Page 36 of Perfect Happiness
“How?”
“You don’t have her contact information?”
Min-young let out a loud scoff.“Not even my brother had her contact information.Why wouldIhave it?”
According to Min-young, Yuna changed her phone number after the divorce.And she ignored the court’s orders to allow Joon-young to see Jiyoo once a month.She even moved apartments.With no way to contact Yuna, Joon-young had made a formal request to enforce the court order.
Jane tried putting her memories in chronological order.When had their mother called Jane to tell her that Yuna’s phone number had changed?And was her move to Seogyo-dong around that time?Jane wasn’t certain, but both events seemed to have happened around the time of the divorce.If that was the case, then she couldn’t tell her Yuna’s new phone number.After all, Yuna had her own reasons.
“Have you tried calling her workplace?”Jane said, reminding Min-young that there was another way.By now, Yuna’s vacation would be over, and she should have returned to work—assuming of course that she wasn’t lying about having a job.
“Workplace?”Min-young then added something cautiously, as if to remind Jane of something she should already be aware of.“You don’t mean your parents’ business, do you?”
“Yes, that one.”
“She stopped working there two years ago, didn’t she?”
This time it was Jane who was confused.Min-young had to be mistaken.After coming back from Russia, Yuna had worked under their father.When he died, Yuna was the natural choice to inherit the business.She was the only one who had learned the family trade.
Jane had no interest in business.She didn’t fight with Yuna over the inheritance.It wasn’t like there was much to fight over, anyway.The five-story building that was the company headquarters and the house their parents lived in still belonged to their mother.Yuna’s inheritance amounted to little but the land for the storage facilities.Jane happily agreed to Yuna’s succession as head of the company, under the condition that Yuna pay their mother’s living expenses.
And ever since then, Yuna had been running the business without any problems.She had shown no intention of quitting.At least, that was what their mother said.Jane answered Min-young as honestly as she could.
“I don’t think so.”
Min-young’s face suddenly turned pale.Jane could see the blood in her face draining down through her neck.
“You mean she wasn’t fired from the company?”
“Fired?She owns the company.Who would fire her?”
“Oh—”
Min-young closed her mouth and dropped her gaze.She looked like she was organizing her thoughts.
“You mean to say,” she finally said, “Yuna was in charge of the company before the divorce?”
Jane could sense that Min-young was desperately trying to suppress her emotions.Feeling uneasy, Jane retracted her previous answer, afraid that she might have said something wrong.
“I’m not sure.All I know is that it was right after our father died.”
This seemed to go in one ear and out the other.Min-young asked an unrelated question: “Do you know why my big brother quit his job as a writer and started doing a bunch of random side jobs?”
Didn’t she say it was because of child support payments?Could there be another reason?Was this a rhetorical question?
“If what you say is true, that woman is a fraud.”
Jane’s emotions suddenly jumped from unease to uncomfortable.She instinctually resisted Min-young’s accusation.Even though Yuna was Jane’s estranged sister, Jane wasn’t just going to sit here and allow this girl to call Yuna names.And besides, her dad’s business was a small-scale distributor of industrial-grade lubricants and had less than ten employees, even including their deliverymen.Could inheriting such a business really make someone a fraud?If it was, then the ROK should be renamed the ROC—Republic of Con-artists.From large corporations to self-employed businesses, there wasn’t a business in Korea that didn’t engage in nepotism.
“Please watch your tongue.That’s my younger sister you’re talking about.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Min-young’s voice jumped an entire octave.“I forgot she was your sister.”
Min-young’s voice was loud enough to garner the attention of everyone in the café.
“I forgot that you’re the sister of the fraud who screwed over my big brother.”
Jane could feel the back of her skull become cold.She had nothing to do with her sister’s divorce, and yet here she was, taking flack about it from a third party.Min-young’s rage didn’t look intentional.But when Min-young got angry, it was impossible to talk to her.In this respect, Min-young and Yuna were two of a kind.Once they were triggered, the only way for things to end was in disaster.
