Chapter 11

“Ah!”

In the end, disaster struck.

The lid lifted slightly, and boiling soup came spilling out through the gap.

As soon as the soup overflowed, the induction cooktop automatically shut off.

Broth was dripping from the edge of the counter.

I gently pulled Seonwoo backward, moving him away from the counter where the soup was spilling over.

When I glanced at him, his face looked even more disastrous than the mess of soup surrounding the cooktop.

“That was dangerous.”

Seonwoo frowned as he spoke.

“Are you okay?”

The color gradually returned to Seonwoo’s pale face.

He must have been badly startled, too.

“What a mess.”

Only then did Seonwoo look around the wrecked kitchen and let out a groan.

“Exactly. Now that you’ve calmed down, let go of my hand. I need to clean this up.”

“Ah…”

Apparently, he had completely forgotten that he was still holding my hand. Looking startled, Seonwoo hurriedly released it.

“I’ll help.”

“It’s fine. I’ll clean everything up quickly, so why don’t you go sit down?”

Before Seonwoo could reach for a dishcloth, I ushered him toward a chair and made him sit.

“Honestly, even if you live alone as a grown man, how can you not even control an induction cooktop?”

The whole accident was absurd, no matter how I looked at it.

Seonwoo was perched on the edge of his chair, and I could almost hear him groan.

“Just pretend you didn’t see any of that. I’m so embarrassed I could die.”

He lowered his hands from his face and let out a faint sigh, staring somewhere up at the ceiling.

Wondering if he was really all right, I studied his face. He abruptly turned away and waved his hand at me.

“Please, carry on with what you were doing, Mother Dearest.”

I was still worried about him, but I felt that pressing him any further would only make him more uncomfortable.

After pouring him a glass of bottled water and handing it to him, I roughly wiped up the soup that had spilled onto the floor.

Seonwoo drained the entire glass I had filled to the brim for him.

The soup smelled rich and savory, but I decided not to serve it.

It wasn’t an extravagant meal by any means, but I had managed to put together a reasonably proper dinner.

Seonwoo moved the spoon and chopsticks I had placed to the right of his rice bowl over to the left.

Holding his chopsticks in his left hand, he scooped up a mouthful of rice and stuffed it into his mouth.

So he’s left-handed.

“Would you stop staring at me?”

“I was just wondering whether the food suits your taste.”

Seonwoo was chewing his rice when he let out a breathy, incredulous laugh.

“When I was little, I had a pretty serious accident. The day before my elementary school entrance ceremony, I got scalded by boiling water.”

With the chopsticks in his left hand, Seonwoo pointed to the back of his right hand.

Irregular patches of reddish, raised scar tissue covered its entire surface.

For scars like those to remain, the accident must have been quite severe.

Thinking of the young Seonwoo, who would have been only a little older than Yeonha, I felt a dull ache somewhere deep inside me.

“From here…”

Using his chopsticks, Seonwoo traced an imaginary line along his right arm, over his shoulder, up his neck, and down his chest to a point below his navel.

“All the way down to here…”

He lifted the corners of his mouth into a smile.

Should I ask him if he was okay?

I couldn’t think of anything appropriate to say in response to his story.

“So, what I’m trying to say is…”

Seonwoo pointed his chopsticks toward the cooktop.

“I’m sorry for turning your kitchen into that disaster zone.”

He twitched an eyebrow, then picked up a piece of rolled omelet and popped it into his mouth.

So that was what had been bothering him.

And over something so trivial, too.

“When you’re raising a child, a little mess like that is nothing.”

Seonwoo puffed out his cheeks and looked at me as though he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard.

I’d meant to tell him not to worry about it, but I didn’t think I’d succeeded.

“Thank you. I almost burned my hand, but I didn’t get hurt because of you.”

He held up the hand he’d been gripping earlier as he spoke.

Perhaps embarrassed by having to express his gratitude, Seonwoo shook his head and took a drink of water.

“Haah. All right, shall we talk about the lawsuit now?”

Seonwoo set down his chopsticks and took another drink of water.

I’d been meaning to ask him a few questions after reviewing the appeal petition anyway.

“I’ve looked over the appeal.”

“If there are no problems, I’ll file it first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Until we get a decision on the appeal, will I still be able to see Yeonha under the interim order? Twice a month…”

“Yes.”

“What are the chances the appeal will be accepted?”

Seonwoo looked at me without answering, tilting his head slightly to one side.

“Hmm,” he murmured.

“So they’re low.”

“It’s a little bruising to my pride, especially when I’m going up against the spouse who’s at fault.”

“Because I left Yeonha behind?”

A sharp pain stabbed through my chest.

Our Yeonha… She probably can’t even bring herself to mention her mother in front of her terrifying father.

What if she thinks I abandoned her and left her behind?

My hands began to tremble.

“Jae-hyun will fight even harder from here on out. From his perspective, the only way to win is to make you look unfit to raise a child.”

“How can he possibly go any further than he already has?”

“That’s why there’s something I’ve been curious about…”

Seonwoo pulled out a napkin and wiped the corner of his mouth as he spoke.

There it was again—that look in his eyes.

A gaze as sharp as a freshly honed blade, as though it could cut straight through me and expose everything inside.

“When I looked into Jae-hyun’s assets, everything was suspiciously clean.”

I couldn’t tell what Seonwoo was getting at.

Was he suggesting that there was something wrong with the way Jae-hyun had accumulated his wealth?

“Well, of course, I’m sure that law firm of yours, the one that’s so good at its job, has everything under control…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Yujin.”

Seonwoo said my name as he picked up the water bottle.

The sound of water pouring into his mug was refreshingly clear.

Warm lighting settled over his face, wrapping it in a soft glow.

Even as he tilted his head back to drink, his eyes remained fixed on me. There was something dangerously seductive about his gaze, as though he could charm anyone without even trying.

“Do you know any of Jae-hyun’s weaknesses? Hidden funds, for instance?”

He brushed the moisture from the corner of his mouth with his thumb as he asked.

His expression seemed to say that he wouldn’t believe me if I told him there was absolutely nothing worth worrying about.

“I’m not sure. I was never involved in that sort of thing.”

“Hmm. If even you don’t know, then who would we have to get in touch with to back Jae-hyun into a corner? Who would know the most about his weaknesses…?”

He wasn’t asking out of idle curiosity.

His eyes were full of conviction, as though he already knew the answer and was waiting for me to confirm it.

I began to fear just how much Seonwoo knew about the Daewoong family.

Would my divorce lawsuit drag every single one of them into the fight, until the whole thing ended in bloodshed?

A throbbing pain began to build in my head.

“I’m not sure what you’re trying to say…”

“Jung Woon-hyun, the tragic crown prince of Daewoong Group. The man who’s cut down for growing too tall and has his wings clipped the moment they begin to grow. The CEO of Daewoong Life.”

Jung Woon-hyun…

A conversation I’d had with my mother-in-law in the past came back to me.

How easy do you think it was for me to accept that child, either?

“His involvement has nothing to do with my divorce.”

“The enemy of your enemy is someone worth making friends with.”

“Are you suggesting I join forces with Jae-hyun’s younger brother and plot against him?”

My voice sharpened at Seonwoo’s outrageous suggestion.

How was I supposed to do that?

Who was I to get involved in something like this?

“Jae-hyun’s downfall could give Woon-hyun a chance to rise again. Isn’t all we need to do win this lawsuit?”

I stared at Seonwoo in stunned disbelief.

Woon-hyun, who served as the CEO of Daewoong Life, was publicly regarded as a man who had been sidelined within the company, overshadowed by his elder brother, Jae-hyun. In reality, however, he was Chairman Jung Jido’s illegitimate son.

Only a tiny handful of people knew that he was Jae-hyun’s half-brother, and those people were all members of the Daewoong family’s inner circle.

So Seonwoo couldn’t possibly be suggesting this because he knew the truth.

Woon-hyun had always lived in Jae-hyun’s shadow, cleaning up the messes his brother left behind.

Even when Jae-hyun was struggling to keep Daewoong Electronics afloat after taking over as its vice chairman, Woon-hyun had sold off a key business division of Daewoong Life to help cover the electronics company’s debts.

Time and time again, the towers Woon-hyun had painstakingly built were brought crashing down by Jae-hyun.

That was why people called him the tragic crown prince of Daewoong Group.

But that didn’t mean he was someone to be underestimated.

Was Seonwoo really planning to drag Woon-hyun into this, too?

“What are you hesitating for? Do you really think you can defeat Jae-hyun without getting your hands dirty?”

“I’m not the only one who’ll get hurt.”

“If you need time to think about it, I’ll give you some. Not much, though.”

“Is there really no other way?”

Seonwoo stared intently at me as I bit my lip, struggling to hide my distress.

When I finally met his eyes, he lowered his gaze and placed his chopsticks inside the rice bowl he’d emptied.

It was already almost ten o’clock.

“You… You’re not hesitating because you still have feelings for Jae-hyun, are you?”

Seonwoo asked without lifting his eyes from the table.