To My Brother’s Friend - Chapter 49

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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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Chapter 49
The charity auction event was now in full swing.
“Today’s auction item is a still life painting left behind by a master of the French art world in the late nineteenth century.”
While Madam Jin Seo-ryeong dominated the room with flamboyance and authority, Hee-jo commanded the hall through refined language and elegant gestures.
“The deep hues layered upon the canvas carry the existential anguish of that era, yet the texture of light seeping through symbolizes the hope we must strive toward. The entirety of this work’s proceeds will be directed toward supporting art education for underprivileged children.”
Standing calmly upon the podium as she explained the artwork, Hee-jo radiated an aura as though she had been born and raised in a noble household.
“Wasn’t she supposed to be illegitimate?”
“Not illegitimate—an orphan. Apparently she lived with her deceased brother.”
“But still… she’s quite convincing, isn’t she? Anyone would think she was born into this world.”
“Madam Jung took her under her wing from the time she was twenty and taught her everything. When you think about it, she was practically a daughter of the Beom Ho Group anyway.”
“Is that so? There’s something oddly refined about her. Honestly, isn’t she more elegant than Representative Kim’s daughter from Soyoung Mulsan?”
Their gazes turned toward Kim Jung-yeon, who sat alone in a corner of the banquet hall sipping champagne.
Despite being dressed more lavishly than ever before, her appearance seemed somehow diminished compared to before.
“She’s been rather quiet lately, hasn’t she?”
“Our Madam Jung has been in Europe, so she wouldn’t have heard. Apparently she tried to insert herself into a meeting between her father, Representative Kim, and Beom Executive Director, and was thoroughly humiliated and thrown out.”
“My goodness, really?”
“That day was absolute chaos—she was crying and carrying on. But as Beom Executive Director passed by, he said that if she pulled such dirty tricks even once more, the name Soyoung Mulsan would be erased from the financial world.”
“Goodness… why do I always miss out on such entertainment?”
Their voices, tinged with mockery, became arrows that pierced Kim Jung-yeon’s back.
Her grip tightened around the champagne glass. Her nails dug into her palm, yet she felt no pain.
‘Go ahead, laugh all you want.’
Kim Jung-yeon checked her phone with a peculiar expression.
‘We’ll see who wins in the end.’
It might take longer than expected, but ultimately she would emerge victorious.
* * *
The first half of the party concluded successfully, and a brief intermission arrived.
Chairman Beom Hun-young, Vice Chairman Beom Seok-jun and his wife, along with Kwon Yeol and Hee-jo, moved to a private lounge reserved exclusively for the direct family of the Beom Residence.
As Kwon Yeol walked down the corridor holding Hee-jo’s hand, he checked a notification on his phone and spoke casually.
“Jae-yeol says he’ll be arriving a bit late.”
At those words, Madam Jin Seo-ryeong furrowed her brow and asked with an anxious expression.
“…Don’t tell me that boy is coming too?”
“It seems so. He’s been acting like he won’t go anywhere without her.”
Jae-yeol, who had declared his marriage to a woman who was his classmate with the reasoning that since his brother had married, it was now his turn, had been causing Madam Jin Seo-ryeong considerable distress through his increasingly outrageous behavior.
Even Chairman Beom Hun-young refused to take her side, remarking that since the troublemaker finally had a leash to restrain him, she should be satisfied with that much.
Rather, his tone suggested a subtle reproach toward her as the mistress of the Beom Ho Group for failing to discipline her own children, so she had no choice but to hold her tongue.
Even her usually supportive husband, Beom Seok-jun, subscribed to the philosophy of “letting the children make their own choices” on this matter, which left her seething with frustration.
“Still, there is such a thing as propriety. How dare he bring someone to an occasion like this…”
As Madam Jin Seo-ryeong displayed her displeasure, Beom Seok-jun attempted to soothe her.
Following along behind the adults, Hee-jo read the atmosphere carefully and whispered softly only to Kwon Yeol.
“Um, would it be alright if I stepped away to the bathroom for a moment?”
“Come with me.”
“No, please go ahead and stay with the adults. I’ll catch up shortly.”
Kwon Yeol nodded, understanding that Hee-jo needed a moment alone to ease her tension.
“Call me if you need anything.”
“Yes, I will.”
With that, Hee-jo headed toward the bathroom.
Since the entire floor had been cleared for the family’s use, no one else was inside.
“Ugh…”
Whether from nerves or something else, my stomach had been unsettled since this morning.
I’d managed to hold on thanks to Kwon Yeol’s encouragement and the warmth of his hand on my shoulder, but the moment I stepped down from the podium, all that tension came crashing down at once.
“Hah…”
After emptying my stomach, I caught my breath, then unsteadily rose to my feet.
Whenever I purged myself like this, the suffocating tightness that had built up would mysteriously wash away.
As I rinsed my mouth and adjusted my appearance in the mirror, my phone rang. It was Han Young-sook.
“Yes, I—”
—Hee-jo, it’s me.
“Seung-won?”
—Yes. It’s about Grandmother…
Behind Seung-won’s voice, I could hear Han Young-sook calling urgently in the distance. She seemed to be looking for something in a hurry.
“Ah, yes. I’ll call you back. I was about to head over anyway…”
Not long after Hee-jo ended the call and stepped outside, the door to the supply storage room adjoining the bathroom quietly opened.
A woman emerged, her hand clamped over her mouth, her expression one of barely contained shock.
She was a Protocol Team Employee who had been hiding away briefly while organizing supplies.
‘That voice just now—it was definitely the Vice Director’s, wasn’t it?’
Could she be pregnant?
It really looked like morning sickness!
The woman’s eyes gleamed with avarice.
Information like this could be worth a fortune.
With trembling hands, she pulled a crumpled business card from deep within her pocket.
It belonged to a journalist obsessively digging into every move of the Beomho Group’s leadership family, particularly Hee-jo.
“If anything unusual comes up, please contact me. It’s because I feel bad for Beom Executive Director. Originally, there were even marriage talks between him and Han Young-sook’s grandson, but… I actually saw them myself. The two of them together in one house.”
Recalling the journalist’s vulgar smile, the woman hesitated and slipped the card back into her pocket.
Rumors were already circulating quietly through the industry that the journalist was poking around everywhere, digging up gossip about the Beomho Group.
If she got entangled with him carelessly, it would be obvious in no time that she was the source of the information.
‘If I move recklessly, I won’t just lose the money—the Beomho Group will have me on a leash.’
She knew all too well how ruthlessly Beomho handled such matters.
With trembling hands, the woman pushed the journalist’s card deep into her bag.
Instead, she pulled out her phone and began tapping the screen rapidly and deftly.
Her fingers moved faster as she searched for a contact who could minimize risk while maximizing profit.
‘Found it. This person will be worth far more than that journalist.’
* * *
Kwon Yeol’s affection for Hee-jo deepened even further.
Even while managing a grueling schedule, he would reach out whenever he found a moment to check on her, and it became routine for him to pick her up directly from the Foundation whenever his schedule allowed.
Once, when Hee-jo casually mentioned in passing that she had no appetite, Kwon Yeol immediately summoned the most celebrated Michelin-starred chef currently in South Korea to their home, ordering him to prepare “food that my wife can manage even a single bite of.”
And then, the day after Hee-jo remarked to the staff while gazing at the withered flowers in the Foundation’s garden, “The commute home feels a bit barren now”—
Kwon Yeol purchased the entire plot of land surrounding the Foundation Entrance Road and created a dedicated walking path where flowers bloomed in every season.
The high society circles buzzed daily with talk of Beom Executive Director’s “devotion to his wife,” a dramatic departure from a man who once knew nothing but business.
“Have you heard? This time, Beom Executive Director completely renovated the Foundation Entrance Road for his wife. They say he bought that expensive land just because she said the sight of withering flowers was depressing.”
“I initially thought it was a heartwarming story fabricated by the Beom Ho Group’s PR department. Who would have guessed that cold man would personally oversee landscapers and make such a fuss?”
“Did you see it at the inauguration? He took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. He couldn’t take his eyes off his wife the entire event and stayed glued to her side.”
Then someone lowered their voice discreetly and interjected.
“But do you know what? There’s a rumor circulating only within the Jinri Society.”
“What is it?”
“Someone saw Beom Executive Director’s wife experiencing morning sickness on the day of the inauguration.”
The moment the word “morning sickness” was uttered, short gasps erupted from all directions.
“Well, there’s no way Beom Gwon-yeol would act like this unless she were pregnant.”
“He must be cleaning up the surroundings for the baby to be born. Since the mother’s background is so unremarkable, he’s probably trying to establish the child’s position through paternal love beforehand, isn’t he?”
The woman beside her chimed in enthusiastically, lowering her voice.
“Oh my, now that you mention it, my secretary’s colleague said that just a few days ago, she heard someone retching badly in the Foundation Emergency Stairwell. She tried to pass by without noticing, but when the door opened a moment later, it was the Vice Director who came out. At the time, I just thought she wasn’t feeling well, but now that I think about it, she must have been pregnant.”
The atmosphere, which had been buzzing, instantly heated up.
Hee-jo’s pregnancy had become established fact and was spreading rapidly.
And that news eventually reached the ears of Beom Hun-young’s Household.

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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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