The Regressed Chaebol Grandson Finds It Hard to Forgive - Chapter 92

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 92. Sokcho (12)

Click. Whoooosh.

Jeongseon Casino outdoor parking lot.
Yang Su-san flicked his lighter and lit a cigarette.

The final hand.

“Son of a bitch…… A million won in betting money?”

He’d taken a million-won chip from the game loser.
A losing player had no right to complain.

All he could do was hope for the winner’s mercy.

“Siiiiigh……”

He drew the smoke deep into his lungs.
As the nicotine hit, the fog that had clouded his mind seemed to lift.

His heart, ready to burst with rage, began to settle.

Yang Su-san closed his eyes, swallowing his anger.
His stomach churned with acid reflux from the stress.

He’d blown through company funds—blood money, really.

Money he needed to cover the promissory notes coming due soon.

It was seed capital he’d withdrawn from the company account and wagered.
A massive sum had vanished, crushing his last hope.

“Damn it. My opening hand was perfect……”

The final hand flickered before his eyes.
An impossibly rare combination—a hand he couldn’t possibly lose with.

“Where the hell am I going to find money? All those idiots’ cash is mine anyway.”

Even after losing the game, Yang Su-san didn’t give up.

His mind raced, searching for a way forward.

With enough capital, he could win it all back.

“CEO Yang~~~!”

A thick, rasping voice called out to him from behind.

“……!!”

Yang Su-san’s body went rigid.
That voice—he’d forgotten it, but now it came rushing back.

His frame began to tremble.

“CEO Yang Su-san~~~!”

The familiar greeting called out again.
Yang Su-san forced his trembling body to turn and face him.

“……!!”

A man in his mid-forties stepped into view.

The evening air in Jeongseon was still chilly.

But the man wore a tight short-sleeved compression shirt, a small bag tucked under his arm, and stared at Yang Su-san.

His massive forearms, wrapped tightly in muscle, seemed to writhe with the life of a black dragon coiled within.

“Y-you’re Kang Hong-dong.”

The man with serpent-slit eyes—none other than Kang Hong-dong.
He was……

“It’s Tuesday, interest payment day. Did you win something today?”

A notorious loan shark operating out of Sokcho.

* * *

Swish.

June 6, 2022. The morning of the 67th Memorial Day.

Ha Dong-hwi and Han Ji-yun hung the Taegeuk Flag from their apartment balcony.

The couple bowed their heads briefly in silent tribute.

“Dear.”

Ha Dong-hwi called to his wife.
The two had drunk deep with their son the night before, mixing beer and soju.

Their son, worried about traffic congestion on the early-morning highway, had hurried back to Seoul.

Now only the two of them remained in the apartment.

“Yes? What is it?”

Han Ji-yun studied her husband’s expression.
A man who had given up the seat of a chaeboheiroffortune to choose her.

Her once-lonely life had found meaning through him and their beloved son.

A man she believed had been guided to her by her late parents.

She’d felt struck by lightning the first time she saw him walking along Sokcho Beach.

It was eleven at night.

Mid-November, already cold on Sokcho Beach.

A man stood alone on the shore at an hour when few people ventured out, gazing quietly at the sea.

The sea wind caught his coat and hair.

Han Ji-yun, nursing a beer and thinking of her parents, whom she missed dearly—

She was shaken the moment she saw him.

Was it because he was handsome?
No.

He was tall with broad shoulders, but why did he look so terribly sad……?

A powerful kinship in sorrow made her body tremble.

She felt drawn to speak to him first.

It seemed she had to.

The conversation between those two strangers that night remained vivid in her memory even now.

—You look lonely.
—Yes.
—I do too.
—I see.

It was a conversation without much meaning.
But in those few exchanged words, their hearts understood each other completely.

The night on the beach, with waves rising high and stars scattered across the sky—

That night, the two of them shared their loneliness.

It was a first for her.
Han Ji-yun had never met a man like this before.

The next morning, Ha Dong-hwi told her that today was the first day.

And so the two became lovers.

They loved each moment, and they were happy.

They went on dates every day.
They ate at restaurants and sat in cafés, whispering words of love.

Han Ji-yun knew nothing of his family circumstances.

She believed he’d simply joined Ha Ryun Group after graduating college.

She thought they would love in an ordinary way and marry.

But that expectation shattered almost at once.

One day, Ha Ryun Group’s chairman’s executive secretary came to find her.

The secretary revealed the true identity of the man she was seeing.

A message came from the chairman’s office: break up with him.

Han Ji-yun could never forget the shock she felt then.

Her ordinary boyfriend was of chaeboblood—a corporate heir.

At first, she resolved to end things.

But it was Ha Dong-hwi who wouldn’t allow it.
He held her close and told her—

That a man who would throw away the woman he loves is not a man fit to call himself such in this lifetime.

Their love deepened.

Han Ji-yun continued her life both fearful and happy.

Soon, they bore fruit.
And at that same moment, Ha Dong-hwi was cast out by his family.

After being expelled from Ha Ryun Group, he found no company would hire him.

His in-laws pursued him relentlessly, sabotaging every attempt he made to find work.

It was then that Han Ji-yun experienced the brutal cruelty of the chaebofamily firsthand.

Ha Dong-hwi threw himself into sales work at a small mid-sized company beyond the reach of Ha Ryun Group’s influence.

They lived more ordinarily than ordinary people.

After their son was born, the two pooled their strength and scraped together a small rented home.

They sustained their marriage on soju and makgeolli instead of wine, with pajeon for company.

Their son grew strong and healthy.
It was an utterly ordinary life, wanting for nothing and lacking nothing.

Yet sadness flickered across her husband’s face from time to time.

Though he had been freed from family struggles, severed from his lineage, he had lost his mother too.

His cold father, Chairman Ha Cheol-gon, had cut off all contact between mother and son.
They were completely forbidden from meeting.

As the youngest, Ha Dong-hwi had been especially close to his mother.

When word came of her illness, he brought Han Ji-yun and their son to visit the family home.

Ha Dong-hwi, believing it his last chance, wanted to show his wife and child to his mother.

The events of that rainy night at the gates of the family mansion—those he could never forget, not even in death.

His figure drenched in torrential rain, weeping without restraint.

Not long after, his mother passed away.

He was not permitted to attend the funeral.

He locked himself in the bathroom of their rented home, sobbing silently.

Han Ji-yun has not forgotten that day.

The most horrifying part was the attack on their young son’s head.

A warning sent from his in-laws.

A terrifying threat: if he claimed his mother’s statutory inheritance share, they would kill him.

Ha Dong-hwi sent a letter to his sister.

He swore he would make no claim whatsoever regarding the inheritance—only begged her to stop his brothers.

Watching her husband kneel before his siblings and beg—a sight she’d never seen before—Han Ji-yun’s heart shattered.

Even a man who lived by his pride was rendered defenseless to protect his young son and wife.

And in exchange, they gained peace.

Their son had taken two years away from school to recover.

The aftereffects demanded much time and treatment.

Miraculously, he healed completely and returned to school like any other child.

His only stubbornness was his insistence on attending Cheonghwa High School.

Otherwise, he had grown into a reliable young man.

It seemed he had invested his grandmother’s legacy wisely in cryptocurrency and seen considerable returns.

They didn’t press him for details.
The couple were simply grateful that their son had matured so steadily.

“I suppose we’re getting old.”
“……??”
“We’re already reaping the benefits of our son……”

Ha Dong-hwi gazed out at the sea beyond the window as he spoke.
His voice was thick with remorse.

The instinct of a father who still wanted to be his son’s pillar was plainly felt.

“He’s an adult now.”

Han Ji-yun stood beside her husband, gazing at the same view, and spoke.

Thanks to their son, they had safely weathered the crisis of something unspeakable.

No—disaster had become opportunity, and an entirely new life had begun.

“That boy seems to have changed quite a bit……”
“How so?”
“The way he works—it’s as though he’s had ten years of real-world experience.”
“He’s your son, after all.”
“……Is that a compliment?”
“Of course! The two men in my life are the most wonderful people in the world.”

Han Ji-yun meant every word.
The profits came not from fraud, but from legitimate investment.

“And Jo En-jang……”

Before their son left, Ha Dong-hwi received a business card from Jo En-jang, the attorney.

A card with instructions to call immediately if anything urgent ever arose.

Ha Dong-hwi was not unaware of Jo En-jang’s tremendous power and the secrets that lay behind it.

“Dear.”

Han Ji-yun called to her husband.
Ha Dong-hwi turned to face her.

“What if what our son said comes true?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know—him making you a chairman.”
“……!!”

The weight of Han Ji-yun’s question was no light thing; Ha Dong-hwi simply blinked.
His grip on the railing tightened subtly.

“If it really happens…… then for our son’s sake, I suppose I could be a chairman once.”

Something dormant in Ha Dong-hwi—the blood of the Ha Ryun Group lineage—stirred to heat.

“Then I’d be a chairman’s wife?”

Han Ji-yun smiled softly, not yet comprehending the full weight of the words.

Neither of them knew, at that moment.

The casual words they exchanged would soon become……

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