Chapter 42
Chapter 42
But I couldn't act like she was someone I'd never met.
Given the way she carried herself, she'd clearly been handling Ye Sa-ra's affairs for a long time. She looked younger than Yang Hye-in, but maybe she just had a youthful face.
"...Circumstances made it impossible for me to contact you until now."
"...Huh."
The moment the words left my mouth, her expression went blank.
"...What's wrong?"
"Oh, no. It's nothing important."
She rolled her eyes for a moment, then spoke.
"It's just, well... this is the first time I've heard your voice, ma'am."
"...."
So had she been communicating with her other clients using sign language or something?
"Honestly, I know this is rude to say, but I'd wondered if you might have aphasia. You always just handed over your requests on a note."
I almost smacked my forehead right there.
Right. Ye Sa-ra's personality meant she barely talked to anyone around her. In the main game, she was the type to scream and curse, sure, but at least up through middle school she'd been a character completely isolated from society.
So... it wasn't the other clients who were the problem. It was Ye Sa-ra.
"...I simply changed my mind. A lot has happened lately."
"You certainly do seem to have been through a lot."
The office worker smiled wryly and nodded. She still seemed to take the change as a positive one.
"Still, you didn't go through with the extreme choice, in the end. That's good. People really do have a much better future ahead of them if they stay alive. When you asked me to procure those sleeping pills, I truly thought you had given up on everything."
"...."
Watching her say something so morbid like it was nothing, I got the feeling this person wasn't exactly normal either.
I looked around. From any angle, it was just an ordinary... well, that it was a park inside a school made it not entirely ordinary, but under the concept of a 'park,' it was a fairly ordinary one. Trees, walking paths, benches to sit and rest.
But why go out of her way to wait here?
"How did you get in here?"
"Pardon?"
At my question, the office worker tilted her head.
"I simply walked in through the main gate. Oh, I didn't bring a car in, of course. Cars aren't even allowed onto the school grounds, and the parking lot out front charges an enormous fee unless you're a student's family."
"Nobody stops you from just walking in like that?"
When I asked in surprise, she tilted her head the other way.
"Well, I'm a banker. A private school like this often has banking business to handle, and plenty of students want banking services on campus."
...A banker? Not someone from an errand service or something like that?
"...You are Ms. Ye Sa-ra, correct?"
When I gave her a blank look, the office worker asked again, seriously. But even after saying that, she muttered to herself, "No, it is Ms. Ye Sa-ra, though."
"Ah."
As if it had just dawned on her, she let out a small exclamation.
"...Then, um, did you make an 'attempt'?"
"An attempt at what?"
I frowned slightly and asked again. The office worker posed the question with a cautious expression.
"The, well, the sleeping pills."
"Ah."
Right, that.
If this bank had procured the sleeping pills, they might have known how Ye Sa-ra intended to use them. So her concern wasn't strange.
"Yes. So I spent time in the hospital."
"Could it be that, after that, your memory..."
"Yes, there might be some impairment... I don't know."
Since things had come to this, I decided to tell a bold lie. Claiming memory confusion and getting information out of her was the better play.
"Ah... this is a problem."
The banker scratched the back of her head.
"Then, do you not remember which bank I came from either?"
"...That's right."
My ambiguous answer seemed to serve as a good enough reason for her to accept it. The banker pressed her fingers to her forehead and spoke with a look of forced patience.
"Oh dear... then this story might take a while."
"I have plenty of time. Shall we sit and talk?"
When I pointed to a bench, the banker finally nodded.
*
"In that case, allow me to introduce myself once again. I'm Han Ga-ram, team leader of the Will-Substitute Trust Team 1 at Chang-eon Savings Bank."
She handed me her business card and bowed her head slightly as she sat.
"Will-Substitute Trust?"
When I echoed the term, she nodded.
"Yes. Many people want to arrange their estate neatly before they pass. The service is mainly used by those who want to concentrate their assets on a specific child, or return them to society, and who worry their children might claim their Forced Heirship Share."
"...There's a way to avoid giving the forced share?"
"Well..."
Han Ga-ram thought for a moment, then said,
"Shall I start with an explanation of wills and inheritance?"
"Yes, please."
At my answer, Han Ga-ram nodded again and continued her explanation.
"First, when someone with assets to leave to their family passes away, assuming there is no will, the estate is divided at a ratio of 1.5 to the spouse and 1 to the children. You're aware of this?"
I nodded.
"But when a will exists, the story changes. Imagine it states that all assets must go to one child. The law, of course, respects the deceased's wishes as much as possible. Yet it also views leaving absolutely nothing to one's own flesh and blood or family as contrary to social justice.
"The child might be truly rotten and undeserving, but conversely, the deceased parent might have been a rotten person who discriminated against their children. So the law sets a minimum portion that surviving family members are entitled to inherit, regardless of the will or testament. This is called the 'Forced Heirship Share.'"
I was familiar with the concept up to here from current-affairs programs and things I'd read online.
"And the forced share is set at 'half the amount a child would have received under intestate succession, or one-third for a sibling.' That's why a child who received no inheritance can generally file a forced-share lawsuit and still recover some assets, though significantly less than if no will existed."
Having explained that far, Han Ga-ram smiled brightly at me and said,
"But, of course, there are people who don't even want to give the forced share."
"And that's why the will-substitute trust exists?"
"Exactly. To explain inheritance a bit more precisely, the term 'estate' refers to the assets left behind when a person dies. Naturally, people with family want to pass that estate on to their children as intact as possible. So they come up with various loopholes. For instance, what if you transfer your assets to your children before you die and then pass away?
"In conclusion, that method is legally blocked. If you transfer assets to a child and die within ten years, those assets are still considered part of the inheritance. Naturally, taxes must be paid from within those assets, and the forced share still applies.
"Unfortunately, your father, former Chairman Ye In-su, passed away before you turned ten. No matter how early the gifts were made, they were transferred less than ten years before the point of inheritance. Therefore, all of those gifted assets are classified as part of the estate, and the 'forced share' naturally applies."
So even some of the assets gifted to Ye Sa-ra were included in the pool to be divided at inheritance.
"But the late chairman seems to have truly loved you, Ms. Ye Sa-ra. That is why he entrusted these assets to us. The contract period extends until three years from now, when you become a legal adult. He placed a considerable amount of real estate into a trust with our company."
"...So you're saying the forced share does not arise from that real estate?"
"Correct. Trust property is excluded from the forced-share calculation."
"...."
I sat there with my mouth hanging slightly open, then asked,
"Exactly how much are those assets?"
"I don't know the precise figure myself. The value of the assets is kept confidential under a non-disclosure agreement as well. In fact, the very existence of these trust assets was never disclosed. You didn't know either, until we approached and informed you.
"One thing is certain, though: a good number of the properties are in areas slated for redevelopment. That should give you a rough idea, right? Ah, and there's also a fairly large theme park."
Having finished the explanation, Han Ga-ram wore a look of satisfaction.
"So, once I become an adult—"
"It means your future is wide open."
"...."
But then why had Ye Sa-ra tried to die?
My expression must have turned strange as the thought crossed my mind.
"...So, what you're saying is, your memories from before you were taken to the hospital are confused?"
"Yes."
At my reply, Han Ga-ram considered the question for a long while, then opened her mouth.
"Do you also remember why you had those thoughts?"
"No."
Han Ga-ram stayed silent for a long time before finally speaking.
"Then perhaps that's for the best. It's much more positive to look toward what you can gain in the future than to dwell on what you couldn't have in the past, isn't it? Since things have turned out this way, wouldn't it be better to forget the past entirely and live with your eyes on the future?"
....
Even hearing that, I didn't really know what to think.
Because I wasn't Ye Sa-ra.
All I could see was the future laid out for Ye Sa-ra, so of course I could only have positive thoughts. But what in the world had Ye Sa-ra been looking at, to make her throw away her future so completely?
Was it truly, just as the will had stated, purely to hurt the Chairwoman, and for that one reason alone?
"...."
I stayed silent for a long time.
"Ah."
Then something suddenly occurred to me.
"Then tell me one more thing."
"Yes, go ahead."
Han Ga-ram answered readily.
"Why were you waiting here, of all places?"
At my question, Han Ga-ram smiled once more and said,
"I'm an alumna of Hwayeong High School myself. I have a rough idea where the blind spots in the campus CCTV are. Any school with the name 'Hwayeong' has thorough security, but there are places where security is intentionally left open for the purpose of 'protecting student privacy.' If the kids know for certain that a spot like this has no cameras, isn't it perfect for 'exchanging gifts' or sharing 'private words'?"
And those gifts and those words must be the things parents ask their children to pass along. Delivering items and messages to a parent through their child.
...This really was a school with absolutely bottomless insanity.