#078
At the same time, Gyo-ha was being thoroughly scolded by Jung-hye.
“Do you have any sense? Do you think this is America?”
“I know it’s Korea.”
“If you know, why are you acting like this?”
“Oh, sis… I said I’m sorry.”
“Don’t try to sweet-talk me. I’ve been too lenient with you…”
“I had no choice. Sung-ha kept bothering Hwi-kyung.”
“Well said. When will that Sung-ha ever come to his senses?”
“Probably never?”
In the middle of the siblings’ colorful gossip, the not-so-noble Sung-ha sauntered in.
“Why should I come to my senses? It’s Lee Gyo-ha who needs to.”
He burst through the door without knocking, apparently having overheard Gyo-ha and Jung-hye’s conversation. Despite his arrogant attitude, Sung-ha’s face was covered in dark bruises.
They weren’t visible in the NTV interview video due to makeup, but it seemed Hwi-kyung’s punch had left its mark. While his nose hadn’t been re-fractured, he looked like someone who had been in a violent altercation.
“What happened to your face again?”
“Gyo-ha’s lover punched me. He’s surprisingly violent for his looks.”
“What?”
“This bastard did something to deserve it first.”
Lee Jung-hye, the eldest daughter with two immature brothers, rubbed her forehead as she watched her younger brothers start pointing fingers at each other. With their father considering retirement due to old age, these two brothers, far from being helpful, only caused trouble.
“Both of you, shut up and sit down over there.”
When Jung-hye lowered her voice, Gyo-ha and Sung-ha, who were about to start throwing punches, quietly sat down. The experience of being beaten by their sister in childhood was etched into their bones.
“Since Father is in China now, I’ll speak on his behalf. Sung-ha, you need to lay low for a while. Don’t do any more interviews. He said if you keep acting up, he’ll take back BK International.”
“Shit, why only me…”
“Lee Sung-ha.”
“Fine, I got it. This is so damn unfair.”
“And Lee Gyo-ha, you…”
“Me?”
“You’re going back to America.”
“Huh?”
Gyo-ha had expected to hear something like ‘You need to lay low too.’ When the word ‘America’ came out of Jung-hye’s mouth, his eyes widened.
“Why?”
“Why? Don’t you know our entertainment stock plummeted because of your scandal?”
“What does the Executive Director’s love life have to do with the success of the entertainment business?”
“People’s psychology has nothing to do with business! Go back to America and get another degree.”
“Are you crazy… You want me to go to grad school again?”
“Again? What do you mean again! You ran back to Korea without getting a degree!”
Listening to the angry Jung-hye, Gyo-ha muttered to himself, “Ah… I’ve gotten over ten graduate degrees…” But Jung-hye, not being a time traveler, didn’t know her brother was highly educated.
As Gyo-ha received a harsher punishment than himself, Sung-ha smirked behind Jung-hye’s back. Lee Gyo-ha, who had never strongly disliked anyone in his life, wanted to punch his brother hard just once at that moment.
“Alright. I’ll go back to America.”
“Good.”
“I’ll get a degree too. It’s not that difficult anyway.”
“If you come back to Korea midway this time, you’re really dead.”
“Let me take Hwi-kyung with me.”
“What?”
“To America. I can’t be apart from Hwi-kyung now.”
Given the situation, Gyo-ha decided to take Hwi-kyung abroad. He thought it would be good to take Ok-ja to America for a thorough medical examination too. If she could endure the long-distance flight, it would be better for Ok-ja as well.
Going through an integrated master’s and doctoral program again would be a piece of cake for Gyo-ha. Hwi-kyung had also mentioned working abroad in China in a previous cycle, so getting an F1 visa for U.S. immigration should be smooth.
“I’m really at a loss for words.”
Jung-hye let out a long sigh. She was frustrated with her brother who interpreted “go get a degree and come back quietly” as “go study abroad and continue your relationship.”
After quickly calculating in her head, Jung-hye nodded a moment later. She had decided that since things had come to this, she should send Gyo-ha to America and separate him from Hwi-kyung.
A male lover who couldn’t even be used as a marketing tool? She’d just have to give him a good position in Korea and tell them to break up… No matter how great their love was, it would have to end in the face of money and power.
However, unaware of his sister’s intentions, Gyo-ha was dreaming of an American dream with Jung Hwi-kyung.
“If you two cause trouble one more time, you’ll both die by my hands, understand?”
“…”
“…”
“Why aren’t you answering?”
“…Yes!”
“Damn… Fine, we get it.”
Exhausted from dealing with her two younger brothers, Jung-hye got up first. Gyo-ha was about to follow Jung-hye out but turned towards Sung-ha, who was still sprawled on the sofa.
“Hey.”
“You disrespectful brat. How dare you say ‘hey’ to your older brother? You always call Jung-hye ‘sis’.”
“You said it gives you goosebumps when I call you brother.”
“Of course. I don’t need a brother like you.”
“Whatever.”
A brief, unproductive conversation ensued. Since Gyo-ha had never directly contacted Sung-ha during his time in America, it had been a while since he had a one-on-one conversation with his brother.
“Why do you live like this?”
“What?”
“Stop meddling everywhere and just manage what you have well. Be it business or people.”
“Look at you… getting all high and mighty because you’re going to America again.”
“You’ll get in big trouble if you keep acting up.”
“Says the one who’s being sent back to America after getting a male lover.”
It wasn’t something that should come from someone who got punched for bothering said male lover.
Although they now looked at each other like strangers, Gyo-ha used to find Sung-ha intimidating when they were young. Even Lee Gyo-ha, being human, couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable with a brother who would smash the back of someone’s head for no reason.
From the perspective of the beloved youngest child, the second son who would hit and curse at him at the drop of a hat couldn’t be welcome. In his foolishly grinning childhood days, he had tried to get along well with Sung-ha.
Unlike his ambitious siblings, he had no particular desires, so he imagined that if he just kept his head down, the family would be peaceful. It was the kind of expectation that naive kids would have.
But no matter how hard Gyo-ha tried, Sung-ha remained consistent. If there was someone more consistent than Kim Tae-pung, who took first place in every round of the competition program, it would be Lee Sung-ha.
His consistently nasty personality made him rather predictable. Unlike Jung-hye who sometimes acted unpredictably, Sung-ha operated on a straightforward input-output system: input A, output A.
Thanks to that, in the twelfth cycle that lasted over 10 years, Gyo-ha took over the food business that Sung-ha was running. It wasn’t intentional theft. Sung-ha had just messed things up so badly that an opportunity fell to Gyo-ha, the youngest.
Lee Gyo-ha grew the food business well, just as he was now handling the entertainment business. Like a cheat player, he knew the future, so he invested boldly when others hesitated.
To be honest, 80% of Lee Gyo-ha’s success was luck. Even he admitted this fact. After all, he had become a time traveler by chance. That’s why Sung-ha could never easily accept Gyo-ha’s success. It was the same in the twelfth cycle.
As a result, various messy internal conflicts arose within the BK Group. The succession battle dragged on as Sung-ha opposed Jung-hye succeeding Lee Baek-gyeong. Due to the involvement of various businesses, Gyo-ha was inevitably drawn into this sibling war.
…Although it ended up moving to the thirteenth cycle without much gain because Jung Hwi-kyung suggested a young fuddy-duddy style mountain climbing to his team members.
Anyway, even at that point, Gyo-ha succeeded in emptying Sung-ha’s pockets. It wasn’t difficult because Sung-ha was always predictable. Although outwardly only twenty-nine, Gyo-ha had lived long enough in various ways, and unlike Sung-ha who failed at every business he touched, Gyo-ha was experienced and skilled in business.
So he could tolerate his six-year-older brother acting cocky in front of him. In fact, he didn’t even get angry when Sung-ha insulted him. If he thought of it as a crazy Chihuahua barking, it was rather sweet.
However, even the Buddha-like Gyo-ha found it difficult to endure Sung-ha flirting with Hwi-kyung. How could he just smile when Sung-ha was giving a new trial to Hwi-kyung, who was already unpredictable?
“How are you going to take my business? Maybe Jung-hye could, but you…”
Sung-ha, not remembering the previous cycles, dismissed Gyo-ha’s words as nonsense. No matter how much Lee Baek-gyeong favored the youngest, Sung-ha, as the eldest son, owned far more shares in the company. To Sung-ha, all of this sounded like Gyo-ha’s bluff.
However, instead of giving Sung-ha a specific answer, Gyo-ha turned around and left. He had never disliked someone this much before. Looking at Sung-ha’s bruised face made him feel sick.
The image of Hwi-kyung constantly hanging around Sung-ha kept coming to mind, making him dizzy. Even though he clearly knew Hwi-kyung wasn’t interested in Sung-ha, he still felt this way. It was an ugly jealousy, light-years away from productivity.
Even though he knew it was a useless emotion, he felt sick every time he remembered Sung-ha grabbing Hwi-kyung. If only Lee Sung-ha didn’t exist, he could have reached a state of nirvana. This was truly a strange thing.
