Chapter 01

It was a day in late autumn when Yeon Chang-shin came to see Ji-hoon.

“Please marry my daughter.”

The chairman’s office at Haesung High School.

Ji-hoon, who had been savoring the tea he had brewed himself, calmly set down his teacup and spoke.

“I don’t think I’m the person you should be asking.”

“Of course you are. I’m looking for a groom for my daughter, so naturally, I should ask you.”

Yeon Chang-shin was Ji-hoon’s former teacher and a close friend of his father, Seong Gil-jun, since childhood.

“It’s not as though my opinion matters much. As you know, there’s someone else who’s practically staking her life on getting me married.”

“Please, just give it some thought. I feel like I haven’t done anything for Bora. That child, who had a hard time accepting me as her father, deserves something from me, too. I want to grant her at least one wish.”

Faced with what was practically an unreasonable demand, Ji-hoon wore a troubled expression.

“Your daughter is only eighteen.”

“She was born early in the year, so she’ll be eighteen by international age next year. As far as I know, there’s no problem with getting married then.”

“Sir.”

“Our Bora wants to marry you.”

“Yeon Chang-shin. Sir.”

Ji-hoon raised his eyes and enunciated Chang-shin’s name, as if telling him to come to his senses.

“Do you really think this is right?”

Ji-hoon knew exactly why Chang-shin was going this far.

Although Yeon Chang-shin appeared to be an ordinary teacher, he was the second son of a family of politicians who had served in government for generations.

Chang-shin’s father, Yeon Ho-nam, a three-term lawmaker, was eyeing both the party leadership and the presidency, but he lacked the momentum to get there.

So he had arranged for his son, Chang-shin, to remarry the second daughter of a bank president. And apparently, even that wasn’t enough. He now intended to use his underage granddaughter as another pawn on his political chessboard.

All to give himself wings through the Haesung Group and soar to greater heights.

It was understandable, then, that Chang-shin would be in such a hurry after hearing that his former student, Ji-hoon, had entered the marriage market.

After all, Chang-shin was nothing more than Ho-nam’s puppet.

“What do you mean, is it right…?”

As expected, Chang-shin’s pupils wavered, unable to focus.

“Do you really think it’s right to persuade me instead of talking your immature daughter out of marrying a man more than twelve years older than her?”

“But Ji-hoon, you know Eum recently, at the hotel…”

“I have no intention of raising someone else’s child. I’m sorry, but I’ll be leaving now.”

As if he had no intention of listening any further, Ji-hoon rose coldly from his seat.

He heard Chang-shin calling after him desperately, but he paid no attention and left the office.

“Whoa! You startled me!”

But the moment he opened the door, he came face-to-face with Joo Min-jae, his chief secretary, who was carrying a plate of fruit.

“Oh! Executive Director? Why are you leaving already…?”

“My business is finished. Take care of our guest.”

“Uh…?”

Perhaps sensing that Ji-hoon was even colder than usual, Min-jae could only blink at him, unable to stop him.

Seong Ji-hoon, executive director of the Haesung Group and chairman of Haesung High School.

With credentials like his, there was no shortage of people approaching him, asking him to marry their daughters or granddaughters.

Yet he had never felt this much revulsion toward such proposals before.

“Sir.”

The shadows cast by the leaves outside the window swayed along the long hallway.

“I think I seriously like you, sir.”

Remembering a girl from a certain day, Ji-hoon slowly closed and reopened his eyes.

After making his way through a group of students greeting him, he stepped outside. The cool breeze of autumn brushed against his ears.

Without realizing it, Ji-hoon stopped in his tracks.

A girl sat alone on the school grounds, surrounded by brilliantly colored autumn leaves.

Her short black hair swayed gently against her petite shoulders, reminding him of the shadows in the hallway.

Ji-hoon narrowed his eyes slightly as he gazed at the girl before speaking.

“Eum.”

The girl, who seemed as though she might never move, turned around, her short hair swishing.

“Huh? Sir!”

Her radiant smile sparkled beneath the sunlight.

Only then did Ji-hoon’s stiff lips soften into a gentle smile.

“I’ve told you countless times not to call me that.”

Could it be that the sun followed Yeon Eum’s every move? The girl shone so brightly on her own that he found himself entertaining such an absurd thought.

Reality, however, was far from that.

It was three months ago, in the summer, that Ji-hoon had become unable to turn a blind eye to the girl’s circumstances.

Smack!

A sharp-tipped ballpoint pen came flying at the neatly brushed hair atop her head.

During break time, in a senior-year high school classroom.

After striking the back of her head with pinpoint accuracy, the pen bounced off, rolled across the floor, and came to a stop at her toes.

Eum covered the stinging spot with her hand. From behind her came a voice that held not the slightest hint of remorse.

“Sorry! My hand slipped.”

Eum swallowed a sigh as she lowered her hand from the back of her head, which she had been rubbing.

A moment later, something struck the crown of her head even harder.

Smack!

Only then did a burst of malicious laughter erupt from the back of the classroom.

Among the group of male students snickering, the largest of them, Gu Seong-jun, spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear.

“Eum, you okay? You crazy bastard! Be careful where you throw that. Her grandfather’s a member of the National Assembly, you know. What are you gonna do if he becomes president? You’re screwed.”

“Oh, right. Her dad’s a teacher at the school next door, isn’t he? What if he reports us and gives us demerits? I’m scared!”

“But where would he stab us? Ooh, those huge tits?”

Eum had been silently listening to their jeers and sexual harassment, but she quietly rose from her seat.

As she approached Seong-jun and his group, the eyes of every student in the classroom turned toward her.

When Eum stopped directly in front of Gu Seong-jun, the laughter faded from his face. He had been wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes from laughing so hard.

Bzzzz. Bzzzz. Trill.

The cries of cicadas filling the classroom pierced the heavy silence that had settled over it.

The students nearby watched them with curious eyes.

“You’d better be really careful.”

At Eum’s words, Seong-jun sharply raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

“Just like you said, it’d be a piece of cake for my grandfather and dad to crush you guys.”

“Hah! What the hell is she saying?”

“And you’re all size and no strength. How do you expect to survive in this harsh world when you’re that weak?”

Eum glanced around before picking up an eraser from a desk.

“Watch closely. This is how you use strength.”

The moment she finished speaking, she hurled the eraser at Gu Seong-jun’s forehead with all her might.

Crack!

A resounding impact echoed through the square classroom.

Crash!

Clutching his forehead, Gu Seong-jun toppled spectacularly between the desks and chairs, throwing the classroom into an uproar.

Two streams of blood trickled from Seong-jun’s nose. They say misfortune strikes even when you fall backward, but what a pathetic sight he was.

“Shit! You crazy bitch!”

One of Gu Seong-jun’s lackeys raised his hand high and charged toward her.

Eum gritted her teeth and clenched her fist, ready to fight back, when—

BANG!

The classroom’s front door flew open with a tremendous crash.

“Hey, you little delinquents! Can’t you keep it down?”

In an instant, the atmosphere inside the classroom changed.

Eum turned around, her eyes widening in surprise.