NETIZEN

DEADLOCK

"Dad likes to reminisce about his school days, his very talkative you know my mother calls him Radio. Can you believe he talks more than me?"

Soo Yeon didn't want to believe it; she pitied his auditors, who probably went through living hell at times. But now she needed the Radio's offspring to spill the data, so she gently urged her friend.

"Sorry, I'm not familiarized with Korea's chaebol families being born in America and all."

"Soo Yeon, you should have told me since I would have briefed you. Okay, let's start from the beginning," Min Ha sat up in her chair, ready to give a speech as if she was giving Soo Yeon a round tour of Gyeongbougung Palace.

"Kang Baek Hyun is from the first generation of chaebols when he got to college. His family was having financial problems. Hong Seok Sik is also from the first gen, his family has always worked in the medical field, so there was no surprise when he entered medical school. Between the two, there was Seo Kwan Gi, who was from the second generation of your usual merchant families.

"The Seos were seen as eccentric because they bought any company, and after a while, they would sell it off. At the time they had, small businesses in almost every field, and people liked them. My father said he had never met a man as funny and generous as Seo Kwan Gi."

Soo Yeon listened attentively. It was the first time she heard the story told like this. Min Ha pursued her explanation driven by Soo Yeon's eyes, which didn't even blink as she spoke.

"As you know, many people snob my father. It's because he is from a third or fourth generation of chaebols. Anyway, my father didn't have a better image back then. Strangely enough, he began to hang around them. Director Hong seemed to be the bumper between Seo Kwan GI and senator Kang Baek Hyun."

"Why the bumper? I thought they were friends," Soo Yeon asked.

"You know the expression, keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer. I don't know what Seo Kwan Gi's feelings were towards Kang Baek Hyun, but dad told me the senator had strong resent for Seo Kwan Gi.

"They were in a Deadlock situation where you watch your enemy waiting for what moves they will make. Basically, for me, they pretended to be friends."

Soo Yeon was perplexed; she had always seen her father and the senator as close friends. Jun Ho was like a brother for Kyung Gi's, and they were friends despite their age gap. The Kang family was very present in the Seos life; the one who always seemed like the outsider was director Hong who was never there when the senator was around and vice versa. But as Soo Yeon pondered, she realized she was never in a situation where the three men were reunited. She never even met with all the children at once.

"Why did senator Kang resent Seo Kwan Gi?"

"Aigoo, my dear Soo Yeon, it's a major historical drama ploy. Remember I told you the Kang's had financial problems, and one of the senator's cousins played his company in a game of bridge. Guess who he lost it to?"

"Who?" Soo Yeon asked though she knew the answer.

"To chairman Seo, Kang Baek Hyun was furious he asked him to give it back. But Seo Kwan Gi said he won fair and square and that he was keeping it. He even promised he would not sell it off like other businesses the way his family usually did. I bet you think that it's not a reason enough to hate someone right, well guess what. There's another reason, and this is the real epic revenge ploy." For the first time since Min Ha knew Soo Yeon, she captured all of the girl's attention. Pleased and proud, she pursued her tale like a pansori singer.

"Senator Kang was in love with Kim Sae Ha, who he courted, and she chose to marry Seo Kwan Gi, who had money but not looks. Dad said Kim Sae Ha loved chairman Seo's sense of humor. Anyway, all this to tell you that our senator has never swallowed the chunk of bread despite the years.

"My father explained in the years of friendship with the senator, not a day past without him cursing chairman Seo. Kang Baek Hyun had an arranged marriage to save the Kang's status and secure their fortune; you know, your usual chaebol soap opera. Everybody says the senator never got over that.

"So when the state wanted to liquidate Satellite, Senator Kang helped my father buy Satelite. And when my father took the lead rebaptizing the company Supernova, dad fired almost everyone. My father said he could not work with traitors; he thinks there's more to the Satellite case that meets the eye. To this day, my father doesn't believe what people say about the Seos. He told me Seo Kwan Gi was a nice man."

Soo Yeon knew the story, but no one had told her the depths.

Min Ha sighed, "you know what, sometimes I find myself thinking, what if it was me, the Seo's daughter. I mean, I could have been that girl hated by everyone. Soo Yeon, if I were the Seo's daughter, would you still be my friend?"

The question was like a bullet to Soo Yeon's heart.

"What was her name again? I think it was Hye, Hee-."

"Hye Mi, her name was Hye Mi," Soo Yeon added.

Min Ha didn't even wonder how Soo Yeon remembered the name of a girl from a family that she stated not knowing about half an hour earlier.

"Poor girl, she must have lived through hell and to die in such a tragedy not knowing other joys in life. Yes, if I was Seo Hye Mi, would you still be my friend?"

Soo Yeon's stomach churned like never as her intestines twisted. Hye Mi screamed inside. The teen wanted to climb over the table and strangle Min Ha, yelling, you bitch, I dare you, empathize when you live off my possessions. Yet Soo Yeon refrained herself and left to go to the toilet, where she vomited everything she had inside.

"Soo Yeon, are you okay?" Min Ha asked as she stood in front of the toilet door.

"I'll be out soon; you can go and sit down. I'm fine," Soo Yeon answered as she cried.

Seo boiled as she rinsed her face. She was so hot her clothes could have blazed, but they won't the only thing which was going to go down in flames.

Her enemy now had a face. She wondered and weighed the reasons why her family was the scapegoats of this story. Now it was like a game of connecting the dot in her head. Everything lined up like constellations.

Kang Baek Hyun killed her father out of jealousy.

Soo Yeon burst into laughter in front of the mirror as she added the elements together.

Hye Mi's brother and father were dead.

Her mother couldn't sleep without a hefty dose of anti-depressors, and she had become a revenging soul; why? Because of a foolish man's envy and resentment.

It was so surreal the girl couldn't grasp its reality, for it was making her slip into insanity.

Soo Yeon broke for good.

The girl left the Dunkin Donuts without taking leave from Min Ha, who sat waiting while Soo Yeon slipped away.

Min Ha sent messages on KTalk, LINE, Whatsapp, Wechat, but they all remained unread by Soo Yeon, who, like a zombie, went back to her apartment to lay on her bed staring at the ceiling.

The shock was immense; she had lived in hell for the last three years to come to this stupid and straightforward conclusion.

Morning dawned. Soo Yeon didn't sleep a wink.

As the sun rose, she took a cold shower, for she was on fire. When she stepped out and looked at her face in the mirror, everything became clear.

The Seos enemies were intelligent; they would probably wiggle themselves out of prisons with bribes and other corruption means. Seo Yeon couldn't take the risk of having them freed.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life.

Soo Yeon would not leave these people the breath to harm anyone else, ever again.