The New Groom Chapter 10

“Once we go inside, there’s really no one watching. You never know what might happen in a place like that. Be careful on your own.”

“…Since when did you get so cheeky?”

“Cheekiness is my charm point, don’t you know? Hahaha.”

Chief Joo, who was lighting a cigarette, seemed to be his usual swaggering self, but his gaze, which met Lee Jeongrok’s in passing, was strangely serious. He was warning him. Lee Jeongrok suddenly gripped his alcohol-fogged mind tight. Finally, Chief Joo pressed the doorbell for him.

“Go on in. I’ll be waiting here.”

The servant who opened the door greeted the two of them politely. After a glance at Chief Joo, Lee Jeongrok followed the guide into the villa.

It seemed about half the guests had gathered. Even Go Yoongi hadn’t arrived yet. The same went for Hwang Imin. Lee Jeongrok suddenly felt uncomfortable with the fact that neither of them had arrived.

No, perhaps it was just his imagination. He was just in a bad mood because he had been dragged against his will to an after-party he didn’t want to attend. He tried to shake off the stray thoughts and exchanged greetings with the people there. Fortunately, thanks to his diligence in showing his face at social gatherings after the wedding, they were people whose faces were familiar enough, even if they weren’t close friends.

Sitting at the bar, Lee Jeongrok followed Chief Joo’s unsolicited advice and drank only water. After the greetings, no one approached him, so he spent the time soothing his motion sickness and tipsiness, partly by choice and partly by necessity.

The remaining guests arrived slowly over the next 30 minutes. Like Lee Jeongrok, it seemed they were late due to the heavy rain and the protesters.

As the noise grew increasingly chaotic, the villa owner finally entered the drawing room. He was with Hwang Imin, and they were alone; Cha Seon-young, who was supposed to come with them, was nowhere to be seen. Lee Jeongrok, lost for words, couldn’t even think to call out to his wife.

“What is everyone doing here? Why haven’t you gone down yet?”

Go Yoongi, who had thoroughly intimidated him at the hotel banquet hall, seemed to be in a better mood all of a sudden. Making eye contact with Lee Jeongrok and then pointedly ignoring him, he led the group energetically toward the basement. Hwang Imin had already drifted off to another room with her girlfriends, leaving no room for Lee Jeongrok to stop her. Clenching his teeth, Lee Jeongrok had no choice but to follow the men down to the basement.

As expected, the basement was a swimming pool. Even though it was underground, the blue tiles and flowerpots with lush leaves made it feel as if they were in nature. The young, highly intoxicated men shouted with joy and jumped into the pool with their clothes on. There were even a few who roughly threw off their clothes and dove in wearing only their drawers. The only two people who didn’t rush into the pool were Lee Jeongrok and Go Yoongi. For a moment, Lee Jeongrok stared at the men splashing water with eyes that couldn’t hide his contempt.

“Not going in?”

Go Yoongi, holding a beer bottle, spoke up abruptly. Lee Jeongrok, not knowing he had approached from the side, was startled. Go Yoongi invited him with a smile on his lips, but his eyes were cold and devoid of any humor.

“The temperature is controlled, so it’s not as cold as it looks. Go on in.”

The tone he had used at the hotel banquet hall—half-polite, half-casual—had become excessively informal before Lee Jeongrok realized it. Lee Jeongrok couldn’t manage his expression and glared at him. Something welled up inside him, but he barely managed to swallow it down. He desperately recalled Chief Joo’s warning and retorted bluntly.

“Forget it. I’ll pass.”

“Ah, is it because you dressed up today? Don’t want to ruin your clothes? Haha.”

“Look here, Mr. Go Yoongi. I think you’ve had a bit too much to drink…”

“That’s why you’re like that, Mr. Jeongrok.”

Interrupting him, Go Yoongi whispered as softly as cotton candy.

“That’s why people call you things like ‘Seoul Young Master.’ Because you don’t have a single manly bone in your body. No, really—are you even capable of performing as a man?”

His face flushed red at an insult he had never heard of or imagined in his life.

How dare he. How dare he not only bring up that humiliating nickname to his face, but then—what? He doesn’t have a manly bone in his body? Him? Is he capable of performing as a man?

His whole body trembled as if splashed with cold water at the whirlwind of emotions. But Go Yoongi ignored him with a brazen face. He casually walked past Lee Jeongrok and even laid down on a sunbed.

Lee Jeongrok clenched both fists tight. But that was all. He couldn’t throw a punch, let alone shower him with curses. It wasn’t because of Chief Joo’s warning. He just couldn’t. He shouldn’t. That was his situation. It had been like that for a long time.

The nickname ‘Seoul Young Master’ wasn’t entirely wrong. Although, that only applied up until 13 years ago, when Lee Jeongrok was in his first year of high school.

Thirteen years ago, Lee Jeongrok—a young master of young masters who had never been anywhere outside of Seoul except overseas—saw his family collapse overnight. It was thanks to his father, who had fallen into gambling. At the time, their business had unexpectedly run into a boycott, and public sentiment was at its worst. Unable to resolve the situation, his father threw himself into gambling as if to escape, eventually shattering the fortress of wealth the family had built for generations.

‘City Mart,’ a large chain discount store that once had nearly 100 locations, collapsed pitifully under gambling debts and was sold for a pittance. The logistics company ‘CT Logistics,’ which had been gaining momentum, faced bankruptcy without even getting a proper start, leaving behind enormous deficits.

Even in that state, his father couldn’t stop gambling. Didn’t they say if you tie a gambler’s hands and feet, they’ll gamble with their mouth? After being arrested once and narrowly escaping, he still couldn’t come to his senses until, one day, he was found hanging in a mountain woods. It wasn’t even clear if he had committed suicide or if someone had killed him.

Despite the business failing and his father dying, Lee Jeongrok grew up still enjoying an affluent life that ordinary people couldn’t even dream of. Saying they had ‘completely collapsed’ was only true from the perspective of the wealthy. He still went to school with a chauffeur and used luxury goods for even the smallest items like socks. But unlike his peers who had businesses inherited from their parents, Lee Jeongrok’s situation—having to rebuild that level of wealth with his own hands—was worlds apart.

Born with a sensitive and jagged temperament, he was easily dominated by inferiority. In front of his friends, he pretended to be just as carefree and idle as them, showing no sign of shadows, but inside, every minute and every second boiled with scorching inferiority.

He worked himself to the bone behind everyone’s backs.

To others, he acted as if falling out of Seoul National University didn’t matter because he could just go study abroad, but behind the scenes, he ground his teeth and studied. It was the same in college. He never missed a social gathering, but during exam periods, he maintained his grades even by taking stimulants. Even before graduating, he started investing aggressively and made quite a bit of profit. However, he could never accept a life of living day-to-day without a single decent business to his name.

Lee Jeongrok started a business in a hurry to revive the glory his family had once enjoyed. Honestly, he was confident. Even before graduating college, he had already earned a substantial amount through investments. He had a natural business sense and was sensitive to the flow of money, perhaps even instinctual. Hadn’t he already succeeded several times? He was certain he would do well.

That must have been his arrogance.

One year was enough. To lose all the wealth he had maintained—enough to keep a foot in the upper class.

Lee Jeongrok realized belatedly that investment and business were no different from gambling, where you throw yourself into uncertainty. The tingling sensation that had driven his father to ruin had been inherited by him perfectly.

Unfairly, what Lee Jeongrok truly wanted wasn’t money. They say the wealthy can last three generations even after failing, and although his father’s business had gone bankrupt, the family’s economic situation hadn’t changed as drastically as Lee Jeongrok had expected.

The reason he started the business wasn’t for money, but for the lifestyle. Having been expelled from the class he was born and raised in when his father’s business failed, Lee Jeongrok simply wanted to return. He truly longed for a return to a life where he didn’t dream of success.

Before his family’s collapse, he had never been conscious of success. A life of dreaming of success and having ambition was a lifestyle for the lower class. As he struggled and strained to work, he felt horribly ashamed of himself.

The belief that a life of not working was divine, and that the act of earning income was merely a vulgarity, was the natural lifestyle of the class he belonged to. In a sense, what Lee Jeongrok truly wanted to reclaim was his former self—the version of him that didn’t know what success was, nor had any need to know.