If You Touch My Parents, I Won't Let It Go
"Seriously. I told you we should wait out here."
"Why wait by the door? We already agreed to meet inside."
"Still, how can we just walk into the company and wait? We ought to wait outside."
At those words from Kim Pan-seok—Kim Seong-ho's father—Jang Myeong-ja, his mother, looked at him as if something were wrong with him.
"Did you eat something funny this morning?"
"Eat something funny?"
"Why else would you sit there eating good rice and talking nonsense?"
"Nonsense? Is that any way to talk to your husband?"
"Then look at that and tell me again that walking into the company is somehow strange."
Jang Myeong-ja lifted a finger and pointed at the people streaming through the department store entrance.
"Do those people look to you like they're heading in to work?"
"Well, of course not… those folks are going in to shop, but we—"
"Oh, for heaven's sake. Enough of that useless talk."
Jang Myeong-ja shook her head as if she couldn't bear to listen another second and turned on her heel.
"I'm going to look around the first floor first, just like our daughter-in-law said. You can wait here or not—do whatever you please."
Without waiting for Kim Pan-seok's answer, she strode off like the wind.
Kim Pan-seok watched her back for a moment, muttered under his breath, and started after her.
"Honestly. What if the employees recognize us…? Hey. Wait up."
He hurried after her, and together the two of them walked into the Gangnam branch of Ilhyeon Department Store.
As Jang Myeong-ja slowly circled the first floor, she spoke in a low voice to Kim Pan-seok walking beside her.
"What's going on here? There's not a single person out there hustling customers."
"Listen to yourself. This is a department store. A department store. Have you ever heard of a department store hustling people in off the street?"
"I've never heard of one that doesn't, either."
Jang Myeong-ja shot back, unwilling to concede the point, and scanned their surroundings. Something caught her eye; she pointed.
"Let's go over there."
"Hey now. Just wait quietly. Why do you keep wanting to wander off? All these people work for our daughter-in-law. You think they'll be happy to see the in-laws strolling around?"
Jang Myeong-ja looked him up and down.
"Who's going to look at you and think, 'Oh, that's the father-in-law of the president of Ilhyeon Department Store'? I told you—please don't wear that co-op hat."
"What's wrong with it? This hat was only given out to members of our cooperative. It's cool and comfortable when you're working."
"Are we here to work?"
She shook her head and headed toward the place she had pointed out a moment earlier.
"Welc—"
The sales associate at the entrance of the luxury boutique started to greet them, then took one look at Jang Myeong-ja's appearance and the words died in her throat.
"My goodness. Look how everything sparkles."
"Keep your voice down."
Kim Pan-seok, who had followed her into the boutique, clicked his tongue as he surveyed the merchandise on display.
"Looks nicer than the stuff at our co-op store."
"Don't you dare compare a co-op store to a department store. It's embarrassing. Stop talking."
Mortified that he kept chattering even after she told him to be quiet, Jang Myeong-ja turned away and put some distance between them.
Kim Pan-seok watched her go, clicked his tongue again, and clasped his hands behind his back as he looked around the shop.
"Excuse me… sir."
A woman in a crisp suit approached Kim Pan-seok as he examined the goods hanging on the racks.
Still standing with his hands behind his back, he turned to the boutique manager with a smile.
"I'm just browsing. Don't mind me—go take care of the other customers."
"No, sir. Would you mind telling me what business brings you here today?"
"What business?"
Even after he had already said he was fine, the manager pressed him about why he had come into her store. Kim Pan-seok regarded her with a baffled expression.
"In Seoul, when people walk into a shop, don't they come to buy things? Of course I came to look at the merchandise. What else would I be doing here?"
The manager still did not back down.
"Is there something specific you're looking for?"
"Nothing in particular… Is just looking not allowed?"
"It's not that. I simply wanted to confirm first whether there was anything you needed. The truth is, you don't seem like the sort of customer who fits this boutique…"
Her voice trailed off as she looked him over from head to toe.
A worn co-op cap. A faded work jacket. Pants whose original color was now impossible to guess. Socks stuffed into the cuffs of the trousers and rubber shoes on his feet. Anyone could see he had just come up from the countryside.
"What's going on?"
Jang Myeong-ja, who had been browsing a short distance away, walked over to where Kim Pan-seok stood. Only moments earlier she had been snapping at him, but she could never stand outsiders touching her family. She stepped in front of him and faced the manager.
"Is there a problem?"
"No, ma'am. It's just that I don't believe we have any products here that you would need."
"No products we need? Isn't this a place that sells clothes and bags?"
"Yes, it is."
"Then why say there's nothing here for us? I came to buy clothes."
The manager looked Jang Myeong-ja up and down as well. She was dressed a little better than her husband, but she still looked every bit the rural auntie—tightly permed hair, baffling purple trousers, a knitted vest. The kind of outfit you saw every day at a country market.
Having finished her appraisal of the couple, the manager grew bolder.
"Ma'am. In my opinion, the two of you simply don't belong here. If you go down to the basement, there are shops that sell more affordable clothing."
"What? A department store throws customers out now? We haven't interfered with your business. Why are you trying to run us off?"
"There simply aren't any products here that customers like you can actually purchase."
"What do you mean there aren't? This—"
"Please don't touch that."
Kim Pan-seok had reached out to feel a garment hanging on a rack. The manager's cry was almost a scream. He froze with his hand still extended and stared at her in disbelief.
"Why are you yelling? Is my hand dirty or something?"
"Sir."
The manager hastily stepped between him and the clothes and signaled to the security guard standing at the entrance. Then she raised her voice at the still-stunned Kim Pan-seok.
"This boutique sells only high-end merchandise. These are items you cannot afford. Please go to the more affordable shops downstairs."
Her words stung Jang Myeong-ja's pride. She planted her hands on her hips.
"Why can't we afford them? Our daughter-in-law said she would buy for us."
The manager glanced around, then looked back at her.
"And where is your daughter-in-law?"
"She's busy, so she told us to look around first—"
"Then come back when she arrives. Though I doubt it will make much difference even if she does."
"What did you just say?"
"I'll let it slide just this once. Please leave."
Done talking, the manager waved her hand and spoke to the security guard.
"Escort these people out of the building."
Watching the guard approach, Kim Pan-seok kept his voice as measured as he could.
"Now look here. Aren't you going a bit too far? We may be country people, but this is the first I've heard that you have to pay just to look. And if you don't want us in the store, just say so—why throw us out of the entire department store? Do we look like thieves to you?"
Once she saw the guard standing beside the couple, the manager dropped even the thin veneer of politeness she had worn earlier.
"This is Gangnam. Gangnam. It's not a place for country folks like you."
"What? 'You'?"
"I don't know where you heard Gangnam was nice and decided to come gawk, but get out. Stay in the countryside where you belong. Don't come to places like this out of idle curiosity."
As if she couldn't stand the sight of them any longer, the manager plugged her ears and pinched her nose while addressing the guard.
"Get them out of here. I think I smell manure. If they stay any longer, they'll be a nuisance to the real customers."
"Manure? Listen here—let go of me. What do you mean I smell like manure? Just because we came up from the country, you think you can treat people like this?"
Hearing that he reeked of manure was the final straw. Kim Pan-seok's face flushed deep red. Jang Myeong-ja, conscious of the stares of the people who had gathered to watch, hung her head in shame.
Just as the security guard began to drag them out of the boutique—
"What do you think you're doing!"
Lee Gyeong-eun strode toward them, her face dark with fury.
"Madam President."
She ignored the guard completely and rushed straight to Kim Pan-seok and Jang Myeong-ja.
"Father. Mother. Are you all right? What on earth happened?"
"My dear. Just let's go. I'm too ashamed to stay here another minute."
Looking from her dejected mother-in-law to her father-in-law, whose face was still mottled red and who could not bring himself to speak, Lee Gyeong-eun turned her gaze on the security guard.
"Explain what happened."
Faced with her anger, the guard nervously recounted everything that had taken place. When he finished, Lee Gyeong-eun rolled up her sleeves and thrust the documents she was carrying at the secretary who had followed her.
"Father. Mother. Come with me."
She ordered her attendants to look after Kim Pan-seok and Jang Myeong-ja carefully and to follow her into the boutique, then walked in ahead of them.
"Welc—oh? Madam President."
"So you recognize me."
"Of course. How could I not? I attended the inauguration ceremony not long ago—"
Slap!
Before the manager could finish saying she knew who Lee Gyeong-eun was, Lee Gyeong-eun's hand cracked across her cheek.
"Madam President?"
The manager clutched her face and stared at her in shock.
"Who do you think you are, throwing my father and mother out of this store? I distinctly told everyone that customers were not to be discriminated against—whether they were children or the elderly, whether they looked rich or not."
"Madam President, I—"
"Director of the Luxury Hall!"
"Yes, ma'am."
The director in charge of the luxury floor of Ilhyeon Department Store, who had been trailing after her, stepped forward with a bloodless face.
"Did you not relay my instructions properly?"
"I did. I relayed them clearly, but—"
"You relayed them, and this is what happens? I told everyone to treat customers like family, and yet someone speaks of manure to people my parents' age and throws them out? How thoroughly did you ignore my words to allow this? Sales Director!"
"Yes, Madam President."
The sales director, who only a short while earlier had been wrapping up a cheerful meeting, stepped forward looking equally pale.
"Report the sales figures for this boutique over the past three months."
"Over the past three months…"
He scrambled to recall the numbers. Lee Gyeong-eun watched his face for a moment, then waved a hand.
"Never mind. We're pulling this store."
"Ma'am? You want us to remove the boutique?"
"From the Gangnam branch and from every Ilhyeon Department Store location. A store that treats customers like this has no place under our roof."
"…Yes, ma'am. Understood."
The sales director started to protest, then thought better of it and simply agreed. Given who had just issued the order as president, and whose parents the couple humiliated by the manager were, trying to talk her out of it would have been meaningless.
Lee Gyeong-eun turned and fixed the manager—who still held a hand to her cheek—with a glare.
"If this is the kind of person you put in charge of a Gangnam boutique, I can guess what your brand is worth."
"Madam President, our brand is a luxury brand. It has standards commensurate with—"
"People should be luxury goods. What good is a scrap of fabric calling itself luxury?"
Lee Gyeong-eun yanked a garment off its hanger and flung it onto the floor. She held out her hand for her wallet, took a check from it, and tossed the check onto the clothes at her feet.
"This worthless rag. Anyone with money can buy rags like this, can't they?"
Then she stepped close to the manager and spoke in a voice only she could hear.
"If you mess with my parents, I won't let it go."
She stared at the woman as if she meant to devour her, then handed the wallet back to her secretary. When she turned to Kim Pan-seok and Jang Myeong-ja, her face was already wearing a bright smile, as if none of it had happened.
"Father. Mother. My father says he's waiting for both of you in Pyeongchang-dong. Shall we go?"
Lee Gyeong-eun linked her arms through theirs.
Hearing that the three of them were heading to Lee Tak-hyeon's house, the sales director and the other executives of Ilhyeon Department Store resolved to settle the matter at once. If they so much as seemed to side with the boutique, they might well be swept out along with it.
The boutique manager, her face still flaming from the slap, could only stare blankly after Lee Gyeong-eun's retreating figure, still unable to process what had just happened.