Chapter 42. Spilled Milk (1) (2/2)

She stomped in closer to Seol Jihu and angrily pushed him. He wasn't planning to resist her in the first place, so he backpedaled several times before landing hard on his butt.

Not even bothering to see if he was hurt or not, she snorted derisively and picked up her handbag.

“What a fucking joke. What, you finally won some money at the casino? Why else would a damn thief like you suddenly think about his little sister?”

Her expression remained mocking as she took a look inside her handbag…

“??”

She saw the bundle of bills amounting to ₩5 million as well as the car keys, and she cocked up an eyebrow. She blinked a couple of times and then lifted her head.

“Big brother?”

She wasn't speaking to Seol Jihu.

Before anyone noticed, Seol Wooseok was entering the room with an envelope in his hand.

He was worried that Seol Jihu might cause a problem and quickly came here, but upon encountering a situation that could be described as the total opposite to what he was worried about, all he could do was to alternate his gaze between his siblings.

“….What is this?”

His voice sounded hard and firm. He threw the envelope on the floor, causing the bills inside to spill out. Seol Jinhee's eyes widened.

“What, what the hell?! How much is this?”

She began counting, then her jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

“50 mil…”

And then, she looked back into the handbag.

“55 million?!”

She then remembered the car key and the laptop as well.

“Ha… you must have hit a jackpot, huh?”

“Jinhee, return everything back to him.”

When Seol Wooweok spoke in a cold tone, Seol Jinhee shot a glare at him.

“Why? Are you mad?”

“It's obvious. He got this money through gambling.”

“It's still money, isn't it? No! I won't give it back!”

Seol Wooseok reached out to snatch the cash away from her hands, but she yanked the handbag away and the envelope with money in it before shoving them both underneath her clothes to hug them tightly.

“Seol Jinhee!!”

“What?!”

“You really want that dirty money?”

“Dirty or not, this money rightly belongs to this family! It belongs to us in the first place, don't you get that? Don't you know how much dad and mom are struggling nowadays?”

When the two Seol siblings' emotions began running high, Seol Jihu hurriedly intervened and separated them apart. He didn't come here to watch them fight. He at least needed to resolve this misunderstanding before doing anything else.

“Hyung, Jinhee, you guys got it wrong. I didn't get that money through gambling.”

Seol Jinhee stopped arguing with her oldest brother and spun her head to face him.

“Fuck off.”

She snorted as if the whole notion genuinely made her laugh.

“If you were planning to lie, then make it more convincing, okay? Ah, maybe you stole this? Did you rob a bank or something?”

“I'm telling you the truth.”

Seol Jihu pleaded with a frustrated expression on his face.

“I stopped gambling. I've already asked the casino to ban me from entering the place. And the money's from a commission… No, it's from the work.”

“You stopped gambling?”

“A lifetime ban from entering the casino?”

Seol Wooseok and Seol Jinhee asked at the same time.

“I stopped gambling about a month ago. And today, I came here straight after asking Seorak Land to permanently ban me from stepping foot in that place. Please believe me.”

Seol Jihu explained as clearly as he could. However, it wasn't the issue of them not understanding him, but rather, everything to do with trust.

“So, what you're saying is, you stopped gambling, you voluntarily asked to be permanently banned, and this money is legit, is that right?”

As if he found the idea just too unbelievable, Seol Wooseok asked again.

“Stop fucking wasting my time, okay? You think I'll fall for your lies again?”

Seol Jinhee retorted derisively.

“Oh, so, when we begged you to get the entry ban, you didn't even pretend to listen. And when we tried to do it for you instead, didn't you throw an almighty tantrum? You expect us to believe you now?”

“Jinhee….”

“Hah? How dare you make that face in front of me?! What? You thought that just because you brought home some money, I'd start fawning all over you or something? You thought I'd start calling you Oppa again? Stop dreaming, you bastard. This is this, and that is that. This money is something that belongs to this family to begin with!”

Seol Wooseok cut his little sister off there.

“….I'll confirm it.”

His glare was full of suspicion as he switched on his smartphone. Three, four ringings later, Seol Wooseok opened his mouth.

“Is this the Seorak Land? Yes, yes. I'd like to ask for a person to be banned from entering your…. Ah, I'm his older brother. His name is Seol Jihu…. Come again?”

Seol Wooseok's voice became progressively louder.

“He asked to be permanently banned? Today? Personally?”

Seol Jinhee quietly listened from the side and became dazed herself.

“In, in that case, is it possible to find out when was the last time he entered your…. Yes, the last time…. It was the sixteenth of March?!”

A short while later, Seol Wooseok hung up. Seol Jinhee's attitude had softened a tad, but she still continued to glare at Seol Jihu.

Seol Wooseok spoke up as if he was still unconvinced.

“….I still can't believe this.”

“Hyung. Really, I….”

“No, wait. Fine. Let's say you were telling the truth. Then, just where did you get this money from?”

“Uh? That, that's from….”

“I heard that Seonhwa gave you 2 million a month ago.”

‘He knew about that?’ Seol Jihu could only open and close his mouth, unable to say anything.

“I also heard that you returned everything later that night, too…. You didn’t have a single coin to your name, so how can you earn this much money in a month without resorting to gambling? Not only that, you brought a laptop and a car key.”

They were rather sharp and pointed questions. Even Seol Jinhee found it strange after hearing them.

“Wait, this is that super expensive gaming laptop….”

She began taking a closer look at the thrown laptop, and sure enough, her suspicion grew even stronger.

Seol Jihu realized his mistake, then. Should he chalk this one to his desires getting the better of him? He remembered his little sister loved to play games, so he shelled out over ₩3 million to buy the best gaming laptop found in the shop. How could he have ever guessed that the damn thing would end up being a potential source of trouble?

'What should I do now?'

In the end, he had no choice but to bluff his way out of this one. If he hesitated and wasted time here, they would start suspecting him with something else completely unrelated.

“That's why I'm here today, to talk to you about what's going on.”

He carefully squeezed out each and every single word. If he just said whatever that came to his mind, they would latch onto the holes in his story pretty quickly. So, Seol Jihu cautiously chose what he wanted to say.

“I was introduced to a job through a person I know. It pays quite well.”

“Just what kind of work pays this much?”

“Oh, that. I got lucky, that's all. Something big happened and I received a large bonus.”

“….Horse racing? Or sports betting?”

“Hyung.”

“Lottery?”

Seol Jihu rubbed his face. He got to confirm one more time what his family thought about him. But how could he blame them? He deserved it, after all.

“This money has nothing to do with gambling.”

“You. Can you repeat everything you said in front of mom and dad?”

Doing that was a part of Seol Jihu's original plan, but it had changed now. His hyung or his little sister might not be able to spot the fault in the story, but he could foresee his father asking many uncomfortable questions already.

“I'd like to do that, but I have to go.”

“He'll be home soon.”

“It's only because I'm really busy. I was working outside the office today, that's why I'm here. So, please, speak to dad for me. Please?”

“What do you want me to say to him?”

“Very soon, I'll be going out of town for a while. The duration could be as much as one, maybe over two months. You won't be able to contact me during that time, but don't worry about me.”

He managed to explain, albeit just barely. Both Hyung and his little sister still seemed confused, but there was no helping it. Seol Jihu couldn't tell them anything concrete even if he wanted to.

“I gotta go. I'm running behind schedule. I'll come by next time to properly greet mom and dad.”

Seol Jihu forced out a smile and bade his goodbyes. He opened the door, climbed down the flight of stairs, and opened the front door.

But, until he closed the door….

Never mind trying to stop him, he couldn't even hear them call out his name. Of course, he used the excuse of being busy, but still….

“….”

For some reason, he felt like all his vigor was leaving his body.

[You thought that just because you brought home some money, I'd start fawning all over you or something?]

His sister's words, spoken to him when his mind was in too much of a chaos to hear her, finally landed their lethal blow.

As if they knew that he deserved the pain, the blow landed real hard and deep.

'I wanted to…. apologize properly….'

He was too busy coming up with excuses that he couldn't even get to say sorry once.

His first step didn't work out as he wanted to, but he still had one more person to apologize to.

Seol's head remained lowered as he trudged towards the nearest subway station.

His shoulders drooped powerlessly, too.