Chapter 93: The Mayor’s Wife (3)
Kang Ra-Eun maintained her light smile despite Reporter Ahn Su-Jin’s surprise question. She always had to keep a poker face back when she used to be in the security team, because showing emotions to others could let them grasp her weaknesses.
Members of the security team had to become an expressionless iron wall. Due to Ra-Eun’s training in her past life, she was able to maintain perfect composure despite Su-Jin’s straightforward hook.
“I’m not really sure what you mean,” Ra-Eun responded.
‘That’s a skilled actress for you,’ Su-Jin thought.
Most people would have been greatly flustered by such a question. Su-Jin knew that Ra-Eun had worn a mask in front of her and used Ma Yeong-Jun as an errand boy because she had a reason for hiding her identity. She first tried to lower Ra-Eun’s guard.
“I won’t tell anyone that you provided me with all kinds of information, nor do I have any intention to.”
Su-Jin was telling Ra-Eun that it was okay to tell her the truth since she would take the secret to her grave.
“I’m simply curious about your intentions for spreading such information in the entertainment and political world, and where you got them.”
Su-Jin could not help but be curious as a reporter. The information that Ra-Eun had provided Su-Jin were by no means rumors. They were hard pieces of evidence with objective materials to back them.
Su-Jin had been able to reap many benefits thanks to the information given to her. She was considered a reporter who reported massive scoops at the perfect times, raising her reputation in her company. It was by no means a loss for her.
However, despite all that, she couldn’t help but be curious. Why exactly was she being provided such information with absolutely nothing asked in return?
Ra-Eun’s smile did not falter in the slightest.
“I think you’ve misunderstood me for someone else. Masks and such... I’m not really sure what you’re talking about.”
“But...”
It had to be Kang Ra-Eun. She had suddenly appeared while Su-Jin was ambushed by the criminal suspect, and people had started monitoring while protecting her right after that incident. She had suspected that the masked woman was Ra-Eun because everything had fallen into place time-wise, but Ra-Eun denied it to the end.
“I’m not trying to blame you, Miss Kang. I’m just—”
“Sorry we’re late, sunbae.”
Just when Su-Jin was about to convince her more directly, her junior reporters who had gone to grab some supplies had arrived at the meeting room with Shin Yu-Bin. To Su-Jin, they couldn’t have come back at a worse time. On the other hand, it was a stroke of luck for Ra-Eun.
‘Goddammit, Ahn Su-Jin. How little regard do you have for your life?’ Ra-Eun thought.
She should have just let it slide despite knowing the truth, but she had gone out of her way to ask if Ra-Eun was the masked woman. Su-Jin had not yet realized that curiosity could kill the cat.
***
Ra-Eun’s interview with Reporter Ahn was rather ordinary. She was asked mainly about which episode stood out to her the most, and what she was planning on doing after the Waitress?shoots were over.
Su-Jin wanted nothing more than to ask about Ra-Eun’s relationship with the masked woman, but she couldn’t afford to because of the large number of eyes on them. The people’s gazes were acting as a shield for Ra-Eun. The interview ended just like that.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“We will send you the article before we publish it. Please read through it and let us know if there is anything that you’d like for us to edit.”
“I understand.”
Ra-Eun said her farewells to Su-Jin and her group. Su-Jin did not want to leave, but she forced herself to. Having lingering attachments, she turned around. Ra-Eun sent her off with a smile yet again.
“Have a safe trip, Reporter Ahn.”
“...”
It was hard for Su-Jin to describe this bitter feeling in words. The meaningful attitude that Ra-Eun had shown her continued to bother her as she got into the car.
Her junior reporter grabbed the steering wheel and asked while glancing at her, “Sunbae. You haven’t been looking too well since the interview even began. Is something bothering you?”
“Me? No, I just... have a personal problem to deal with.”
She felt like the unsolved mystery would keep her up all night long.
***
On a busy road in downtown Seoul, a man was irritated by a car that had changed into his lane with the turn signal on.
“Fucking hell. I’m already feeling like shit from that goddamn chief of mine.”
The man mercilessly honked his car horn from how slowly the car in front of him was moving. Road rage got the better of the man and he overtook the car to retaliate against them. The car then turned on its right turn signal and pulled over onto the side of the road.
“Oh, you wanna go, is it?”
The man who had been holding back his anger also pulled over and swung open his car door to get out.
“Hey! Fucking hell, lemme see your face, dipshit!”
He threatened the driver with various profanities. However, he fell silent as soon as the door opened. A beefy man who was taller than him by the size of his head, and another tough-looking man with a scar on his face got out of the car.
The scarred man, Park Du-Chil, spat on the ground and approached the man.
“What? You wanted to see my face, didn’t you?”
“U-Um, the thing is, g-good sir...”
“What the fuck do you know about me to call me a good sir? Also, it’s not like we cut you off. Did you not see we had our turn signal on as we changed lanes? Are you blind? Should I rip out your eyeballs and replace them with some new ones with 20/20 vision? Huh?”
“I-I’m sorry! I’ve been told I have intermittent explosive disorder... C-Could I ask you to let it slide just this once?”
“IED or whatever, I don’t give a shit. You’d better fucking see it through if you picked a fight!”
The man unconsciously hunched his shoulders from Du-Chil’s bellow. At that moment, the back seat window of the car that Du-Chil was driving rolled down.
Ma Yeong-Jun said to his two men, “We don’t have the time. Let’s go.”
“Yes, boss!”
The man lost the strength in his legs and collapsed as he watched the two gangsters bowing at a 90-degree angle to their boss. Yeong Jun warned the man who had retaliated against them while Du-Chil and his subordinate got back into the driver and passenger seats.
“The moment I see you doing this kind of shit again, I’ll make it so that you can never grab a steering wheel ever again. Mark my words.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
The man expressed his sincere gratitude toward Yeong-Jun just for sparing his life.
Yeong-Jun and his men parked at a nearby parking lot and walked to a certain cafe.
“Welcome to... Gasp!”
The employees gasped before they knew it as they welcomed the customers as they’ve always done, because of the overpowering aura that Yeong-Jun and his men were giving off.
Du-Chil pointed to a seat by the windows.
“Over there, Boss.”
“Mm.”
Yeong-Jun took a seat while his two men stood at attention to guard his back.
The woman who had been waiting for them, Do Hye-Yeong, said while sighing, “Do you really have to give off gangster energy like this? This is exactly why the chairwoman doesn’t like meeting you in public.”
Hye-Yeong had set up a meeting with Yeong-Jun to relay Ra-Eun’s words to him. The contents were simple enough to be relayed by phone, but they met like this to avoid leaving evidence when talking about something very important.
Yeong-Jun briefly answered Hye-Yeong’s criticism, “We usually don't.”
“Then why the change today?”
“We had done something rough earlier. The boys usually get so hyped up for such things that this kind of behavior comes out unconsciously.”
“...”
Hye-Yeong wished she hadn’t heard that.
“Anyway, what does that young lady want to tell us this time?” Yeong-Jun asked.
“It’s about Reporter Ahn Su-Jin.”
“Ahn Su-Jin? My men are already watching over her.”
“She asked to raise the number of men and monitoring hours.”
Hye-Yeong usually worked as a director of Levanche, but she also sometimes acted as Ra-Eun’s proxy who relayed her words. Ra-Eun had been planning on entrusting that role to Park Seol-Hun, but not only was he busy running the company, but he was also so scared of Yeong-Jun and his men that she had left it to Hye-Yeong instead.
Ra-Eun used to meet with Yeong-Jun directly, but she had gotten so recognizable lately that she had taken such measures. It would become huge news if it got out to the public that a popular actress frequently met up with a gangster loan shark boss.
Unable to understand, Yeong-Jun asked Hye-Yeong, “Did that reporter lady do something dangerous again?”
“I’m not sure either. I simply relayed to you what the chairwoman asked me to.”
“I see.”
Although he wasn’t sure why, he had to do it if it was Ra-Eun’s order.
“Okay. I’ll do so.”
He simply complied, thinking that she had a reason for doing so.
***
Ra-Eun was busy getting her makeup done for today’s shoot of Waitress?as soon as she arrived at the studio. She could hear loud cheers from outside the waiting room.
“Congratulations, sunbae!”
“You have no idea how surprised I was when I saw the article!”
Ra-Eun also went out to the hallway as soon as her make-up was finished. Yeo Song-Won had been receiving words of congratulations while holding a bouquet of flowers. She awkwardly thanked them. She was being congratulated because of her husband.
Ra-Eun also walked up to Song-Won.
“Congratulations, sunbae.”
“Thanks. But my... I never expected something like this to happen, so I’m a little bewildered.”
Song-Won had suddenly become the mayor’s wife. She was of course happy that things had worked out so well for her husband, but she was also at a loss of what to do.
“I have no idea how the reporters found out about my husband’s identity. I thought I’d hidden it pretty well”
Song-Won never really enjoyed being given attention by the public for subjects other than the productions that she had appeared in, so she had purposefully avoided bringing up her husband. She thanked her fellow production staff members without the slightest idea that Ra-Eun was the one who revealed the fact that she was married to Jang Tae-Hwan.
Ra-Eun held in her laugh as she watched Song-Won head to her waiting room.
‘I feel bad for sunbae, but it had to be done.’
This was also part of the process of perfecting her plan for revenge.
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