The Seed Has Been Sown (4)
As soon as I arrived in Seoul, I handed over the cakes I'd bought at Simseongdang as gifts.
Hong Siyeon beamed with delight.
"Shall we eat them together?!"
"I've already had plenty."
When I'd given some to the two prosecutors at the Uijeongbu District Prosecutors' Office and to Kang Injeong, they'd also suggested eating together.
Even Han Yuna had insisted there was no one else she could share with, so the two of us had split that enormous cake between us.
"Aww, that's a shame. Then I'll just have to eat with my little brother."
"Yes, please do."
"By the way, Noah, this is you, right?"
Hong Siyeon held out her phone.
What she showed me was a Japanese internet news bulletin board.
Since it was in Japanese, I ran it through AI translation and saw an article about a Korean who had saved a child that nearly fell.
"Yes."
"Wow... how did you do it?"
"It was just a coincidence."
How could I just stand by and watch a child and his mother get hit by a train?
It was simply the natural thing any human being would do.
"Sometimes I really can't figure you out, Noah."
"Is there anyone more transparent than me..."
"No, I mean it. You can see people's pasts and futures, yet you live so modestly."
"Modestly..."
"Isn't it modest?"
"I'm living quite comfortably these days."
Unlike before, I even buy convenience store ice cream now.
Not from a discount store, either.
"......"
"And you don't insist on 2+1 or 1+1 drink deals anymore."
Things I never could have imagined back then.
"No... you make quite a bit of money, don't you, Noah?"
That was true.
Between Hong Siyeon's company, Saseong, and Lotte World—not to mention the streaming and other gigs—I was earning from all over.
"If you spend money like crazy just because you have it, you'll end up ruined."
"Is that your future?"
"No. The orphanage director used to say that when I was there."
I'd thought the same thing after watching someone blow through all the money I'd earned playing Go-Stop in a single day.
Make the most of what you have while you have it.
"You have a house, a car, and enough to live comfortably, so..."
"Hmm."
But Hong Siyeon still looked dissatisfied.
Oh well.
"Should I try womanizing or something?"
"What do you even mean by womanizing..."
"You know, go to clubs, throw money around."
"Would that be fun?"
"Probably not."
Drinking was better just going to a bar with Hong Siyeon and sipping quietly.
I didn't particularly like noisy atmospheres anyway.
"Ugh, I don't even know what to say to you."
"Then don't say anything."
"Tch. Anyway, I'll enjoy the cake. Oh, and there's something I'd like to ask of you."
"What is it? If it's about the American deal, just keep doing what you've been doing."
"I really don't know what to say to you. It's not just that."
She hesitated, scratched her cheek, then let out a small sigh.
"An acquaintance of mine wants to meet you, Noah."
"An acquaintance?"
"Yes. A friend of my grandmother's. She really likes fortune-telling and things like that."
"Oh... so?"
"She heard about you and said she absolutely has to meet you."
There was nothing strange about that.
Hong Siyeon had originally planned to introduce clients to me anyway.
Still, the reason she was hesitating was probably because there was something problematic about this particular client.
"This person must be quite eccentric."
"Yes. Even when she called in a supposedly powerful shaman before, she made them perform knife-walking right in front of me or guess what she was curious about."
"Ahaha..."
The shamans must have hated that.
"Will you be all right?"
"It's fine."
I didn't really care about that sort of thing.
"Then we'll meet near your place..."
Oh. There weren't any decent cafés nearby anymore.
Every time I went in, the owners would flinch.
But meeting someone Hong Siyeon was introducing at a convenience store felt a bit off too...
"I'll just go to them."
"Are you sure that's okay?"
"If the boss is introducing them, they must live in a nice house. I'd like to go and take a look."
At my words, she smiled brightly.
"That person's house really is nice, so it'll be fun."
.
.
.
The next day, the place Hong Siyeon and I arrived at was Pyeongchang-dong, one of Seoul's most famous wealthy neighborhoods.
Maybe because it was such a high-end area, we even had to go through security checks just to enter.
"This is it."
The car stopped in front of a luxurious mansion befitting the neighborhood.
The moment we rang the doorbell, a voice came from inside.
A middle-aged man in formal black butler's attire walked out calmly and greeted us.
"Welcome, Miss."
"Hello. It's been a while. Mr. Yang."
Wow, butlers actually existed in real life.
When I looked impressed, the man called Mr. Yang greeted me politely as well.
"The master is waiting."
Following his guidance, we walked through the splendid mansion.
The garden, the house itself—everything looked quite expensive.
"Don't you want to live in a place like this?"
"Not really?"
It looked nice.
But the garden.
It might look good, but maintaining it was no ordinary task.
I knew that from trying to tend a similar garden behind the orphanage.
The director used to make the troublemaking kids do it as volunteer work, and I'd tried it once.
I thought my back would break.
"You can just hire people for that kind of thing."
"If you don't have a house like this, you won't need to hire people either. Besides, I like the officetel the boss got me more."
The convenience store was close, too.
Though these days, going to nearby cafés was a bit awkward because people recognized me.
"Then how about acquiring a café? Actually, I've been wanting to buy one anyway."
She said it like she was buying a convenience store snack.
The cafés near my place were probably pretty expensive.
"Which one of the cafés we've been to was the best?"
"Termina. Their tiramisu and almond pound cake are delicious."
"Got it. I'll talk to them."
How exciting.
From now on, I could quietly drink coffee at a café!
Though... I wasn't sure if meeting clients there would work.
Anyway, while chatting with Hong Siyeon about this and that, we soon arrived at the front door.
The door opened.
Inside was filled with luxurious furniture.
And on the wide sofa in the middle sat two elderly men.
One looked bad-tempered, the other wore a sly, grinning smile.
They looked similar but completely different in personality.
The bad-tempered one spoke first.
"So you're Kang Noah?"
"Yes. Shall I call you Chairman Hwang Piljung? Or would you prefer 'old man'?"
Hwang Piljung.
Chairman of Somyeong Group, ranked 14th in Korea's business world.
He smirked.
"Depends on how you do."
"Then flip this over first."
He leisurely flipped the card I handed him.
Then he looked at me challengingly.
"Guess what I'm going to ask."
It was the kind of thing that would make any shaman frown, said so naturally.
Well then, I had to answer.
"You're worried about choosing a successor."
".....!"
"But that's not what you were planning to ask."
"...Hah."
"You were curious about who took that spinning top you cherished so much as a child, weren't you?"
"......."
His past.
Back when he was poor.
The spinning top he'd carved himself from wood had been the best in the neighborhood.
But one day, it disappeared.
He'd cried and made a huge fuss, but the top never returned.
The boy grew into an old man, yet he still didn't know why the top had vanished.
"I think that bastard Kim Malgeun definitely did it. Right? Right?"
The old man's eyes were full of certainty.
"Unfortunately, no."
"What?! Then, wait a second...! That's it! Seok Bochung! That bastard...!!"
I turned my head.
The slyly smiling old man beside him—Hwang Piljeong, Hwang Piljung's younger brother—his grin deepened.
"Hold on. Why is this guy..."
His expression froze.
Then, with an incredulous face, he slowly turned to look at his brother.
"Don't tell me... it was really you?"
"Hahahaha! I can't believe it! I dreamed of the perfect crime for decades!"
"You little shit!!"
"Don't be too upset. Because of that top, you beat up all the neighborhood kids who played with spinning tops, so Kim Malgeun and Seok Bochung and the others were going around saying they'd teach you a lesson."
Because his older brother had been so arrogant with that top, they'd planned to gang up on him.
The younger brother who loved his sibling had simply thrown the top into a nearby reservoir to protect him.
"Hah..."
"Well, thanks to that, you focused on your studies. If it hadn't happened, would you have made it this far?"
"Damn it. Ha. I really got stabbed in the back."
With a hollow expression, he sighed, then smirked.
Then he looked straight at me.
"Impressive. I suppose I should call you Mr. Kang."
"Call me whatever you like."
"All right. Noah."
"Uh, that feels a bit too familiar."
"Fine. I like that. Let's get to the point. Who do you think would make the best successor among my options?"
He had two children.
Two sons.
Both were doing well as presidents of Somyeong Group's subsidiaries.
"Either one would do fine."
There was a difference in direction, but in both Hwang Piljung's and Hwang Piljeong's futures, Somyeong Group would prosper.
At least until they died.
"Really? Then..."
"But the best thing would be to meet them in person and tell you."
"Why?"
"Because I need to read their fortunes?"
"You can't do it without that?"
"Then they should at least be viewers of my stream."
I needed something to read.
"Hah. Then how about staying for dinner here tonight?"
"Are you serving spicy stir-fried pork?"
"Hahaha!! As much as you want!"
Spicy stir-fried pork for dinner tonight!
.
.
.
I spent the day at Hwang Piljung's house until dinner.
Even though he was a chairman, he was more down-to-earth and honest than I'd expected, so it was quite entertaining.
"You play Go-Stop like a damn dog!!"
It was his way of saying my skills were truly remarkable and worthy of respect, expressed in the most aggressive way possible, as he threw down his cards.
"Haha. Thanks for the meal."
"So the sucker at this table was my brother."
"Ahaha~! Sir~! I'll put this to good use~! Noah, let's get coffee with this later~!"
"Sounds good."
Hwang Piljung had been completely cleaned out like a patient on an operating table.
Of course, 200,000 won was nothing compared to his wealth.
But if you counted it at 100 won per fortune reading, it was quite a loss.
"We're here."
Had quitting time already come?
The door opened and his children walked in.
The moment I saw Hwang Piljung's two sons enter, I knew.
This was going to be troublesome.
Either one of them.
If they became chairman, they'd commit suicide in their later years.
The reason was simple.
Neither of them could bear the weight that came with being chairman of such a massive group.
The moment the chairman-captain collapsed, the enormous ship called Somyeong would begin to shake.
In the process, quite a few innocent people would suffer.
A huge company would be greatly shaken.
There was no way the people connected to it wouldn't be affected.
"Noah?"
The aftermath of Somyeong's collapse would affect not only the orphanage I came from but also other orphanages and places that relied heavily on sponsorship...
I couldn't just let this slide.