Ladies. Scared already? That’s no fun.

Why she’d invited Mom to a couples’ reunion was obvious.

The people who show up to reunions like this are mostly the successful ones.

Most of them come from money or married well.

When she couldn’t flatten me, Auntie Sun-ja had tried to use Dad the farmer to trip Mom up.

There was no need to bring Dad along.

He’s such a good-natured man that he’d just have walked around laughing.

I was the right man for this game.

“Hyo-suk, it’s been twenty years, hasn’t it?”

“Huh? Oh… about that. I haven’t seen you since you disappeared from Seoul.”

“Time flies. It feels like only the other day that you and I were running wild on the street in front of school…”

“I know. In my heart it’s always back then, but we’ve gotten so old.”

That one’s better than Auntie Sun-ja.

Jang Hyo-suk, the woman holding Mom’s hand as they talked, didn’t seem like such a bad person.

Auntie Sun-ja’s face, meanwhile, was going sour.

“Wh-what’s this car? Is it a rental? Aren’t you overdoing it for your first reunion in ages? Rentals must cost a fortune.”

It didn’t even have rental plates, but Auntie Sun-ja was too ignorant to tell a rental from a private car.

I opened the door and got out.

“Sir, we’ll park it for you.”

“Thank you.”

I took a hundred-thousand-won check out of my wallet and handed it over.

Ten thousand won is the usual tip, but today I didn’t feel like pinching pennies.

“Thank you!”

The valet took the check and got into the car.

“Auntie Sun-ja, nice to see you again.”

“You, you!”

The car pulled away, and my eyes met Auntie Sun-ja’s.

I gave her a big smile.

“This is my mother’s car. She uses it to go grocery shopping in Seoul.”

“What are you talking about! Do you know how much that car costs!”

“Only three hundred million won, I think?”

“Wh-what? Three hundred million???”

In 2008, three hundred million won was a lot of money.

When I said a car that expensive was for grocery runs, her eyes practically rolled back in her head.

“Tae-san. This is Jang Hyo-suk, my best friend in school. Say hello.”

Mom introduced the other lady.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Jang Tae-san, eldest son of Madam Ju Seol-ran.”

I bowed very politely.

“Oh my. You’re so handsome. You could be an actor. Are you in college?”

“Yes. I’m a freshman this year.”

“Which university?”

Mothers always want to know the same thing.

“I’ve just been admitted to Hanguk University law.”

I played my best card.

“H-Hanguk University law! Wow, so you’re smart too! Congratulations, Seol-ran. Your hard times are over now.”

“I’m not having hard times now, either. My son takes such good care of me.”

My mom’s face lit up.

Right—this is exactly why people come to alumni reunions.

Bragging about your son, your money, your husband—what else is there?

“Wh-what do you think you’re doing here!”

“Why shouldn’t I be? My father’s away on a trip with the chairmen’s council, so I came in his place. Our Madam Ju is delicate, as you can see.”

“…”

At the word chairmen, I could see Auntie Sun-ja flinch.

I hadn’t lied.

The township office had organized a trip for the village heads and the farm association chairmen, and they’d gone off to have fun on the pretext of agricultural training.

“Yes, what’s wrong with bringing her son~? Sun-ja, you brought your son last year too.”

“It’s not Sun-ja, it’s Seo-won!”

“Huh? Oh, right? Sorry. Sun-ja‘s just stuck in my mouth—I can’t shake it.”

Jang Hyo-suk was lying.

That was what she said, but her eyes were full of contempt for Auntie Sun-ja.

Seeing Mom seemed to have given her strength.

“Hmph!”

Making a show of her sulk, Ju Sun-ja went in ahead of us.

“Let’s go in, Seol-ran.”

“Okay, my friend.”

The two middle-aged ladies linked arms like they had in college and led the way.

Ah! What a nice sight.

I quietly followed Mom and her friend.

I had a few surprises prepared for tonight.

I was really looking forward to them.

“Good to see you, Professor Jang. Congratulations on making full professor.”

“Haha. Thank you. Let’s make time for a round of golf sometime, CEO Kim.”

“Time’s the one thing I’ve got plenty of. Shall we?”

Husbands who knew one another and the men from the class laughed and chatted.

“Girl. Did you get Botox? Why is your face so tight?”

“Keep your voice down. Without this, I couldn’t even show my face these days~.”

“How did we get this old already…”

“How do you beat time? You just slather on money and at least put up a fight.”

“Hoho. That’s true.”

The women from the class whispered and gossiped among themselves.

“How tacky…”

“I know. They all married well and have it easy.”

The wives whose husbands had studied painting stuck together.

The party in the Seoul Pelton Hotel’s small banquet hall, Armango, was in full swing.

It was called the small banquet hall, but it could hold over a hundred people with room to spare.

A dazzling chandelier on the ceiling glowed softly.

Beyond the floor-to-ceiling glass, the Seoul skyline at night made the perfect backdrop.

On the center stage, a string quartet played live, soft and low.

A dozen or so big round tables held fruit, cakes and snacks to go with the drinks.

More than fifty people sat or stood around them, talking.

Five hotel staff, men and women, were busily serving all kinds of wine.

The mood was very good.

The couples’ reunion of Hongin University’s painting class of ’84 had met regularly for ten years, and it was a big one.

About thirty of the forty painting graduates from that year were members.

The men and women alike had built themselves a decent footing in society.

Back then, you had to come from a fairly well-off family to go to art school at Hongin University.

Riding on their parents’ wealth, they’d made it into the upper class without much trouble.

“Did you hear the news?”

“What?”

“Seol-ran’s coming tonight, apparently.”

“Seol-ran… as in Ju Seol-ran?”

“Oh my my my. No way. Seol-ran’s coming?”

The women from the painting department looked shocked.

In school, she’d been a wall no one could get over.

After she was kicked out of her family, rumor had it she’d married an ordinary office worker and moved to the countryside.

“Sun-ja ran into her by chance and invited her, apparently.”

“This is big news. The guys who were crazy about Seol-ran are all right over there.”

The women looked over at the men from their department and thought back.

“She’s older now—there’s no way she still has her old looks, right? Living in the country, her face all sunburned… and this crowd? Why would she come? She’d only be setting herself up to be humiliated.” (TL Note: The Korean says her “disgrace star” would shoot out — in Korean fortune-telling, a 살 is an ill-omened star that brings a particular kind of bad luck.)

“I still want to see her, though. Seol-ran was always so sweet…”

“What good is sweet? She got thrown out of her family, married the wrong man and ruined her life.”

More than half of them were jealous.

That was how popular Ju Seol-ran had been back then.

“Oh! There’s Sun-ja!”

“Call her Seo-won when she’s around. Call her Sun-ja and she’ll bite your head off.”

Just then, Ju Sun-ja came in, fuming.

Ju Sun-ja marched straight over to the women from her class.

“What’s wrong? Are you mad?”

“They say Sun-ja’s husband, Attorney Lee, is pretty prickly… did they get into it?”

“All the men in that family are like that.”

While they talked behind her back, Ju Sun-ja came over and gulped down a glass of wine.

“Something wrong?”

“Hmph! She makes me sick…”

“Wh-what?”

“Not you, that girl!”

Sun-ja let her feelings show, unfiltered.

“Who?”

While her classmates were asking, the entrance suddenly started to buzz.

“Huh?”

“Heok!”

The first to react were the men from the painting department.

There had been only about ten men among the forty or so, and every one of them had loved the same woman.

And here she was, as if she’d leaped across the river of years.

She’d hardly changed at all.

The other women in their class had had children, spread out, changed enough to need Botox in their faces, but she was the same as ever.

Her skin looked like she’d barely passed her mid-thirties, and her face had the same noble grace it had always had.

The smile on her lips was a girl’s smile.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The men’s hearts pounded the way they had the day they first met her.

It was an even bigger shock for the husbands of the women in the class.

A woman with a grace their own wives lacked had walked in, and it was blinding.

“S-Seol-ran…”

Jang Chan-u, a professor in Hongin University’s painting department, said her name before he could stop himself.

His eyes stayed fixed on Ju Seol-ran and wouldn’t leave her.

Ju Seol-ran, Hongin University’s goddess, on whom the years had left no trace but ripeness.

The woman he still saw in his dreams now and then had really appeared in front of him.

“Chan-u?”

Ju Seol-ran recognized him.

“Y-yeah… it’s me, Jang Chan-u.”

Jang Chan-u’s voice shook.

His heart was pounding like mad, the way it had the first day he saw her.

“I know. You haven’t changed at all. You’ve still got the same air about you.”

“Neither have you. Seol-ran, you’re still a goddess.”

The truth just tumbled out of Jang Chan-u.

“A goddess? Please… raising kids has made me a plain old mom.”

“What are you talking about! Not you. You’re special!”

Jang Chan-u shouted it without meaning to.

The feelings he’d kept in his heart burst out like an explosion.

With every eye already on them, his outburst sounded like a declaration.

Zzzzt.

Just then, he felt a powerful killing intent behind him.

Damn it…

Only then did Jang Chan-u snap to his senses.

He’d forgotten for a moment that his tiger of a wife, the granddaughter of the school’s board chairman, was right behind him.

“Seol-ran! Great to see you! It’s me, Yeong-ho!”

“Hey! How long has it been? It’s me, Hyeok-chan. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me?”

When Jang Chan-u faltered, the other moths flew straight at the flame.

They looked like men who could die happy tonight.

“It’s good to see you all.”

Ju Seol-ran smiled brightly at the cheers of her male classmates.

At that smile, every one of the men’s faces went dreamy.

Ju Seol-ran searched the aging men for traces of the boys they’d been.

They had wrinkles now, and bellies.

She didn’t see them as men.

She truly loved and respected her husband, so they didn’t catch her eye.

All she felt was the lingering glow of youth from when she’d first started college in ’84.

It was her first glamorous night out in a long time.

“You guys can’t even see me, can you?”

Jang Hyo-suk looked at the men from their class in disbelief.

“Huh? We see you all the time.”

“Forget it, you clowns. Your wives’ eyes are on fire.”

Sticking her tongue out, Jang Hyo-suk linked arms with Ju Seol-ran and led her away.

The men from their class watched with nothing but longing in their eyes.

“Seol-ran. The girls are waiting.”

The women from the class watched Ju Seol-ran approach, dazed.

Her looks and her grace, so completely different from theirs, made them feel humble(?) without even trying.

Even back in school, nobody had dared to mess with Ju Seol-ran.

Her family was loaded, she was talented enough to win scholarships, and her beauty had shaken the whole school.

Ju Seol-ran came toward them, heels clicking.

Without meaning to, they all quietly got to their feet.

Only Sun-ja scowled and looked the other way.

“How has everybody been? It’s really been a long time, friends.”

Ju Seol-ran greeted her friends from the heart.

“G-good to see you, Seol-ran…”

“You haven’t changed one bit. I’m jealous.”

Her friends looked at Ju Seol-ran with envy.

Her outfit, too, was obviously top-tier designer.

From her shoes to the top of her head, her watch and her accessories, nothing about her was ordinary.

Ju Seol-ran, smiling radiantly.

Everything seemed natural, as if this were exactly where she belonged.

And so the legendary queen of Hongin University’s painting class of ’84 returned.

Showered with endless praise and enormous jealousy at the same time…

(End of Chapter 88)