Young-hoon's Parents (2)
But that wasn't the end of it.
Mrs. Kim reached into the bus's luggage compartment and pulled out yet another large box. It seemed she'd hauled along every last thing they had harvested back in the fall.
"You made it, Mother, Father. Goodness, why on earth did you bring so much luggage?"
Young-hoon took the bags from his mother and also offered a greeting to Hye-in's parents.
"Hello, Uncle, Auntie. Hye-in will be so happy to see you."
"There's my boy. Were you waiting long? Having my son come out to meet me like this — it makes raising him feel worthwhile."
His mother said it loudly, pointedly playing up the affection as if putting on a show. It was obvious she and Hye-in's mother still hadn't made peace.
"Well, Young-hoon, it's been a while. Have you been well? Is work treating you all right?"
Hye-in's mother returned the greeting as well, though for some reason it came across as a touch frosty.
Young-hoon, hoisting the box she'd pulled from the luggage rack, could only marvel at how on earth she had managed to carry something this heavy all the way to the bus terminal.
"Yes. But what did you pack so much for? You could have just come comfortably — I can barely lift this."
"Don't be silly, boy — these are farm goods I grew with my own two hands out in the country. Quit your yapping. Where's the car?"
"It's in the parking lot. We'll have to walk a bit. And Hye-in was too busy to come out, so I came in her place. You and Uncle can ride in my car."
At that, Hye-in's mother seized the opening and let fly a barb.
"Isn't your car rather small, though? Load it up with all that luggage and the four of us, won't the poor thing collapse?"
His mother was, of course, not the sort to let that slide.
"Then why don't you just take a taxi, you old woman? Why insist on riding in my son's car?"
The two women's feathers had been ruffled since last week, and apparently the wound had yet to heal. Left alone, they'd embarrass Hye-in terribly, so Young-hoon hurried to smooth things over.
"Auntie, there's plenty of room for all of us, so please don't worry."
After all manner of back-and-forth, the party finally reached the parking lot — and everyone froze at the sight of the parked car.
His mother's voice suddenly gathered strength. At the same moment, Hye-in's mother's bravado began to wither.
"Oh my, son~ this car is yours, isn't it?"
"Good heavens, this is Young-hoon's car?"
"Yes, it's mine. Please, get in. It'll take a little while to reach the Seoul Hotel."
"Son~ how much does a car like this run? I don't know much about cars, but it's got to be over a hundred million won, no?"
She clearly wanted to brag in front of Hye-in's mother. And as her son, it was his duty to play along with the rhythm.
"I'm not really sure — it was a gift. I've heard it's worth around five hundred million or so."
Hye-in's mother's eyes went wide at the figure, plainly unable to believe it.
"Five hundred million? For a car? Young-hoon, my boy, you're exaggerating far too much."
"You old bat, have you ever even laid eyes on a car this fine? And when has my son ever told a lie?"
The two women kept up their bickering even inside the car, but the two fathers, evidently long accustomed to such spectacles, said nothing at all. Still, as the mothers' voices climbed higher and higher, Young-hoon's father could bear it no longer and finally let loose a thunderclap.
"You blasted women! My son is trying to drive — what's with all this racket?!"
The car fell silent in an instant. Hye-in's mother shut her mouth with a guilty look to match, and Hye-in's father let out a quiet chuckle.
Once again, my father's authority was nothing to trifle with.
Just before six o'clock, they arrived at the Seoul Hotel in Myeong-dong. When they pulled up to the entrance, a bellman opened the car door for them. After handing the car over for valet parking, they made their way to the dining venue, where most of the guests had already gathered.
Once the rounds of greetings were finished, the meal began in earnest. And at the center of every conversation sat Young-hoon.
As the dinner wound down, President Lee Jae-man stepped up to formally take the floor. He explained to everyone the reason for arranging the gathering, then went into detail about the questions they'd all been burning to ask. And finally, he introduced the man who had played the decisive role in Five Girls' revival and had become, in practice, the true owner of Girin Entertainment — Kim Young-hoon himself.
Young-hoon introduced himself to the room once more and laid out his ambitions for the future. To dispel any doubts about a man in his early thirties leading a business, he faced the crowd with all the confidence he could muster. To the parents of Ha-yeon, Ga-eun, and Su-min, whom he had not yet had the chance to greet properly, he went table to table to offer his respects personally. With Ha-yeon's father in particular, he made a promise to meet separately the following morning.
During the after-dinner hour, everyone enjoyed a delightful time listening to Five Girls' songs.
Hye-in's mother, meanwhile, was positively squirming in her seat.
She'd been grousing about whether Hye-in should just quit singing altogether when things suddenly took off — and then she learned it was all thanks to Young-hoon writing her songs. Her jaw nearly hit the floor. And what about the time Hye-in sent home a hundred million won — how shamefully she'd needled Young-hoon's mother over it. She'd thrown a whole village feast and preened to her heart's content, and it had all been built on Young-hoon's money, of all things. And all this time she'd been sneering at him. From this moment on, only one fate remained for her: complete reversal.
No matter how well Hye-in was doing, she was only ever an employee of the agency, wasn't she? In other words, if Young-hoon decided to cast them out, they'd be left with nowhere to go at all.
Then, unbidden, the memory of Young-hoon's car floated back to her. She'd let the "five hundred million" figure pass in one ear and out the other, but thinking about it now... it had to be true. Suddenly her breath caught in her throat. From now on, she realized, she would have to grovel before Young-hoon's mother for the rest of her days — and the thought of her own position made her feel more trapped than ever.
Young-hoon's mother, on the other hand, was coming alive with vindication.
How bitter it had been when the woman next door bragged about her eldest daughter sending home a hundred million won! And now it turned out that the very person who'd made that money possible was her own eldest son. And the car that had come to pick her up today — she'd never in her sixty years laid eyes on anything so luxurious. The years of humiliation at the neighbor woman's hands melted away like spring snow. It felt as if a decade of pent-up congestion had come whooshing out of her chest all at once.
All that remained now was to go back down to the countryside and bask in her glory. From this day forward, the woman next door would never be able to hold her head up in front of her again.
My son is the best.
Before anyone knew it, the event had drawn to a close and it was time to part ways. Those who had come up from the countryside stayed at the hotel, and the rest of the party scattered to their own homes. Young-hoon, too, called a designated driver service and escorted his parents to his house.
The substitute driver handled the car with extreme care. He'd clearly never driven a luxury vehicle of this caliber in his life — you could practically feel the nerves radiating off him.
When they reached the house, Su-jin was there to greet Young-hoon and the parents. She proudly showed off every corner of the home as though it were her own. His mother, fascinated by everything, went around touching whatever she could find.
"Son~ how much did this house cost?"
"Hmm, I'd say around five billion won, give or take?"
"FIVE billion?!"
Even his father, who rarely showed much emotion, was visibly startled by the figure. Watching his child succeed like this filled him with pride beyond words, yet the change had come so abruptly that it was clearly not easy to absorb.
Once the house tour was over, the four family members settled onto the sofas for a quiet chat. Quick-witted as ever, Su-jin brought out fruit. And when Young-hoon judged that his parents had finally found some measure of composure, he pulled two envelopes from his pocket and handed one to each of them.
"Son~ what's this? Don't tell me it's pocket money for us?"
His mother's voice had gone soft and syrupy with pure delight. His father, however, kept a stern face, as if demanding an explanation.
"Mother, Father, I know you must be terribly confused right now. But please trust me. I swear to you before heaven — none of this came from any wrongdoing."
Young-hoon laid out his explanation as calmly as he could. However great his success, if it had come at the cost of squeezing tears from other people, his father wouldn't have given it a second glance — that was simply the man's character. Which meant he needed to make everything properly understood, for his parents' peace of mind.
"A while back, I happened to help someone — a person with an absolutely enormous fortune. I didn't do it expecting anything in return, of course, but she insisted on repaying me. That's where the house, the car, and the huge sum of money came from."
His father, a man of few words in ordinary times, was dying to know what kind of help Young-hoon could possibly have given to warrant such an extravagant reward. The dinner party business was one thing — fine, the boy wrote good songs and ended up a CEO somehow. But a house and a car were an entirely separate matter.
"And what exactly did you do for this woman?"
"I was driving along when I came across someone badly injured in a traffic accident, and I gave her emergency first aid. You know I served as a medic, Father."
"So what you're saying is, you first-aided someone at death's door, saved their life, and it turned out they were fantastically rich, and they repaid you? That's the kind of thing that only happens in novels. Why don't you just go become a novelist while you're at it?"
"I'm telling you, it's true. She has one daughter, who lives in America, so she has no relatives at all to rely on."
"Fine, let's say I believe you. We've seen the house and the car — now, how much money did you actually get?"
"Ten billion won."
"TEN billion?!"
"Yes. So I'd like to give you and Mother five hundred million each."
"Five hundred million?!"
"Son~ isn't that far too much?"
"Aw, come on — even after giving you both that much, I've still got nine billion left. And I'll be earning plenty more from here on out."
"Oppaaa~ how much do I get?"
"You're already living in my house rent-free, aren't you?"
"That's so mean! Hmph, I'm sullying!!"
The conversation flowed back and forth, and before anyone noticed, the hours had slipped away. His mother and Su-jin excused themselves to bed, and Young-hoon decided to have one more drink with his father.
His father drank in silence. His heart, it seemed, was a tangle of complicated feelings. Having never been able to give his children much of anything, receiving gifts so extravagant they bordered on excessive clearly didn't sit easy with him. After a long while lost in thought, he quietly reached out his hand and clasped Young-hoon's firmly. Then, with great difficulty, he opened his mouth.
"Thank you, son."
Rough and plain as the words were, Young-hoon's emotions surged up in that instant. His father's heart came through so achingly, so completely. This was a man who had worked in silence for his children his entire life. Unable to afford so much as proper tutoring for them because of their meager circumstances — that regret had to be lodged like a thorn in his chest. Young-hoon understood his father's heart all too well. And that was precisely why he was so immeasurably proud of him.
Thursday, November 16th.
When Young-hoon got up, the table was already laid with a lavish breakfast. His mother, it seemed, had gotten up before dawn to prepare it. He used to skip breakfast more often than not, finding it a bother, but ever since moving in with Su-jin he'd been eating it faithfully every single day. Today's spread, though, was generous to the point of excess. No doubt this, too, was his mother's heart.
He ate his fill, bowed to his parents, and left the house. With his appointment to meet Ha-yeon's father scheduled for today, he made sure not to forget to pack the Magic Additive. Thus began a day that would bind yet another new connection.
Back at the office, Young-hoon threw himself into the whirlwind of work. First he had to get the pre-bid report for Myeongseong University approved and notify Namseoul Distribution of the bid price. After that, he had to meet Ha-yeon's father before noon — and he had two dinner appointments lined up for the evening as well. His dinner with PD Jang Won-seok was very likely to shift depending on PD Lee Hyo-young's circumstances; if it came to that, he could simply push it to tomorrow. But the dinner with President Joo of Sinabro Production was non-negotiable. He shuddered to imagine what PD Shin Hye-yoon would be like if he dared postpone it. She was unmistakably a beauty with soft features, yet somehow she terrified him beyond all reason.
As always, Young-hoon headed to the lounge for coffee and waited for President Lee Jae-man's call. Perhaps because of yesterday's grand event, today the phone actually rang instead of buzzing with a text.
"President Lee, did you get home all right last night?"
[Yes, it was a joyful, festive evening. I think it would be lovely to hold gatherings like this on a regular basis.]
"Haha, sounds great. Quarterly would be too much, but once every six months wouldn't be bad at all."
[I'll keep that in mind. Now, let me give you a brief rundown of today's business. The Five Girls girls have the morning off. I told them to spend the time with their families, and unless something comes up I plan to let them rest until the afternoon. And this evening there's a dinner scheduled with Sinabro Production. Apparently they're offering us an appearance fee of one hundred million won.]
"Excuse me? They're giving us a hundred million won as an appearance fee?"
[Sinabro Production seems to be rather flush with cash these days.]
"Well, Chairman Jang did invest an extra ten billion, so I suppose money isn't their problem. Where's the dinner being held?"
[At the Renaissance Hotel Restaurant next to the Sinabro Production building. You can arrive anytime before 6 p.m.]
"Understood. I'll see you this evening, then."
Hanging up, Young-hoon found himself thinking of PD Shin Hye-yoon, whom he would be seeing for the first time in a while. And somehow, inexplicably, his heart began to race.