The New Groom Chapter 3

Chairman Na looked back inside the tent, as if her resolve had wavered. The residents, who had been listening with bated breath to the conversation that had ping-ponged back and forth like a ping-pong ball, flinched. But Chairman Na was not looking at the residents. Her gaze was directed at a young man watching the two of them from a distance.

Unlike the residents who had risen indignantly, the young man had been standing hunched over in a corner, as if hiding his body, for the entire duration of the conversation. When Chairman Na gestured, only then did he smile sheepishly and step forward.

“This is not an illegal protest. There is absolutely nothing that will be a legal issue, so please rest assured, Chairman.”

Unlike the residents wearing matching vests, he was wearing a summer suit, and unexpectedly, he was a face Lee Jeongrok knew well. He never in his wildest dreams imagined he would run into him in a place like this. Lee Jeongrok could not hide his look of surprise.

“…Jin Juyeong? Is that you, Juyeong?”

The summer suit unfolded a worn, rusted three-fold umbrella and stepped in front of the tent. His hair quickly got wet from the driving rain and stuck to his forehead. Without caring about the pouring rain or Lee Jeongrok, who had been left speechless, he greeted him pleasantly.

“It’s been a while, Jeongrok. You really haven’t changed one bit.”

Chairman Na, who had been looking back and forth between the two, asked.

“Do you two know each other?”

“Yes, we are classmates. Although I think this is the first time we’ve seen each other since graduating from college. Isn’t that right?”

“…”

The summer suit, Attorney Jin Juyeong, extended a handshake with a friendly smile.

Lee Jeongrok and Jin Juyeong had a long history. They were peers who had been together from elementary school through college—a relationship that was both suffocating and fond—and he was also someone Lee Jeongrok had secretly harbored an inferiority complex toward. Only after shaking his hand in a daze did it dawn on him that Jin Juyeong was walking around doing work as a human rights lawyer or some such nonsense.

“I didn’t know you were working here… in Jangchang.”

“No. My office is originally in Seoul. I did know you lived in Jangchang, though… Oh, right, I heard the news of your marriage. It’s late, but congratulations.”

Jin Juyeong glanced at the pack of gangsters standing next to Lee Jeongrok. Lee Jeongrok’s ears turned red in an instant, and he pulled his hand away as if shaking off the handshake.

“Yeah. Thanks. I thought about sending an invitation, but it didn’t seem right to suddenly invite you after not hearing from you for years.”

“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t even call you once after hearing the news of your marriage, either. I just thought I’d congratulate you if I ever saw your face someday. Although I never imagined I’d meet you in a place like this.”

“…Yeah. I never thought I’d see you in a place like this.”

A smile that looked shy was Jin Juyeong’s trademark. His bright smile, where the corners of his drooping eyes folded softly, disarmed even the most enraged opponent in an instant.

Lee Jeongrok had found that good-natured smile annoying when he was young, and as he got older, he wanted to avoid it. How enviable and jealousy-inducing it was to win favor with just a smiling face. Even Lee Jeongrok himself felt a jealousy he wanted to hide rise even more when he felt secretly charmed by that smile.

Lee Jeongrok, who had averted his gaze askew, pulled out a new business card. The business card he had intended to hand to Chairman Na had fallen when he received the materials and was rolling in the muddy water. Jin Juyeong, who received the business card, nodded.

“Ah, thank you. Hanyang Construction Eco-Friendly Energy Management Division General Manager… Representative Hwang Bosik is your father-in-law, right?”

“Yeah.”

Lee Jeongrok unintentionally looked back at the sedan where Hwang Bosik was sitting. Hwang Bosik must be watching him even at this moment.

What would he be thinking as he watched him standing there blankly and wasting time? It was obvious he would be clicking his tongue, calling him a pathetic, gigolo-like bastard. Hwang Bosik had a record of seeing Lee Jeongrok dressed in a white tuxedo at the wedding, suddenly laughing out loud and saying that since he looked like a gigolo, he didn’t know if he even had a ‘thing’ down there. If it hadn’t been for his wife—or to be precise, his wife’s conditions—Lee Jeongrok would have called off the marriage and left without looking back.

But the wedding proceeded as scheduled. Lee Jeongrok had become Hwang Bosik’s son-in-law and was standing in this spot. Gritting his teeth, he received Jin Juyeong’s business card. Jin Juyeong tilted his umbrella back slightly and looked straight at Lee Jeongrok.

“As you know well, this is a legitimate, legal site that has received proper permission. Your remarks about it being illegal are not only contrary to the facts, but the context is also quite impure. I welcome the attitude of wanting to have a conversation, but I hope you will be careful with your choice of words in the future.”

“…Sure.”

“To add one thing, it is the most undemocratic act to blindly condemn this as an illegal protest, and I hope you know that expressing opinions through protests is a citizen’s legitimate right. Do not overlook the fact that from another perspective, Hanyang Construction, which pushed forward the power plant construction without a sufficient consensus process, could be seen as the most anti-social group.”

Every time Jin Juyeong spat out a word, the red vests changed their posture. Their shoulders, which had shrunk a little when Lee Jeongrok mentioned illegality, were suddenly thrown wide open, their necks became stiff, and their chins were lifted toward the sky without knowing how high it was. If Lee Jeongrok had also brought a lawyer, he would have fired back, but unfortunately, he only had four gangsters whose brains were made of muscle.

He had no choice but to admit defeat.

“…Then, Chairman Na.”

He turned his gaze to Chairman Na, who had become even more confident with a lawyer at her side. Lee Jeongrok, whose temper was flared up, smiled convulsively and reached out for a handshake.

“I will first review the materials, learn the ‘basic facts,’ and then come visit you again.”

“Yes, please do. In any case, we are the ones who need this conversation more than anyone else.”

So arrogant for a nobody. Lee Jeongrok scoffed inwardly as he gripped and shook hands with Chairman Na. He figured it was something that she even accepted the handshake when she hadn’t even taken his business card. That was the moment he turned around, having nothing but a pile of homework instead of any gains.

“Why is the conversation taking so long?”

A booming, thunderous voice with a large resonance echoed. Lee Jeongrok looked back, unable to hide his look of dismay.

Thinking that the situation was taking a strange turn, Hwang Bosik had eventually come out in person. As soon as he appeared, a tight tension hung over the protest site. Above all, the number of security guards he brought was twice that of Lee Jeongrok’s. Unlike Lee Jeongrok, who had started out with a low profile, Hwang Bosik barged straight into the tent. There was no time for anyone to stop him.

“What is this. Fruit? You were lounging around peeling and eating fruit? Good grief, I’m dumbfounded. You said you gathered to demonstrate, but you were having a good time eating fruit and playing. Did you come for a picnic? Did you come for a picnic?”

“Look here, what do you think you are doing!”

Whether someone was shouting from the side or not, Hwang Bosik took a big bite of an apple as if to show off. Just as a resident who couldn’t bear to watch any longer grabbed his arm roughly to stop him, Hwang Bosik’s complexion changed completely. After throwing the apple away, he suddenly kicked a plastic chair. The chair rolled away and bounced out into the pouring rain that was falling without rest.

A chilling silence fell.

Looking down at the frozen resident, Hwang Bosik growled.

“Where do you think you’re putting your hands on, you bastard.”

“No, you were the one who…”

“This is assault, you know? You gathered to demonstrate, and now you’re even hitting people?”

“Who hit who, what…”

“You touched my body just now, you bastard. Don’t you see the fingernail marks on my arm here? It feels like shit, damn it.”

There was no time to check if there were real fingernail marks. Hwang Bosik didn’t wait for an answer and even kicked the plastic table placed right next to him.

As the table collapsed, various materials spilled into the puddles. It instantly became a scene of chaos as people who couldn’t avoid it were covered in mud. The enraged residents rushed forward.

As if they had been waiting for that moment, the burly security guards quickly intervened. Pushed by the young and strong guards, it was the protesters who were chased out of the tent. They tried to break back into the tent somehow, but it was too much for the residents, most of whom were in their 50s and 60s. Instead, due to the commotion, one of the pillars collapsed and the entire tent tilted.

It was a total mess. Lee Jeongrok grabbed his forehead without realizing it.

The situation reached its peak when one resident threw an egg at Hwang Bosik. Yellow egg liquid dripped down the face of Hwang Bosik, who had been hit squarely in the forehead by the raw egg. Hwang Bosik, who grinned while revealing teeth as yellow as the egg yolk, looked slowly at the resident. It was the face of a brutal gangster, one that it would be impossible to imagine as a representative leading a company.