The Japanese Instructor (1)
Another week slipped by.
By now the rumor was circulating openly around the company that Bang Mihee and Jeong Chan-young were seeing each other.
The rumor itself wouldn't have been so bad. What followed was worse: word spread that Kim Chirok had been interested in Bang Mihee and gotten dumped. There was even a version in which he'd been hitting on her and gotten chewed out by Jeong Chan-young for it.
Hearing that put Kim Chirok in a thoroughly foul mood. He didn't let it show.
Better they think I got dumped than that I did the dumping. That's better for her future, at least.
The part about getting chewed out by Jeong Chan-young, though — that made him consider setting the record straight. It was a matter of pride.
Kim Chirok had heard it from Jeong Chan-young himself that he liked Bang Mihee. At the time, Chirok had even said he wasn't interested in her. He'd told him to go for it.
So where this story about getting chewed out had come from, he had no idea.
Has Jeong Chan-young been spreading that around? Chewed out by him? Over what, exactly?
But Jeong Chan-young was a classmate. Turning a former schoolmate into a romantic rival and picking a fight over it would look ugly, and he knew it.
So he decided to let it go and pretend he hadn't heard a thing.
Deputy Song must have found him pitiful, because he offered to buy him a beer.
"Kim Chirok! Want to grab a draft beer around here after work? You just look extra pitiful today."
"And why would I look pitiful?"
"I know you had a thing for Bang Mihee. That's why you two used to eat together in the company cafeteria, isn't it?"
"Director Jang told us to sit down, so we sat down. I've never been interested in Bang Mihee."
"That's not what your eyes were saying. You liked her. Why deny it?"
"Oh, for crying out loud."
"Just forget about it. You think Bang Mihee's the only woman in the world?"
That last remark nearly made his head explode. He decided to treat the whole affair as nothing more than stepping in dog shit on the sidewalk — unfortunate, messy, and best walked away from.
At that same hour, President Jeong-hee and Director Jang were holding a private conversation in her office.
President Jeong-hee let out a sigh before she spoke.
"You said Bang Mihee has been getting closer to Jeong Chan-young lately?"
"That's right. At first she seemed to have taken a liking to Kim Chirok, but…"
"Then why did her attitude change?"
"Kim Chirok didn't show enough initiative, from what I can tell. A match with Bang Mihee would have done his career a world of good, and yet he seems to have let the opportunity slip right through his fingers."
"So affairs of the heart aren't the sort of thing you can force from the sidelines."
"Jeong Chan-young, on the other hand, was extremely aggressive about it. As far as I know, he mounted a regular gift offensive and took her golfing several times."
"Is that so?"
"I believe he even took her golfing with President Jeong of Construction and his wife."
"Then Jeong Chan-young's parents have already seen Bang Mihee's face."
"President Jeong must have been smiling to himself. She's the secretary who's attended the Chairman for years — if his son marries her, they'll have occasion to pay New Year's respects to the Chairman now and then, won't they?"
"New Year's respects?"
President Jeong-hee's brow furrowed.
From her point of view, the last thing she wanted was Bang Mihee showing up to bow at New Year's. She had wanted the woman to take a Gangnam apartment and a lucrative side concession and never see her father again. That was precisely why she had tried to pair her off with a handsome, promising elite employee.
Director Jang smiled.
"At this point, I think we should discard the Kim Chirok card."
"It's come to that?"
"Jeong Chan-young has been making frequent visits to the Banpo apartment Bang Mihee bought — or rather, the one you purchased for her."
"Has he?"
"It seems he's been spending the night there on occasion as well."
"Spending the night? Bang Mihee isn't even a natural beauty. That's a face with a great deal of work done on it."
"Men don't tend to notice that sort of thing."
"In any case, if he's staying overnight at the Banpo apartment, then Bang Mihee will end up with Jeong Chan-young."
"Which is why I'm saying we drop the Kim Chirok card."
"And by drop, you mean shipping him back out to an affiliate?"
"What choice do we have? If he keeps working in the same building as Jeong Chan-young, it'll be uncomfortable for everyone."
"Then I suppose we'll have to consider it."
"A large class of open-recruitment new hires is coming in this round as well. I think the Strategic Planning Team ought to take at least two of them."
"Even so, you still need to look carefully at their appearance and credentials."
"One is the son of a four-term National Assembly member. The other is the son of the head of an institution with considerable influence in the financial sector."
"That may be, but I won't have anyone from a truly inferior school."
"No need to worry on that score. Neither of the two coming in this time is from Seoul National University, but one is a Yonsei graduate and the other is from Korea University."
"Is that so?"
"Children from wealthy families tend to have good heads on their shoulders, don't they?"
"So it would seem."
"Yonsei and Korea University — they'll pass the first cut without any trouble. And in running the business, our group will have plenty of occasions to be indebted to their parents."
"I don't care whether the political establishment or the government helps us. I'd be grateful enough if they simply stayed out of our way."
"Heh heh heh. And that's exactly why we seat children from those families in key departments first — even if their parents can't help us, we can't afford to get on their bad side."
"When you put it that way, Kim Chirok really is an extraordinary young man… a dragon risen from a muddy stream…"
"Kim Chirok is an extraordinary one, I'll grant you that. I noticed this time around that he's even picked up Japanese as a second foreign language."
"It is a waste, I'll admit."
"But once Bang Mihee and Jeong Chan-young set a wedding date, I'll take care of Kim Chirok. I'll issue a transfer to Ulsan or Changwon."
"I'll leave that to your discretion, Director."
"Leaving Kim Chirok in Seoul after there was talk of matching him with Bang Mihee would make everyone uncomfortable. Jeong Chan-young would be uncomfortable, and so would Bang Mihee."
"That's true enough."
"Strange rumors are already going around — that Kim Chirok made a move on Bang Mihee and she turned him down."
"Very well. If Bang Mihee and Jeong Chan-young marry, issue Kim Chirok a transfer order to somewhere else."
The following week arrived.
The list of JLPT passers was posted. Kim Chirok had passed, just as he'd expected — the highest level, N1.
From his point of view it wasn't much of an exam, but it put him in a good mood all the same.
Passed. Once the certificate comes in, I submit it to the company, right? That'll add one point to my performance evaluation?
A call came in from the Japanese academy instructor. Not the native speaker who taught now, but the young woman who had previously handled grammar and JLPT test prep.
"You passed the JLPT, didn't you?"
"Yes. Thanks to you, I did."
"I knew you would," she laughed. "Now you owe me a treat, as promised."
"Fair enough. I'll buy tonight. Let's meet at the beer hall in the alley behind the academy after class."
That was what Kim Chirok said, but the thought of drinking beer alone with the Japanese instructor made him uneasy. The way she looked at him was a little strange.
Should I invite Jang Min-soo, the one who works at that real estate company?
So he called Jang Min-soo. Jang Min-soo hadn't left for Japan yet.
The moment Chirok mentioned buying him a beer that evening, Jang Min-soo was over the moon. He even declared that his hyung-nim was the greatest.
When Kim Chirok mentioned that he'd passed the JLPT this time around, Jang Min-soo made a tremendous fuss about it, rattling off a stream of pointless bluster about how a hyung-nim from Seoul National University really was on another level.
Evening came.
Kim Chirok finished his Japanese class and headed to the beer hall. The instructor hadn't arrived yet, but Jang Min-soo was already there.
"Hyung-nim! Congratulations on passing the JLPT. If it weren't for you, there wouldn't be a single person in this entire country who could pass that exam."
"When do you leave for Japan?"
"Two weeks left. Heh heh."
The Japanese instructor arrived. She gave a slight start when she saw Jang Min-soo.
She had wanted to drink beer alone with Kim Chirok this evening, and Jang Min-soo's presence seemed to have thrown her off.
Kim Chirok smiled.
"Jang Min-soo studied in the same class before, so I asked him to come along."
"Ah — well, that's perfectly fine."
"Thanks to your teaching, I passed the JLPT this time. I'm grateful."
"That's because you worked hard, Kim Chirok. Plenty of people in my JLPT class haven't even cleared N3."
Jang Min-soo spoke up.
"Instructor, if I'd been in the JLPT class, I probably never would have passed that exam in my entire life. You think a brain from some nowhere university is the same as a brain from Seoul National University?"
"Oh, come now," she laughed. "You did just fine yourself, Jang Min-soo."
Kim Chirok ordered draft beer and fried chicken, then turned to the instructor.
"Jang Min-soo has been seeing a Japanese woman. They've even talked about marriage, and in two weeks he's going to Japan to meet her parents."
The instructor's eyes went wide.
"My goodness — is that true? Then perhaps Jang Min-soo ought to be the one buying tonight."
She had disliked Jang Min-soo's presence at first, but she fell into rhythm with them easily enough now. A well-mannered person, it seemed.
The three of them raised their glasses and called out kanpai.
Kim Chirok liked this atmosphere. It was far more comfortable than sitting in some high-end restaurant with legs crossed, sipping whiskey highballs the way Bang Mihee did. No matter how good highballs were supposed to be for dieting, he preferred a draft beer like this.
When Kim Chirok reached for a piece of chicken breast, Jang Min-soo pushed a drumstick toward him.
"Come on, hyung-nim! You're the host tonight, so you tear into this drumstick. When it comes to chicken, the leg is the best part."
"Oh — thanks."
Watching Kim Chirok drop into casual speech with Jang Min-soo, the instructor asked,
"Kim Chirok is your hyung-nim?"
"Yes. He's two years older than I am."
"Is that so? Kim Chirok has such a young face."
Jang Min-soo jumped in again.
"Our hyung-nim should have gone into entertainment instead of a conglomerate. Then people would have been calling him the handsome actor from Seoul National University."
"Is that right?" she laughed.
"He would have been wildly popular with women. You know how many face-fans there are these days who fall for looks alone. And our hyung-nim has the academic pedigree to back it up — imagine how popular he'd be."
"I can imagine."
As she said it, the instructor looked at Kim Chirok's face. Feeling a little embarrassed, he quickly changed the subject.
"Right — Jang Min-soo, where did you say your girlfriend lives?"
"Kashima City, Ibaraki Prefecture."
At the mention of Kashima, the instructor spoke up at once.
"Kashima — that's the city with the famous soccer team, isn't it?"
"Yes, that's right. They have the Kashima Antlers, apparently. But I'm not a die-hard soccer fan. I just watch on TV when there's a big match."
"Then if her parents give their blessing, you plan to get married?"
"That's the idea. I hear the divorce rate is low when you marry a Japanese woman."
"So they say."
"What about you, Instructor? Any interest in marrying a Japanese man?"
"Well… if I met a man I liked, perhaps. But there's no such man at the moment." She laughed softly.
As she said it, she glanced sideways at Kim Chirok.
It was the look of someone thinking that the man she liked was sitting right in front of her.
Kim Chirok took a sip of beer and looked at Jang Min-soo.
"Is the divorce rate really that low when a Korean man marries a Japanese woman?"
"According to the statistics, when a Korean man marries a Japanese woman, the divorce rate is only ten percent. In our country it runs over forty."
"Really? Is our divorce rate that high?"
"Hold on a second. Let me look it up."
Jang Min-soo opened his smartphone and ran a search, then turned the screen around.
"Take a look at this."
2024 Marriage & Divorce Statistics — South Korea
Marriages: 222,000
Divorces: 91,000
"That many divorces? It really does look like over forty percent."
"I think it's because Korean women have such strong temperaments. Not you, of course, Instructor."
Korean women have strong temperaments? Well, that's true enough — Oh Ha-young at H Chemical certainly does. How else do you end up slapping other kids around in school? And Bang Mihee? Walking around with her chin in the air, sitting there with her legs crossed.
He really did have the sense that Korean women tended to be overbearing. The instructor sitting across from him, though, didn't seem like that kind of woman at all.
Kim Chirok smiled.
"Whether someone's overbearing or not is an individual thing. There are strong-willed women in Korea and strong-willed women in Japan."
"Of course — but on average, Korean women are more strong-willed. That's what I'm saying."
"Is that really true?"
"Look at it the other way. Do you know the divorce rate when a Korean woman marries a Japanese man? In that case it jumps to a full sixty percent. After a number like that, how can you not say Korean women have strong temperaments?"
"Hmm. If that's what the statistics say, I suppose there's something to it."
The instructor gave a shy little smile.
"It depends on the person, I imagine. Korean women have such a strong will to make a living that it can come across as overbearing. Don't you think so, Kim Chirok?"
Kim Chirok only smiled instead of answering. The thought even crossed his mind that he might actually marry a Japanese woman himself. For one thing, he didn't currently own a home.
Didn't they say Japanese women considered it perfectly ordinary to live in a rented low-rise apartment?