Unhealthy - Chapter 30

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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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Chapter 30. Misunderstanding

“I thought you’d cry or panic.”

“…I was always thinking about it. That she might be dead, or perhaps living a life worse than death.”

Hae-yeong cast her gaze outside the window. Her melancholy profile was reflected over the passing scenery.

“A while ago, Jae-jun oppa mentioned my aunt.”

Taejun gripped Hae-yeong’s hand tighter.

This clever child might have already foreseen it. That the whereabouts of the family she had lost, and the secrets surrounding her, could never be a beautiful fairy tale.

Taejun could guess what intentions Jae-jun had in shaking the ground beneath Hae-yeong’s feet, and a corner of his heart grew coldly still.

“To cut to the conclusion, she’s alive.”

“Where is my aunt now?”

“Not in the country, I confirmed she’s in Japan.”

Hae-yeong’s gaze turned back to Taejun.

Beyond the relief that her only blood relative was alive, the fundamental fear that had been sinking deep within her eyes shattered into fine pieces.

Taejun’s fingertips twitched on the steering wheel.

“How about we go together? If you don’t want to, I’ll go alone.”

“But.”

After hesitating for a long while, Hae-yeong very carefully continued her next words.

“If she’s living well, would it be right for me to visit her? Her ties with father were already severed long ago, and maybe she left because she wanted to cut off completely.”

“She’s the only blood relative you have left.”

“I’m most worried that my existence might be a difficult debt for my aunt to face.”

Hae-yeong’s voice was calmly melancholy.

It was a composed tone that seemed more accustomed to defining her existence as a burden someone would want to cast off rather than a welcome gift.

Taejun couldn’t bring himself to spit out the cold truth that had risen to his throat, and muttered lowly.

“Since you heard it from Gi Jae-jun, let me speak frankly – father is looking for An Ji-min.”

“Well, as oppa said, she’s the only blood relative I have left… I heard it’s because when I become independent later, such connections one by one would be precious.”

“You shouldn’t see the world as only that beautiful.”

At Taejun’s cynical sigh, Hae-yeong bitterly pulled up the corners of her mouth.

That smile took on a terribly cold form created by layers upon layers of resignation and submission.

“When I first set foot in that house, the elder told me. That father had left behind gambling debts like a mountain that he couldn’t handle.”

Taejun also vividly remembered that cruel moment when the future of a mere fifteen-year-old child was destroyed and her dreams were crushed.

“So he said there wasn’t a single penny of inheritance left for me, let alone the assets he had accumulated. He would feed, clothe, and shelter me until I became an adult.”

“Yes, that’s what happened.”

As the past that had sunk beneath the swamp of oblivion surfaced, Taejun’s temples throbbed with a sharp pain.

Even after stopping the car, the boiling headache wouldn’t subside, so he stared blankly into space without even turning off the engine.

“I often thought that father might have owed the elder a great debt. Even though I inherited nothing from father, if the elder had lent father a large sum of money during his lifetime and couldn’t collect it…”

“Hah.”

“So maybe he raised me until I grew up because there was something to collect.”

Taejun finally buried his head over the steering wheel.

She didn’t know that the reality was the opposite.

The one who wore the face of a savior was actually the predator who had completely destroyed her foundation, and all those years Hae-yeong believed to be debt were actually deception designed by Gi Chairman to fill his own interests.

When she learned that the ground she stood on was actually in the palm of the one who had destroyed her, what kind of impact would that profound sense of betrayal Hae-yeong would face bring?

Just imagining it was nauseating.

‘I’ll repay it. I’ll repay it all. If I just go to a good school, get good grades and graduate, I can repay everything.’

The desperate cry that young Hae-yeong had desperately uttered with veins bulging in her neck pierced his eardrums like a hallucination.

Taejun could now perfectly understand that it wasn’t childish rebellion, but a pitiful vow to devote her entire life to compensating the one who destroyed her, mistaking him for a benefactor.

Hae-yeong had endured those long years truly believing she was in a position to repay debt.

While endlessly brainwashing herself with the stigma that Gi Chairman was a noble savior and she was only gnawing away at his grace.

He couldn’t even gauge how to untangle this twisted and tangled knot.

“We need to meet An Ji-min before father does. I’ve put surveillance on her for now, but it’s true that even that is hard to feel secure about.”

“Is it because you want to collect debt from my aunt? Is that why?”

The word debt that came from Hae-yeong’s mouth coldly scraped across Taejun’s chest.

“That…”

Taejun caught his breath for a moment and continued his interrupted words.

“It’s similar to that.”

It was a cowardly expedient, but it was the best answer for now.

In any case, Hae-yeong was the card that could persuade An Ji-min most quickly.

Only Hae-yeong stepping forward directly, using the sense of debt toward blood relatives as driving force, was the only key that could break down An Ji-min’s solid closed nature.

If she learned that the shadows of the thugs she so despised were lingering near her niece, An Ji-min might go beyond rejection and erase even the traces she had found with difficulty, hiding herself again.

So unfortunately, having Hae-yeong move to the forefront was strategically the perfect direction.

“Since our sudden departure to Japan might cause misunderstandings, I’ll create the story for that. We’ll rush our marriage as much as possible.”

At Taejun’s firm declaration, Hae-yeong gripped her shoulder bag strap tightly without answering.

“Don’t think too deeply about it. Just do as I say.”

Taejun took his hands off the steering wheel and leaned his upper body toward Hae-yeong.

He tucked the hair that had fallen beside Hae-yeong’s cheek behind her ear, trapping her lost gaze within his eyes.

“You’re using me.”

Taejun’s low voice was closer to a blind declaration than affection.

Hae-yeong momentarily stopped breathing at the heat transmitted from his fingertips brushing her cheek.

“What I said about me being the best for you is still valid.”

Though he knew it was deception offered as payment for hiding the truth and a misanthropic promise, the only way to keep Hae-yeong relatively safely protected was to keep her by his side and watch over her.

Taejun too had stepped into the most dangerous game, borrowing the methods of Gi Chairman whom he so despised, in order to protect Hae-yeong.

If only he could protect her innocent trust, he would willingly become that shield of lies.

***

The executive elevator stopped at the top floor of the company headquarters.

Hae-yeong intuitively sensed that uncomfortable truths were lurking.

If she had known that the person they were meeting today would be Gi Chairman, she wouldn’t have responded to Taejun’s call. Her head ached as if cold water had been poured on her excited heart.

Hae-yeong’s clasped hand trembled finely.

“Um…”

“There were too many interruptions at home so we couldn’t have a proper conversation. I want to tie up loose ends and finish this today.”

“He’ll be displeased. He wanted a perfect match more than anyone.”

Since nothing he could say seemed like it would give Hae-yeong satisfaction, Taejun lightly ignored her words.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

Taejun soothed Hae-yeong with a low, calm voice. However, his palm holding her hand was actually filled with cold tension.

The two stood before the heavy door of the chairman’s office where suffocating silence pervaded.

As soon as the secretary’s brief report ended, the door opened, and Taejun led Hae-yeong into that massive heart of power.

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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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