Kneel! (1)
"Grandma! We're moving this Saturday!"
"Moving? Us??"
Lee Malnyeon blinked at her grandson Park Jiwoong's excited voice.
She had wanted to leave for a long time. Guryong Village was the most rundown shantytown in all of Seoul. No one would choose to raise a grandchild in a place like this. But it had been impossible. They simply didn't have the money.
After her son and daughter-in-law—the pillars of the household—died, she had escaped with nothing but her own body. Framed under an unthinkable false charge, every last bit of the fortune her son had built was stripped away. She had scraped by with odd jobs while looking after her grandson, living day to day, just managing to put food in their mouths. Even with the minimum living allowance, once the rent and meals were covered, nothing remained for pocket money. Age had left her legs unreliable; she couldn't land proper work. She had held on with a cleaning job at a small building until she slipped and injured herself not long ago and had to quit.
Even with her eyes open, the world stayed pitch-black for Lee Malnyeon. Her grandson's talk of moving simply wouldn't sink in.
"I went and looked at a place today. An apartment right in front of Seoguk University. The sunlight pours in beautifully."
"...Jiwoong-ah. We don't... have the money."
Faced with cold reality, Lee Malnyeon could only let out a sigh. Seoul housing prices had rocketed through the ceiling; she knew full well that moving was a dream they would never live to see. Even a jeonse deposit ran into the hundreds of millions. The house they lived in now had a deposit of three million won—the entirety of their worldly possessions.
"You know my friend Taewoong, right?"
Still buzzing with excitement, her grandson spoke of his friend, practically spraying spit.
"Of course I do. He's our boy's friend."
"Taewoong got us a jeonse place. He signed the contract today."
"What on earth...? Is that true??"
Looking at her grandson's face, it didn't seem like a joke. Even so, the words refused to settle in her ears. What kind of world was this that someone would secure an apartment jeonse for a friend? And where would a high schooler get that kind of money...?
"Taewoong never says it out loud, but I think he comes from a ridiculously rich family."
"...Jiwoong-ah. Are we really allowed to go live there?"
She had endured all these years clinging to her conscience alone. Half-believing, half-doubting, Lee Malnyeon double-checked her grandson's dreamlike words. They were too specific to dismiss as empty talk.
"Yes! It's okay to accept it."
Park Jiwoong's answer rang clear and firm. From the very first day they had crossed paths in the cafeteria, Ha Taewoong had strangely inspired trust. Some people might point fingers and call it shameless freeloading, but he had decided to take it.
I'll pay you back several times over later! I stake my life on it!
Ha Taewoong, who had told Park Jiwoong to become a prosecutor. The words about his future career had no basis, yet they carried absolute conviction. Jiwoong had resolved to follow that path. Until only a short while ago, he had wanted to quit school and face the world with nothing but malice. In the moment when hope had vanished, Ha Taewoong had appeared like a miracle—his benefactor.
"Treat that friend right.... If you ever betray a benefactor like that, heaven will punish you."
Lee Malnyeon had lived long enough. The only truth she believed in was the law of the heavens. People might turn their backs on one another, but heaven never turned its back on the good. So if you betrayed a decent person, heaven would never stay silent—that much was as clear as day.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
The fitness center on the 85th floor of the Lotte Signiel Hotel. The residence amenities were closed on Mondays, so today he was using the hotel facilities. The view was far better than the community space on the 42nd floor.
It was five in the morning. He had been running hard for thirty minutes at eighteen kilometers per hour.
"Hoo... hoo..."
His breathing wasn't as ragged as he expected. At this pace he was nearly matching a marathoner.
My lung capacity's improved. Overall, I can feel my physical abilities have... become vastly better.
Physical prowess was clearly another privilege Grandmother had granted him. Thinking back to this period in his previous life, his body had been in terrible shape. Everyday stress had kept him from exercising properly, and he hadn't been eating well either. He had been visibly scrawny and constantly ailing. Now, though, his muscles felt genuinely dense and springy. Cardio, endurance, strength—everything felt as if he had been specially blessed. The difference was staggering.
Tick. Sssssssss. Thud-thud-thud.
The beads of sweat forming on his forehead felt good. He stopped the treadmill. One of the reasons he had specifically chosen Signiel was exactly this kind of environment. Every convenience of daily life was perfectly available in one place. Hotel breakfast ran around fifty thousand won; residents received a twenty-percent discount on all facilities—fitness, pool, sauna, and more. Register at the concierge desk and you could use everything from cleaning to valet service to various lessons. As long as the finances held, there was no need to personally sweat over the labor of everyday living. Through the dedicated app you could even enjoy hotel cuisine with ease. It was the optimal space for keeping both body and mind in peak condition. With sufficient wealth, there was no reason to court fatigue on purpose.
He wiped the sweat away with a prepared towel. The panoramic Seoul cityscape was dyeing itself in the colors of the sunrise that opened the day. A sun brimming with crimson vitality climbed steadily into the Seoul sky. Countless buildings began to glitter under its light. And at the very center of it all...
"Grandfather. Good morning."
As a descendant of the Haryun Group, he held himself with proper bearing. Facing the company building that was brightening under the sunlight, he inclined his head slightly.
"Right. Time to eat and head to school..."
A quick stop by the sauna for a shower, breakfast, then school. Just as he was about to take a step—
Thud.
A dull noise suddenly slammed into his ears from the diagonal. Reflexively he turned his head.
"...!!"
In that instant he spotted a person collapsed on the floor. He sprinted over. No hotel staff were in sight. It was the woman who had come in around the same time as him and had been doing strength training—the one who had started exercising with a mask on from the beginning. The water bottle she had been holding lay rolling on the floor.
He hurried to check her condition. First he examined around her head. Fortunately it didn't look as if she had fallen headfirst. Judging by the position of her legs, her lower body strength had simply given out.
"Umm..."
When he carefully supported her head with his palm, the woman let out a faint moan. Her closed eyelids fluttered, then she cracked her eyes open a slit. Their gazes met. Her unfocused light-brown pupils seemed to stare into empty air. Emptiness and powerlessness spread through them like mist. Colorless and odorless. The light radiating from her body was such a pale sky blue it was nearly impossible to distinguish any hue. Before long it would fade into complete monochrome.
"Are you all right?"
CCTV cameras covered every corner of the fitness space. He kept his support limited to her head, careful not to risk being mistaken for some molester.
"Could you... put me... in a chair..."
The woman forced the words out. The mask made her already weak voice even smaller.
"Excuse me."
He supported her by the shoulders and seated her in a rest chair off to the side.
How can a body be this light?
She looked about 165 centimeters tall, yet there was almost no weight to her for her height. Even her bones felt delicate. The ponytail she had tied up hung limply without strength.
"Water..."
She looked toward the bottle still rolling on the floor.
"Of course."
His morning plans had gone unexpectedly off-script. This woman did not seem ordinary. They said even brushing past someone was fate; this encounter felt far from ordinary. No—judging by the aura he sensed, he almost felt as if he had seen her somewhere before. A mask covered half her face, yet the overall presence she gave off was beautiful.
Click.
He opened the bottle and handed it to her.
"Tha... nk you."
Taking the bottle, she briefly met his eyes.
"Dahui!"
Another woman's voice rang out just then—calling the woman who had collapsed. Footsteps pounded as the newcomer rushed over after taking in the situation. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, with a plump build. Stopping right in front of them, she rounded her eyes and glanced back and forth between him and the seated woman, clearly inventing every possible story in her head.
"I just got a little dizzy... This person helped me."
Lifting her mask slightly to take a sip of water, the woman explained.
"Dizzy? Then today's schedule..."
"I'm fine. I can do it. Don't worry."
Just as he had sensed. She was clearly someone in the entertainment industry who received the public's attention.
"Well then."
He rose, gave a slight bow of his head, and turned away. A Monday-morning brush with fate named Dahui. He stood as well.
Then—
"Thank you..."
Her voice lodged in his back like a dart, carrying with it the fresh floral scent that had lingered at the tip of his nose while he stood beside her...
Clomp, clomp.
He had spent his first weekend in a spectacular storm of activity. Now, facing a new week, his destination was...
After a solid breakfast he left the house and walked toward school. The season was ripening into full spring. Busy cars streamed past; roadside trees stood firmly in place. He strode along, watching the people who brushed by him. It was a leisurely morning.
His coin account was blazing in real time without rest. In the aftermath of Luna's collapse, Bitcoin and nearly every other coin had turned deathly blue. The profits from thirty-times shorting were so sweet his teeth were practically rotting.
In the midst of time~♬
A rainy day~♪
For several days now the song had been stuck in his ears; he walked to its rhythm. It was the signature track of the female solo artist Furia. In his previous life, when he had passed through this same period, he had never listened to her music. Looking back, every single day had been hell. There had been no room to feel musical emotion. Now, though, the board had been completely flipped.
He stopped short.
He stood squarely before the name of Cheonghwa. Beneath it, the school motto was embossed in gold: First Light on High Mountains.
He engraved the words once more. Light first shines upon the highest peaks.
In the past he had bowed his head every time he stood before this phrase. Back then he had been a dirt spoon. In the paradise of Cheonghwa—that playground for the children of the upper class—he had been an outsider.
But now...
No one could flaunt the contents of their wallet in front of him. In direct proportion to his bank balance, his self-esteem had swollen just as massively!
"Kneel! XX!!"