Reunion with My Aunt
“It’s been so long, Woo-jin. How’ve you been?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
The café near my house.
It had been ages since I last saw my aunt, and she looked exactly like the woman in my memory.
The only difference was her outfit.
She was still wearing expensive designer clothes, but they looked a bit wrinkled and worn, as if she’d been wearing the same single-piece luxury piece for a long time.
Just from her clothing, it was obvious that my aunt was in financial trouble. I hadn’t even needed Future Sight to tell me that.
I had thought her husband’s business would have made her a wealthy housewife by now.
Yet a single family had collapsed in an instant.
“You’ve grown so tall. If we ran into each other on the street, I probably wouldn’t have recognized you.”
My aunt spoke with the same carefree expression, unchanged in every way.
Her beauty was still just as striking, making it hard to believe she had two grown daughters.
Her complexion even looked a shade duller than before, which felt oddly elegant to me.
It was the same old story.
Meeting my aunt again stirred up feelings I had long forgotten.
My heart had started beating again for the first time in a long while.
“Aren’t you lonely living by yourself? Are you eating properly?”
“Yes. Well, yeah. I’m eating fine.”
After so many years, our conversation drifted into light, meaningless topics.
It started with the days when I used to live at my aunt’s house.
Big sister Ji-yeon went to which university?
Younger sister Se-yeon was a second-year student who hadn’t been studying much, so she was in trouble.
My aunt spilled every detail about her daughters, Cha Ji-yeon and Cha Se-yeon.
Names I hadn’t heard in forever.
I felt both nostalgia and resentment at the same time.
The feeling made sense. I still hadn’t completely cut ties with this person.
“When I lived with you, it was really wonderful…”
My aunt’s voice softened with genuine longing, as if she were lost in the past.
Was it really wonderful when I lived with them?
Or was it simply because her husband’s business had been doing well back then?
“Aunt, you didn’t come here to talk about something specific, did you?”
“Ah… yes, that’s right.”
Her hesitation was clear. My question had clearly struck a nerve.
Of course. From now on, as my aunt and as a mother with daughters, she had a much bigger crime to commit.
My aunt was basically a kind-hearted person at heart. She would feel guilty no matter what.
After receiving her call last night, I had used Future Sight to dig through every possible outcome for today.
That was why I already held every necessary piece of information.
She would say what she would say, and for what purpose.
Still, I had chosen to listen to her directly.
Whether I heard it from her lips or not changed the entire future in ways I couldn’t even imagine.
“Our Ji-yeon and Se-yeon both really miss you.”
My aunt started the conversation that way.
The sisters wanted to see me.
Hmm. Really?
“They didn’t find out I moved out until later. That’s why they fought with their dad.”
Their dad—my aunt’s husband.
The man who had ultimately driven me out of that house.
I never learned how he found out about the kiss I shared with his eldest daughter, Cha Ji-yeon.
For some reason, he had believed I was forcing myself on his “nun.”
Whether it was forced or consensual didn’t matter.
The important thing was that the nephew he had raised had laid a hand on his own daughter.
I was the only one who had been wronged, and it hurt a little.
That was all there was to it.
“Even though we parted on bad terms back then…”
“And I also knew it wasn’t true.”
“So?”
“Let’s forget the bad past. It was all a misunderstanding.”
My aunt’s true intentions were obvious.
Given that, my reaction was far from polite.
“So… Woo-jin, maybe we should try contacting the kids again? Your father-in-law did say some harsh things, but Ji-yeon and Se-yeon don’t know anything. Of course, as their father and daughters, we can’t completely cut ties…”
My aunt was flustered and rambling.
I sighed loudly, as if to remind her I was listening.
“It’s been years since we last spoke. Why suddenly?”
That was exactly what I was asking myself.
“Well… even if it’s sudden, we were close once, weren’t we? Especially Se-yeon still misses her Oppa a lot lately. She’s probably stressed because she’s a second-year and hasn’t been studying much. She hasn’t been able to focus lately.”
My aunt finally got to the point.
“So… why don’t we let Se-yeon stay with you for a while? The empty house would be better with a young girl in it, right? Oh, and you’re still living in the old house, aren’t you?”
Instead of answering, I took a slow sip of my coffee.
My aunt spoke lightly, like a casual suggestion.
But in truth, she was backed into a corner.
She and her daughters had no other way out.
That was why she had come all the way to me, the last and only desperate option.
“You didn’t know? I moved a while ago.”
“Really? Where?”
“Close by. Royal Palace.”
“Royal Palace? That’s an insanely expensive apartment.”
It was famous for being one of the most expensive even in a country with high housing prices.
It was also the kind of place I had dreamed of living in when I was young.
My aunt’s eyes widened at the news that I had moved there.
“Where did you get the money?”
“Do you remember the stock account I opened for you long ago?”
“Ah… really?”
“Thanks to the investments I made from then on, it’s been doing really well. That’s how I managed to save up.”
My aunt blinked in confusion.
It was understandable.
How could a child possibly grow money with stocks?
The seed money was barely pocket money to begin with.
But to me, there was something far more valuable than money.
That was Future Sight.
It wasn’t perfect in every way.
Yet in at least one area, it was absolute power.
Stocks, futures, cryptocurrencies—whatever I needed, the numbers never lied.
There were probably other clever ways to use it.
But this was the best one for me.
Undetected, without creating victims or raising suspicion.
“I see… Then that’s even better. Royal Palace has spacious rooms and plenty of space. It’s much better than living alone with someone else around—”
“And about my aunt—”
I set my coffee down and stared directly into my aunt’s eyes.
She flinched under my intense gaze.
“Are you planning to run away together with Ji-yeon? Leaving Se-yeon with me?”
“W-Wait, running away? What are you talking about? I was just thinking that Se-yeon really misses you—”
“It seems your husband’s business isn’t doing well.”
I cut her off.
My aunt, who had been scrambling for excuses, fell silent.
“I looked up the news. I was suspicious because you suddenly contacted me. Apparently your husband’s company name came up. It’s gone bankrupt.”
A massive pandemic swept through the world.
It had ruined companies like mine, but it had also turned a perfectly legitimate business into rubble.
And my aunt’s husband’s company had been right in the middle of the chaos.
“No, it wasn’t just the company. He took all the investment money and fled overseas.”
“I didn’t flee! I—”
The aunt who had kept quiet until now burst out in frustration at my words.
“He… he tried not to involve his family! He was trying to bear everything alone!”
Overcome with emotion, my aunt’s eyes filled with tears.
Yes, that was exactly what her husband had claimed.
“The business wasn’t doing well.”
“If I was home, the family would suffer too.”
“So I’ll hide until things calm down.”
“I’ll endure it a little longer…”
But if my aunt’s husband vanished, the people who lent him money wouldn’t just sit back and accept it.
The arrows were aimed straight at the remaining family.
Over 10 billion won in total damages.
An amount the remaining family clearly couldn’t cover.
I told my aunt with a bitter laugh, “Aunt. You still believe his story?”
“Ugh…”
Even in this situation, my aunt was still believing him.
Whether to call her naive or foolish… I wasn’t sure.
Maybe she was still holding on to that lie.
But there were no other options left.
Now it was time to face reality.
“Your husband ran away alone. Leaving you and your daughters behind.”
The company had been shaken by the pandemic.
So he gathered the investment money and fled overseas.
It was a grand scam that pulled in relatives, friends—everyone.
He abandoned his wife and children.
And left behind a young mistress.
That was the only honest truth.
“Aunt, just tell me everything honestly. Then I can help you.”
“Woo-jin…”
The aunt who had been holding back tears finally broke down at my offer of help.
She even forgot we were in a café and sobbed loudly.
She must have been carrying so much.
My aunt wasn’t the kind of person who could endure this hardship alone.
She was kind enough to raise an orphan nephew, but also innocent and easy to deceive.
That was why she was destined to be deceived by me as well.
My aunt had always been that kind of person.
“Sob… ugh…”
I waited until she calmed down a little.
That short wait was necessary for the future I wanted.
After a while, she finally revealed her true feelings, struggling to speak.
“…Woo-jin is right. My husband really did flee alone.”
My aunt wiped her tears as she slowly told everything.
Her husband had taken every penny and ran.
The remaining family had become debtors, tormented by creditors.
They had to sell the house they lived in and lose all their assets.
Those who once supported them had become victims of the scam and began blaming our family.
There was nowhere left to turn.
My aunt tried desperately to survive—moving, finding a job.
But no matter how she tried, people found out about the new house and new workplace and harassed her relentlessly.
She was forced to quit the job she had worked so hard for.
Even the new place was kicked out of by the landlord.
The children suffered too.
Big sister Ji-yeon could no longer attend school because rumors that she was the daughter of a scammer spread.
All the part-time money she earned was taken away.
Younger sister Se-yeon, who had been a high-school student, failed the college entrance exam and became a hikikomori.
The once beloved youngest daughter had become nothing but a burden who ate only.
Her sobbing was impossible to listen to.
I pretended to listen seriously.
I already knew everything.
“So… for now I was planning to hide somewhere no one knew.”
Running away.
It was the final desperate measure of a cornered aunt.
But she couldn’t run away with just the two of them.
Her two daughters, Se-yeon and Ji-yeon.
Since she couldn’t take both, she planned to leave the younger one behind and take only the older.
That was why the man she came to find was me—the only one who could help her.
“Woo-jin. When I’m stable, I’ll definitely come pick up Se-yeon. So please take her for a little while? Please? I’m begging you.”
My aunt grabbed my hand and pleaded.
Her hand was incredibly soft and warm.
It was a hand that had never truly known hardship in her life.
“When I’m stable…”
“Yes. I will definitely pay back what I owe you.”
My aunt spoke as if it were already decided.
But the day she became stable would never come.
I had already seen the entire future.
I already knew such a future did not exist.
And more than that…
If I only took Se-yeon, the futures of my aunt and Ji-yeon would end there.
After entrusting Se-yeon to me, the two mothers would choose to die together far away.
By the time my aunt had come to see me, both she and Ji-yeon had already decided to take their own lives.
My aunt had spoken of leaving Se-yeon behind “because she was a burden,” but in truth, this was a last-ditch effort to save at least her younger daughter.
If the remaining family committed suicide together, the creditors would stop chasing Se-yeon.
Then at least Se-yeon could be saved…
“Sigh…”
The people who once took care of me and then drove me out.
Seeing my aunt’s family fall to the very bottom kindled a dark feeling inside me.
How satisfying.
How pitiful.
Pitiful about what?
Essentially, it was my aunt’s husband who had wrongly accused me and kicked me out.
My aunt and her two daughters had been deceived by him.
That meant my aunt and her daughters were in the same situation as me, weren’t they?
Yet the villainous husband had fled overseas with money.
Shouldn’t he be the one enjoying himself alone?
The thought twisted my insides. Damn it.
“Aunt.”
I firmly took the hand my aunt had grabbed and spoke.
“Don’t worry. I’ll help you.”
My aunt’s eyes, brimming with tears, widened in surprise.
“Then… will Se-yeon stay with Woo-jin?”
“No.”
Her hopeful face immediately turned to confusion.
I smiled faintly at the devastated expression.
“Not just Se-yeon. Come with Ji-yeon-nuna and Aunt too.”
I would take the aunt and daughters who had nowhere left to go, on my own terms.
This small revenge was aimed at my aunt’s family.