The Chaebol Family’s Youngest Daughter Doesn’t Hide Her Acting Skills - Chapter 69

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 69

The nights at Jaedamjae were always quiet.

Ju Taeback, who had been turning newspaper pages in Hansil after finishing the day’s work, was just preparing to go to bed.

It was a peaceful night. At least until the door burst open with a crash.

Bang—!

Startled, Ju Taeback shot up from his seat. Normally, such rudeness would have earned a harsh rebuke, but the moment he saw the intruder’s face, he could only draw in his breath.

“…Sae-i?”

It was his granddaughter, Ju Sae-i.

Her usual neat appearance was nowhere to be seen. She looked as if she’d been beaten by someone, and Ju Taeback’s heart sank.

Though he had experienced all of life’s ups and downs, seeing his precious granddaughter appear in such a wretched state made his vision blur.

‘Or maybe she got hurt somewhere…’

All sorts of terrible thoughts flashed through his mind.

Sae-i knelt down and gasped for breath. A metallic sound came from her throat. Just as Ju Taeback was about to grasp his granddaughter’s shoulder with trembling hands, Sae-i suddenly held out her hand.

“The wish token.”

“…What?”

“That thing you said you’d grant me anything… I’m using it now. Right now.”

Sae-i’s eyes gleamed with frantic desperation.

Ju Taeback doubted his own ears upon hearing those words.

The wish token he had given Sae-i was an opportunity meant for her to claim her share in the massive Dongwoo Group someday. He would have granted it even if she had asked him to build a house out of gold bars.

And she was going to use it now, in the middle of the night, running here in such a state?

“What on earth happened that you need to use it now…”

“I need money.”

“…Money?”

Ju Taeback was stunned. In front of him, the chairman of Korea’s leading Dongwoo Group, his own granddaughter had run here pale as a sheet to say nothing more than ‘Please give me money.’

‘What kind of trouble did she get into?’

Instantly, tens of thousands of worst-case scenarios flashed through his mind. Was someone blackmailing her? Or had she incurred some unmanageable debt?

“I have to… save someone.”

The amount his granddaughter mentioned was nothing more than pocket change to him, a chaebol chairman.

“A chaebol family’s granddaughter using her wish token for that money? Ha, I’m so dumbfounded I can’t speak. Tell me the whole story properly. Where exactly is that money needed, and why.”

Sae-i spilled out her situation with trembling lips. That Woon Seong-ha’s grandmother, her friend and colleague, was critically ill. That they couldn’t even secure an operating room because they lacked the surgery fees. And most importantly…

“I tempted him. I interfered in that kid’s life… he was away because of me.”

Guilt streamed down from Sae-i’s eyes.

The terror of having twisted the future she knew. The horrible self-blame that her interference might become a butterfly effect, harming an innocent friend’s family.

“Originally, that kid would have been by his grandmother’s side. But I got greedy… I kept him tied up in the practice room saying I’d make him an actor…”

Sae-i staggered as if about to collapse to the floor and bit her lip.

“If something happens to her like this, I won’t be able to live. It’s as if I killed her… So please, Grandfather.”

Throughout Sae-i’s story, Ju Taeback’s eyes quietly settled. When all the explanations were finished, he spoke heavily.

“Sae-i.”

“…Yes.”

“Let me ask you once more. Will you really use that wish token just to save someone else?”

Ju Taeback stared at his granddaughter as if testing her. His eyes flashed sharply.

“Don’t you know what weight that opportunity carries? When you want to stand at the pinnacle someday as an actress, or as a member of this family… this wish token could be a trump card worth a thousand troops.”

“…”

“And you’re going to throw it away on something like a friend’s hospital bills?”

It was a cold-hearted observation. From a calculating businessman’s perspective, this was an absurd loss. It was like tearing up a blank check to use as tissue paper.

But Sae-i didn’t hesitate for even a second.

“Yes.”

Sae-i wiped away her tears and nodded firmly.

“That person’s life is more urgent than hundreds of billions. If someone dies because of me, what good would that success be?”

“…”

“I won’t regret it. Even if I do regret it, that’s my burden to bear.”

Unwavering eyes. That foolish determination to put people before her own interests. Facing that sight, a faint and bitter smile crossed Ju Taeback’s lips.

He let out a long sigh, then immediately picked up the intercom receiver.

“…Write this down right now. Hye-im Hospital emergency room. The patient’s name is…”

Ju Taeback gestured to Sae-i to confirm the patient information, then gave instructions in a voice like frost.

“Contact the hospital director right now. Use my name and tell them to open the operating room immediately. Tell them I’ll cover all surgery costs, hospitalization fees, and future treatment expenses. Assign the best medical team and make sure they save her no matter what.”

Click.

Having finished his decisive instructions, Ju Taeback put down the receiver and approached the staggering Sae-i.

Perhaps because the tension had been released, his granddaughter’s body shook precariously like a trembling aspen.

He picked up the blanket from the sofa and wrapped it around Sae-i’s small shoulders.

“Your body is like ice. Tsk, where did you sell your common sense…”

“…Thank you.”

Sae-i collapsed in relief and sobbed. Ju Taeback looked down at his granddaughter and casually threw out a remark.

“…And let’s just say this was my own decision.”

“What?”

Sae-i stopped wiping her tears and looked up. Ju Taeback looked out the dark window as if feigning indifference.

“I mean we’ll consider the wish token unused. You didn’t come here tonight to make a wish. I just felt sorry for my granddaughter’s friend, so this old man indulged in a whim.”

“But…!”

“Don’t argue. Before this old man changes his mind.”

Ju Taeback carefully stroked Sae-i’s disheveled hair with his rough hands. The touch of her grandfather, who had always been strict and frightening, felt painfully warm tonight.

“Foolish child…”

Ju Taeback looked at his granddaughter gazing up at him with wet eyes, and let unspoken words flow through his mind.

‘…Really, she’s just like her mother.’

That foolish kindness of caring for others’ pain before her own interests.

That reckless purity of unhesitatingly throwing away even the weapon he had given her to save someone else was heartbreakingly similar to his daughter Joo Jeongwol, whom he had loved so much and lost too soon.

The regret of not being able to protect his daughter now turned toward the granddaughter before his eyes. He wanted to protect this child’s foolish kindness, at least this once.

Ju Taeback smiled with bitter affection and hugged his granddaughter, who was like Jeongwol’s very incarnation.

The night at Jaedamjae was finally deepening.

***

After that night, Sae-i thoroughly avoided Woon Seong-ha. As if something terrible would happen if she even made eye contact with him.

“Sae-i, about this math performance assessment…”

“Oh, sorry. I have to go to the nurse’s office right now. My stomach hurts a bit.”

When Woon Seong-ha tried to talk to her, she would hurriedly escape through the back door. Pretending to be sick, busy, or asleep. She used every acting skill she had to push him away.

She would even reflexively hide when she saw Woon Seong-ha’s silhouette in the distance down the hallway.

“I don’t see Sae-i anywhere…”

Though disappointment dripped from Woon Seong-ha’s voice as he looked for her, Ju Sae-i didn’t turn her head. She didn’t have the confidence to face his hurt eyes.

‘I almost ruined that kid’s life.’

When she returned home and lay in bed, the ceiling would spin as the emergency room scene from that night overlapped. Seong-ha’s hands trembling in terror, his voice filled with despair.

Thanks to her grandfather’s help, the surgery ended successfully, and his grandmother miraculously overcame the crisis.

However, guilt weighed down her chest.

Pain that wouldn’t have been experienced if she hadn’t rashly interfered. If Seong-ha had simply worked part-time and stayed home as in the original future, his grandmother wouldn’t have reached such a dangerous situation.

‘I have to set things right now.’

I shouldn’t be by Seong-ha’s side now.

What if Grandfather hadn’t helped?

What if I couldn’t get the money at that time?

Seong-ha might have really been left alone and collapsed.

That possibility grabbed Sae-i’s ankle and wouldn’t let go.

So Sae-i made up her mind.

To quietly disappear so that Woon Seong-ha could safely head toward his bright future.

To no longer interfere with him and remain thoroughly as a stranger.

However, Woon Seong-ha wasn’t foolish enough to let that slide.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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