“Let’s expel him. Keeping a gangster shit like that inside the school fence is itself out of step with this school’s principles.”

“Head of the Administrative Office… but the investigation results aren’t in yet. What will you do if we rule for expulsion and then a finding of innocence comes down?”

“Come now, is my will not my father’s will? As the owner of a private school, am I not entitled to assert this much of a right? And I’ve looked into it — a prosecutor said he was bringing the punk in today. By now he’s probably sitting in a lockup.”

“…”

The principal, the vice principal, the head of the administrative office, the grade-level heads, and so on.

The school’s senior figures had gathered to discuss the Jangju High School violence.

In the empty board chairman’s office, the head of the administrative office had taken the seat of honor and settled back at his ease.

When his father, the aged board chairman, passed away, he would become the owner of this school.

The state subsidized the teachers’ salaries, but the man who held the power of appointment was himself.

It was the unchecked power that only a private school possesses.

“That cannot be done. Until the facts are established precisely and a court ruling comes down on the student Jang Tae-san, school discipline has to be put on hold.”

The vice principal stepped in then.

He was widely respected and had the board chairman’s trust.

“Come now, then what about the school’s honor, which that son of a bitch has dragged into the dirt! Kids fight, and someone takes that and files a police complaint! Do you know how my phone is burning up right now? The Jangju High School alumni association is up in arms about why we haven’t cut that gangster loose — up in arms!”

The voice of Yang Seung-gon, head of the administrative office, rang and rang.

The local community was in an uproar, that much was true.

Nobody had imagined a thing like this happening at a prestigious high school.

It was the pride of the region, sending some ten students a year to Hanguk University.

That a group assault had occurred inside a school like that was the issue in itself.

“Chief Yang. Let’s watch the outcome a little longer for now. As the vice principal says, if we handle this carelessly it could cost us not only the school’s honor but an audit from the Office of Education. I’ve had word that the Office of Education is watching this case closely.”

“Principal, why are you so indecisive? The fire is at our feet right now, I’m telling you!”

A mere head of the administrative office, raising his voice at the principal.

A situation that could never have arisen if he were not the board chairman’s son.

“…”

The teachers all kept silent.

Unlike Chief Yang, who was on friendly terms with Hong Jang-hyeok, the teachers had been aware of the school violence to some degree.

It was only that no serious consequences had shown themselves, so they had not stepped forward actively.

Back when they themselves were at school, incidents like this had been commonplace.

“I! have decided. Expel that punk as of today! No transfer, none of that! This is not a request — it is the will of the board chairman, who is my father!”

Yang Seung-gon, pouring out abuse.

Knock, knock.

An urgent knock sounded from outside just then.

“What is it!”

Yang Seung-gon shouted at the door, irritable.

“Ch-Chief, we have a problem!”

The door opened and an administrative office employee, one who made his living flattering Yang Seung-gon, came in with the color gone out of his face.

“What problem? Is it my father, has he—”

“No, it’s not that — the internet has blown up. Calls from reporters are pouring into the school!”

“The internet has blown up? Has a war broken out or something?”

In his haste the employee used the computer in the board chairman’s office.

And a moment later grave material came out through the computer speakers.

— Ohhh, plenty of reasons. I hate that broke little shits go to the same school as me. I hate that broke little shits reek of the kimchi they shoveled down at breakfast. I hate watching dumb little shits grind their rock heads. I just hate looking at pathetic little shits, period.

Question filled the teachers’ faces.

The voice, of a male who sounded young, was full of malice, and low.

But there was no way this was the problem.

— But we’re still friends. Using violence on friends and taking their money isn’t right. Your father, Attorney Hong Jang-hyeok, may be a big-shot city councilman, but if he found out about this he wouldn’t just let it go, would he? For your father’s sake, if nothing else, you can’t do this!

— My father? Pfahahaha. Look at you lying there worrying about garbage. Mind your own business, you shit. My father told me himself. Pathetic little shits have to be stepped on nice and steady or they’ll lift their heads up again.

“…!”

When the name Hong Jang-hyeok came out, the head of the administrative office and everyone else fell into shock.

Now they were beginning to guess at something.

— So that’s how you beat up seniors and classmates and walked away clean? On your father’s pull?

— Obviously. My father’s friend is the son of our school’s board chairman, and he’s the head of the administrative office. Toss a little pocket change at it and just about anything gets handled.

And at the words head of the administrative office coming out of the speaker, every last one of them went pale.

The teachers’ eyes swung to Yang Seung-gon.

The voice, playing on and on, held the core of the whole affair.

The teachers’ faces went cold and stiff.

“Th-this is…”

Yang Seung-gon’s face, by contrast, bleached white.

The complexion that always ran with grease changed in an instant.

♬ Play now, play now, play while you’re young~ ♬

Yang Seung-gon’s low-rent cell phone ringtone went off.

Yang Seung-gon picked up the call without thinking, and his hand shook.

“F-Father. What is it at this hour?”

— Yoooou wretched boy!

The board chairman was so enraged that his voice rang and rang out of the speaker.

— I knew you would cause trouble. You worthless creature, the worst under heaven! You have ruined my honorable school! Wait there, you! I am coming to the school this instant!

The call cut off with a click.

The board chairman’s voice, his anger at its peak, reached the ears of every teacher in the room.

“Then we will end today’s meeting here.”

The principal, watching the stunned head of the administrative office with cold eyes, declared the meeting closed.

Another wind of blood, blowing through the school.

This time it looked as though the head of the administrative office would not come through unscathed.

— Breaking news is up. They say the daddy of that Jangju High delinquent just resigned as a city councilman.

— Heh heh heh. The punk’s personal details are all out too. A mongrel by the name of Hong Seong-hyeon.

— Word is he’s a complete piece of work~

— A punk like that ought to go to juvenile detention.

— Buh-bye~ Cellblock. lol

— The gangster shit’s father is a city councilman and a lawyer… raises his kid’s character like that and then plays politics! Stick your nose in a dish and die, punk!

Rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat-tat.

Yun Geun-hyeok, a college student who had been ground down by school violence in his own high school years, hammered the keyboard like a madman in rising fury.

— So this doesn’t get buried, everyone, let’s post it on the Blue House petition board! (TL Note: the Blue House is the Korean president’s official residence and office. Its online petition board is where citizens escalate a grievance past the local authorities, so posting there is a deliberate jump over the heads of the town’s police and prosecutors.)

— Obviously~. My uncle’s a reporter, and he says the police and the prosecutors’ office in that town have been turned upside down too.

— What do you mean by that?

— They say that city councilman shit mobilized his local connections to screw the victim over.

— Whoa… for real?

— Wow! This country really is going insane!

Yun Geun-hyeok, hammering at the keys, stopped his hands for a moment.

A memory out of the past surfaced.

The father of the delinquent who had tormented him had been a policeman.

Thanks to that, the punk had graduated from school without a scratch.

“Sons of bitches… kill every last one of them!”

It may be play to them, but the one it is done to has to live with the trauma for life.

Yun Geun-hyeok moved his burning fury back to the keyboard.

— So what happened to the victim?

— The video only caught him from behind…

— They say he was hospitalized. A concussion, apparently — how much of a beating does it take for that.

— Insane…

The internet was louder than it had ever been.

That was the scale of the social shockwave from the Jangju High School violence case.

The government, which had run into crisis as the administration entered its final phase, put out a statement and came forward promising a thorough investigation.

“Tae-san~ how are you doing today?”

“Thanks to the prettiest nurse noona in this hospital, a whole lot better.”

“Ho ho. Tae-san, aren’t you a player? How do you say things that set a person’s heart going like that.”

“Come on, the truth shines even when you try to hide it. If noona were five years younger I’d have made a move.”

“Really? Pfuhihi. Even if it’s a lie it feels good~.”

Women really were simple.

There was hardly a woman alive who disliked being told she was pretty.

So Yeon-sil, the nurse noona in charge of my room, went to pieces at a few words.

The nurse noona, in her mid-twenties this year, was considerably good-looking.

Enough to make you wonder whether they picked the private-room staff by face.

Her personality was good too.

Even in the white uniform that is the symbol of the profession, her figure was no joke.

About a hundred and seventy centimeters tall, with a model’s build.

The docs stole glances at the nurse noona often enough.

I didn’t mind it either.

When she made a fuss over how young (?) I still was and stroked my hair… it was simply good.

I was at an age where I knew everything there was to know anyway.

“I’ve ordered pizza. Have a snack, all of you.”

“How does Tae-san have such good manners on top of it~.”

“I have a lot of money too.”

“You said it. I really want to just throw myself at you.”

Whoa, whoa. That’s not how it goes.

My mental age is in the thirties, but this body is a sweet eighteen.

“But isn’t it stifling in the hospital? What do you do all day?”

“I’ve got plenty to do. Studying, this and that side work — I’m busy.”

“Right. Earn lots of money. Having lived a while, money turns out to be everything.”

“Yes. Thank you for the advice.”

“Take care.”

“Noona, I love you.”

“Pff, just words?”

“Yes. Just words~.”

Nurse So Yeon-sil snorted a laugh at my joke and made her exit.

That nurse doesn’t know that the sum I ran through the stock market today came to tens of billions of won, and the profit to two billion.

If she had known she could not have walked out that coolly.

“Good! It’s good.”

It could not have been better than this.

I looked out the window.

The private room was on the top floor, a prime spot with the whole downtown laid out below.

Concussion really was a fine diagnosis.

After the prosecutor came and made his scene, visits to my room were forbidden without my permission and the doctor’s — even for family.

It had become the optimal environment.

I opened accounts at every brokerage.

With only a few brokerage accounts my rate of return would show, so I took precautions.

Every brokerage account traded a different set of stocks.

By anyone’s reckoning my rate of return was insane.

The capital had come to roughly twenty billion won.

The advantages of stocks held nothing back.

Stocks carry no tax.

Beyond a transaction tax the size of a rat’s tail, there was not even the concept of a holding tax.

If I had earned like this in a salaried job, a monstrous tax would have been levied.

It had already been over a month and a half since I was admitted.

The case was mostly closed.

It had been handled exactly as I wanted.

“Farewell, Hong Seong-hyeon. Your hyung was busy and never got to say goodbye.”

Attorney Jo Yun-tae, who had beaten a prosecutor half to death, had put a question to me.

How far did I want this taken.

I answered then without hesitation.

That when you stomp, I wanted it stomped properly.

I handed over the cell phone evidence.

Attorney Jo looked at it and answered that he understood.

A little later the evidence was released and the internet blew up. And everything was handled very smoothly.

Hong Seong-hyeon was arrested in his hospital room.

Police stood guard at his door.

His father Hong Jang-hyeok resigned as city councilman on account of public opinion.

Hong Seong-hyeon was expelled, of course.

The police came and collected testimony from the victimized students.

A good many of the kids who had followed him took expulsion, compulsory transfer, or suspension.

The head of the administrative office, the board chairman’s son, was thrown out of the school too.

The guys said the upright board chairman had slapped the head of the administrative office across the face.

As a bonus, Prosecutor Kang Gyeong-jun, whom I had marked, handed in his resignation.

Inspector Park Dong-seok of Violent Crimes, who had come along, and the investigator were fired too.

And a few days ago word came that the branch chief, too, had left office.

Attorney Jo Yun-tae, who had copied off what was stored on the laptop, had handled it as I wished.

If that too were laid bare before the world it would become a black chapter for the prosecution service — he knew it and so did I.

I simply kept it.

As insurance, just in case.

“The world isn’t going to change, though.”

Through the media manipulation of press garbage joined to the vested interests, and the political inexperience of his own aides, President Ju Mu-hyeon suffers a crushing political defeat.

And after that, the two worst administrations in the history of the Republic of Korea.

But there was nothing I could do.

Handle a little money in stocks and, in the eyes of the vested interests, I am still nothing but an ant.

That is why I handled this affair as quietly as I could.

Through Attorney Jo I saw to it that my personal details as the victim never came out.

I appeared only as the victimized student.

“Discharge tomorrow would be just right.”

Business outside was settled.

Hong Seong-hyeon was transferred to another hospital.

He had been charged with school violence and extortion, so school was goodbye for him now.

Hong Jang-hyeok’s string had snapped too.

Nobody would easily put out a hand for a man whose future had been smashed.

It was the magic money works.

If I’d had no money I would have lived a pathetic loser’s life and died the way I did the last time.

“What a beautiful world.”

Outside the window the sunset was staining the sky.

A picture like an illusion, made by this beautiful world.

Just like me, in this goblin of a situation.

(End of Chapter 18)