chapter 17
17 – The Future Group
“…We’re not suspicious guys. I just want you to ride.”
Smiley smile. The old man in a suit looked up and smiled.
….When I was in my third year of middle school, my height was about 180, but the man in front of me… Was taller than me.
Also, his body was extremely muscular, and the suit shirt he was wearing was swollen up tight as if it were about to be ripped off at any moment, but it must be all muscle, not fat.
A gangster?
I heard that a lot.
Do you want to go to the children from the nursery school and start working in an organization…?
I heard that there are many things that ask such questions.
I’m not like that now either, but in the past I had no hesitation in using my fists, and usually children from orphanages had little antipathy toward violence.
If you leave the nursery school right away, you won’t be able to make a living, so I’ll give you cool clothes right away and an expensive looking car.
So, if you say, “Come into our organization,” They say that you will have no choice but to fall into the dark path easily.
Maybe this is the case..?
I think.
Look at this, there are a lot of men in suits, and the car has a mark with four round circles attached to it.
Just by looking at it, it has all the characteristics of a neighborhood gangster.
That’s why I felt suspicious, and I felt like I shouldn’t follow something.
“…I, uh… I left something at school. I’ll go get it.”
“I heard there’s no such thing today? Yoo Seon-ah, I just want you to ride it. The president is a very busy person.”
Did they investigate my background…?
I think everyone knows who I am.
“It’s because we’re not bad people-“
Here is a person who is persuasive.
Following my instinct, I tried to step backwards, but I felt a hard feeling behind me and turned around.
There were also a lot of strange men there.
How shall I escape…? I’ve heard that.
Because it’s not that easy.
Because he is looking around with anxious eyes.
-Thumb!
And grabs my arm.
Even if I tried my best to shake it off… I couldn’t win by force.
“It’s because we’re not really weird people, yay- look at this- here’s a business card”
The man I talked to took out a business card and showed it to me.
-Kyung-Tae Oh, Team Leader of Mirae Group Security Team.
“…When I meet you in that comfortable outfit, I don’t live with a bit of authority. I don’t think I’ll believe that I’m a member of Mirae Group.
You wore a suit like this and drove an expensive car in your own way, but this must have been poison to you…!
I’ll say it over and over again, the old men aren’t really bad people, so I’d like them to relax a bit.”
“Yes…”
“…So, I have somewhere to go with you, can you go…?!”
2)
Just to say the conclusion. These people didn’t seem to have anything in their heads except for the idea of dragging me and taking me to the ‘Chairman’.
No matter what I say or do, I have to… Take him with me..? It seemed like that was the only thought.
I thought that if I thought about not getting in the car like this, he would be persistent and annoying enough to follow me around.
I just rode it once. No… I know that too. I don’t carelessly ride a car of someone I don’t know.
So I tried not to ride it, but if I don’t get in the car, they won’t let me go somewhere else… I have that feeling, tell me what to do.
He laughs hesitantly and says, “I have to ride quickly.”
I have already surrounded myself so tightly that I do not speak, but I put the pressure of pressure where it is. But what options do I have there?
The words were spontaneous, but in reality it was no different from being kidnapped.
I told them that you shouldn’t always follow suspicious people, but I ended up following strange men.
….I just got a business card saying I’m from Mirae Group, so I’m not a total suspicious person.
I am not a bully.
Do not inflict any harm on me.
There was nothing I could do right now except tremble like an aspen tree, pretending to have that belief in my heart.
-Sniff…
Lines- Tears flow down.
Why would I…?
I don’t know why I was drawn to such a strange place…
Isn’t that a real gangster or something..?
“…Because I’m not a bad person…”
Uncle Gyeong-tae saw me in the back seat and said that – but that was his own opinion.
I don’t think so.
The black sedan arrived in the middle of Seoul.
A place where many skyscrapers are lined up.
The tallest building among them.
Jamsil Future Tower
Did I say that it is the biggest building in Korea…?
Future Tower.
After parking the car in the parking lot of that large building that looks like a corn cone, we took the elevator and started going up.
Even when going up in the elevator- As soon as we got out of the car, an older sister in a uniform took us to the elevator.
It seemed that this was not an elevator that ordinary people use, but an elevator that only VVIPs could use.
Because, as far as I know, there are department stores, movie theaters, aquariums, and a lot of cultural facilities here, so it’s such a building where a lot of people come and go.
Of course, it is normal for the elevators in such buildings to be packed with people.
But I didn’t see a single real ant nest here.
An elevator just for us…? Exactly – I couldn’t explain anything other than that expression.
“…Isn’t it amazing…?”
Personal Elevator.. It was the first time I knew that there was such a thing as a VIP-only elevator, so I had no choice but to open my mouth naturally.
And Mr. Gyeongtae looked at me and smiled again.
Can’t say that because I was forcibly kidnapped by a gangster.
This is not a bravado that a ‘gangster’ sitting around at a local cafe or convenience store can do.
Really, these men, as written on their business cards… Were the people who worked in the security team of the Mirae Group.
As if the gaze staring at him was burdensome, the man spoke to me with a shy smile.
“You will be more surprised in the future”
-Ding!
The elevator door opened, and I was able to reach the top of this building.
A place where all the walls are made of glass, so you can see all of Seoul.
And there was a table and a sofa, and an old man was sitting there looking at me.
I thought it looked very unreal.
A clock that has run down like a picture from an art book is hanging on the desk, and next to it is a strange beast that doesn’t even sound like a strange word.
I think you called such a painting surrealism. The scenery I am seeing right now is exactly like that.
It is as wide as the first floor of a department store.
No, of course there is a department store down here.
Of course, the only thing in a large space like a department store is one desk. One chair.
And there’s a sofa and a table in the distance, and besides that, there’s a refrigerator and a bunch of bottles of some sort in the distance.
Looking at objects one by one far away in such a wide space, like a needle dropped in the desert, it was something unrealistic.
Did he sit in a chair again and take off his glasses and apply some wax, or is that the old man who pulled his hair back…?
No matter how you look at it, he looks young enough to be called a grandfather. Mid 50’s…? I’m not sure what to call it. Grandpa..? Or uncle..? President..?
How did other people call him…? If I had known we would meet like this, I would have watched the news more often.
“…”
I’m not one to watch the news or anything like that, but I knew at least who that person was.
You are the chairman of Mirae Group.
I think I’m going crazy.
I said that I had to go see the chairman, so I just… I just thought his name was the chairman or something, but this is the real chairman.
“That’s all I can do for you. Then go and say hello to the president. That’s right..!”
Close your fist and look at me
-Aja!
It’s very cute for an action that a muscular man would do.
I thought it would be fun when I saw it normally. Because the situation is the situation… I didn’t think of anything.
A person like me should talk to someone like that…?!
“…Hello”
“Yes”
“Could it be Grandpa Jina…”
“Yes”
And… Jina was not a housekeeper who served as a housekeeper in someone else’s house, but a housekeeper.
I can understand why Jina could suddenly wear such an expensive brand.
Well, well… I have a grandfather with a lot of money…And right now, there are two presidents from Mirae Group, so it’s a luxury to wear a few luxury goods. Isn’t that rather frugal?
I sat down on the sofa.
It was super soft, but it didn’t touch my body.
It just feels like a cushion of thorns…? Even though I just looked at it, Jin-ah’s grandfather.
No… That’s because I was overwhelmed by Chairman Chung’s momentum and had no choice but to be weighed down.
Unlike Ah Jin, who has brown hair, I thought her grandfather, who has black hair with gray gray hair, was very charismatic even when I saw him on TV. Seeing it in real life was no joke.
What am I going to talk about with this person?
Well, I wish I could say something. Jina, your grandfather is just staring at me with her legs crossed. He didn’t speak first.
Chairman, the expression middle-aged rather than old age.
I didn’t have the confidence to endure the president’s gaze.
In this country, this grandfather is no different than a ‘king’ and Jina is no different than a ‘princess’.
…I didn’t say anything, but I can guess why he called.
“That… I’m sorry… I won’t pretend to be close to Jin-ah from now on. I won’t even be close to her from now on.”
“…What..?”
“I won’t talk to you, I won’t even come close to you. I don’t need anything. Can you just quietly let me go…?”
I got off the couch and knelt down.
The more I look at the president’s face looking at me with a puzzled expression.
Did I make a mistake…? I think so. I wanted to cry again.
Actually, I want to run away from here. I’m not sure why I was called here, but maybe that’s the reason…?
I saw a lot of this in dramas.
How much is it? When are you going to break up with my daughter..?
Something like that… No, I don’t think I’m that close to Jin-ah.
No matter how much I thought about it, it seemed like this was the only thing I had been called up to here.
Because I never imagined that something like that you only see in dramas would really happen like this…
“…I’m sorry. Just… Thinking about Jin-ah taking care of things in the past because she seemed pitiful to me, I’m really sorry.
Also… I’m sorry that I recklessly taught you dangerous pranks on the playground.
And I’m sorry that I didn’t want to go on a field trip, and that I fought with Jin-ah. And what is…?”
I got down on my knees and told him everything I had done. My eyes were clouded, and hot tears fell on the back of my hand on my lap.
Not a lie. I really want to live
I… I mean, at that time, I just helped Jin-ah because she looked pitiful and in a difficult situation.
No matter how much I fought… I wondered if I had made a big mistake to be called like this..?
If you did something wrong, you should pay the price.
I thought it would be nice not to harm the director or Yoojung who had nothing to do with it.
“…No, I didn’t call you like this to scold you. …Hey, oh team leader. What did you say to him on the way here? How did he get to this point..? Did you hit him..? All of a sudden. Why are you crying, why are you crying?”
“No”
“But why are you doing this? …Hey! Hey… That…I didn’t invite you here to scold you..! That’s why I want you to sit in the chair again.
I think my granddaughter will misunderstand a lot if she sees this now.”