Pardon the errors. I was a bit rush in posting this chapter.

JIYONG’S STORY

WEIRD

I had never seen my grandma any more distant than she was when I went to see her in her private reading room on the second floor of the east wing.

“It’s done, grandma.” I announced as I closed the door behind me. “We have come to an agreement.”

Grandma closed the book on her lap and took off her reading glasses. “What are the terms?”

As I gave a summarize version of what had happened, I fixed myself a watered-down bourbon from the collection of alcohols grandma kept in the reading room. An uneasy feeling began to blossom inside my heart. And why shouldn’t I feel uneasy? Grandma had stayed suspiciously quiet, didn’t even give any remark or outburst as I outlined all the compromises that I had made.

Weird.

That was the first word that came across my mind.

“Well?” I prompted when grandma made no comment even after I was finished. “Aren’t you gonna scowl me by saying that I gave away too much?”

Grandma reached for the eyeglass case on the side table and folded the reading glasses into it. “Whatever you and Miss Kim had come to an agreement, for me none of it matters. In principle, they were irrelevant. It’s obvious the girl will have to go.”

Madam Kwon Soomi and her ultimate arrogance. I grimaced at my grandma as I stepped closer to her chair. “Meaning?”

Grandma looked at me, perplexed. “I know you know what I mean, Jiyong. Do you really think for a second that I would allow that girl to raise my great grandchild?”

“And how exactly are you planning to prevent that?”

“Simple. We’ll start by hiring a private investigator. Madam Lee found a very good one last year. He handled that messy business with her grandson quite discreetly. It shouldn’t take him to long to find out what Miss Kim’s dirty little secrets are.”

I heaved an infuriated sigh. “Grandma, whatever her dirty little secrets are, those things are something in the past. If Seungri can accept her come good or bad, I think we should do the same thing.”

My rationale just bounced grandma off like bullets off steel. “Don’t be naïve, Jiyong.” She told me. “Even if they’re from the past, do you really think I’ll let them slip that easily? That girl has a nasty past. She’s hidden it behind a façade of manners but she’s as common as clay.”

I knew very well that I should have expected that kind of assessment but it still enraged me. “I beg to differ.” I retorted. “Kim Taeyeon is about as uncommon as any woman could be. She’s unique in her own way. What kind of woman would still have the guts to stand up to both of us even if she’s numb with grief? Only Kim Taeyeon was able to do that. Regardless of how difficult we had made the situation for her, she prevailed each and every single time.”

“On the contrary, you made it exceptionally easy.” Grandma countered. “If I don’t know any better, I’d dare say that you’ve been smitten by that girl.”

“I do.” I admitted hotly. “I’m indeed smitten by her. I think Seungri did a damn good job of choosing a woman like Taeyeon to love, and if I hadn’t just buried him last week, I’d say straight to his face he was the luckiest man alive!”

I a deep breath of air and retreated to the other side of the room. Behind me, I heard grandma rise and I fought the overwhelming urge to escape from the room, from my grandma, from the house.

From everything.

But I’d made my choices years ago and whatever my other mistakes, I, Kwon Jiyong never run away from anything.

I stayed rigidly, mastering my anger as grandma crossed the room to me.

She didn’t reach out to touch me, of course. Kwon Soomi was never an expert in showing affection. None of the Kwons were aside from Seungri. But grandma did come near and her voice was as close as I’d ever heard it. “Jiyong dear, I know you’d blamed yourself for Seungri’s death but what you’re doing now, the way you’re carrying guilt to the point of absurdness, I’m afraid you’re letting yourself blind with the reality of this situation. You’ve obviously romanticized your brother’s relationship with the young woman into something to be envied… perhaps even strive for. And if you’re not careful, you’re going to fantasize into falling in love with her and that must never happen. You must be more clearheaded now that you’ve ever been.”

I made a mental node to talk to arrange a meeting with the most renowned geneticists in Korea when I got to work tomorrow. I wanted tests to be done to see if I could find out exactly when the Kwon family’s blood had mutated into iceberg.

I was completely calm on the outside when I turned to my grandmother. “Listen very carefully, grandma! We are not hiring an investigator and I don’t want to hear about it anymore. Unless Taeyeon does something to prove that my faith in is grossly misplaced, no one is going to try and dig up the past. No one is going to think even for a sec about taking this baby away from her. I negotiated the contract in good faith and by Seungri’s name, I’m going to honor it. And so will you!”

“But Jiyong…..”

“A no is still a no, grandma! Let’s drop this subject. I would like you to make peace with it, because we have wedding to plan!”

SOOMI’S STORY

PAST

I didn’t believe in challenging authority. I couldn’t even recall a single instance in my childhood when I’d openly  disregarded my father, and only once in my forty-year marriage to Kwon Ryujin had I refused to agree to my husband’s wishes. Of course, there hadn’t been any reason to rebel, my father had raised me to be a dutiful daughter and it was my good fortune to have had a mother