Love and War

Chapter Seven: The Day I Lost You

"Hyun Woo owns everything," Ryota told her. "They made him become the chairman of the board at a very young age. It seemed they placed him there for him to be a linchpin so that the group and the family won't fall out. The group and the family's highly traditional and they see the throne as hereditary. It looked like the family respects that tradition and none wanted to break that, yet."

"Can you now tell me about his relatives?"

"Tae Jun manages a lot of casinos in Tokyo and Seoul while Lee Haru owns a nuclear power plant and drugstore chains. Lastly, Jane Lee, his aunt, is the president of the Lee-Han Fashion Industry. Most of his cousins were in college, middle school, and primary years. He's the linchpin of the family the way the late Lee Kyung Ho and Lee Jeong-hui were. The Lees are a traditional family, and they were patriotic nobles since the Joseon Era."  

"He's a linchpin?" Anna wondered. "If they were nobles in the Joseon Era, when did they start doing illegal jobs, then? It could have been more understandable if they were pro-Japanese."

Ryota swallowed his saliva hard. As a Japanese man, knowing the hatred of South Koreans over what his ancestors did to Joseon. "You talk as if you're not Japanese, Anna. Saying that isn't easy for us."

Anna smiled back at him. "Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude."

"Anyway, Lee Tae Jun and Lee Haru are Hyun Woo's uncles," Ryota began. "As you said, Hyun Woo also does have an aunt named Jane Lee, but when I researched the reasons why she's an outcast, it wasn't because she's an illegitimate child as she stayed with the Lees since she was young. She was... She was also the middle child of Lee Jeong-hui."

Anna raised her eyebrow. "Why did you stop talking? You changed your statement, don't you?"

"Anyway, I think that information is nothing for you, anyway," Ryota spoke after he stood up and placed his hands in his pockets. "Got to leave. This isn't just my job, anyway. I'm not a private detective. If you want to know more about them, hire a private detective would you?"

"You're hiding something!" 

Ryota frowned at her. "Hyun Woo has reasons why he's with them, Anna. One of the reasons was that he's not Japanese but rather, he's full-blooded South Korean. I cannot tell you the information, most especially, it wasn't about you. I will help him get justice for his father in secret but that's my limit. Do you understand? I thought I lost you but I do hope I gain you back."

"Leave," Anna said to him. "You're siding with my ex-husband, now."

"I'll leave anyway," Ryota said after he rose from his seat. "After my investigation, I discovered that you used me to go against him, anyway. Even if he does go against the law so many times, there won't be shreds of evidence that will connect him to those small mice they could just throw away!"  

...

At the same time that day, Ryota was going home when all of a sudden, he saw Anna Jang flirting with a different guy wearing a brown suit in an expensive hotel restaurant. He was staying in Seoul Blue Hotel. It was one of the most expensive hotels in Seoul. Ryota wanted to go to her at the time and ask why she was drinking and flirting with such a guy but then, he saw Hyun Woo who was holding two roses stand up in shock behind him. 

It appalled both men when the young man wearing a brown suit kissed Anna making Hyun Woo feel anger burning throughout his body and at the same time, he shook in so much jealousy. Since Ryota saw his anger burn so much inside him, he held him out of the restaurant as he might do something he'd regret. 

Of course, it was a shock to Hyun Woo that Ryota stopped him. He tried his best to get out of his grasp but after a while, he calmed down, allowing Ryota to release him.