The Sunyang Affair

First Life Epilogue

It was all over. He was gone. She should have trusted her instinct more. She should have stopped him. She should have force him to stay. She should have insisted more. She should have ... but now it was too late. He was dead. He was gone forever. 

She let them bring his body and she held a funeral. The only people who came to his funeral were his brother and father. She did not tell anyone else about it. Of course, they had seen her pictures in the media. They had heard of her but they did not know how she was involved with Hyun Woo. Quite frankly, they did not have the energy to think too deeply about it or ask her. They had lost Hyun Woo and on a bad note at that. 

His father had regrets, had he been more successful, Hyun Woo would have been able to go to college and have a safer job. Had he not made so many mistakes, Hyun Woo would not have to stay at a job, he would often return from with wounds. Had he taken one more job, Hyun Woo would not have had to be the breadwinner of the family and could have started his own. 

His brother also had regrets. If only he had been smarter and had passed the civil servant exam prior, he could have helped his brother. If only he had stopped studying earlier, he could have supported his brother to earn money. 

And so with only three people to send him off, Hyun Woo was cremated. 

Ha Rin felt empty like someone had ripped her soul and heart out yet she was still alive. She did not feel motivated to do anything. She wondered was everything for naught? She did not regret loving Hyun Woo but would he have been better off without her? They never even had the chance to be a public couple. She tried to protect him with this ridiculous living situation and yet he still died at their hands.

She rounded the family up in the conference room. She had never done so before and the family was curious, as to why she was doing so now. One after the other the main family got in and took a seat until only Ha Rin was missing. They spoke amongst themselves, how dare she make them wait. First she invited Lee Hae In into the medical center and now she had called them without appearing. 

Soon enough Ha Rin entered the room with a stoic demeanor, her usual mischievousness was nowhere to be seen in her eyes neither was her ingrained arrogance. She stood in front of them while they sat.

"You are probably wondering why I have gathered you here." She started. 

"It is because I have something to announce concerning the Soonyang Group. I will vote at the next shareholder meeting." She announced. Immediately the room became tense, Ha Rin's influence in the Soonyang Group was enormous whoever she chose would become the next CEO of the Group. Not only because of the ten percent share of the Group that she held that they were aware but also because of her influence over most public shareholders. 

However something was odd. In all the twenty years that Ha Rin has been actively holding the shares after Jin Yang Chul's death, never once has she voted on the people directing the Group. Sometimes they even forgot that she had so much influence. 

"I am going to remove each and everyone of you from the managing positions. From now just live quietly on your dividends and I will not touch you. We will not see each other in the future." Immediately protest arose, she was removing the Jin family from the Group. How dare an outsider that they fed and clothed, do that to them. 

"You cannot do that. Have you forgotten the promise you made to father?" Dong Ki asked. She was still bound to that promise. Ha Rin was always quite sentimental about the old man. He was the reason why she was still in Korea. He was the reason why they could borrow her name to attract foreign investors. 

"The promise?" Ha Rin scoffed. "I only promised Jin Yang Chul that Soonyang Group would not collapse and the Jin family would be taken care of. Don't step out of line! I will put someone competent in the management and Soonyang Group would make even more money than right now. At least that person would have earned their position. Besides the dividends you will receive from your shares are more than enough to sustain a good quality of life." Ha Rin glared at them.

"You still cannot do that. The Soonyang Group and the Jin family are one. You cannot just remove us. The Soonyang Group was built by the Jin family, an outsider like you has no right to decide over that." Seong Joon spoke up. He was going to be the next CEO by default, if Ha Rin does not interfere with the process.

"Once again, you call me an outsider. When you want to use my name and reputation, you tell me to carry out the duty that comes with adopting the Jin family name. Then you know what I will just leave the family and take up my family name. Besides Soonyang Group has not been the same as the Jin family in a while that ended after you lost the founder. The Soonyang Group was founded with the blood, sweat and energy of your father and grandfather, Jin Yang Chul. I might give Young Ki some credit for living under his father's shadow and getting crippled as result. However you lot? You are nothing but incompetent leeches. Parasites that I have let roaming around for too long." Ha Rin laughed sadly. 

The room was silent for a while. Nobody said a word for some time.

"Why now? Why like this? What has changed your mind?" Ye Jun asked. 

"Finally someone is addressing the elephant in the room. I knew you were one smarter ones here." Ha Rin said with a playful voice but continued with a more serious tone. 

"One of you touched one of my people and I will not let that slide. I realized that I had tolerated you for too long and it is now time to go our separate ways. I have seen you scheme and do many many illegal things in the name of the promise I made to Yang Chul. In hindsight it was complacency perhaps even laziness.

 As long as you did not touch any of my people I would have been fine to even see the world burn by your hands. However you have crossed the line and I am taking you all down together. After all that was what Jin Yang Chul taught me, to not forgive regardless of the existing relationship. I could have taken you down one by one with a the things I know about you. However I never want to see any of your faces again. And you will tear each other up anyways to find the person responsible for your downfall. The only sadistic little pleasure I will derive from this method is you seeing the time tick expecting your downfall and not being able to do anything."

With that said she left the room and did not turn back. She just heard the family curse and swear, shouting and yelling at each other. 

A few weeks later, Ha Rin indeed voted against all Jin family members and made the separation clear. Many shareholders followed the lead and the Jin family lost all managerial rights to the conglomerate. The ones to replace them were educated professionals who had proved their skill through experience.

The Jin family lost their position as the royalty of Korea and what followed were law suits, complaints and law enforcement they had been avoiding all these years. Ha Rin did not care. She left the country and settled in Switzerland, her second home country, traveling the world and continuing her philanthropy. She did not care about any news of the Jin family and knew that the Soonyang Group was running well. She spent her last years in Ghana, her home country and died alone at the age of 50 years, donating her vast wealth to various charitable organizations.

(1395 Words)

Author's Note: I thought it would be great to bring the first life to end but did not expect to write so much. Anyways this is to show a glimpse of Ha Rin's personality, she is no saint. She will allow horrible things to happen as long as it means she is not exposing her close ones to any danger. Please look forward to the second life.