The New Groom Chapter 30

A long silence flowed. Hwang Imin took another sip of her drink, took a handkerchief from her handbag to wipe away her tears, and finally caught her breath, which had become ragged from crying. Then, without a word, she rose to her feet. Lee Jeongrok stood up reflexively, but he could not hold her back and simply stood there, looking utterly lost.

However, Hwang Imin was not intending to leave the study. She opened the door slightly and gestured toward the outside.

“Come in.”

Lee Jeongrok stared, unable to even breathe, at the man entering the study.

A pale face, neatly combed hair, a black suit, a white shirt with the top button or two always undone, shoulders broad enough to fill the doorframe, and a gait that was unusually composed. Joo Seungchan closed the door and bowed perfectly at the waist to the couple, whose signs of a quarrel were plainly visible.

“Did you call for me, Young Lady?”

“Come here and sit.”

The frozen Lee Jeongrok met the eyes of Joo Seungchan as he approached the sofa. His face was expressionless. Perhaps conscious of Hwang Imin, he didn’t display his usual flippant attitude. Even the greeting he gave with a nod was in formal, polite language.

“Hello, Executive Director.”

“…”

His throat tightened, and he couldn’t even manage a reply. Joo Seungchan, indifferent, took a seat opposite Hwang Imin. Hwang Imin did not offer him a drink. Instead, she looked up at Lee Jeongrok quietly.

“You sit down, too.”

“…What, what is this all about?”

His voice cracked miserably. To anyone who heard it, he sounded like a man with something to hide. Hwang Imin no longer shed tears or showed agitation. She simply stared steadily at Lee Jeongrok. Feeling stifled by the straight, uncharacteristic gaze, Lee Jeongrok eventually had no choice but to sit on the sofa.

He had sat down, but his heart was beating so fast he could barely breathe. It felt as if he had been left all alone in the middle of a vicious enemy camp. The impulse to bolt out of the room shook him so violently that he had to grip the armrests of the sofa tightly.

After a terrible silence, Hwang Imin opened her mouth.

“Seungchan. I’m going to ask you one last time.”

“Yes, Young Lady.”

“Why did you fight with Secretary Yoon and Inho at the garbage collection area on Saturday night?”

“…”

Joo Seungchan did not answer. Yet, he didn’t avoid her gaze or turn his head away either. Suddenly, Hwang Bosik’s words, ‘It’s not like that bastard is the type to blabber about every little detail,’ crossed his mind. Joo Seungchan just kept his mouth shut, staring quietly at Hwang Imin. Hwang Imin didn’t seem surprised, either. Only Lee Jeongrok sat with his eyes wide, gripping the armrests as if to break them.

“You won’t say?”

“I have nothing to say to you, Young Lady.”

“Is that so? According to Mr. Jeongrok, you belittled and insulted him in front of Secretary Yoon and Inho. Is that true?”

“What is it that you’re doing right now?”

Before Joo Seungchan could answer, Lee Jeongrok raised his voice. Hwang Imin didn’t even blink. She didn’t even give Lee Jeongrok a glance. Only Joo Seungchan spared him a fleeting look. But Lee Jeongrok thoroughly ignored Joo Seungchan, focusing only on shouting at her.

“Are you doing this because you don’t believe me? Just say you don’t believe me, instead of making a fool out of me!”

“A fool? Who is making a fool of whom right now?”

“…Ha. Are you really going to go this far?”

“I’m only trying to uncover the truth.”

While maintaining a calm demeanor, Hwang Imin did not back down at all. Unable to endure the ominous premonition, Lee Jeongrok stood up from his seat. He lashed out, pretending to be dumbfounded.

“You’re unreasonable. I don’t have time to play along with this low-class game. You two can have fun playing the truth game. I’m excusing myself.”

As Lee Jeongrok started to leave the study, he was stopped dead in his tracks by a single sentence thrown from behind him.

“I watched the CCTV footage.”

He didn’t have the courage to turn around. Lee Jeongrok clutched the doorknob, his face drained of color. He heard the sound of Hwang Imin opening and closing her handbag.

“Inho came to see me today. He said he didn’t care about getting fired, but he wanted to apologize to you one last time. It’s strange, isn’t it? Wanting to apologize? The ringleader was Seungchan, and Inho and Secretary Yoon were the ones trying to stop him. It didn’t add up, so I asked about the circumstances in detail. That’s when he confessed that they were bad-mouthing you with Secretary Yoon and got caught by Seungchan.”

“…”

“At first, I didn’t believe it either. Because it was the exact opposite of what you said. So, just in case, I called Seungchan and asked. Seungchan over there didn’t say a word. You and Inho’s stories didn’t match, and Seungchan wouldn’t speak, so I decided I had to find out what happened myself and checked the CCTV for that day.”

“…”

“Come and look. I brought the footage on my phone.”

“…”

“Come on.”

“…”

“Seungchan, bring him over.”

He felt the stir of someone rising from the sofa. Still, Lee Jeongrok remained frozen, gripping the doorknob. He couldn’t even breathe properly until the shadow approaching from behind overlapped with his own in front of the door. Joo Seungchan wrapped his arms around Lee Jeongrok’s shoulders and peeled his fingers off the doorknob, one by one, one by one. Finally, Lee Jeongrok lifted his head to look up at Joo Seungchan. Joo Seungchan, who had been feigning an expressionless face, gave him a playful wink.

“See? I told you I was on your side.”

The voice whispering in his ear was low, so low, it felt like a quagmire.

Hwang Imin brought up the footage from the garbage collection area and the elevator. Lee Jeongrok’s back was captured on camera as he eavesdropped behind the garbage area. Joo Seungchan, who appeared with long strides from somewhere, watched Lee Jeongrok quietly. He watched in silence for several minutes, and then abruptly entered the collection area and beat Secretary Yoon and the driver to a pulp.

Although there was no audio, Lee Jeongrok squeezed his eyes shut, feeling as though he could hear the horrific sounds of bone and flesh colliding. After the brutal assault, which lasted nearly 30 minutes, Joo Seungchan disappeared beyond the collection area, supporting Lee Jeongrok. In the CCTV, Lee Jeongrok didn’t look like he was being dragged away or terrified. Rather, he was leaning his body against him as if trusting and relying on him.

The elevator CCTV was even worse. It was a short clip of barely a minute, but it was enough to prove Lee Jeongrok’s lie. Lee Jeongrok, leaning his body against Joo Seungchan, was clutching his collar and staring up at him, utterly captivated. His face, captured head-on in the clear, high-definition footage, shone brightly with awe and an intensely embarrassing, fervent affection.

The short video ended.

No one spoke. Hwang Imin poured whiskey into her already empty glass. Joo Seungchan only rubbed the back of his neck with a large hand, which seemed twice the size of a normal person’s.

As for Lee Jeongrok, he was desperately racking his brain. Now that his lie was exposed, he had to come up with another clever plan. But for a man who had stubborn persistence but no cunning, he lacked the flexibility to show quick-wittedness in an unexpected crisis. Eventually, they sat in a long, heavy silence.

“Seungchan has been in our house for…”

Hwang Imin, having put down her glass, opened her mouth.

“Hmm, has it been more than 10 years?”

“Yes, Young Lady. It has been 13 years this year.”

At the history he couldn’t have even imagined, Lee Jeongrok almost lost his jaw. He had vaguely known that Hwang Bosik cherished Joo Seungchan a little more than other gangsters, but he had never dreamed they had been eating from the same pot for over 10 years.

He had been careless. He had attacked it too easily. 13 years meant they were practically the same as family. If he had known they had such a relationship, he would never have attempted such a simple frame-up.

No.

It was already too late.

If those 13 years were the truth, if those words were true, then Lee Jeongrok was finished.

Since he had married into this house, there was no way to escape Joo Seungchan’s grip. If asked who he trusted more—himself, the decent son-in-law from a dignified family who graduated from Seoul National University, or Joo Seungchan, the middle-school dropout, blockhead ex-con gangster—Hwang Bosik would choose Joo Seungchan without a second’s hesitation.

Hwang Imin turned her head and gazed steadily at Lee Jeongrok. As if the furious outburst from a moment ago that had made him spring from his seat were a lie, Lee Jeongrok was sitting quietly with his mouth shut. Only, his face had turned as white as a sheet of paper.