BXBX NOVEL Chapter 73.1: Are you Confident? (1)
Chapter 73.1: Are you Confident? (1)
While Kang Chan was walking through the front gate, he saw the bullies working hard at sweeping the surroundings.
‘Did the bullies do drugs together as a group?’
Kang Chan didn’t know what they were hoping for, but it also wasn’t something that he should interfere with.
The process of going into the classroom was much easier than it was before. The kids that he ran into at the stairs or in the hallway still got flustered, but they no longer stood against the wall or dropped their heads like before.
It was probably because of how he acted in the school cafeteria at lunchtime.
“Chan!”
Kim Mi-Young smiled brightly while waving her hand. Snow White acting like that also definitely played a role in helping the kids change their attitudes toward him.
“What’s wrong with your arm?” Kim Mi-Young asked.
“I got a small scratch while exercising. Look—there’s nothing wrong with it, see?”
Kang Chan moved his arm around, and it actually only stung. He didn’t feel any other pain.
“Did you get your school uniform's size reduced?” Kim Mi-Young asked again.
“No. I just temporarily borrowed Yoon-Seup’s uniform because something happened yesterday.”
Kim Mi-Young smiled strangely. Was she hiding something?
Kang Chan heard people talking about the bullies cleaning the school from time to time, but it stopped when Lee Ho-Jun came inside the classroom. The homeroom teacher came inside soon after, and the orientation ended with the teacher asking if anything happened during the break and asking the twelfth-graders to focus more on the subjects they were lacking at.
The school called the students during the break just to say that?
But what could he do? The orientation had already ended.
When Kang Chan got up from his spot, Kim Mi-Young quickly approached him. Smiling, she said, “Chan, I have free time until dinner today. What about you?”
“Why’s that?”
“My mom went out to a gathering. My hagwon is at 7 pm. I told her that I’m going to study at school until then.”
It looked like she was anticipating something.
“Want to have lunch together?” asked Kang Chan.
“Yeah! We should also watch a movie if it’s okay with you!”
Kang Chan found Kim Mi-Young’s childish ‘yeah!’ answer cute.
“Sure. Where should we go?”
“Let’s go to Tron Square.”
“Wearing this?” Kang Chan asked again.
“What should we wear, then?”
Would it be okay to go to Tron Square while wearing school uniforms?
Kang Chan went down the stairs with Kim Mi-Young and dropped by the athletics club room before going.
“Sunbae-nim! Unnie!” Cha So-Yeon brightly greeted them. Kang Chan talked to Seok Kang-Ho outside of the room.
“Security guards?” Seok Kang-Ho asked.
“Three of them cleanly took care of about fifteen gangsters. Kim Hyung-Jung probably put them on you as well.”
“Hmm, alright. Well, either way, President Kim Tae-Jin has to act before anything happens, so let’s just test the waters today.”
“I’m going to go home immediately after dropping by Tron Square with Mi-Young, so let’s meet up in the evening if need be.”
“Alright.”
Kang Chan got out of school first with Kim Mi-Young.
***
After passing by two Japanese-style tatami rooms, the chef came into the innermost room, knelt on the floor, and carefully placed sushi on the table.
“Please enjoy your meal!” Nobody said anything until the chef left. After the door on the opposite side closed…
“What did the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say that they’re going to do?”
“It seems like even Japan is flustered, seeing as how they said that we should watch how things develop for now.”
The four people sat facing each other, their faces holding a mix of worry and anger.
“With this incident, half of our power is completely gone. The Reds are using North Korea as an excuse to deceive the citizens when they didn’t even interfere in this. They’re suffocating us. Yet you only want us to watch? Do you think those people without a good background are going to let this opportunity end just like this? The Seung-il shipping company is gone, and now we're in a situation where those that restlessly tried their best for the country are being stripped of their positions and are being kicked out for one reason or another.”
“Chairman Yang, no one here approves of connecting the rail.”
“That’s why I’m saying we should defend ourselves more aggressively. If the rail is connected, then there’s also a paper that says that the minimum wage will increase to 10,000 KW per hour immediately. Does that make sense? People that aren’t doing much will make 80,000 KW per day, and if we include the night shift, then the world will come to where they can make a maximum of 200,000 KW per day. And in this damn country, it has become expected for people to fight back against the owners that are keeping them alive. Even if we’re in a crisis, we shouldn’t step back. We need to deal with this aggressively.”
“Who doesn’t know that? Isn't the problem here the fact that we’ll all be branded and kicked out as traitors at once if even a small link is found between us and the Seung-Il shipping company if we carelessly interfere right now? The chairperson and a few others are trying their best, so we should endure this for a little bit.”
“Ha!” Yang Jin-Woo openly expressed his frustration.
“It isn’t just the Financial Supervisory Service or the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. Everything is being replaced. At this rate, if legislation is wrongfully announced, then we’re going to wither and die.”
“The chairperson and I are going to stop that.”
“Chairperson Huh, are you aware that they’re now starting a people’s court with the excuse that they’re clearing away the remnants of Japan and that they’re tracking down the pro-Japanese?”
“I know, I know.”
Yang Jin-Woo immediately responded to Huh Sang-Soo’s annoying response and said, “We’re now at a time where my family is being reviled as being pro-Japanese or as a traitor for selling out the country when we were the ones that brought in Japan’s advanced culture while throwing away all of our pride. The country became well off because of what we did! We are now living well, enough to have cars! And everyone forgot that we now get to go around foreign countries! The fucking Reds that aren’t even worth bugs are all like this! All I’m saying is, the time when people yell that everyone has to live equally is coming.”
“Ha, my god! Chairman Yang, are you yelling atme right now? Should I apologize or something? Should I bow my head and say that I was wrong?”
When Huh Sang-Soo’s eyes glinted with anger, Yang Jin-Woo's spirit immediately died down.
After a moment of silence passed…
“Let’s endure this for now. What’s urgent is to first figure out where and what on earth went wrong, and to find the person that’s causing us trouble. We’re trying our best to dig up information by focusing on the Yoo Bi-Corp employees right now, so we’ll be able to completely figure out what’s going on soon.”
“Please at least take care of the legislative bill for foreign laborers first.”
“That bill is going to be passed next week. On the contrary, it’s comfortable to pass that bill because it’s concealed this kind of issue. And let’s turn a few temporary workers into permanent workers. The chairperson was also very worried about the foreign laborers.”
“Those fucking Reds! They can’t get rid of the beggar in them and are trying to get more than what they worked for! If they’re going to revile us, then they shouldn’t change, and if they’re going to demand help, then they should bow their heads!”
“Money is being brought over on a large scale from Japan. When everyone gets that money, please discreetly acquire a few financial institutions.”
“Is that already underway?” Huh Sang-Soo was going to grab the chopsticks, but he held up a glass of water instead as if he was tired of eating food.
“It’s going to proceed next month, so everyone please be aware of that and please make some operating costs with that money. I heard that a high schooler is involved in this and that the National Intelligence Service is actively supporting him, but we’re still trying to figure out if that’s true because we’re unsure of whether or not we should trust that information. Plus the French Ambassador, who was granted an Agrément, arbitrarily came back to our country, so we’re planning on slicing the National Intelligence Service Director’s neck in this timely opportunity while kicking out the French Ambassador from South Korea as well.”
“Hmm,” Yang Jin-Woo focused on what Huh Sang-Soo was saying.
“We’re all going to claim that North Korea planned this, that there are too many Reds in the country, and that the reason this transpired is that the current regime is taking a pro-North Korean policy. And we have to intensively attack one place.”
Yang Jin-Woo smiled meaningfully, his expression showing that he understood what Huh Sang-Soo was saying.
“Our most urgent task right now is to stop the people that are on the same side as the current party in power from becoming cabinet members, no matter what. Other than them, everyone else is our people. Hence, regardless of who we use, we can make a contract with them.”
“If only we can just change the Director of the National Intelligence Service.”
“Japan is going to make something big happen soon.”
Huh Sang-Soo smiled suspiciously.
***
Kang Chan and Kim Mi-Young had hand-made hamburgers for lunch, then they watched a movie about two lovers. In the middle of the movie, Kim Mi-Young leaned her head against his shoulder, which Kang Chan didn’t see as a bad thing.
They looked through a few stores after the movie ended, then headed home. Strangely, it felt like Kim Mi-Young was calming down the chaos that had been happening. It was as if he had stepped back after being pushed around by the ‘Unicorn’ project that had abruptly run into his life. This was similar to when she held his hand at the cafeteria and calmed him down.
“Today made me really happy,” Kim Mi-Young commented.
Kang Chan smiled widely while standing face-to-face with Kim Mi-Young. Now that smile made him feel comfortable.
After they parted ways at the apartment entrance, Kang Chan headed to the hospital again. He got his wound disinfected and his bandages and clothes changed, then returned home.
“I’m back,” said Kang Chan.
“You’re here, Channy? Where did you go and why couldn’t you come home for two days? And what’s with your clothes?” Yoo Hye-Sook asked.
“I had to meet the employees of the broadcasting station.”
“You should’ve told me if it was urgent.”
“I’ll do that from now on.”
For some reason, Kang Chan thought about Yoo Hye-Sook when he recalled the crying old mother that clung to Kim Tae-Jin.
“You haven’t had dinner, have you?” Yoo Hye-Sook asked Kang Chan.
“Yes, I’ll come out after changing. Where’s father?”
“He said that he'll be home soon.”
Kang Chan went into his room and eventually took out and wore a long-sleeved shirt. If he didn’t, it would be hard to hide the bandages that were wrapped around his left arm.
Kang Dae-Kyung arrived about thirty minutes later. Kang Chan went out of his room, greeted him, then ate with him.
“Why are you wearing a long-sleeved shirt when it’s so hot?” Kang Dae-Kyung asked Kang Chan.
“My body doesn’t look good right now.”
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Right before he was cornered into a crisis, Yoo Hye-Sook’s phone thankfully rang. A friend of hers seemed to be asking her for a favor again, seeing as how she took her phone and went into the room.
“Father, I have bandages wrapped around my arm.”
Kang Dae-Kyung exhaled as if he was groaning, then nodded.
“Eat quickly. Let’s go somewhere for a bit.”
“Alright.”
The two of them ate as if they were pushing food down their throats.
1. Tatami rooms are traditional Japanese-style rooms with traditional tatami flooring, which is a type of mat
2. The Reds are used to describe communists in Korea. They also refer to South Koreans who support North Korea
3. The original was ‘yelling in front of me.’ The nuance behind that is that he would find it disrespectful for Chairman Yang to yell at someone else in his presence since he thinks very highly of himself. However, it doesn’t sound natural in English so we went with ‘yelling at me.’
4. In international affairs, Agrément refers to an agreement by a state to receive members of a diplomatic mission from a foreign country. The posting state formally requests consent from the receiving state before appointing a diplomat to the receiving state. Simply put, Lanok was able to come to South Korea as an Ambassador of France because he was granted consent (Agrément) from South Korea