Married Off

A Meissen teacup, gold-traced and painted with flowers — worth a full month's pay to an ordinary salaried man — shattered, and the pieces scattered across the floor.

"God, I'm pissed!"

Watching Cha Jiseon boil over, Yoo Jeonggyun tested the air and ventured, carefully,

"Why'd you have to throw the coffee cup..."

The moment the words left him, Jiseon turned a hatchet glare on him, and Jeonggyun stalled, unable to go on.

"Bring it."

"...Bring what?"

"What do you think? Coffee."

Jeonggyun rose without a word and headed for the kitchen.

Jiseon's phone buzzed against the table.

"Who is it, this early."

She glanced at the number, nearly declined, and then answered anyway.

"Hello?"

"Ah... brother-in-law."

Her voice changed in an instant — soft, pliant, brimming with affection.

The line went dead. Even after the call, Cha Jiseon could not make herself believe it.

"What kind of call was that?"

Jeonggyun set the coffee down and asked.

"Your brother-in-law. A call from Seonggi."

"Brother-in-law? Some stray they picked up off the street, and you call him my brother-in-law? Am I the same as that bastard? His is a sham marriage. I married in properly."

"No. You're not the same."

Turning the call over in her mind, Jiseon gave a small, involuntary shudder. A stock-transfer agreement. Booked as a management-consulting fee. And on top of that, the absolute confidence of a man who spoke as if he could make Yoo Jeonggyun president on the spot. The man on the other side of that bargain was her father, Cha Jinpyo — cruel, and cold to the bone. Was such a thing even possible?

"I thought they'd picked up some obedient fool who did as he was told... Look at him now. A thousand-year-old serpent."

"What are you talking about?"

"Brace yourself. Your brother-in-law is no ordinary man."

"Let the little bastard thrash all he wants... You know what kind of house the Chas are."

Jiseon's eyes, fixed on Jeonggyun, went razor-sharp.

"If you haven't got the brains, you could at least listen. I can't even understand why I married you. When I tell you something, you do exactly as you're told. Don't go waving that paltry pride of yours."

"..."

Jeonggyun sat without a word, offering nothing but a resentful stare.

"You're early."

"I hurried a little. There was something I needed to see to first."

Choi Seonggi had arrived a full thirty minutes ahead of the appointed time, and still Cha Jinpyo, Cha Dohyeok, and Cha Gihyeok were already there. The room was an empty white box, painted and bare, with nothing in it but a desk, a few chairs, and a sofa set down in the middle of the emptiness.

"Something to see to? What kind of something?"

"Nothing important. Ah — before we begin, there's something I'd like to say."

"Say it."

"I'd like you to grant one request first."

"Greedy, aren't you, Mr. Choi? The Yangpyeong mansion and ten billion won in Gwangmyeong Corporation ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stock, and still it isn't enough?"

Cha Gihyeok stepped in to say it, but Seonggi only smiled.

"The Yangpyeong mansion was a gift from Grandfather, and the ten billion in Gwangmyeong Corporation stock was what he left me in the estate. Wasn't it?"

"What?"

He had meant to play the generous man, but both the mansion and the Gwangmyeong Corporation shares were inheritance Cha Wonseok had left behind.

"Surely you weren't offering another ten billion won in stock on top of the ten billion Grandfather already left? If you were, then I've misunderstood — but no matter how I look at it, that doesn't seem to be the case."

The corner of Cha Jinpyo's mouth lifted as he studied Seonggi.

Would you look at this one.

When he had told them to name a wish as the price of hearing Cha Wonseok's last words, and Cha Jiyeon asked for ten billion won in Gwangmyeong Corporation stock, he had laughed to himself. Among Wonseok's assets there was already 0.2 percent of Gwangmyeong Corporation — stock worth about ten billion won in real value — earmarked for the grandson-in-law. He had meant to hand that over and pretend, while he was at it, that the gift was his. He had known since the camera pen that this was no ordinary man. As expected.

"Fine. I'll hear the request first. What is it you want?"

"Please wait just a moment."

"What?"

"This one's a real comedian. Says he has a request, and now he tells us to wait."

Cha Gihyeok's irritation showed, but Seonggi only smiled and watched him.

"It won't be long. Just a moment, please."

Seonggi's phone chimed. He checked the screen.

"I can say it now."

At that, Cha Jinpyo, Cha Dohyeok, and Cha Gihyeok looked at one another.

"Tell us what it is."

"It's simple. Please promote Vice President Yoo Jeonggyun to president of Gwangmyeong Country Club."

"And why would that be your affair?"

"He's my brother-in-law, and I'm his. We're in the same position. We ought to look out for each other, shouldn't we?"

"Ha — hahahaha..."

Cha Jinpyo broke into laughter. Fellow sufferers, was it. Even if that half-baked fool Yoo Jeonggyun became president, he would be no threat worth mentioning. The only trouble was that it meant dismissing President Shim, his own right-hand man. His eldest daughter, Jiseon, already had charge of Gwangmyeong Hotel; he could simply appoint Shim president of the casino at Gwangmyeong Hotel Jeju.

"Fine. I'll do it! I'll name Yoo Jeonggyun president of Gwangmyeong Country Club. Will that do?"

"I'd like you to announce it at once."

"Look here, Mr. Choi. There's a procedure to every personnel decision. No matter that Father is chairman of the group, a presidential-level appointment inside a group company still has to clear the board—"

Cha Gihyeok was flaring up when Jinpyo cut across him.

Jinpyo hung up and said it with a smile.

"Done?"

"Yes. Done. Please pass the news along to your daughter as well."

"To Jiseon?"

"Yes."

Looking thoroughly displeased, Cha Jinpyo lifted the phone again.

He ended the call and turned a glare on Seonggi.

"Now are we done?"

"Yes. Admirably done."

Seonggi looked at Cha Jinpyo and said it with a slow, sharp grin.

"Then there's no need to drag this out any further. Let's begin at once. Manager Jo! I believe everything's ready."

At Cha Gihyeok's word, a man came forward.

"Your jacket, please."

They had Seonggi remove his coat, undid the buttons of his dress shirt, and pressed patch-like sensors here and there across his body. Seonggi had a fair idea what they were. A lie detector — the sort that turned up constantly in films and dramas. A machine that read breath, pulse, and the flow of blood, and from those decided truth from lie. The only difference was that he could see no wires. The technology had advanced, it seemed, far enough to measure such things wirelessly.

A polygraph, just to hear a father's last words? He could guess why. They meant to find out whether something profitable had been said.

"Please sit comfortably over here."

As the man called Manager Jo instructed, Seonggi tilted the chair and settled into it half reclined.

"We'll begin. Would you state your name first?"

"Choi Seonggi."

"Your date of birth?"

"June 29th. The year 0000."

"And your address?"

"I moved not long ago, so I don't really know it."

"That's fine. Occupation?"

"I said I ran an IT business. The truth is, I'm unemployed."

"When it was just you and your grandfather, what did he say?"

"He told me to come closer."

"And then...?"

"He spoke a number."

"What number?"

"Hmm..."

Seonggi hesitated. Cha Wonseok had told him not to speak it, but that warning had applied only before the estate was divided. He had already received everything he was meant to receive.

"One-one-zero-six."

"What?"

"He said one-one-zero-six."

"Did you ask what one-one-zero-six was?"

"I asked Grandfather myself. He wouldn't answer."

"He really said nothing but one-one-zero-six?"

"Yes."

"Nothing else?"

"Ah — there was one thing more."

"Let's hear it."

"He told me to bring Secretary Na Dohyung, and to work with him."

"And aside from that?"

"Nothing. But what is one-one-zero-six?"

"Who knows."

"All right. Wait here a moment."

Cha Jinpyo gave a slight nod, and Cha Gihyeok and Cha Dohyeok followed him out. The three of them left the room where Seonggi sat and went into an inner office. A machine stood there with its cables connected, and Manager Jo Gicheol — the man Cha Dohyeok had brought — sat before a device that looked like a seismograph.

"Well? Was what that fellow said the truth?"

"You'd do better to look at this before we talk."

Sensors reading heartbeat, blood flow, and the tension in the body were drawing three graphs across the paper.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. There's a little fluctuation, but it stays inside the average range."

"So we can take everything he said as the truth?"

"Yes, if he's an ordinary man. Unless he's a psychopath, or someone who's been professionally trained, it all gets caught. Taken together, I'd judge it highly likely that everything he said is true."

"Hmm..."

"If what he said is true, then what does it mean? Grandfather wouldn't have recited some meaningless number."

"Hmm..."

Cha Jinpyo thought he knew. Besides the ordinary safe in the chairman's office, there was another — a secret safe. He had once asked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Cha Wonseok about that dial-locked vault.

Pay it no mind. A day will come when you know.

That was what Wonseok had said. This was the combination to the secret safe in the chairman's office. He was certain of it. If his children learned that fact, nothing good would come of it, not even for them. Jinpyo ordered his thoughts at speed.

"No guesses?"

Feigning ignorance, he looked from Cha Dohyeok to Cha Gihyeok.

"Hard to say."

"Ah! Could it be Grandfather's account password?"

"That must be it!"

Cha Gihyeok chimed in at once behind Cha Dohyeok.

"A borrowed-name account, perhaps. But in the course of the inheritance we already confirmed every deposit in Grandfather's name on the national network."

"Then something like a hidden safe... there ought to be one somewhere."

"Oh — right. Grandfather's villa in Yangpyeong. There might be a hidden safe there."

"A safe?"

There might be, at that. It would explain why the place, more than forty years old and falling apart, had never been remodeled.

"As it happens, I already searched it top to bottom, basement included. There's nothing like that there."

Cha Jinpyo's eyes went round at Cha Gihyeok's words, and he spoke at once.

"When did you search your grandfather's house?"

"While he was in the hospital. Just in case. How are you supposed to trust the hired help?"

Fair enough — but if he meant to search the place, he should have said so first.

"We don't know what might be there. Search every inch of it. Carefully."

"Yes."

"In any case, what do we do about that fellow? He's awkward on several fronts. And we have to take him to the Meeting."

"Don't make any careless moves for the time being! He is no ordinary man."

"True... Looking at the deal he just cut with you to get Mr. Yoo made president, he doesn't seem ordinary to me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠either."

Cha Gihyeok conceded the point and nodded.

The door clattered.

"Ah — you startled me!"

Cha Dohyeok flinched hard and cried out.

"Ah, sorry. It looked as if you were finished, so I thought I'd head out first."

Choi Seonggi stood in the doorway, fully dressed.

"R-right. Good work."

"Then — good work to all of you."

Seonggi bowed his head and closed the door.

Quietly take care of me? I told you. These are very dangerous people.

Having heard what Cha Jinpyo said, Choi Seonggi's face was twisted.