“Junu sunbae did?”

“That’s what I’m telling you. Kang Junu sunbae went to the charity case’s classroom himself and dragged him off to the Management Studies Society.”

“Dragged?”

“He followed, so it comes to the same thing.”

The canteen entrance.

Kang Ari had been lifted by the thought of sitting at the same table as Ha Tae-ung again today.

She was badly startled by news she had not expected, and it shook her.

The rumour had already spread wide into every corner of the school.

What is this?

Lunchtime at school has been making Kang Ari very happy lately.

“Tae-ung?”

Park Jiung, waiting for Ha Tae-ung alongside her, was as startled.

Kang Junu is Cheonghwa’s real crown prince, and everybody knows it.

This is certainly trouble over Ha Tae-ung not answering the summons at the canteen last week.

“My mother says he really is Haryun Group blood. But that he’s a crown prince deposed.”

“Deposed?”

“His dad was put out of the group, apparently.”

“R— really?”

“So he isn’t the real crown prince.”

“Then what’s he so bold about?”

“That’s a question for me too.”

“Didn’t he say he had a lot of money?”

“Did he come into an inheritance?”

The children shared out the information each of them had collected.

It is the result of a heat gone into gathering information on Ha Tae-ung since the business in the great hall.

And parents well supplied with information have joined in on top of it, setting out to find the truth.

“The charity case is finished.”

“Putting on airs like that…… and he was a knockoff?”

“Hoho. This is exactly justice.”

“If he’s been dragged off by Kang Junu sunbae…….”

Whisper, whisper.

The bored children worked their mouths with relish.

Kang Ari’s face set harder by degrees as she listened.

“Ari-ya. Are you all right?”

An Aram asked it, looking Kang Ari’s face over.

“Kang Junu, of all people.”

Park Jiung was worried too.

He is not a man there is any answering.

Even so!

Park Jiung set his mind and found the courage.

Ha Tae-ung is the friend who pulled him out when he was driven into a corner and all but thrown down a pit.

He is in trouble, and there is no pretending not to know.

Park Jiung’s eyes glared at the new building.

And at the moment he set his mind and moved a foot.

“Amaaaaazing! Kang Junu sunbae’s appointed the charity case vice president of the Management Studies Society!”

“Whaaaat? V— vice president?”

“What’s happened? He’s a knockoff!”

“Oh my God!”

The feel of the place turned right over in a moment.

Ha Tae-ung, the new crown prince, has carried himself high since the business in the great hall.

And the real crown prince, Kang Junu, has acknowledged him.

“Is it true?”

“The president’s just sent it round the Management Studies Society members on the group chat.”

“Whaaaat.”

“Then what happens from here?”

“The charity case is going to…….”

The mouths that had been noising shut all together.

It is a situation that has properly scratched at them.

Ha Tae-ung, the crown prince who proved himself in front of a great many pupils in the great hall.

And he…… has become the real thing outright.

“Kang Junu did that?”

“Yes.”

“The Haryun side won’t be pleased if they hear.”

“Really?”

“Hyoju-ya. Cheonghwa isn’t just an ordinary high school.”

“……No.”

Lee Hyoju nodded at her mother’s words.

Lee Hyoju was home from school.

She took a proper shock at school today.

Kang Junu, who has a name for pride, took a course out of every frame that nobody had expected.

She had thought there would be a great blow-up, and instead they shared a sandwich in the president’s room, the two of them alone.

It is a thing that has never happened in Kang Junu’s history.

Kang Junu does not go into the school canteen either.

He eats only the lunch his mother, Madam Go Mihui, packs with care and love in it.

The president’s room in particular is one nobody enters without leave.

Lee Hyoju has never been into the president’s room herself.

The place is a sanctuary of a kind, where Kang Junu passes time alone.

What was it he took to?

Lee Hyoju could not begin to understand it.

Anybody who would know, knows.

Ha Tae-ung is blood that was put out of the group’s house.

He said himself that he has a lot of money, but the exact unit has not been confirmed.

And there is the record of his refusing Kang Junu’s summons openly.

And now…… vice president?

“I hear Junu is a clever boy.”

“He is. He’s clever.”

“Then he will have seen something. In young Tae-ung.”

Lee Hyoju’s mother was thinking of a different part of it.

“Seen what?”

“He’s different.”

“……??”

“Even to my eye young Tae-ung gives off light. Young Junu will have seen it too.”

“Light……?”

“Open your eyes wide and look, and one day you’ll know it as well. Why I rate young Tae-ung so highly and trust him…….”

Han Soeun smiled, looking at a daughter sunk in thought.

“And still it worries me. The Ha family has a name all over this world for being hard…….”

Kang Junu, with Ilseong Group on his mother’s side, has put a foot in on Ha Tae-ung’s account.

Han Soeun felt at once what waves this would set going.

This is the war, with blood in the smell of it, that a group’s heirs have to fight.

Ha Tae-ung has, without meaning to, shot a fire arrow at Haryun Group.

“The city lights are beautiful from up here.”

A strongly accented English pronunciation, lodging sharp in the ear.

School finished and I came home.

There is an appointment for a guest to visit today.

Nine, late in the evening.

The guest I had asked the concierge to show up in advance has arrived.

The visitor is a blonde beauty in the middle of her twenties.

Directly after the handshake she went naturally to the window.

Even in Seoul there are few places where a night view like this can be had.

The centre of Seoul, a city with no night in it, taken in as a panorama from a height.

“Is it to your liking?”

“It’s perfect!”

She marvelled at the night spread out in front of her.

Her name is…….

Isabella.

I knew she was a woman.

I did not know she was a tall blonde beauty who wears a long coat well.

The skin is clear too.

White skin without a freckle showing on it.

Past perfect and into dazzling.

About a hundred and seventy-five centimetres.

And the line of her is art enough to send a professional model away.

This woman is today’s visiting guest.

“Will you take wine?”

The conversation carried on in English.

The moment the English I hung on for the sake of finding work sees the light.

“Yes!!”

Isabella’s principal type is certainly E.

And S, the sensing type, shows through as well.

The wave of energy coming off her is a clear blue too.

It is a character that does not suit a broker.

Not a crease to be found in her face either.

The large blue eyes, met, feel as though they would pull a man in like a lake.

The soft smile hung at her mouth puts a person in good humour.

Even in the past I never came face to face with a foreign woman as good-looking as Isabella.

And she has come to a man’s home herself at a deep hour.

Realistically there was no meeting outside either.

The Signiel is thoroughly controlled where security is concerned.

Pop!

I took a bottle out of the wine cellar and opened it.

Trickle, trickle.

I filled the glasses.

The feel of it is that no food is needed alongside.

Wetting the throat is enough, and the beautiful night view stands in for food well enough.

“Here.”

“Thank you…….”

“Let the name be Bear.”

“Bear?”

The bear!

I judged there was no need to use a name with nothing to do with anything.

It is not common, and Bear is used as a name in English-speaking countries often enough.

“Yes.”

“Thank you. Bear~”

Taking the glass, Isabella smiles wide, like a rose in full bloom.

The lipstick on her mouth glitters clear.

Ting!

We touched glasses lightly.

Look only at the situation and it is a strange scene.

Wine late in the evening with a woman met for the first time…….

And she and I were both natural in it.

Each of us has a clear purpose in this meeting.

“Haa…….”

Isabella wet her throat a little and let a light breath out.

“I’m glad I came to Korea.”

Isabella’s light soliloquy carried on in a low voice.

The scent of red wine mixed into the breath she let go and spread in the room.

“It will soon be the brightest country in the world.”

A few years on the world is caught up in a storm the equal of a third world war.

And Korea will rise alone as a firm star in the crisis of a disordered world.

“I think so too. Korea is…… unlike our England, a sun that has only now begun to rise.”

There is a bitterness in the voice of Isabella, an Englishwoman.

“Did you bring the products?”

“Of course. A VIP’s request~”

Isabella set the glass down at once and opened the briefcase on the table.

Shff.

What came out of the bag was a thick set of documents and several secret cards.

Thump, thump.

The heart answered first.

The moment those come into my hands, the overseas investment begins in earnest!

“Bear. There’s something I want to ask.”

She is a broker, for whom a client’s secrecy is life itself.

And Isabella’s eyes are full of curiosity.

“…….”

I looked at her without a word.

Her blue eyes shine like a lake taking sunlight.

“In this private equity account…… I want to invest as well.”

“……??”

(End of Chapter 100)