CHAPTER 152: CHAPTER 151. TWO STAGES

"Sarah!"

"I mean...I didn’t know it was supposed to be a secret," Sarah shrugged, grinning awkwardly but clearly without a speck of remorse.

Lee Hyun messaged his suddenly throbbing temple, feeling stupid. Of course, Sarah was right; he should have come to her and told her to keep their chance meeting a secret. He was hung upon the fact that Sarah was drunk and probably didn’t remember it, but...that was obviously not the case.

"Fuck--did he say something?"

"Not really?" Sarah tilted her head, tapping her lips to ponder. "Well...if he didn’t say anything, that would mean he didn’t care, right?"

"What do you know? I can’t afford to sully my image in front of the executives right--"

Sarah blinked, and Lee Hyun realized he had just outed his hidden ambition. Well...if his niece could catch that anyway. She did mention her willingness to support him, but there was a hard condition to fulfill, which Lee Hyun didn’t want to entertain.

Yet, anyway.

"Ahem--never mind; I’ll just talk to him," Lee Hyun waved his hand dismissively. "Just make sure you tell no one else!"

"Yes, Sir~" Sarah playfully made a salute, and her uncle stood up to leave. "Do tell me if you change your mind and ditch that woman, though."

Lee Hyun paused, just for a second, before he walked away again. Might not look like much, but it was enough to tell Sarah that the man at least thought about it. The slightly quickening steps further proved this conjecture. He didn’t even react much when he bumped into a man who was walking into the bar with another woman, just kept walking as if he couldn’t be there any longer lest a demon would keep tempting him.

Or he was just drunk--who knows?

"My, my--he must be in such a hurry," the young woman who had just come chuckled while walking to the corner booth where Sarah was.

The man who got bumped into earlier stroked his shoulder while stopping beside the table. "Are you alone, Miss?" he asked, fixing his glasses. "Might we entertain you with a company?"

Sarah lifted her sparkling water and took a sip before replying. "Doesn’t sound convincing coming from you."

"Rude!" Austin protested while plopping down where Lee Hyun sat earlier. "So, how did it go?"

Before Sarah could reply, the waiter who had served Sarah earlier returned with new cups, new bottles, a charcuterie board, and a person in a suit. Another person who had been hiding behind a pillar during Sarah’s conversation with her uncle also came out to stand near the bar entrance. The person who came with the waiter also positioned themselves at the next table while the waiter served them, guarding.

As instructed, this time, the manager put the ’reserved’ sign in front of the bar, preventing anyone from approaching the place. In fact, Sarah had reserved the whole place until dinner time, including when she was talking to her uncle. Not only that, she paid a huge amount of sush money to make the manager, the bartender, and the waiter pretend like nothing happened inside the bar that day.

Lee Hyun was right when he thought Sarah had used a lot of money to make the general manager act favorably.

"Ahh," Sua whined about having to wait for the uncle to leave earlier as she plopped beside Sarah, clinging to her side. "Did you get what you wanted, Eonni?"

"Hmm...vaguely," Sarah nodded while nibbling on a cracker.

She knew now that her uncle had an ambition to take over the company, and the third wife was probably helping him--most likely by introducing him to Daesung. This would explain why Mina acted so brazen sometimes, as if she wasn’t worried about her future. But she also panicked when Vivian arrived, so it seemed like whatever their plan was, the third wife had to stay in the house. Sarah made a mental note to ask Sol for further investigation about this

Looking at how her uncle seemed tempted by Sarah’s offer, however, the feeling was more wobbly than she thought.

But then again...who would want to rely on a gangster’s power if they had another choice?

On that note, it didn’t seem like Lee Hyun and Joseph were working together. He wouldn’t be so flustered about Sarah’s ’slip-up’ otherwise. Or, if they did, there was some kind of betrayal.

Either way, it was good for her.

"Well, good enough," Austin said after Sarah shared her conjecture with them.

"Rather dumb, isn’t he? He should know better than to drink while getting interrogated," Sua scoffed.

"He’d been out of the game for too long," Sarah chuckled.

"The question is," Austin propped his chin on the table while snacking on the cheese, "will you let them keep doing what they’re doing?"

Sarah replied with a snicker. "Why wouldn’t I? They are trying to destroy each other. I have nothing left I can get from them anyway, so might as well let them burn little by little before I throw in the whole torch."

Sua hummed. "You have enough shares now, Eonni?"

"Not yet. I’ll see if I can get the one held by the first wife, but the real battle is how much we can get from buying the shares from outsiders."

She needed to be the biggest shareholder without the family noticing, so the amount she had now was already the maximum she could get without the other questioning why she held that many. The rest must be bought through an external channel, which was the whole reason she asked for a financial manager.

"My battleground," Austin cracked his knuckles. The wealth he had managed would finally be used to buy shares from the other shareholders. "From this flow...you want me to swoop in once the shareholders catch the rumor and the stock value plummets, don’t you?"

"Naturally."

Austin smacked the table in satisfaction. Finally--the action he could actually participate in. "Can’t wait."

"Alright, enough with that," Sua clanked her glass with a fork, treating it like a bell to shift the other two’s attention. "We’re about to get some show here."

She had fished out a tablet--which looked almost like the one Little Bird used. On the screen, they could see several windows showing what seemed like live CCTV recordings. On one of them, they could see a group of young women, and on another one, Hajin and his biological father.

* * *

After making sure Sarah met Sua and Austin safely, along with the bodyguards who should be protecting them, Hajin drove to the upscale restaurant that the twins and Sarah had set up to be his stage. Not only reserving seats, but also placing a few of their people inside.

Not a hard thing to do when the chef-owner was one of Yonghwa’s investments.

The restaurant itself was separated into several areas; a large hall for special events, an area with beautifully set dining tables like any other fancy diner, and an area with private rooms that Hajin was headed into. He deliberately did not take the path that would make him go through the open dining area, and followed the waiter straight to where Chairman Yoo Hada was while fiddling the ’J’ pendant in his pocket--which he unfortunately could not wear as it would hinder his disguise.

The moment the waiter opened the door, the old man perked up and stood up from his seat to greet Hajin. "Son!"

Not only did he stand up, but the chairman also rushed in to hug him. If anyone saw it, they would think Hajin was really a favorite son who had been spending time abroad and finally returned home.

It was weird for Hajin, and he almost dodged in reflex. But the sincere elation in the old man’s face made him pause, and he remembered that he wasn’t there to make an enemy.

And so, Hajin stood there awkwardly, letting the old man hug him and pat his shoulder while looking him up and down with a proud expression.

Hesitatingly, Hajin said the word that felt awkward even as it rolled out of his tongue. "...Father."

The awkwardness was loud, and Chairman Yoo could see it. He smiled sympathetically while stroking the young man’s upper arm. "Is it hard for you to say it?"

"Well...I’ve never used it before," Hajin muttered.

Chairman Yoo widened his eyes in surprise. "I see..." he smiled softly, a mix of guilt and relief. "So she didn’t remarry."

The grey eyes narrowed. "No, she never did."

"Let’s...let’s sit down first," the old man cleared his throat and gestured toward the table in the middle of the room. The attentive waiters immediately placed the menu and pulled a chair for Hajin.

"Ah, yes," Hajin walked to the prepared chair--this too, felt weird. He was usually the one who pulled the chair for his princess, so his fingers felt a bit tingly. "I’m sorry for being late."

"No, no--it’s already amazing that you managed to reserve a place here," Chairman Yoo waved his hand.

"Is that so? My master...young miss reserved this place, so I have no idea," Hajin said as he looked at the menu. There was no price listed beside each item, as if showing that the people who ate there were the kind that didn’t care about the price.

Chairman Yoo observed the young man in front of him, who narrowed his eyes at the list of the menu, looking all critical as he read it. The young man looked good, clothed in something that he would wear easily if he were to be the chairman’s son from the start. But Chairman Yoo already did a little investigation, and knew that his son didn’t exactly live an easy life growing up. He even had to do dangerous work in a security company and ended up as a bodyguard.

Oh, how his heart broke when he found out!

"By ’young miss’, are you talking about the second daughter of HS Group?"

"Yes," Hajin replied briefly, but there was an unmistakable fondness in his voice that contrasted with the dry and nonchalant tone he used to order his lunch.

Chairman Yoo told the waiter he would go with what he had planned to order earlier, and when the waiters finally left the room, he let out a heavy sigh. "I’m sorry..."