WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 197: The Season When Roses Wither

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It was a truly fatal sorrow.

Chairman Go Geon-cheol found it hard to take his eyes off Han Ga-eul, from the grief clouding her face, from how much more haggard she looked today. She was withering day by day. Yet she did not resemble the lowly things that sank into sickly depression and wasted helplessly away. If she had shown that kind of disorder even once, the Chairman would have marked down her commodity value by a great deal. A very great deal.

Han Ga-eul always held herself straight. Her will to live was clear. She had a reason she had to live. Yet that was also the emotion making her wither. When the Chairman realized that longing was what kept Ga-eul alive and what was killing her, he thought,

‘There will never be another woman mad in this particular way.’

At least not in the era he lived in. Probably. If there had been, why would he only be seeing one for the first time now?

Ever since the emotion he had believed could not be false turned out to be false, the Chairman had never trusted the human heart. Therefore, Han Ga-eul was not human. Something this noble must not be human.

He also thought of her as an uneconomical kind of beauty.

But in an unbeautiful world, beauty had always been futile. It was already a commodity in itself, and the more beautiful it was, the more its scarcity increased. Han Ga-eul was a flower with high scarcity value.

That was why the tyrant felt anger and impatience at the same time. How long would this wench remain in bloom? Would she wither in the end before he could ever have her? Every means of transaction he possessed was meaningless to Han Ga-eul. And so he felt an impulse that was hard to endure. To snap her off by force. To violate her.

Yet the moment he did that, the tyrant would come to despise himself. He would have fallen to the same level as the other lowly things. Death would be preferable to that.

“It does not suit her.”

The Chairman’s displeased verdict frightened several people. The lowly things called the world’s greatest fashion coordinators, stylists, and clothing designers. They had been given one request. Make Ga-eul’s beauty, her commodity value, stand out.

The main reason was a certain kind of verification. Something meaningful only to the Chairman himself.

The self-proclaimed experts watched the tyrant’s mood. From their cowed faces, it was hard to remember the confidence they had shown at first. Where had all their boasts that he would surely be satisfied gone?

“Is that all for today? Is nothing else prepared?”

Everyone except Ga-eul shrank back under the Chairman’s questioning. It had already been ten days since they accepted Hyeseong Group’s request. At first they had been sure of success, but now the opposite was true. What did the countless failures repeated every day even mean?

One stylist stepped forward from among the hesitant group.

“There are still a few sets left, but before that, there is one thing I would like to ask.”

“What is it?”

“We may use any other color, but why is green alone forbidden?”

“…….”

This fucking bitch. The Chairman did not say it aloud, but he did nothing to hide his anger. Standing before him, the stylist wiped away cold sweat and endured through professional pride, then corrected herself.

“At first, I did not think it was strange. We often receive orders about what is not allowed, and those include not only specific designs, but aversions to certain colors as well. But now I have begun to think this: perhaps that is the only correct answer.”

Taking a little courage from the fact that the Chairman had not yet exploded, the stylist continued.

“We have done our best until now. From the one-month mark onward, we even threw away our pride. We asked competitors all over the world for help. Even so, Chairman, you have not been pleased even once. Without exception, you frowned or shook your head the moment you saw each one.”

If he had considered even a little, or hesitated, the experts would have found a rough direction for the customer’s taste. But they could not get even the faintest clue from Go Geon-cheol.

“What you saw just now was exactly the one-thousandth presentation. That means it is difficult for us to try anything new anymore. Except for the only restriction you set, Chairman.”

As she said this, the stylist struck a pose that made herself stand out. Though she was somewhat stiff, her career and experience showed through. Now that he looked, her outfit was broadly built around green. Different levels of brightness and saturation gave it depth, while the other colors took up only a small portion, blending in as continuous or accenting color effects.

Once the Chairman grasped her intent, the stylist nodded to him, tense but resolute.

“This is not the first time. In this industry, there are countless cases where customers misunderstand their own tastes, so expertise in indirectly grasping a client’s aesthetic sense is essential to us. In the end, it is a matter of reading people, but we repeat cross-verification and approach the answer.”

“So?”

“I have already given my conclusion.”

Insolent. The tyrant was displeased that someone else had tested him without his knowledge.

Yet he had to allow it. What kind of transaction could one make without understanding what the other party wanted? The stylist had merely responded to the transaction, and that was an extremely economical action.

More than anything, was there not something else that was truly displeasing?

‘Does Han Gyeoul remain in this body, influencing my mind?’

A suspicion so absurd it was ridiculous. There had been folk beliefs like that in the past. But they were nothing more than groundless superstition. There were no medically proven cases, and theoretically, it was enough to make one laugh.

Even so, he could not shake off the doubt.

The very reason he had been so intensely drawn to Han Ga-eul from their first meeting was suspicious.

Then there was the green dress she treasured. As it turned out, it had been a gift from Han Gyeoul.

Beyond that, the clothes that suited her were always in the same color family, and the Chairman disliked that.

Did I truly fall for her at first sight? Is there truly only one color that suits Han Ga-eul? Or should I assume there is some other reason for all of this? Is such a thing even possible? Why am I being swayed by such an irrational superstition...?

Yet he did not want to escape this state of being drawn to Ga-eul, either. The gap between those contradictory feelings made the tyrant suffer more and more. Like the longing that killed Ga-eul.

“We will stop here today. Everyone leave.”

The group of experts let out sighs of relief at the curt order.

Han Ga-eul stayed where she was. When the Chairman referred to “everyone,” she alone was always the exception.

Because she remained exactly as the experts had styled her, Ga-eul was clothed in heavy reds and sumptuous blacks. Had they said the theme was the height of the season that shared her name? The month of falling leaves, a garden ripened one last time before frost came. Apart from the Chairman’s dissatisfaction, the expert group had been extremely satisfied with Ga-eul as subject matter. They said there was a kind of atmosphere that could not be created by appearance alone.

The tyrant watched her in silence, and only after a long while did he speak.

“I have thought about what must be done for our transaction to advance.”

“…….”

“You said there could be no transaction as long as I was in your younger brother’s body. That it was impossible to even begin. Then I ask you. If I return all rights to this body to Han Gyeoul, will the transaction be established then?”

Ga-eul clenched both hands. What kind of trap was this?

“Then what happens to you, Chairman? Do you return to your original body?”

“Original body? Your question means whether I intend to remake and use my old body.”

After the transplant was finished, Go Geon-cheol personally destroyed his past body. Thoroughly enough to be cruel. His daughter, Go Ah-young, who had the bad luck to witness it, had nearly fainted. The tyrant did not care whether his daughter vomited or not. It was that important to him.

It truly was an enjoyable moment.

Go Geon-cheol felt deep satisfaction just recalling that time.

Of course, his genetic information remained. For the sake of safety in the transplant surgery. So creating a clone body was possible. But no matter how young and healthy a body he made, he would not return to his old appearance.

“No.”

To the confused Ga-eul, the Chairman presented the next best option.

“I intend to use a third body. Not my old body, and not this body you claim belongs to your younger brother. People willing to sell their youth exist everywhere.”

“That is......”

“Do not tell me even this is unacceptable.”

Go Geon-cheol snapped sharply.

“The reason you cannot accept your younger brother’s transaction is because you believe that brat, Han Gyeoul, did not truly want it. That he sacrificed himself for his remaining family. Fine. It looks that way to me, too. But what about others? The ones desperate to die.”

“…….”

“There are plenty of people who want to sell their youth and enjoy a splendid afterlife. It is a voluntary decision made as full adults. You cannot criticize even their choice. I am willing to pay them proper compensation. Would an upgrade in Afterlife Insurance grade, plus unlimited access to every world setting released so far and every world setting to be released in the future, not be enough?”

After a breath, after studying the quiet Ga-eul, the Chairman spoke again.

“Bodies with no transplant rejection are not exactly common, but I can use another body temporarily until such a product appears on the market. Receiving immunosuppressants would be somewhat inconvenient, but... the truly important problem lies elsewhere.”

One suspicion made him agonize even after resolving himself this far.

“After that, will the transaction truly be established?”

Ga-eul understood what the Chairman meant. Other than Han Gyeoul’s body, would she have any reason to maintain ties with the Chairman? Even now, she was refusing to agree to a transaction because she said she would protect Gyeoul’s heart, so would things be different then? Either way, she would be paying with herself as the price of the transaction.

There was no way Gyeoul would want that.

As expected, his next words were exactly as Ga-eul had understood them.

“This is effectively a credit transaction. Afterward, will I truly be able to have you?”

Ga-eul calmly shook her head.

“You are still thinking about it wrong.”

“I am?”

“Yes. Although you have not told me why you want me, I have felt one thing for certain while watching you. Chairman, you do not even know what you want.”

At that, Go Geon-cheol sneered.

“It seems you have mistaken yourself for someone very impressive. But I am sure I made it clear. What I want from you is nothing more than a patchwork of sexual acts.”

“No. In truth, you clearly want more than that. And that is not an emotion you can obtain through a transaction or a contract.”

“Ha......”

Absurd anger boiled like lava. The tyrant barely held back the impulse to shout and smash things. Was she really inventing something that did not exist to this extent?

“Why not honestly say you simply hate me? To you, I must be no different from an enemy.”

“I do not hate you. I do not think of you as an enemy, either.”

“You are telling me to believe that?”

“Believe it. I have never lied, not even once. I hated you once, but not now.”

In Ga-eul’s eyes, the person who hated the Chairman more than anyone else was the Chairman himself.

To Go Geon-cheol, who roughly turned away, Ga-eul calmly made a demand.

“And do not take someone else’s body. Even if that person wants it, in the end, it is because their life is unhappy... because no matter how hard they try, there is no way to become happy, so they only want to run away from the world. I think that is the same as being forced to choose. If the afterlife they escaped into is happy, then that is fortunate, but if they are still unhappy, it would be hard to find anything more terrible. Would that person truly know enough about the result before making the decision?”

Individual freedom. Ga-eul recalled a story she had heard long ago. If a motorcyclist who enjoyed speed said that, as a personal choice, they would not wear protective gear, if they wanted to risk their life to enjoy that greater sense of speed, could forcing them to wear it be called an act for that person’s sake?

Ga-eul thought it could. Because that person too, in the painful moment when an accident happened and they were badly hurt or dying, would regret their choice. Because even if they said they were prepared for death, they probably never thought they would really die. Above all, because it would be a decision made without knowing what death was.

All the more so for selling one’s body, for fleeing a harsh world into the afterlife. It would be because they had been hurt by other people and abandoned.

‘A person’s world is the other people outside them...’

If there was even one person who truly cared for them, loved them, and held them warmly, would anyone really want to abandon this world?

Even while thinking she might be arrogant, Ga-eul, who had sent Gyeoul away, had no room to think otherwise. Because that farewell had been too cruel.

So as long as he insisted on another person’s body, to Ga-eul, the tyrant was nothing but a tyrant.

“So negotiations have broken down again today.”

Chairman Go Geon-cheol nervously closed his eyes. Suppressing the anger inside him was a tremendous effort. He thought he had truly made an enormous concession, yet this selfish wench still thought only of herself.

Why am I still drawn to her?

Why in the world?

Footnotes:

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