Chapter 73

Chapter 73: Chapter 73

“I forgot that method. In other words, I didn’t think about it at all. If you work like hell, exercise like hell to forget about somebody and your memories of somebody, you will come to fill your head with all the thoughts about that person instead.”

“Oh, that’s simple!” said Arum, shrugging her shoulders. She asked, “By the way, how about the effect? Don’t you think about her at all now?”

“Of course, I do. But I don’t have any feelings about her at all.”

“Why?”

“Because she is not my woman anymore. My mother sent me a text message. She said you looked like a good woman, wishing me good luck. She said a woman who ate well had good character.”

“Oh my…”

Hojoon presented a citron to her.

“Citron. This is a fruit that brings about fruition, right?” said Arum, as if she knew something about the fruit.

“Do you have enough time to finish your article?”

“Oops!”

Putting down the beverage cup suddenly, she checked her emails. She had to do an interview with Hojoon, and at the same time, review her junior reporters’ articles.

“Let me double check with this first.”

At that moment, he took out a small box from his pocket.

“Let me give it to you just in case I might forget about it.”

“What is that?”

She opened the box. It was a seed as large as a thumb. When she touched it, it was covered with a solid and smooth layer.

“This is a seed of Ara Lotus, originating in the Koryo Kingdom 700 years ago.”

“Why did she give it to me?”

Arum pondered over this unexpected riddle.

Lotus was famous for blooming even in the mud.

It looked precious as it emitted a sweet fragrance.

What about its use?

She thought that the leaves of lotus were useless, but they were used as lotus rice. Lotus had nothing useless from its leaves to its roots.

Arum easily found the answer to the riddle she had been thinking over.

A woman like a lotus.

How good it would be if she could become such a woman!

She was stuck in the mud for a long time because of her turbulent ups and downs while dating and getting engaged to Konsu. Today, she felt her mind become purified with this one seed. She rather felt she needed to purify her confused mind.

“By the way, can this seed bloom?”

“As it is a seed, I think it can bloom. Don’t you think so? I have no idea. Let me ask my mom.”

He took out his phone.

“No, you don’t have to. By the way, did you say this seed was found 700 years ago?”

“Yeah, I heard that it bloomed and bore fruit.”

“Wow, it bloomed in 700 years! Let me take care of this seed well, with lots of love.”

Right at that moment, when she mentioned ‘lots of love,’ Heemang and Juyoung were actually standing awkwardly in front of the main door of Hojoon’s company.

Heemang cleared his throat to indicate his presence.

To outsiders, that was the moment she confessed her love to him.

Heemang and Juyoung felt as if they intruded into the office witlessly.

Juyoung nudged him in the ribs and scolded, “That’s why I told you not to come here, dude!”

“Sorry, because it’s very important,” Heemang apologized to Hojoon.

“What are you thinking about, guys? We were in the middle of working here. What’s up, Heemang?”

“Oh, I need to pick up my USB card. It contains a public certificate. I need to pay my mother’s home shopping balance.”

Heemang was rambling.

“Pick it up quickly,” Juyoung demanded.

Arum sat on the sofa, thinking, ‘What are they doing now?’ She couldn’t understand the situation. While sipping a soda, her eyes met Juyoung’s.

“Sorry.”

“No, not at all. Why?”

He didn’t have to say sorry, but he kept trying to read her mind.

While he scolded Heemang, he also enjoyed the strange atmosphere of the office.

“Have a good time, Chief.”

“Good time? If you want to enjoy night-work hours, why don’t you join me, Brother Juyoung? Come here!”

Hojoon pulled him to his side.

“My goodness! I am not that stupid, man.”

“What the heck are you talking about? Since you’ve come this far, just sit down and work overtime, will you? You haven’t yet had dinner, right?”

“I’m full, brother. You guys look good.”

Hojoon was rather embarrassed because of Arum.

“Enough, man. Just go away!”

“Yep. Let me head out first.”

While Juyoung and Hojoon were chattering in a cheerful mood, they heard some quarrel outside the office. Somebody called ‘Dad, dad!’ and the other person shouted, ‘Is this the place?’

The business hours of Hojoon’s company were already over. Who came at this hour?

When Juyoung opened the door, the student client and his father stormed into the office.

“You swindlers!”

The boy’s father was full of anger. He pushed Juyoung to the side and came into the office. He was ready to fight with anybody.

“How can I help you?” Hojoon asked him, making eye contact with the boy, who lowered his head as he felt sorry.

“Oh, you are the chief of this company? How can a swindler like you be the chief? How come you have used geomancy to tempt a young boy for money? You impostors!”

“Dad, he is not a swindler. I’ve asked for his help!”

The boy dissuaded his father from attacking Hojoon.

“I’m really sorry, Chief.”

The student kept bowing to Hojoon, which made his father more upset.

“My son was completely enthralled by this devil man. You bewitched bastards!”

Checking out the situation, Juyoung tried to intervene.

“Would you please sit down and tell your story, sir? We didn’t receive a student’s money nor accept his request for geomancy counsel. As he was a minor, we just persuaded him to go home.”

“Are you kidding me? Do you think you are not to blame if you haven’t received money? You have made my son addicted to superstition when he has to burn the midnight oil. You are really crazy folks. How can you ask my son to videotape the house and send the video clip? How can you ask him to make a video call? I just wanted to give it a pass initially, but I can’t. How come you guys use geomancy to extort money from my son? Do you think you can commit this kind of fraudulent act to my son?”

Losing his temper, his son cut in, “Dad, I know. This is the last chance. You can call it superstition or devil. If this is the only way I can prevent your divorce with mom, I will do it!”

“What the heck? You son of a bitch!” his father shouted loudly. He seemed embarrassed when his son pointed out his soft spot.

Hojoon, who was keeping silent up to now, opened his mouth.

“Geomancy is psychology.”

“You must be a typical impostor!”

Hojoon wasn’t moved by his sarcastic response at all. Then he brought his laptop.

“This is neither a devil nor superstition.”

He then chose a picture showing the student’s study room among the pictures he sent. The room was composed of his bed, desk and bookshelf.

“You used to have a piano in this spot, right?”

“Nope.”

The student’s father strongly denied it.

“Yes, there was a piano there,” Hojoon refuted.

“No! Did you see it?”

While watching them quarrel like that, Arum was nervous.

Hojoon asked once again, “Are you sure?”

His sharp glittering eyes made him feel a prick in his conscience.

“Dad!” his son also demanded, as if he called on his father to tell the truth.

In the end, his father gave in.

“Yes, you’re right. There was a piano there.”

Arum was surprised to hear that.

Even though she was also watching the picture, she couldn’t find any clue in the picture that could tell her there used to be a piano in that spot. Juyoung and Heemang began to whisper about it, too.

“Did you know that?” Juyoung asked Heemang.

“You did great, Chief!”

The student’s father’s price was offended as he had to admit he was wrong.

“What does it all have to do with the piano?” he asked in a downcast voice.

Hojoon now came closer to him, leaned forward and whispered into his ears, “You can win back your wife’s heart.”

“Uhm…..”

As he felt embarrassed, he pretended to be indifferent.

Arum could understand his feelings fully because her father had the same experience.

‘If my father had bought a flower on my mother’s birthday, if he had bought a bowl of pumpkin porridge when she was in bed at the hospital, and if he had kneeled down and asked for her forgiveness when he was caught having an affair, he could have survived the crisis and lived with her until now…’

But Arum’s father never asked to reconcile with her mother.

Just like this man, her father might not have known the right way to reach out to her. Her father went out to enjoy a happy life with another woman, but he is living alone in Mokpo.

Looking at the picture again, Hojoon frowned.