That line is pure honey.

It rolls right off the tongue and is more than enough to make the other guy blow a gasket.

I could see his face going sour.

“See that! I told you, no breeding in that family! The ignorant concubine’s brat takes after her ignorant mother!”

Cheered on by her husband, Auntie Sun-ja was on a roll.

That’s far enough!

“I’ll be pressing charges: the offense of defaming a dead person, and the offense of defamation against my mother.”

“Wh-what!”

“Your wife called my mother—one after another—the daughter of a philandering father, the daughter of a concubine, a woman from a family with no breeding, and an ignorant mother. There’s no greater insult than that, in front of all her classmates. I’ll be pressing charges.”

“!!!”

Mister Lawyer, even you can tell that’s defamation, can’t you?

Thank God Auntie Sun-ja was so ignorant.

Her husband’s face froze on the spot.

Thought that was the end of it?

Not a chance. I haven’t even started.

I took my phone out of my jacket.

Then I held down speed dial 9.

“CEO Jang, what’s going on? Calling me at night.”

“Director Jo. I’m calling because I’d like to hire you for a case.”

“Oh? What kind of case?”

“It’s the offense of defamation.”

“…Tsk, tsk. Whoever it is, they picked the wrong fight.”

“The other party is right here. I’ll put him on.”

“Somebody I know?”

“He says he’s with Samu Law.”

“What? Samu Law?”

This is why heaven really is fair.

Of all the firms, Auntie Sun-ja’s husband just had to be with Samu Law.

I grinned and handed over the phone.

“It’s for you.”

“Wh-what is it!”

He still hadn’t backed down.

I switched on the speakerphone.

I’d upgraded to a new Elja Electronics phone a few days ago.

Not quite a smartphone yet, but one of the Beauty series, with a touchscreen.

“Hello.”

Director Jo’s voice came through, soft-spoken but heavy.

“Hello. I don’t know who you are, but I’ll be countersuing over what just happened. For your information, I’m an attorney.”

“Is that so? And you’re with Samu Law?”

As befit a former Deputy Chief Prosecutor, he asked very politely.

“I’m Lee Dong-gwang, with Samu Law.”

“…”

Director Jo was silent for a moment.

“Hey! Lee Dong-gwang, you son of a bitch!”

Director Jo Yun-tae’s cursing exploded and rang through the whole banquet hall.

Whoa! You’ve got to hand it to this guy’s temper.

“Wh-who is this!”

“It’s Director Jo Yun-tae! You thickheaded idiot!”

“Heok!”

Auntie Sun-ja’s husband, Attorney Lee Dong-gwang, turned yellow in an instant.

Now you get it, huh?

“S-sunbae…”

Calling him sunbae—so the idiot was an ex-prosecutor, apparently.

“Where are you right now! Who the hell did you mess with? Apologize this minute and get your ass to the office. You stupid pig!”

Click!

Director Jo Yun-tae never talked long, and tonight that looked cooler than ever.

Ah, that felt good!

The moment the call ended, Attorney Lee Dong-gwang looked like his mind had run away from home to somewhere beyond the solar system.

A disaster caused by not knowing I was Samu Law’s third-largest shareholder.

That’s why you should be nice to people all the time.

Getting thrown out of a law firm and landing easily at another one only happens to people with solid ex-official connections or real talent.

One look told me he wasn’t exactly likable either.

Reading his face… from middle age on, he was fated to barely scrape by.

Auntie Sun-ja too.

Their faces showed a hard road ahead.

“Did you have a nice talk with my lawyer?”

I didn’t want to wreck the mood any further than this.

The best thing to do with garbage is bag it and throw it out, fast.

On Mom’s first glamorous night out in years, this much exorcism was enough.

“I’m so sorry! I deserve to die!”

The lawyer folded at the waist like a flip phone.

But what can you do?

I had no intention whatsoever of forgiving him.

These were people who’d obviously torment Mom with an even bigger noose once they got out of this jam.

“What are you doing! Why are you bowing over something like this!”

“Shut up!”

Slaaap!

Well, well—he slapped his own wife?

However awkward the situation, the two of them had thoroughly disgraced each other.

It’d be hard for her to show up at reunions with her shoulder pads puffed up after this.

“Waaaaaaaaaaah!”

Slapped, Auntie Sun-ja wailed like a child.

“Come with me!”

Her fat lawyer husband dragged Auntie Sun-ja out.

It was just like the last scene of a trashy soap opera.

“…”

Silence hung over the room.

Even the string quartet, speechless at the absurd sight, stopped playing.

Only my mom looked unfazed.

Mom had known about Auntie Sun-ja’s nastiness all along and had generously put up with it.

I respected her more tonight than ever.

“Ha, hahahaha. Tonight’s reunion is a little wild.”

The man called Jang Chan-u laughed awkwardly.

“Y-yeah… Sun-ja’s husband has more clout than you’d think. Enough to drag Sun-ja out…”

“Right? As of tonight, I’m going to believe Sun-ja’s husband really was a prosecutor.”

“Seol-ran, don’t feel bad. Sun-ja was always a real piece of work. Right, girls?”

“Now that you mention it—how many times did Sun-ja stab us all in the back? I feel so much better!”

“Seol-ran. You were so cool. The best!”

The ladies had noticed which way the wind was blowing.

They all trashed Auntie Sun-ja and praised Mom to the skies.

“I’m sorry, everyone. I came to the reunion and all I did was cause a scene.”

Kind-hearted Mom apologized from the heart.

“Forget it. What did you do wrong? That girl’s just rotten to the core.”

“But is your son really at Hanguk University law? Handsome and smart too… my daughter’s a freshman in high school this year—will you wait a little? Let’s become in-laws.”

“Oh my! Look at her jumping the gun~. Tae-san, dear. My daughter just started at Ewha Womans University this year. I’ll give you her number. You’ll meet her, won’t you?”

Suddenly the ladies were very interested in me.

“Mothers, fathers—I’m sorry I caused such a fuss. Please keep taking good care of my mother.”

I bowed my head and asked for their understanding.

“It’s all right. Why should you be to blame for a squabble between grown-ups? I’m sorry. I’m Jang Chan-u, a professor in Hongin University’s painting department. As president of the alumni association, I apologize.”

So the man called Jang Chan-u was the association president.

He was better than I’d thought.

“I’m humbled.”

“Come here and have a drink. You’re Seol-ran’s son, all right—so handsome~.”

He patted me on the shoulder.

When I greeted everyone, the mood got even warmer.

They especially couldn’t hide how pleased they were at being called Mother and Father.

With Auntie Sun-ja gone, people quickly opened up to Mom and me, who were worth a lot more to them.

“If you’re offering, I’ll gladly drink.”

From here on, all I had to do was play the good son of a great mom.

The targets, Auntie Sun-ja and her husband, were gone.

They say a warrior knows when to draw his sword and when to sheathe it.

“Seol-ran. We have to drink too. To Seol-ran’s glamorous return to the alumni association!”

“Hohohoho. I missed you, Seol-ran. I hated the Seoul sky without you in it.”

The ladies reeled off lies without even wetting their lips.

“I missed you all too.”

Of course, my mom was one of those ladies too.

“Sir, some cold beer and some liquor, please.”

The president quietly called over the manager standing by and placed the order.

“Certainly.”

For getting a party going, hard liquor beats wine.

I quietly stopped the manager on his way past.

I slipped him a card.

“Make it the very best.”

I whispered it.

“I’ll take care of it right away.”

The manager gave a short bow.

Now this was the kind of party I wanted.

Classy wine is nice, but a party’s missing something without cold beer and hard liquor.

Ballantine’s 30, Royal Salute, Johnnie Walker Blue, Glenfiddich 30—top-shelf whiskeys and all kinds of cognac covered the tables.

The food was incredible too.

Fresh, piping-hot dishes kept coming.

It was a lot fancier than the hotel buffet.

Wild sea bream sashimi, still twitching, even showed up—need I say more?

There was probably more to eat here right now than at the hotel buffet.

“You can handle whiskey, right?”

“I never say no to it!”

“Oh yeah? Hahaha. Tae-san, one look tells me you’re a real man. Here, have a drink.”

“Thank you, President.”

Being Mom’s son got me an even warmer welcome.

Professor Jang grabbed hold of me and held out a glass.

“President? Please. Come visit our school sometime. I don’t have a daughter, so I can’t make you my son-in-law, but I’ll introduce you to some very nice students of mine.”

“I’ll definitely come by!”

“Good. And don’t just say it—come. Really!”

My mom’s professor friend wanted me to, so I figured I’d have to go.

Even in my past life, I’d never once set foot in Hongin University.

Hongin University, known as the mecca of the art world.

It was famous for how good-looking its art students were, too.

“Fill your glasses, everyone. Ladies of the class, and all you wives—no jealousy, now. The queen was in a different league from the rest of us even back in school.”

Professor Jang Chan-u knew how to read a room.

He talked Mom up to the skies.

Actually, it was the first I’d heard that Mom had ruled the place so completely she was called the queen.

“To the queen’s return, and to the eternal friendship of Hongin University’s class of ’84!”

“Cheers!”

At the president’s lead, Cheers! rang through the room.

And then the real drinking began.

The upper class wasn’t any different.

They just drank whiskey instead of soju.

Drink, and you get drunk just the same.

Maybe because they were classmates, Hey! and You! flew from every direction.

Once Auntie Sun-ja was gone, the wine and such got pushed to one side.

“Tae-san. Have a drink from me too.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Haha. Too bad. My daughter was a late surprise—she’s only in seventh grade.”

“Time flies, though.”

“Pwahahahahaha. That’s right. You know a lot for such a young guy.”

I’m a college freshman in name only.

“Are you getting ready for the state exam?”

“I’m about to start.”

“You’re close with the director at Samu Law too? It can’t be a job already…”

Some of them were fishing for information.

“He was my lawyer on a case, and we became friends.”

“Is that so?”

Of course, they were old enough not to buy the case part.

And so time went by…

Thunder of feet.

A group of girls in short shorts opened the banquet hall doors and headed for the stage.

“What’s this?”

“Who are they?”

The party had just warmed up nicely when the girls appeared, and everyone was puzzled.

But the girls only smiled and took the stage.

They looked worn out, like they’d been running from event to event all day again.

The seven girls quickly took their places.

Then, just as on TV, they bowed together on the leader’s cue.

“Hello. We’re the new group FOB~.”

“Oh! Aren’t they that new girl group?”

“Oh my~ how cute.”

“Who invited them? Did you, President?”

“Me? No, not me…”

“Then who? Is it the general manager’s treat?”

The general manager’s treat?

That hurts.

I invited them.

After more than a year, I was finally seeing Seo-ryeon tonight.

And the FOB members I’d promised to buy a meal.

I’d invited every one of them.

Tonight, a warm meal—oppa‘s buying!!!

(End of Chapter 90)