🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 3
* * *
It didn’t take much effort to confirm that her body had been shattered to pieces.
Because her apartment in Seoul Forest—she happened to have been in Seongsu-dong and ran there in one breath—had been left in a wreck by the accident that had just happened.
The police and firefighters had blocked off the road, and a long yellow police line meaning “Do Not Enter” had been stretched out.
Even though it was her own home, she couldn’t even dare to get close.
The accident scene she looked at from far away was horrific.
The road was filled everywhere with blood and foreign matter.
It was the foreign matter Lee Eunjo—the CX Soft heir who had lived in a 46th-floor penthouse and had been the object of the world’s envy—had created by throwing herself off.
At that gruesome sight, some people even vomited.
“What do I do.”
She tried not to tremble, but her legs wobbled on their own.
She got goosebumps.
Just a few minutes ago she had been alive and well, but her body, shattered into pieces, looked no different from lumps of meat.
It felt as if blood was no longer flowing up to her head, and the world was being covered in white.
It was dizzying and dazzling. But she couldn’t collapse. Because among the police, she could see Kang Jinwoo.
“Eunjo!”
Kang Jinwoo, calling her name again and again, wailed as thick, chicken-dropping-like tears fell from his large eyes.
“Eunjo, why….”
As if there were no one in the world sadder than him, he called Eunjo’s name in anguish, barefoot.
“Why this… how am I supposed to live without you.”
As Jinwoo’s shoulders shook, flinging a wail close to sobbing into the dawn sky, voices of pity drifted from here and there.
“My god… I guess his wife committed suicide.”
“What do we do… the husband’s so pitiful….”
This is the performance he’s putting on, aiming for this reaction.
Disgusting man.
“How did I ever end up with someone like that….”
Teeth clenched, Eunjo turned around, forcing her staggering legs to move.
* * *
Jooheon entered the funeral hall at Yeonhui University Medical Center with a heavy heart.
Lee Eunjo’s suicide—it didn’t feel real.
Suddenly, a memory from 11 years ago surfaced.
Invited to dinner by his mentor, Lee Wongyu, Jooheon arrived at his house earlier than the promised time.
He was told that Lee Wongyu hadn’t arrived yet and asked if he could wait for a moment, and it was when he went into the study he was guided to.
That was where he first met Eunjo.
Tall bookcases that stretched up to the ceiling, packed tightly with books.
Eunjo stood in front of them, up on tiptoe to pull out a book her hand couldn’t reach.
Watching her struggle with her lower lip tightly bitten, Jooheon, without realizing it, reached out his arm.
At that moment, Eunjo’s gaze brushed against his.
It felt as if time was flowing slowly.
When he handed her the book, what did she say?
“Thank you.”
“Are you my father’s guest?”
“I’m Lee Eunjo.”
After speaking in quick succession, she held out her hand and asked for a handshake.
She was a woman with a voice like a calm classical melody.
Even the smell of that place back then, the density of the air, even the angle of the sunlight pouring in from a window a little way off.
Not a single thing has been forgotten—everything is preserved in his memory.
Especially Lee Eunjo’s face, smiling beautifully as faint wrinkles formed gently at the corners of her eyes.
“I’m Park Jooheon.”
Even the sight of him, mouth going dry as he took the hand she offered.
‘It feels like it was just yesterday.’
With a bitter smile, Jooheon adjusted his clothes and entered the funeral room.
Inside, Lee Eunjo’s husband, Kang Jinwoo, was crying so much his eyes were swollen.
‘Were they that affectionate? I don’t think so.’
Pulling his gaze away from Kang Jinwoo, Jooheon stood before Eunjo’s memorial portrait.
In the photo, Eunjo was smiling elegantly, as she always had in life.
Lee Eunjo.
A woman who was firm yet soft, cold yet passionate.
And so very lovable… a person.
That someone like her chose the horrific death of suicide—he couldn’t easily believe it.
‘She’s not a woman who suits suicide.’
After offering a chrysanthemum before the portrait, Jooheon bowed his head briefly in silence.
‘And she suits chrysanthemums even less.’
After finishing his greeting to Eunjo, as Jooheon approached Kang Jinwoo, a CX Soft director who had been waiting outside came trotting in.
Then he introduced Jooheon to Kang Jinwoo.
“Vice Chairman, this is CEO Park Jooheon of MK.”
“Park…… CEO Park Jooheon?”
A glint of light entered Kang Jinwoo’s eyes, dulled from crying, and sparkled.
Knowing what that sparkle meant, Jooheon’s jawline hardened slightly.
Kang Jinwoo grabbed Jooheon’s hand tightly.
“H-how did CEO Park know and come all the way here….”
“I knew the deceased in life.”
Looking at Eunjo’s husband, who seemed somewhat servile, with a cold gaze, Jooheon briefly explained his relationship with Eunjo.
“I took painting lessons from Ms. Lee Eunjo for a while.”
Then Kang Jinwoo’s lips parted slightly.
“Painting…. I see.”
As if it was something he hadn’t heard before, he nodded slowly, and a strange light flickered in his eyes before vanishing.
“Well, my wife did make a name for herself as a painter.”
“She was a good person.”
Jooheon judged Eunjo in life with the short sentence that she had been a good person. Then he bowed once more in greeting.
“May she rest in peace.”
After delivering his final greeting, Jooheon slowly left the funeral room.
He felt like shit.
The world calls Kang Jinwoo ‘CX Soft’s Cinderella.’ It’s a sneering remark about the man who succeeded in raising his status through marriage.
If he had gained a wife and father-in-law beyond his station, he should have lived with gratitude, but Kang Jinwoo did not.
No—rather, using the status he’d acquired as a foothold, he enjoyed life with feverish abandon.
His vulgar behavior spread beyond the social circles and even reached Jooheon’s ears.
That such a vulgar man was not only Lee Eunjo’s husband but also the chief mourner—
If it was true Eunjo committed suicide, had she not been able to endure that man’s vulgarity?
“Son of a bitch.”
Swallowing the profanity, Jooheon left the funeral hall like that.
“Wait a second. I’ll tell them to bring the car around.”
Gyuo, who had come with him, called the driver.
As Jooheon listened to Gyuo’s voice telling him to bring the car to the front of the VIP building, he cast his gaze into the distance.
That was when it happened. A familiar face caught his eye.
Jooheon’s brow naturally drew together.
“Na Eun……jo?”
At Jooheon’s words, Gyuo, who had ended the call, turned his head.
“Na Eunjo? You mean Hera Entertainment’s model Nabi?”
Looking in the direction of Jooheon’s gaze, Gyuo frowned.
As if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have.
“Ah, yeah. Nabi.”
But what’s up with how she looks?
Gyuo’s voice rang sharply under the VIP building pergola.
