Bak Gyeongtae's Wedding
The text had arrived from Oh Se-eun. She'd clearly hammered it out in a panic, right before her father dragged her off. Special characters and English letters were mashed together in a frantic jumble. That ggr at the end — she'd been trying to type an unprintable insult using only consonants, then slammed into the English keyboard by accident.
And this was the same woman who, mere minutes ago, had been calling him my husband and my lord, begging him to take her, to do with her as he pleased.
A satisfied smile spread across both corners of Jung Jinwoo's mouth as he hit send.
Was she not adorable?
She was doing everything she could to bind him to her with money. That Japanese manga-style roleplay of hers wasn't quite his thing, but still.
Lying in his room, he closed his eyes, and Oh Se-eun's face rose behind his lids — along with the sound of her voice. Take me… take me… How was a man supposed to hear words like that and not feel his pulse jump?
If Chairman Oh Jang-seok ever did send over that two hundred billion won, Jinwoo had already decided what he'd say: that Oh Se-eun had, as it turned out, already paid it back. Mentioning it now would only plant distrust between Ko Yoon-seok and Oh Se-eun before the two of them had even met. And she had asked him to keep her repayment a secret, besides.
The phone buzzed in his hand. Lee Jinho of Saengsong.
Jinwoo had passed along Oh Se-eun's prediction of the coming stock crash and told Lee Jinho to put it to good use. Apparently they all had, and they'd all made money doing it.
He hung up.
Obvious enough. He'd made them money, so now they wanted a deeper relationship — the kind that might make them even more. That was all this was.
Still… this was Lee Jinho of Saengsong. Was hanging up on him really all right?
The doubt flickered for a moment. Then Jinwoo gave a light shake of his head. Lee Jinho would have to want something from him first.
"Jinwoo, you made it. We're counting on you today."
"Congratulations."
"Come in, Jinwoo. Come in."
He bowed his head to Bak Gyeongtae's father and mother in turn.
By tradition, a wedding's master of ceremonies was supposed to be a man who had married, had children, and was living well. Jung Jinwoo had taken the role anyway. He was divorced, yes — but Bak Gyeongtae had no friend to speak of besides him. Two friends without anyone else. So Jinwoo would emcee.
He offered his greetings to the bride and groom, then turned to the preparations. That was when he saw it.
The bride's side of the lobby was packed wall to wall. The groom's side looked barren enough to echo.
"Why are there so few of your people?" he asked quietly, standing beside Bak Gyeongtae as the groom received guests with his parents.
"Dad didn't tell anyone at the company, I don't think. And the old company went under, so those relationships are all… uncomfortable. That's why there's nobody."
"What about the school where you work?"
"I told them not to feel obligated, that they didn't have to come. And they actually didn't. The grade-level supervisor showed up, at least."
You hopeless idiot, Jinwoo thought. How do you even function in the world? A recent transfer to a new school, still awkward with the other teachers, and he hadn't even managed to tell them he was getting married.
"Aigoo, Mrs. Kwon, you came! Deacon Shim — we're so grateful, truly."
While the groom's side stood around looking lost, the bride's guests filed in a steady stream, exchanging greetings.
"The groom's father is a construction company president, isn't he? Why are there no guests?"
"Shh! They went bankrupt. They still haven't paid off the debts, I heard."
"Is she marrying some nobody? Why are there so few people on the groom's side?"
"What kind of wedding is this? I've never seen one with so few guests in my life."
"Did they catch the bride in something? Why would she agree to a wedding like this?"
The bride's guests had clustered among themselves and were holding forth without the slightest restraint. A few of the voices were loud enough to carry all the way to Gyeongtae and his parents.
"I heard the guy doing the MC is a divorcé. This isn't a wedding — it's a soap opera."
Jinwoo glanced back. Among the bridesmaids stood Choe Gyeongseon, the snobbish woman he'd met at the families' introductory dinner. People were starting to shoot looks in his direction now, their faces tightening with distaste.
"Ahem. Jinwoo, don't let it bother you. We're grateful you're doing this for us."
Gyeongtae's father even cleared his throat and went out of his way to encourage him.
"Poor Jeong-eun! How could she marry into a family like that?"
"Ahem. Ahem. Ahem."
That insane woman, Choe Gyeongseon. Her provocation had now risen past even Gyeongtae's father's pointed throat-clearing, ringing through the lobby for everyone to hear. The father and mother's faces had gone red. Gyeongtae himself — who ought to have been standing tall — had flushed scarlet, his hands clasped, his head bowed.
Jinwoo clapped him on the back, trying to put some steel in him.
It cost a trillion won to save your father. Three trillion to build you that house. A hundred and twenty million for the Crystal Cruise. All of it so you could stand here proud and happy, you idiot.
He had poured a fortune into this day. The most important moment of this man's life, and he was standing here with his head down, shrinking into himself. That would not do.
"W-well… haha…"
If the bride's parents or the bride herself had been the problem, Jinwoo would have told Gyeongtae not to marry at all. They were genuinely good people. So why were the guests on that side like this? Choe Gyeongseon most of all — a woman who took her snobbery, her untested and narrow little field of vision, and ran her mouth with it as if it were fact.
To be fair, the groom's side really was too empty. Fewer than ten people, by the look of it. And here was the groom, who ought to have been the most magnificent man in the room, hunched into himself like this.
How was he supposed to turn this around? The ceremony started in thirty minutes.
His phone rang. Lee Jinho again.
Lee Jinho wasn't usually like this. Why was he being so persistent?
"I'm sorry. I'm at a wedding hall right now."
"If it's work, just take the call! Don't worry about us."
Bak Gyeongtae, trying to be considerate, waved him off and told him to take it freely.
And in that instant, a magnificent idea lit up inside Jung Jinwoo's head.
"You're coming here? To the wedding hall? We're in Yeoksam-dong — can you make it in thirty minutes?"
The moment Jinwoo sounded as though he might actually agree to meet, Lee Jinho's eagerness had gone into overdrive.
"Congratulations, President Bak."
"Ah… n-no… S-Saengsong's… I… th-thank you so much."
"It's a happy day, so I prepared a small gift. Kim — bring it over, would you?"
At Lee Jinho's word, an attendant rolled in a cart stacked with more than a hundred boxes of the latest Saengsong phones.
"I'll take care of the appliances for the newlyweds' home. And please distribute these to your guests as gifts."
"Th-this is… aigoo, you really didn't have to go this far."
"I owe the president a great deal. This is only a modest token of my regard. Please accept it."
"Th-thank you. Truly, thank you."
Lee Jinho had arrived with four attendants and a hundred phones. He finished his greetings with Gyeongtae's father, then caught Jinwoo's eye and winked.
A hundred phones was overdoing it. Who handed out cell phones as wedding-guest gifts?
"Is that guy really Lee Jinho of Saengsong? Is it actually him?"
"Unbelievable. Did you hear that? Lee Jinho just said he owed the groom's father a great debt."
"What a family… Good lord. Lee Jinho himself."
The bride's guests had begun to stir and murmur when the second arrival made her entrance.
"Oh my! Father — congratulations!"
A strikingly beautiful woman swept in, draped in luxury brands, flanked by five handsome men in black suits. Shin Bin-sun of Nodae Group.
"Ah… y-yes, yes. Please, come in."
"Aigoo, Father. I told you to invite me to the wedding, didn't I? Do you have any idea how hard it was to find out about this?"
"Ah. Well, that is…"
Another wave rolled through the bride's side.
"That's her, right? That's Shin Bin-sun of Nodae Group!"
"Good lord… Lee Jinho and now Shin Bin-sun… What kind of family is the groom from?"
"So that's why they didn't even announce the son's wedding. I was wondering why there were no guests. Tsk tsk."
Shin Bin-sun let her gaze sweep once across the whispering crowd.
"Father! I brought a few dozen Nodae Hotel stay vouchers just in case — please raffle them off among the guests later. Oh! Hyunmoo!"
"Oh, Bin-sun! A pleasure to meet you, sir."
Jung Hyunmoo of Gyeondae Group came jogging up with four attendants of his own and bowed deeply to Gyeongtae's parents.
"P-please, come in."
"We got a bit lost on the way. Looks like we made it in time, though. Heartfelt congratulations. I've owed you a great deal over the years, sir. Haha."
Not bad, the acting.
"O-owed me? Not at all. In any case, you've come a long way. We're very grateful."
"Here — this is our newest model, the Genesis G100. I felt awkward preparing a separate gift, so please give it to the groom. Haha."
Jung Hyunmoo held out a box with a car key inside.
"No, this is far too much…"
Handing over the keys to a car worth over a hundred million won instead of a wedding envelope was, Jinwoo had to admit, a bit much.
"Please, take it. Hahaha."
And then—
"A-am I late? I'm not late, right? I made it, didn't I?"
Gu Hyungwoo came barreling in with three attendants at his heels.
"Hurry up already, will you?"
"I did hurry… Ah — congratulations, sir. Hahaha."
"P-please, come in."
"I'll furnish the newlyweds' home top to bottom with MG's latest models."
"We already decided the appliances would be Saengsong!"
"What are you talking about? Appliances means MG. Sir, MG products have better durability and far superior quality compared to Saengsong."
"When people say appliances, they mean Saengsong. What are you—"
"Hahaha… yes, yes, whichever is best is fine."
"Whichever? Our marketing team may be a bunch of idiots, but our quality is number one in the world."
"Number two, after Saengsong."
"That is complete nonsense—"
"Waaah — am I late? Did I miss it?"
While Gu Hyungwoo was still locked in combat with Lee Jinho, Choi Ki-cheon came charging in with his own attendants, his suit soaked through with sweat.
"Ki-cheon, would you hurry up for once? You almost missed it again."
"I made it in time, didn't I? Bin-sun, you want to keep running your mouth? Ah! Sir, a pleasure. I'm Choi Ki-cheon, a friend of the groom. Haha."
"Aigoo, thank you so much. Please, come in."
"Heartfelt congratulations. Hahaha. We didn't have anything to bring, so we just… went with cash. I apologize — I should have prepared something properly. We're a telecom company, so at the end of the day, money's what counts, isn't it? Ah… sorry about that."
With that, he held out a paper shopping bag stuffed with bundles of cash.
He could at least have memorized the name, Jinwoo thought. "A friend of the groom"? And who on earth presented a shopping bag full of cash as a wedding gift? That had to be two or three hundred million won in there. Checks would have been the civilized way. And yet—
"Hic! What is that? Is that all money?"
"Good lord… What kind of family is the groom from that the gift money is… enough to buy a house?"
As a display, it was devastatingly effective. Every eye in the room had gone wide as a dinner plate, all of them locked on the groom's side.
It was only five people and maybe twenty attendants. But the atmosphere in the hall had transformed in an instant. A hundred guests on the bride's side sat blinking at the scene unfolding in front of them, whispering frantically among themselves, unable to believe what they were seeing.
"What's going on with the groom's family? Lee Jinho, Gu Hyungwoo, Jung Hyunmoo, Choi Ki-cheon, and even Shin Bin-sun… is this a gathering of chaebols?"
"They all said they owed the groom's father a great debt. How much good must that man have done for every third-generation heir in the country to come running like this?"
"Nobody would believe me if I described this. To actually see Number Five gathered in one place. P-photos. I need to take photos."
"Didn't they just say to give the phones and the hotel vouchers to the guests? It's a raffle, right?"
One by one, the bride's guests pulled out their phones and started taking pictures.
While Jinwoo hung back at the edge of the scene, the chaebol heirs of Number Five posed with the groom and his parents as if they had been close for years, smiling for every camera like old family friends.
Any one of those five was someone ordinary people could spend a lifetime wanting to meet and never come close.
"The bride's parents should get in the picture too."
Shin Bin-sun, shameless in the most charming way, called the other family over.
"S-should we?"
The bride's parents, unable to refuse, joined the photograph.
And so, with the once-in-a-century spectacle of Number Five assembled in a single frame, the wedding of the century began.
Bak Gyeongtae had no idea why they were there. Neither did his parents. They would never know that these faces — faces most of the world would never see in person — had come running as if their lives depended on it, for one reason only.
To meet Jung Jinwoo.