WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 419: The Season When Roses Wither
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Go Geon-cheol failed to protect his heart.
His belief that transactions had to be fair and contracts had to be honored. That mad obsession, that conviction, was the trauma left by his wife and brother's betrayal.
At the scene where her affair with his younger brother was exposed, she laughed like someone who had lost her mind and coldly confessed. Who would ever love an ugly thing like you? It was no different from a curse. That day, Go Geon-cheol lost not only the younger brother he loved and the wife he loved, but in the end, even the love he had for himself. He became a man who hated himself.
Why had he not known? Why had he been fooled? Why had he not been loved?
How could he have been such a foolish, ugly bastard?
The sight of his younger brother beaten into a bloody mess, and the sound of his wife's sharp laughter, were still lodged in the tyrant's mind like shards of broken glass, even after all this time.
Once he dug up the truth, Go Geon-cheol, before he became a tyrant, had been nothing more than an intruder who had come between his younger brother and his wife's true love. His wife's love had been directed at his young, handsome brother even before the marriage. The reason she married Go Geon-cheol anyway was to give everything to the man she loved. In his wife's plan, a husband with no merit besides a talent for making money was only a means to a smooth inheritance. A stepping stone, in other words. Something to tread on and cross over, then never look back at again.
His deeply ambitious younger brother agreed with that plan too. Their father said he had handed over management to Go Geon-cheol because of his ability, but to the younger brother, it was only an unfair benefit taken by the one born first simply because he had been born first.
Go Geon-cheol buried the two of them with everything he had.
But that revenge did nothing to restore him as a human being.
The broken Go Geon-cheol became a tyrant.
After that, the only pillar holding up his life was the legacy his hatred had left behind.
He had made a deal with his wife. They would give themselves wholly to each other for the rest of their lives. The result was marriage as a contract that staked their lives. His wife had violated that contract. An unfair transaction and an unkept contract. Hatred for that gave birth to the tyrant's wretched conviction. He must not trust uncertain things like hearts. The essence of human relationships was a calculating transaction. Therefore, life had to be economical. Never again must he harbor trust built on uncertain foundations....
But Han Ga-eul demanded faith from the tyrant.
Until he returned to his original self, the relationship he wanted would not begin. With a skin borrowed from someone else, including her younger brother Gyeoul, he would not even stand at the starting line.
Yes. In other words, "not even stand at the starting line" meant that even if Go Geon-cheol accepted her demand, there was still a chance the transaction would fail in the end. To borrow her expression, love was not a contract formed by a transaction. To the exhausted tyrant, that childish innocence felt cruel.
It was the thorn of the rose.
Who would ever love an ugly thing like you? For Go Geon-cheol, still trapped by the echo of the past, this was a nearly impossible demand.
He hated to admit it, but honestly, he was terrified.
So he agonized for a long time, and that painful anguish gnawed away at the youth and health he had bought with money. His impatience grew heavier by the day. Once Han Gyeoul's old body wore away completely, would Han Ga-eul still have any reason to pay attention to the tyrant?
Today, driven by that impatience, he finally made a horrific mistake.
"..."
In the disordered office, amid the suffocating silence, Ga-eul closed her collar and straightened her disheveled clothes. The skin that bore traces of resistance was covered. Go Geon-cheol only stared blankly at it. What he had failed at just now had been, without excuse, an attempted rape. The tyrant had charged at her, shouting like a madman. It was a sudden outburst even he had not expected.
At the decisive moment, though, he could not become erect. Because he saw her eyes. Ga-eul's eyes. Many emotions had melted into them. Pain, deep disappointment, a little sadness, and even pity.
All those emotions brought the tyrant to awareness.
Few acts were further from a fair transaction than rape. The tyrant had broken with his own hands the pillar that had supported him until now.
Go Geon-cheol felt as if his blood vessels were freezing over.
"What have I just..."
He rose from his seat, trembling from a psychological chill. His mind was tangled around a single thought. He wanted to escape this situation. First, he had to send Ga-eul out. She could not be anywhere his eyes could reach. The more he saw her, the heavier his self-loathing would become. It was close to a desperate desire to survive. The tyrant fumbled over the desk and touched the console.
"Come in!"
A scream-like shout. Even after calling, he doubted whether he had done it properly, but not long afterward, special secretary Kang Young-il entered. Snake-like eyes swept across the room. As if that alone was enough to grasp the situation, a tiny spasm passed across the corner of his mouth. Whether it was shock or pleasure, there was no way to know. Go Geon-cheol did not like it. He did not, but at this point, the tyrant had no room to think of anything else.
Go Geon-cheol gasped for breath and pointed at Ga-eul.
"Send her back. Now!"
He did not look at her. It would be more accurate to say he did not dare.
"Understood."
Kang Young-il gestured to Ga-eul.
"Come out. I'll take you."
Ga-eul, who had been about to leave, paused. Then she looked back at the Chairman for a moment. It was easy to guess what she was thinking. Because of that, the thought crossed her mind that a collapsing person should not be left alone. A night spent crumbling would never have a positive effect.
But.
"What are you doing? Come out. Do not offend the Chairman."
At Kang Young-il's urging, Ga-eul hesitated briefly, then in the end did not open her mouth. She had limits. Go Geon-cheol's mistake had not been horrific only to himself. Ga-eul's shoulders were still trembling, and on her aching wrist, the marks left by a tight grip remained like the brand of violence. If the tyrant's rampage had not stopped at an attempt, she did not know what feelings her tomorrow self would have greeted the morning with.
There was even a chance there would have been no tomorrow at all.
So Ga-eul no longer showed the tyrant any consideration.
Special secretary Kang Young-il said his farewell.
"Then, rest well."
Go Geon-cheol gave no answer and only looked out the window.
After leaving the tyrant's fortress and getting into the sedan, Ga-eul breathed out her tangled feelings in a sigh. It took considerable effort to calm her agitation.
"If I had been ruined today, what about Gyeoul?"
These days, Gyeoul grew a little brighter every time she went to visit. Ga-eul did not think the cause lay entirely with her, but that did not mean she had no influence at all. After being trampled by the tyrant, though, would she really have been able to face Gyeoul? Before her younger brother, who was sensitive to what lay inside others, Ga-eul would never have been able to hide what had actually happened.
"He looked uneasy."
When she revealed that she was working beside Go Geon-cheol, Ga-eul saw Gyeoul's complexion waver. The words that came right after were, had nothing bad happened? Since she had no confidence in hiding the truth, she had brought it up while pretending as hard as she could that it was nothing, but in the end, it had been impossible to fully reassure Gyeoul.
Because Gyeoul knew she was making that effort, he must have stopped asking any further. The same consideration as always. Beneath it, perhaps, lay the certainty that no matter what lie Ga-eul told, there was no way he would fail to know.
If Ga-eul's visits stopped again, the worries Gyeoul would hold were obvious.
Lost in those thoughts, she noticed the abnormality late.
"...?"
The scenery sliding past the car window was unfamiliar. This was not the road they usually took.
Ga-eul, her guard rising, asked the special secretary in the driver's seat.
"Where are we going?"
Kang Young-il looked at Ga-eul through the rearview mirror. When she saw those eyes curve, Ga-eul realized something was going wrong. Click. She instinctively checked the door handle, but it was locked. The lock had been fixed remotely. Cold sweat broke out on Ga-eul's skin. Had he received some other order from the Chairman? She had not seen him contact anyone, but if he had received a message through a lens-type terminal, that was a different story.
Kang Young-il let the AI drive, took his hands off the wheel, and sneered.
"What, if the door were open, were you planning to jump out? Have you watched too many movies?"
Ga-eul bit her lower lip.
"I asked where we're going."
"Who knows."
The man shrugged.
"I think you should be more curious about what is going to happen to you than where we're going."
"..."
"From the first day I saw you, I wanted to know what your tears tasted like. I wondered what flavor the tears of a woman like you would have."
He laughed quietly, then warned her coldly.
"You'd better not try anything stupid."
Ga-eul had quietly unbuckled her belt and was about to kick the driver's seat, but she froze when she saw the pistol aimed at her. Even so, her eyes still searched for an opening. If she could somehow open the door, she really planned to throw herself outside next. She might be badly hurt, or even killed, but she thought it would be better than sitting still like this.
The viper-like man mocked her.
"I can practically hear your eyes darting around."
Ga-eul clenched her teeth to suppress her fear.
"This cannot be the Chairman’s will."
It was a probing remark, meant to look for an opening. For a brief moment, she had thought this might be the tyrant's order. But when she thought it over again, the chances were extremely low. If Ga-eul had seen him correctly, he had been furious at himself for destroying the principle he had guarded so firmly.
Kang Young-il answered.
"That man is finished now."
"What?"
"It was fun for a long time. That coldness and powerful strength. A man of power with solid convictions and ability. There was no employer better suited to my temperament. I enjoyed myself in all kinds of ways while I was beside him. But now... he is only disappointing. And that happened because of you."
"...It's true that he's shaken in many ways, but he's still the Chairman of Hyeseong Group. Aren't you afraid of what comes afterward?"
At Ga-eul's question, Kang Young-il responded with a cold sneer.
"Stupid bitch. Do you think I would do something like this without any insurance?"
"...Insurance?"
"There are plenty of people who would be happy if the head of Korea's largest corporate group lost consciousness. I accepted one of their offers. Once you and I disappear together, that old man Go Geon-cheol will obviously run wild beyond what that body can endure."
"..."
"The attending physician said so. Even if left alone, he would never last long. I'm only giving his back a small push. The rest is up to gravity. Once he collapses, he'll be stuck in a preservation facility until the day his clone body finishes growing."
In other words, there was a force that would hide and protect the viper from Go Geon-cheol's anger for a while. That force would also be somewhere that benefited simply from the Chairman being down for a time. Or perhaps Kang Young-il had abused his position as secretary lately, while the Chairman had been dazed. Perhaps he had already extracted important information and was trying to create a chance to use it.
"Well, I achieved the goal in a way I never expected, but this isn't bad in its own way. I get to taste the delicacy I've been waiting for too."
Having said that much, Kang Young-il bared his teeth.
"If I explained everything this kindly, isn't it only polite for you to realize there is no hope of escaping and show me some despair? Why are you still making such an arrogant face? Are you the type who only starts crying after I put my hands on you? That's a bit annoying. Hm?"
Then a sharp electronic beep rang out loudly, and a red warning light lit up on the driver's instrument panel.
"What?"
Kang Young-il narrowed his eyes and checked the gauges.
"...Collision warning? Why?"
The road had already entered the outskirts. There were no other vehicles or obstacles ahead. Only the entrance of an approaching tunnel could be seen. Even inside, nothing seemed particularly wrong.
But when the vehicle entered the tunnel, all the lights inside the tunnel went out at once. Pitch-black darkness fell in an instant. Even the vehicle's own lights vanished. Kang Young-il fumbled over the instrument panel, trying to switch to manual driving, but no matter how many times he pressed the button, there was no response.
"Damn it! Is this hacking?!"
Hacking. It was an absurd idea, but there was no other way to explain this situation. He tried to force the steering wheel to turn and stepped on the brake, but nothing responded. The parking brake was fixed as if locked.
In the middle of all this, the AI played a calm synthesized announcement.
「Warning: Occupants are not detected as wearing seat belts. Under Articles 50, 53, and 67 of the Road Traffic Act, the driver and all passengers of a motor vehicle must wear seat belts except in exceptional situations designated by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. All occupants, please check again whether your belts are fastened.」
「Warning: This vehicle will soon enter an accident-prone area.」
「Warning, warning, warning, warning, warning...」
"You crazy piece of shit!"
A curse burst from the driver's seat. The warning voice repeated as if broken, chilling to the bone. Ga-eul hurriedly fastened her seat belt.
The moment the metal met with a click.
The vehicle's course twisted violently.
Baaang!
The sound of glass cracking spread across the windows. Ga-eul felt a heavy pain crossing her from shoulder to waist. The belt held her body as it flew forward, and violent inertia shook her whole body. She let out a short scream. But the pain was not enough to break any bones or knock her unconscious.
"Fucking... hell..."
Unfortunately, the snake-like man had not died either. In the pitch-black darkness, he muttered curses in a pained voice.
Ga-eul quickly unbuckled her belt and tried to escape. But, click. The door was still locked and would not budge. Her attempt to leave through the opposite side failed too. As Ga-eul bit her lip, she heard the door open from the driver's seat. She heard him step out too.
The sound that followed was none other than a scream.
"Aaaaaaagh!"
Bang! Bang! Bang! Ga-eul hurriedly lowered herself at the echoing gunshots. As the outside flashed, the shape of the window cracked like a spiderweb brushed across her retinas. It was like a scene from a horror movie, and Ga-eul felt her body trembling in fear.
A little later, silence came to the darkness that had been filled with screams and gunshots.
Then the light returned.
Clack. The sound of the lock releasing. The instrument panel in the driver's seat flickered faintly. Ga-eul barely gathered herself, opened the door, and stepped out. In the now-bright tunnel, there were no other vehicles visible ahead or behind.
Ga-eul approached the front of the vehicle and looked toward the driver's side.
There, only a dropped pistol and a little blood remained. Clink. Ga-eul flinched at the casing she had stepped on herself, but before she could clutch her chest, she had to stay alert for another noise.
Vroooom-
The air inside the tunnel hummed with exhaust. From behind, three vehicles with opaque windows approached in a row. They stopped beside the sedan with its crushed front.
People in matching outfits got out of each vehicle.
One of them, a woman wearing sunglasses, glanced over the accident site, tilted her head once, and muttered as if to herself.
"...Did they act first?"
Footnotes:
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