Dating the Chairman's Secretary (2)
Kim Chirok got off at Seoul National University Station in Bongcheon-dong.
Once he was on the pavement, he turned and waved to Bang Mihee.
"Thanks for the ride. I'll treat you to a cup of tea sometime."
At that, Bang Mihee smiled. For a moment, Chirok wondered whether, for all her haughtiness, she might actually be a warm-hearted woman underneath.
And yet, strangely, Bang Mihee usually kept her mouth shut, a shadow hanging over her face.
She's a woman I just can't figure out. When she smiles, she's got a real charm to her — but that shadow on her face never quite lifts. Are all beautiful women like that? Is Hirosue Yoshiko, who's even more striking than Bang Mihee, the unsmiling type too?
And yet Yoshiko seemed like the sort who would smile easily.
Hadn't she been beaming in that poster, standing beneath a cherry blossom tree in a kimono?
Another week passed.
These days, whenever Kim Chirok came home, he studied Japanese elementary-school textbooks. Being a quick study, he picked them up in no time and had already started reading children's storybooks as well. At the academy, he threw himself into the JLPT class.
The Japanese instructor still took an interest in him. One day she even asked where he lived, mentioning that she herself lived in Jamsil. When he told her he lived in Bongcheon-dong, she looked surprised.
"Oh my. I thought you lived in Yeoksam-dong."
Is she disappointed too, now that she knows I live in Bongcheon-dong? Should I just tell her I live in the hillside slum up the slope?
Even so, the instructor remained well-disposed toward him. After all, he was a handsome Seoul National University graduate working at a major conglomerate.
One day, in the academy hallway, he ran into someone from the basic conversation class — a young man who worked at a real estate company. Chirok wasn't particularly glad to see him, but the man lit up at the sight of him.
"Ah, Mr. Kim Chirok! It's been a while."
Chirok didn't even know the man's name. And yet the man knew his. He must have picked it up during the self-introductions at the start of class. Chirok gave a perfunctory reply.
"Ah, it's been a while."
"I finally started dating a Japanese woman."
"Oh, really? Still in the talking stage? Congratulations."
"But I can barely speak Japanese, and it's driving me crazy. She knows a little Korean, but she can't hold a long conversation."
"Just fill in the gaps with body language, then."
"I wish I could speak Japanese as well as you do, Mr. Kim."
"I'm not that good either."
"No, you're really good."
"How's that older gentleman doing — the one who wanted to start a suitcase-trading business?"
"Oh, that older guy? He quit."
"He quit? He's not coming to the academy anymore?"
"He said suitcase trading is a thing of the past. Everything you'd find in Japan is already here in Korea."
"Well, I suppose that makes sense."
"Companies still have plenty of business with Japan, of course. They still use a lot of Japanese industrial intermediate goods. Oh, by the way — do you have a business card I could have?"
Chirok hesitated for a moment. Handing a business card to someone he barely knew could lead to all sorts of hassle. But the man worked at a real estate company — that might come in handy someday. At the very least, he might be able to get some property advice.
Seeing Chirok hesitate, the real estate employee offered his own card first.
"Hehe. Here's mine."
The name was Jang Min-soo. And his title was Manager. Chirok accepted the card.
"Oh my! You're a Manager."
"Hehe. Our company's tiny — even if I made Department Head, I'd still be worse off than a staffer at a major conglomerate."
Having taken the other man's card, Chirok had no choice but to offer his own.
"Ah, of course — a major conglomerate. Even the logo looks impressive."
The H Group logo was printed on the card, and a badge of the same design was pinned to the lapel of Chirok's suit. As he headed toward his classroom, Chirok said,
"Well, keep studying hard."
"Hehe. I'll treat you sometime."
The man seemed about the same age as Chirok, and yet he'd used the deferential language of a junior hosting a senior. He'd probably said it because Chirok worked at a big company.
"You're being too kind. Well then."
In the JLPT class, too, Kim Chirok stood out by a wide margin. Truth be told, this kind of studying was nothing compared to the business coursework he'd done at Seoul National University. Subjects like financial management, accounting, and production management had been packed with formulas and genuinely challenging in their own right.
That evening, Chirok was exhausted from work and from coming home late after Japanese class. After dinner, he went to bed early.
He woke in the middle of the night, needing to use the bathroom. On his way there, he noticed the master bedroom door was slightly ajar, and his mother's voice carried out — she was on the phone. She must not have closed the door all the way.
"They're a bunch of awful bitches!"
Awful bitches? Did she get into a fight with someone?
Listening more closely, he realized she was talking to his aunt in Gwangmyeong. His aunt's voice came through the phone as well. Both women had lived hard, grinding lives, and both had the volume to match.
"Unni! That's why I told you not to go to those matchmaking agencies!"
"Chirok's been working for over two years now. He needs someone. No matter how I look at it, he doesn't seem to have a girlfriend, so I went to a matchmaking agency."
"Didn't he date anyone in college?"
"He's hopeless when it comes to that sort of thing. I figured I had to take the initiative myself, so I went."
"So you just came home humiliated, is that it?"
"Well, the woman who runs the place — the director, or whatever she is — the first thing she asked when I walked in, you know what it was? She asked me, right off the bat, where we live."
"Trying to figure out from the start whether you live in a rich neighborhood, I bet."
"And then she asked how much Chirok's father's assets were worth."
"Why is she asking about someone else's money?"
"She told me not to take it the wrong way — said these days the woman's side wants to know that kind of thing, so she had no choice."
Chirok remembered what Manager Lee at H Chemical had told him. Manager Lee had warned him not to go to a matchmaking agency lightly. You had to disclose your parents' assets, and they ranked professionals above conglomerate employees.
Why did Mom even go to a place like that? The consultation fees are expensive, too — what was the point? And people get married late these days. She's stirring up trouble for nothing.
His aunt's snickering came through the phone.
"Hehe. You should've told her your husband went off to some mountain valley in Gangwon-do to live as a hermit. The agency director would've fallen over backwards."
"That's what I said to her. I told her, as long as the groom is a good man, what does the parents' wealth matter? And she said that wasn't how it worked. Even with Seoul National University and a job at a major conglomerate, what matters is money."
"We have to admit that much. These days a salaryman can't even buy a house."
"Aigoo, I don't know why a woman like me has such rotten luck with money. A woman with no luck in husbands has no luck with money either, I guess. I thought I at least had luck with children, but even that's not looking so good."
"Unni, you raised that boy better than anyone. Do you know how many kids these days can't even find a job? Chirok's good-looking and he's got a good heart — he's a dragon that rose from a ditch, he really is."
"What good is a dragon if he can't even get married?"
"Seoul National University and a major conglomerate — back in the old days, that would've been like topping the civil service exam."
"Even if he topped the civil service exam, he's still going to end up a bachelor ghost. That's the problem."
"So you just threw away the consultation fee, then?"
"When I told her it was just me and my son living together, you know what else that agency director said?"
"What?"
"She said never mind the son — I should remarry, and she'd introduce me to a rich older man."
"What? If your husband in Gangwon-do heard that, he'd jump out of his skin."
"And she said if I married a rich man, I'd naturally be able to marry my son off well, too. Told me I should do it. Said the man owned a building in Mapo, no less."
"Ahahaha. That's actually a pretty tempting idea, isn't it? That's a pretty good plan, actually. Dump your husband, remarry that guy, and everything would just fall into place, wouldn't it?"
"Why are you piling on too? I'm already beside myself over here!"
Chirok quietly went back to his room.
He couldn't help thinking that without money, South Korea really was Hell Joseon. He wasn't even going to be able to get married. This damned country felt like it belonged to people like them — classmates like Lim Jae-geun, the prosecutor's son, and Jeong Chan-young, the son of an H Group affiliate President.
Sleep wouldn't come. Chirok found himself thinking of Oh Ha-young from H Chemical's General Affairs Department, who had money, and of Bang Mihee, the Chairman's secretary. And then Hirosue Yoshiko drifted into his mind, like a celestial nymph from the heavens.
Just thinking of Yoshiko made him happy. He wondered whether she really looked like that in person — the way she did on the poster. Maybe it was just the makeup, or some heavy Photoshopping.
The next day arrived.
Director Jang quietly called Kim Chirok over, a sly smile crinkling the corners of his eyes.
"So, did you two have a nice talk last time, riding in Bang Mihee's car?"
"Nothing much came up, sir."
"Give it a real shot. First of all, Bang Mihee's a beauty. She majored in dance, so she's got a slim figure, too. And her family background is decent enough — her father used to be a PE teacher, I hear."
"I'd rather take things slowly when it comes to dating, sir."
"Trying to wait until you make Assistant Manager before you get married? That'll make it even harder. Do you know how many people at this company let their chance slip by thinking like that? We've even got bachelors at the Manager level."
"I still don't think there's any need to rush."
"Bang Mihee seemed to have a soft spot for you, though, didn't she? For a haughty girl, she still smiles when she's in front of you."
"I wouldn't know, sir."
"Be the first to break the ice with the Ice Princess. Plenty of guys around here have their eye on her. And the Chairman thinks of her like a daughter — you think he wouldn't give you a generous gift?"
If he really married Bang Mihee, he would be building a connection with the Chairman himself. The chairman of a major conglomerate — among all connections, wasn't that a golden one?
If getting married was going to be this hard, Chirok thought, maybe he really should try dating Bang Mihee. Perhaps marriage would be possible even without his father's assets.
And yet, strangely, he felt no affection for her. There was nothing demure about her.
Why do I only attract either strong-headed women or haughty ones?
That afternoon, Director Jang called Kim Chirok over again. And he didn't just call him — he crooked a finger and beckoned him over.
"Is something the matter, sir?"