The Youngest Son of Hanjeong Group (1)
The sommelier finished decanting the wine and poured it into our glasses.
Min Ah-reum lifted hers first.
“Then shall we toast? Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas!”
We clinked our glasses lightly together.
There was something about drinking good wine in a good restaurant that made the whole evening feel like Christmas. It really was better to come out like this.
Ju Hyeon-jin asked Sung Yoon-ah, “What are you doing tomorrow? Jae-cheol said he’s throwing a Christmas party. If you’re free, want to come with us?”
“I’m having dinner with my family.”
“Oh?”
He looked disappointed, as if he’d wanted her to go with him.
Min Ah-reum took a sip of wine and asked me, “What brought you to our department store today?”
“I came to buy some clothes.”
Ju Hyeon-jin lifted the corners of his mouth. “You mean you bought the clothes you’re wearing now?”
“Yes.”
“Buying luxury brands isn’t everything when it comes to clothes. Even the same outfit can feel completely different depending on who’s wearing it, and your sense of style is a little...”
“Oh! Sung Yoon-ah picked this out for me. So to you, it must look terrible.”
Sung Yoon-ah asked him, “Is my taste really that bad?”
He hurriedly backpedaled. “N-no. I meant your sense is very young. Young. That’s what I meant. I thought something felt different. So it was your taste after all, Yoon-ah. Good eye.”
Hm. He was pretty quick on his feet.
I was admiring that internally when Min Ah-reum asked, “So you went shopping with Yoon-ah today?”
“Yes. I don’t know much about clothes, so I asked Yoon-ah to help me.”
Min Ah-reum smiled brightly. “Really? Fashion is my specialty. If you ever need to buy clothes, ask me. I’ll pick them out for you.”
“Oh! Is that okay?”
I’d need to buy clothes every season anyway. Having an expert choose them would be convenient.
Sung Yoon-ah said lightly, as if chiding her, “What do you mean, is that okay? You’re already so busy.”
“Ah, right. True.”
She probably just said it as a polite gesture, didn’t she?
Min Ah-reum kept smiling. “It’s fine. It all helps our department store’s sales, anyway. Please think of it as customer-delight service and make use of me.”
That really did feel delightful.
When I’d seen her through Linstar, she’d seemed aloof and majestic, but meeting her in person and talking with her, she came off warm and easy to be around.
So this was why you had to meet people face-to-face to really know them.
After dinner and wine, the four of us talked and laughed together until we’d finished an entire bottle.
Ju Hyeon-jin said, “Should we order another one? This wine doesn’t seem that great, so let’s switch to something else. I’ll recommend a really good bottle.”
Min Ah-reum shook her head slightly. “Why? I like the wine Miru chose. What about you, Yoon-ah?”
Sung Yoon-ah nodded. “I’m good with this one too. What about you, Miru?”
“It’s tasty, but it’s a little too expensive. Ordering another bottle would probably be a burden even for you, Ju Hyeon-jin, so I think it’d be better to have a different wine this time. You said you come here often, so please recommend something cheap and good.”
At my words, Ju Hyeon-jin smiled. “Price isn’t an issue. Since Yoon-ah says this one is good too, let’s order the same thing.”
He was smiling, but the muscles around his eyes were twitching ever so slightly.
“Um, I’m going to wash my hands for a second.”
“Ah! I’ll go too.”
As Sung Yoon-ah stood up first, Min Ah-reum rose and followed her.
Watching them go, I thought to myself, why do women always go to the bathroom together?
* * *
Sung Yoon-ah headed to the restroom with Min Ah-reum.
There was a separate powder room beside the women’s restroom. The two of them sat there for a while, chatting.
Min Ah-reum was two years older than Sung Yoon-ah, her senior in both age and experience, and the two had kept in touch often since they were young.
Sung Yoon-ah asked her, “Why did you meet Hyun-jin oppa today?”
As far as she knew, the two of them weren’t especially close.
Min Ah-reum answered blandly, “Customer relations, what else? He’s the VIP of VIPs. Do you know how much he spends every time he comes to our department store? I have to buy him coffee sometimes, or he’ll go shopping somewhere else.”
That explanation made sense to Sung Yoon-ah.
So it really was business.
Not every rich person liked shopping. But Ju Hyeon-jin was famous for spending money like water at department stores.
“What does he even buy that much of?”
“Mostly women’s bags and jewelry. He says they’re gifts for his family, but does anyone really believe that?”
Ju Hyeon-jin was also notorious in business circles for his complicated relationships with women.
Min Ah-reum seemed to remember something and said, “Ah! More importantly, he seems to have taken an interest in you lately.”
“Me?”
“Just today, when the manager told him you were at the department store, he got up immediately and said he should come say hello.”
He had been contacting her more often lately, asking to meet. She’d turned him down several times, but he still kept reaching out without getting tired of it.
“More importantly, that person is the one, right?”
“The one who?”
“The one who exposed Primus Fund.”
“Yes.”
Min Ah-reum kept going. “So that was the person you wanted me to introduce to Oppa back then?”
By Oppa, she meant Chairman Yoo Jae-ho.
“Yes.”
“Hmm. So Han Miru was that person.”
Something in her tone made Sung Yoon-ah feel strangely curious.
“Why?”
“Interesting.”
“...What is?”
“Do you know what Oppa said about Miru?”
“What did he say?”
“That if he could keep him at his side, it wouldn’t be a waste even if he handed the group over to him.”
“Really?”
“Of course not. He was probably joking. Still, it’s a little surprising. It’s the first time I’ve heard Oppa talk about someone like that.”
That shocked Sung Yoon-ah quite a bit.
That much?
She’d already known Han Miru was no ordinary person. Still, for Chairman Yoo of Yuseong Group to value him that highly...
Min Ah-reum’s eyes sparkled with interest. “Now I’m curious what kind of person he is.”
She belonged to the Yoo Seong family, the most powerful chaebol line in Korea, and she had striking looks to match, along with an excellent sense of fashion.
Plenty of men had approached her over the years, but Min Ah-reum had never paid them much mind. Yet the way she looked at Han Miru now was not ordinary at all.
Sung Yoon-ah felt an irrational flicker of unease.
What is with this sister?
* * *
Once the two of them were gone, Ju Hyeon-jin’s whole attitude changed.
He leaned back at once and lifted his chin slightly. We were clearly sitting at the same level, but he still managed to look down on me.
I stared straight at his face.
Come to think of it, he was still pretty young at this point. He’d be getting an M-shaped hairline in ten years, so maybe I should tell him to start taking care of it now?
What he needed now was Propecia and minoxidil. Just taking the medication properly and applying it well could significantly slow down hair loss.
Ju Hyeon-jin looked at me and said, “I don’t know why Yoon-ah is having dinner with you.”
“...”
What was that supposed to mean? Did there have to be a reason to have dinner with someone?
“If you’re curious, why not ask her directly?”
“You said you were coworkers, right?”
I nodded. “Yes. We were hired in the same class. I quit a few months ago, though.”
“So your families don’t know each other or anything like that.”
“No, nothing like that.”
“What are you doing now that you left the company?”
“I’m just preparing for something new.”
For the record, that “something” had a very deep connection to him.
“What does your father do?”
“He runs a small business.”
“Still, looking at the car, your family doesn’t seem all that poor.”
“It was leased, so the monthly payments aren’t that high.”
At my answer, he gave a mocking smile and handed me his business card.
“I’m this kind of person.”
On the card, it said: Ju Hyeon-jin, Director, HJ Food.
“How much do you know about Yoon-ah?”
“Do you mean her personality and hobbies?”
“No. I mean her family.”
“I know she’s the granddaughter of the chairman of DA Financial Group.”
He muttered as if to himself, “Ah, so you did know. I thought you didn’t.”
Then he turned back to me. “Then you should understand she’s not someone you can just go around meeting.”
I was so dumbfounded I had to ask, “Why wouldn’t I be able to meet her casually?”
I really wanted to know how the brain of someone who could say things like that so calmly was wired.
“I’m asking just in case, but you don’t like Yoon-ah, do you?”
That was a pretty direct question.
“And if I did?”
Ju Hyeon-jin laughed as if I were pathetic. “If you’ve ever worked in society, you’d know people have social status. When people of mismatched status get involved, they just make each other uncomfortable.”
“Ah...”
He didn’t seem to think that spewing this nonsense in front of another person might itself be uncomfortable.
“I’m not sure what Yoon-ah is thinking by meeting someone like you, but it won’t last long anyway. A chaebol marrying an ordinary person is something you only see in novels or dramas.”
“Didn’t Yoon-ah’s mother, Vice Chairman Yang Ja-eun, marry a DA Bank rookie employee?”
“That’s...”
He couldn’t argue, because the real-life example was too close at hand.
“Anyway, Yoon-ah and you live in different worlds.”
Anyone hearing that would think they lived in different dimensions.
He seemed to believe that because he’d been born a chaebol, he was a cut above ordinary people.
To be fair, he’d been born with everything and raised in an environment where he lacked for nothing. Maybe his thinking really was different from that of normal people.
“I’m saying this for your own good, but don’t stare at a tree you’ll never be able to climb. You understand what I’m saying, right?”
I didn’t understand a damn thing, but I nodded anyway.
“Yes.”
Ju Hyeon-jin laughed heartily. “Haha! Good, we understand each other.”
“...”
What exactly made him think we understood each other? Was I the only one who thought we didn’t?
“You said you quit your job and have been loafing around lately, right?”
“I’m not loafing around. I’m preparing for something new.”
“Same difference. If you do well from here on out, I’ll give you a chance.”
This was starting to sound like complete nonsense, but I asked out of curiosity anyway.
“Are you talking about a job?”
He grinned. “You’re not slow on the uptake. Do a good job and make me satisfied. I’ll pay you more than enough for it.”
I had no idea what he expected me to do well, exactly, but...
“Understood.”
Thinking that I might be able to get a job at HJ Food if I pleased him, I suddenly felt like I ought to put in some effort.
Wow. Exciting.
By the time our conversation ended, the two women had returned to the table.
Min Ah-reum asked, “What were you talking about?”
Ju Hyeon-jin answered with a smile, “Just what kind of work he’s doing these days, and...”
I cut him off cleanly.
“He told me that since I don’t match Yoon-ah’s social standing, I shouldn’t meet her. Said I wasn’t someone he could let meet her casually.”
At that, Sung Yoon-ah and Min Ah-reum both widened their eyes in shock, while Ju Hyeon-jin stared at me in disbelief.
They were all stunned, so for a while nobody said a word.
After a moment, Ju Hyeon-jin came to his senses and said, “N-no, when did I ever say that?”
Sung Yoon-ah shot him an angry glare and asked sharply, “Really? Did you really say that to Miru?”
“T-that’s not what I meant...”
Ju Hyeon-jin looked flustered, at a loss, then stared at me with the expression of, What the hell are you doing?
As the atmosphere grew heavy, I smiled and said, “Ah, of course I was joking. What is this, the Joseon Dynasty? Who on earth would say something that stupid to someone’s face these days?