Life, Once Again!

Chapter 923. Crank Up 3

“Are you okay with that? I’m honestly worried about you. I feel like you’ll suffer even more. No, I’m sure you will.”

“Sure I will. I thought I became numb to it, but I’m still bawling my eyes out over it.”

Yoojin sighed and sat on the bed. Her cute face had turned into a mess because of tears and worries. She knew clearly what she had to do, but the reality that she couldn’t do it was making her suffer.

“If it’s okay with you, why don’t you get the opinion of the two people outside? I’m sure both Maru and Jiseok will seriously listen to your words and think about it. Of course, if you don’t want to, I will not tell the two of them what I heard just now.”

What Yoojin needed was motivation and courage. As long as she was given the opportunity to straighten up and redefine this twisted relationship between parent and child, Yoojin should be able to do it well. It wasn’t like she didn’t know what the problem was after all.

Yoojin stared at the door for a while.

“Those two can be trusted. But no matter what I hear, I don’t think I’ll change my mind. It’s just so hard to think about a life without mom.”

Yoojin stood up after calming down. It seemed that she was willing to talk to them about it. Gaeul followed her out to the living room where she saw the two men sitting on the sofa without even turning on the TV. They were probably waiting for the conversation inside to end.

“Looking at you, it looks like I should be listening,” Jiseok said as he came down from the sofa.

Maru immediately turned on the kettle after noticing that Yoojin wasn’t looking good, saying that she should talk about it while drinking something warm. The sweet fragrance of hot chocolate spread inside the living room. Yoojin picked up the mug and drank carefully. Gaeul carefully watched her as she did so.

“Don’t stare at me too much. It’s too much for me.”

“I won’t, so tell me what happened.”

Yoojin faintly smiled at his words. After drinking a few more sips, Yoojin talked about what she said inside the bedroom. The expressions of the men turned more and more serious as the story progressed.

“That’s bad.”

Those were the first words that came out of Jiseok’s mouth as soon as the story ended. The two men weren’t able to easily give advice either. It was natural since it wasn’t something that a word of advice could resolve. It was Jiseok who broke the silence that felt incredibly long, despite being a short time. He talked to Yoojin to calm her down. Yoojin also replied obediently unlike usual, looking like she was organizing her thoughts.

Maru, who Gaeul expected to come up with a pinpoint resolution, was staying silent with an expression even more serious than Yoojin’s. He scratched his eyebrows and rubbed his mouth several times while Jiseok and Yoojin had a conversation. It didn’t feel like she could talk to him. She could only wait until those firmly sealed lips parted on their own, making her feel nervous. Perhaps, in a corner of her heart, she might have been expecting Maru to resolve this easily. The longer the silence became, the more realistic the severity of the issue felt. It wasn’t just a matter of a relationship between a parent and a child, it involved illegal dealings as well.

“Yoojin. Have you ever seen your mother meet a man named Hong Janghae? Or have you seen that name on a text or any of those profiles?” Maru asked.

Everyone had been staring at Maru for a few minutes now, so it finally felt like she could take a breather. But Hong Janghae? Unless it was a different man with the same name, that should be the name of Soul’s president. Why would that name pop up here?

“Hong Janghae?”

Yoojin’s eyes widened after tilting her head. Her expression gave away the answer already. Maru nodded before picking up his phone and standing up.

“Wait a sec. I need to check something.”

* * *

Dongwook, who was just about to step outside his room to smoke, was stopped by the phone loudly ringing on his desk. He grabbed his phone after putting a cigarette in his mouth. Maru was the one who called.

“What is it at this hour?”

-Were you sleeping?

“No, things didn’t work out that well, so I was dazing out in a motel. It sure is hard chasing after a man all the way in Busan. So what’s up?”

-There’s something I need to check. That Mari person. She was in Japan before she came to Korea, right?

“Yes. What about it?”

-Can I know the name of the person in charge of Miss Mari back then? They shouldn’t have let her roam around freely, so there must have been someone in charge.

Dongwook left the motel while dragging his slippers. The motel was in an urban area, so there were many people around even though it was late at night. He got past the cars coming into the motel and lit up his cigarette.

“That’s that damned Hong Janghae. And Lee Miyoon in Korea.”

-Don’t you think there must be someone who carried out Hong Janghae’s orders?

“If you’re talking about that, then yes. There’s a madam involved. In Korea, Lee Miyoon and Hong Janghae were nearly on equal footing, but in Japan, it felt like Hong Janghae had complete superiority.”

-Can I know who this madam was?

Dongwook puffed his cigarette deeply before throwing it away. The questions were turning more and more detailed.

“Did you catch a clue?”

-For now, please check on your side first. This is a sensitive topic, so I can’t really talk about it first.

“Alright. Wait a sec.”

After hanging up, Dongwook returned to the motel room and browsed through his notepad. It contained the information he got from Mari, and unfortunately, the madam’s name wasn’t there. It was only written as ‘madam’ as she was the middle woman. He gave a call to Mari. Even after a long time, she didn’t pick up. Had she fallen asleep already? Just as he was about to call Maru again after leaving a message, Mari’s name popped up on his screen.

-Mister?

“Miss Mari, I’m sorry. I called you because I had something to ask.”

-Not at all. But what do you mean something to ask?

“You told me that there’s a woman in Japan who played the role of the madam in Japan, right? The one you said got to know about in Korea and called unni.”

-Yes.

“What was her name?”

-We didn’t call each other by name. We just called her the big unni. We never revealed our names either. It was a world where it was natural to call even close co-workers by their nicknames. Of course, the madam-unni knew all of our real names.

“You don’t know her name, huh.”

Maru seemed to want confirmation of her identity. He definitely seemed to be onto something, too. Did he have to invest some time into identifying this madam?

-I don’t know her name, but I know what she does. I heard from an unni that she runs a hair shop when I worked in Korea. Of course, this might not be true. With the risks involved in the job, everyone refrains from revealing their identity.

“A hair shop, you say?”

-I heard that it’s a pretty famous hair shop in Cheongdam-dong.

“Thank you. I might be giving you a call later, so please stay up for a while.”

-Okay. Uhm, did you find oppa?

“Right now, I came down to Busan and even went to the labor office that he supposedly works in, but I couldn’t spot him. There’s the likelihood that he might go missing again if I asked around, so I returned for the time being. I’m planning to blend in with the people looking for work tomorrow.”

-Please find him. Also, tell him that I’m waiting for him.

“I’ll also tell him that you love him. Alright, anyway, stay up for a little while. I’ll call you back after checking something.”

Dongwook called Maru again.

-Did you confirm it with her?

“I did ask, but it’s not a field where people reveal their real names, so the middle woman was just called madam.”

-I see, so it’s like that after all.

“But it’s not like I had no results at all. Miss Mari told me that the woman called madam runs a famous hair shop in Cheongdom-dong. It might not be the truth, but it’s something I got from her.”

-Did she specifically say a hair shop in Cheongdam-dong?

“Yeah. From how you’re asking back, you seem to be onto something. Am I wrong?”

-I’ll contact you again in just a minute.

“I don’t know what it’s about, but be quick. I need to go out early in the morning.”

-Okay.

Dongwook threw himself on the bed with his phone in hand.

* * *

The puzzle pieces unpleasantly fell into all the right places. Maru rubbed his phone. It was as clear as day and looked like there was no need to check at all, but he couldn’t afford to not confirm with such a serious matter like this. He went to the veranda, leaving behind the three people staring at him. He looked up the hair shop that Yoojin’s mother ran. He screenshotted a photo of the introduction of the director and sent it to Dongwook via a messenger, asking him if this was that person.

A moment later, Dongwook texted him back.

-I showed it to Miss Mari, and yes, that’s her. This person is the madam who joined hands with Hong Janghae and is managing all the girls. But how did you know about this woman?

He got confirmation. Maru sent back a text telling him that he would talk about the details tomorrow. He put his arms against the banister with his phone in hand. The night wind was so cold that he could feel his body temperature dropping, yet the heat in his head did not cool down at all. Someone totally unexpected was involved in this. A middle woman, huh? The more progress he and Dongwook made in this matter, the tighter the death grip would become around Yoojin’s mother. Perhaps the quick-witted Hong Janghae might make Yoojin’s mother the scapegoat and escape. He was a devious man, so he might have finished his preparations already.

Maru turned around to look at the living room. He could see the three people staring holes through him through the window, especially Yoojin. He was in a situation where he should be asking her the details of the matter and asking her for help. The problem was whether Yoojin would cooperate or not. She was someone who couldn’t even imagine going against her mother, so how would she react after finding out the truth? She would probably call her mother immediately and tell her to stop because it was dangerous; that she should wrap up since a certain journalist was investigating her.

Yoojin’s mother had to be a stepping stone. If she slipped away like that, it would be difficult to reach Hong Janghae. It was even harder to let her go since she might be a witness that might have a point of contact with Lee Miyoon. Maru looked at Yoojin. He had to understand her psychology perfectly. Did she reveal what she was thinking purely because she wanted to lighten the load on her heart? Or was she hoping that someone would persuade her? If she had already made a decision to never betray her mother… then he might have to hide this matter.

Things were going in a really uninteresting direction. Maru bit his lips and went back inside.