140.
#Even If He Knew
From the front gate, the servant was puzzled by the visitor at this hour. If it wasn’t Hayun, they would have turned them away without hesitation.
As Hayun drove his car up to the mansion’s entrance, a servant had already come out to wait.
“Vice President, what brings you here at this hour…”
Ignoring the flustered servant, Hayun opened the front door and went inside. It was already close to midnight. The mansion was inevitably quiet.
“Is he in the bedroom?”
Skipping any greetings, Hayun’s question made the servant who had followed him look troubled.
“The Chairman has already retired for the night.”
“So he’s in the bedroom then.”
Paying no heed, Hayun walked past him towards the Chairman’s bedroom.
“Vice President! Perhaps it would be better to come back in the morning… Or at least, let me prepare a room for you. It might be best to sleep and visit in the morning.”
The servant tried to dissuade Hayun as he followed him. However, Hayun had already reached the Chairman’s bedroom with his long strides.
Knock knock. He knocked twice out of courtesy. The servant beside him fidgeted, unsure how to handle this situation. There was no answer from inside.
“Perhaps tomorrow would be better…”
Ignoring the servant’s words, Hayun flung the door open.
“If you weren’t asleep, you could have answered.”
Chairman Jeong was sitting in a chair by the window. He frowned as he saw Hayun barging in.
“That’s enough. You may leave,” the Chairman said. Only then did the troubled servant bow and withdraw.
“You don’t show your face when I look for you, yet you come at this late hour.”
Despite the scolding words, Hayun’s expression didn’t change as he approached.
“I’ve been too lenient. Now you have no respect?”
The Chairman’s voice was harsh. He pointed out that it was disrespectful behavior, even for a grandson. Hayun smirked at this.
“It’s a situation that warrants a lack of respect.”
At the cynical tone, Chairman Jeong looked up at Hayun standing before him. His eyebrows furrowed further, as if not understanding what Hayun meant.
“You’re completely out of line.”
“The one trying to control everything as they please isn’t me, it’s you, Chairman.”
Hayun retorted without blinking. Displeased with the backtalk, Chairman Jeong’s face hardened further.
“Mind your manners. There’s a limit to how much I’ll tolerate.”
Chairman Jeong warned with a cold expression.
“Tolerate, you say…”
One corner of Hayun’s mouth twisted upwards.
“It seems I’m the one who needs to start tolerating you, Chairman.”
Chairman Jeong’s eyes narrowed at Hayun’s words.
“I remembered.”
Hayun leaned forward, bringing his face close to Chairman Jeong’s. A smile still played on his lips, but his eyes were ice-cold.
“Where I’ve seen the driver of the car that tried to hit me.”
He spoke each word with emphasis, maintaining direct eye contact. Though he tried to see if his words affected the Chairman, the old man was no pushover. He met Hayun’s gaze without wavering.
“I received a report about an accident in the parking lot. Why did you have to get involved unnecessarily? What if you had been hurt?”
Chairman Jeong frowned, seemingly displeased that Hayun had nearly been hit.
“The report came quite quickly, and with quite specific details. Despite the parking lot CCTV being dead and there being no witnesses.”
At Hayun’s pointed remark, Chairman Jeong’s eyebrows twitched slightly. While it was possible to know about a car accident, only Dawoon, Hayun, and Director Park knew whether the car had tried to hit Dawoon or Hayun. The only other person who could know the truth was the one who had tried to hit them.
Realizing his slip-up, Chairman Jeong averted his gaze. Hayun swallowed a sneer. Even without this slip-up, he had already known who had given the order and had come here because of it.
“I couldn’t be sure at first because I only caught a glimpse, but thinking about it carefully, I remembered.”
He straightened up and continued.
“Two years ago, there was an employee who was fired after an internal audit caught him embezzling company funds. From your secretarial office.”
Hayun glanced at Chairman Jeong’s expression. Being an experienced old man, he didn’t flinch at this level of pressure.
“You were so cold and ruthless when you fired him, yet it seems easy to bring him back.”
Even with this additional comment, Chairman Jeong maintained an expression of not understanding what Hayun meant.
“You probably thought you wouldn’t get caught since it was a stolen car. And you paid in cash.”
Indeed, when they traced the car number, it turned out to be a stolen vehicle. The perpetrator couldn’t be identified through vehicle tracking.
“But there’s always a weak point when it comes to people.”
Hayun took out a USB drive and placed it on the table in front of Chairman Jeong. The Chairman looked between the USB and Hayun as if asking what this was.
“Did you think someone who had been cast out once would blindly trust you, Chairman?”
At these words, Chairman Jeong’s eyes wavered for the first time.
“Or were you in such a hurry that you didn’t have time to consider these things?”
Hayun’s voice grew increasingly cold. Chairman Jeong remained silent, his lips set in a firm line. Even without a detailed explanation, the situation was clear enough.
He must have been in a hurry. Before Hayun could take Dawoon and leave Korea, he wanted to deal with it somehow, so there was no time. Choosing someone to kill Dawoon, Chairman Jeong remembered the employee who had been fired for embezzlement two years ago and was now struggling with gambling debts. He gave him a stolen car and ordered him to hit Dawoon, promising to solve his debts and take care of his remaining family.
The man, backed into a corner, accepted Chairman Jeong’s proposal but didn’t fully trust him. He recorded all conversations on his phone from the moment the Chairman’s secretary approached him, and even video-recorded their meetings in places with CCTV. It was likely a last-ditch effort in case Chairman Jeong went back on his word.
However, he didn’t expect Hayun to remember his face. Having seen him a few times coming and going from the Chairman’s office, Hayun recognized him and immediately searched through company personnel records to find his address. When Hayun threatened him, saying he knew what it meant that Jeong Hayun was hit instead of Jeong Dawoon, that he would face long-term imprisonment if this got out to the media even with the Chairman’s protection, and that Hayun would make sure of it, the man readily revealed that it was Chairman Jeong’s instigation.
“Are you threatening me now?”
At Chairman Jeong’s question, Hayun stared at him blankly before slowly curling up the corners of his mouth.
“What if I am?”
“You little…!”
Chairman Jeong exploded, trying to stand up, but Hayun pressed down on both his shoulders, preventing him from moving.
“Jeong Hayun!”
His angry voice echoed loudly, but Hayun didn’t even blink. If it was a matter of who was more furious, it was Hayun. He wanted to return exactly what Chairman Jeong had done, regardless of blood ties. The reason he didn’t was not fear of punishment. It was because he knew that if Dawoon found out later, that guy who unnecessarily clung to family would never forgive him.
To Hayun, the grandfather who didn’t share a single drop of blood with Dawoon wasn’t really family. In fact, the grandfather was treating Dawoon more coldly than a stranger. But Dawoon was different. Since he was the biological grandfather to Hayun and Haram, he couldn’t be a stranger to Dawoon. Even if he was a nasty old man who never acknowledged him, to Dawoon, he was still the grandfather of his precious siblings.
“Yes, I am threatening you. So don’t try anything foolish again. This is as far as I’ll tolerate. Just keep breathing. If you stay quiet, I’ll at least let you keep the title of Chairman.”
Hayun’s eyes flashed fiercely at Chairman Jeong.
“How dare you…! How dare you treat me like this! After how I raised you!”
“I’m showing the minimum respect to someone who has managed the group this far.”
At the cold words, Chairman Jeong trembled, unable to contain his anger.
“Jeong Dawoon, that bastard! For someone who doesn’t share a single drop of blood with you, you’re turning your knife on me!”
At Chairman Jeong’s shout, Hayun silently glared at him with closed lips. It seemed the Chairman had realized that Dawoon’s DNA test results had been manipulated. That’s why he had tried to kill Dawoon without hesitation after finding out.
So what if he knew? Nothing would change just because he knew.
“I’ll remove him from the family registry immediately and throw him out of Haedo. I should have done it sooner. I should have gotten rid of that kid when his mother ensnared Seo-hoo!”
Chairman Jeong shouted, overcome with anger. Hayun looked at him and smirked. The cynical smile made Chairman Jeong frown.
“Go ahead. Call in a lawyer.”
At Hayun’s nonchalant response, Chairman Jeong’s face contorted further.
“What about evidence? We’ve already done DNA tests twice, once by my father and once by me, both notarized. How do you plan to overturn that? Go ahead if you can. Then I’ll announce that you’re doing this because you have dementia. It wouldn’t be bad to end your life as a person under guardianship.”
“You…!”
At the calm threat, Chairman Jeong’s face turned bright red.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
