Thursday, March 2, 2023. Cheonghwa High School.

When the entrance ceremony ended and the students moved to their classrooms, only the parents who'd attended were left in the main auditorium.

On the screen behind the podium were the words "Election of 2023 Parents' Association Officers."

Few of the parents looked up from the handouts they were reading.

It wasn't curiosity about who would become president of the parents' association that had kept them there.

From the front row to the back, the ladies of Korea's upper-class households sat here, for this hour, simply as parents.

Most of the parents were rather well dressed. Beneath khaki coats, neatly tailored dresses and shoes peeked out.

Around their necks hung a single light strand of pearls, or a necklace set with a modest stone.

No one was dressed too flashily for the season.

Instead, each woman's taste showed in the leather of her bag, the watch at her cuff, a scent you could only catch sitting close.

Among Cheonghwa parents, wearing something especially expensive didn't draw anyone's eye.

What mattered more was who was wearing it.

Whose daughter or daughter-in-law she was counted for more.

So did the position her husband held, in which family, and what her own family's background was.

Conversations opened with the children's grades, but in the end they drifted naturally toward family.

Of course, those in the know didn't bother to ask, or even wonder.

People who hadn't seen each other in a while stopped at warm greetings.

"Your daughter started this year too, didn't she?"

"Yes. It would be nice if she were in the same class as your son."

"If the children become friends first, we'll be seeing a lot of each other too."

Between smiling exchanges, each of them scanned the other's seat and companions.

They noted who was sitting together, and who'd moved closer to the front than last year.

Parents who'd already sent children through Cheonghwa a few times didn't miss those small changes.

Friendships formed at Cheonghwa didn't end at graduation.

Children who'd been in the same class went on to the…