had nearly been swallowed up by JL E&M recently. Sure, calling it a “headquarters” was generous when there weren’t even any regional branches, but every company needed a little window dressing. I let it slide.
Ding!
This is the 11th floor.
Anyway, eleventh floor. The elevator doors slid open with the announcement, and the moment I stepped out, my eyes locked with someone standing in the hallway. A face I knew all too well.
“Whoa, nephew! You’re here~?”
She grabbed both my hands before I could react, beaming. I quickly scanned the area, spotted a publishing employee standing nearby, and only then answered.
“Yes, I’m here, Aunt.”
I smiled back as brightly as I could.
“Ah. Hello.”
I made sure to greet the employee too. She returned it with a light, friendly smile.
“So you came to see the team leader?”
“Yeah, I just wanted to show my face for a second. I’ll head out soon.”
“No rush. Take your time. There’s hardly any work today anyway~”
“Still, I don’t want to make everyone uncomfortable.”
“Uncomfortable? The other employees love when you drop by! They always say the handsome kid is back.”
My aunt turned to look at the employee. She didn’t say a word, but her eyes clearly asked, Is that something you should be saying right now…?
The employee flinched, muttered something about taking our time, and quietly slipped away. Once she was gone, my aunt let out a heavy sigh.
“They really have no filter with a high schooler these days. Honestly…”
“Why? It’s a compliment. I don’t mind.”
“Well, I mind. I do!”
She planted both hands on her hips and stared up at me. She was in full business attire today—a white dress shirt, black pencil skirt, employee ID hanging from her neck. She usually dressed casually, so the formal look probably meant she had important visitors.
“Jun, you need to be careful. The scariest creatures on this earth are silly young girls.”
“Why are they the scariest?”
“Didn’t you just see? They compliment people with zero sense of timing or boundaries!”
“Compliments aren’t bad, though.”
“They’re not bad, but that wasn’t really a compliment, it was…”
“It was…?”
“……Sigh. Never mind. Why am I even explaining this to a kid?”
She shook her head, giving up. I tilted mine, completely lost. I had no idea what she was getting at. There must have been some mysterious female-only subtext I wasn’t equipped to understand. That was why people said women’s hearts were complicated.
“Speaking of which, why didn’t you text me before coming?”
“I did. I sent a KakaoTalk message.”
“Ugh, you mean that ‘I’ll be there soon’ text you sent ten minutes before you arrived? That’s what you call notice?!”
She flicked me on the forehead. I could have dodged, but I didn’t. Dodging would only earn me several more flicks for being cheeky.
“Sorry. Something urgent came up.”
“Urgent?”
Her eyes sharpened. Something you can’t say here?
“Yes. Urgent.”
I nodded. Let’s go somewhere quiet.
“Got it. Follow me.”
She jerked her chin and I trailed obediently after her.
The eleventh-floor conference room. True to its name, it was far better soundproofed than the other offices. Once that nearly seamless door closed, almost no noise escaped. The perfect place for conversations that weren’t meant for anyone else’s ears.
“So what’s this urgent matter?”
My aunt sat in the second-best chair beside the head of the table and opened the discussion. I sat across from her, carefully choosing my words. Where should I even begin?
“Aunt. What if…”
“Yeah?”
“Just hypothetically. Really, purely hypothetical.”
“Hypothetically what?”
“If Grandma brought a guy over and told you to marry him… would you do it?”
“……Huh? Marriage?”
“Yes. Marriage.”
“Um… well… I’m not sure…”
She dragged the word out, then shot me a quick glance.
“Why? Did your uncle tell you to get married?”
“No, it’s not that. I was just curious what you would do.”
“……Really?”
She gave me a strange look, as if she could almost see through me, then spoke slowly.
“I couldn’t say yes immediately. I’d have to evaluate his conditions first. Looks, personality, assets, family background… that sort of thing.”
“And if the conditions were… basically perfect?”
“How perfect? Be specific. Start with appearance and go all the way to family.”
“Well… let’s say he’s cute-handsome, has a friendly and bubbly personality, and while I don’t know his exact wealth, his family is incredible. Grandfather in politics, father running a company with over ten trillion won in annual sales?”
“What? That’s top 0.1 percent, isn’t it?”
“Is it? That high?”
“Obviously. Are you kidding me? Good-looking, great personality, and filthy rich? Instant yes. No need to think twice.”
“But what if he’s from another country and the marriage means you’d have to move there and live with his family?”
“Where exactly? It’s not somewhere like Africa or the Middle East, right?”
“Not that far. Roughly Japan.”
“Pfft, what? Japan’s super close. That’s still fine.”
“……Then, on top of that.”
I watched her reaction carefully before adding the final piece.
“He says that if you want to marry him, you have to do something that goes against your beliefs. Would you still do it?”
“I wouldn’t.”
Her answer was immediate and firm. It caught me off guard, but I kept my expression neutral and pressed on.
“Not even if the conditions are perfect?”
“Nope. I wouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Beliefs are the core of who I am. How could I marry someone who asks me to destroy that core myself? No matter how good the conditions are, I couldn’t.”
“……”
“Well… unless I ended up loving him more than my own life, I suppose…”
She muttered the last part under her breath. I mulled it over for a moment before speaking.
“So if you loved the other person more than your own life, you could throw away your beliefs and marry them?”
“That’s right.”
“Conversely, if they weren’t someone you’d risk your life for, you couldn’t abandon your beliefs for marriage.”
“Yeah. At least that’s how I see it.”
“……I see. So that’s how you feel too, Aunt.”
I let out a long sigh and leaned back against the chair. When I’d been agonizing alone, I kept wondering if refusing had really been the right choice. Hearing her firm answer lifted a weight off my chest. I hadn’t been wrong after all.
“I did the right thing.”
My aunt looked at me and let out a small laugh.
“What?”
“Your uncle really did ask you to get married, didn’t he?”
I froze. The sudden strike while I was off guard left me speechless for a second.
“He didn’t.”
“He really didn’t?”
“Yes. He didn’t.”
“Oh? Then I’ll just call him right now and ask.”
“Hey…!”
I instinctively reached for the phone she was pulling out. The moment I realized what I’d done, I yanked my hand back, but it was too late. She had seen everything.
“See? He did. Don’t even try to deny it.”
“……”
Darn. I’d been caught. If I hadn’t reacted, it would have been a perfect lie. Instead I fell right into her trap. It really was impossible for a high schooler to win a verbal battle against a thirty-one-year-old working adult.
I sighed deeply.
“But is it true?”
Taking my sigh as confirmation, she crossed her arms, leaned forward, and tilted her head toward me.
“What?”
“Is the other person really Japanese? Grandfather in politics, father a businessman, cute and pretty looks, bubbly personality—the whole package.”
“……Yeah, pretty much.”
“Wow… Seriously? Any photos?”
“Where would I have photos? We only met yesterday for the first time.”
“You’ve already exchanged names, though. What’s the girl’s name?”
“Why do you need her name…?”
“You never know. Tell me and I might recognize it. I’ve got a pretty wide network, you know. Lots of connections everywhere.”
Her eyes sparkled with curiosity. She clearly wasn’t going to let it go, so I scratched my cheek awkwardly and answered.
“It’s Tachibana Hana.”
“Tachibana…?”
“Why? Do you know her?”
“No, I don’t know her personally, but the name rings a bell.”
“Rings a bell?”
“Yeah. There’s Tachibana Publishing. They’ve been the number one publisher in Japan for decades…”
What followed was a long explanation. To summarize as briefly as possible:
—For a long time, Tachibana Publishing had persistently demanded L.J.’s contact information. Every time we refused, they pulled every trick in the book to get it. They started with merger proposals, applied pressure in every possible way, and recently one of their employees had even been caught digging through our company’s trash.
“It can’t be someone from that family, right? Just a coincidence in last names?”
“No. It is someone from that family. More precisely, the daughter of the company president.”
“Then don’t marry her. That publishing house has a lot of dirty rumors.”
“Dirty rumors?”
“Collusion with politicians, hostile takeovers of rival publishers, forcing out writers and celebrities with opposing political views, Yakuza funding, organized manipulation of public opinion… That’s just what I know. There’s probably more.”
“……”
I slowly rubbed my chin.
Wow. These people…
They were far more ruthless than I’d imagined. I’d already thought it was strange when they claimed to have found my film contract in a pile of trash, but I never expected them to be the type who pulled such outrageous schemes behind the scenes.
“Aunt.”
“Yeah? What?”
“The daughter from that publishing company knows I’m L.J.”
“What? How?”
“She said she found the contract with my name on it in the trash we threw out here.”
“Found a contract in the trash…?”
“According to her, it had been hand-shredded and the strips weren’t completely separated. My name was clearly written in the author’s signature box…”
“That can’t be possible.”
“……Right?”