Bamboo Forest Manager - Chapter 380



Father

“Hahaha! Father! Isn’t today a day to celebrate!”

In the car on the way to the main house.

I was laughing heartily, but no one answered me.

Father and my eldest brother had complicated expressions, but since it was my eldest brother driving instead of a chauffeur, there was no need to be cautious with my words.

“Father, you now have three grandchildren. What should we name our children?”

“……”

“……”

“Well, do you have any advice? Diapers are expensive, but I’m glad you’re a billionaire.”

“……”

“……”

“We don’t have to worry about the kids being bullied. If the three of them stick together, who would dare to bully them?”

As I kept talking, my eldest brother, gripping the steering wheel tightly, spoke.

“Woojin, it’s complicated, so shut up.”

“What? It’s something to celebrate.”

“Hoo, it’s not like you got hit on the head somewhere.”

My eldest brother glanced at Father.

Father was staring blankly out the window.

The expression reflected in the window was filled with deep thoughts, and seeing that, I felt my heated head cool down.

“……Now that I think about it, you’re right.”

Impregnating three women at the same time, isn’t that crazy when you think about it?

Of course, I intend to take responsibility.

From the outside, it just looks like the goddamn mess a chaebol’s youngest son made with his slutty s*x life, doesn’t it?

“Haa.”

My older brother let out a long sigh.

We’d just arrived back at the main house, and as soon as I stepped inside, Mom was waiting.

“Why does our messed-up youngest always cause trouble when he’s let out of the house?”

She said, holding a club.

“Wait! Mom! Hold on!”

Despite my shout, Mom didn’t hesitate, charging straight at me.

“You little shit! Three, THREE!? I told you to pick one, not to take all three of them! What are you going to do about this!”

“Who told you? Was it you, hyung? You ratted me out?!”

“……”

He must not have wanted to get clubbed, because I tried to make a run for it back outside.

“Dinner.”

My father, indifferent, said as he walked past.

“Eat dinner first.”

“Ah… Okay.”

Maybe it was the ominous vibe coming off my father.

Mom lowered the club and slowly shuffled towards the dining room.

Not like she’d even be making the food anyway.

‘I want to go see the kids.’

It was already 7 PM.

Would they still be there if I went back now?

I was desperately trying to suppress the urge to see them, I was just about to send a text…

“Don’t contact them.”

My older brother snatched my phone, glaring at me.

“What is it? Why?”

“Father hasn’t said anything yet. If you start spouting nonsense here, the kids will get hurt even more.”

“What nonsense?”

“Like…”

My brother hesitated for a moment, then sighed and replied.

“I’ll take full responsibility. What kind of talk is that?”

“Damn it, then take full responsibility. Who are you going to abandon?”

When I shouted back, my eldest brother responded irritably for the first time.

“Don’t talk nonsense. This is South Korea.”

“We’ve already transcended that.”

“Sigh.”

“People around always point fingers at great men, calling them delusional.”

“I’m telling you to act sensibly.”

“Who’s getting hurt? No matter what you say, I’ll embrace everything. The kids acknowledged it too.”

“Ack…nowledge?”

My brother looked at me with an expression that said it was absurd, but I just grinned and raised my middle finger.

“I’m kind of a big deal.”

The sound of dinner being ready came.

When we went to the dining room, my younger brother and his wife were already seated, and my eldest brother’s wife had also quietly taken her place.

It seemed they had been told in advance to be here.

‘We’ll need three more chairs.’

If all the kids were to sit.

Or maybe we shouldn’t eat here at all.

It would feel disgusting to eat while being watched.

Clatter.

Father picked up his spoon and started eating the soup, signaling the start of the meal.

A somewhat late dinner.

The dining table was quiet.

But it wasn’t peaceful.

Everyone was either watching Father or glaring at me with their eyes.

If the sound of their eyes rolling could be heard, it would have been incredibly noisy.

After the meal.

“Woojin, to my room. You too.”

Father called me and my mother to his room separately.

On the way, my mother hit my back, but we went inside anyway.

Father sat in his study chair, as he always did.

Mother brewed tea beside him and served it simply. Only after taking a sip did Father begin to speak.

“I hoped you would follow in my footsteps.”

A voice without highs or lows.

However, it lacked the usual heavy weight.

“I thought you were a child who resembled me completely. A child who would grow the company even bigger.”

“……”

“If I…”

After a brief pause to catch his breath, Father threw out a word after much deliberation.

“What if I don’t allow it?”

“I don’t need your permission, Father.”

“Woojin!”

Mother shouted from the side, asking what kind of manner of speaking that was, but Father raised his hand to stop her.

“I will stay with those kids no matter what. Money? It might be a bit tough without the backing of Wooju Group right now.”

But.

“Do you think I can’t earn that?”

Though it was mixed with a bit of bravado, I was quite confident.

“It won’t be that easy. Being thrown out with nothing.”

“Have you forgotten who you intended to entrust the company to?”

“……”

“There is only one reason I am confident. Because you acknowledged me, Father.”

One of the leading conglomerates in South Korea.

Chairman Kim, who wrote the legend of Wooju Group.

Father, who is literally called a giant, recognized my talent.

“Your judgment is never wrong. I will work with confidence and tenacity.”

After answering confidently, Father pondered for a moment and then asked.

“If I acknowledge you, in return, will you take my place?”

“I will.”

“Hmm.”

“Although I said that earlier, I don’t want to live estranged from my family. If there is a way to live harmoniously, I will choose that.”

If leading the Wooju Group is the price for my father’s recognition, then I will do it.

I will do my best, somehow, to go in the direction my father wants.

Hearing that, my father let out a hollow laugh and nodded.

“It is done.”

“Yes?”

“Woojin, you are…”

He looked like he didn’t want to admit it, but my father spoke honestly with a bitter smile.

“You are too great a person to be contained within our Wooju.”

“……”

“If we tried to contain you, the vessel that is Wooju might break.”

It was the first time.

Truly the first time.

My father looked at me and couldn’t hold back a genuine chuckle.

“Live your life as you see fit. You can at least conduct yourself well enough to avoid causing a stir, right?”

“Does that mean…”

“I will do nothing for you. The eyes of those around you, persuading your in-laws, your family register. You will have to handle everything yourself.”

But then, as if imagining it, my father added with a laugh.

“Still, later on, bring your daughters-in-law to greet me.”

Daughters-in-law.

The corners of my mouth slowly lifted in slow motion as I heard the answer.

“Ah, of course!”

I nodded confidently.

“Go on, if I see you any longer today, I might pick up a switch for the first time in ten years.”

“Yes!”

I quickly turned my body and headed outside.

Just before grabbing the doorknob and opening the door, I turned my head and spoke to my father.

“I don’t want to be a father like you.”

“……”

“You were a chairman, not a parent.”

He did not deny it.

Even Mom, who was beside me, seemed to have no excuse for it.

“But please, do a good job playing the role of Grandpa.”

With those words, I opened the door and stepped outside.

* * *

Creak.

Thud.

“Father, did you call for me?”

A few minutes after Kim Woo-jin left.

Kim Jae-woon came inside.

The atmosphere was stiff, not what one would expect when facing one’s parents.

It was something that Mrs. Kim didn’t like, but for now, she quietly observed the situation without intervening.

The smile he showed while dealing with Kim Woo-jin was the same.

She felt that something was changing in her husband.

“People are fickle.”

Chairman Kim said calmly, wetting his lips with the tea his wife had brewed.

As if confessing something.

“I’ve seen countless people like that, and I wanted to be a different kind of person from them.”

“……”

“But in the end, I was just a fickle human being too.”

Chairman Kim chuckled.

He seemed to have let go of something.

“People always focus on the small things they don’t have, rather than the big things they do.”

“……”

“Jae-woon, you were like that to me.”

Why was it?

What was the reason?

Even with such a dependable eldest son in front of him.

The reason his eyes were drawn to the youngest, who was just willful.

Chairman Kim felt as if he had finally opened his eyes to something.

Kim Woo-jin had a talent for captivating people.

That must be the reason why he ended up with three wives.

If you ask who the first and greatest victim of it was.

It would surely be himself.

“Jaewoon, not everything I did was right.”

The moment one acknowledges their own naivety, they naturally begin to look back on the past.

Chairman Kim was a man who valued learning.

“You are already doing your part well enough. Don’t bother chasing after me.”

Smiling gently, Chairman Kim once again asked his eldest son.

“Take good care of the company.”

“……”

Kim Jaewoon’s eyes became blurry.

A lifetime.

A single phrase he had wanted to hear all his life.

From the person he respected the most in his life.

The person he most wanted to resemble.

With just one word from his father.

Kim Jaewoon bent over and shouted, trying to hide his tears.

“Thank you!”

As Kim Jaewoon left the room.

Chairman Kim tapped his fingers on the desk and muttered.

“I must be going senile.”

A behavior unlike himself.

He sarcastically mocked himself, but his wife, who was beside him, gently held his hand.

“Now, you have finally become a father.”

“……Have I.”

From noble mtl dot com

Squeezing her hand.

He felt a not-so-bad feeling.

“So this is what it feels like.”

He thought that if he let go of what he held in his hand, nothing would be left for him.

That’s why he held on so tightly, and tried so hard to pass it on to the next person.

In reality.

Letting go of what was in my hand brought a sense of liberation.

“We’re going to have some headaches because of Woojin from now on.”

“Sigh, I have nothing to say to the in-laws. If it comes to it, should we go together and kneel?”

“…I guess we should practice.”

“Do you practice things like that?”

“I’ve never knelt before anyone in my life.”

“Are you joking right now?”

The elderly couple exchanged a brief glance and a faint smile.

Then they sighed deeply once more.

“Are you really not going to help Woojin at all?”

“I have to be like that with Woojin.”

“Ah?”

“The daughters-in-law are only guilty of marrying the wrong man.”

They intended to take care of everything except for Kim Woojin.

Especially, they needed to ensure that the daughters-in-law were well protected from external scrutiny.

“…It’s nice to have more grandchildren.”

Finding at least one advantage, Chairman Kim nodded with a vacant expression, then nodded in resignation.

“That, haha… yes, that’s good.”