Chapter 1 – Young Master (Part 1)

The wall of that house was extremely high.

Little Junhee had to tilt her head back for quite a while before she could barely see the top of the wall. The sunlight pouring down from the wall was so blinding that she had to close her eyes immediately. She rubbed her eyelids vigorously with the back of her hand.

“What are you doing, Junhee? We need to get going.”

“Oh, leave her be. She’ll end up like Sim Bongsa anyway.”

(T/N: Sim Bongsa – A blind character from a Korean folktale)

Her grandmother glared at her father for his lame joke. She scolded him sharply, telling him not to be so rustic.

“Where do you think the rustic air that’s been with me all my life is going to go just because I come to a place like this?”

Her father said nonchalantly as he limped forward. Junhee ran to hold his hand, leaving her grandma clucking her tongue behind them. Her father looked down at Junhee with a grin.

“Thanks to our princess, Dad gets to live in luxury every day. Because of Junhee, I get to visit such grand houses and see the Chairman of a major corporation. Thanks to my daughter, I get a proper tour of Seoul. My daughter is the best, the best.”

Her father extended his thumb twice in front of him. Behind him, kids Junhee’s age and their families passed by in a group, walking briskly towards a place with a banner that read “Taesan Foundation Children’s Sponsorship Event.”

Her father also walked diligently, but with his limp, he couldn’t keep up with their pace. Nevertheless, his limping steps were filled with pride. He had been that way the whole bumpy ride in the van to this place.

The youngest winner of the National Math Competition, Woo Junhee. Winner of the Taesan Math Competition elementary division, Woo Junhee. The pride of Nonsan, Woo Junhee. The daughter of Woo Donggu, Woo Junhee.

Whenever he had a chance, he would shout it out. The grandmother, sitting next to him, constantly reminded him to behave. She told him to make a good impression on the elders of that house, not to give them any reason to dislike them, and just to keep his mouth shut and smile.

‘Alright. I’ll just keep my mouth shut and starve.’

‘When did I ever tell you to starve?’

‘To eat, I have to open my mouth. But Mother, you told me to keep my mouth shut. So, what should I do? Drive two hours to Seoul and starve, I guess. Just drool over the feast in front of me. What else can I do but starve to death?’

‘Oh, you’re so frustrating. You’re driving me crazy.’

‘It’s not that easy to go crazy. Should we turn the car around and head to the hospital right now?’

‘How did you manage to live forty years like this?’

‘Not forty, thirty-eight. I still have two years left to be forty. How can you forget your only son’s age already?’

Despite the grandmother’s sharp words, her father hummed a carefree tune. The words ‘the pride of Nonsan, Woo Junhee. The daughter of Woo Donggu, Woo Junhee’ flowed along with the father’s cheerful melody.

The grandmother sighed deeply, as if she were exhausted.

She had been worrying a lot long before they came here. She had no experience attending such grand events, and she handled the word ‘invitation’ written on the invitation card with reverence.

She worried about what to wear, what to say, how other families would be there, and whether they might look down on them. She feared that their lack of education might embarrass Junhee or ruin her future.

Yet, at night, she beamed as she looked at the message announcing Junhee’s selection as a sponsorship recipient. Hugging the lying Junhee, she praised her for being chosen, saying it was an incredible and proud achievement.

She talked about buying Junhee a school uniform, paying for her academy, covering hospital bills, and even paying the bank interest next month.

She boasted that the factory people who looked down on the father for his limp would be put to shame. The factory manager’s wife, who always looked down on them, was now enviously staring at them.

The grandmother worked as a cook and helped with meal distribution at the factory.

‘Junhee’s grandmother, you raised your granddaughter well. She’s pretty, kind-hearted, and even excels in her studies. What’s your secret?’

The grandmother engraved those words in her heart like a lifelong medal. Even when she was sitting still, she would smile quietly to herself, remembering those words from the manager’s wife. She felt rewarded for raising her grandchild in place of her deceased daughter-in-law.

The day the news that Junhee had been selected as a Taesan Child Sponsorship recipient spread among the factory employees, the grandmother spent the whole day humbly answering phone calls.

‘Oh my, I don’t know why people keep calling me. I didn’t do anything. Oh, our Junhee did it all by herself. Oh, she’s been like that since she was little. This child has never caused me any trouble since she was a baby. Yes, she grew up well even without a mother. There’s no child like her these days.’

‘Oh, indeed. I just live trusting our Junhee, only our Junhee.’

Only our Junhee.

Our Junhee.

Junhee.

To Junhee, she was the princess her limp father cherished and the sole pride of her grandmother’s life.

Junhee didn’t want to disappoint their expectations. So, she wanted to do well here too.

The deeper they went into the event hall, the more the grandma seemed to shrink. Seeing all the other young parents made her mutter that no other grandmothers would come to such events.

Junhee held her grandma’s hand. The grandma looked down at Junhee with a wrinkled smile, a smile that resembled her dad’s. Junhee liked that. She wondered if her smile resembled theirs too, but she didn’t need to ask to know the answer.

‘Junhee has good looks, really. She looks exactly like her mother. Oh, thank goodness. If she looked like me or my son, she wouldn’t look like this. The village headman can see it too. Have you seen anyone as pretty as her in this village? Her skin is fair and smooth, her eyes are bright and beautiful like stars, her eyes are big, her nose is high, and her voice is gentle. She’s different from us country bumpkins. She’s a spitting image of her mother, a spitting image.’

Holding her father’s and grandmother’s hands in both of hers made her feel strong. Though she didn’t show it, Junhee was also quite nervous.

The Taesan Foundation Child Sponsorship event was an event aimed at children of employees from all Taesan subsidiaries who had exceptional talents. It was very difficult to be selected, but once chosen, they would cover all tuition fees up to college. It was an event held under the pretext of nurturing future talents of Taesan.

Her father worked at the Taesan Semiconductor factory in Cheongju. After losing the use of one leg in an accident while working at a textile factory at eighteen, her father had wandered from place to place until he finally found a job at the factory where he had worked for almost ten years.

Her father, known as Mr. Woo at the factory, never refused any of the dirty work there. All the tasks other employees didn’t want to do fell to her father. Despite this, when the time came to reduce the workforce, her father, with his disability, was always the first to be considered. On such days, the house would be filled with sighs every night.

‘Junhee is only thirteen. We’ve saved so little money. The bank is raising the interest rates.’

Junhee hated hearing such things.

It was around that time that they learned about the Taesan Foundation’s Child Sponsorship program. If Junhee got selected and caught the attention of the important people, they wouldn’t be able to easily fire her father from the factory.

So, if they made a good impression here today, her father would be able to keep his job at the company for a long time.

She thought about this as she looked at the strangely bent pine tree next to the wall.