The young man introduced the old one. “This is my father-in-law.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’ll leave you two alone, then.”
“Uh, could you wait a minute …”
The young man left the café.
The old man spoke. “Sit down.”
One of the sunglassed men behind him pulled out a chair. Not knowing what else to do, she sat down.
“I’ll get straight to the point. I’m Suh Woochang, head of the Woochang Group.” This startled her. “The man that just left, he’s my son-in-law. I’m the last in eight generations of only sons. I had no children until I was fifty, and only had one daughter. We poured all our care into her, but she ended up with that useless piece of garbage you just saw. I was going to overlook it and pass on the company if they had a son, but it’s already been six years with no child. I ended up with a dickless piece of shit for a son-in-law and for that, I’m about to lose everything I worked my whole life for.”
He was getting worked up by his own story. She was finding the situation more and more confusing.
“So anyways, young lady.” He suddenly shifted closer to her and grabbed her hand. “That child in your belly, give it to me. The field is already tilled and all you need is the seed, right? I’ll give you my seed. Or why not come into my house as a concubine? You just have to continue our line, give me a nice, fat son, and I’ll make sure you and the child will live a happy life.”
“Uh, excuse me, grandfather, but—”
“My idiot son-in-law tells me you said age wasn’t an issue. I’m eighty-two, but as hot-blooded as any young man. I’ll put your name down on the family registry and everything, what do you say?”
“Grandfather, that’s not—” As she desperately sought a way out of this mess, trying to extract her hand from his, her phone rang. Relieved, she finally managed to snatch her hand back and answer the phone.
“Hello?”
But there was no answer and the line went dead. The old man grabbed her hand again.
“What do you say, young lady? Give me a son and you’ll live the rest of your life in luxury as a chaebol wife. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“Kim Younglan?”
She looked up. A cruel-faced middle-aged man stood before her.
“You know who I am, right? Did you bring the ten million won?”
“Who the hell are you?” the old man asked, frowning at this interloper.
“Me?” The other man took out a cigarette from his shirt pocket, lit it, and blew a plume of smoke into the old man’s face. The sunglassed men behind the old man took a step forward, but the old man held up a hand to halt them. The men took a step back.
The middle-aged man puffed leisurely on his cigarette. “I’m this woman’s lover. The baby in her belly is mine.”
“What?”
“Are you her father? Or some old pervert trying to buy her for sex? Jesus, did I hit the jackpot this time.” He smiled at the old man, brought his face down within an inch of the old man’s, and said in a low, threatening voice, “I don’t know if she’s your precious daughter or your trophy wife, but if you don’t want everyone to think she’s having my baby, you better hand over fifty million won, fast.”
“What the hell is this bastard saying!” The old man shouted so loudly that the sunglassed men stepped up to them again.
The middle-aged man didn’t back down. “Bastard? Who are you calling bastard? If you know what’s good for you, hand over the money while I’m feeling generous. Then I’ll be on my way.”
The old man looked at her and the middle-aged man and went, “Huh!” and stood up, whacking his cane on the floor. The sunglassed men hurried to support him.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” The middle-aged man grabbed the old man by the collar. “Do you think this is some—oof!”
One of the sunglassed men had swiftly punched the middle-aged man in the stomach. He rolled about on the floor as the goons turned to leave with the old man.
“You fucking bastards, you hit me!” He leaped at the three departing men, and the four of them ended up on the floor in a tangled heap of bodies. One of the sunglassed men quickly began to help the old man up while the other mercilessly beat up the middle-aged man. The café customers screamed. A hotel worker frantically called someone on the phone.
Carefully avoiding the fighting, she slipped out on her own.