The New Groom Chapter 21

Hwang Imin, who had been silent, closed his book. Having turned off the bedside lamp, he pulled the duvet over himself and lay down without a word. Only then did Lee Jeongrok realize his mistake and bite his lip hard. Because of the brutal assault he had experienced just last night and the thought that he would have to face Manager Joo’s face first thing tomorrow, he had become anxious and let a slip of the tongue escape. He could no longer bring up the subject of the bodyguard.

Lee Jeongrok followed suit, turning off the bedside lamp next to him, and lay down. After hesitating for a long time, he opened his mouth.

“What I just said…”

“It’s fine. Good night.”

Hwang Imin, who had replied with a curt tone, turned over to the other side. He seemed to be thoroughly angry. In the end, nothing had been resolved, and he had only gone and stirred up trouble for nothing.

Lee Jeongrok bit his lip as anger welled up within him. Does he look down on people just because I’m a son-in-law? A mere gangster’s daughter, yet where does she get the nerve to act so haughty… This is why I should never have gotten involved with people who have no breeding in the first place. Trying to suppress his rage, Lee Jeongrok spent the night wide awake.

∞ ∞ ∞

Thanks to taking his medicine strictly at every meal on Sunday, the muscle pain had subsided considerably. His throbbing knees were also fine. However, due to the mental stress that was even worse than that, deep shadows had formed under his eyes. Lee Jeongrok was infuriated by the fact that he, the victim, could not avoid the perpetrator, Manager Joo, and was walking on eggshells.

Why on earth can’t I fire Manager Joo right now?

I am the employer (or to be precise, the employer was Hwang Bosik), and I am the superior (if there is a contract, the superior in the contract would also be Hwang Bosik), so why on earth?

To make matters worse, by arguing with Hwang Imin, he had made an already complicated problem even more troublesome.

What if he just made an excuse of being sick and skipped work? The impulse rose up to his throat, but he eventually prepared to go to work. It was better to die at the office than to see the sight of his father-in-law spewing abusive language like, “Can a pale, sickly guy like a gigolo even perform his duties as a man?” (Perhaps because his sleep deprivation was severe, even his delusions had become extreme.) Even though his head was a battlefield of the impulse to run away somewhere and various pessimistic delusions, Lee Jeongrok finished grooming himself as usual.

Except for the fact that there were light shadows under his eyes and one of his cheeks was still swollen and reddish, he was the same as usual. He personally selected and tied a form-fitting ash-gray suit, a wrinkle-free white shirt, and a dark-toned gray tie. And a handkerchief… Looking at the handkerchief he had pulled out of the drawer without thinking, Lee Jeongrok recoiled as if he had touched a cockroach.

The handkerchief with a light sky-blue check pattern on a dark navy blue background belonged to Manager Joo. It was from last Saturday, when his stomach was churning due to the hardships he suffered at the swimming pool and the winding S-shaped road, causing him to vomit. What had he said while receiving the handkerchief from Manager Joo?

‘Manager Joo, you’re not a gangster.’

Looking back at what happened afterward, it was an incredibly stupid thing to say.

He had stuffed the handkerchief into his suit pocket without thinking at the time. It seemed that the employee had organized it as Lee Jeongrok’s item while washing the suit. The dark blue handkerchief lay abandoned on the floor like an ominous omen for the future. Lee Jeongrok stared at the handkerchief for a long time with a gloomy face, then turned away without picking it up.

When he went down to eat breakfast, Kim Soohyun was already reading a newspaper at the dining table. As always, the two sat facing each other and ate. Lee Jeongrok was lost in all sorts of thoughts and hardly opened his mouth. Kim Soohyun soon realized that his mind was elsewhere, so she finished her meal without bothering to speak to him.

“Have a good day at work, Son-in-law. I have a meeting in Seoul today, so I’ll be leaving first.”

“Yes, Mother. Please have a safe trip.”

Having barely touched his food, Lee Jeongrok put down his rice spoon as soon as Kim Soohyun left. He had no intention of eating more, but he sat at the table in a sluggish manner for a long time without getting up.

It was raining outside the window. The tiresome rainy season had already been going on for two months. It was an unprecedented, longest-running rainy season. Starting in mid-June, it had poured rain every single day, not missing a single day, until now in late July. Having married in early May, Lee Jeongrok had spent half of his newlywed life in gloom. He fell into an extreme fantasy that he would rather be washed away and disappear in that rainwater.

“U-um, excuse me, Mister Executive Director.”

Secretary Yoon woke him from his escapism. Lee Jeongrok, who had been lost in thought, was startled and turned around. Secretary Yoon could not meet Lee Jeongrok’s eyes and bowed obsequiously.

“It-it’s past departure time, and you hadn’t c-come out yet. I’ve come to fetch you.”

“Ah… I was just thinking for a moment. Let’s go.”

Secretary Yoon, who had been ruthlessly assaulted by Manager Joo on Saturday night, was in a wretched state. He was swollen to an incomparable degree compared to Lee Jeongrok, and dark black bruises covered his entire face. Scabs were stuck to his torn lips, and he looked to be in great pain whenever he spoke. Perhaps because his whole body was not in one piece, he limped as he walked, even though he tried hard to pretend he was fine. For a moment, Lee Jeongrok even forgot his grudge against Manager Joo and thought, “Serves him right.”

The satisfied feeling was truly nothing more than a midsummer night’s dream. Upon boarding the elevator, Lee Jeongrok’s complexion darkened rapidly, just like Secretary Yoon’s. He nearly teared up, overcome by sudden remorse, wondering if this was how a bull felt heading to the slaughterhouse. Both he and Secretary Yoon stepped out of the elevator feeling as if they were being dragged by the Grim Reaper.

A car was waiting right in front of the elevator. Standing next to the car door was the Grim Reaper, or rather, Manager Joo.

“What is it? Did you oversleep?”

It was a calm voice.

Lee Jeongrok, who had spent the entire day yesterday suffering from anxiety and fear while smoking like a madman, felt an intense rage that drained all the color from his face. However, as he lifted his head and met Joo Seungchan’s eyes, he could not utter a single curse.

“Did you sleep well? For some reason, our Executive Director’s face is sparkling and shining today. Isn’t that right, Inho? Hahaha.”

In Joo Seungchan’s face, which was smiling as brightly as a boy’s, there was not a grain of guilt to be found. While one person was straining his entire body to the point of getting cramps to avoid being caught with trembling legs, that shameless son of a bitch was annoyingly carefree. His gesture of opening the car door was nothing short of jaunty.

“Let’s go, Executive Director.”

It felt like sticking his head into a crocodile’s maw.

During the commute, Joo Seungchan watched makjang dramas as usual. When a funny scene came on, he would rewind it 10 seconds to watch it again and giggle. The sound of that laughter was so hateful and detestable that Lee Jeongrok, whose heart was pounding, sweat was pouring, and legs were trembling, gradually regained his senses. The more he regained his reason, the more it felt like his head would explode with rage.

That devilish bastard. That shameless son of a bitch. A psychopath, a crazy, psychopathic bastard. A deranged lunatic who wouldn’t be adequately punished even if I tore him to pieces!

During the 20 minutes it took to get to the company, he imagined all sorts of things. If he lunged at him right now and strangled him, wouldn’t the driver or Secretary Yoon side with him? The driver’s condition was even more severe than Secretary Yoon’s, whose face was stained blue. He had a splint on the bridge of his nose, as if it had been crushed, and was wearing gauze covered in disinfectant and bloodstains all over his face. If the grudge against Joo Seungchan was the metric, it would likely be as deep as Lee Jeongrok’s.

Lee Jeongrok, whose judgment was clouded by severe sleep deprivation, almost truly lunged at Joo Seungchan. Thanks to arriving at the company just in time, he came to his senses as if splashed with cold water. He barely managed to remind himself that the possibility of the driver or Secretary Yoon siding with him was close to zero, and that he would likely be crushed to death by that giant before he could even strangle him. Lee Jeongrok got out of the car with a gloomy face.

While riding the elevator up, Secretary Yoon was hunched over in the corner, not lifting his head. On the other hand, Lee Jeongrok was holding his head high, pretending to be nonchalant. Once they entered the crowded company building, he felt relatively more at ease. He even found the leisure to steal glances at Joo Seungchan through the mirror.

He had heard a rumor that he used to be a volleyball player, but he had never asked if it were true. The authenticity was unclear, but it was a highly credible rumor. Joo Seungchan was a rare, tall man reaching 196 centimeters. The passenger seat in front of the car was always pulled all the way forward to accommodate the length of his legs.