“What are you going to do about it?”

“Pre— president.”

“President this and president that! I’m telling you I’m irritated right now!!”

The inner room of a private café on the central strip of Gangnam Boulevard.

Wang Jindeok, head of academic affairs at Cheonghwa High School, had been called out and was being pressed.

The woman in front of him, giving off a blade-edged air in gusts, is a tiger.

Hanguk Group’s second daughter, Misery Ju Miju!

Irritation came pouring out of her, mixed all through a venomous stare.

“There was no leak of the exam paper. We checked all the CCTV.”

“And so?”

“Sorry?”

“Are you playing word games with me! I’m asking you why my son has to be pushed down to second in the year! And pushed down by something like a charity case!!”

Ju Miju, bursting into shouting without warning and without reason.

There’s no reasoning with her at all.

Of all the parents’ association presidents in Cheonghwa High School’s history, her mouth was the coarsest.

She grew up in a house where people with no money and no backing don’t count as people.

To her, a head of academic affairs was no more than a butler she ordered about.

“The way to do it……”

“Verify that bastard publicly.”

“Sorry?”

“Do I have to tell you the method as well? Don’t you want a principalship, Mr Head of Academic Affairs?”

“Un— understood.”

Wang Jindeok opened his eyes wide and nodded, over and over.

Inwardly he had thought a verification process necessary too.

He had been doubting the ability of Ha Tae-ung, the charity case nobody had noticed all this time.

“And once the evidence is gathered, get rid of the bastard. It’s irritating just thinking about it.”

Ju Miju spat the word irritating out repeatedly, to a degree that made a person uncomfortable.

“I’ll settle it in accordance with the school rules.”

“Do that……. Finish it before the grade correction period ends.”

Ju Miju, who had been throwing out irritation and behaving like a psychopath until a moment ago.

Once things went the way she wanted, her expression loosened and she laughed like a lie.

Cold sweat ran down the spine of Wang Jindeok sitting opposite.

He was lost for words at the caprice in her, with no telling when she would turn again.

She had come to fame in the past over the in-flight jerky incident on Hanguk Airlines.

She threw jerky at a cabin attendant and made a scene, slapping the service manager who tried to stop her.

Photographs from the cabin were circulated afterward.

Over that business she stepped down from her executive post at Hanguk Airlines.

She acquired an enormous nickname as well — the Nation’s Bitch.

That didn’t mean her social influence went anywhere.

The shareholding she had inherited from the late chairman was considerable.

Her elder brother, the current chairman, couldn’t treat Ju Miju carelessly either.

“I’ll deal with it as fast as possible.”

Watching Ju Miju’s colour change from one moment to the next, Wang Jindeok bowed his head.

Thud.

A thick envelope was thrown down in front of him.

“Gift vouchers. Take the family out to eat or something.”

“Every time, like this. Thank you!”

Every single time they met, without exception, he received something like ten million won in vouchers.

“I’ve put a bit more in this time. So deal with it properly.”

“Yes! I’ll give you my full loyalty!!”

It’s a clear, clean tone of voice.

The eyes of everyone who heard it turned toward where the sound had come from.

A beautiful middle-aged woman and a girl were standing there.

A mother and daughter who don’t look ordinary at a glance.

“Madam. You’ve come out today.”

Park Taesu, in the act of turning away, saw the two of them and bowed his head.

The middle-aged woman was the second daughter-in-law of the Oyang Group family.

The wife of Lee Seokjun, president of Oyang Chemical.

Her name is Han Soeun.

A daughter of a mid-sized business family.

Oyang Group is around sixtieth in the corporate rankings, but its influence is nothing to dismiss against its size.

They are descendants of Sangchon Lee Jangsu, who was a man of vast wealth during the Japanese occupation.

And the eldest brother of Oyang Group’s chairman is the current chairman of Doa Ilbo, one of Korea’s three great dailies.

The basic accomplishment of a personal shopper is knowing every one of the group companies inside out.

She isn’t a VIP Park Taesu manages himself, but a greeting is within his scope.

“Team Leader Park. It’s been a while.”

Han Soeun took Park Taesu’s greeting and smiled at him.

He is the personal shopper of Hyundo Department Store, Apgujeong.

The upper-class customers he manages are not one or two in number.

Han Soeun’s purchasing record isn’t yet full enough for her to be under Team Leader Park’s direct management.

Which stands to reason, partly because of a shopping style that doesn’t settle at Hyundo alone.

The leading designer brands with a foothold in each store differ, which is another reason.

Han Soeun’s husband is a company head as well, but the company isn’t large in scale.

Han Soeun, whose VIP ranking inside Hyundo sits slightly low.

Somebody Hyoju knows?

She had come out shopping with her daughter.

Tomorrow is the day of the family golf gathering.

The midterms were over as well, so she’d come along partly to buy her daughter a present.

The rule is that once you’re a high school student you attend the golf gathering with the father’s side of the family as a matter of course.

Oyang Group’s current chairman is a man with a particular affection for sport.

Which means that attending the direct family’s gatherings is essential for most of them, barring some special commitment.

Her daughter had called out to the man in front of them — no, the student.

Lee Hyoju, her eldest, who as a rule brings almost nothing home about school.

Tall, and handsome. And there’s a grace to him.

Han Soeun scanned Ha Tae-ung quickly as he turned at his name.

His looks were his looks, but the style and the air of him were sophisticated too.

A designer leather watch that doesn’t announce itself, shoes balanced against light clothing, and the wallet held in his hand as well.

He didn’t look like the child of an ordinary house.

And she saw it for certain in how the store staff dealt with him.

Team Leader Park Taesu, that store’s personal shopper, was treating a student with courteous deference.

Assistant Manager Yu, the next-generation ace shopper she also knows of, could be seen beside him.

Two of them attached to one escort is a service you don’t receive unless you’re the son of a chaebol house.

“Hyoju, who is this?”

Han Soeun looked at her daughter and asked.

Hyoju was slightly thrown.

“Eh? ……A friend from my class.”

“A friend?”

The word friend had come out of her daughter’s mouth.

It was unfamiliar.

This is a daughter who has never called anybody a friend where a boy was concerned.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Hyoju’s mother.”

Han Soeun put her hand out first.

I was right!

For a moment Park Taesu was certain his instinct hadn’t been wrong.

Madam Han Soeun is a person whose grace stands out among the chaebol madams generally.

She is a woman of the house of Sangchon Lee Jangsu, who stood alone among the rich men of this land in his own age.

Oyang Group sits below other companies on the objective indices, but its financial structure is extremely solid.

The history of the house was another thing from the upstart chaebol families who seized wealth all at once.

And this was a friend of that Madam Han Soeun’s daughter.

A Cheonghwa High School student, then?

The Lee Hyoju that Park Taesu knows of is still a high school student.

And at Cheonghwa High School, at that.

Allowing for her being enrolled at a high school, that means the customer in front of him is a Cheonghwa student as well.

Lee Hyoju is a strong future VIP prospect in her own right.

And the other party is a friend in that Miss Hyoju’s own class.

“How do you do. I’m Ha Tae-ung, in Hyoju’s class.”

Ha Tae-ung, bowing his head cleanly, his manner upright and courteous.

“Can we shake hands?”

“It’s an honour.”

Composure unlike a high school student’s, and there’s precision in it too.

It shows that he’s had a proper education at home.

Park Taesu watched the three of them closely.

The young fellow he had marked as a strong potential VIP customer is named Ha Tae-ung, a Cheonghwa High School student.

Park Taesu was filled with certainty.

A future VVIP worth enough investment to justify taking his time and putting the work in.

A friend?

Lee Hyoju turned the word friend, out of Ha Tae-ung’s mouth, over inwardly.

It was simply that she could not possibly say charity case in front of her mother.

And on top of that……

Ha Tae-ung, there in front of both her eyes.

There was no explaining it.

That brand of watch. Tens of millions at the least. And what are the designer shoes! A boy like that, a charity case?

Lee Hyoju was confused.

Until very recently this was a Ha Tae-ung who filled a seat like a shadow, as though he weren’t there.

Lately he’s changed into a completely different person.

He ground Oh Gwangjun the punk and Oh Seora who thinks so well of herself into the floor.

And after that he went about the class without his spirit down, eyes level and back straight.

He speaks to her without hesitation as well, when everyone else only watches for signs and can’t rashly get a word in.

“Here to buy something?”

“I’m hoping to buy some clothing I need for a golf engagement.”

“Are you? When?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Shall I have a look for you, then?”

“I’d be grateful if you would. And please speak casually with me.”

“Hoho. Shall I? If you’re our Hyoju’s friend, it’ll be all right to treat you like a son, won’t it?”

Han Soeun, who had taken quite a liking to Ha Tae-ung for being so pleasant on a first meeting.

“Mom. You’re making Tae-ung uncomfortable——”

Lee Hyoju was the one thrown by the look of the two of them instead.

She had acknowledged him without meaning to, and she hadn’t known the thing would grow like this.

Allowing for her mother’s usual character, it seemed she had taken firmly to Ha Tae-ung.

Ha Tae-ung looked at Lee Hyoju.

He had a small smile at his mouth as well.

“Lee Hyoju. I don’t mind. It’d be nice to shop with your mother and have lunch together.”

“L— lunch??”

Lee Hyoju stumbled over her words at Ha Tae-ung’s response.

Light shopping and then lunch with her mother was the next thing on the schedule.

A third person joining them was not what had been planned.

“Shall we? Yes. Mom will buy you lunch.”

Laughter bloomed wide across Han Soeun’s face.

Lee Hyoju’s face, on the other hand, spread with a red flush.

And she quietly bit her lip.

If she reveals that Ha Tae-ung is a charity case in this situation, the air will plainly go bleak.

One way or another a decision was needed.

Lee Hyoju looked at Ha Tae-ung and asked him with her eyes to withdraw at about this point.

A slow grin.

The self-assured smile of Ha Tae-ung’s that has been showing up often at school lately.

Tsk.

Lee Hyoju knew from the smile that Ha Tae-ung had no intention of granting her request.

She let out a sigh inwardly.

She had said friend from the start in any case.

Having got this far, she was curious about this boy Ha Tae-ung as well.

A boy who had changed all at once.

“All right. Let’s shop and have lunch.”

Lee Hyoju settled on accepting the situation too.

“Tae-ung, shall we go to this shop here? Clothes want to be comfortable once you’re out on the course.”

“Yes! Mother.”

“Hoho. It’s good to hear Mother out of you. Right, then — Mom’s paying today!”

“Thank you! Mother!”

From Ha Tae-ung’s position, with brutal experience of working life behind him, handling an innocent mother and daughter was no work at all.

“Assistant Manager Yu. Support them properly, right to the end.”

Park Taesu, who hadn’t let go of a single moment of it, gave the instruction close to Yu Areum’s ear, almost whispering.

To Park Taesu’s eye, the signal by which VIPs alone recognise each other and make contact had been caught.

A conversation exchanged wholly within a world of their own.

A communion that is singular and enviable however often you see it.

(End of Chapter 31)