Chapter 188 – Welcome – Part 1

Chapter 188 – Welcome – Part 1

Amidst the Tattooed Men, Lee Jeongho, and Assemblyman Lee, Woojin ran his wet hands through his hair.

The slick water made him feel good.

At that moment, it was Lee Jeongho who broke the silence where only the sound of water could be heard.

“Why are you here?”

And the numerous scars all over his body.

When I only saw him in a suit, I thought he was neat and quite handsome.

But his naked body, with all its exposed scars, and his contrasting face, had a completely different atmosphere.

Woojin turned his head towards him and gave a slight smile.

And bowed his head slightly.

“Hello. Representative Lee Jeongho. And Assemblyman Lee.”

The assemblyman frowned and asked Lee Jeongho,

“Who is he?”

Assemblyman Lee had also never seen such horrific scars.

“Well…”

Woojin cut Lee Jeongho off, opening his mouth.

“I am Shin Woojin, the Secretary of Young Lady Lee Hyerim.”

The assemblyman, of course, knew her name.

The same went for the Tattooed Men.

The granddaughter of a chaebol family. Occasionally, photos of her taken by ordinary people would appear on the internet or social media.

Even putting aside her lineage as an owner’s descendant, her beauty was more than enough to attract people’s attention.

Just recalling Lee Hyerim’s image made the Tattooed Men’s bodies involuntarily flinch.

The same was true for the Thug with scars who claimed to be a Secretary.

He didn’t know where he came from, but it seemed he had found a great sponsor in Lee Hyerim.

The organization’s size must also be enormous.

The scars… they are not ordinary.

The person called an Assemblyman also had a very high probability of actually being an Assemblyman.

The Thug with irezumi slowly stood up and said,

“Hey, let’s go. It’s just noisy here, nothing special.”

His colleagues also seemed to agree, getting up and leaving the bath.

At that moment, Woojin’s voice stopped one of the Thugs in his tracks.

I saved you. Live without doing bad things.

He turned around, his brow twitching, but he couldn’t say anything.

What is he talking about?

He muttered in a righteous path that Woojin couldn’t hear, and then he left the place.

You’re… Hyerim’s personal secretary?

Woojin nodded slightly at Lee Jeongho’s question.

Yes. I still play Go with Chairman Lee sometimes.

Lee Jeongho’s eyes widened slightly.

You still play Go sometimes?

If it’s sometimes, wouldn’t that include when Father disappeared?

And he’s his niece’s personal secretary.

Yes.

At Woojin’s short reply, Assemblyman Lee, who had been observing the situation, spoke up.

CEO Lee, what exactly is going on here?

Well…

Woojin spoke on behalf of Representative Lee Jeongho.

The reason I came all this way to see Representative Lee Jeongho is none other than for the shares.

Lee Jeongho’s brow furrowed deeply.

This is not something for the likes of you to be involved in.

I am merely carrying out my duties as Miss Lee Hyerim’s personal secretary. It seems you are disobeying the Chairman’s order to transfer half of the shares you hold to Young Lady Lee Hyerim today…

Lee Jeongho slammed his fist down on the water.

Water splashed out into the room.

Even a bug-like fellow has an open mouth…

Woojin did not react to his anger. It was always like that.

He considered him an object of observation, merely an organism reacting to its environment.

Representative Lee Jeongho’s reaction was natural.

But there were times when it was different.

Woojin would react with his people.

He would feel happiness little by little and find joy.

Together.

Lee Jeongho seemed calm again.

But the anger-filled eyes were hard to hide.

“Are you mistaken just because you became Lee Hyerim’s personal secretary? Are you forgetting your place just because you’re playing Go with Chairman Lee of Shinhwa Group?”

“I am precisely aware of my position.”

With that, Woojin quickly observed Assemblyman Lee’s face.

A subtle expression of worry repeatedly appeared and disappeared.

He recalled the past and also imagined things.

It was as if the gears in his head were turning. Woojin seemed to hear that sound.

Observing Assemblyman Lee, Woojin began to entertain the possibility that things could be resolved more easily.

Of course, there’s a high probability the target could change.

That suited Woojin better.

Rather than solving things in a roundabout way, he preferred it when things came directly.

Then, Assemblyman Lee brushed back his sparse, wet hair and said,

“Hahahaha. Oh dear. I was told not to interfere in family matters.”

“Assemblyman Lee…”

Assemblyman Lee leaned his back against the wall.

“Representative Lee Jeongho, let’s forget what was said.”

One should not interfere in the owner family’s disputes unless it was a personal matter.

Though not apparent, there must be more than one or two politicians aligned with Shinhwa Group.

When the owner family’s bloodlines start fighting, the political world also reacts.

That’s also a battle for shares.

It was obvious that the carrots they had received from Shinhwa Group would turn into whips, causing them to tear each other apart.

It was wise to stay put and observe how the political landscape would shift.

To avoid any unnecessary trouble.

“Assemblyman Lee, my words…”

Assemblyman Lee didn’t even pretend to listen to Representative Lee Jeongho and stood up.

He then gestured to Woojin and spoke.

“It seems even Shinhwa Group’s close associates are keeping thugs by their side these days.”

Considering the scars etched on Woojin’s body, Assemblyman Lee’s thought was understandable.

Woojin merely responded with a faint smile to Assemblyman Lee.

“CEO Lee, I’ll see you next time.”

After Assemblyman Lee left the bath, Lee Jeongho glared at Woojin as if he wanted to devour him.

“You’ll find that the passion and spirit of that thought, Desire, will take you to unexpected places.”

“Are the wounds you sustained from Chairman Lee okay? If you get water on a wound right away, it can get worse.”

Lee Jeongho, who had been silently glaring at Woojin and clenching his teeth several times, exited the bath as if to catch Assemblyman Lee.

Woojin muttered as he watched Lee Jeongho and Assemblyman Lee’s backs.

“See you again. But, both of you are shorter than average…”

***

Lee Jeongho couldn’t get into the waiting car and slammed the car door shut!

He put his hands on his hips and let out a long sigh.

‘I am fully aware of my position.’

“What? Aware?”

Assemblyman Lee coldly left the scene.

Things went awry because of a mere bug-like fellow he didn’t even bother to look at.

Lee Jeongho, who had been lost in thought, soon got into the car.

“That guy who’s supposedly Lee Hyerim’s escorting Secretary, what kind of guy was he? Contact someone and find out immediately.”

“Understood.”

There were too many suspicious points.

And the scars carved into my body are also a problem.

Lee Jeongho only saw the existence of Woojin as a parasite.

A parasite that dared to cling to the Shinhwa Group.

That night.

Lee Jeongho was rewatching the video of Father filmed at the Villa.

There were definitely strange things about his behavior.

Although his face wasn’t visible, he was calling the Police, whose back was filmed, Jeong Man.

His expression was also as if he was looking at his dead brother.

Could the Police’s name be Jeong Man?

At that moment, his Cellphone vibrated, indicating a call.

“Hello.”

-Shin Woojin, Executive Assistant to Young Lady Lee Hyerim, sent you the information via email. He seems to be a strange fellow.

“A strange fellow?”

-Yes. If you see it yourself…

After finishing the call in his Room, Lee Jeongho sat at his PC and immediately checked his email.

There was a photo, similar to a resume, attached.

Below it, information about Woojin was listed one after another.

“S University…”

He took a leave of absence from Republic of Korea’s top University and became a founding member and Major Shareholder of Brain Food.

He successfully established the domestic franchise and expanded it overseas.

Not stopping there, he founded a company with his niece Lee Hyerim and took on the Business Card of Director.

But that was the end of it.

There were no external activities at all…

Lee Jeongho’s brow furrowed slightly as he read Shin Woojin’s information.

“Officer?”

He hadn’t seen it wrong.

Lee Jeongho examined the attached photo.

It really showed the guy in a police uniform saluting.

There was a significant discrepancy with the injuries he saw at the sauna.

“What is this bastard doing…”

It was even written that he had recently quit that too.

Suddenly, the back of the police officer he saw in the video flashed through Lee Jeongho’s mind.

‘The officer, Father’s Go teacher, Lee Hyerim… ‘

Various thoughts came to mind, and Lee Jeongho summarized the situation with one idea.

‘Is he using Lee Hyerim and a muddled Father?’

It seemed like an absurd idea that a parasitic scumbag would dare to do such a thing, but his own position was actually being shaken.

And it was also true that Lee Hyerim’s power was rapidly growing.

“How dare he…”

It doesn’t matter if the guy really approached Father and Hyerim with such a plan.

He first had to prevent his existing shares from becoming worthless.

Lee Jeongho’s pupils gradually dilated as he looked at Woojin’s photo.

‘If I can tie this guy into it… ‘

He could put him on the guillotine as a spectacle for the presidents and board meeting of Shinhwa Group.

That this guy had been stirring up Shinhwa Group.

The guy held a small stake in Shinhwa Group’s holding company.

That fact made Lee Jeongho even angrier.

The time he had was short.

Father could even summon the division commanders tomorrow and transfer shares immediately.

Because Father had never made empty promises.

Lee Jeongho changed the route of the ship he was on.

In the dark room with only the PC on, Lee Jeongho brought his cellphone to his ear.

“Catch that guy, Shin Woojin, that bug-like bastard, and make him confess everything related to Shinhwa Group. If there’s nothing, make something up. I don’t care if he becomes a cripple. Just make sure he says he intentionally approached Shinhwa Group.”

-When should we start?

“Right now. If you handle this well, you’ll get your hands on money you could never have imagined in your life.”

-I’ll contact you.

***

Woojin and Lee Hyerim were sitting across from each other in a cafe.

Lee Hyerim, who had her lips on a straw, suddenly asked,

“Did you change your skincare product?”

“No, I went to the sauna today and scrubbed off some dead skin. How do I look? Don’t I look clean?”

Lee Hyerim looked at Woojin carefully.

“Well… I think you look the same?”

“I guess I should have soaked longer in the bath to loosen up more of the dead skin.”

“Didn’t you say scrubbing off dead skin isn’t good?”

She had heard Woojin say that once.

What people commonly refer to as dead skin is caused by the aging cells of the epidermis, which protects the skin from external stimuli and prevents moisture evaporation, thus maintaining hydration.

If that happens, the possibility of bacterial intrusion increases, and the skin can turn alkaline, leading to eczema or the skin losing elasticity and becoming dry.

“I found a moisturizer, so I scrubbed.”

Because moisturizer prevents moisture evaporation from the skin.

It was good to scrub moderately and maintain adequate moisture.

Then Woojin mumbled something she couldn’t understand.

“That was quick.”

“Huh?”

Woojin stood up from his seat, a faint smile on his face.

“I’m tired. Hyerim, I’ll get going first.”

“Should I give you a ride?”

Woojin slowly shook his head.

“No, I’ll go alone.