Perfect Possession - Episode 24

Jaehoon chuckled as he entered Mi-ryung’s private living room. It was ridiculous that a sight he had seen for over 30 years, excluding his ignorant childhood, was only now grating on his nerves.

Mi-ryung was wearing an elegant white dress that reached her ankles. She always dressed in dresses, even on days when she had no schedule and stayed home.

For Mi-ryung, dresses were one of the tools she used to distinguish herself from people outside her self-imposed standards.

That fact particularly bothered Jaehoon today. He thought of Tae-yul, who was wearing old dolls and hand-me-down clothes.

In an instant, anger surged to the top of his head, freezing his dark eyes. If Mi-ryung hadn’t been scheming, his house would be filled with Tae-yul’s laughter by now.

“Why couldn’t I reach you?”

“Do you enjoy deceiving people?”

Mi-ryung, who had been firmly resolved and spoke coldly, stared intently at Jaehoon without even putting down the teacup she had raised. Eventually, she slowly placed the teacup down.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, before that, I’m curious. Would it even be possible to take care of a child in that outfit, let alone hold one?”

“Child?”

Mi-ryung frowned and repeated his words.

“Yes, a child.”

“What are you talking about?”

Mi-ryung’s voice, which had been calm, began to sharpen.

“I couldn’t reach you for days, and the first thing you say when you finally show up is about my outfit? No, before that, do you enjoy deceiving people?”

“I knew deceiving people was your specialty, Mother, but I didn’t know it applied to your son as well. Did you think you could deceive me forever?”

Mi-ryung was born as the eldest daughter of a small business that had only ever received subcontracting work from large corporations. To make matters worse, it was on the verge of bankruptcy when she came of age.

She hated the idea of being reduced to the pitiful daughter of a failing small business owner, so she seduced Chairman Han, who was the top candidate to inherit the Do-young Group, and gave birth to Jaehoon.

And the first thing she did after becoming the mistress of the Do-young family was to buy up shares of the Do-young Group.

She was now a major shareholder with as many shares as Chairman Han. The reason she, who had nothing, was able to rise to the ranks of a major shareholder was because her mind was a step above Chairman Han’s.

There was no way Mi-ryung wouldn’t understand the meaning of what Jaehoon had just said. She was more than capable of realizing that Jaehoon had found out all the details after meeting Seo-yeon and had come to confront her in anger.

But Mi-ryung had no intention of confessing that she had orchestrated it.

“Did you meet Secretary Min?”

“I didn’t come here to listen to excuses. I have no intention of listening to anything you say. From now on, I will only believe what I hear and see.”

“Really? Then why can’t you believe what that child said directly?”

“It’s the same as how I can’t believe you, Mother, even though I’m seeing you pretending to be innocent with my own eyes. I’m just angry that I wasted two years because of that kind of edited recording.”

“Angry?”

Mi-ryung doubted her ears. Her specialty was seeing through and manipulating people’s minds, but Jaehoon, whom she had given birth to, was difficult.

She sometimes couldn’t understand what he was thinking, as if he were lost in a maze. It was difficult to control someone she couldn’t fathom.

So, Mi-ryung always planned carefully when it came to Jaehoon. She didn’t know if he was aware of it and playing along, or if he was simply following her plans, but Jaehoon was an obedient son. That is, until he met Seo-yeon.

“Angry, you say is it really something to be angry about, doing something for your child?”

When the daughter of a failed family became the mistress of the Do-young family, the wives of the chaebols openly ridiculed Mi-ryung, comparing her to Cinderella.

From then on, she resolved to make the heir of a great group her daughter-in-law, so that she could shut the mouths of the chaebol wives who ridiculed her. So, she couldn’t stand Jaehoon being close to Seo-yeon.

She didn’t want to get her hands dirty in separating Seo-yeon, so she used Sung-hee, who was obsessed with money. Of course, she only gave instructions and didn’t step forward herself. Jia, her small house’s niece, met Sung-hee on her behalf.

She only met Sung-hee once, when she received the recording file. Mi-ryung didn’t want Jia to hear the contents of that file. The fewer people who knew about the solid evidence of deceiving someone, the less dangerous it was.

Mi-ryung glared at Jaehoon and stood up from her seat.

“I don’t want to talk to an angry son, so come back when you’re thinking rationally.”

“Do I look emotional to you?”

“What?”

“If I weren’t being rational right now, I wouldn’t have come here like this. I would have cut ties.”

“You! What, what did you just say? Cut ties? Are you saying you’re going to cut ties with your parents because of that girl?”

Mi-ryung couldn’t believe it. She never imagined she would hear these words because of a woman.

“You’re crazy. You’re crazy about that girl.”

Jaehoon let out a hollow laugh. He stared intently at Mi-ryung, who was standing there with a shocked expression.

“Whether or not I cut ties with my parents depends on you and Father from now on.”

“You… you…”

“Tae-yul. That’s my son’s name. If you hadn’t been scheming like that, I would have been there when my son was born and cried for the first time, and the day he called me ‘Dad’ for the first time.”

He took a step closer to Mi-ryung, who was standing there without even blinking.

“Because of you, I haven’t even heard my son’s voice yet. Your desire has hurt my son!”

Jaehoon couldn’t hold back and shouted out his suppressed anger. He quickly calmed down his rising anger. He didn’t want to show any sign of disarray in front of Mi-ryung.

“I won’t be lenient. If you touch Seo-yeon or my son, I’ll risk everything to ruin you, Father, and the Do-young Group. Until now, I’ve been playing the role of a good son because there wasn’t much I wanted to do, but now your good son doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Jae, Jaehoon…”

She called her son’s name as if trembling, but Mi-ryung’s mind was working quickly. She was convinced that Seo-yeon had given birth to a son and returned. Mi-ryung regretted not having confirmed the pregnancy.

“Until I bring my family to you myself, you or your well-known mother’s cronies shouldn’t appear in front of me. Because I’ll get rid of everything I see.”

“Family? Don’t tell me you’re thinking of marrying Secretary Min?”

Jaehoon, who was turning around because he didn’t want to face Mi-ryung any longer, turned back with a sneer. He stared blankly at Mi-ryung, who was so shocked that her hands were trembling.

The mother he knew wasn’t the type to be so shocked by anything. But Jaehoon knew Mi-ryung’s weakness well enough to strip away this artificial appearance in an instant.

Jaehoon’s lips twisted into a sarcastic smirk.

“Do you have the right to say that, when you came into the Do-young family using me? Would it have been possible for you to live a life of drinking tea in such a dress from early in the morning if it weren’t for me? So quietly live your life. I’ll live mine.”

It was Jaehoon’s warning, like a forbidden word, not to look for him and not to scheme. He didn’t care about the Do-young family or his parents right now.

Jaehoon was so angry with Mi-ryung that he casually mentioned her taboo, which was like a forbidden word. He couldn’t forgive Chairman Han for condoning it either.

“You, you…”

“Yes. Just faithfully play the role of being so shocked.”

Jaehoon spat out one more word as if throwing it away and left the living room as it was. Now all that was left was to deal with how Chairman Han and Mi-ryung would react.

Chairman Han, who regarded him as an important project of the Do-young Group, would approach Seo-yeon inside the company, and Mi-ryung would approach Seo-yeon through Jia of the small house, as usual.

He had no intention of just watching that, so he had to read and act on their next move. But Jaehoon wasn’t afraid of them because he was prepared to throw everything away if necessary.

“Did Tae-yul ride the swing?”

Hyun-shik immediately answered Jaehoon’s low mutter.

“Of course, he did. He liked it so much.”

“Right? Let’s go to the company first.”

“Yes.”

Jaehoon, who was planning to take care of the pending work first and then go home, hurried to the company.

Seo-yeon looked happily at Tae-yul, who had quickly learned how to swing. But when the heavy wooden swing didn’t move easily even when he moved his little legs back and forth, he stared intently at Seo-yeon. She smiled as she pushed the swing.

“You want me to push you on the swing, right? Say ‘Please push me.’ Then even if Mom is over there, she’ll run over and push you.”

Jae-moon said that it would be helpful for Tae-yul, who had closed his mouth at the stage of learning to speak, to point out sentences or words one more time.

Seo-yeon was following his advice well. She pushed the swing and said,

“Please push me.”

Even so, she didn’t urge Tae-yul to “say it.”

Tae-yul wiggled his feet and raised the corners of his mouth slightly, especially when the swing went up high.

She tried to take pictures of this scene several times to show Jaehoon, but she kept missing the timing because it was too fleeting.

It seemed like they were only swinging since morning, so Seo-yeon stopped the swing for a moment and squatted down in front of Tae-yul. She brushed the bangs that had fallen down in the wind back.

She was now able to do this action with a comfortable heart. Tae-yul, who used to squint whenever Seo-yeon’s hand approached, was now still.

“You’re sweating. Shall we wash our faces and do something else? Wash our faces.”

Tae-yul, who had been listening to Seo-yeon’s words quietly, widened his eyes and quickly looked around when she said, “Shall we do something else?”

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