Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: NicoleTempest
Chapter 220 Too Personal (2)
After thawing our frozen bodies in the cold weather, we enjoyed some delicious food and moderate drinking.
Then we had a short hot spring bath and everyone was in a good mood.
Only Kyunghwa and I, who were weak to alcohol, went to the indoor garden to cool our faces, while the rest of the members headed to the ping-pong hall.
âWhatâs the reward for winning this?â
âI donât know.â
âShould we make a bet that the losing team buys drinks?â
We split into teams of three and Kyunghwa and I went to the garden. The indoor garden had a roof that was open, so the snow that piled up from above covered the garden.
âAre you cold?â
I was fine with the warm coat that the ryokan gave us, but Kyunghwa was silent.
âNo, Iâm fine.â
Kyunghwa nodded briefly and looked down at the snow for a long time.
ââŠâ
The sourcđČ of this content is frŃeÏebÉłovel.com.
After an awkward silence, I opened my mouth first.
âIâm really sorry.â
âWhat? I get nervous when you say youâre sorry.â
When I tried to be careful, Kyunghwa opened his eyes thinly and looked at me.
âI saw the text from your father yesterday. I didnât mean to lookâŠâ
Then Kyunghwa twisted his face and grabbed my collar.
âWhat? What did you see? How did you see someone elseâs text?â
He reacted more violently than I thought, and I stepped back and answered.
âI didnât mean to. You were holding your phone in your hand and I tried to plug it into the charger, but your fingerprint was recognized and the screen turned on.â
âYou want me to believe that?â
Whether he believed it or not, the content was important now. I went straight to the point.
âI canât help it if you donât believe me. Iâm sorry for seeing something personal. But Iâm worried about whatâs going on⊠Is there something wrong at home?â
When I looked straight into Kyunghwaâs eyes, he turned his eyes to the other side.
âItâs none of your business. Iâll make sure it doesnât affect the team activity.â
None of my business. Where is the leader who doesnât care about a member who is as important as a pillar of our house? I said right away.
âYou look very dangerous right now. If thereâs anything I can do to help, Iâll help you.â
Then Kyunghwa glared at me with a look of great injury to his pride.
âDonât worry about it. Iâll take care of my own business.â
He was so angry that it seemed to have the opposite effect.
Ah⊠Thatâs reallyâŠ
Kyunghwa pushed me away and crossed the hallway and went inside, leaving me alone in the garden.
I scratched my head and followed Kyunghwa, but I couldnât find a chance to talk to him.
In the end, I went to bed without solving anything.
Four people in each room.
It was the same room assignment as yesterday. Seong-won was on my right, Yi-jun was on my left. And Yu-geon was lying on the far left.
As I tossed and turned in bed, worrying about Kyunghwa, Yi-jun whispered softly.
âWhy are you tossing and turning?â
I gestured to Yi-jun to come out with me. He followed me with a curious expression.
I didnât know, but I thought he might know something more than me, since we shared a room for a long time.
And sure enough.
âAh⊠Kyunghwaâs father is a trash, you know.â
Yi-jun said with a calm expression.
âHey. Donât talk about someoneâs parents like that.â
âWell, but itâs true.â
He said that Kyunghwa had been sending money to his father for a long time.
âHe calls almost every month and asks for money, and when he gets it, he loses it on stocks and gambling. I told him to just block him, but he said he canât because his mother is in the hospital. He said thereâs no one to take care of his mother if not his father.â
It was exactly the same as the phone call I heard that day.
It was all about money. The hospital bills, not to mention hiring a caregiver, were not cheap. Even if I wanted to help him, he would refuse, saying, âWho are you?â
Hmm⊠I swallowed a sigh and realized something important.
âBut⊠Where did Kyunghwa get the money to send?â
As far as I knew, Climax had never received a settlement.
They gave us some money to live on, but it wasnât enough to pay for the hospital or send home.
âHe said he lives better on the allowance his grandmother gives him.â
I had a bad feeling about where Kyunghwa got the money, and I sent Yi-jun back to the room first and went to the lobby where there was a vending machine to drink some ion drink.
Someone was holding a phone at the end of the hallway.
âAh, yes. Iâm sorry. Vice Chairman. Everyone is doing well and thereâs nothing to worry about. Ah, yes. Kyunghwa is fine too.â
What? He was the manager who had been working with me as a vague member of the composition team, but now he was assigned to work exclusively for Swift.
The only person he could call Vice Chairman was⊠Ahn Jung-hee, maybe?
I listened to the conversation for a moment and heard a familiar womanâs voice from the other end of the phone. frŃewebnoŃ”el.Æoàč
âReally? Well, thatâs a relief. I was surprised that someone came to the company. Tell Kyunghwa not to do this again.â
ââŠ?â
As I listened, I got the gist of the situation.
Kyunghwaâs father had really gone to see the âVice Chairmanâ himself and caused a scene at the company, and the Vice Chairman was Ahn Jung-hee.
âWait a minuteâŠâ
The puzzle pieces fell into place.
There was an obvious reason why Kyunghwa was getting money from Ahn Jung-hee.
Cheon Ise, the jerk I had possessed.
He asked him to lead the team instead of his son who was unpredictable. And to keep the kids from running awayâŠ
Why didnât I think of this before? The reason why Climax had been able to survive for five years, albeit in a precarious state.
âAhâŠâ
No wonder Kyunghwa had been resentful of Cheon Ise all this time.
Before I possessed him, Cheon Ise was nothing but a trash who was born with a silver spoon and lived as he pleased.
He was from a different world than him, who had parents who took away everything he had, let alone being grateful.
And he was taking care of that trashâs back and getting money for it⊠This was something that might backfire if I stepped in now.
âWhat do I do?â
I knew the truth, but it became harder to touch. How could I solve this without hurting Kyunghwaâs pride? I racked my brain, but I couldnât find an answer.
âFor now⊠letâs sleep and think again.â
My head was too tired to think. I decided to rest and went to my room.
The trip that seemed long was now coming to an end.
âHello! Iâm Kang Yu-geon, your guide for today! Itâs cold, but we have a lot of courses to go around today, so letâs all cheer up and follow me!â
The tour started with a much more spirited atmosphere than the one in Okinawa, and most of it was about food.
âItâs only natural, since Hokkaido is famous for its specialties.â
Basically, the dairy industry was developed, so there were a lot of dairy products and snacks made from them. There was also a famous brewery to visit, and they were also famous for livestock, so we went to eat steak.
We ate and digested and ate and digested, and the day passed by in a flash.
âWow, I feel like Iâm being fattened up.â
Naru complained, but Seon-woo next to him had a happy expression on his face.
Yeah, enjoy it while you can⊠Youâll start a diet plan as soon as you get back.
I was worried about Kyunghwa, but he seemed to be aware of it and pulled himself together.
âWell⊠the shooting seems to be going well, so thatâs good.â
When would be a good time to talk to him properly? I was now at the point where I had to watch Kyunghwaâs mood.
Time flew by, and the schedule was almost over.
âWow, I ate way too much.â
Hwijin was whining with his stomach wrapped. I wondered if I had filled the tour with too much food.
âBut I wonât have a chance to come back with these people, so I should eat everything I can.â
It was a good choice after all. I finished my mental victory and finished the last course, the ranch experience, and headed to the airport with everyone.
As we entered the terminal to check in for the flight to Korea.
Someone called Kyunghwaâs name.
âKyunghwa-!â
Everyoneâs eyes turned to the direction of the sturdy middle-aged manâs voice.
âWhat?â
âDid you just call Kyunghwa hyung?â
Everyone was shaken by the appearance of the unknown middle-aged man, and Kyunghwaâs expression changed to contemplation.
âWhy are you here?â
Kyunghwa walked up to the middle-aged man and grabbed his wrist. He looked vaguely weak and resembled Kyunghwa.
âCould it be⊠Kyunghwaâs father?â
How did he find him here? I was too surprised to open my mouth.
Kyunghwa dragged him out of the airport, holding his wrist and shouting.
âWhat are you doing? You donât answer the phone. You donât read the texts. Is that how I taught you? You act like you donât have parents because youâre doing well?â
âBe quiet!â
The two disappeared into a place where no one could see them after a brief commotion.
âWhat do we do now?â
Seon-woo looked at me anxiously, unable to sit still. Everyoneâs eyes automatically turned to me.
But I donât have any good ideas⊠Well, I do, but⊠Yeah, this is natural now.
âLetâs wait for a while. He seems to be Kyunghwaâs father. If he doesnât come back after waiting, weâll go look for him then.â
And of course, Kyunghwa didnât come back.
As time passed, we all scattered and started looking for him, but we couldnât find Kyunghwa.
âWhat are we going to do? We have to go inside soon.â
The departure time was approaching quickly. The other members might not care, but Seon-woo had an MC recording schedule tomorrow and couldnât miss the flight.
âYou guys go ahead.â
We decided to send the six of them to Korea first and leave only me and a manager behind. Then Yi-jun intervened.
âIf youâre staying because of Kyunghwa hyung, Iâll stay too.â
Yeah. Yi-jun was the closest to Kyunghwa, and I thought he would be helpful.
I was worried about the song work that was scheduled, but⊠What does it matter now? Kyunghwa is more important.
I moved out of the airport with Yi-jun again.
After about 30 minutes of wandering, we found Kyunghwaâs father smoking a cigarette at the smoking booth outside the airport.
I had a lot to say, but finding Kyunghwa was the priority.
âHello, are you Kyunghwaâs father?â
As I opened the door to the smoking booth, I wondered what kind of poison he was smoking. The smell made my head spin.
âOh, well, nice to meet you! Ise! Help me out. My son suddenly changed and went crazy.â
Went crazy? He just said he would stop pouring water into a leaky jar. How can a parent say that? I frowned.
âLetâs go inside and talk for a bit.â
The conversation didnât seem to end quickly. Kyunghwa would probably punch me in the face when he found out.
But this was something that adults had to solve. Of course, I was also twenty-five on paper.
I immediately contacted the new manager and asked him to get some paper and a pen and bring them to the cafe in the airport.
We needed a clear agreement to avoid any interference with our future activities.
We had to make sure he couldnât bother our eldest son using blood ties.