Chapter 215: Change of Plan (1)

Whack—!

The golf ball was hit with a clean impact sound and flew forward in a beautiful arc. The people watching Kim Han-Gyo’s tee shot from behind him exclaimed as if they had been waiting for it.

“Great shot!”

“As expected of Congressman Kim! Your skills haven’t rusted a bit!”

Han-Gyo, who had come to a golf course for a change of pace, clicked his tongue as he stared at his ball that had fallen short of the green. He handed his club to his caddie and got on the golf cart with the others to move to where their balls had landed. On the drive there, one of the young politicians that supported Han-Gyo cautiously brought up a sensitive topic.

“It’s very unfortunate what happened with the Jo Su-Yeon case.”

Jo Su-Yeon was an extraordinary swindler who had impacted the financial, entertainment, and even the political world. Her deeds had been exposed by a certain reporter.

“Did Reporter Ahn Su-Jin have a part in this as well?”

“Yes, she was the one who published the article.”

“How in the world does that Ahn Su-Jin woman get all of this information?”

“Could she be a helper of the ‘masked woman’ that Congressman Kim had mentioned?”

“Who knows?”

Han-Gyo had once again been brought up as a topic of gossip due to the Jo Su-Yeon incident. He of course was not as closely connected to her compared to other people; he had simply had a meal with her once. However, he was such an influential figure that just a simple meal had become a huge deal. The Jo Su-Yeon case had stirred Korea yet again.

Han-Gyo walked to where his ball had landed once the golf cart stopped. He confidently got into position after changing his club.

“There’s no need to be muddled over every single trivial incident like this. We’ve all survived in this dirty world of politics for a long time. Don’t even give a storm this light the time of day and wait until it blows over.”

However, he couldn’t just continue to take this lying down.

Whack—!

The golf ball flew as if it slightly jumped in the air and rapidly rolled toward the hole. It just barely missed it, but it was extremely close to it now.

“Not everything goes the way you want it to. Such is life.”

Han-Gyo did not let the chance to score a birdie go.

“There is no such thing as a plan that can’t go wrong. What’s more important is being bold enough to completely modify the plan and go in an entirely different direction.”

The golf ball rolled into the hole as if it was being pulled in by it. Incidents had occurred one by one after the appearance of the mysterious woman who knew all of Han-Gyo’s secrets. He did not know who the woman was, but he would absolutely not take this lying down. Hence, he decided to be ‘bold’ like he had mentioned just now.

“Secretary Jang.”

“Yes, Congressman?” his secretary energetically answered.

Han-Gyo fixed his hat and said with a meaningful smile, “I’ll have to meet some people. Set a schedule.”

***

There was one more person who had realized that there were times when things did not go to plan. Kang Ra-Eun softly sighed in disappointment. She had come to know why Kang Ra-Hyuk cared so much for her after hearing about the past of this body’s former owner from Seo Yi-Seo.

‘Even so, it doesn't really move me that deeply since it isn’t about me.’

.

Since Ra-Hyuk had put off his answer instead of completely turning down Yi-Seo’s confession, there was still a chance for them to get together in the end. If there was a problem, it was...

‘Me.’

Ra-Eun sighed once again. Yi-Jun happened to come out of the shower just in time and wiped the remaining moisture from his hair with a towel.

“Noona. You should get someone to take a look at the boiler. The hot water gets interrupted from time to time.”

“...”

Ra-Eun continued to stay deep in thought despite Yi-Jun having called out to her.

“Noona?”

He approached her, worried about if something was bothering her. Just then, Ra-Eun snatched Yi-Jun’s wrist.

“Whoa!”

His surprise only lasted for a moment. He was forcibly sat down on the couch before he had realized it, and Ra-Eun immediately got on top of him. He had suddenly been pinned under Ra-Eun, but he did not think she was heavy in the slightest. Instead, a different emotion had taken charge of his mind.

“N-Noona? What are you—”

“Seo Yi-Jun.”

Ra-Eun brought her face right up to Yi-Jun’s, to the point that they could feel each other’s breaths. Yi-Jun’s heart beat faster.

“Do you still like me?”

Yi-Jun gulped. “B-By ‘like’... What do you...”

“I’m asking you if you see me as a woman. Do you think about stuff like embracing and kissing me when you look at me?”

“...”

Yi-Jun was unable to keep himself together from Ra-Eun’s questions that were on the verge of breaking the PG rating. He had not properly confessed his feelings to Ra-Eun yet; he had tried multiple times, but every single time, he either ran out of courage or was interrupted by bad timing. He thought this could be his chance, but something bothered him before that.

“Just what did you hear from my sister?”

“...”

There was only one reason why Ra-Eun would suddenly do something like this, and it was the conversation that she had with Yi-Seo one hour ago. Yi-Jun was sure that their conversation had triggered Ra-Eun’s sudden change in behavior.

His expectation had not been wrong. Ra-Eun sighed and leaned away from Yi-Jun.

“You won’t get another chance like this,” she declared.

“It’s okay, noona. I’ll get an even better opportunity next time.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes. I’ll make it so.”

Yi-Jun did not want the storm of emotions in his head to affect his feelings as well. He was planning on confessing to Ra-Eun exactly how he felt about her when he wanted to be truly honest with himself. As their weird confrontation was happening, Yi-Seo’s eyes popped out as she belatedly noticed what they were doing after coming out to the living room.

“Wh-What are you two doing?”

Ra-Eun was sitting on top of Yi-Jun, who had been forced on the couch. She shook her hand like it was no big deal and got off of Yi-Jun.

“I was disciplining your dishonest little brother.”

Yi-Jun laughed in his head. If this was discipline, he would welcome it anytime.

***

Ra-Eun had a scene with Hwang Je-Woong playing Yang Han-Sik, a character based off of Kim Han-Gyo, scheduled today. Ra-Eun huddled herself up while using a hand warmer before the scene.

“It’s so damn cold.”

It had not been cold at all during the Shuttered?film shoots since they had taken place in the spring and summer, but they had to fight through the cold since the Spokesperson?film shoots were taking place in the winter. Ra-Eun had not been very sensitive to heat nor cold in her days as a man, but she had become extremely sensitive to changes in temperature after becoming a woman.

‘The cold aside, the dryness is also annoying.’

Ra-Eun couldn’t forget to tint her lips often. She closely examined her lips with a compact mirror to see if they were chapped anywhere. She closed the compact mirror and chuckled in dejection at what she had just done.

‘No one would doubt that I’m a woman at this point.’

Ra-Eun felt an inexplicable sense of shame whenever she did anything feminine. As she was spending time in her waiting room, she heard a knock on the door and it slowly opened. It was Ma Yeong-Jun, who had accompanied Ra-Eun to the set as her bodyguard.

“What is it? Do you have something to tell me?” Ra-Eun asked.

Yeong-Jun nodded and brought up a scoop that had stirred every single news channel in Korea not long ago.

“It’s about the Jo Su-Yeon case. No, to be more specific, it’s about Congressman Kim Han-Gyo.”

“What about him?”

Ra-Eun scowled just from hearing the name. What Yeong-Jun said next was not very concrete.

“I hear he’s been meeting a very large number of people lately.”

Han-Gyo was acting in a way very different from what he had shown thus far. Whenever there was some sort of trouble, he had always dealt with it through ‘concealment’ or ‘silence’, A.K.A. Operation ‘Let the Storm Pass’. Han-Gyo believed that although the public was in an uproar now, his problems would be buried by another massive scoop uncovered down the road.

He would wait for people to naturally forget before gradually showing himself again, and he abstained from any official activities in the meantime. However, Han-Gyo’s actions lately, which Yeong-Jun had detected, was the complete opposite of his usual pattern; rather than hiding, he was showing himself in public even more often than usual.

“What is that old snake planning now...?”

Ra-Eun couldn’t tell for sure since Han-Gyo had never acted this way in the future that she knew. Yeong-Jun had one more piece of information for her that she couldn’t ignore.

“Chairman Ji was among the people that he had come into contact with.”

“Chairman Ji? You’re talking about Chairman Ji of Do-Dam Group, right?” Ra-Eun asked.

“Yeah.”

Han-Gyo and Chairman Ji had turned their backs on each other entirely, but they would suddenly meet? Anyone could tell that it was suspicious.

“Did Kim Han-Gyo suggest the meeting first? There’s no way that Chairman Ji contacted him first.”

“I assume so.”

“Hmm...”

Her head was already in enough of a jumble from the issue with Yi-Seo and Ra-Hyuk, so it felt like she had been given several times more things to think about with the addition of Congressman Kim’s change in behavior.

‘This is all because of that Jo Su-Yeon woman.’

Su-Yeon had been the trigger for both incidents. Considering that, she was quite an impressive woman. She might have made it considerably big if she had been left to be, but of course, in a bad way.

“Well, okay. Keep watch on Congressman Kim just in case. And make me a list of anyone else that he meets from now on and give it to me,” Ra-Eu said.

“Understood. Also...”

“There’s something else?”

Ra-Eun felt like she was getting a considerable amount of information to process today, but Yeong-Jun’s final item on the agenda was not very important in her perspective.

“If it’s okay with you, could you get me autographs from Rita and Han Ga-Ae when you can?”

“Rita sunbae and Ga-Ae? Why?”

“Because I’m a fan of theirs,” Yeong-Jun said in embarrassment that did not match his massive build.

Ra-Eun chuckled as she looked at the middle-aged idol fan. “Sure. I’ll get them for you when I see them next time.”

Yeong-Jun’s mouth blossomed into a smile, which one seldom witnessed.