Perfect Crown in Royal Academy of Korea - Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty Three: The Family's Permission

Greeting the summer vacation, Taejoo returned to Korea. It was after as long as 1 year and a half. Thanks to his father who told him not to waste time moving back and forth and Dayoung who cut plane tickets bound for America whenever a gap was present, Korea had not been desperate.
 
But as for this summer vacation at least, he had to spend it in Korea. The time had come when he must put a conclusion to the proposal he committed at the graduation ceremony.
 
Taejoo was already the primary enemy of the Han family. Especially, the resentment toward Taejoo that Dayoung's older brothers harbored was deepening day after day. Because on top of making a public proposal without even the permission of the adults, they took Taejoo's behavior of flying off to America after the proposal as a disregard toward the family.
 
Dayoung, who had been isolating Taejoo from the family's anger, wished to untie the situation now. Because her nodding her head to Taejoo's proposal was sincere. She believed that if her family members also met Taejoo directly, their minds would change.
 
If it didn't work, it couldn't be helped, but let's try up to the point they could try, was Dayoung's thought. Whether they liked it or hated it, they were a relationship that would become one family soon, so there was no way it would be good to harbor a grudge.
 
Therefore, Taejoo arrived at Incheon Airport with bundles of gifts to present to Dayoung's family piled up like a mountain. Even while thinking what if he suffered a beating from Dayoung's older brothers, it was difficult to control his fluttering mind at the thought of seeing Dayoung.
 
Sure enough. As soon as Taejoo saw Dayoung who was waiting in front of the gate, he burst into tears.
 
Dayoung, who ran and was embraced by that kind of Taejoo, stomped her feet as if releasing the longing during that time.
 
"Why are you becoming more and more handsome. Making me anxious."
 
"You, stop becoming pretty. I want to crumple you up and carry you in my pocket, seriously."
 
The two people, who expressed their minds of being dead from joy while making short-tongued sounds, held each other's hands firmly with determined faces. Now was really the time when they must receive the family's permission.
 
"Please give Dayoung to me!"
 
Taejoo, who knelt his knees flat out, shouted. It was a sound he made because there was something he had seen somewhere, but looking at the men in front of his eyes, it was certain he chose the time and place wrongly. The expressions of Dayoung's father, eldest brother, and second brother were not good.
 
Watching the men from whose eyes lasers appeared likely to come out, Taejoo thought. Dayoung looks like a deer, but why are the men of this family all like tigers.
 
"Father, let's just sprinkle salt."
 
Jaeyoung, who was Dayoung's eldest brother, said, and
 
"Shall I take him out and do a bit of education?"
 
Wooyoung, who was the second brother, chimed in.
 
"Ah, seriously!"
 
"Uh-huh, Han Dayoung. You stay quiet."
 
"What do you mean 'uh-huh'."
 
Dayoung, who had been knitting her brows while crossing her arms, threw a tantrum.
 
"Are you discouraging our Taejoo in front of me right now?"
 
"Our Taejoo, my foot. If you are going to be like this, get out of the house."
 
"Do you think I'd be scared of that kind of thing? Just dig me out of the family register, flat out."
 
"Darling, why are you being like this...."
 
The more Dayoung fumed, the more Taejoo became uncomfortable like sitting on a bed of needles. Compared to the older brothers who flew and leaped wild, he felt like he would die of fear at the quiet father-in-law.
 
"First, let's eat rice."
 
Dayoung's father, who had not been saying a single word, said. Her mother, who had been preparing dinner with the working people, showed her face only then. Taejoo, who again had many things he had seen somewhere, harbored a hope. Along with a mind that he would properly show what a 'son-in-law who eats rice well' was.
 
However—
 
"Which school do you say you attend."
 
No sooner had he lifted his spoon than the father-in-law's question flew in. Taejoo, who straightened his waist, cleared his throat.
 
"I, in America...."
 
"It appears your grades didn't amount to going to the Royal University."
 
"Brother."
 
"Why, what, did I say a word that is wrong?"
 
A bloody energy surged between Dayoung and Jaeyoung. Taejoo worried whether a fight would break out at the dining table side, but the father-in-law and mother-in-law appeared peaceful as if familiar.
 
"At the graduation ceremony, we were extremely troubled because of you."
 
"I am sorry. You must have been so surprised at that time."
 
At the apology without this or that excuse, the atmosphere on top of the dining table softened a bit.
 
"Right, since the age is young, one can also make a mistake...."
 
"But, Father-in-law."
 
Taejoo carefully cut off the middle of the speech.
 
"That I couldn't tell you in advance, and that you became troubled because of it, I am sorry for only that."
 
"What?"
 
"That I told Dayoung let's marry, because I am not sorry for that."
 
"......"
 
"At that time, and now, it is my sincere heart."
 
A strange silence followed. To deal with an opponent they had never dealt with, they were too much of yangban.
 
Minister Han Jungseok, who was Dayoung's father, evaluated himself that although he was a yangban, he wasn't that tightly blocked a person. He knew well that status itself was a product of an old era, and he did not fail to know that it was nothing more than a degree of a name tag of the upper class. That it was an order that would break down soon was also as foreseen.
 
But if it was a matter connected with his daughter, the story became different. Even looking only at Chairman Sung Hyunkuk, who was Sung Taejoo's father, he was notorious in all kinds of parts. Since he was a person who established a kingdom called the Castle Group in that era when status discrimination was grand, he was knowable. Even his private life was dirty to the extreme. Evenly from a mistress to an illegitimate child.
 
There was no father in this world who would give away a daughter like a gold or jade branch to the son of that kind of person. Therefore, he must talk to him severely and send him back, but—
 
"Sung Taejoo, where did you learn that kind of word..."
 
The fellow who was his daughter was crying having received impression.
 
"Hah.."
 
When he looked at the fellows who were his sons while holding his throbbing head, they were holding their heads identically.
 
"Dear, you try talking a bit."
 
Jungseok, who requested help from his wife having no choice, stared at a distant mountain. Unlike the pitch-black fellows who were his sons, it was difficult to say a harsh sound to his youngest daughter. Therefore, his wife instead....
 
"Has your father also seen our Dayoung?"
 
"Yes, my father also dislikes Dayoung extremely... I mean, likes Dayoung extremely."
 
"Is that so?"
 
His wife instead....
 
"Then your father also holds the same thought regarding the marriage?"
 
"He doesn't speak, but there is no need to ask either. Because he is a person who says Dayoung is a waste every single day."
 
"Is that so?"
 
His wife instead....
 
"What about your younger sister? Is your relationship with her... alright?"
 
"Mom, why do you ask that kind of thing."
 
"Aie, it's alright."
 
Taejoo, who lightly tapped the arm of Dayoung who paroxysmally reacted instead, showed a bright smile.
 
"She is just like Dayoung and the older brothers."
 
"Our children?"
 
"Yes, she seems just like a normal sibling."
 
As if to chew over that answer, Dayoung's mother made a pause for a moment. Everyone, let alone Taejoo, kept silence while waiting for the next question. When those lips parted at long last—
 
"How much must he like our Dayoung that he did that at the graduation ceremony."
 
A tender voice followed.
 
"The Castle Group... you will succeed it, right?"
 
"Uh..."
 
The moment Taejoo tilted his head, Dayoung poked Taejoo's flank hard. And that short signal, Taejoo understood remarkably.
 
"Of course! Since it's Father's company, I must succeed it!"
 
Seeing Taejoo who nodded powerfully, Dayoung's mother showed a smile of certainty.
 
"Mom, why are you smiling."
 
"Father, try stopping Mom a bit."
 
It didn't matter what the sons said.
 
"Dear."
 
"Why."
 
It was no business of hers no matter what her husband said. At that moment, Taejoo nimbly grasped how the rank within the house was configured.
 
"Our Mother-in-law, by any chance, do you like things like scarves?"
 
"Scarves?"
 
"I chose it in America while thinking of Mother-in-law...."
 
The face of Taejoo who unfolded the bundle of gifts he prepared was bright as if foreseeing victory. Dayoung's mother, who saw the scarves prepared by color and material, changed her title of addressing toward Taejoo from that time forth.
 
"Our Taejoo, your sense is also good."
 
She had something she thought while raising a principled husband and two blunt sons. That a serious man is not entertaining. Therefore, she wished for her daughter at least to meet a man who was not boring. A person who knows how to prepare an unexpected event, and who does not spare affection.
 
In that aspect, the graduation ceremony proposal was not bad. While being nothing more than a still young age, his appearance of throwing himself before love was also quite cute. If there was a bit that was regrettable, it was his origin, but....
 
"Mom, this, Taejoo says he chose it for Mom and me to do as a couple."
 
Dayoung, who exhibited the bracelet hung on her wrist, beamed. It was her daughter no matter who looked at it that she liked luxurious things. Unlike herself who had no choice but to be frugal for the reason that her husband did the state's work, it seemed Dayoung would be able to live while enjoying the things she liked to her heart's content.
 
"Dayoung, try this too."
 
Since our Taejoo appears to love even Dayoung's luxuriousness.