We Are Not Fools
Lee Jeong-Hoon's life changed dramatically the moment he returned to Korea.
He moved out of the royal suite he had been using and into a suite prepared exclusively for Lumen's chairman.
Before leaving for America he had gathered the twelve vassals in the royal suite for a meeting and found it a touch cramped, so the upgrade felt thoroughly welcome.
It was more than a simple increase in floor space. Small private rooms now waited for Butler Ju and the head maid, Lee Yeong, who always attended him, along with additional chambers for other vassals. A vast conference room large enough to seat the twelve vassals and more stood ready, as did a cavernous office where Jeong-Hoon could work not merely as Lumen's chairman but as head of the entire consolidated group. There was a kitchen-equipped dining room, a bathroom complete with sauna, and even a small bar staffed by a resident bartender.
"This is basically everything except a swimming pool, isn't it…?"
"There's a small pool instead of a full swimming pool, but yeah."
Han Si-Eun stared around the enormous chairman's suite in open astonishment. Jeong-Hoon only shrugged. Instead of Butler Ju, Ju Min-Ha stood behind him with both hands folded politely—an unusual sight, yet Si-Eun, who still thought of her merely as one of Jeong-Hoon's subordinates, was too busy drinking in the suite's luxury to notice. She had stayed in Lumen's top-tier MVP room with So-yeon before, but even that now seemed shabby beside the space Jeong-Hoon occupied.
"A-are you sure you're all right? You were hospitalized a whole month with serious injuries."
"Like I already told you, I'm completely fine."
Si-Eun tore her gaze from the opulence to check on his condition; Jeong-Hoon shrugged again. Throughout the entire month he had spent in America she had messaged him over and over, asking if he was truly okay. So the first person he summoned after returning home was Si-Eun—to prove he was healthy and unharmed.
"But Chairman, don't you think you drag disasters with you wherever you go?"
"…Haha."
"It's the chairman who chases after incidents, not the other way around."
When Jeong-Hoon gave a weak laugh and turned his head, Min-Ha spoke up from behind him. She found Si-Eun's tone—treating the family head like some walking catastrophe—distinctly irritating.
"Uh, well, that is…"
"I'm Ju Min-Ha, granddaughter of Director Joo Yeong-Cheol."
"Ah, so you're Director Joo's granddaughter. But where is the director himself, and why is his granddaughter here instead?"
Caught off-guard by the sudden interjection, Si-Eun glanced between Jeong-Hoon and Min-Ha, unsure how to treat someone who looked roughly her own age.
"Grandfather is away on business the chairman assigned him, so I'm attending in his place. Is there a problem?"
"No, none at all. An outsider like me has no business meddling in Lumen's internal affairs."
Si-Eun nodded as if she understood, then looked at Jeong-Hoon for no particular reason.
"How old is Director Joo's granddaughter? She looks about my age…"
"I'm eighteen this year. You could just ask me that instead of the chairman."
"…I'm a little shy with new people. Wait—you're a minor? So you're part-timing?"
The moment she learned Min-Ha was younger, Si-Eun's eyes lit up. She had known the girl was an Awakened the second she saw her. Young Awakened were nothing new to Si-Eun, but the aura rolling off Min-Ha told her this was someone who had seen real combat—a hunter in all but name. Discovering they were also age-mates sparked an instant sense of kinship.
"Not part-time—I'm an apprentice! I'm scheduled to start full-time the second I graduate high school!"
"Wow, you've already got your whole future planned out? Look at you, all organized!"
"W-what did you just say? Are you making fun of me?!"
Si-Eun, brimming with sudden camaraderie, and Min-Ha, who disliked how casually this stranger treated the family head she revered, talked completely past each other.
"…Haaah."
Stuck awkwardly in the middle, Jeong-Hoon heaved a long sigh and shook his head. At this rate it would take forever to hand over the souvenir snacks he had bought in New York.
Once Si-Eun and Min-Ha's cross-talk finally wound down and the souvenirs had been delivered, Jeong-Hoon kept the appointment Butler Ju had arranged with National Assemblyman Kim Dae-yeong.
A four-term ruling-party lawmaker, Kim was notorious for latched onto every clause in Awakened-related bills that offered even slight consideration to Awakened and for attacking the government for "favoring" them. His strong anti-Awakened stance made him the single largest obstacle now that the law needed revising to create the PS Association. As a four-term veteran he wielded influence that could not be ignored.
"So, what business does the chairman of Lumen have with me? A meeting between a National Assemblyman and a chaebol chairman can start all sorts of gossip—we have to be careful."
Kim Dae-yeong, a robust bald old man, fixed Jeong-Hoon with a gleaming stare. His gold-badge-adorned suit looked ready to burst, yet the bulk was muscle rather than fat. The pressure in his gaze was considerable, but Jeong-Hoon remained unruffled. After months of walking the edge of death, he could simply think, Ah, this guy's got some presence, and move on.
"I just have a small petition to submit."
"A petition? I never imagined the chairman of Lumen would turn out to be a constituent of my district!"
Dae-yeong spoke down to him with open displeasure, yet Jeong-Hoon showed no resentment. He was the one who needed something here, and the man across from him was not the type who could be swayed by bribes. Careful persuasion with words was the only path—and the hostility Dae-yeong displayed sprang from genuine political conviction.
"It's a petition addressed to the entire National Assembly, which is why I came to you, Assemblyman Kim."
"Don't tell me this is about the Hunter Act amendment floating around lately? I never knew Lumen's chairman took such an interest in hunter law!"
"How could I not? Lumen supports hunters for the sake of the world."
"For the world? More like for your own private army!"
At the words "private army" Jeong-Hoon scratched his head with a look of mild distress. The man had just stated the exact reason for his open hostility. To a politician who most feared special privileges for Awakened, Jeong-Hoon—who piled those privileges on Awakened while building what looked like a personal force—was inevitably repulsive.
"Not my private army—they're a foreign mercenary company—but that isn't the important point."
"No, it is the important point! A private force of that scale in this day and age!"
"I'll say once more that they are not mine, and I'll leave the petition materials here."
Realizing further conversation was useless, Jeong-Hoon set down the documents detailing his requests regarding the Hunter Act amendment and rose from his seat. He had never expected to succeed in persuading the man on the first try anyway.
After circulating through assembly offices delivering his petition materials, Jeong-Hoon returned to Lumen that evening. He washed off his makeup and changed into the most ordinary suit he owned so he could keep the promise he had made to meet his friends once the business trip was over.
"Gaju. Your friends have arrived."
"…Have they? Then I'd better go down. Ah—do not follow me under any circumstances."
Even while wondering whether this was really all right, Jeong-Hoon took his phone and left the suite.
He had invited the friends who wanted to meet up to Lumen. Now that enemies of the family had appeared, any outside location where security might slip was too dangerous. So he invited them to Lumen and made up a suitable excuse: a canceled reservation had freed a room, and he had been told he could use it however he liked for one night. They had all come running in excitement.
"Dude, this is a basic Lumen room? It's bigger than my house!"
"Isn't this a suite? How does a basic room have three bedrooms?!"
The friends he had called poured into the Lumen room and marveled as they inspected every corner. Jeong-Hoon himself had never been inside a regular Lumen room before, so he looked around as well.
"What are you doing? You're an employee here—why are you staring like it's the first time?"
"Huh? Oh, I work in sales, not housekeeping. This is actually my first time inside a guest room…"
He had prepared the sales-department cover story in advance, but he had never expected to use it quite like this. Jeong-Hoon merely shrugged.
"You…"
"Hey!!! Lee Jeong-Hoon!!! What the hell is all this whiskey!!!"
Yeong-min had been about to say something in response to the excuse, but the friends who had gone farther inside shrieked in shock, and both men's gazes snapped toward them.
"You told me to buy some, so I bought some! What's the problem?!"
"Dude, if we drink all this we'll die!"
An enormous number of whiskey bottles covered the table in front of the sofa, leaving the friends speechless. The quantity far exceeded duty-free limits.
"One or two bottles would have been plenty—what's with this mountain? Even dumping a whole month's salary wouldn't get you this much."
"This is Blue Label…"
"And this side is thirty-year-old."
It was not merely the number; the lineup of bottles whose very names made wallets scream left the friends thoroughly cowed.
"Why'd you go this hard?"
"This much? It's nothing."
Yeong-min looked worried that a rookie employee of less than a year could never afford such an absurd collection, but Jeong-Hoon only shrugged. Money was rotting away in piles; he simply felt like showing off a little in front of his friends.
"Hey, all of this together still costs less than one night in the royal suite."
Jeong-Hoon tossed out the casual brag, pulled ice from the fridge, dropped it into a glass, then snatched the Blue Label one of his friends was holding and poured.
"Who drinks that on the rocks, you maniac?!"
"Huh? You're not supposed to? Do I need to add this too?"
While the friends recoiled at the sight of Blue Label going over ice, Jeong-Hoon calmly took orange juice from the fridge, poured it straight into the glass, and gave it a casual stir with a chopstick.
"Y-you're insane…!"
"Whiskey's too bitter. This is the best way to drink it."
Everyone shouted at the spectacle of a hundred-thousand-won bottle being turned into a screwdriver, but Jeong-Hoon's only thought was, What's the big deal? Even mixed this way it still tasted worse than the lemon beer he usually drank.
"You taste-blind bastard…"
"Drinking however you like is how you enjoy the flavor."
Once the owner of the whiskey cracked open a bottle, everyone else rushed to grab glasses and pour as if they had been waiting for the signal. And so the drinking party began. Jeong-Hoon ordered room-service snacks several times throughout the night—though the fact that Baek Si-Hwan himself had cooked them remained a secret from the friends.
"Hey, Lee Jeong-Hoon, you…"
"Stop worrying about the money and drink. It's a belated celebration for landing the job, so I'm treating."
"No—that's not it. We're not fools, right?"
When the alcohol hit and Yeong-min suddenly turned serious, Jeong-Hoon only shrugged. He could not reveal his true identity, yet he had no desire to scrimp on money just to keep the secret from his friends.
"I told you not to worry about the money."
"No—your whole 'sales' story is a lie, isn't it? You're the chairman of Lumen…"
Yeong-min finally said, under the influence of liquor, the thing he had tried to say earlier. Jeong-Hoon thought, Here it comes. No matter how carefully he dressed the story, fooling his friends had always been impossible. So he simply nodded in silence.
"Yeah. I am…"
"I knew it—you're the body double for Lumen's chairman, right?! I thought it was weird from the start when some guy who never even went to college suddenly got hired by Lumen!"
"…Huh?"
"When I saw that Lumen chairman who looks exactly like you on TV, it was suspicious. You look so identical they hired you as his stand-in, right? The one who got critically injured and spent a month in the hospital wasn't the real chairman—it was you, the double!"
Watching Yeong-min break down sobbing as he spoke, Jeong-Hoon's expression turned complicated. Being handed a convenient misunderstanding was helpful, yet somehow it left a foul taste.
"That Lumen chairman bastard! Using my friend just because you have the same name and look alike! And after everything this guy's already been through!"
"…Hey."
"This room and all this whiskey—they're consolation money for those injuries, right? You guys! Right now we're eating and drinking the price of Jeong-Hoon's blood!"
As Yeong-min vented his fury and blew into a bottle like a trumpet, Jeong-Hoon scratched his head. He had no idea how to react.
"Hey, Lee Jeong-Hoon. Man, you can hide things from other people, but not from friends. I get that it's dangerous work so you kept quiet, but did you really think we'd be happy sitting here eating and drinking the fruits of your suffering without even knowing…!"
"Uh, yeah. Thanks."
Since they had kindly jumped to the wrong conclusion on their own, Jeong-Hoon decided he could relax for the moment and took a sip of his orange-juice-laced whiskey. Still, listening to Yeong-min drunkenly hurl every harsh curse in the book at the "chairman of Lumen"—who happened to be sitting right in front of him—did nothing for his mood.
"But you know, even though you look the same, that chairman guy has way more charisma and is way better-looking. When I put the photos side by side the difference was obvious."
"…"
He tried to ignore Yeong-min's drunken insults and keep sipping, only for another friend to sidle up giggling. Jeong-Hoon stared at him with a look of pure disbelief.
"We already all know. You don't have to look so shocked."
"No, it's not that…"
Having the person in question told to his face that the other guy was better-looking left Jeong-Hoon's mood thoroughly ruined. He eyed an empty whiskey bottle. It looked strangely perfect for gripping—an ideal blunt instrument. To put it plainly, Jeong-Hoon now very much wanted to smash his friends' skulls open with a whiskey bottle.