ALDA 20

Chapter – 20

I would like to meet you.

I’m sorry for contacting you out of the blue. I’m reaching out because there’s something I wanted to ask you, Prosecutor.

Might you have a favorite food? If you tell me the menu, I will prepare it accordingly.

Prosecutor, the truth is, I wanted to ask if you could spare some time for me again today. You must be busy, so I won’t wait for a reply.

 Well then, I will be waiting for you to finish work.

Yeonghun was dumbfounded. To think of the message Saeunhui had sent him at a time like this. Right after a flying ashtray had struck his knee.

Thud. The sound of one knee hitting the floor split the air in the study, steeped in the smell of old books.

The pain, as if his kneecap was shattering, was bearable. He wanted to believe that the reason he wanted to leave this place immediately wasn’t because of her, but because of the old man’s incessant nagging.

“They say even a mangy dog knows not to bite its master. Do you insist on making things difficult for me? You ungrateful wretch, just why are you doing this?”

The angry voice of the old man echoed from above his head. It sounded exactly like a dog barking. So, he wondered briefly, just who was the one who resembled a dog?

With one hand, he swept over his jaw, which had been knocked askew. He straightened his folded knee, stood up, and faced the white-haired old man.

“What face am I supposed to show the people of Daea from now on? To a man who shares thicker blood than a half-breed like you! I took in a rootless bastard, and now that you’ve become some two-bit prosecutor, you run amok, fearless of the heavens?”

Chamandae flung the morning newspaper he was holding down in front of Yeonghun.

On one side of the newspaper, which fell to the floor folded in half, was a bold-print article stating that the prosecution had demanded a 15-year sentence for Daea Construction’s Chairman Kim Hwijong.

There was no need to look. He was the prosecutor in charge of that case.

Yeonghun, his face hardened, quietly lowered his head. His attitude, which vaguely resembled a bow, would likely seem like remorse in Chamandae’s eyes. But his long, shadowed eyes beneath his thick eyelashes were sharpened coolly.

“A mangy dog bastard should have been left to eat shit and die! If it weren’t for that one thing, I wouldn’t have even looked at a bug-like bastard like you.”

Ptui. Chamandae spat thick saliva. His face was clearly marked with contempt, as if mocking Yeonghun’s past, where he had been abandoned as an illegitimate child and lived accordingly.

It was from Yeonghun’s teenage years. The incident where his biological father and his pregnant wife lost their lives in a traffic accident was the starting point of this tragedy.

At that time, Yeonghun was living in an orphanage. His birth mother, who only longed for the father who had abandoned her, ended her short life when Yeonghun was ten. As if she were going on a picnic, she had personally packed gimbap for him the day before, making him excited.

After his father’s death, Yeonghun went from being an orphan with no place in the world to suddenly being the only bloodline to carry on the family lineage. He was immediately added to his paternal family’s register. It was around the time puberty was just beginning.

If you said he lived the life of a young master after that—materially speaking, he did.

For a short while, it felt like he was riding on a cloud. It felt as if the world was groveling at his feet.

In his gratitude, Yeonghun sometimes imagined giving his grandfather a pardon.

What if he considered the verbal abuse part of his inheritance training? What if he substituted the violence with a form of affection?

Then, perhaps he himself would have been a little more generous toward his grandfather, and things wouldn’t have come to this.

But at the end of his efforts to understand his grandfather, there was always unbearable abuse waiting.

He eventually had to admit it. The fact that, to his grandfather, he was merely a substitute. A cheap, tasteless candy that had been forced upon him.

Even as he rolled that candy—him—around in his mouth, his grandfather always had a bitter taste, ruminating on the day of the accident every single day in front of Yeonghun.

Every time, various disgusting words were attached to the young Yeonghun.

A beggar’s son who takes after his mother, sucking the marrow from bones. A rootless half-breed.

If he showed even a hint of a teenage rebellion, he was called a ‘damned beast that would bite its own grandfather’s neck,’ followed by greater punishment.

The young Yeonghun resented his situation, being compared to a child who had never even shown its face to the world. When he felt like a useless human being, endless self-reproach washed over him, making him miserable.

They said the birth was only two weeks away. If that child hadn’t met its end with the parents, it would have become the true, ‘well-born’ successor of Seogyeong that his grandfather valued so much.

He wished it had been that way. Whenever he was subjected to harsh beatings, the young Yeonghun wanted to summon the dead soul. He wanted to beg it to come and take its place back.

“My apologies, Chairman.”

Yeonghun, who had momentarily been distracted by the stained carpet, finally spoke.

His attitude remained indifferent despite the vulgar insults. Even though an apology like that was bound to rub his grandfather the wrong way and earn him harsher words. His voice was unwavering, as always.

“Whaat? Not ‘I’m sorry,’ but, whaat? ‘My apologies’? You cheap bastard! As if a thing like you could possibly know how sorry I feel!”

But Yeonghun knew better than anyone that this was not a man so overflowing with remorse for others.

So, this excessive anger wasn’t because his usual ‘friend,’ the chairman of Daea Construction, had not only been indicted but also received a hefty 15-year sentence demand from his own grandson.

His grandfather was terribly curious. The reason why Yeonghun pretended not to see it, even though he knew full well.

The illegal collusion between Seogyeong Energy and Daea Construction. A fact Yeonghun had uncovered after a long investigation.

Nevertheless, the fact that he only pursued Daea Construction’s internal breach of trust and embezzlement was highly intentional.

It was clear abuse of authority, enough that Yeonghun had been prepared to be dismissed as a prosecutor. There was also no denying that it was an intentional shoddy investigation to protect his own family.

Even though he had kindly excluded Seogyeong from the investigation at the risk of his career as a prosecutor, his indifferent grandfather was this angry.

He must be feeling guilty.

The corner of Yeonghun’s mouth twisted slightly.

Seeing his grandson, a prosecutor no less, holding a knife, must have made him anxious about all the things he had done to that grandson.

Moreover, since that grandson was instead showing him favor, he must be suspicious and afraid of the ulterior motive, more than feeling grateful.

He knew, of course, that the cold, steel-like pupils sharply raised in front of him now were a disguise to conceal that fear.

“There’s a limit to me tolerating your reckless behavior!”

Do you understand me?! Finally, his voice gained more strength. A persistent obsession to get confirmation was laid bare.

Yeonghun even felt a pang of pity for his grandfather. This man would soon become like a tiger with only a brittle hide left. Feeling compassion for that is only human for a person.

“Chairman.” Yeonghun calmly parted his lips. It was time to respond to his grandfather’s admirable efforts.

“I understand your anger. And I am also very sorry to the Chairman of Daea. What I can clearly promise you now is that the future of Seogyeong is my future.”

So, going forward, there would be no incident of placing Seogyeong under investigation. Yeonghun implied the message and flashed a smooth smile.

Keuhahaha. Chamandae’s hearty laughter followed. A look of relief bloomed on his wrinkled face like a spring flower. The story of Daea Construction, which had merely been a pretext for this conversation, was already forgotten, as expected.

“You, you rascal. I was worried I might be left with a dud while keeping my tiger cub by my side, but I knew. I knew that if I sharpened your fierce teeth well, I could raise you into a talent capable of protecting our Seogyeong Energy.”

“I will not disappoint the Chairman’s expectations going forward.”

Yeonghun replied with a perfectly straight, bowed head.

Having finally heard the answer he wanted, Chamandae’s face was filled with a cheerful energy.

“And the marriage preparations, are they going well?”

Chamandae asked, as if to lighten the bleak mood. But his rolling eyes were quietly observing Yeonghun, as if probing.

“I’m asking if you’re getting along well with Miss Mijeong.”

At that moment, at the edge of his downward gaze, a few letters suddenly floated up like a hologram.