Hojoon pulled over his car on the shoulder and called her again.
He was worried when she didn’t answer the call.
It was not because she met Konsu again.
It was because he knew that Soran Cho also visited Arum’s house on that day.
Exactly two hours ago, Hojoon had a call from his father Paekhoon and drove to his house.
“Dad!”
Upset about his father, Hojoon tried to quibble with him.
His mother stopped him.
“Hojoon, stop it, please.”
“Dad, why did you recklessly accept her offer without knowing anything about her?”
“Ummmm….”
Three days ago, Paekhoon received a secret offer from a woman called Mira Kim who maintained an elite network of madams in the top 1% of the upper class.
“A lady whom I know has reached out to me for a geomancy mentor, so I recommended you.”
Mira Kim was a woman in her mid-50s who once wanted to be a literary girl. Reportedly, she wrote popular romance novels with the pen name Miracle when she was young. Later on, she didn’t use her original name at all and turned over a new leaf in life under her current name Mira Kim.
Although she was a best-selling novelist and beautiful, she didn’t make a fortune. She once made lots of money, but she was swindled. Her former husbands turned out to be swindlers without exception, who formed a gambling fraternity even in prison.
In the end, she was pushed to extreme poverty. She allegedly went around many houses in Itaewon for kitchen work. Since then, she had the habit of using English occasionally and worked as a matchmaker. After she retired, she ran a social club taking care of high-class madams’ troubles secretly.
But she was very proud of her job. She made a lot of money by running her shop exclusively for the high-class women.
She sometimes got them connected to Paekhoon.
“Master, I know a lady who is planning to get divorced soon. She wants to get it done as orderly as possible. She said you have to use all means and ends to make her spouse offer to divorce first. Do you get it?”
Paekhoon accepted her request because of the expensive consultation fee.
The lady in question was Soran Cho.
Soran lived in a high-end house in Sorae Town. As the security was tight even at the gate, Mira Kim initially speculated that the client might be a TV entertainer. As if she were already familiar with the security men, she passed the gate with Paekhoon by signaling them through eye contact.
Sora greeted the guests in person, “Nice to meet you. My name is Soran Cho.”
“I know you. You are the youngest daughter of the CEO of Sola Electronics,” said he.
As a senior geomancy master, Paekhoon acted maturely, but he was surprised in his heart.
Soran escorted Mira and Paekhoon into her study.
As her study was larger than the main bedroom of a typical house, they were overwhelmed by its size. Just like an intelligent woman who studied fashion, it was decorated with artworks.
There was a mannequin and a sewing machine on one corner of her study, but the sewing machine seemed to be just for display to show off her extravagance, because it was there just as an interior design.
But Paekhoon didn’t express his feelings.
Soran signaled to Mira to close the door because she wanted to pour out her heart to him.
As if she were familiar with this kind of situation, Mira went out after closing the door skillfully.
Then, Soran, brought up the main topic, “I’ve longed to meet you, master. Since you’re so famous, I found it difficult to invite you here. I hear your son is also a geomancy consultant.”
“These days, he is more famous than me,” Paekhoon answered casually because he didn’t know at all that his son was her former boyfriend.
“So, tell me about your problem.”
“Divorce. Please help me get divorced once and for all in a way that it will be my spouse who divorces me,” she said, smiling bitterly as if she felt awkward. “I’m sorry to ask you a favor like this. As I’m a well-known person in society, it’s hard for me to get divorced my way. You might not understand my position.”
“There are so many issues that happen to us humans. The most difficult ones involve couples. By the way, such a problem can be solved if both the husband and the wife are working hard…”
At that moment, she frowned.
As an experienced geomancy specialist, he immediately read her mind.
“Of course, you can’t work out a problem no matter how hard you try. In that case, we have to rely on geomancy.”
Only then did she smile brightly again.
“I know this is a big favor to ask, but…” She lowered her head.
Was it a big favor?
Hoon already had good feelings about her, as she was like his nephew’s daughter in terms of age.
Soran continued, “I have a boyfriend that I love. I would like to meet him again. Can I?”
“You’re greedy, hahaha.”
“Am I?”
“You can get one thing when you give one thing up. You can’t buy a person like how you buy a wardrobe. But since you say that you have lost your heart to him, you’ve got to try hard. It will take time, though…”
“I met him before I got married. At that time, I tried every way to split with him, but I regret it now. My pride will be offended if I contact him first.”
“Why does pride matter when you find your love? You’re still young.”
“Is it possible for me to date him again, master?”
He nodded.
She told him that she would be willing to pay as much as he wanted if he could keep her secret request to himself. And she told her that she would not hold him responsible even if his advice through geomancy didn’t work out well for her, given the characteristics of geomancy.
Instead, she said that she would pay him dearly as a bonus if her wishes came true.
Who would reject such an offer?
Paekhoon accepted her offer and visited her house to give her proper counsel through geomancy for two days.
Now, Paekhoon belatedly realized that Soran’s hidden ex-boyfriend was his son Hojoon.
“Dad!”
While Hojoon’s grumbling, Paekhoon got upset, too.
“How could I know who you were dating back in Paris?”
“Call her right away and tell her you’re going to return the consultation fee to her. Also, return the house to her. You should have stopped her from getting divorced.”
“That’s up to her.”
“Let me pay you twice the fee she gave you, Dad.”
Paekhoon didn’t reply.
“Dad!”
“Are you going to see her again?”
Hojoon didn’t answer easily.
“I’ve got to see her for the joint project on geomancy. I’m not going to see her for personal reasons. Never.”
“Leave her alone.”
“Pardon?”
“Let her get divorced, if she wants. Even if she wants to come back to you, do you think you can date her again when you don’t want it?”
That’s true.
But Hojoon got enraged at Soran, who ostentatiously met his father on purpose.
“Let me deal with this matter on my end,” said Hojoon.
After he got his father’s approval, Hojoon left the house.
There was one principle he stuck to while he was involved in geomancy business.
That was that he would never take issue with his fathers’ geomancy method.
He absolutely trusted his father’s method.
His father’s method was like a law and a bible to him.
He put top priority on receiving his father’s counsel.
Like Confucius said, it was the true filial piety of the children to follow their father’s teachings for three years after his death.
Accordingly, it was unthinkable for Hojoon to ignore his living father’s geomancy advice.
But he could not sit idle when it came to the matter of Soran.
That’s why he visited his father’s house late at night.
Driving back to Downtown Seoul, Hojoon called Soran.
“Where are you now?” asked Hojoon in an angry tone.
“Can you come to the hotel lounge we met before?”
“Sure. Stay put there until I arrive.”
He drove to the hotel right away.
She was sitting on the VVIP room of the hotel lounge. It was a private space where those inside could enjoy the night view of Seoul, while at the same time they were invisible to outsiders.
As soon as she saw Hojoon, she made a lousy laugh.
“Wow, you are a chip off the old block!”
“Stop it.”
“Why? It’s interesting, isn’t it?”
She waved at him to come to her side. Hojoon was standing at the door. He felt the moment he stepped into the space, he would be defeated. He didn’t want to be a gossip topic if something went wrong.
“Let’s have our fling. You know we were fed up with cheap wine when we were in Paris. You remember?”