The Result of a Clumsy Act
Ho-jung was thinking about her great-uncle Choi Jeong-san when another cousin who had appeared in this article came to mind.
“James oppa!”
“Even if you ask me, I’m not going to go along with it. That’s already been decided, so...”
“No, that’s not it. Do you know what happened to Tae-jin oppa?”
The first person to reveal that Tae-jin had been arrested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had been James himself.
“Oh. Right, you two met in America, didn’t you? He also tried to make a move on Su-ji then.”
“...Yeah. Tae-jin oppa had been kind of interested in Su-ji for a while. But he never contacted her separately after that. Anyway!”
“Why do you ask?”
“I heard he’s being investigated for doing drugs in America too. Have you heard anything more?”
“Hmm...”
Tae-jin, who had been supplied with drugs by a member of a Mexican cartel, was not actually that important a suspect. But Tae-jin knew that the person he had dealt with was part of a huge cartel, and so he had clamped his mouth shut.
If he so much as opened his mouth, he’d be killed in prison too.
Tae-jin was handling things wisely enough to keep himself alive, but the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was not the sort of organization that would let him slip by simply because he stayed silent.
“I only confirmed that he was arrested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. I don’t know what happened after that.”
After that, he didn’t care. Whether the bastard got murdered in an American prison or not was none of his business.
“If the jar leaks inside, there’s no way it won’t leak outside too. Tsk. The disgrace in that family has always come from your uncle’s house...”
As Ho-jung trailed off, she remembered that James sitting in front of her was also Choi Jeong-san’s son.
“I told you not to lump me in with that family. Legally, we’re strangers, got it?”
“Anyway... sorry.”
“No more questions, right? I’ve got to go now.”
“Where are you going?”
“You think only you’d be curious about this? Su-ji still hasn’t heard anything either.”
Today, James had only briefly interrupted Colt’s and Ho-jung’s meeting. He had to leave them behind and go explain the whole situation to Su-ji too.
“...I’ll come with you.”
“Why would you come?”
“Because I want to see Su-ji freak out. Hehe.”
Colt raised his hand too.
“Jimjim, let me come watch too.”
“...President Colt?”
“Yeah. Vice President James.”
When James called Colt “President,” it wasn’t because they had decided to address each other by title. It was a reminder of his place.
“If even you, the president, leave, who’s going to look over the approval documents? Does the CEO not work?”
“......”
It was a weekday, not a weekend when the company was closed.
“We just stepped out for lunch. You get back inside and check the approval documents I handed over, then stamp them.”
Colt thought it was something that could be pushed to tomorrow.
“Ah, those approval documents...”
But James still had plenty left to assign.
“Check the new base-station equipment we’re investing in this time. Besides the base station that already blew up, there were a ton of aging facilities that needed replacement. Tell them to make this a priority inspection too. Make sure they check it. And review the ads that are scheduled for rollout as well.”
“There was a new facility investment? And old equipment, plus ads?”
Colt’s duties didn’t end there.
“And go over the events we’re running for telecom customers from the start again. This is the first event we’re holding after acquiring TY Telecom, so we need to make sure there are no holes.”
“Hey! You want me to handle all of that alone?”
“I checked it all and passed it to you, didn’t I?!”
James had clearly said from the start that these were documents he had already gone through and handed over.
“If you already looked at everything, why am I doing it again...”
“Someone has to keep track of the work the company is doing! You’re the CEO! TY Telecom CEO Colt Evans! And what’s the point of me, the vice president, stamping anything? It’s your stamp as CEO that makes the final decision official!”
“...Damn it.”
“We’re going, oppa.”
Ho-jung hooked her arm through James’s with easy familiarity and left the cafe looking cheerful. The uneasy feeling she’d had before reaching the cafe had been blown clean away.
“Check carefully and then stamp it. If the president stamps something wrong, that’s billions gone in one shot.”
“......”
And Colt was destined to go back to work.
* * *
Ho-jung got into James’s car on the way to see Su-ji and stretched with a long groan.
“Uuugh. I feel alive again.”
“You were tense?”
“Yeah. A lot.”
At first, Ho-jung had connected herself to the result of James and Colt taking over TY Telecom. She had even suspected that everything, including the way the two of them had approached her in the past, might have been planned. Once she started doubting, everything from the smallest thing to the biggest seemed suspicious.
“I was making a fuss over nothing by myself.”
“You’ve known us this long and still didn’t know?”
“Right. James oppa and Colt aren’t the kind of people who’d do that.”
The problem was that she was going to face the same suspicion again when they arrived to meet Su-ji. Of course, the real problem was that Ho-jung was already clinging to James before they got there. It had been James’s idea in the car earlier.
“Want to pretend we’re dating?”
“What?”
“I’m curious how Su-ji’ll react.”
“Ah, come on. That doesn’t even make sense.”
“Just for a moment.”
“I don’t know about this.”
“Leave it to me!”
* * *
Ho-jung entered the cafe with her arm looped through James’s. Su-ji stared at them with shaken eyes.
“Wow... Ho-jung, you... dumped Colt and latched onto him already? Because James oppa took over TY Telecom?”
Su-ji knew Colt had risen to become TY Telecom’s president, but she had already guessed that it had really happened under James’s direction. She had heard earlier that he’d been preparing to acquire a company.
“Pfft. Su-ji, what are you talking about? Since when was I ever one to stay loyal to a man?”
Ho-jung rested her head on James’s shoulder. If James merely turned his head slightly, their lips would meet. To Su-ji, it was close enough to look like a relationship that ran deep.
Ho-jung and James oppa...
Su-ji fed her own suspicions and asked James a question, assuming the relationship had already gone bad.
“James, tell me straight. Were you trying to meet my father through me?”
“What?”
“To get investment money from him and use it to acquire TY Telecom?”
She also believed the huge acquisition funds James had used this time had come from Chairman Kim Seong-oh’s pocket. That was the only way all the events up to now fit together like pieces of a puzzle.
“Seriously, am I in a movie right now? What is she talking about?”
“Oppa. If it were me, I’d have thought that too. Cut her some slack. But that’s kind of a new script, isn’t it? Want to explain it in detail?”
“......”
Su-ji was still narrowing her eyes and glaring back and forth between James and Ho-jung. But soon her eyes filled with tears.
“...Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’m wrong, damn it! Huuuuu.”
“Ah, James oppa. Looks like teasing Su-ji is a lost cause.”
“That kind of joke was bad, Ho-jung.”
Ho-jung stepped away from James, and James quickly moved to Su-ji’s side and started soothing her.
“No, no. None of it’s true.”
“Sob. Really? It’s not?”
“Ho-jung went too far with the joke. She just likes making trouble for no reason... Hurry up and apologize, will you?”
Ho-jung came over too, looking embarrassed.
“I’m sorry. I was shocked today too, and I thought you’d find it funny... Ugh, I shouldn’t have stuck to oppa like that.”
“You were mean. You were really mean!”
“I said I’m sorry. I really messed up!”
Soon Su-ji heard James explain everything that had happened, one piece at a time. It was the same explanation Ho-jung had heard: that after arriving in Korea, he had found his biological parents, hidden the truth, and then faced death threats afterward.
“Y-you... to oppa? How could your own biological parents do that...”
“Right. That’s why I tried to keep away from you for a while before. I was worried you’d get dragged into it too.”
“Ah! That time!”
It had been when he said he had submitted a collectible to an international auction. That timing also matched when the results of the search for his biological parents had come in.
Oppa said he wanted to be alone...
He had said the orphanage records were destroyed and he couldn’t find his birth parents, so he wanted some time alone. When Su-ji refused because she couldn’t leave him alone at a time like that, he then said he was worried about being kidnapped because of the expensive auction item and wanted to keep some distance for a while. He had been trying every possible way to stay away from her.
He knew everything back then. So he was protecting me...
James also revealed that there was another person who knew about this Ty Telecom hunt.
“Chairman Kim Seong-oh knew most of the plan this time. I’d told him in advance.”
“What, Dad knew too?”
“That doesn’t mean I got investment money up front. He was going to help, but then backed out. In the end, this was all done with my own money.”
“Then I was the one who got it wrong...”
James brought up the most important piece of information he hadn’t explained yet.
“Except for the fact that I’m Ty Telecom blood. I couldn’t tell you that in advance. Even now, it’s not exactly something I want to make public. I consider myself a stranger to them.”
“Huh?”
At James’s cold words, Ho-jung jabbed him in the side.
“Ugh. What? Why?”
“Your cousin is sitting right next to you, listening.”
“Okay. Then we’ll leave you out. Just you.”
Su-ji was flustered by the sudden mention of Ty Telecom blood.
“Ty Telecom blood? Cousin?”
It was the first she’d heard of it.
“Former President Choi Jeong-san turned out to be responsible for half my genes.”
“...!!”
“My biological mother died not long after I was born. She’s not in this world anymore.”
“Then James oppa’s acquisition of TY Telecom was...”
Only after arriving in Korea had James gained a clear purpose.
“Revenge. Revenge on Choi Jeong-san, who sent me to the orphanage and still tried to kill me after that.”
“......”
Instead of Su-ji, who had lost the ability to speak, Ho-jung stepped in.
“Oppa completely succeeded in his revenge. In the process, he also left TY Telecom room to recover...”
Su-ji immediately understood. As someone from one of those chaebol families held together tightly by blood ties, she understood at once.
“Because James oppa is TY Telecom blood, then in the end...”
“Yeah. Grandpa even recognized James oppa. That’s game over. My dad’ll probably step down from his position as TY Chemical president too, but he’ll be back soon enough...”
As Ho-jung grinned and explained that things had ended well, Su-ji’s arm came around her head.
“You little...”
“Ahh!”
Ho-jung screamed as Su-ji locked her in a headlock.
“You hid all of this and still came here pretending to be James oppa’s lover?”
“I already apologized! Agh. Let go! That hurts!”
“......”
James did not stop Su-ji. He only watched.
“Ahh! Oppa, what are you doing?”
Ho-jung was looking to James for help.
“Huh?”
“If your cousin’s getting beaten up, you’re supposed to save her! Do something about this!”
At Ho-jung’s plea, Su-ji glared at James and said, “Try touching me. Huh?”
“...Su-ji, I think she needs a little more punishment to come to her senses.”
Buoyed by James’s words, Su-ji tightened her grip even more.
“No matter what anyone says, oppa’s on my side!!! More than being your cousin oppa, he’s my boyfriend!”
“Kyah!”
* * *
A little later, Ho-jung fixed her mussed hair and glared at James and Su-ji, who were sticking to each other like that.
“I didn’t come all the way here to watch this...”
Whether Ho-jung complained or not, Su-ji looked at James with affectionate eyes and asked, “Honey, what happened to Colt? You came alone?”
“He’s the company president now. It’s a weekday, so he has to work. He’s got so much to do.”
“I heard you got a vice president title too?”
By now, Su-ji was the owner of a giant company with five trillion won in sales, and James was also the owner of TY Group.
“I finished everything I had to do before I came. I’m free today.”
“Perfect. I wrapped up all my busy work too and came out.”
“A date after a long time?”
“Hehe. Nice.”
They were so sweet together that you’d never know there had been a tense moment earlier.
“Tch! Tch! I should’ve brought Colt with me! I’m telling him everything!”
But Colt wasn’t there right now.