Divorce Contract C96

Chapter 96

Chapter Ⅴ.

Go Daesik was remanded to the detention center. The small-time operators who ran the house he frequented slipped away as if the raid were routine, but the drifters without patrons or funds were all rounded up. News that a modest gambling den in a certain district had been stormed failed even to pique the reporters’ interest; no article appeared in any paper.

Word reached them that Daesik had hollered in the holding cell, demanding they call his son, but when the other arrested gamblers cursed him for hogging the cell, he shut his mouth and fell quiet.

When the small commotion died down and the news that he had been transferred to the detention facility arrived, Seo Dohyeon thought it had been wise to have the phone removed in advance. He watched Shin Eunsuk soothe Go Igyeol as the latter lamented that he seemed to have lost his phone somewhere. Though Seo Dohyeon had disposed of it on purpose, Go Daesik had no inkling. He only guessed that Shin Eunsuk had somehow made the intact phone disappear.

Casually, Seo Dohyeon presented Go Igyeol with a new mobile. When Go Igyeol, puzzled that the photos and videos from the lost phone were on the replacement device, asked, Seo Dohyeon lied that he had restored the vanished gallery by linking accounts. Fortunately, Go Igyeol accepted the explanation without further question.

“Is that what they can do these days… I didn’t know. Thank you.”

“…They say it’s cold today, so dress warmly when you go out.”

Seo Dohyeon changed the subject. Go Igyeol did not bring up the lost phone again; only the hardware had changed — everything else remained as it had been.

“They said you’ll go up to the neonatal ward today. Go see him properly. Do you know they’ve scheduled the discharge for the weekend?”

“…Yes. I heard. They said I’ll be able to bring him home soon.”

A smile touched Go Igyeol’s lips at the very thought. Seo Dohyeon scrutinized him closely. His ears no longer bore fresh marks; the pretty contours of them had blushed slightly. Though faint scars lingered, one would not notice them without looking hard.

Perhaps because Shin Eunsuk had been careful to feed him well at every meal, his cheeks had a healthy roundness. When Go Igyeol, who had been avoiding direct gaze under the obvious stares around them, glanced up at Seo Dohyeon, Seo Dohyeon cleared his throat and turned away. The awkward cohabitation of the three was nearing its end.

The timing was nearly perfect. The infant’s early discharge — sooner than the five weeks they had feared — was certainly good news. Seo Dohyeon smiled bitterly as he saw them off. He watched as Shin Eunsuk took Go Igyeol’s hand and left to visit the baby; seeing them speak tenderly at the front door, Seo Dohyeon felt a small relief, an affirmation that Go Igyeol was steadier.

The house fell silent the moment the door shut. Left alone in the empty rooms, Seo Dohyeon paused, then went toward the bedroom Go Igyeol used. He opened the tightly closed door but could not bring himself to enter; he only looked inside. The room was steeped in the soft scent of his body and pheromones — the aroma that had haunted him for so long.

Though he could not touch Go Igyeol’s pheromones, Seo Dohyeon reached out into the air as though he might, and, feeling an emptiness, closed the door with disappointment. He stood with his hand on the knob for a long while before turning away. Back in his study, he gathered the papers on his desk and packed the suitcase he had left in the guest room. Yoon Jaeseon, waiting discreetly by the exit, took the suitcase and led the way.

“Are you sure you’d rather leave?”

“I doubt Go Igyeol will be particularly curious, but tell them I’m away on a business trip for a few days. I have to take care of Daesik matters, and visit Shin Eunsuk’s pension as well. I won’t have time to go back home in between.”

“You really should at least visit on the baby’s discharge day, shouldn’t you?”

“Would you prefer that, Manager Yoon?”

Yoon Jaeseon found himself at a loss whenever Seo Dohyeon asked like that. Of course it wouldn’t be pleasant, yet answering so bluntly was difficult. Seo Dohyeon was his direct superior, a man who significantly affected his evaluation; perhaps that restrained him, or perhaps he felt some small, reluctant pity.

“If I don’t receive a reply, should I take that as a yes?”

“…I was thinking about it.”

“Troubling question?”

“…I think it’s best if you don’t go, Executive Director.”

Yoon bowed his head, awkward and embarrassed. He wanted to offer comforting words to Seo Dohyeon — who on the surface seemed unsympathetic but somehow evoked pity — yet he felt that lying for Go Igyeol’s sake would be wrong.

“You ask the question if you intend to answer it that way. Do you want him to hate you more than he already does, so you can say, ‘See, I tried’? Is that why you ask?”

“It’s not like that. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t meddle where you have no right.”

“Yes. I’ll be careful.”

Seo Dohyeon’s temper had grown more brittle by the day. Remarks he would normally have brushed off now lingered. The preparations for a divorce, unknown to Go Igyeol, proceeded apace.

Seo Dohyeon passed Yoon and climbed into his car. He pressed his temples with thumb and forefinger, then closed his eyes. After a short pause the vehicle moved off. As it glided gently from the villa complex, he swallowed a sigh.

Seo Dohyeon did not go to the office; he went straight to the detention center. After a short wait in the visiting room, a bedraggled Go Daesik was brought in. He looked utterly spent and, upon seeing Seo Dohyeon, lunged to the glass with bloodshot eyes.

“Seo… Executive Director! Ah, it’s you. I knew you’d come. Why… why am I here? We were only playing a few rounds of hwatu among friends, you know. You know that, right? Huh?”

“I wouldn’t know. I don’t keep track of where you wander.”

Seo Dohyeon eyed him with a casual, indifferent look, glancing once at the watch on his wrist.

“Then call our Igyeol, okay? Call Igyeol for me.”

“If I bring him, are you asking me to pull some strings to get you out?”

“…What?”

“You won’t be able to reach Igyeol. Probably not for quite some time. It’s best you abandon that hope.”

Daesik could not make sense of Seo Dohyeon’s words. He had been coddled whenever he came to collect money — always encouragement and warmth; they had told him to call when he got short — so his son-in-law’s sudden change in attitude felt like betrayal.

“Before you came here I checked: you’d borrowed heavily against everything — your rotten company, old machinery — even used them as collateral and sunk that money into the gambling tables. Did you blow it all on the tables?”

“No, that wasn’t collateral—!”

“Who do you think will be left holding those loan sharks’ debts? Go Igyeol? Or your eldest daughter, Ko Hee-joo? Or your second son, Ko Min-jun?”

The voice was unfamiliar — husky as a hand ran across the unkempt beard, the scraping sound accompanying the gesture. Hearing Seo Dohyeon’s voice, Daesik sensed things were going badly. Seo Dohyeon frowned and turned his gaze away.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Do you think I’ll rot away in here? Don’t you touch my children! You— you—! You think you can laugh at me because you put me here—!”

“Your debts will be repaid by your family. Not by the guarantor you scribbled down on loan contracts, not by Go Igyeol. I have no intention of making him pay your debts. Nor will I pay them myself.”

“Se- Seo Executive Director! Seo Dohyeon!”

“I’m telling you plainly: don’t expect otherwise. I’m speaking bluntly so you understand. Do you understand?”

Daesik’s face flushed crimson as he raved. The relief he felt at seeing Seo Dohyeon in the visiting room — the thought someone might help him — evaporated. He had no idea Seo Dohyeon would not offer a hand.

“Do you think I’ll just sit back and take this? You picked the wrong person to mess with. You— I—!”

“Do you think I would cower before you? Everything I’ve done for you was for Go Igyeol, not because I was afraid of you. Understand that now: your petty threats won’t work.”

Seo Dohyeon’s voice, flat and measured, left no room for negotiation. Daesik attempted to brandish the child as leverage again.

“Igyeol’s kid! That kid—!”

“How dare you try to extort me with my child? Fine. I’ll do the same. Your eldest — twenty-one, right? Your son twenty? Do you know that among the businesses the loan sharks you owe run, there’s a timber trade? Your kids look young and healthy; they’d be easy to place. If you sold them off from head to toe, you’d clear that debt in no time. Then you’d be out quickly.”

“…What?”

“If you sell everything you can from those children, that debt will disappear fast. Then you’ll be free.”