Park Tae-yong gave Kang Eun-ho a deathly glare. Kang Eun-ho came closer with the phone, unfazed. But before the phone could capture Park Tae-yong, he reached forward with his hand and grabbed the phone. He hung up immediately and threw the phone at the wall.
Kang Eun-ho, seeing that the situation did not look good, turned around, wanting to run off.
"Kang Eun-ho!" Park Tae-yong growled.
"Fifth Brother, you need to learn to relax. She is your mother-in-law, you'll need to see her in the future." Kang Eun-ho explained as he backed up.
"Travel to China tomorrow, there's something I need you to retrieve." Park Tae-yong said as he took a deep breath.
"Fifth Brother, how long am I going to be there? If it's going to take long, I'm not going. I want to witness Sister-in-law's coronation." Kang Eun-ho said in an unhappy tone.
"Kang Eun-ho, get out of my room." Park Tae-yong said.
"I can't imagine Kim Seo-yeon being married to someone like you. She'll be so unhappy in her marriage."
"Kang Eun-ho, do you have a death wish?" Park Tae-yong turned around and looked at him with dark eyes.
"Ahh. No. No. Fifth Brother will make an excellent husband." Kang Eun-ho frantically said.
"Get out. Call Kim Seo-yeon into my study." Park Tae-yong said and turned around again, walking to his bedside drawer.
The sound of the door closing was heard, and Park Tae-yong took out the pen Master Zhang had passed to him. He clicked the butt, and the recording started playing.
"Master Zhang, how should I pose?" A dignified female voice sounded. The sound of a door being pushed open was heard.
"What is it?" The woman asked angrily. She seemed to be speaking to whoever pushed open the door.
There was a bit of muffled noises, and shuffling.
"Master Zhang, there is an urgent situation. I wouldn't be able to stay. Please, the butler will attend to you. I'm very sorry." The woman said and the door opened and closed.
The recording ended.
Park Tae-yong smirked. It was as he had thought. She was definitely hiding something.
He put on his clothes.
…
Kang Eun-ho stopped a servant in the living room.
"Where's the lady of the house?" He asked.
The servant couldn't look up at him. Whenever Kang Eun-ho was not joking with Park Tae-yong or teasing a woman, his expression was usually cold. And because he had once kidnapped a servant to an island and tortured her till she nearly went insane, because she dared to drug him, no servant dared to make advances at him.
"Young Miss has retired to her bedroom, Young Master." The servant said and bowed slightly.
"Go. Call her. Park Tae-yong wants to see her." He said to the servant.
She bowed and turned around to go call Kim Seo-yeon.
Kang Eun-ho left the house quickly with a serious expression.
…
"Hansol Capital is based in the US. A Mr. Cuomo handles it. I couldn't find out much about it. But it seemed to have appeared six years ago, some time before Lee Min-a's death. Seo-yeon, could this be related to Lee Min-a?" The man on the phone asked in a hushed tone.
"I don't know yet. Lee Min-a has a secret I can't put a finger on. I'll get back to you when I have enough info. Keep digging on your side." She replied in English and hung up.
She held her phone in her hand for a while, and looked outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.
She had just taken off her dress and was wrapped in a red bathrobe. She stared outside at the bustling Capital City. Park Tae-yong lived relatively far away from the city, in a quiet suburban area. But if one looked out of the windows, the light and industrialization of Capital City could be seen. It gave a weird feeling of relaxing in a comfortable place and looking far away at a place where no one rested. She sighed.
She wanted to ask Park Tae-yong if he knew anything about the hallucinogenic drugs Yeon Ji-a took. But with Kang Eun-ho's actions this night, she decided to give it a rest and wait for tomorrow.
There was a knock on her door, disrupting her thoughts.
"Who is it?" She asked without turning around to look.
"Young Miss, Young Master wants to see you." The servant said.
Kim Seo-yeon's relaxed body tensed. Why did he want to see her? Did he want to vent his anger on her? But she had done nothing wrong.
She turned around and walked to the closet, quickly throwing on some clothes.
…
"Love you. Mwah." Son Ji-woo said and hung up.
She tapped the screen of her tablet and resumed watching the drama. Her eyes squinted when she recalled the events of the day.
So, Kim Seo-yeon was the next Duchess and Park Tae-yong was the Ninth Prince. Didn't that mean Kim Ye-sol wasn't actually her mother? But Kim Seo-yeon seemed to not have told Kim Ye-sol and Kim Jae-jun yet. Son Ji-woo thought it'd be alright if she didn't say anything as well.
Kim Ye-sol had called her this night as well to ask about Kim Seo-yeon. (This was after Park Tae-yong hung up on her.) She seemed to want to know what kind of relationship Park Tae-yong and Kim Seo-yeon had. But Son Ji-woo had explained that she was only an assistant, and didn't know anything about their relationship.
Son Ji-woo's eyes narrowed, her thoughts spinning. Park Tae-yong and Kim Seo-yeon were in a mutual relationship, so it was normal that they wouldn't act like a couple. But she didn't know if she was mistaken.
Park Tae-yong's eyes on Kim Seo-yeon after she had put on Duchess's Nightmare, seemed to have a gleam in it. Kim Seo-yeon was too distracted, and only Son Ji-woo noticed it, before his expression returned to normal. Son Ji-woo could almost vividly recall Park Tae-yong's eyes lingering on Kim Seo-yeon's back for too long.
She waved her head. "No. No. Silly, what are you thinking?" She said as she smacked her temples and laughed.
But then again, she'd heard from Kim Seo-yeon that Park Tae-yong was severely mysophobic and she'd seen his disgust that night at the Duchess's. He did indeed dislike personal contact, but he'd carried Kim Seo-yeon anyway.
Could Park Tae-yong be interested in Kim Seo-yeon? Son Ji-woo thought dangerously, her heart ramming against her chest.
Kim Seo-yeon seemed to be oblivious to him, cold even, and she had not reciprocated any form of care to him at all. It seemed the attraction was one-sided.
Son Ji-woo then thought back to when she wanted to start working with Kim Seo-yeon, how she had thought at the time that Kim Seo-yeon was similar to Oh Eunji of the kdrama, Misty Paths. So much time had passed since then, and she'd quashed that thought and completely forgotten about it.
But right now, it started to resonate with her again. What if God had sent her a real life Oh Eunji to work on and change the terrible ending of that kdrama?
This was a dangerous idea. She could not be certain until she was sure Park Tae-yong was really interested in Kim Seo-yeon, and Kim Seo-yeon showed some interest in Park Tae-yong.
As for now, she wanted to focus on episode 3 of Flower On The Sidewalk.
…
Kim Seo-yeon knocked on the door of the study. She'd been at the mansion for some time and already knew her way around it.
"Get in." The man's voice sounded, and Kim Seo-yeon rolled her eyes as pushed open the door.
The study was in the same color theme as her room in Gang City, grey. Park Tae-yong seemed have the same preference for the color grey. Although she preferred darker shades and mixed it with rose red hues often, the color was still her favorite color.
She walked in and stopped, staring at him at the end of the table.
"What is it?" She asked.
"Talking to your mother was not part of our bargain. Keep her in check."
"I wasn't the one who brought the phone to you, it was Kang Eun-ho." Kim Seo-yeon defended herself.
"Kim Seo-yeon." Park Tae-yong said as he cut the cigarette butt and lit it. "Don't provoke me." He said and stood up.
He walked to her and stopped a few inches away from her.
Kim Seo-yeon stared at his handsome face. Her heart skipped. At such a close proximity, she could see his face clearly. He was very handsome. The faint scent of soap, mixed with the smell of tobacco and male hormones wafted into her nose. Her long eyelashes shook as she blinked.
The smoke he blew at her face snapped her out of her daze, she held her nose and waved her hand at the smoke.
Park Tae-yong smirked, turned around and walked back to his seat.
"The hallucinogenic drug was developed by the secret underground association, Fang. My investigation suggests Yeon Ji-a may have had the drug with her and took it intentionally." Park Tae-yong said as he pulled back a seat and sat down.
Kim Seo-yeon's hands stopped on the table. "Are you saying Yeon Ji-a was doing drugs?" She asked with narrowed eyes.
"Precisely. The hallucinogenic drug was probably mixed in in unknown dosages with the drugs she used. We found her linked with contacts of drug dealers." Park Tae-yong explained.
Kim Seo-yeon's heart quivered as her fists clenched tightly. If Yeon Ji-a had been doing drugs for a while, there definitely was a bigger problem. If it got out, Jeongwon Capital would take severe blows.
"But there were no traces of drugs found in the room." Kim Seo-yeon said.
"Yes, either Yeon Ji-a hid them away before her death, or someone stashed them away." He explained. "The latter is more probable considering she died within two hours."
Kim Seo-yeon held her temples in her hand. That servant needed to be interrogated again. Something wasn't adding up.
"Tomorrow, go visit the Duchess. Stay there for some time if you have to. Get her to like you, so she and the Duke can sign off Lan Corporation to you, as soon as possible." Park Tae-yong ordered, uncaring about her emotional state regarding the circumstances surrounding Yeon Ji-a's death.
Kim Seo-yeon nodded and turned around, leaving the study immediately.
…
Kim Seo-yeon walked into the Kim castle, clad in an orange wool skirt and jacket. She looked chic and fashionable. She sat under the traditional English patio set up in the garden, sipping tea as she waited for Kim Myeongju.
Footsteps sounded and Kim Seo-yeon saw Kim Yi Hun walking to her with a sinister gaze.
"Can't you leave? Crawling over to this palace, what do you hope to get? Or you don't like your mother?" Kim Yi Hun asked, sounding like he was barely holding back.
"Kim Yi Hun." Kim Seo-yeon called, sipping the tea and not looking at him. "It's a pity my beautiful mother had a monster like you."
She said and stared at him with a cold expression. "I've said it before. I'm not leaving until I kill you for Ji-a." Her tone was without any hint of warmth.
Kim Yi Hun laughed cynically, his expression twisted. "Do you think I'm that easy to kill, Kim Seo-yeon?" He leaned down staring at her.
Kim Seo-yeon did not flinch at his expression, or his proximity.
At that moment, a female voice sounded. "Yi Hun, leave us."
Kim Yi Hun turned around to see Kim Myeongju standing there. "I was just saying hello to Sister." He said sarcastically and left immediately.
Kim Seo-yeon looked at Kim Myeongju. She had heard the exchange between her and Kim Yi Hun, but she didn't seem to be affected.
Kim Myeongju crossed her legs as she sat. She picked up a teacup, after Kim Seo-yeon poured tea for her, and sipped.
"Seo-yeon, I've looked into your background and it is as you said. I'll be throwing a party tomorrow night to announce you as my biological daughter. I hope you will return to the Kim family. Your father and I promise to give you all the love you didn't get from us." Kim Myeongju said in a motherly tone and sipped from the cup.
Kim Seo-yeon felt awkward, but she didn't show it on her face.
"What is Park Tae-yong doing for you in return for marrying him? Tell me, I'll help you with it." Kim Myeongju asked after a while.