JGA CH34
Chapter 34: The Yoon Family Secret
Not long after Qi Huai left, Assistant Yoo arrived by car with a new set of clothes.
Yoon Nam-hyuk showered and changed, tidying himself up, and then stared at the shirt that Qi Huai had torn with his own hands for a long time. After a while, he folded the shirt, put it in a bag, and took it with him.
It was one o’clock in the morning.
The lights in the Yoon family’s living room were still brightly lit.
As he stepped into the house, Yoon Nam-hyuk once again saw his father, brother, and sister-in-law gathered together on the living room sofa, staring at him with various expressions.
His mind was a mess, and he really didn’t want to deal with their provocations. However, just as Yoon Nam-hyuk was about to go upstairs, his father, Yoon Tae-min, stopped him.
“Coming home so late, and you don’t even greet your father when you see him. Yoon Nam-hyuk, where are your manners?”
Yoon Nam-hyuk sneered. “Father, why bother with excuses? If there’s something else you’re dissatisfied with, just say it directly. Why find excuses to nitpick?”
Yoon Tae-min was furious. “You dare to say your father’s teachings are just nitpicking! Your mother… Hey! Is that how that woman taught you?”
“Is raising a child solely a woman’s responsibility?” Yoon Nam-hyuk’s face tensed, his five fingers gripping the stair railing. “Ha, if the child is taught well, it’s because of the father’s superior genes. If the child is taught poorly, it’s the mother’s negligence. As a graduate of Seoul National University, don’t you find such an idea ridiculous?”
Yoon Tae-min’s wrists trembled with anger. Seeing this, Yoon Nam-woo quickly stood up and pointed at Yoon Nam-hyuk, scolding him, “Hey! Yoon Nam-hyuk! How can you talk to Father like that! You were recently involved in that shameful gay scandal, bringing disgrace to the family. Do you know how upset Father was? Father’s old friends from church have been messaging to ask about it. The Yoon family has completely lost face! It’s one thing if you don’t bow your head and admit your mistake, but have you been paying attention to the company’s stock price lately? You shameless bastard, my opponent in the National Assembly election must be overjoyed! You’ve brought so much trouble to the family, you should be on your knees apologizing to Father!”
“I’ll say it again. That was just fake news deliberately released by Choi Min-jun and someone with ulterior motives to mislead the public. The clarification will be out in a few days, and the stock price will return to normal. Business markets, public opinion crises, stock price fluctuations—these are perfectly normal things. If you’re going to make a fuss over every fluctuation, with that kind of mentality… I don’t think you’re suited to be a member of the National Assembly, big brother.”
“You! You’re too arrogant!”
Yoon Nam-hyuk sneered. “Me, arrogant? I think we all know why that video was filmed and how it was released. The matter is over, and I’m not pursuing it, only out of respect for our family.”
“What do you mean? Are you saying I did it? What proof do you have?” Yoon Nam-woo was flustered and exasperated.
Yoon Nam-hyuk: “Proof? Go find a mirror and look at your own face, Yoon Nam-woo. The day the news broke, you were already beaming with joy. A person who can’t even wear a mask properly wants to play games. Do you think this world is a children’s playground? Throw out the Hermès in your room and buy a copy of An Actor Prepares.”
Yoon Nam-woo was so flustered he stammered, “You—you…!”
“Both of you, shut up! I’m not dead yet!”
Yoon Tae-min slammed his fist on the coffee table in anger. He looked at Yoon Nam-hyuk and roared, “Regardless of whether there was a mastermind behind this, when the news broke and caused the stock price to fluctuate, you should have known it was your weakness. Since it’s a weakness, it should be eliminated! I heard from Assistant Yoo that you haven’t even looked at the blind date candidates I had screened for you. Why?”
Since the public opinion crisis, Yoon Tae-min had been screening a batch of women of similar age, family background, and education to Yoon Nam-hyuk every day and sending their profiles to Assistant Yoo for him to review.
But Yoon Nam-hyuk had never looked at them.
“No reason. I’m not interested,” Yoon Nam-hyuk said flatly, his left hand gripping the paper bag containing the shirt.
Yoon Tae-min stared at Yoon Nam-hyuk’s expression and asked slowly, “Are you not interested in marriage, or not interested in women?”
However, he didn’t wait for Yoon Nam-hyuk’s answer and continued forcefully, “In any case, whatever the reason, whether you’re willing or not, you will go on blind dates, choose a smart woman with a good family background, produce a qualified heir, and continue the Yoon family’s wealth and prestige. This is your responsibility as a descendant of the Yoon family.”
“And repeat the same path as you and Mother?”
Yoon Nam-hyuk glanced at Yoon Tae-min mockingly, turned, and walked away, ignoring his father’s shouts and curses.
Yoon Tae-min swept a whole set of teapots and porcelain cups to the floor. “Is he blaming me?! Unfilial son!”
In the Yoon family, there was never any fatherly love or filial piety, no happy gatherings. Everyone once again parted on bad terms.
In the bedroom filled with Hermès and luxurious decorations, Yoon Nam-woo paced back and forth, growing angrier the more he thought about it. “Honey, you saw it, right? Hmm? That guy Yoon Nam-hyuk talked back to Father like that, and he even affected the company’s reputation and stock price. Why didn’t Father punish him? The family has real estate, department stores, and entertainment businesses, so many industries, but only the entertainment sector is the most profitable. I’ve proposed joining several times, but Father always refuses. Why?”
He said bitterly, “The real estate and department stores are controlled by those old geezers. Even though I’m his son, it’s hard for me to get a foothold. Running for the National Assembly and all that just sounds good. I want benefits, benefits, US dollars! Korean won! We can only get an allowance from the family fund right now. Why is Father always biased towards Yoon Nam-hyuk? Is it because that guy’s mother was Hyun Si-young? But the Hyun family is no longer the president’s family. Don’t they still have to rely on the Yoon family to survive now? What is that dog brat Yoon Nam-hyuk so proud of? Shibal!”
Dog brat?
If Yoon Nam-hyuk is a dog brat, then what are you?
Goo Ah-ra rolled her eyes inwardly. If I were my father-in-law, she thought, I wouldn’t let Yoon Nam-woo get involved in the business either.
This guy Yoon Nam-woo had absolutely no cunning. He wasn’t smart either. He would only ruin the family business. A sly person like her father-in-law wouldn’t want to be cleaning up after his stupid son in his old age. Who doesn’t want to enjoy a comfortable life?
It was true that Yoon Nam-woo was very good at pleasing his father. But from the perspective of choosing an heir, he was completely unqualified.
Sigh, if Yoon Nam-woo wanted to inherit the family fortune, he had to completely defeat Yoon Nam-hyuk. But now, he was always getting angry over small things. It was more like children fighting for favor, completely lacking in strategy.
She let out a long sigh and put on an elegant and considerate smile. “Honey~~~ don’t be angry, darling. These small things aren’t worth getting so upset about. Our real plan is Plan B, a grand plan that requires us to wait patiently for the right opportunity. Exposing Yoon Nam-hyuk’s scandal is just a small side dish, not worth mentioning. You shouldn’t always make Father angry either. Father is a very shrewd person. If we always start fights over these things, Father might really get annoyed with us. Let’s be more low-key, honey~~~”
Yoon Nam-woo sat down sheepishly. “Ah… really? Was my delight that obvious?”
Goo Ah-ra gave a dry laugh. “A little bit.”
Yoon Nam-woo was flustered. “Then what should we do? We still have our big plan to implement. Father won’t hate me, will he?”
Goo Ah-ra smoothed her long, thick, seaweed-like curls and thought for a moment. “How about this? I’ll go and sound out Father first. If he’s very angry, you should be more low-key for a while. Honey~~~ we have to look at the overall plan. We can’t get bogged down in small things, okay?”
“You’re right, honey. Father has always been satisfied with you as his daughter-in-law. Please help me, honey. Oh my God, what would I do without you? Please help me.”
Yoon Nam-woo eagerly hugged Goo Ah-ra and gave her a kiss, urging her to go and sound out his father as soon as possible. Goo Ah-ra patted his shoulder, crying “Ah-ya, ah-ya,” and pushed him away forcefully. “Don’t be like that, honey. I have to see Father in a minute.”
The couple dawdled for a long time.
Goo Ah-ra changed into a proper dress that befitted her status as the eldest daughter-in-law and went out. Yoon Nam-woo clasped his hands together and saw his wife off, then started pacing back and forth again after she left.
“Hmph! Low-key, low-key, always telling me to be low-key. Are we just going to ignore the obvious leverage that Yoon Nam-hyuk is gay? Even if Father doesn’t care, the families who want to form marriage alliances with the Yoon family will care, right? Who wants their daughter to marry a gay man? I can’t let Yoon Nam-hyuk get married. That would leave me with even fewer opportunities. Yes, I can’t let that happen.”
He rummaged through his drawers, found a business card, and dialed the number on it. “Hello? Is this Reporter Song?”
Outside Yoon Tae-min’s bedroom.
Goo Ah-ra, holding a tray with honey water and hot milk prepared by the kitchen, dressed in a proper and demure Dior wrap dress, cleared her throat and knocked on the door. “Father, it’s Ah-ra. I’ve prepared some milk and honey water for you. You have a heart condition, and you were so angry tonight. Please have a little something before you rest.”
“Come in.”
Goo Ah-ra entered with her eyes lowered, placed the honey water and milk on the table, and was hesitating on how to begin when she heard Yoon Tae-min say coldly, “Kneel!”
Goo Ah-ra’s shoulders flinched. She quickly knelt by the bed, not even daring to lift her head. “Father, please don’t be angry. Nam-woo only bickers with Nam-hyuk because he’s afraid of losing your favor. He has never done anything to tarnish the Yoon family’s name. I’ve already told him that he can’t make you angry like this anymore. Please forgive him.”
As she spoke, her eyes reddened.
Yoon Tae-min sneered. “What are you crying for? Do you think a few tears will make me believe you two had no hand in this?”
Goo Ah-ra shook her head in panic. “Father, you’ve wronged us! You know his personality. He was just a little pleased to see Nam-hyuk in a difficult situation, but he definitely didn’t create the public opinion storm with the media. You have to believe me, Father.”
Yoon Tae-min stared at Goo Ah-ra, his sharp eyes scrutinizing her face. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she could only use the act of wiping her tears to hide her panicked and flustered eyes.
“I don’t mind you two fighting amongst yourselves,” Yoon Tae-min suddenly said.
Goo Ah-ra froze.
“Internal family conflict is just one way to temper an heir. As long as the Yoon family bloodline continues, I don’t care if the final victor is Nam-woo or Nam-hyuk. It makes no difference to me.”
“But,” Yoon Tae-min suddenly squeezed Goo Ah-ra’s chin, “for things to get to this point, affecting the stock price of the Yoon family’s businesses, do you think I would turn a blind eye? Goo Ah-ra, don’t forget how you married into the Yoon family. Do you want to go back to your parents’ home and continue living a bankrupt life, relying on selling luxury goods to get by?!”
“Father, I’m sorry, Father. But we really didn’t do this, Father!” Goo Ah-ra pleaded, kneeling with tears streaming down her face, her hands clasped together, wringing them nervously. “Please believe me, Father. We would never work with the media to cause trouble for our own company. Please believe me.”
The young woman, not yet thirty, looked even more delicate and moving when she cried, her full bosom threatening to spill out from under the proper Dior dress.
Yoon Tae-min said flatly, “If you want to appease my anger, you don’t need me to teach you what to do, do you? Daughter-in-law.”
Goo Ah-ra got up, sobbing, and slowly took off her long dress, sitting on Yoon Tae-min’s lap.
She was the daughter of a small business owner. Marrying the illegitimate son of the Yoon family was a huge gamble for her. Her family, which had gotten rich off the back of the economic boom, was on the verge of bankruptcy. She had no impressive academic qualifications, no ability to make a comeback, and couldn’t endure much hardship.
The real second-generation chaebols were all calculating and astute elites. None of them would look at her. Only Yoon Nam-woo, the foolish illegitimate son, was somewhat obedient to her.
The first time she had stepped into the Yoon family home to meet Yoon Tae-min, she had been so happy she couldn’t sleep, spending a week choosing the most suitable dress and jewelry to meet the elders, and cautiously visited. But reality had given her a harsh slap in the face.
“I know the Goo family is short on money. You’re relying on selling real estate and luxury goods to get by, aren’t you?”
At that time, Yoon Tae-min had looked at her coldly, as if he could see through everything. “It’s not impossible for you to marry Nam-woo. Go get sterilized.”
“Why?” Goo Ah-ra’s eyes had widened, tears streaming down, not understanding why Yoon Tae-min would strip her of her right to be a mother.
“Don’t play out your tearful love stories in front of me,” Yoon Tae-min had said. “Nam-woo is my beloved eldest son. As long as things don’t go too far, I will indulge him. He can have the woman he wants, but the Yoon family does not need descendants from a minor family.”
He had glanced at her mockingly. “My mother was a chaebol descendant. My wife is the daughter of a president. What are you? The Yoon family needs a woman right now, but a woman like you is not worthy of being the mistress of the Yoon family.”
And so, Goo Ah-ra had become a woman of the Yoon family, a woman who served a father and son.
Under the pretext of needing cosmetic surgery before the wedding, she hadn’t seen Yoon Nam-woo for a long time. In reality, she had undergone a sterilization procedure arranged by Yoon Tae-min.
It was only then that she knew that Yoon Tae-min’s obsession with continuing the bloodline was almost pathological.
It wasn’t that he necessarily wanted a woman from a prominent family to be the mistress of the Yoon family. He just needed a smart, capable woman with excellent genes to bear descendants for the Yoon family. That was all.
This was the Yoon family.
A man-eating chaebol.
Goo Ah-ra tidied her dress and re-pinned her disheveled hair. Only she knew what a mess she was underneath.
But she was used to it.
Goo Ah-ra gently closed Yoon Tae-min’s bedroom door, her face once again adorned with a gentle, elegant smile. As she walked, she thought. Yoon Tae-min’s heart problems were getting worse. If he died suddenly one day and Yoon Nam-hyuk inherited the family fortune, she and Yoon Nam-woo would likely not have a good end.
The wealthy wives in Seoul’s upper circles were already mocking her for being the wife of an illegitimate son. If, as the eldest brother, Yoon Nam-woo couldn’t inherit the fortune, then wouldn’t all her painstaking efforts to marry into the Yoon family, her sterilization, her endurance of the two Yoon men’s games—wouldn’t all that suffering be for nothing?
No, absolutely not.
Her husband, Yoon Nam-woo, must, absolutely, one hundred percent inherit the Yoon Group.
“Sister-in-law.”
The sudden appearance of Yoon Nam-hyuk startled Goo Ah-ra. Her shoulders flinched, and she forced a smile. “Ah… Nam, it’s Nam-hyuk. You’re not resting yet? I just went to bring Father some milk and honey water. Would you like a glass too? The honey was air-freighted from New Zealand this morning…”
“Sister-in-law, please fulfill your duties as the eldest daughter-in-law of the Yoon family and let this family be at peace,” Yoon Nam-hyuk said expressionlessly, cutting off her hypocritical small talk. “Don’t you and big brother always come looking for trouble with me. I won’t pry into your secrets either. Let’s just live peacefully like this, okay?”
As she stood there stunned, he leaned in closer, whispering in her ear, “You should freshen up, sister-in-law. Even in your own home, it’s not very becoming for your hair to be so messy.”
After saying this, Yoon Nam-hyuk turned and left without looking back.
Goo Ah-ra stood frozen, her heart trembling, her face pale with shock. She clutched the tray and rushed to the nearest bathroom, staring at herself in the mirror.
Her hair wasn’t messy. There were no marks on her body. But the more she looked, the more she trembled with fear.
He knows… Yoon Nam-hyuk knows… Otherwise, why would he say that? Was it just now? Or did he know a long time ago?
Goo Ah-ra let out a horrified cry, then quickly covered her mouth.
In the kitchen.
Yoon Nam-hyuk stood silently for a long time. He filled a glass with ice, then took out the cubes one by one and crunched them in his mouth until his tongue was numb and his jaws ached. Only when the churning in his stomach had calmed did he dump the remaining ice into the sink.
He sneered in a low voice, “Disgusting.”
Yoon Nam-hyuk dragged his exhausted body back to his room. He tossed and turned for a long time, unable to sleep. He took out his phone and sent a barrage of messages to Assistant Yoo.
「Has Qi Huai been very free lately?」
「He has time to go to a nightclub at night and nearly got into danger, and you didn’t even know. What kind of manager are you?」
「Give him more work. Don’t let him be idle.」
「You’re not getting your bonus this month.」
A few hours later.
Assistant Yoo, who had just woken up in a good mood, planning to have a hazelnut latte to make his day perfect: ???