“Here! Have another!”

“Hao! Hao!”

The two middle-aged men were happily knocking back drinks.

Mom had outdone herself.

The table for ten was laid with dishes not even the kings of Joseon got to eat.

A royal nine-section platter, a royal hot pot, fresh native chicken from the yard braised whole, braised Korean-beef short ribs, japchae, steamed seafood and a whole series of savory pancakes—more than thirty dishes filled the table.

Lee Zhangchang was moved when the spread came out.

He’d never seen Korean food this lavish, he said.

Jar after jar emptied: the ten-year-old wild mountain-root liquor and the fruit liquors Mom had put up specially.

With food this good, the drinks went down easy.

No need to look—tomorrow morning, those two would be as good as dead.

“Clara unnie, how did you get even more gorgeous since I last saw you? What’s your secret? Oppa‘s love?”

“Ju-a, Ju-hui, you two look like real young ladies now, too. Are you dating anyone?”

I still can’t understand the way women pass compliments back and forth like a relay baton.

What does praising each other change?

Still, the three of them were so polished to begin with that they deserved every bit of gilding.

“We wish… but the one man in our house is so old-fashioned.”

“Unnie, you have to find a good man. Never judge a guy by his looks!”

Ju-a and Ju-hui looked at me as they said it.

I’d raised a pair of tiger cubs. (TL Note: The Korean saying “raising a tiger cub” means taking care of someone who later turns on you.)

When did I ever tell them not to date?

All I’d done was warn them that if their schoolwork suffered, all my support for the rest of their lives would be cut off.

It was a worried warning from a big brother who’d tasted just how hard the world could be.

Like it or not, in Korea everything starts with your diploma and ends with it.

If they’d been bad students, maybe not, but they were good ones, so I cracked the whip a little.

And yet the twins had singled me out as the shameless villain who wouldn’t even let them date.

“This piece is full of deep longing. It’s as if you’ve captured the colors of twilight with light and shadow, the way Monet does… The sadness reaches the heart so gently.”

“It’s a scene my mother loved.”

Mom seemed to miss her own mother too.

“Isn’t it? Looking at the painting, I thought of my own mother. Your skill is truly remarkable. At this level, you could hold a solo exhibition in Hong Kong. I couldn’t come anywhere close to you.”

“You flatter me.”

Mom and Madame Emmanuelle were busy becoming friends, too.

They were admiring Mom’s painting hanging in the living room.

They both painted, which may be why they were so taken with each other.

With no language barrier between them, they grew close fast.

Dad and Lee Zhangchang talked in English.

The twins and Clara could communicate in English, too.

That’s a global family for you.

“Young Tae-san, have a drink.”

“I’ll have one in a little while.”

Whenever Lee Zhangchang wanted to talk in Cantonese, he came looking for me.

“Daniel, your mother’s painting is incredible. She really must hold an exhibition!”

Madame Emmanuelle recognized Mom’s skill and was generous with her praise.

I planned to make that happen soon.

The Queen of Hongin’s Glorious Homecoming project hadn’t even started yet.

“Daniel. I want to take a walk.”

Clara, stuffed and done chattering with the twins, called me over.

Her eyes were sparkling.

That was a signal, for sure.

Heh heh. Send me a sign, send me a signal~

The lyrics of a girl group’s song that was a hit in 2017 came to mind.

Sparks were crackling.

“Should we?”

“Mm. I’m so full.”

Clara patted a stomach that wasn’t sticking out at all.

She was completely at ease, as if she were already the daughter-in-law of the house.

“This is totally that, right?”

“Yeah. That thing we’ve only heard about—definitely!”

The twins, lifelong singles and dating rookies, were straining to decode the signal.

They could only guess that this was what people would later call a green light.

“I’m going to take a walk with Clara.”

“All right. Be careful out there.”

Mom smiled.

“Is it that nice? Ah, what a lovely age.”

Madame Emmanuelle asked the question and answered it herself.

I know it’s a lovely age, too.

That’s why I didn’t waste a single moment of it.

It was still winter, so I threw on a padded jacket and went outside.

“Stars!”

With almost no light pollution out in the country, the sky was thick with stars.

It wasn’t bright, but the long Milky Way lay stretched across the sky, welcoming us.

“I really like it here.”

Clara reached out with her left hand and took mine as if it were the most natural thing.

I tucked her long, soft hand—it felt almost boneless—into my jacket and led her along.

Warmth flowed from our clasped hands.

Clara and I walked on like that, from one dim streetlight to the next.

We didn’t need to talk; with the starlight to guide us, the walk wasn’t boring at all.

“Daniel.”

Clara said my name as we walked hand in hand.

“Mm.”

“I really like it. I guess Korea suits me. I feel at peace every time I come here.”

She sounded like she meant it.

“I feel at peace when I go to Hong Kong, too.”

“I don’t dislike Hong Kong either. But I like it here, where you are, Daniel.”

What was this? Why did it feel so lonely all of a sudden?

“Is something wrong?”

“Just because.”

Someone once said that when a woman says just because, it’s never just because.

There seemed to be something Clara couldn’t tell me.

“Daniel.”

Clara called my name again.

“What~.”

Clara stopped walking.

A small stream in front of the village came into view.

Like nature waking from a long winter sleep, water trickled between the sheets of ice.

“No matter what happens, let’s never hate each other.”

Her sudden words threw me.

We weren’t close enough for that to sound like a breakup.

But it felt as if she could see something coming.

“Clara, is something really wrong? Is work getting to you?”

“No.”

Clara had been looking at the water; now she turned her head toward me.

Her eyes were wet.

She’d said no, but I could tell she was lying.

I couldn’t ask anything more.

Clara clearly had some worry she couldn’t tell me.

“Things happen in life, you know. All kinds of variables. That’s why I’m saying it now.”

Clara smiled quietly.

Her cold little smile, in the starlight, stung my eyes.

“If it’s hard, quit. Come do business with me.”

“Forget it. Dad’s been begging me to quit too and help him out. If I went and helped Daniel, he’d kick me out of the house.”

Clara was bubbly again.

But I could feel some sadness in her that I couldn’t name.

I gently took her in my arms.

I liked Clara.

But I couldn’t take in the sadness buried deep inside her.

I couldn’t fall into a passionate, head-over-heels love the way I had in my past life.

Everything I’d lived through, and my own caution, held me back.

I had money and credentials beyond anything in my past life, but I was careful.

There were plenty of stunning women around me, too.

This second life was too precious to throw away as a womanizer like Oh Dong-seong.

That caution might be frustrating for Clara.

“Daniel…”

Clara called my name again from inside my arms.

I felt her voice through my chest, over my heart.

“Mm~.”

“…Let’s love each other… just for this moment.”

Clara had lifted her face.

Her red, hot lips came slowly toward mine.

“Oppaaaa! Let’s meet up! My treat!”

The minute the call connected, Seo-ryeon, bubbly as ever, called me oppa with pure joy.

“What’s this about a treat all of a sudden?”

“Oppa! Guess what, I got paid today!”

“Paid?”

“Yeah! The company got a new investor, right? Everything’s changed since Manager Hwang became CEO. They give us healthy, delicious meals, and they switched our van to the kind the top idols ride in. And every trainee under contract is an employee now, so we get paid minimum wage! They even signed us up for the four insurances! I’m so happy!!!”

Seo-ryeon’s storm of chatter poured through the phone.

“Whoa! That company’s amazing.”

I answered her excitement just enough.

It was true that nothing like this had ever happened in the Korean entertainment industry.

Feeding them, maybe, but paying salaries to contracted trainees was unheard of.

Getting a trainee all the way to stardom cost a fortune.

But I’d always had my doubts.

If a company chose someone, it was only right to pay the minimum.

The sweat and blood they poured out in the practice room all day wasn’t free.

If you chose them, it was the company’s duty to cover food, clothing and shelter.

Even temp workers get a minimum wage.

I had no desire to get rich on the pocket change the kids earned.

I wanted to see them become world stars.

Bread soaked in tears is fine, but I wanted them never to forget their dreams for the future. (TL Note: From Goethe, well known in Korea: “Who never ate his bread with tears… knows you not, you heavenly powers”—the hardship that teaches you what life is.)

And the trust the company gave them would play a big part.

“And they changed our contracts to a fifty-fifty split! We can start getting paid out next month. It’s the best! The best!”

We were generous with what was left after settlement, too.

CEO Hwang was as happy as if it were his own good news.

He was a great owner, one who pushed his juniors toward success without a trace of envy.

“That’s a really good company. Don’t go anywhere—stick with them.”

“Of course~ there’s no agency like this in Korea. Probably not in the whole world.”

Seo-ryeon was happy, so I was satisfied too.

“Whoever the investor is, they’ve got a cool mindset.”

“Right? I don’t know who it is, but the new investor must be totally awesome, like you, oppa.”

She hadn’t figured it out, had she?

I’d known for a while that Seo-ryeon had sharp instincts.

“Still, it’s going too far to compare them with oppa, isn’t it?”

“Hehe. That’s true. I like oppa best in the whole world.”

It was funny, comparing myself with my own invisible shadow.

I’d asked CEO Hwang to keep it a secret.

My director’s seat was explained away as a thank-you for some investment money.

“But oppa, are you busy these days?”

“Why?”

“You’re not going around on dates with some girl, are you?”

“Huh?”

“Girls have a sixth sense guys don’t have. I just get this feeling. That oppa’s been super busy lately.”

Seo-ryeon’s sixth sense really was something else.

Clara and her parents had stayed at the old house for three days and two nights, then left.

Lee Zhangchang turned out to be very interested in Dad’s organic farming.

He even helped out with the farm work.

Madame Emmanuelle got absorbed in painting with Mom.

She knocked out a watercolor in no time.

Clara went to the amusement park in Yongin with the twins, dragging me along.

The three days flew by in a blur.

I still couldn’t forget the look in Clara’s eyes.

Before she went through the airport gate, she looked at me for a long time.

Like lovers parting, the last sight of her left a vivid afterimage.

And then came the Lunar New Year.

Thanks to the discipline I’d firmly established in the family, the holiday went smoothly.

Once I was back in Seoul safe and sound, I started checking over the business.

Knowing when the time bomb would go off, I couldn’t just sit there.

I wrote programs and built solid defensive software.

Whatever viruses were going around in 2008, I’d mastered them all back when I worked in a brokerage’s computer room.

Routing through overseas servers and erasing my tracks was nothing.

I was careful, and then careful again.

I hadn’t brushed off the warning I’d heard not long ago.

“Oppa’s busy—the semester starts soon.”

I changed the subject.

“Right! I bought oppa a present for starting college… when can we meet?”

“Aren’t you starting on the second album for this summer?”

“Huh? How did you know, oppa?”

“Because it’s your thing, Seo-ryeon.”

“Hehehe. That makes me happy.”

She was still young; a few words and she was laughing.

I’d asked CEO Hwang for good songs and choreography.

Now that she’d started to get a little known from the first album, I wanted to seal the deal.

It was a little early, but the second album had to be prepared without cutting any corners.

“The second album’s got to be a hit. Oppa’s always rooting for you, so even when it’s hard, hang in there.”

“Okay! I’ll fight on, thinking of oppa!”

Still on the phone with Seo-ryeon, I took the elevator down to the underground parking garage.

Midnight.

“It’s late. Go to sleep.”

“Mmm. Oppa, dream about me.”

The call with Seo-ryeon ended.

I walked toward my car.

The lights in the garage seemed dimmer than usual tonight.

For no reason, I felt a chill.

And then…

“Hey! Jang Tae-san.”

Someone stepped out from beside a pillar, calling my name with open disrespect.

(End of Chapter 108)