SCAM
Worries kept piling up, one on top of another. Last night Harin had declared she would leave me the moment she graduated.
The problem was that her decision was identical to the one I had made eighteen years ago. Any power I might have had to talk her out of it had vanished completely.
Worse still, we were not legally father and daughter. If I lost her even once, that would be the end of everything.
How had it come to this? I had planned to tell her the whole truth once she became an adult and finally become a real family. So why had Harin ended up resembling me—her uncle—instead of her own biological parents?
Part of me wanted to storm over to the school right then and dig up every scrap of information on her, but today was impossible. I already had an appointment.
Just because I left home at sixteen and spent years living as a sailor did not mean I was some friendless loner. That would be a serious miscalculation.
I had my own “acquaintances,” after all.
“Hey, over here.”
I arrived at the meeting place, stepped inside, and a man raised his hand in greeting. Hwang Jinho. Same Marine High School as me, two years my senior.
He had been assigned as my life mentor the day I first walked through the school gates, and the connection had somehow lasted all this time. The moment I sat down, Jinho hyung laid thickly marbled beef over the charcoal grill.
Sizzle…
Armani suit, Vacheron Constantin watch. The car key resting on the table told me the S600 parked outside was his.
Same Marine High alumni—so why the night-and-day difference? Because hyung had never been dumb enough to just keep riding ships the way I had.
Right after graduating high school he finished three years of onboard reserve service, then immediately stepped ashore. After the so-called “three-year finish,” he took every won he had saved and jumped straight into business.
Even without grinding away on fishing boats like me, three years was more than enough to scrape together a few thousand in seed money. Everything he touched turned to gold. Now he was a well-known businessman living the high life.
What exactly that “business” was, though, even I still didn’t know.
“What, Jungso Shipping? After all that time on a ship, the best you could do is work at some shitty little outfit like that?”
“I sent applications all over the place. Nobody ever called back.”
“Of course they didn’t, you bastard. Everyone’s busy pulling strings for their Maritime University juniors—who the hell’s gonna hire a high-school dropout like you? Stupid ass. At the very least you should’ve stuck to merchant ships. What kind of idiot flexes by riding fishing boats? You should’ve been sharp like me—get in, make the money, get out.”
“…”
I had nothing to say. After that first fishing trip, most of the old grudge I’d held against him had faded. The real reason I never left the ships was simpler.
I had no home to go back to.
Hyung was already back home raising Harin. What good would it have done if Yu Jiyeon was gone? A girl who looked half like her would only have reopened every old wound.
In the end Harin had been the alpha and the omega of everything. I spent my days circling the edges of family, living without purpose, and that was how I ended up here.
“Whatever. How much cash have you scraped together so far?”
“Excluding the deposit on the villa I’m living in… liquid cash is about seven hundred million.”
The money matched the hell I’d put myself through. My first captain, Park Changsu, had been ridiculously competent, and the foreign captain I met later—Mr. Shrimp—was basically the god of shrimp fishing. By the time I was second mate I was already clearing a hundred million a year. Mom and Harin never lived extravagantly, so every won I earned went straight into savings until I finally came ashore.
“Damn, you really hoarded it like a rat. Hand it over to me. I’ll turn it into ten times that.”
“Ten times? Even with your skills, how the hell—”
“There’s always a way, you bastard. There’s this coin about to list called SCAM. We get an early allocation. The second it hits the market we dump everything. Ten times is the easy part.”
“…”
Could I trust him? Watching the way Jinho hyung moved through life, there was no question he had a supernatural nose for money.
Still, even with real estate going insane, seven hundred million wasn’t pocket change. And after how many times I’d danced with death to earn it, just handing it over felt…
“Seven hundred’s a bit much. I’ll put in four hundred.”
“You absolute chicken-shit. Forget ever starting a business—just stay a salaryman for the rest of your life. When you come crying later about the three billion you missed out on, don’t expect me to take responsibility.”
In the end I decided to entrust him with four hundred million. I wasn’t counting on a full tenfold return, but even a ten-percent profit would still be free money.
“Seriously though, how do you look exactly the same every time I see you? Anyone would think you were still twenty.”
“There’s actually a reason for that. I have this rare condition—”
“Yeah, yeah. You seeing anyone these days?”
“A single dad with a kid? Who am I supposed to be seeing?”
“You look perfectly fine—why are you always so pathetic? If I had your face I’d be cleaning out every high-school girl in the neighborhood.”
“Hyung, you’ve got plenty of people. Why say stuff like that…”
Setting aside how dangerous his word choice was, the comment still hit a little too close to home for someone currently cosplaying as a high-school boy.
“Whatever. As a celebration for your investment, I’ll set you up with a girl. She’s a coordinator at the dermatology clinic I go to—same age as you, perfect match. No bullshit, she’s actually gorgeous. And her tits, fuck, holy shit…”
Jinho hyung’s face flushed as he started kneading the air with both hands, clearly picturing the girl he was about to introduce. Something about this felt off.
“If she’s that good, why didn’t you go for her yourself?”
“Already tried. Got shot down, you bastard. She’s got high standards, but someone like you should be fine. How many guys your age are walking around with seven hundred million? Or, well… forty-three hundred million now.”
He was already counting the listing as done and inflating my net worth. But more importantly—
“Hyung, I’ve got a lot on my mind because of my daughter right now. I’m not in any shape to be getting set up with women.”
“What the fuck does a little kid even know? Did she tell you not to bring home a stepmom or something?”
“Uh… no? She actually told me I should meet someone.”
“Then what’s the problem, you bastard? You know raising a daughter is a waste of time, right? She’ll just marry into someone else’s family and won’t even bother with your ancestral rites. So shouldn’t you at least prepare for your own old age?”
“…”
True to his generation, Jinho hyung’s views on family were extremely traditional. And considering Harin planned to leave me in two years, his words weren’t entirely without logic.
“Just look at this. Once you see the photo you’ll change your mind.”
As a last resort he pulled out a picture of the woman he wanted to introduce. I honestly didn’t think a photo would make me abandon Harin, but—
“…?”
The second I saw it, I fell in love. Even accounting for every filter and edit in existence, she still didn’t look a day over thirty-four. Someone this beautiful could easily debut as a celebrity—why was she working as a dermatology coordinator? Suddenly it became a lot harder to reject Jinho hyung’s offer outright.
Of course I knew that looking at another woman while Eunju-ssaem existed was a serious crime. But the moment she saw me in a school uniform, any future we might have had was already dead.
So meeting her just once… wouldn’t be the end of the world, right?
“Ah, fuck, the buyer wants to meet right now. Anyway, lunch was good. I’ll text you the place and time later—go buy some decent clothes.”
“Huh? I’m paying for the meal?”
“What, you expect me to burn my precious time making your money ten times bigger and still buy you lunch? It’s not even that expensive—why are you being so cheap? If you pull this shit when you meet the girl, you’re getting dumped on the spot, you know that?”
“…”
This was a Korean beef restaurant. The short rib and flower loin alone had already blown past two hundred thousand won, and he wanted me to cover it?
Jinho hyung didn’t even glance at the counter as he walked out. If he was that rich, couldn’t he at least treat his cute junior to one meal?
The second I stepped out of the restaurant, regret crashed over me like a wave. My own daughter was talking about abandoning her dad and leaving home, and I had agreed just because some photo looked pretty? Had I completely lost my mind?
But… it wasn’t like I had any brilliant solutions sitting in my pocket right now either.
Harin was a problem that needed time. And if my head was this tangled, a little distraction might not be the worst idea in the world.
So I headed straight to a salon. First haircut in ages, and I even let the owner talk me into getting my eyebrows done.
Then I stopped by a department store and bought new clothes. Everything I owned looked like the wrinkled work gear you wear on the docks.
For what was basically my first real date—or blind date—of my life, it felt right to have at least one proper outfit ready.
Before I knew it, evening had fallen. I suddenly realized I hadn’t made dinner for Harin and scrambled for my phone.
“…”
Right. I’d completely underestimated a kid busy daydreaming about running away with her boyfriend. After the impulsive decisions and the overspending, the reality hangover hit hard.
I dragged myself to the nearest convenience store. Ignoring the clerk’s suspicious stare, I scanned my ID, bought a few cans of beer and some jerky, and stepped back outside.
Ahhh—
I sat under the convenience-store parasol, cracked open a can, and downed it in one go. After coming ashore I figured I wouldn’t have many reasons to drink, yet here I was, reaching for alcohol over daughter problems again.
Drink. Tonight I’d get properly wasted, forget everything, and sleep like the dead.
I had three straight days of work starting tomorrow. If I just threw myself into the grind, maybe some unexpected turnaround would be waiting for me.
I reached for the next can… and grabbed nothing. Wondering if I’d dropped it, I turned my head.
Whoosh—
All that greeted me was a thin cloud of cigarette smoke. Ownership of the beer can had already transferred to someone else.
Someone I knew.
“Huh? Kim Hyeonji? What are you doing here?”
It was Kim Hyeonji. Same as last week—green tracksuit under her school blazer—boldly cracking open my beer and taking a long drink.
“Can’t you tell by looking?”
She set the can down with the shameless confidence of someone who’d just committed theft. She was so brazen I didn’t even have the energy to argue right and wrong.
“That’s mine.”
“You smoked my cigarette.”
“What the hell… I thought you just gave me that? And it was only one stick.”
“I lent it to you. This is the interest.”
“…”
Weirdly persuasive. Besides, I hadn’t bought her the beer—she’d simply robbed me—so even if a cop showed up I still had a defense.
“What if someone reports us again? Because of you one clerk got fired and the owner ended up unemployed. Don’t you feel even a little bad?”
“They were open for business just fine. Same clerk too.”
“…”
I had been certain the store must have been shut down for a while. The fact that the police had only given them a warning meant the world was still somewhat livable.
“You got a haircut?”
Kim Hyeonji tilted her head arrogantly as she asked. Sudden embarrassment made me reach for a hat that, of course, I had never brought.
“It just felt kind of messy…”
“New clothes too. Getting set up with some girl or something?”
“I didn’t want to, but the person introducing us forced the whole thing…”
“Someone from our school?”
“No. More like… a working adult, I guess.”
“You into older women?”
“Well, under the circumstances I kind of have to say yes.”
Why was I answering every personal question she threw at me? Probably because some instinct told me this was a golden opportunity.
For reasons I still didn’t understand, Kim Hyeonji knew Harin. I had no idea how close they were, but she had been the first person to casually drop that Harin had a boyfriend.
“That boyfriend of Harin’s you mentioned before—is he actually her boyfriend?”
“Why do you care?”
“Just… personal interest.”
“You like Kang Harin?”
“What the hell… You people hear one name and immediately assume someone’s in love?”
“‘You people’? So you’ve been asking other people too? That’s even more suspicious.”
“Your instincts are disgustingly sharp… It’s not me. A friend of mine is interested. She’s just too shy, so I’m asking for her…”
“I’ll believe you.”
“…”
She absolutely did not believe me. Even Eunju only managed to trust me by sheer force of will while still carrying a faint suspicion, so this wasn’t exactly surprising.
Hiss…
Kim Hyeonji stubbed out her cigarette, then grabbed the jerky I’d bought and tore into it with a loud rip. Why were this girl’s hands so sticky?
“Hey, I never said you could have the jerky—”
“You said you wanted to know about Kang Harin’s boyfriend, right? Fine, forget it then.”
“Is there anything else you need?”
If she would just talk about Harin’s boyfriend, I would happily drag her back to that Korean beef place instead of mere jerky. Kim Hyeonji chewed thoughtfully and spoke.
“According to her, he’s not her boyfriend.”
“Then he’s a crush, at least. Seriously, who did she take after that she always denies everything—”
Then, in that instant, something off about her wording hit me. What did you just say?
“Wait. ‘According to her’? That sounds like you two actually talk one-on-one.”
“Is that not allowed?”
“…”
Of course it wasn’t allowed! She was the kind of delinquent who looked like she’d already given up on school, and Harin was a pure kid who’d just transferred from the countryside.
Going to the same school meant she could know who Harin was. But personal conversations?
Just how had Mom raised her granddaughter that she was letting her hang around with someone this rough? Then Kim Hyeonji turned the tables.
“My turn to ask something?”
“Me? Like I said earlier, it’s not me, it’s my friend—”
“What the hell are you, you bastard?”
“…”
The fundamental question finally dropped. We had run into each other three times by pure chance and never once exchanged names.
I didn’t want to admit it, but among every Cheonji High student I knew, this girl was the closest to Harin. If I wanted information, I had no choice but to build some kind of rapport with Kim Hyeonji whether I liked it or not.
“Me? I’m… you know. A Team.”
So I would at least admit I was with A Team. But she pressed me in a way I had never experienced before.
“I figured you’d say that. But you’re not A Team.”
“…?”
Kim Hyeonji’s expression changed. Her eyes went ice-cold, like she had finally unmasked a spy, and she stared hard enough to bore a hole straight through my forehead.
I still had no idea what A Team even was. Yet she had seen through my lie in a single second. There was only one conclusion I could draw from that.
This girl was the real A Team.