Chapter Fourteen
Haneul has been unreachable since the fracas.
News has spread like wildfire, with Kang Yoojin leading the pack.
All of Sky’s past and Rodrigo’s delinquency are out in the open.
Journalists swarm outside the SecondSkin office in hopes of a glimpse of Baek Haneul, the man caught in the middle of the raging storm, the man all of Korea is now sympathizing with.
But he’s nowhere to be found. Timira had tried to follow him as he stormed out of the interview location, but Mr Choi stopped her.
‘There are cameras everywhere, Timira-ssi. If they catch you following him out, things will only get worse!’
Brows knitted into a frown, Timira had tried to calm herself down but she had only felt more enraged as her eyes wandered towards Rodrigo who lay about, bruised and bloody, on the floor. Haneul’s words rang inside her ears, loud and clear.
‘I’ve waited twenty years for this. You thought you’d ruined my life, didn’t you? Tough luck, Kenji! Here I am, alive and kicking. And I won’t let you ruin Timira’s life!’
Kenji? Who is Kenji? Why is Haneul calling him by a Japanese name? And what was that whole thing about ‘twenty years’?
‘Bujangnim, what’s going on?’ a shocked Timira wanted to know.
Mr Choi looked like he had frozen so Timira had to prod him.
‘Bujangnim, are you all right? What’s happening?’
I was right. My suspicion was correct. Rodrigo indeed is the Japanese boy that attacked Daepyonim. Sesanghae! Who would’ve even thought? What were the odds?
He quickly fills Timira in. In all their time together, Rodrigo had never mentioned this to her.
All she knew was that he’d left Japan to get away from his alcoholic and abusive father.
A newfound sympathy for Haneul grips her heart and she has to blink back tears as she hears about how badly Haneul had been injured.
With everyone focused on injured Rodrigo (soon to turn into the national villain), she and Mr Choi had quietly slunk out of the hotel away from the prying eyes of Kang Yoojin who had wasted no time in sharing with the public video footage of Rodrigo being manhandled and bundled out of the room by Haneul.
It had taken him mere seconds to report about Haneul and Rodrigo’s history, as though he had been prepared for and expecting an outcome of this nature.
A livid Chairman Ri is pacing furiously inside his cabin as Mina stands only a few feet away, nervously biting her lower lip and wearing several frown lines.
She has driven straight from the airport upon arrival from Busan.
‘How could you let this happen, Mina? I thought you said you had it all under control?’
‘Appa, I swear I did! I had a great plan of saving our club from fire while using Rodrigo to keep media and public interest in us alive.’
‘ Ip dakchyeo [Shut your mouth]! If you did have a plan, then you should’ve seen it through! Did you know about this? That Rodrigo was responsible for beating up Haneul?’
‘Er …’
‘You did? Eonjebuteo [Since when]?!’
Before Mina can answer, there’s a knock on the door.
‘Come in!’ says Mr Ri impatiently.
Kang Yoojin enters the cabin, cloaked in an air of smugness. He had been summoned by Chairman Ri, and has rushed to the latter’s office, more eager than ever to face him.
‘Yoojin gija, I haven’t got either the time or patience to beat about the bush so I will get straight to the point. Why are you doing this? Wae ? What have you got against my club, against Rodrigo? Why are you out for his head?’
Yoojin runs his fingers through his hair and smiles a lopsided smile.
‘ Soljighi, I have nothing against Rodrigo. I don’t think much of him, that’s for sure. I think he’s a selfish delinquent, but it isn’t him that I’m after. I’ve only, geunyang, used him. He was a soft target. In my game, he’s but just a pawn.’
‘Then what or who is it that you are after? Me? I’m sure we can come to some sort of understanding!’
‘Hoejangnim, hoksi , would you remember this name, Kang Minhyun?’
Mr Ri stays silent as he tries to recall if he’s heard the name. He tries to put a face to the name but is unable to.
‘Can’t remember, Chairman Ri? Do you need a hint?’ His tone is now taunting.
‘Appa, Rodrigo-ssi’s assistant.’ Mina speaks softly so only her father would hear but Yoojin does too.
‘Wrong!’ Yoojin thunders.
He grabs sheaves of paper out of his satchel and throws them at a stoic Chairman Ri who doesn’t seem to bat an eyelid or move an inch.
Mina quickly bends and picks up a sheet.
It’s an old newspaper article about the prodigious talent of footballer Kang Minhyun, a reserve squad player at Seoul Stealers FC, and how a life-threatening spinal injury had cut it short.
But what the article does not mention is that he had been mercilessly beaten up by a drunk senior, one of the stars of the main squad and a midfielder on the national team during a party organized by the club.
Only because the senior player’s girlfriend had posed for photos with Minhyun.
‘YOU, Hoejangnim, and your little coterie of minions did this to Minhyun!’
It was true. The incident had been hushed up by Mr Ri and his cohorts.
Geuronde, how did HE know about it? It’s been a while and nobody outside the club knows.
‘I don’t understand, Yoojin-ssi. Why are you bringing up an incident from the past? How is it even connected to you?’
Chairman Ri is still defiant, exactly how a first-generation chaebol is expected to be.
But Mina has been joining the dots.
Kang Minhyun … Kang Yoojin … Seolma! Could they be related?!
‘Minhyun is my chindongsaeng . I saw him suffer for years. Poor guy still can’t walk without support. Who do you think is responsible?’
‘I beg your pardon! It was not an injury he sustained on the field. Despite that, we got him the best treatment, the best doctors, the best rehab, a hefty severance pay … heck! I even gave him a job at the club!’
Chairman Ri is showing no signs of backing down, infuriating Yoojin even further.
‘The guy, that senior team footballer you saved and protected, did he serve you well? Or do I need to remind you?’
Mr Ri has finally been shut up. He needs no reminding.
A year after the incident involving Minhyun, Shin Jaemin had been caught in a drug bust at a Seoul nightclub.
Disgraced, he was removed from the national team as well as Seoul Stealers FC and was currently still on trial facing charges and an impending five-year prison sentence from the prosecution.
‘Did you think making him Rodrigo’s assistant absolved you of your fault? Rodrigo ruined someone’s life and career just like your player did to my brother!’
Oh, so this is why he used him … Mina is finally able to surmise. And Haneul just got caught in his revenge plan.
‘You picked the wrong side, Hoejangnim. You saved the wrong guy.’
Having said his piece, Yoojin storms out of the cabin.
Nearly a minute has passed since Yoojin’s departure. Mina is the first to break the awkward silence in the cabin.
‘Appa, perhaps, we ought to—’
‘Don’t talk, Mina. I’m thinking,’ her father cuts in.
Mina clicks her tongue in annoyance at being rudely interrupted and goes back to biting her already bitten and reddened lower lip.
‘Mina-ya, I have a plan. But I need you on this. Your 100 per cent support. Without you, this plan won’t work.’
It has been a day of revelations, and Mina is still reeling from the allegations Yoojin has just levelled at her father.
But she’s still consumed by guilt for having caused the matter to snowball by trying to manipulate Yoojin into revealing the history between Rodrigo and Timira.
She holds herself responsible for causing this mess in the first place and is eager to make up for it.
‘ Malhae juseyo, Appa [Please tell me, father]!’
‘You know what works best when the tide is against you, right? The only way to counter this mountain of bad news is to distract the public with good news!’
What good news is he thinking of? I can’t think of even one amidst this rubble of ruin we are sitting atop!
‘Mina-ya, shall we bring the wedding forward, uri tal?’
* * *
Having been unable to establish contact with Haneul even after forty-eight hours have passed since the fracas at the almost-interview, Mr Choi decides that he needs to check on Haneul personally and ascertain his well-being.
Determinedly, he drives to Haneul’s house.
It’s on the same premises as the one where Haneul’s parents live but detached from the main building.
To give him a slight sense of freedom , his family had said when they gifted him the house.
They want him to feel like he’s free but he’s always under surveillance , said everybody else in hushed tones.
It is the same premises that Mr Choi’s parents still reside in, although he moved out when he got married.
Despite Chairwoman Lee insisting that he stay and even offering him separate quarters.
He’s about to ring the bell to Haneul’s house when a young gardener walking by stops and offers information.
‘ Toryeonnim is in the main house, ahjussi,’ pointing at the palatial home of the Lees and Baeks, where Haneul was born with a dozen silver spoons in his mouth.
As he waits outside the living room, he overhears strains of a high-pitched, agitated conversation between Haneul and his parents.
He gathers that a suggestion has been made to bring the wedding date forward and that Haneul is fighting against it. His parents are also asking him to bury his history with Rodrigo, at the behest of Chairman Ri.
‘He may be too much of a gentleman to resort to threats, but don’t be na?ve, son. It’ll take him only a second to pull the plug on his investment in your company!’
‘It’s my company, Abbeoji. And, I will protect it, no matter what. Do you have no faith in me? Do you have no confidence in your upbringing?’