Chapter 2.2

Chapter 2.2

Their relationship she thought was over started since then. Those little dinner sessions and casual conversations from time to time.

So where did everything go wrong then?

If she wasn’t adopted by Sulah finance to begin with… If she didn’t dream about her chance to restart things with them… If she didn’t ask the owner to come to her graduation ceremony as her graduation gift…

And if he just didn’t get into an accident on that exact day… then maybe things would’ve been different.

Yu-hwa put a hand through her hair while pouring alcohol with the other.

She wasn’t feeling good. She could feel the familiar emotion filling her up, but she didn’t want to acknowledge its existence so she was trying her best to ignore it.

Ha.

As she sighed, she could smell the alcohol on her breath. She could feel the thumping in her mouth and noticed that the alcohol was spreading throughout her body.

Hm?

There was something she didn’t see before, a melon on a round plate. She didn’t order it.

Yu-hwa pushed the plate away.

The thick bottle showed the bottom as she grabbed it to fill up her cup.

“Ah…”

Already?

As she tried to get the last squeeze, it didn’t even fill half her glass. Yu-hwa slammed down the whiskey bottle.

She could feel someone looking at her for an extended period of time. On one side of her was a group of people and on the other side was a lone person. That meant—

“…!!”

The moment Yu-hwa turned her head, she met with brown eyes that were already staring at her.

The bartender?

It was at that moment that the cell phone she put on the table started to vibrate. She looked down to check and frowned. It was Seol Do-hyeok

After Yu-hwa graduated from university, she lived as his tool for 6 years.

Six years in Sulah finance. She requested a change of department that happened once a year so she could work on different things, and she changed teams often. Compliance, information security, retail planning, sales. The last team she was in was the financial operation team. But no matter where she worked, she had to forcefully comply with Seol Do-hyeok’s special requests.

Yu-hwa sighed and then grabbed the phone.

“What?”

“What do you mean ‘what’? I’m checking whether you got rid of all the certifications and the machine.”

It’s been a few years since Yu-hwa began taking care of his secret accounts, which included the ones that were used for market operation and manipulating the stock prices.

As it included sensitive and dangerous hidden assets in many different forms, Yu-hwa took special care of these accounts. But he was checking whether or not she got rid of her cell phone and certification the night before he was going to confess. It wasn’t something Seol Do-hyeok should be asking though as he knew how thoroughly she cleaned up after him.

The cell phone she’d been using was completely destroyed and it wasn’t even under her name. No need to even mention the certification papers. Everything was clean.

“Nothing will go wrong for you folks.”

“Us folks? Are you crazy? Does it make you happy thinking that you won’t see my face anymore?” Seol Do-hyeok’s thick voice came at her.

The different types of stocks that they were making moves on were all put to a temporary stop. The prosecutors and the Financial Supervisory Service were all paying close attention so they had to try and drag things out. They let go of half of what they owned into the market, but they were planning on increasing their prices before releasing the rest, so many accounts were involved.

They had to finish it quickly. The longer it took, the worse things would look for Seol Do-hyeok and Yu-hwa knew that better than anyone. Just thinking about those people he allowed to borrow money and accounts from him because they worked in this operation…

“Yu-hwa, do you feel wronged?”

Seol Do-hyeok always called Yu-hwa just by her name. Their last name was the same coincidentally, but it seemed like he was horrified by the fact that they were family, even if it was just for a short while.

Still, she felt creeped out whenever he called her that. She knew what was coming next.

“Fuck.”

“…”

“Yu-hwa, you know I still go to a therapist because of you, right? It was you who chained my father to the bed and live like a handicapped person. So shouldn’t you shut up and do what you’re told?”

Yu-hwa thought of Seol Do-hyeok’s intention on calling her and put the rest of the whiskey in her mouth. She held it in her mouth and slowly drank it.

“Do what you should be doing and do it right. Don’t piss me off and don’t forget to keep your mouth shut.”

Seol Do-hyeok was different from the usual. He had always hated repeating himself when giving instructions and yet he just told her to shut up twice.

She was quick to understand what his true intentions were.

He was feeling uneasy about her.

Whatever will happen from now on posed no real problems for them. Out of everything they’ve done, not even 5% of it will be revealed. All the sensitive records had been segregated to perfection.

An employee in the stock market happened to receive insider information randomly and bought the stock to increase his performance. But as there was no record on profit or receiving monetary compensation, his account was squeaky clean.

And now, the confessing.

There were many who were already caught manipulating the stocks, so Yu-hwa, who didn’t have that much dirt, will be set free pretty easily. She was a first-time offender, so at most, she’d spend two years in jail.

“As you promised, let me see Mr. Seol when I come out—”

He hung up the phone before she finished.

“Asshole.”

Her head hurt. No, maybe her stomach. Something bothered her and it wasn’t all because of Seol Do-hyeok’s call. She already felt weirdly dirty even before the phone rang.

The feeling was all over her senses. It was almost like she was alone in the dark.

Yu-hwa was hoping that he would just throw her out when she was being used, but now that she could see the end, she felt like she was being pushed into the sewers with no one to accompany her.

She was sighing out of frustration when some annoying voice cut off her rumination.

“Alone?”