The Past of the Two, Part 1
"Let's start from the beginning. Let's talk about it from the very start."
Seohee, having calmed Hayeon down, suggested they move to a different location, noting that this wasn't the place for such a conversation. The three of them quickly discarded their half-finished drinks and left, heading toward a private dining space. Since it was lunchtime, and Hayeon—who held the same major as Jia and worked in a similar field, albeit for a private corporation—was well-acquainted with such venues, she was able to secure a reservation immediately.
"It's for a meal, but I think we'll need the room for about four to five hours."
"Ah, yes, that's perfectly fine. Then, until about 6:00 PM..."
"Yes. And since we have a lot to talk about... we might request dinner as well. I'm sorry for the difficult request."
"Not at all. If it's for you, Ms. Lee Hayeon, we'll certainly accommodate you. Please, follow me."
They were led inside, and as the door opened, a room furnished with a table and chairs was revealed. The three stepped inside.
"Where is this place?"
It was a high-end, elegant room that looked prestigious at a glance.
"We mainly use this for entertaining VIPs. It's a restaurant, but if you reserve the menu in advance—whether it's Japanese, Western, or anything else—they prepare it all for you."
"Ah..."
"Another feature is that there's no time limit. Of course, the meal cost increases as the time extends, but..."
Hayeon looked at Seohee, who had become close with her through Jia, and Seohee nodded.
"It's for a friend. Besides... Jia has done so much for us. Let's sit."
Simple appetizers were served, and after glancing at them briefly, they began their conversation.
"Tell us. From the beginning."
"...I don't understand it myself, but... I'll try to listen quietly."
"...Okay..."
Jia began her story from the very start. Perhaps because she had agonized over these words for so long, she began at the absolute beginning.
"At first, it was good."
She started by saying that she had liked him a lot in the beginning. She had loved him so much that she was the one who pushed for the marriage, while he had been in a state of simply following her lead.
"That's why my parents were a bit against it..."
"Yes."
"But I went to see Suhyun's father and told him that I loved Suhyun so much I couldn't imagine being with anyone else, and that I would always treat him well, so please let us get married..."
That was how the marriage came to be, and she continued,
"At first, I was so nervous at the wedding hall, but whenever I saw him, that strange nervousness would vanish. And I just grew to like him so much... my heart felt at peace. It was like that."
"Sorry to interrupt, but what exactly did you like about him? The money? His family background?"
She shook her head vigorously. Even though her story had been interrupted, she didn't seem to mind.
"Suhyun looked so dependable. If 90% of the year felt like I was playing around with a younger brother... the other 15 days, he felt like an older brother, or even a father. Sometimes I would throw tantrums. But Suhyun would never get angry; he would just say so kindly that he would listen to me, and I loved that so much. Sometimes he looked like a fool when you just looked at him, but when he talked about his own thoughts, he was more serious than anyone... he was so cool."
"...."
"It wasn't because of the money. You know, my family has plenty of land."
"Right. I know."
"Honestly, I didn't care about his inheritance or anything; I just wanted Suhyun to be stuck to my side all day long. Suhyun studied engineering, right? But I even urged him to try studying language and literature. I wanted us to do the same kind of work... It really wasn't about the money. I was so worried that people would see me that way, even when I wanted to get married."
She stopped her tears, and as she spoke clearly, her voice became as crisp as when she was doing translation work.
"That's why I didn't want to quit my job. I wanted to keep working, get promoted, and eventually become a minister. I wanted to be the one to support Suhyun... Maybe it was because he was a year younger than me, but I had this strong thought that I should take care of him and be responsible for him."
"Then why did you two split up?"
She seemed momentarily speechless, or perhaps lost in thought, as she stared down at the food. Then,
"...It was about a year after Suhyun joined the company. Back then..."
She clutched her head slightly, as if she didn't want to dwell on those memories now. Seeing her left temple throb, it seemed like a migraine was setting in. She quickly picked up her chopsticks and ate the side dishes in front of her rapidly. Then, she took a turquoise pill from her handbag, swallowed it with water, and said,
"It happened because of that company, Green Petroleum."
"....? Ah, that oil company..."
They knew it well, as they had seen it on the news. The place, often abbreviated as GPL, was a business entity that had been reorganized as an in-house venture from a university club project, long before he took charge of the Support Division early in his career.
"The place that made that alternative gasoline?"
"Yes..."
There were many circumstances if one were to dig deep, but she tried to speak only about what she knew. Honestly, it was because,
"...Thinking about it now, I didn't take enough interest in my husband's work."
"...?"
"I didn't even know my husband was an executive at that company. I thought he was starting from the bottom, maybe as a regular staff member or an assistant manager. I was so indifferent."
Then, as if her head was calming down, she returned to the beginning and started to speak again.
"As far as I heard, they had done some research, and with talent coming in from overseas, they had succeeded in creating the alternative gasoline."
"Right. They even won an award from an environmental group for that."
However,
"...But..."
"...."
Because the results had been good after testing on some equipment, the in-house venture had been spun off as GPL Co., Ltd., and they were preparing for the final experiment. They turned on a live internet broadcast, fueled a randomly selected internal combustion engine with the alternative gasoline, and turned the ignition. She knew it was a crucial experiment and, because he had told her to watch it, she was hoping for success on her phone, but then— *BOOM*—
"..."
"..."
All three of them had been watching that live broadcast. No, the whole world had been watching. If this succeeded, there would be no need to refine gasoline from crude oil, nor any need to use it. Just as the name 'Green' was attached to the company, the transport vehicles using the alternative gasoline didn't emit exhaust fumes. Other than the occasional minor leakage of water or oil onto the asphalt, like bio-diesel, there were no problems. It was a vital experiment that could have changed the flow of the world's energy resources, but it exploded. And it didn't just explode; the moment the ignition was turned, the engine room let out a roar like a fireworks display. The people watching the broadcast must have been terrified.
"So, after seeing that, he changed a little. Suhyun, who had always been so bright..."
After that, without even a proper accident investigation, the investments that had poured into the independent entity GPL began to be withdrawn in large numbers. The amounts that had been consumed for experimental costs, development expenses, and labor became debts due to successive court losses, and as the figures began to reach unimaginable levels, he would sit on the balcony smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.
"But that correction..."
"It didn't work. Nothing did. Looking back now, I should have used my influence..."
It was confirmed much later that the vehicle they had randomly selected was, by a staff member's mistake, a 'diesel vehicle,' and they had poured gasoline into it with the conviction that it would work. It was a staff member's mistake, but it was also the mistake of everyone who had conducted the experiment. They should have checked one more time. But they couldn't. That wasn't the only problem. At the time, they hadn't used the GI-X140-25 model, the alternative gasoline created through repeated experiments, but due to another staff member's error, they had fueled it with the GI-X100-13 model, a result from the early experimental stages. It was the kind of result that would have destroyed a tractor's engine entirely. But he didn't even try to explain any of that. He just kept repeating to himself that it was all his fault, that he hadn't been thorough enough. He couldn't even bring himself to try anything else. And that was where her mistake began to bloom. The moment that changed her life entirely, the catalyst for their divorce.
"What does that have to do with anything? Did your ex-husband fail and then you..."
"...No."
"Then what?"
She thought for a moment before speaking in a small voice.
"...I sold off all the land I had been gifted. And I gave it to Suhyun to pay off his debts."
"Well, then he should have been grateful, so why..."
"After that, I changed a bit... I don't even know why I did that myself. Even now..."
"Your assets are worth tens of trillions, why..."
"I was gifted that land long after that incident. A lot of things happened in between... That's why."
She wondered if she should even be telling them this, but she decided to look back on that past. She felt that if she thought about it alone, she would only rationalize it, and that she needed a third party's perspective to find the answer. Only then could she face the problem squarely, and only then could there be progress in restoring their relationship. "It's, um, a long story..."