Chapter 157
Chapter 157
"......Do I simply need to prove that I'm Sara's family?"
At Choi Na-kyung's words, the director paused briefly before speaking.
"Just being family won't be enough. What kind of world do we live in these days? Even if you're a parent, if your relationship with your child isn't properly established, you won't be treated as one."
"......."
"Is that company still applying pressure?"
"......That's because it was unavoidable from an operational standpoint."
"Is that so."
The director fell silent for a moment, then picked up the cup on the table. But she didn't bring it to her lips.
Holding the warm cup in both hands, she stayed quiet a moment longer before speaking.
"You must be aware that among Sara's friends, there is an heir to Yiwon Trading Company."
"......."
"That company is not an entity you can treat as lightly as the one you're currently pressuring. We may give them contracts and they may carry them out, but that relationship only continues because it benefits both sides."
Then she raised her head and looked at Choi Na-kyung.
"As I told you last time, dealing with people you dislike in this manner every time is a seriously bad habit for a manager. There are limits to crushing someone with force. This company is already talked about as the 'client of clients' as it is, if you cement that image any further, won't the problems become severe?"
"I'll handle what I'm capable of."
"Didn't you say you would leave operations to the board?"
"......."
"Please, do not let personal feelings blind you and block the company's future. We are people who pursue profit, not entities who exist to resolve your personal emotions. Think about the reason you were able to rise to that position in this company."
"......."
The reason she was able to rise to the chairwoman's seat.
He was surely telling her to remember the grace of the former chairman.
The reason a mere nurse, ground down by three-shift work every day, could become the wealthiest woman in the world was entirely thanks to that person.
Of course, the reason Choi Na-kyung rose to the position of chairwoman had nothing to do with any of that.
What she wanted had always been one thing.
"Chairwoman, as an individual you hold the most shares in Yujin Electronics...... but I want you to know that when the entire board comes together, that volume of shares is far from negligible. And at this moment, every action you are taking is having a negative impact on the company's image. The investors are growing anxious."
"......."
"Still, since you've been steadily buying back treasury stock, the dissatisfaction hasn't erupted just yet, but there's no telling what will happen in the future."
"......Sara's and my stocks......"
"Sara's stocks are Sara's stocks."
At the director's statement, Choi Na-kyung closed her mouth.
Yes. They were Sara's stocks.
Under normal circumstances, they were shares that should be seen as one bloc together with those of her sole mother, Choi Na-kyung.
But.
"......So, demonstrate properly that you and Sara still share the bond of parent and child."
If not, the future is already decided.
Because votes within the company operate purely on the logic of capital.
"......I will definitely prove it."
Choi Na-kyung gritted her teeth.
*
It was an ordinary day, much like any other.
Of course, the word "ordinary" only applied inside this school. From the outside, this school was anything but ordinary.
A place where the children of the richest families in the country attended.
All facilities were the best in the nation, and even the teachers were the best. A school that covered nearly all of it through student tuition with virtually no state support, boasting fees higher than many private universities.
If children from "ordinary" families wanted to attend this school, they had to study ferociously and enter as scholarship students, or else take on enormous debt. There was practically no other way.
The inside was even more grotesque.
As befitted the offspring of families at the extreme end of capitalism, the students routinely exchanged "gifts" among themselves. And the teachers who accepted lavish money seemed to have grown so weary of students who never listened that they'd forgotten how to act as teachers at all.
Money changing hands, whether between students, between teachers, or between students and teachers, was so taken for granted that there was even a banker dispatched specifically for this school.
The deeper you dug, the more it became clear this place was severely disconnected from what people normally called "ordinary."
But no matter how strange a place it was, if you kept living inside it, you eventually began to think of it as ordinary.
The kids who had ostracized Ye Sa-ra in the past must have thought the same way, and the teachers who had casually gone along with it without a second thought must have thought the same way.
If anything, you could say that the existence called "Ye Sa-ra" had suddenly started thrashing around like mad, shattering that "ordinariness."
Her standing within the school had shifted dramatically.
Even the teachers who were ignored by the students still held onto a bare minimum of authority. Teachers were the ones who gave out grades, and while that might not matter to the paying students, to the students "attending this school for free thanks to those kids," they were still terrifying figures.
The scholarship students, who logically should have been treated best for their top grades, were actually at the very bottom of the food chain. They were "kids who would have to be hired someday." The students paying to attend this school could slip a leash around their necks far too easily.
......And Ye Sa-ra.
'The money Ye Sa-ra has isn't Ye Sa-ra's own money.'
It wasn't strange at all that such a perception had spread.
Because that was exactly the case for the vast majority of students who attended this school.
No matter how old they were, they were still students who hadn't even reached adulthood. How many of the students here could boldly declare, "This money is my own, not my parents' money"?
Besides, Ye Sa-ra had genuinely been under the control of that so-called mother of hers.
......Of course, that was merely a misconception.
By casually scattering sums of money that someone else might earn in a lifetime, Ye Sa-ra had seized control of the school outright.
So the situation that resulted from all that hardly felt ordinary.
A situation where no one could ignore her anymore, and if she spoke, they had no choice but to listen.
......In a place where only one-eyed people gather, having one eye is the norm. To those who have lived their whole lives with a single eye, someone with both eyes simply looks grotesque.
And in such a society, for a two-eyed person to be treated as "normal" is impossible unless they pluck out one eye.
However—
"Ye Sa-ra."
During homeroom period, the teacher abruptly called Ye Sa-ra's name.
As she always did, she had been staring out the window, paying no attention to anything around her. A beat late, she turned her head and gazed blankly at the teacher.
"You don't need to attend class today."
"......Excuse me?"
Ye Sa-ra often looked flustered. Especially at the beginning of this semester, it had been frequent. Whenever the friend next to her poked her in the side, she would let out a bizarre noise.
But as time passed and Ye Sa-ra came back with a suddenly composed demeanor, those openly flustered moments had grown noticeably rarer.
"Could you please repeat what you just said?"
A tone that seemed to openly provoke the other person.
At those words, the homeroom teacher furrowed her brow, but still—
"Someone is here to see you."
—managed to answer.
Before anyone noticed, the entire classroom was watching Ye Sa-ra.
"......."
Ye Sa-ra's mouth, which had been resting on her hand, fell open blankly.
"......Who?"
"You'll find out if you go and meet them."
"I don't want to."
Ye Sa-ra's reply was sharp as a knife.
But on that face, bewilderment rose.
......No, was it an expectant expression?
Even as she looked bewildered, the corners of her lips twitched faintly upward.
No, maybe it was an angry face. Her eyebrows flinched, and her sharp eyes were fixed on the teacher as if she wanted to cut her down with a glare.
"Ah, you two—don't get up. If you do, you'll face consequences right then and there. How many times have you skipped class so far?"
Seeing Shin So-hee and Yu Ha-neul starting to rise, the teacher spoke. Yu Ha-neul's face flushed, and Shin So-hee bared her teeth.
"I said, stay in your seats."
The students swallowed their breath.
That teacher—how?
The same teacher who hadn't been able to speak properly to Shin So-hee after being exposed for taking money from her was now talking back with confidence.
"It's okay."
Ye Sa-ra stood up as she spoke.
"......I figured they'd come find me eventually, anyway."
"......Sara."
"I'll be right back."
Sara said that and then looked toward the teacher.
"......Where should I go?"
"She's waiting in the faculty office."
The homeroom teacher only said that much.
Ye Sa-ra stared at the homeroom teacher for a long moment, then turned and headed for the classroom door.
"Sara, really—"
Yu Ha-neul tried to say something, but—
"No."
Ye Sa-ra cut her off immediately.
"This is something I have to finish alone."
"......."
Ye Sa-ra did not look back.
The classroom door closed, and for a while, silence engulfed the room.
"Then, let's begin homeroom."
The homeroom teacher smiled confidently and said that.
"......."
And that became a kind of signal.
The students, seeing that the teacher had regained her confidence, made their judgment.
Ah, it's time to become "ordinary" again.
They couldn't grasp exactly how things were moving, but they could figure that out gradually.
If things were going the way they seemed.
Their gazes turned toward Shin So-hee and Yu Ha-neul, who remained in the classroom.
—In a world of the one-eyed, those with both eyes are treated as abnormal.
And for those "abnormals" to become "normal," they must pluck out one eye.
However, one crucial thing remains.
When you pluck out an eye, you must choose correctly which one to remove.
If you pick the wrong side, you'll be treated as abnormal even after gouging it out.