Episode 213: Epilogue 1
My name is Park Ji-ho. I’m nine years old. I’m a chaebol heir, envied by all.
From the moment I was born, I’ve had everything I ever wanted.
A blessed life.
My mother showers me with love, and my father is quiet but kind.
It seems like a perfect life, but I have a secret worry.
“What did our Ji-un do at school today?” my father asked.
My older brother, Park Ji-un, three years my senior, smiled brightly. “I studied hard!”
“Anything else?”
He thought for a moment and then raised both hands. “A bully was picking on another kid, and I told him to stop!”
My father lifted him up in his arms. “You’re such a good boy, Ji-un! That’s right, you have to help those who are weaker than you! Understood?”
“Yes!” He put him down and then turned to me. “And what did our Ji-ho do?”
“Should I be honest?”
“Yes, always be honest.”
“A bully was picking on another kid, so…”
“So?” His expectant gaze made me nervous.
“…I beat him up.”
A similar situation, but a different outcome. But my father looked slightly disappointed.
“Is that all?”
He had praised my brother for being kind, but he was disappointed in me for fighting back. It hurt.
“Anything else?” Eager for his praise, I reluctantly revealed the rest of the story, the part I had omitted.
“…And then I asked the kid I saved for money.”
Don’t think I was just extorting money from other kids because I was a chaebol heir.
I had everything I wanted, but a little extra cash for snacks and emergencies was always useful. And then he burst out laughing.
“That’s my boy! Well done!”
My brother was praised for being kind, and I was praised for extorting money from another kid.
Was this… discrimination?
This was my worry. It all started in kindergarten.
There was this kid who bullied me relentlessly. I’m used to fighting now, but back then, I was a sheltered child, and I didn’t know how to react. He teased me for going to the bathroom, for eating slowly… It made me angry, and I wanted revenge, not just to tell my parents and have them resolve it. I wanted him to experience the same humiliation.
So I hatched a plan. I waited for him to be alone, away from his friends, and approached him.
“What are you doing?”
He wrinkled his nose. “Eww, you stink!”
“I don’t stink.”
“Yes, you do!”
I glanced around, checking the teacher’s position. And when she looked at us, I seized the opportunity.
‘Now!’
I threw myself on the floor and screamed.
“Ouch!” He was startled, and the teacher rushed over.
“What happened?”
I said, pretending to cry,
“He pushed me and pinched me!”
“I didn’t!” he protested.
I showed the teacher the red mark on my stomach, which I had pinched myself, as hard as I could, preparing for this moment.
“See? He pinched me!”
The teacher looked at him sternly. “Why did you do that?”
“He fell down on his own!”
“Then what’s this mark? Lying is bad, isn’t it?” I smirked at him behind the teacher’s back, and he pointed at me.
“Look! He’s laughing at me!” But when the teacher turned around, I put on a pitiful expression.
“What? I didn’t do anything.”
She said sternly, “You bullied your friend and now you’re lying? You need to be punished.” I approached her and said, “It’s okay, teacher. We were just playing. Don’t punish him.” Then I extended my hand to him. “Let’s be friends.”
“We’re not friends!” he shouted.
The teacher looked at him disapprovingly.
“He’s forgiving you, and you’re still being mean? Come with me.”
And my revenge continued.
“He said you look weird.” I spread rumors and turned his friends against him.
“He asked me to give you this.”
“Eww! It’s full of bugs!”
I set him up. And after a month of this, I became the well-behaved, polite, and kind child in the teacher’s eyes, while he became the bully.
“Please stop!” he pleaded.
I feigned innocence. “What did I do?”
“You’ve been saying mean things about me!”
“I haven’t said anything.”
“I never gave you those bugs!”
“Someone else saw me give them to you.”
Children were simple. They believed what they heard, especially if it confirmed their existing biases. The other children in kindergarten were now comparing stories of his misdeeds, and the rumors spread even without my intervention.
“I’m sorry! It was my fault! Please forgive me!” he cried.
“But I didn’t do anything…” He slumped his shoulders and walked away, dejected, as I continued to deny it. I chuckled. “Serves him right. Kikikiki.”
And then I heard my father’s voice behind me, a voice I shouldn’t have heard.
“Hmm, I’ve heard the reports, but…” I turned around and saw him, a look of amusement on his face, stroking his chin.
“Ji-ho, you’re truly my son.”
And that’s when the… preferential treatment, so to speak, began.
Years passed, and I entered high school.
“Listen carefully, son,”
my father said, summoning me to his study.
“Your enemies must be eradicated completely.”
“…”
“No mercy. They might come back to haunt you.”
I scratched the back of my head.
“Uh, Father, so… you’re saying I should… beat them up again?”
I had gotten into a fight with some kids from another middle school on my first day of high school.
I was used to being the top dog, so I had naturally put them in their place.
“It’s not enough to just beat them up. You have to crush them, traumatize them, so they’ll be terrified of you, of your voice, of your very presence.”
I looked at him for a long moment.
“But Father,”
“Yes?”
“You wouldn’t say this to hyung, would you?”
He said matter-of-factly, “Of course not. Ji-un is a model student, I would have prevented this from happening in the first place.”
I had felt a sense of unfairness when I was younger, but it wasn’t like he didn’t love me.
He just had different expectations for us.
“So, what should I do?”
“Provoke them. But make it look like they started it, not you. You were just defending yourself, reluctantly.”
I thought for a moment. “How about this? Make it seem like one of them sent a love letter to my friend’s girlfriend.”
He snapped his fingers. “Excellent idea!”
“And then I avenge my friend.”
He nodded. “That way, you strengthen your bond with your friends and establish your dominance.”
I looked him in the eye. “Father.”
“Yes?”
“Are you strange, or is this just how rich families are?”
Even chaebols watched TV. Spoiled rich kids and their equally spoiled fathers were a common trope in dramas. He and I fit that stereotype perfectly, while my brother and father were the model family, the kind and virtuous chaebol heir and his responsible father.
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t you think it’s strange for a father to be so involved in his son’s fights? Shouldn’t you be trying to stop me?”
He smiled. “If you were just a thug, I would. Extorting money, drinking, smoking, drugs, women…”
I said, sweating, “Father, drugs and women? That’s a bit much.”
He looked at me. “You’re drinking and smoking?”
I avoided his gaze. “N-not really.”
“Anyway, I don’t want you to be just a thug. I want you to be…” he smirked, “…ruthless and tenacious. Someone who never gives up, someone who never loses.”
“I can do that.”
He patted my head. “Ji-ho, you’re destined for greatness. And a leader can’t be seen as weak or forgiving. People should look at you with only two emotions.” He held up two fingers.
“Fear and respect. Understand?”
“Fear and respect…”
I thought about his words. “Are you grooming me to be the chairman?”
He smiled. “Do you want to be the chairman?”
“I wouldn’t mind. Leading thousands, even tens of thousands of people…”
“Then you’ll have to study hard, be a good person, no more fighting, always consider the feelings of others, and dedicate your life to serving others. Then I’ll consider it.”
I said with a disgusted expression, “I have to do all that? No thanks.”
That kind of life wasn’t for me.
“You’re right, you’re not fit to be the chairman of Chunha Group. But if you follow my instructions, I’ll give you a better position, one that’s more suitable for you.”
“Better than the chairman of Chunha Group?”
He smirked. “In some ways, yes.”
“Hmm.”
“Is there something else you want to do? A dream, an ambition…?”
A dream, an ambition…
I had countless opportunities as a chaebol heir, but they were all boring. I didn’t want to be a stuffy chairman, attending endless meetings, nor did I want to get involved in the dirty world of politics. I just wanted to live freely, do as I pleased.
“Is this position… free?”
“Yes, it is.”
“And the pay? More money is always good.”
“The pay is also substantial.”
Was there such a position in the world? Teachers always said that with great power comes great responsibility. But a position that was both free and lucrative…? It sounded perfect.
“Fine, I’ll do as you say, but…”
“But what?”
“I’ll quit if I don’t like it.”
He smiled.
“I guarantee you, there’s no better position for you than this.”