Chapter 18

“Oh, right. Since she came along with her father, I should at least give her some spending money.”

Ganguk pulled out his wallet from his inner pocket, then took out a few white checks and held them out.

Startled, Seoyun looked at Jeonghun.

Jeonghun seemed surprised too.

“Ah…. no. It’s okay. You don’t have to give me anything.”

“Come on, it’s because you’re like a niece to me. Go on, it’s fine. Take it.”

When Seoyun hesitated, Ganguk shook the money in his hand as if urging her to take it already.

In the end, Seoyun had no choice but to accept the money hesitantly.

“Thank you.”

“That’s right. Study hard.”

When Seoyun lowered her head, Ganguk stroked her back as if he found her admirable.

For some reason, that touch felt unpleasant, and without realizing it, Seoyun took a step back.

Jeonghun stood there with a slightly flushed face, looking at a loss over what to do.

He seemed deeply apologetic.

Jeonghun too was the proper head of a company responsible for over a thousand employees.

His life was comfortable, and he supported Seoyun and Jiho so that they lacked for nothing and had no cause to envy anyone.

But in this place, he was nothing more than the weaker party.

Watching Jeonghun like that made Seoyun feel strangely embarrassed, so she turned her gaze elsewhere for no reason.

“Your father needs to go talk to the others, so would you like to wait over there for a bit, Seoyun? There seem to be some kids around your age over there too.”

“Yes, Dad.”

Chairman Suung, who smiled as if pretending to be kind, and Ganguk, whose gaze on her felt somehow unsettling, both made her uncomfortable.

So the moment Jeonghun finished speaking, Seoyun hurried away from that spot.

But everything around her was still an unfamiliar world to Seoyun, a first-year high school student.

Like Alice entering a strange land, Seoyun felt intimidated.

People dressed in dazzling outfits stood in small groups drinking champagne or chatting.

Seoyun felt uneasy, afraid someone might speak to her, or afraid no one would.

As Jeonghun had said, she did see a few people who looked around her age.

They had probably come with their parents too, like she had.

But unlike her, they looked used to places like this.

Seoyun stared blankly at the sight of them talking easily together, as though a glass wall stood between her and them.

“Oh, who’s that? I don’t think I’ve seen her before.”

At some point, Seoyun had reached the edge of the garden where the banquet was being held.

She had stepped into the shade of thick-trunked trees lined in a row to avoid people’s eyes.

There, a few teenagers who looked about her age had gathered.

The boy who spotted Seoyun was holding a bottle of wine in his hand.

He was a minor, wasn’t he?

Without realizing it, Seoyun furrowed her brow.

“Ah, I’ve seen you before. Did I see you at school?”

“You’re a first-year, right? You know me, don’t you?”

Seoyun nodded a little stiffly.

One was a second-year sunbae known as the youngest daughter of Dawon Foods, and the other was the third-year vice president of the student body, said to be a child of the Samhan Group.

Seoyun kept quietly to herself and only studied, but they were so conspicuous and famous that even she could not help but know who they were.

“But what family are you from? Wow, why haven’t I known about you until now? I like you. I’m Jeon Hyeseong. You know Munseong Motors, right?”

“Ah……”

“Do you like pool parties? Want to come with me next weekend?”

The boy introducing himself as Jeon Hyeseong stepped closer to Seoyun.

At that, the daughter of the Samhan Group burst into laughter.

“Hey, hey, now I remember. She’s not from some big family at all. I heard there was one pretty sweet potato in a ginseng field, and it was you. What was it again? Some company that makes batteries or something. They’re a subcontractor for Daejeong Electronics. Right?”

“… Yes.”

“But then how did you end up here?”

Pressed down by the daughter of the Samhan Group cackling and by Hyeseong narrowing his eyes at her, Seoyun answered quietly.

“A sweet potato in a ginseng field? Hey, that’s a delicacy. Makes my mouth water.”

Hyeseong’s eyes were flushed, perhaps a little drunk.

Trying to avoid him as he approached her with a giggle, Seoyun shrank back step by step.

“Leave it alone. You eat just anything and you’ll end up sick.”

It was then.

A bored voice came from behind the thick tree trunk, and then a girl turned and stepped out.

A white cigarette was tucked between the fingers of the hand held near her lips as she slowly exhaled a long stream of smoke.

Without realizing it, Seoyun drew in a breath.

It was Seo Harin, the third-year student council president.

With her family from Seomyeong Construction, her dazzling looks, and even her status as the top-ranked student in the whole school.

At school, Seo Harin was as famous as a celebrity.

But that cigarette in her hand….

What kind of place was this, where high school students drank alcohol without a care, smoked cigarettes, and spoke with such rough vulgarity?

Seoyun felt completely overwhelmed.

“Hey, you should go. Don’t lurk around places that don’t suit you for no reason.”

“Ah…. Yes. Then I’ll….”

She had already wanted to run away anyway.

The moment Harin finished speaking, Seoyun turned and hurried off from that place.

“Hey, who are you to tell someone to go or stay? I was planning to have a little fun with her today.”

“You really need to fix that habit of yours. Is your brain attached to your lower half?”

The voices of their conversation drifting from behind her back were even more frightening.

It felt as though Hyeseong might come after her at any moment.

Trying somehow to find a place where she could avoid other people’s eyes, she ended up going all the way to where the row of cypress trees came to an end.

Beyond a low wall, there stood another house.

It was smaller than the main residence that had risen proudly in the wide garden, but it was a beautifully built European-style house.

And on the first-floor balcony, a man was standing there.

“Who are you?”

The man asked indifferently.

Seoyun could not answer at once, partly because she was startled, but also because the man’s appearance was more striking than anyone she had ever seen before.

Even at Seoyun’s high school, there were a few upperclassmen who were popular enough to be called gods among men.

But compared to this man, they were closer to ordinary people.

It was as though a celebrity she had only ever seen on television had appeared right in front of her.

At this very moment, Seoyun truly understood what it meant to say that someone seemed to glow.

He was so tall she had to tilt her head all the way back to look up at him, and the shoulders beneath his black jacket over a crisp white dress shirt were broad.

Below his fine black hair stirring softly in the breeze, his pale forehead was clean and straight, and his neat brows and long eyes with subtle double lids were both masculine and beautiful.

Seoyun stared blankly at him for a moment, until his smoothly curved lips moved again.

“If you’re a guest, go back out that way.”

“Ah, um, well……”

The man’s voice was detached.

Just as Seoyun came back to herself with a start and turned to look toward the entrance she had come from, a voice with a loose, vulgar tone was drawing closer from the other side.

“She definitely came this way. I’m telling you, she looked really tasty.”

“A first-year at Sewon High? She’s Seo Harin’s junior. Will this be okay?”

“Hey, don’t worry. I heard she’s from some nobody family that only gets subcontracting work from Daejeong. Perfect to have some fun with and spit back out afterward. Once we find her, let’s sweet-talk her and take her to your hotel.”

It was Hyeseong’s voice, along with another boy’s.

From the sound of it, they were clearly talking about her.

A sudden fear seized Seoyun.

With trembling eyes, she looked back at the man standing on the balcony.

“Please help me.”

How she had found the courage to say it, she did not know.

In a shaking voice, Seoyun asked the man for help.

Letting out a light sigh as if it were a nuisance, the man gave a slight jerk of his chin.

Seoyun quickly looked around, then darted into the deep shadow cast beside the balcony, between the building wall and the low fence.

There she pressed herself flat against the wall and held her breath.

“Oh, hyung, Ijun. You were here.”

“Yeah. Why did you come all the way here?”

“Have you by any chance seen a girl?”

It seemed the man’s name was Ijun.

At Hyeseong’s voice persistently searching for her, Seoyun covered her mouth with her hand in case even the sound of her breathing might escape.

After a brief moment of silence, the man finally spoke again.

“No, I haven’t seen anyone. No one came here.”

“Ha…. Then where the hell did she go. Okay, hyung. Got it.”

The dragging footsteps, some ahead and some behind, gradually faded away.

Even after they could no longer be heard at all, Seoyun remained standing in the shadows for several more seconds.