The transition was jarring. One moment, Se-na was wrapped in the warm, soybean-scented embrace of a grandmother; the next, she was being scrubbed, dressed in a stiff, formal suit, and marched toward the lion's den.
The Do Hyun-joo estate was a monument to cold, inherited wealth. As they entered the gates, Se-na felt the air change it didn't smell like the place she had come from; it smelled like floor wax and something awkward that she certainly didn't like.
In the garden, a woman was watering the plants. This was Ra-ik's mother. She looked anything, frail or weak, but she certainly was not sad. She didn't look like a woman who had lost her son to a scandal or a soul-swap. Se-na couldn't decide which one would be more painful for her, though losing him to a scandal was clearly not enough to shake her. She was moving here and there, telling servants and maids with a practiced grace, her silk blouse fluttering in the breeze.
When she saw the grandmother, she moved forward to greet her with a polite, shallow bow. But as her eyes shifted to Ra-ik, the color drained from her face, turning a sickly, ashen grey. Even so, she didn't lose her decent, empty smile. She looked away instantly, as if looking at Ra-ik was like staring directly into a solar eclipse.
"Inside," the mother said, her voice was more of a fragile whisper then it was a welcome.
The internal architecture of the Do family was clear to Se-na within minutes. The parents were estranged, living separate lives under the same massive roof, tethered together only by the "Do" brand. The mother had her wealth and her quiet corners; the father had the company and his ego.
The grandmother, however, was in a league of her own. She wore dark, oversized glasses and a tailored black ensemble that made her look like a regal Queen Dowager. She didn't walk through the house; she occupied it, as she kept Ra-ik's hand firmly in her own, her grip like iron clad chain.
Se-na, meanwhile, was bored. As a surgeon, she had dealt with life-and-death crises, screaming relatives, and hospital board politics. This family drama felt like a poorly written soap opera, and she hated being the silent protagonist in a body she didn't own.
They waited in the lounge for hours. Ra-ik's mother had left them on the mercy of a housemaid to cater to them and was not seen the rest of the day.
Finally, the front doors thudded open. Do Hyun-joo arrived. He wasn't alone; walking beside him was the charcoal-suited lawyer from earlier. Hyun-joo's face reddened the moment he saw them sitting in his lounge. He opened his mouth to shout, but the lawyer leaned in and whispered something urgently into his ear.
Hyun-joo took a deep, shuddering breath. He adjusted his hair, loosened his tie with a jerk of his hand, and sat on the sofa. The lawyer sat on the other side, and the three of them started talking, with the lawyer trying to find a middle ground while Se-na, in Ra-ik's body, remained a spectator.
The "killing stare" Hyun-joo leveled at Ra-ik was enough to make a normal teenager faint. Se-na, however, just stared back with the flat, unimpressed gaze of a doctor looking at a troublesome gallstone and finding every way to not irritate it so as to not work on it.
"Let's be civil," the lawyer began, spreading a stack of documents across the coffee table. "My client is willing to offer a generous stipend an off-shore trust that would ensure the boy a comfortable life abroad if the young master voluntarily relinquishes the Do name and the right to the primary inheritance. We have the 'voluntary removal' papers ready for signing."
"Generous?" The grandmother's silent voice was like a whip, cracking through the air. "You're offering him a bribe to sign his own death warrant? You want him to trade his identity for a bank account in a country he doesn't know? He is a Do." She was asking in a way as if she didn't understand what was just said.
Hyun-joo's eyes were burning into Ra-ik, his lip curling with disgust. Se-na covered her face with her hand as if fearing that he will find out that he is Maeng Se-Na. then he started, "Blood? Look at him! He doesn't have my chin. He doesn't have my temperament. He's a soft, clumsy mistake. My father was blinded by his own sentimentality, thinking he could force a lion out of a house cat, but I am not so easily fooled." He was enjoying every second of every word he was uttering.
"Don't speak of temperament when you haven't even had the confidence to get a paternity test done!" the old woman countered, her voice rising in a controlled crescendo. "You hide behind lawyers because you're afraid the truth will prove you a fool."
Hyun-joo smirked, leaning forward as he decided to place a final, desperate bet. "You say I didn't do a test... well…how about I do it now? Right here, in front of everyone. And when the results prove he is not my son, tell me mother what will you do then?" then he moved back, resting his back on the sofa his arms spread, his face all smiley as if he knew he had cornered her beautifully.
Old woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath,
" I will throw him out into the street with nothing but the clothes on his backs…is that…." hyun joo started thinking that old woman had accepted defeat.
"He will be mine, then," the grandmother responded instantly, interrupting him mid-sentence. There was no hesitation and no flicker of doubt. Her voice was filled with a practiced confidence, as if she had rehearsed this statement a thousand times in her head while watching the sun rise.
"NOOO....NO.....NO...That's not possible!" Hyun-joo was over the edge now, his composure shattering. He slammed a fist onto the table, rattling the crystal coasters. "You cannot claim a child that isn't yours! The law… "
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