Episode 61

"No, young master, that won't do."

Choi, who had pulled the car over to the side of the road, began to dissuade me.

"The old man took me in, a cripple with no skills, and did me a great favor. I can't delay his work because of my personal matters..."

"I'll take responsibility."

"Yes?"

"A delinquent kid couldn't break his bad habits and took a detour on his way home. You were just being dragged around by me. Got it?"

"Y, young master..."

Choi looked at me with tear-filled eyes.

"Let's go."

I thought that I had regained enough standing to commit such an act of overreach.

After all, what was the point of rushing for an old man who would only appear in his pompous manner in the late evening? All I had to do was arrive before dinner.

"......"

Choi reluctantly started the car at my insistence.

The inside of the car was unusually quiet. Only the rumbling of the engine and the occasional irregular tapping of Choi's fingers on the steering wheel broke the silence.

Since I wasn't the type to be uncomfortable with silence, I simply killed time by watching the passing scenery outside the window.

'Hmm, the ride is good.'

I didn't know much about cars, but I was well aware that the Mercedes that Choi was driving was quite an expensive vehicle.

Maybe that was why the ride was comfortable enough to make me doze off.

It was all thanks to being possessed by the body of a rich family's son that I was able to enjoy such luxury.

Just as I was letting those useless thoughts flow through my mind, Choi suddenly stopped the car.

"This won't do."

Choi bit his lip.

"Thank you for your consideration, young master. But I can't burden you on top of going against the old man's wishes."

Then he tried to turn the car around again.

'Seriously, this stubborn guy.'

His loyalty was admirable, but this was too much.

Choi was a man who had lost everything and almost lost his life due to a leg injury while working in a factory.

Since he had been able to recover and live thanks to Park Geon's help, Choi's attitude towards our family was almost religious.

It wasn't that his love for his daughter was light.

Rather, he was the type who would be overjoyed by gifts for his child, and who always felt guilty for not being able to go to her school, so his love for his family was deep.

It was just that his loyalty to Park Geon was so deep, like a religious fundamentalist, that he had made it a belief to follow his instructions without deviating even a hair.

'That's why that Park Geon trusts him and keeps him by his side, but...'

There was a limit to being inflexible.

"Just wait a moment."

I took out my phone and made a call.

"Where are you calling so suddenly,"

"I'm calling my father."

"Y, yes...?!"

Ring-ring.

Whether Choi was surprised or not, the ringing tone continued.

The group's owner wasn't someone you could just call anytime, but so what? I was his son.

If he couldn't answer due to work, I could just call again later.

• What is it?

Coincidentally, Park Geon answered the phone right away.

"I have something to tell you. I think I'll be a bit late."

• ......Late?

"But I'll arrive before we meet for dinner."

• What's the reason?

It was still difficult to read his emotions from his wooden voice. But it was clear that he wasn't very pleased.

Like a successful businessman, Park Geon placed great importance on punctuality for all matters, and due to his characteristic self-righteousness, he hated when someone didn't move according to his instructions.

But there was an exception.

"Young master, that won't do!"

"Mr. Choi, I heard that there's a school event for your daughter today. And you've never been able to be with her at such an event before."

"Ah, ah...!"

I clearly stated the reason.

Choi was covering his head and mumbling, "I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused to the old man and young master, how can I apologize..."

Park Geon on the other end of the phone was silent for a long time, before finally spitting out a single sentence.

• Is Choi driving right now?

"He's temporarily parked on the side of the road."

• Put him on.

He wanted to speak to Choi directly.

I handed the phone to Choi as I was told, and he accepted it with trembling hands, as if he had committed a terrible sin, and brought it to his ear.

"It's my fault, old man. I..."

• Choi.

Park Geon cut him off.

• I'm disappointed in you.

"......!"

• Why didn't you tell me first?

"......Yes?"

• Did you think that I, Park Geon, was such an unfeeling man that I wouldn't even allow time for you to be with your family?

"Oh, old man?"

• Go. Just make sure you're here before seven.

"Ah..."

Park Geon hung up the phone.

Choi held the phone, which no longer made any sound, for a long time, in a daze.

'You should have just said it earlier.'

Park Geon wasn't a very generous man.

He always applied strict standards to the people he thought of as his own, and there were countless followers who had been pushed aside because they couldn't meet his standards.

But matters regarding family were an exception.

Love for family was the most primitive and deepest form of devotion.

As an excellent manager, Park Geon knew that he could never maintain the loyalty of his subordinates if he even took away their time to be with their families.

If Choi had asked Park Geon first, he would have easily given his permission.

It was just that Choi's obsessive loyalty had bound him so that he couldn't even think about it.

In times like these, it was effective to push him a little, even by force.

"......"

Choi's shoulders trembled, as if he was swallowing something that was welling up.

After pretending not to see it and turning to look out the window, he gave me back the phone.

"Thank you, young master."

Choi bowed his head.

"I didn't do anything. Come on, let's go. We have to get there on time."

"Yes!"

The way he stepped on the accelerator was unusually powerful and light.

* * *

Choi Soo-bin had never resented her father.

She wasn't ashamed of her father, who had a limp.

Her father had worked hard despite his disability, and he had supported Choi Soo-bin so that she could grow up without lacking anything.

Rather, she was filled with respect for him.

She understood that he was busy every day and that it was difficult to see his face.

Her father was a personal driver for the owner of the Yu Seong Group.

It was natural that he was always with them, and that he rarely came home.

She couldn't complain when she was eating, dressing, sleeping, and studying with the money that he earned like that.

Even the fact that she was attending Seongmun High School, which was famous for its high tuition fees, was the case.

Rather than being dissatisfied with what she didn't have, she lived a steadfast life, with a motto to be grateful for what she did have.

She was also good at studying, ranking within the top group in Seongmun High School, which was known for its excellent college entrance results.

However, she was a little lonely.

Especially on days like today.

"Dad!"

She turned her gaze to the source of the sound without even realizing it.

A middle-aged man with a slightly awkward expression was standing in front of Choi Soo-bin's classmate.

"I told you that the invitation event was in the gymnasium! Why did you come here, it's embarrassing!"

The female student, who was her friend, was scolding her father, but she didn't really seem to hate it.

It was just the typical childish grumbling of a teenager.

Her father seemed to know this as well, and he just laughed and accepted it.

The female student pushed her father's back and left for the gymnasium.

There were hardly any students left in the classroom.

Like the girl who had just left, they had already left with their parents for the gymnasium where the invitation event was being held.

Only Choi Soo-bin was left alone.

"You're alone again?"

Someone's harsh voice pointed out that fact.

"......What."

"It's funny to see you looking so pathetic."

When she looked up, she met the eyes of a female student who was smiling maliciously.

The name tag on her chest said Kang So-hee.

She was a girl who had been jealous of Choi Soo-bin, who was quiet but good at studying, and had been tormenting her in various ways.

Spreading bad rumors, or picking fights like this.

She had thought it was childish and had ignored her, but Kang So-hee didn't know how to stop.

"You were alone in the first year, alone last year. And you're alone this year too, which is your last year?"

"......What do you want?"

"I was just wondering, how unloved you must be to be like that."

"What?"

At that moment, Choi Soo-bin glared fiercely at Kang So-hee. As if she had been waiting for that, Kang So-hee sneered.

"Isn't it true? Then why aren't they coming?"

"......My father is busy. He can't come even if he wanted to."

"Oh, I see."

Kang So-hee scoffed.

"Of course he would be. Even my father, who is a company executive, came even while canceling his schedule. Look at the other parents. Even the owners of successful stores and high-ranking public officials all managed to attend, but your mysterious father is 'too busy' to come."

The parent invitation event at Seongmun High School wasn't just a simple formality.

To be able to afford the expensive tuition here, you had to be from a relatively wealthy family.

Since the school had good college entrance results, the students would go to good universities and enter various fields, but their parents were also not to be underestimated.

Therefore, a kind of dual human network was formed in Seongmun High School.

Parents with parents, and children with children.

It was a place for networking, where they could help each other in the future in any form.

It wasn't like the parents were just showing their faces at the school event by forcing themselves to make time.

"......"

Choi Soo-bin didn't reply.

She had never resented her father, but she couldn't confidently nod her head and say that she had never doubted her father's love, even for a moment in her young mind.

That was how much she had always been alone.

When some of her friends got into their parents' cars after school, after the night self-study was over.

When she came home and heated up the cold side dishes that she had bought at the market, by herself.

And even now.

Kang So-hee's speculations were digging into her one and only complex.

If she had continued to attack in this direction, Kang So-hee might have achieved victory over Choi Soo-bin for the first time in her life.

But Kang So-hee made a fatal misstep at a crucial point.

"Ah, no, that's right. You're right."

Kang So-hee suddenly clapped her hands.

"If your family is so 'poor' that you can't even afford the tuition without working your butt off... then that makes sense."

'What?'

"Your family is poor, isn't it? That's why you always wear your uniform. And you don't know how to dress up. It's obvious. Did you think we wouldn't notice?"

Choi Soo-bin was so dumbfounded that her mouth dropped open.

The reason why she didn't spend money on clothes and dressing up was because of her frugal nature.

The weight of the loneliness she felt in her empty house was the same as the weight of the sweat that her busy father was shedding.

If the money she was given was the price for that, then she could never spend it carelessly.

But Kang So-hee mistook that for evidence of a poor family that was struggling to pay tuition.

From the start, all of the talk about being an unloved child was just a build-up to bring up this topic.

"Everyone here is so rich, how could we not notice when you're the only one who looks like that? Do you know how much my hoodie costs?"

She didn't know. Because she wasn't interested.

"Do you know my boyfriend Jae-seung? The watch he wears is a Rolex. That's the kind of school you're attending."

When Choi Soo-bin didn't answer, Kang So-hee, mistaking it for a sign that she had lost her words, became even more arrogant and rambled on.

The words she was throwing out, about how much her clothes cost, and how she looked like a hick, bounced off her ears in a mess.

Thinking that it was a sign that she was ignoring her, Kang So-hee became angry and grabbed Choi Soo-bin's shoulder.

"Hey, you..."

At that moment, the classroom door opened with a thud.