Unhealthy - Chapter 47

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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 47. Opportunity for Severance

A single tear that she had been holding back finally rolled down her cheek at the relief of having Taejun before her. The strength in her legs, which she had barely managed to maintain, gave out and she collapsed with a thud.

The time she had endured by biting her lips hard enough to wound them, not wanting to show her tears, seemed meaningless.

Just because her eyes met Taejun’s, Hae-yeong’s patience crumbled like a burst dam.

Taejun silently approached, lowered his body, and knelt on one knee to match Hae-yeong’s eye level.

He gently wiped away the tears that wet Hae-yeong’s cheeks with his tender touch.

“Are you that happy to see me?”

When Hae-yeong nodded repeatedly, Taejun let out a soft chuckle.

“I thought I’d never see you again. Never again…”

Instead of answering, Taejun pulled Hae-yeong deep into his broad embrace.

The heavy warmth emanating from his embrace and his steady breathing brought Hae-yeong a sense of security.

“I won’t let that happen.”

“What about Jae-jun oppa? Did you meet him?”

While gently stroking the back of sniffling Hae-yeong’s head, Taejun playfully replied.

“I chased him away.”

At that concise confirmation, Hae-yeong finally gripped Taejun’s clothes tightly and let out a sigh of relief.

Taejun carefully wrapped his arms around Hae-yeong’s shoulders and examined her face thoroughly.

“You must have been scared, baby, all alone.”

“… I told you I’m not a baby.”

Perhaps because all her tension had been released, Hae-yeong’s wet eyebrows curved.

Taejun’s lips curved into a beautiful arc as he faced Hae-yeong’s sulky expression as she looked up at him with what seemed like unjustified grievance.

Taejun, who had come downstairs with Hae-yeong, stood before Ji-min, who was sitting across from a cold teacup.

With perfectly composed movements, Taejun took out his business card from his jacket pocket and slid it across the table.

“I’m Gi Tae-jun from Jiwon Group.”

Jiwon Group. Since Hae-yeong had mentioned Jiwon Group earlier, Ji-min began examining the business card character by character with serious eyes.

“I’m thinking of marrying Hae-yeong.”

At Taejun’s bombshell declaration, the corners of Ji-min’s eyes narrowed thinly.

It was right after Jae-jun had just caused a commotion, saying he would get consent for marriage with Hae-yeong.

“The marriage with Hae-yeong, that young man earlier said…”

Ji-min didn’t finish her sentence and scrutinized Taejun thoroughly as if examining him.

A refined and overwhelming sense of intimidation flowed from Taejun’s entire being, qualitatively different from the greedy impatience that Jae-jun had shown.

“Yes. Well, that’s your family’s business. Did you also come to get marriage consent from me?”

“That’s not it.”

Ji-min felt an unpredictable anxiety at Taejun’s dry response, which gave off a completely different atmosphere from Jae-jun.

In Taejun’s eyes coexisted arrogance that Ji-min’s consent was already of no concern to him and cold rationality.

“Then… what exactly is your purpose for coming here?”

Ji-min’s voice sank low.

Taejun slowly opened his mouth.

“As you must have heard from Hae-yeong, when her parents passed away, Hae-yeong was a minor, and her legal guardian and custodian was her aunt.”

“Legal guardian and custodian…”

Ji-min slowly rolled Taejun’s explanation around in her mouth as if chewing on it.

The weight of the past that those words carried seemed to press heavily on Ji-min’s shoulders.

Taejun didn’t miss that gap of silence and continued speaking.

“And now that Hae-yeong has become an adult, your custodial status may be nothing but a shell, but you still hold the final practical key that can unlock the inherited assets that Jiwon Group has tied up.”

The fingertips of Ji-min holding the teacup began to tremble slowly. Bewilderment that she didn’t expect to be entangled in such troublesome matters again, no, bitter disillusionment that she never wanted to set foot in such affairs again flowed through her entire body. Taejun witnessed that trembling and drove the wedge home.

“The Gi Jae-jun you just met will try to coax you to steal that authority, but I’m different. I’m saying I’ll help you completely return that authority to your niece and be completely liberated from this matter. On the condition that I guarantee your peace from Gi Chairman’s threats.”

Ji-min weighed the gravity contained in Taejun’s cold proposal.

He didn’t hide behind the petty justification of marriage consent and beg. Instead, he proposed to exchange the peace and stability that Ji-min most craved and the rights that Hae-yeong should reclaim.

Ji-min slowly set down her teacup.

The dull sound of the porcelain bottom hitting the table sharply stirred the silent space.

The words peace and liberation that Taejun had thrown out approached Ji-min not as sweet salvation but more like a miserable sentence where the past she had been running from her entire life had finally caught up with her.

Ji-min opened her mouth with a heavily sunken voice.

“There’s only one thing I learned from those gangster-like brothers. They never let go of prey they’ve once tasted. And for their own benefit, they don’t care if other people’s lives are thrown away.”

She continued speaking with complicated eyes as if painfully recalling past times.

“I heard from that bastard Gi Jae-jun that someone called Gi Chairman had been desperately searching for me. Because I’m Hae-yeong’s aunt, which must be related to what you call custodianship.”

“That’s correct.”

Taejun replied without bothering to hide the truth.

Ji-min had seen through the fact that they were trying to steal everything through her legal rights.

Her eyes, filled with bitter disillusionment, glinted coldly.

Taejun didn’t avoid Ji-min’s sharp gaze and accurately saw through the source of her instinctive rejection.

“The chairman will try to use your rights to steal all the assets before Hae-yeong can do anything about it.”

“You must be the same kind. Coming to harm me. A hunting dog rushing in to achieve what you want, something like that.”

Ji-min glanced disgustedly once more at Taejun’s business card with the same surname ‘Gi’ and frowned.

However, Taejun replied without changing his expression at all.

“It’s the opposite.”

Taejun pushed the heavy document envelope he had prepared across the table.

“Gi Chairman will try to prevent all authority from being transferred to Hae-yeong by any means, but I’m proposing a safe and stable direction for both you and Hae-yeong.”

“How can you guarantee my safety? How do I know you’re not all in this together?”

Ji-min stared at the document envelope as if trying to bore holes through it.

“From the circumstances, the moment I sign this document and give up all my rights, my safety won’t be guaranteed either, will it?”

She threw out sharp questions while glaring at Taejun.

“What you people want is my rights, not my safety. Let’s say I signed this. Then, in the end, I, who knows all these facts, would be nothing more than a target that needs to be dealt with by you people. Am I wrong?”

Taejun leaned his body deep over the table and looked straight into the fear deep in Ji-min’s eyes.

“If you hand over those rights to Gi Chairman, you become an obstacle that needs to be eliminated, but if you return them to Hae-yeong, the story changes.”

“Why?”

“Because the moment the fact that your existence is no longer a variable in Jiwon Group’s financial pipeline is documented, you become unnecessary to Gi Chairman.”

Hae-yeong held her breath and listened intently to Taejun’s words.

“It will be the only opportunity for eternal severance.”

Ji-min, who had been scrutinizing him thoroughly, realized that Taejun was completely different from Gi Jae-jun.

Taejun didn’t look like a nephew-in-law begging for consent, but like a traitor willing to turn his entire family into enemies to protect Hae-yeong.

“Is your intention to marry Hae-yeong simply because of the inheritance that will go to this child?”

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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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