“This isn’t a dream, is it?”

Han Jiyun turned the key with the three-pointed star on it over in her hand and looked round the inside of the flower shop.

A daily life turned right over inside a single day.

A genie of the magic lamp, the modern edition, has appeared.

Her son had come for a weekend with a holiday folded into it.

A son at high school, and he turned up driving a great imported SUV.

She believed the lottery.

He had an unusually strong independence in him even growing up.

Which was how she was able to leave him alone in Seoul and come to Sokcho.

At high school, and in years he is of age now.

Not an age for parents to interfere at, either.

And that son has put presents into her arms she never thought to receive.

“Even used, the price of that car…….”

The Bens S-Class is parked at one side of the parade’s car park.

She drove it a short way, and it was quiet enough that not the smallest vibration came through.

It set itself well apart from her husband’s used SUV.

Seats that wrap the body comfortably, and a sound system that puts the listening ear at its ease.

If it had not been for the shop she would have wanted to take the car out and drive that minute.

“Am I…… a shallow woman?”

She did not dislike her son’s presents.

Her son is not a person who would go anywhere and do a bad thing, so she trusted it.

In her heart she was sorry beyond measure.

For parents with nothing to spare, who had done nothing for him, he had put presents like these into their arms.

However bad the household’s circumstances, her son had always stood firm in front of his parents.

But she knew that school had not been easy for him lately.

And even so she could give him no help with money.

Han Jiyun had had a hard time of that age herself.

There is no life that grows without hurting.

“He’ll faint when he sees it.”

What Han Jiyun received is not the whole of it.

A man said to be a hoobae of the dealer’s brought another one.

A Bolz SUV, with a name for being solid.

Her son had said that when a man is out on the road selling, safety is the first thing.

It showed his affection and his consideration for his father plainly.

“And in here…….”

As it turns out, her son’s eye is no joke.

The cut flowers for arranging, the pots and the trees are placed in a proper harmony with one another.

“It does seem to be my son.”

The look in his eye has changed, as though he were another person.

The eye that a few months ago had a gloom settled down and hanging about in it is gone.

He is different.

There is a deep, strong look in it now, with a ripeness felt in it.

Grateful, and strange to her at once.

“There’s something…….”

The mother’s instinct in Han Jiyun went off.

And it is a something her own imagination cannot draw.

“When he gets here…… some answer will come out of it.”

Ha Donghwi, the father, is close with his son.

Ding.

“Welcome in~”

Until yesterday the flower shop sat back inside a corner alley, and few customers who were not regulars ever found it.

This place has life running through it.

“I’d like to buy a bouquet for my girlfriend…….”

A young man with a shy look on him said it, coming in.

“Oh, would you? Is there any flower in particular you’d like?”

As it happened there were plenty of different flowers, bought in at the flower market before dawn yesterday.

Han Jiyun, as glad as it is possible to look, served her first customer in the moved flower shop.

“Chairman? Not bad.”

The title Chairman does not sit awkwardly.

The word would have appalled the man I was before, and now it goes in naturally.

Like a suit cut exactly to me.

“He’ll do well enough.”

This was only the second time meeting Ha Jinseong, and my confidence in him is high.

The clear force coming off him means he is not a man who will betray.

I have not yet got hold of exactly what every colour means.

Which leaves a great deal to be put through a checking process by way of Ha Jinseong the dealer.

“Does a thing sort itself out this easily?”

The position Mom was in back then is a thing I never knew before the regression.

This too is certainly my dead grandmother’s doing.

With money behind it, every situation was handled fast.

From the contract on an empty unit to the move, to buying used cars, to purchasing a building on a good corner.

Ten men were put on the flower shop move.

A Sokcho removal firm whose schedule happened to be clear took the whole of it and ran it.

Two large lorries and ten men.

From the move to the setting out again, finished inside two hours.

And naturally a bonus was paid, thick, to match the time they saved.

The cars delivered on time were arranged yesterday, in advance.

Good cars, of a kind the Haryun family can do nothing about.

And the purchase of property with high future investment value is being handled cleanly on top of it.

At this point in the past, the burnt-out unit meets its owner and goes through a wholesale remodelling.

And it sells coffee and bread and hits it enormous.

And then the empty ground in front of the Hanjin Apartments.

With Sokcho beach right on its doorstep, several blocks of high-end guesthouses go up on it.

Set against coin and the force of the futures about to break, these are assets of a modest scale, and they are a present for Mom.

“This is exactly the power of capital!”

The power of money, understood once again!

In one night a great deal happened and a great deal was settled.

I got Mom out of the premises of an old man out of his mind, who has forgotten that the age has changed.

In our house a father out on the road selling is often not in it.

Today at least, I am Mom’s protector.

“From here on, walk nothing but a road all flowers.”

The two of them have held out through hard going, and need a good hot course of financial treatment.

The filial duty I never once managed.

Screeech.

Sorting my thoughts as I drove, I arrived at the car park of Cheongchoho Lake Park.

The sign for Cheongchoho Estates was right in front of me.

I got out of the car.

“You’ve come, young master.”

Young master?

It is Kim Juhui, chief of Daeu Estates, who had been waiting in the car park.

She calls me young master and takes a respectful manner with it.

“Go on in. They’re all waiting.”

Chief Kim Juhui led the way, showing me in.

I followed her into the estate agency office.

Ding.

The bell rang as the door opened.

A framed four-character phrase in bold, powerful brushwork hangs facing the door.

Jeonggeun sawon.

Keep what is right close, and keep what is evil far.

A phrase from which the character of the proprietor can be guessed.

On the sofa below the frame two men of older middle age are sitting.

The one who comes into the eye first looks to be about the middle of his sixties.

The white hair sits naturally on him and the force in him is sound.

The dress and the colour of him do not look ordinary.

Meaning something on the order of a Sokcho man of standing who is not troubled by money.

“President Song. I’ve brought the young master.”

“Haha. Come in. I’m Song Jeonggeun.”

The four characters in the frame sit well with the three syllables of the name.

A firm-set older man with a square jaw got up out of his seat and put a hand out.

Not tall, and the frame on him looks solid.

Large, prominent eyes that suit the shape of the face.

The hand offered for the shake is solid too.

“Ha Tae-ung.”

“Ha Tae-ung, is it…….”

President Song Jeonggeun tasted the name over.

He has the look of a man trying to reason something out of three syllables.

“President Song, is this gentleman the owner of the building?”

“The owner? If a building with nothing left but its bones is a building, then yes. Hahaha.”

The man sitting on the old leather sofa answered it laughing.

He looks to be about the middle of his sixties as well.

Short in the seat, and his eyes are alive.

Hair combed cleanly back, and small, sharp eyes that make an impression.

“Look at my wits. President Kim, this is Chairman Hwang. Say hello.”

“How do you do. Kim Juhui, of Daeu.”

“Is the chairman of an old boys’ association a chairman? Pleased to meet you. Mumyeong — the nameless — Hwang Haksu.”

“Nameless? The biggest landowner in Sokcho?”

“And what use is it. The son is melting the lot of it down for business capital.”

“What’s the use of leaving it. Give it all to the children and go, and that’s the end of it.”

This is less a place for buying and selling property than a place for taking counsel about life.

Which is to say these men are not troubled by money.

An aged gold rolls about the two older men.

The property rich, it seems, carry an ochre with gold turning through it.

“Well. Our young master wants to buy, does he?”

Chairman Hwang asks it, looking at me.

Snap.

The old man’s eyes and mine struck each other in the air.

Money is not the question in this room.

It is a look that means to weigh up what the buyer is made of.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“It’s a present for my mother.”

“Your mother?”

Chairman Hwang’s eyes went round at the word mother and he asked it back.

“The young master is a devoted son. He opened a flower shop for her today, in the parade by the terminal.”

Kim Juhui came into the conversation.

“A flower shop??”

“It’s how she passes her time. My grandfather and grandmother on my mother’s side had their ashes scattered in the sea at Sokcho.”

Only what was needed passed between us, and briefly.

And then a short silence followed.

And.

“I…….”

(End of Chapter 86)