Park Okhwa waited for Hong Janghae at a café near her shop. It had been nearly a year since she had come to Korea, but nothing had changed. Only a few signboards had changed. For some reason, she thought that maybe, nothing would change no matter how desperately she lived.
She put down the cup filled with water and massaged the back of her neck. Ever since she decided to take her hands off this matter, she could not get any deep sleep. That was because of her heartbeat which became loud enough to bother her whenever she tried to. She did not go to the hospital. She knew better than anyone else that it was not a matter of her body, but of her mind.
Still, yesterday, when she decided to put an end to this matter, she was able to fall asleep serenely like she was submerged underwater. If she couldn’t sleep then, then her eyes might be red right now.
“I’m sorry. My work caught my foot.”
Hong Janghae entered the café. Okhwa immediately noticed the change in treatment. When they were partners working together, he would look her in the eyes and greet her politely, but now, he just sat down after giving her a glance.
“Not at all. If anything, I should apologize for making a busy person come and go at my call.”
“I’m not as busy as someone who crossed the sea just for this. But if you haven’t eaten yet, there’s a nice restaurant nearby, so let us go there.”
“I have eaten already.”
“I see. Then should we order some tea first?”
“It’s okay. I feel sorry to keep holding you here.”
“Understood, then. I guess it’ll be better for both of us to deal with this as quickly as possible.”
Hong Janghae wiped his mouth with his palm. Okhwa tried organizing the words she was about to say in her mind. As they had talked about this already to a certain extent beforehand, this shouldn’t take long.
“Since you came all the way here, I see that you were speaking the truth. Well, I guess you wouldn’t have ridden a plane just for the fun of it.”
“I’m very sorry. You prepared a nice position for me, but I had to pull out.”
“May I ask why you suddenly had a change of heart?”
As they were both great talents of the mind, no awkward excuses would work. Okhwa gave the answer she had prepared beforehand,
“My daughter found out.”
“Oh no. That was unexpected. It’s rather unsettling too.”
“I’m a very greedy person as I didn’t plan to settle with just one shop. However, the moment I saw my girl snap out at me telling me to stop doing this, everything felt meaningless. You might think of it as a pathetic reason, but I can only say that no parent can win against their child.”
“This is rather troubling.”
Hong Janghae bought a bottle of carbonated water from the counter. He downed half of it in one go like he was drinking ordinary water before speaking.
“Did I see wrong? I didn’t think you’d pull out because of that kind of reason.”
“I want to be a parent who can stand boldly in front of their child. As for my greed, I can just put it aside for a little.”
“You know how much the monthly rent of your shop in Japan is, right?”
“I know. I won’t be able to last three months without your help, president. Even if I put in my own funds, I won’t be able to last a year.”
“That’s not the only thing, is it? You will have a hard time running the branches in Sapporo and Nagoya. Japan is publicly known as a kind country to foreigners, but when it comes to culture and business, they might as well be the Galápagos Islands. You wouldn’t be able to imagine how much effort it took for Korean businesses to infiltrate to that point. You can enjoy the fruits of all that labor with a small risk, yet you’re giving up? How about you reconsider? I quite liked you. Not to mention customer management, you were quick-witted so I could leave you with the Japan side of things.”
“I was thankful that you trusted me and pushed me forward. I will not forget this grace. If anything goes bad for you one day, president Hong, I’ll help you within the scope of my abilities. But continuing this job is not something I can do.”
Hong Janghae downed the remaining half of the carbonated water. Did his throat not hurt? He put down the glass bottle without a single change in expression. Along with it, he seemed to have swallowed his smile as well. With his lips in a straight line, he looked like a bank agent who had stayed up all night at a counter.
“I see persuading you won’t be possible. I didn’t realize. I didn’t know you cherished your daughter that much. From what I heard, you treated her like a doll, so I thought you were someone similar to me.”
“I’m sure you’ll realize a lot of things if you have an in-depth talk with your children, president Hong.”
“Well, I beg to differ. I haven’t lived so soft of a life to be shaken by little ones under me. Anyway, I understand. I will proceed with everything under the assumption that there will be no renegotiations between us. Please erase all of the data you have on your side. I’ll trust you since you aren’t foolish enough to play around with that kind of data.”
Could the word ‘trust’ sound any more terrifying than this? Hong Janghae probably finished all the preparations and must have destroyed any materials shared between them. Not only that, he must have prepared countermeasures for when something that must not be leaked was leaked. It might be classified into different stages of solutions, but in the end, everything would have been ‘done at Park Okhwa’s own discretion’ without any involvement on his part. There was no need to make matters worse, so Hong Janghae would probably stay still as long as she stayed quiet.
“I’m not courageous enough to jump down a cliff. I’ll deal with all the information cleanly. I’ve already incinerated the laptop I’ve been using.”
“I really like your work style. You should clean up your shop by the end of this month. You’ll get contacted immediately, so you should consult them. I’ll handle all the events we were about to do in collaboration, so you don’t need to worry about that.”
“I’m sorry for troubling you.”
“It’s okay. I’ve done this many times before. As for the various benefits you received through us, I’ll give you an invoice by this weekend. We were originally going to take care of that on our own, but since we decided to go separate ways, I have no choice but to receive payment.”
“I’ll pay you back immediately once you send the invoice.”
“If it’s hard to make cash right now, we can wait until May of next year. We’ve joined hands for a while, so I should give you that much consideration at least.”
“No. It should be something I can handle as long as I can sell off the shop in Busan. It’s a bit of a pity, but I should be clean with the money.”
“As you wish. I’m sure you’re more knowledgeable than me when it comes to the settlements.”
Hong Janghae stood up. She looked at him as he left with a small nod before leaning back on her chair. The gaze he sent her way at the last moment was something she had not received ever since she opened her own shop a long time ago. His eyes said ‘that’s just how women work.’ While she was inwardly a little furious, she soon calmed down. It was better this way.
With this, they had completely separated. As there was never any official documentation, it was easy to clean up the aftermath. She just had to return to Japan and spit out all the benefits she had received through Hong Janghae. She might have to cough up a little more as compensation, but she could be satisfied with that since she would be able to take her hands off without any trouble.
Okhwa looked outside the window. Hong Janghae got into his car and was about to leave. She took out her phone and immediately called,
“Journalist Kim, this is Park Okwa. I called you to tell you that everything is over now. Yes, nothing came up specifically. I’m sure they’ve been preparing the whole time. No, he didn’t ask me anything. It seems like he found my reason absurd, yet acceptable. As you said, maybe the men on that side are heavily influenced by the chairman and have a strong impression that women are no good. Anyway, with this, I believe I’ve done everything on my side. If nothing special happens, this call will be our last. …Alright, got it.”
Just as she was about to hang up after hearing the journalist tell her that she did a good job, Okhwa added one last thing,
“Thank you for saving me. Now that I took a step back, it came to me just what kind of a dangerous matter I was dipping my hands into.”
-It is not me who saved you, but Maru. I think you should thank him.
“That’s true. I’ll call him later.”
-I hope you don’t get involved with this matter anymore and will just make the best use of your skills to run your shop.
“Even if I want to, it’ll be hard for me to do so in the future. I’m sure I’ve been blacklisted by them. Now, I should just protect my own little area and leave it for my daughter. Everything I’ve done was for her sake after all.”
-If you watch the news later, you’ll find out how valuable today’s decision is. I’ll take Hong Janghae down at least.
“I wish you luck.”
Okhwa hung up and erased journalist Kim Dongwook’s number from her phone, as well as all the texts she exchanged with him. She could just throw this phone away since the number was registered under some random person in Japan, but she planned to erase all evidence just in case. She did not want to even imagine getting involved with them in the future.
She ordered some coffee to calm her shaking down. She received it in a disposable cup before leaving. She felt like she should walk the streets of Seoul that hadn’t changed. She had a detailed look at the interior designs of various shops on the streets.
Once she closed down all of her shops in Japan and in Busan, her reputation might fall, but she had the confidence to restore that. For that though, she had to hone her senses.
As she was walking, she stopped in front of a store selling premium ginseng extracts. She saw the figure of Lee Miyoon holding a pack of ginseng extract with a gentle smile on her face on the LCD screen.
-You should elegantly forget about your age.
Okhwa looked at Lee Miyon in the ad. She smiled in relief when she looked at the woman who would cross the river of the netherworld in her stead. While she hadn’t heard any details, that woman’s life would fall into the gutter once Hong Janghae went down.
“I hope you regain your position. You have to go in my stead.”
Okhwa turned around. She had to go back to the hotel and explain everything to her daughter.
