Chapter Twenty: Romance Is

When Kim Won returned to the hotel, it was already very late. Yet Yoon Jae-ho was waiting for him at the door. Upon seeing him, he immediately spoke up, "Today, Representative Lee from RS International approached me and asked about the Second Young Master's identity."

Kim Won swiped his key card, opened the door, and walked in at a measured pace, his expression betraying no surprise.

"Oh? And did you tell him?" Kim Won asked coolly.

"I didn’t," Yoon Jae-ho replied, following him inside, his gaze lingering on the man before him, his heart a tangled knot. Kim Tan’s eighteenth birthday was fast approaching, and lately, Kim Won's burden must have been immense.

"Anything else?" Kim Won set down his car keys, pulled off his tie, and began changing his clothes—his tone suggesting he wished to end the conversation. Yoon Jae-ho found this odd; wasn’t this matter urgent? If Kim Tan’s identity was exposed, the group would immediately be thrown into internal turmoil.

Suddenly, a thought flashed in Yoon Jae-ho’s mind. "Is it because of Rachel Yoo?"

At these words, Kim Won finally deigned to glance at him, though his half-smile sent a chill down Yoon Jae-ho’s spine.

"You seem to know quite a lot," Kim Won said, removing his suit jacket and leaning casually against the table, eyeing him with deliberate patience. "You knew early about my father monitoring me and Hyun-joo, didn’t you?"

Yoon Jae-ho shook his head. "Not at first. I only found out later."

Kim Won had his reasons for suspicion. After all, he was now little more than a figurehead, surrounded by Kim Nam-yoon’s people, finding every step a struggle. Yoon Jae-ho suspected that Kim Won’s entanglement with Rachel Yoo was a deliberate move to vex Kim Nam-yoon.

But…

When he thought of that young woman, a pang of concern surfaced. Years ago, Esther Lee had been sacrificed for the sake of interests; now her daughter seemed to be following the same path. At the very least, he couldn’t bear to watch silently. Call him meddlesome, but he simply couldn’t put his mind at ease.

"No need to worry about me," Kim Won replied with a faint, almost teasing smile. "You should focus on your own affairs—lest you find yourself unprepared when you become my father-in-law."

"…"

Too ruthless! Far too cunning! Yoon Jae-ho could acutely sense Kim Won’s malice.

—

The next morning, when Rachel Yoo woke, she found Esther had not yet left. This puzzled her; normally, her mother would already be on her way to the office.

The words from the night before still weighed on her mind. She asked if something had happened at the company, and her mother’s answer was not "no," but rather, "it’s nothing serious."

After breakfast, they left together. Rachel couldn’t hold back, "Mom, what’s really going on?"

Esther paused, a helpless smile flickering across her face. "Don’t worry. Nothing is settled yet. I’ll tell you when it’s confirmed."

Rachel refrained from pressing further. Upon arriving at school, Bo-na Lee immediately sidled up to her, eager to gossip about last night’s spectacle. Rachel wasn’t close with them, but Bo-na’s enthusiasm was infectious. She listened intently and before long found herself laughing, thinking Jeremy was irresistibly adorable. She considered whether she should go hear their songs live.

As they chatted, Kim Tan listened nearby. He knew why Cha Eun-sang had made her decision. From his position, he had no right to blame her; after all, she could earn more money elsewhere. Still… their lives seemed to drift further apart with each passing day, and they hadn’t even defined their relationship. He had confessed, but Eun-sang had initially refused because of status—and now, they didn’t even meet.

Love, he thought, was a laughable thing; it could arrive in an instant, but its departure dragged on endlessly. True, love at first sight existed. But if you never saw that person again… all you could say was: I once loved.

Kim Tan gazed out the window at the withering trees; all his feelings seemed to dissolve into a single sigh.

Rachel had noticed his gloom these days—ever since Cha Eun-sang left Empire High, he’d been like this. She almost felt sorry for him, though not without a tinge of satisfaction. Nearly every woman, she thought, harbors a desire for a man who once spurned her to taste rejection himself.

She wasn’t a particularly kind-hearted person; the urge for revenge had always lingered. But as things unfolded, especially as she grew closer to Kim Won, she found her anger dissipating. She had friends now, and a companion in her "brother" Kim Won.

Perhaps that last reason mattered most. Rachel doodled in her notebook, her thoughts wandering. When she finally looked down, she realized she had written Kim Won’s name over and over.

For a brief moment, her expression froze before she hastily tore out the page, pretending nothing had happened.

In truth, she found the idea preposterous—dating the elder brother after breaking up with the younger was something out of a novel. Worse, it was the sort of plot that drew the harshest criticism, where the heroine was depicted as a Mary Sue, radiating an unbearable sanctity.

She couldn’t help but mock herself for her own thoughts. What was she doing? She and Kim Won had gotten together out of revenge, but as her feelings grew less manageable, she found it harder to face herself.

Just then, someone called her, asking her to come to the chairwoman’s office.

Rachel looked up in surprise, meeting Kim Tan’s gaze. Usually, when Jung Ji-sook summoned her, it was about Kim Tan—recently, she’d even been advised not to mind Cha Eun-sang and to handle matters "appropriately."

She found such things tiresome and disliked Jung Ji-sook’s attitude. It was as though her future was being neatly boxed into a rigid framework—how dismal. Even being told to "manage" her relationship with Kim Tan and that Cha Eun-sang would be "dealt with" felt like a thorn in her side.

Kim Tan stood as well. "I’ll go with you."

The two walked toward the office in silence. As Rachel looked at Kim Tan’s expression, the spark of vengeance in her heart flickered out.

"You and my brother… is it true?" Kim Tan’s purpose wasn’t really to see Jung Ji-sook; he wanted to talk to Rachel about Kim Won.

So that was it. Rachel stopped, looking at him, realizing this was the closest they’d been for quite some time.

"If it is, what then? Don’t you think our engagement became a joke the minute you and Cha Eun-sang started burning with passion in America? You seemed to think it was perfectly fine to have a fiancée and love someone else, didn’t you?"

Kim Tan’s words in America had been overheard by Rachel, leaving her heartbroken at the time.

He knew this was his fault, but he truly didn’t like Rachel. He simply lacked the power to break off the engagement, so he dragged things along.

He had no desire to hurt Rachel, but he couldn’t tell her the truth or defy his parents.

"Actually, what happens between me and Kim Won has nothing to do with you. You should focus on your own matters."

In this, she and Kim Won were remarkably alike.

In truth, she didn’t answer because she had no answer; she was confused herself.

At the door of Jung Ji-sook’s office, Kim Tan intended to wait for Rachel, but the door suddenly flew open and Esther’s furious voice rang out, "It’s come to this, and you still want to deceive me!"

Kim Tan’s heart lurched. Rachel, not understanding, hurried into the office to find Jung Ji-sook’s expression grim and her mother’s face white with rage.

"Mom…"

Before Rachel could finish, Esther flung a stack of photographs at her. Rachel picked them up: clearly taken in secret, the setting was the Kim family’s main house, with familiar maids and servants. The woman in the photos was a plain-looking middle-aged woman—some shots of her shopping, some driving, and finally, one of her embracing Kim Tan.

"And this is…?"

Kim Tan snatched the photos, flipping through them anxiously, rendered speechless for a long moment.

"This is Kim Tan’s mother," Esther pronounced, enunciating each word. "How much longer did you intend to keep this from us, Jung Ji-sook?"

Esther and Jung Ji-sook had never been close, and now being so deceived felt like a slap in the face. Worse, this concerned her daughter’s future. Her words were more than justified.

"That woman can still appear openly in your home—I truly admire you," Esther sneered, not even bothering to look at Kim Tan. The engagement between Rachel and Kim Tan had been arranged because the families were well-matched, and her daughter happened to like Kim Tan. Why not? In the end, they’d been used as an insurance policy, a fallback for Kim Tan, so he wouldn’t fall too hard.

It was nothing short of humiliation.

Jung Ji-sook was at a loss for words. Apologies were useless; a lie was a lie. Yet the urgent matter was to keep this under wraps. If the main family discovered Kim Tan was illegitimate, Empire Group would face an earthquake.

"This is our fault. But for Kim Tan’s sake, and mine, please keep this secret for a while," Jung Ji-sook pleaded, feeling wronged herself. She’d tolerated Han Ki-ae, had to pretend Kim Tan was her son in public, endured Kim Won’s disrespect, her husband’s coldness, and shouldered the family’s burdens. Sometimes, she wondered if fate was simply unfair. Her upbringing seemed to have sealed her destiny. Looking at Kim Tan and Rachel now, she saw herself as a young woman.

Esther was so furious she could barely breathe. "Keep it secret? Is this a joke?"

She seized Rachel’s hand, intending to leave, but found her daughter rooted to the spot, tears streaming silently down her face.

Esther’s heart ached; she shot a venomous glare at the ashen Kim Tan and said to Jung Ji-sook, "No wonder Kim Tan is involved with the housekeeper’s daughter—he certainly knows how to navigate situations. Quite fitting for his status."

As an adult, she knew she shouldn’t say such things, but as a mother, she felt she’d been far too merciful.

Rachel was speechless. She didn’t return to class but left with Esther. Jung Ji-sook collapsed into her chair and dialed Kim Won’s number.

Kim Won had already foreseen this, but he hadn’t expected the day to come so soon. The truth always comes out in the end.

Still, thinking of Rachel, he hesitated. He turned to Yoon Jae-ho, "Postpone the afternoon meeting. I’ll be going out."

Before Yoon Jae-ho could reply, Kim Won straightened his suit and hurried out. Rachel was surely not at school now, so he drove straight to the plaza where they’d met that day.

He called her, but her phone was off. He could have gone home, but for some reason, he simply leaned against his car, standing silently in the autumn wind for two hours.

He thought about many things: the group’s future, Kim Tan’s prospects, his own long and fraught relationship with his father and Jung Ji-sook. In the end, only two people remained in his mind.

One was Jeon Hyun-joo, the woman who had once helped and guided him, whom he had loved. The other was Rachel Yoo, who’d come into his life like a joke, feigning maturity while secretly yearning for romance, sometimes even displaying a mischievous girlishness.

One belonged to the past; one to the present.

It seemed unbelievable—even to him. He had always been a rational man, and now he found himself ensnared by a young girl. It was almost laughable.

He chuckled ruefully to himself, then looked up to see her walking slowly toward him.

An unexpected encounter. Both were momentarily stunned, Rachel halting a few paces away.

The autumn wind carried golden leaves as it breezed between them, her hair floating gently forward as if even the wind wished to push her closer.

Even a man who had long since dismissed romance as worthless had to admit—at this moment, it felt achingly romantic.