Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: A Familiar Story
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As soon as I shut my mouth, Father prodded me.
"You little punk! I get that you're unusually thoughtful for your age, but you're still just a high school sophomore. If you say you're going to keep it a secret, how am I supposed to trust you?"
This was a perfectly reasonable point.
But honestly, what was he going to do if he didn't believe me?
"I understand completely, but what if you don't? Are you just going to keep living as a house servant like this? Turn me into the second generation of house servants and leave Hye-jeong trapped in the same house with those beasts?"
"...."
"Dad, you don't have any choice here. You have to trust me."
"Still, though..."
"There's only one thing I can show you."
"What's that?"
"My resolve."
"Your resolve?"
"That's right. My resolve. For the time being, there's not much either of us can do. I have to graduate high school first, and even if you try to do something, there's really nothing feasible."
"True enough."
"But we can't just sit around twiddling our thumbs, right?"
"Hahaha! Where'd you even learn a phrase like that?"
"...."
Where'd I learn it? I've got more life experience than you do, Dad.
"Don't worry about that. Anyway, am I wrong?"
"No, you're right. We have to do something."
"That's why I'm saying I'll prove my resolve to you during that time."
"How?"
"Like I said earlier, the only way for me to escape this house is to use school as an excuse to leave."
"And?"
"If I'm going to use school as an excuse anyway, I might as well do it right. Doesn't studying hard—really hitting the books—best show my resolve?"
"Ah, studying! Right! Studying!"
To use academics as an excuse to escape this house, I had to get into college first.
But getting into any college wasn't easy.
This was an era when the combined admission rate for junior colleges and four-year universities barely hit 20 percent.
It would rise a bit this year with the introduction of the graduation quota system, but still.
And if the guy using school as an excuse to leave ended up at some junior college, they'd sure let him go—right out the door.
In the end, it had to be a four-year university, and not just any one—a solid top-tier school to make it look good.
In my original life, I'd hovered between 10th and 20th out of about 60 kids in our class, then buckled down a bit in senior year to pull up to 5th through 7th and barely scrape into a university in Seoul.
The problem was, that wasn't even my best effort.
Everyone said I was smart, and honestly, I knew I had a good head on my shoulders.
I'd heard from Dad when I was young that Grandpa had graduated from Chuo University, a top private school in Japan, and that Dad had been a good student too.
So I should've done even better, but I lacked the drive.
Around upper elementary school, I started realizing our family's harsh reality, and by middle school, I fell into full-blown pessimism and started neglecting my studies.
What was the point of a house servant's kid studying hard, anyway?
Honestly, I never really buckled down.
I couldn't just zone out during class, so I'd absorb whatever was taught—that was it.
Even self-study periods, I'd skip if I could and sneak-read novels instead of pretending to study.
And yet, I still occasionally hit 10th place out of 60. Imagine how sharp I must be.
I never understood those idiots who studied all the time and still bombed.
But now that I'd regressed, things had changed.
To escape this cursed Jo family easily, I had to aim for a top university—that would smooth the path and shift their view of me.
About a year and a half until entrance exams.
Studying it was.
"Yeah, honestly, I figured 'what's the point of a house servant's son studying?'"
"Haa..."
"So I didn't bother."
"I see. Damn it, I'm sorry, son."
"Nah, I'm not saying it for pity. Anyway, from now on, I'll study my ass off. Hard enough to shock those bastards. And that's my resolve."
"Good boy, my son!"
"I'm not saying it to hear that. I'm dead serious. It's the only way we survive—you, me, and the family."
"I'm sorry."
Dad kept apologizing.
From a parent's perspective, he'd completely blocked his kids' futures, so it made sense.
But was it really his fault?
If anything, blame Grandpa for foolishly blowing the family fortune on the independence movement and letting Jo Man-deok swindle what was left.
"No, it's not."
"Whew. So what should I do?"
"Just listen to me. Whatever you do, don't try digging into the Jo family's dirt or announcing you're leaving early. Nothing like that."
"Hey, hey, I wouldn't. You don't know, but the connections Honorary Chairman and Chairman Jo have built up in politics and business are massive. Prosecutors? Judges? Cops? They wouldn't blink at most of that. And anyway, I did receive Honorary Chairman's grace—I'm not keen on betraying that."
"Haa..."
I sighed first.
Dad seemed to harbor some resentment toward current Chairman Jo Seong-gi, Jo Min-cheol's father, after all he'd been through, but his loyalty to Honorary Chairman Jo Man-deok was unshaken.
If I hadn't brought up our kids' futures, he'd probably have endured the house servant life no matter how tough.
Well, he did, in fact.
Anyway, in this situation, I couldn't exactly say Jo Man-deok was the one who fleeced Grandpa and turned our family into servants, so let's skip that.
"Just keep doing what you're doing. And watch your words, always."
"Is that enough? Still, though..."
"It is. If you're embarrassed, hit the gym harder or something."
He'd passed away early from the shock of Hye-jeong's death to the other world, but it was still too soon.
He was healthy now, but I wanted him even healthier.
"Fine, I get it. I'll do my best in my own way."
"By the way, Dad, I've got a question."
Now was the time to ask about what Jo Min-cheol had spilled to me at the end.
"Huh? What?"
"Did Grandpa ever do independence movement stuff?"
"What? How do you know that?"
"What the hell is going on here?"
Wouldn't most grandpas proudly tell their grandkids if they'd fought for independence?
So how was I supposed to interpret Dad freaking out and asking how I knew?
"How the heck do you know? Did your mom tell you?"
"Is it something I shouldn't know? Can't a grandson know his grandpa was an independence fighter?"
"Haa, no, it's not that. Did your mom really tell you?"
"No?"
"Then how do you know?"
"I just took a stab in the dark."
"A stab in the dark? What nonsense is this?"
"Why's it nonsense?"
I'd thought it through logically before asking.
"How is that logical?"
"Remember you said once, when I was little and you were little, we were super rich? And Grandpa studied in Japan and graduated from prestigious Chuo University?"
"You remember all that?"
"Told you I'm smart."
"Haa..."
I could even recall things from when I was three.
My memory was top-tier.
"And I heard you were born in Japan too?"
"You remember everything."
"Yeah. Anyway, lamenting why our rich landlord family ended up as house servants got me thinking. Grandpa, the ultimate intellectual who studied in Japan during the colonial era—how'd he lose all that wealth? Even gambling wouldn't burn through that much easily."
"...."
"Reason it out logically: rich intellectual loses fortune during colonial times? Family ruined, descendants starve?"
"...."
"Sound familiar?"
"...."
It was a classic tale.
Independence fighters curse three generations; collaborators thrive forever.
This was 1981, just 35 years after liberation.
Collaborators and their kids were still kicking around fine.
Take Park Heung-sik, a prime collaborator-turned-businessman, still chairman of Hwasin Group.
Though tanking hard since the oil shock.
In this era, deducing our family's woes from that trope wasn't a stretch.
"Haa, so that's how you figured it?"
"Yep. So why keep it secret? You should be bragging! And why isn't an independence merit recognized?"
"Brag? Brag about what? Losing everything and forcing your kid into servitude?"
"Whoa, you scared me!"
I really jumped.
Dad never yelled like that—it was rare.
But his tirade continued.
"I was gutted! Independence movement? Great, sure! But you leave enough for your wife and kids to live on!"
"Dad, calm down. Hye-jeong and Mom will hear."
"Haa, I'm going crazy."
Dad chugged his beer, then continued in a slightly lower but still heated tone.
"Yeah, even after liberation, we had plenty left. Despite the losses. But how he blew that too—I still wonder."
"Wasn't he missing after the Korean War?"
"I remember him doing business in Seoul and dabbling in politics. But what happened? No idea. Mom and I returned to the hometown before liberation—I was in first grade? Anyway, he stayed in Japan way after, came back, built up big business in Seoul. Then poof—no one knows."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I was in middle school in Seoul with him before the war. Few months before it broke out, he sensed trouble and sent me south first. That was the last."
"Didn't look after the war?"
"Of course we did. Mom and I went to Seoul after. House bombed to rubble, land owned by strangers. That was it."
"Then?"
"Even the grand old family estate back home and surrounding fields—all gone to others."
"What?!"
"Grandma collapsed from shock, died within a year. I was on the streets. That's when Honorary Chairman took me in."
"...."
I could see Jo Man-deok fleecing Grandpa clear as day.
He probably snatched the Seoul lot and hometown lands too.
Unbelievable.
Anyway, probe more.
"So why hide Grandpa's independence record?"
"Kid, a guy who went to university in Japan goes missing in the war. Know how that looked back then?"
"No way, collab..."
"Stop! Don't say it. That's why I got in trouble on a Japan trip with Chairman—passport denied. Had to declare Dad dead and get Honorary Chairman to pull strings."
Damn, they'd smeared him like that too.
No wonder Dad hated talking about Grandpa.
"And evidence? Mostly gone. Fire at the hometown house before Grandma died and I hit the streets—burned everything. Plus, Honorary Chairman didn't like me blabbing about Dad's activism."
"Those bastards..."
"Yeah, a damn shame. So don't bring up Grandpa again. Not as bad now, but stirring that up won't help your future."
I'd said "bastards" meaning Jo Man-deok, but Dad took it differently.
Wow, they're thorough.
Arson to wipe it all?
These bastards really crushed our family that completely?