“Why did you do it?”

“D— do what?”

The Pacific Fisheries office in Jungang-dong, Sokcho.

It was a branch office once and it is the main one now.

Yang Susan sold the head office building off as well when the operating funds ran dry.

Two men in a friendship had come face to face in the chief’s room.

Has the bastard worked it out?

Last night he drank, to work the strain off among other things, and spent time with a woman.

Yang Susan did not come in until around midday.

Ha Donghwi ought to have been out on calls and gone, and instead had stayed in the office, waiting for Yang Susan.

“……Friend.”

Ha Donghwi’s voice is cold and heavy, unlike his usual.

The word is friend and the eyes are nothing of the kind.

“What? Has something happened?”

Yang Susan asked it in a raised, fussing tone, watching for the feel of the room.

He did not yet know the reason Ha Donghwi’s manner had changed.

A different figure entirely from yesterday.

“Since when?”

It is an out-of-nowhere question from Ha Donghwi.

Why did you do it, and now since when.

“What? What is? Say it properly, man!”

Yang Susan’s voice rose.

He had been stung for nothing, and his temper was up.

This is still plainly a company he is chief of.

It had the shape of being called to account by a mere director, and it was unpleasant.

“Pacific Fisheries. It isn’t your personal property.”

“What?”

“It’s a battlefield of people’s lives, held by thirty-odd staff and me with blood and sweat. And the creature who calls himself chief…… siphons off the shells and the bullets behind their backs?”

Anger settled in Ha Donghwi’s eyes, looking straight at Yang Susan.

“Fuck……. What a load of shit you talk! Heh heh heh heh.”

Yang Susan felt at once that he was found out, and threw the mask off.

And crossed one leg over the other and leaned his back into the chair.

Click. Tssss.

He put a cigarette in his mouth and struck the lighter.

A company chief who had looked respectable a moment ago turned punk on the spot.

“Oi. Ha Donghwi~”

Yang Susan called it looking straight at Ha Donghwi.

“…….”

Ha Donghwi looked without expression at the person he had trusted and leaned on as a friend all this time.

“You know you’re fucking insufferable, don’t you? Fuck. House loaded, face good, and the studies…… good as well? Women trailing after you in a line…… I really did envy you. Heh heh heh.”

Yang Susan cast back, and unloaded what he had been holding inside.

“And what is it now? No money, and now there’s private lending to pay off as well? Kh~ My friend Ha Donghwi, who lives and dies by loyalty! Magnificent! Bravooooo~~”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Yang Susan struck his palms together and applauded.

Early this morning he put the burial mountain on the market for a quick sale.

Sokcho property has come alive lately, so it was a good chance to dispose of it.

He is to meet a buyer this afternoon.

The instant the sale closes he means to be gone.

Loyalty and all the rest of it at this stage — Yang Susan has nothing left to keep.

“The fault is largely mine.”

“What?”

“That I trusted you as a friend…… was stupid of me.”

Ha Donghwi was reproaching himself.

He truly thought of Yang Susan as a friend.

This was the friend who readily handed a great sum to a man put out of his house and carrying on a hard life.

Grateful for it, he folded his working life up and joined Pacific Fisheries.

To raise operating funds for a friend’s company he put his seal to the surety papers too.

In the private finance dealings too he trusted his friend.

And the vision Pacific Fisheries held was worth expecting something from, of course.

The line on the Russian snow crab side was solid.

The east coast catch market is holding out still.

He was certain it was a blue ocean rather than a red one.

Keep the stores up properly and fish bought in cheap and held could be sold dear.

And the friend he trusted struck him across the back of the head.

“Friend? Fuck off! A beggar bastard like you, a friend of mine? Puhahahahaha.”

Yang Susan vomited out in one wild laugh the meanness he had held inside across a long time.

Baaang!

At that moment Ha Donghwi brought a fist down on the desk.

“……!!”

Yang Susan was badly thrown.

A flare!

He was overwhelmed on the instant by Ha Donghwi’s red eyes, full of killing intent.

He had never once seen him angry like this.

“Yang! Su! San…….”

Ha Donghwi called the name out distinctly, broken up.

The right corner of his mouth went slowly up.

And.

“Don’t you know who I am?”

“……??”

“I am Ha Donghwi. Haryun Group’s crown prince, Ha! Dong! Hwiiii!!”

“……!!”

A man of a hundred and eighty-five centimetres with the shoulders spread wide, a body the equal of a sports star’s, called Ha Tae-ung.

Lee Hyoju turned her head.

“Oh!”

Lee Hyoju’s astonished eyes went as wide as they could go.

“Kang…… sunbae.”

Lee Hyoju made herself known to the man.

Kang Junu, the crown prince of Cheonghwa High School.

“Hyoju. Hello.”

The crown prince met Lee Hyoju’s eyes and greeted her briefly.

“Yes…….”

Tramp, tramp.

The sound of slippers dragging is a heavy one.

His eyes are fixed on Ha Tae-ung.

“You know me?”

Kang Junu asked it.

Not to know him at Cheonghwa High School is to be an alien, in fact.

“Probably.”

Shff. Ha Tae-ung rose from his seat.

He is slightly the taller of the two.

Snap!

And so the original crown prince and the new one stood face to face.

Members of an imperial house who have still to grow.

The two looks tangled in the air.

Wh— what is this?

Lee Hyoju held her breath.

A third year is chased by time.

Ordinarily there is not time enough even to go between school, home and the Management Studies Society.

A visit by the crown prince Kang Junu to a second-year classroom is hard to imagine.

Let what is happening here get out and Cheonghwa will be turned over once again.

“Eh?”

“Wh— what is it?”

“The pres…… ident?”

The class coming into the room started.

“Amazing!”

The startled children began pushing their phones forward.

Now what is happening will go out in every direction in real time.

“What is it you want?”

Ha Tae-ung asked it calmly.

What do I do!

Lee Hyoju felt her breath stop.

One slip here and it is outright war.

The Ilseong house is Kang Junu’s mother’s side, and his mother is the real thing.

Against that, Ha Tae-ung is the descendant of a Haryun Group crown prince deposed!

However it is counted, he is behind.

And his image at school is not good at present.

Collide even trivially and it is a serious matter.

“Have you eaten?”

“……??”

Lee Hyoju went blank at Kang Junu’s first words.

He comes out of nowhere, and asks about food?

“Not yet.”

“Come on. I’m hungry.”

Kang Junu spat the words out and turned, showing his back.

Ha Tae-ung looked quietly at him.

“All right.”

And he followed after Kang Junu.

The two of them were done with a short exchange.

“Haa.”

Lee Hyoju barely let a breath out as the air that had been pressing heavily down cleared.

Something different again from the grandfathers who head the groups.

Something only the blood of the ten great groups’ families can show!

The alarm is off, for now.

“Where are those two going?”

“The canteen?”

Tatatatak.

The other children trod after the two of them.

Lee Hyoju followed after them too, at a quick step.

Cheonghwa High School’s lunch hour, which had seemed to be settling.

Another storm was raising its column.

(End of Chapter 96)