CHAPTER 180: CHAPTER 179. EVERY SHOW NEEDS A CLIMAX

"What is it? What is it?"

"Is something happening up there? I heard someone cursing?"

"What? Why are we stopping?"

People who couldn’t move and were stuck inside the corridor because Mason and Amber suddenly stopped were buzzing curiously. Someone pushed forward, and while it wasn’t very crowded, the push made someone stumble and push more people. Like a chain reaction, people started to push others in front of them until Amber and Mason got shoved forward into the art hall—so close to the central stage.

Crazy! Amber gritted her teeth and quietly stepped away with a staff member’s help. Was this a genuine audience curiosity, or was someone planted to push Mason closer? How could everyone just show up at the same time? Did Sarah ask for the staff members’ help?

At any rate, it was crazy. And Amber had no intention to get caught up in this craziness, so she quietly slipped away, leaving Mason on his own, stumbling toward the central exhibit where his father was. Fathers.

"Fuck! Who is--" Mason cursed loudly when he got shoved, pulling people’s attention to him.

"Hmm? Isn’t this your son, Chairman Lee?" Kang Jun tilted his head, keeping his expression in check. "I hadn’t seen him in a long time, but..."

"M-Mason?" the first wife hurriedly came to her son’s side and yanked his arm, hissing in panic. "What the fuck are you doing here?!"

"Ask her--" Mason turned to his side to look for Amber, but he couldn’t see his sister anywhere. Not on his side, not behind his--hell, he looked around and couldn’t spot her anywhere, as if she had vanished into thin air. "That bitch!"

Kang Jun frowned at the loud curse, which was enough to be heard by everyone in the hall. "That’s a rather harsh word you are using, young man. You’re not going to start throwing stuff around, are you?"

"What?" Mason scowled, and his mother immediately pulled him again.

"Mason!" she scolded with a harsher hiss, before bowing nervously to Kang Jun. "I’m terribly sorry, Chairman Kang. He’s just having a bad day," she smiled wryly and turned around to face her son, trying to drag him away, whispering sharply. "I don’t know what is happening, but we should go."

But it seemed like Mason had no intention to cooperate, because he slapped away the hand pulling at his arm. "Where the fuck have you been all this time, Mother?"

"Mason, let’s just go--"

The first wife got so desperate that she didn’t even care anymore that Mason went against her. He had been turning unhinged ever since the end of summer anyway. She had no leeway to think much about why the son she was so proud of, the supposed future heir of HS Group, became like this; why the careful and calculative man started shouting in public as if they were in their own living room.

All she cared about was getting away from this situation, which she had feared for three decades; away from the murmuring crowd.

People, who were streaming into the hall but kept their distance from the central half-finished display, whispered among themselves while pretending to look at other artists’ installations around the hall. The invited influencers secretly recorded the exchange, and the reporters were wondering if they could take a picture and write some articles about it without getting thrown out by Mirae’s staff.

"But, hey..." someone in the middle of the crowd whispered to another, loud enough for several people around them to hear. "Don’t you think Chairman Lee’s son looks awfully similar to that person standing in the middle?"

"Oh, now that you said that..."

"He looks more like that man than Chairman Lee Hyuk."

Someone gasped. "Do you think--"

In just a few seconds, the whispers had spread to the whole crowd, and some people added new conclusions each time. The secret gazes became not secret anymore, as the ’accidental’ reunion turned into a grand stage. The overhead lights, meant to brighten the area to show the artworks better, became an unintentional stage light that drew people’s attention.

The whispers and murmurs, at one point, became loud enough for the people in the central installation to hear. The first wife was looking around nervously, as curious gazes fell upon them; upon her. Curious, vindictive gazes with mocking laughs hidden beneath.

She could already imagine what those people would talk about the moment they left the exhibition; what topic would come up in every gathering session for at least a month--if not more.

She wanted to run away, but the crowd was covering the way. She wanted to pull her son away, but he was making more scene instead. In the middle of her panic, she finally heard the dreaded question.

"Helene, what is the meaning of this?" Lee Hyuk asked in a low tone, with a repressed anger behind every word.

"W-what?" the first wife grew paler, replying in a high-pitched, squeaking voice. "I d-don’t know what you’re talking about!"

Theo, who was trapped in the center, turned his face away from the chairman, cursing under his breath. "Shit..."

He did want to meet Chairman Lee; but what was the use if everyone already knew?

Lee Hyuk narrowed his eyes and asked the host of the event. "Chairman Kang, do you know this man?"

He didn’t really mean to ask, just signaling that he didn’t want this debacle to continue. Certainly, Kang Jun wouldn’t want his group’s event to be marred with this kind of cheap drama, right?

...right?

"Huh? I thought he was your relative or something, Chairman Lee," Kang Jun tilted his head, brow arched as he watched everything in fascination. His eyes showed nothing, but they also showed no intention to stop Lee Hyuk’s family matter from becoming a part of the attraction. He glanced at the head of the staff instead. "Yuna?"

"This is Theo Kim, Chairman. Kim Tae-oh, a substitute artist we found last minute. I believe he had been living abroad for thirty years," the young woman looked at her notes nervously, glancing at Lee Hyuk who clearly looked annoyed at how these people couldn’t catch the hint. "Is there...any problem, Sir?"

"Well...I don’t know," Kang Jun shrugged, looking blank and clueless. "Do you know him, Chairman Lee?"

"I’m not sure," Lee Hyuk replied with a sharp hiss, looking at his ex-wife and Mason with an equally sharp gaze.

Of course, he already knew that Mason wasn’t his son, even before Amber came to him with the information. He just chose to ignore it because it was already too late when he found out, and no one else was capable enough to become the successor that satisfied the executives and the board of directors. Even after all the chaos, he meant to keep it hidden to preserve this image.

He did it that much, risking being hated by his--probably favorite--daughter, but what the fuck was this ex-wife of his doing? Shouldn’t she have kept this man in check to make sure he never stepped inside the country?

Now everyone would know, when it was already hard to keep the stock price from plummeting. All because of that ungrateful brat!

"Hmm...your ex-wife seems to know him," Kang Jun stroked his chin.

Lee Hyuk’s eyes twitched in annoyance. This was why people shouldn’t be given power when they were still young. "It’s none of my business," he said quietly, just so the reporters wouldn’t hear it. "We’re leaving, Vi--"

"Oh, could it be that Mason is actually that person’s son?" The mistress, who had been looking at Mason and the artist dazedly, muttered quite loudly.

Lee Hyuk wanted to face-palm himself. "Vivian!"

"H-huh?" the pregnant lady gasped, looking up and around in surprise. "Did...did I say that out loud?"

Vivian clasped her mouth, but the damage had already been done. She, the person who came as Chairman Lee’s plus one, had stated what everyone didn’t dare to voice out, and it was treated as a confirmation. The gossiping madams and the reporters only needed a few tweaks in their wording to turn the loud conjecture into a fact.

Lee Hyuk, still full of affection for his young mistress, turned his anger toward the three people who had been deceiving him. The first wife pressed the brim of her wide hat lower to hide her face, wishing the floor would split and swallow her; wishing the way to the exit or the restroom wasn’t blocked by so many curious people.

Most people’s gaze, however, was pointed toward Mason--who had become quite a topic a while back--and the older man who looked like him. Seeing the three of them, they truly did look like a family.

Much more than if Lee Hyuk stood beside them.

The gaze, the whisper, the silent and spoken accusation...Mason could feel everything, and everything was falling apart. The frustration, the anger, the realization that his world was crumbling down fueled the already brewing fury inside his heart.

And he decided to lash out at the person in the center of everything. "You son of a bitch! What are you doing here?!" he lunged and grabbed Theo’s collar, screaming at the man.

"W-wait--"

"Mason!"

"Are you here to destroy my life even more? Huh?!" Mason grabbed the collar so hard that Theo felt like he was choking. The collar wound around his airpipe so tightly he couldn’t do anything but let out airy whimpers. "I should have killed you a long time ago!"

"M-mason! Stop!"

"Kyaah!"

The first wife tried to grab Mason’s arms and Vivian screamed in fright at the violent development. It got the crowd gasping and panicking, stumbling back to get away from the center of the hall--even while recording the scene with their phone. Kang Jun called the security personnel, who immediately rushed in to grab Mason and separate him from Theo before it turned into a homicide case.

And while the grand opening of the art exhibition turned into chaos, Sarah hummed on her swivel chair, sipping on her warm spiced latte.

"Ah...what an exciting show."