IMRMH 06

CHAPTER:06

“Mom. The scratch on my cheek.”

Hyeok-jun spoke up, pitifully caressing his cheek covered with gauze.

“Oh? Yes, son. How did that happen? Who put a scratch on your handsome face—”

“Shin Yu-seong. That bitch slapped me out of nowhere. Said she doesn’t want to marry me.”

“…Is that so?”

The air grew deathly cold. At the murderous glint in Myeong-suk’s eyes, her secretary immediately bowed their head.

“Call that house this instant. Tell them we’re paying them a visit soon.”

Having found someone to vent her rage on, the woman’s lips curled into a crooked smirk.

***

While waiting for him as he went to wash up, Yu-seong gazed at the Han River stretching out past the panoramic window.

Her mind, still in disarray, was a chaotic mess.

Every single one of her senses was on high alert against that man.

Even so, she had no choice but to follow him.

Because she had no other option.

*I will make Kwon Su-hyeok my husband, no matter what.*

Just as Yu-seong clenched her fists tightly in determination—

“That’s quite a fierce look on your face. Are you sure you’re not going to eat me alive?”

Su-hyeok, emerging from the bathroom, broke her heavy train of thought.

Damp, wet hair.

And a black bathrobe draped over his bare body.

“Are you… not going to put some clothes on?”

She had already been flustered when he said he was going to wash up because he felt sticky after the long flight, but she never expected him to come out looking like *that*. The tips of Yu-seong’s ears flushed a faint red.

For the trail of water trickling down his chest was all too vivid.

“Have you never seen a shirtless man before?”

…Well, it was indeed her first time.

But was it normal to come out dressed like that when you had company?

As the man sat down opposite her, the sudden scent of body wash wafting over made Yu-seong swallow hard.

She adjusted her posture and rested her hands politely on her knees.

It was finally time to get down to business.

“May I ask my questions now?”

At her solemn demeanor, Su-hyeok paused for a moment as if caught off guard, then nodded.

“What is your relationship with my father?”

“Well… a love-hate relationship, perhaps?”

An ambiguous answer. Yu-seong’s eyes narrowed.

At her reaction, the man smirked, then replied in a dry tone.

“Your father is my savior. At the same time, I was put through absolute hell by Chairman Shin. Right up to the brink of death.”

If he was his savior…

As expected, her father was indeed involved in the incident that took place some twenty years ago.

The double suicide of the Kwonseong Group mother and son.

An incident where a mother and her son plunged into the sea together and drowned.

Although the son’s body was ultimately never recovered, the will of Lim Yeo-jeong, Kwon Seong-jae’s ex-wife, was found, and the case was closed after a joint funeral.

This case, which had briefly caused a massive stir, quickly fizzled out, as most chaebol scandals do.

But contrary to what was known to the public,

Kwon Su-hyeok was alive and well, sitting right before her eyes.

“…This has to do with the incident I know of, doesn’t it?”

“Probably.”

The man’s deep eyes turned toward Yu-seong.

“Don’t pry any further.”

At his firm attitude, Yu-seong immediately moved on to the next question.

There was no point in needlessly provoking him.

“Then… did you also know about the marriage contract my father made with Chairman Kwon Seong-jae in the past?”

At her follow-up question, Su-hyeok stared at Yu-seong for a moment before letting out a soft laugh.

“Of course I did.”

Since he was the other party to that contract in the first place, how could he not know?

When Su-hyeok, who had miraculously survived thanks to Byeong-o, chose to go to an orphanage instead of returning to the Kwon family—

Byeong-o, who came to visit at least once a week, had said while smoking a cigarette:

“Hey, Su-hyeok. Do you know about this?”

“…Know what?”

“When Yeo-jeong was pregnant with you, we promised that if I ever had a daughter, we’d marry the two of you off.”

“What? Why on earth would you make a promise like that?”

“I know, right? What are you going to do now? Yeo-jeong nagged me so much that I even stamped my thumbprint on the contract properly.”

“Ha. Without even getting the consent of the people actually getting married?”

“Look at you getting all serious, you punk… Don’t worry, you won’t have to marry anyone. Unless a daughter suddenly drops from the sky, it’s not going to happen. Haha!”

Then one day.

“Mister, are you rich?”

“What?”

“I heard somewhere. That you’re rich.”

…even though a feisty young girl had ended up dropping right in front of Byeong-o.

A clear, ringing voice broke into Su-hyeok’s ears, pulling him out of his wandering memories.

“I don’t know exactly what happened, but don’t you want revenge?”

“Revenge…”

Revenge. At those two words, his dark eyes turned cold.

Once, he had lived solely for revenge.

There were people he wanted to exact revenge on so badly he wanted to kill them.

His father. And that woman.

His mother’s personal secretary and his father’s mistress—that woman, Ha Myeong-suk.

That woman, whom his mother trusted and relied on more than anyone, had intentionally seduced his father and toyed with his mother.

It was a given that she would enter the couple’s bedroom and not come out all night, even when his mother and he were in the house.

She was a woman who hurled insults and threats at his mother when his father wasn’t around, and even poured boiling water from a kettle onto him.

“Ha, she said it was an accident. Can’t you see she’s shaking? Drop it already.”

“Darling… whose side are you on right now?”

Because of the woman his father shielded, a long burn scar was left on the boy’s back.

“I saw it with my own eyes! That woman poured boiling water on our Su-hyeok on purpose! If he hadn’t dodged, he would have—!”

“I told you to drop it!!”

*Slap—!*

With a sharp sound, his mother’s head whipped to the side right before Su-hyeok’s eyes.

“What did you just…”

“Lim Yeo-jeong. I know you hate her, but let’s not use our child to frame her.”

The man who called himself his father whispered into the ear of his mother, who was collapsed on the floor holding her bright red cheek.

“Right now… you really seem like a crazy person. You’re scaring me.”

His mother, her hands trembling in shock; the indifferent gaze of Kwon Seong-jae as it briefly brushed past him; and Ha Myeong-suk, who watched it all unfold, holding back her laughter.

The young child was forced to witness every single moment.

His mother, who had married into a chaebol family with no backing, relying solely on her husband, had no power to protect her son.

“Rather than being killed by that woman, let’s just die first. Yes. Let’s do that…”

And so, she chose to run away together.

The bright, confident mother he once knew was nowhere to be found.

She was plagued by constant nightmares.

Dreams of her and her son being murdered by that woman and her husband.

Yeo-jeong tightly gripped the arm of the crying Su-hyeok and walked silently toward the sea of death.

Back then, how many times had he screamed that he didn’t want to do this, that he didn’t want to die?

His mother’s mind was already half-gone, and Su-hyeok was submerged deep into the seawater along with her.

And when he opened his eyes, it was a pitch-black night.

“*Gasp! Cough, cough!*”

He was lying on the cold ground.

“Su-hyeok, Su-hyeok! Do you recognize me? Kwon Su-hyeok!”

The first thing he saw was Shin Byeong-o, a friend of his parents, weeping with a completely distorted face.

He said he hadn’t slept for two days after the incident, searching the sea tirelessly to find Su-hyeok’s body.

And how he had miraculously found him lying on the shore.

What had he said to Chairman Shin, who was holding him tight and sobbing?

“I want to… live, Uncle.”

Ah, that he wanted to live.

Those were the first words he uttered upon waking.

“Let’s live, Su-hyeok. Uncle… Uncle will protect you.”

Thus, Byeong-o enabled the boy to live not as ‘Kwon Su-hyeok’, but simply as ‘Su-hyeok’.

It was an easy task for him, a boss of the underworld.

From the moment he survived that sea of death, Su-hyeok prepared his revenge to bring down the Kwon family.

Byeong-o was the savior who silently supported him.

*I am different from my mother. I will survive until the very end and ruin those two, no matter what.*

But that resolve did not last long.

Because while preparing for revenge, his life revolved entirely around Kwon Seong-jae and Ha Myeong-suk.

“Speak. Tell me!”

“Ah, ugh. Please, I didn’t hear anything, *sob*…”

At some point, he realized he was turning into a monster just like them, and he gave up on everything.

Finishing his recollection, Su-hyeok looked at Yu-seong with a hardened face.

“Shin Yu-seong.”

“Yes.”

“There’s a saying: ‘The best revenge is to not be like your enemy.’”

A famous quote by a certain ancient Roman emperor.

Since then, he had forgotten about revenge and focused only on survival.

Since his very survival would be the ultimate revenge against them.

“I don’t particularly want to climb into a trash can of my own free will. So I don’t really have any interest in the kind of revenge you’re looking for.”

At Su-hyeok’s somewhat detached reaction, Yu-seong pondered for a moment before speaking.

“Then how about this?”

“What?”

“The best revenge is to make your enemy like yourself.”

“….”

“No, it’s dragging them down into a gutter even filthier than the one I went through.”

He had seen countless proverbs advising against revenge, but this was the first time he had heard one encouraging it.

“Who said that?”

Su-hyeok asked, puzzled.

“Me. Made by Shin Yu-seong.”

And a cheeky, brazen answer came back in response.