We're Too Different

The streets once ablaze with red and yellow autumn leaves were losing their color. The moment I stepped off the bus into the late autumn chill, I hunched my shoulders against the cold.

Towering gray walls rose high, and expressionless security guards stood watch at intervals. The atmosphere was so frigid it could have been mistaken for a bomb shelter.

This road, known as the Hannam-dong Hill Pass, was one I walked every day, yet I had never grown fond of it.

It took a good twenty minutes from the bus stop before the main gate finally came into view. When I pressed the small call button, a familiar voice crackled through.

"It's Na-hee."

With a heavy clank, the iron gate opened at once.

The meticulously trimmed green lawn of the garden lay in an eerie silence. I avoided the central pond and the basalt stepping stones, taking the side path instead.

This hidden side door of the grand mansion led to the servants' quarters attached to the kitchen.

This was the space where Mom and I lived.

"Yes."

The second I hung up with Mrs. Jang, I changed clothes. The staff called the main building where the chairman's family lived Building A. A shirt and apron were mandatory.

In the kitchen of Building A, the ladies of the house were bustling about preparing the evening meal.

The menu for dinner was eobok-jaengban, or something like that? It was a northern dish the chairman particularly favored, and a certain tension hung in the air because of it.

"You're here?"

Mrs. Jang paused in the middle of wrapping something in a gold cloth and smiled warmly.

"Na-hee, you get prettier every time I see you."

Mrs. Jang was the right hand of the vice president and his wife, and the real power in Building A. She even accompanied the mistress on her overseas golf trips.

"This is a side dish Manager Lee made. Take it over to Hyun-jin, would you? The mistress is coming home early today, apparently. We just got the call."

"Hyun-jin...?"

"Yes, our eldest young master."

There was not a soul in this house who did not know who Kwon Hyun-jin was.

The late-born only son of Kwon Jung-moo, the chairman's eldest son.

Back when the president and his wife were still alive, he had been the legitimate prince of Kwonjin, the eldest grandson—but now he was nothing more than an abandoned duck egg cast adrift on a deserted island.

"Hyun-jin came back to Korea last month, you know."

I already knew that the boy who had left Korea around the age of eight had recently returned.

It was simply that being asked to deliver side dishes to the house where he lived alone felt strange.

"I'll text you the address. You only have to cross one bridge."

Mrs. Jang had never needed my answer in the first place.

"Take a taxi, all right? Assistant Choi already went to pick up the mistress."

She pressed a card into my hand and gave my back a firm shove, making me anxious.

"Hyun-jin... probably won't like it much."

"Oh, nonsense. Who wouldn't like Na-hee? You're so pretty and kind. Manager Lee is one lucky woman."

I was at a loss because of Mrs. Jang, who was foisting the errand on me with the cunning of a snake.

At barely eighteen, Kwon Hyun-jin already had a temper that put even the chairman to shame. He was a year younger than me, but I had not seen his face in ten years.

If I ran into the family's problem child for no good reason, there was no telling what I might hear.

"The eldest young master barely even stays at home. He lives at the gym all day, they say."

"Still..."

"Manager Lee, does Na-hee find our eldest young master uncomfortable?"

The spark flew in the wrong direction, landing on Mom. In an uneasy voice, Mom spoke while carefully watching Mrs. Jang's face.

"Uncomfortable? Not at all. When they were little they used to play together all the time. Building blocks and everything..."

"Mom... that was Chan-hee. Chan-hee should be done with school by now."

"Na-hee, your little brother has to study. When would a kid living in a goshiwon ever come here?"

There was a high school senior who had already gotten into college through early admissions right here, thank you very much.

"Does Na-hee hate Hyun-jin?"

Just then, a sharp, ringing voice came from the entrance.

"Who's saying they hate our Hyun-jin?"

"Oh my, Mistress. You've arrived."

Everyone in the kitchen stopped what they were doing and bowed.

Cha Mi-young, wife of the second son, Vice President Kwon Young-moo. The chairman's second daughter-in-law.

"Everyone, watch your mouths. Do you want someone to overhear and get the wrong idea? Manager Lee, water."

"Yes, Mistress."

"Ugh, that CEO Hwang is young and has so much stamina. He kept hitting only the long shots and then completely fell apart at the end."

"Oh my."

"And honey. Let's get our titles straight. The staff keep calling him Hyun-jin this, Hyun-jin that—the chairman absolutely hates it."

Still in her golf clothes and sun visor, Cha Mi-young looked around the kitchen and delivered her sermon.

"He's all grown up. If you saw him on the street you'd think he was an adult. Who would believe he's a high schooler?"

"I'm sorry, Mistress. I've just known him since he was so little. Habits are terrifying things."

"Because of you people I get chewed out every single day. Mother-in-law keeps grilling me about how the nanny dares to treat the eldest grandson like dirt. It's so unfair, honestly."

"Of course, of course. Everyone knows how much you love your eldest nephew, Mistress."

"I'm the one who sent him EMS packages every season even though he never called once on the holidays."

Cha Mi-young took the detox water and left the kitchen. Mrs. Jang, stuck to her like gum, shot a meaningful glance at the bundle.

It was an order to go deliver the side dishes to Kwon Hyun-jin no matter what.

"Puppy, don't get your horns up—just take it over quickly."

"I heard he got kicked back to Korea for beating someone up."

When I whispered that, Mom waved her hands frantically.

"That's just what people who don't know say. Our eldest young master is so kind and gentle."

Kind? Gentle? Everyone who knew his personality knew better—how could she say something like that...

Just thinking about what he had done to me in elementary school made me never want to look at his face again.

Kwon Hyun-jin throwing blocks and throwing tantrums, Kwon Hyun-jin aiming a soccer ball at me and laughing, Kwon Hyun-jin ordering me to go fetch that ball...

From the time I was little, I had known my place perfectly well.

"That Manager Lee and her daughter—how long are they going to keep living here? The mother can say she's working as a servant, but doesn't it weigh on a child's mind to freeload off someone else's house like a parasite?"

What difference would it make even if I told them? Even if I said the chairman's precious eldest grandson was bullying me, it would only hurt Mom's heart.

In place of the absent Kwon Hyun-jin, I glared fiercely at the gleaming gold wrapping cloth.

"Make Chan-hee do it... Kwon Hyun-jin even gave Chan-hee an entrance gift."

"Na-hee."

"...Fine. I'll go."

Barely a month after returning to Korea and he was already tormenting me.

At last, Kwon Hyun-jin's homecoming felt real.

The place where he supposedly lived alone was a brand-new apartment complex along the Han River. Kwonjin had constructed it, and its name had been in the news every day.

It was a good thing I had been given a resident card. The entry procedures were strict.

By the time I reached the very top of the end unit with its full Han River view, my entire body was exhausted. In that moment I finally understood why Mrs. Jang had dumped this annoying task on me.

A penthouse with only one household per floor.

Standing in front of that front door—far too extravagant for a high school boy living alone—I took a deep breath.

Fine. Maybe this was for the best. I had needed to face Kwon Hyun-jin at least once. And I happened to have something to return to him anyway.

I set the package down and resolutely pressed the bell for unit 3501.

Ding-dong.

"..."

Silence. I pressed it again—ding-dong, ding-dong—but still nothing.

This was the perfect chance. I quickly used the keycard and stepped into Kwon Hyun-jin's home.

Unlike the impressive exterior of the apartment, the interior was bleak. In one corner of the entrance sat a crushed suitcase with its center completely smashed in.

It was definitely Kwon Hyun-jin's handiwork. From the time he was little he had been uniquely gifted at kicking things. Breaking, smashing, destroying... At the Hannam-dong main house where Kwon Hyun-jin had lived until he was eight, those sounds had been constant.

Chairman Kwon had cast his eldest grandson out of his arms partly because of the mistress's spite in wanting to send her big nephew far away, but Kwon Hyun-jin's violent, ferocious temper had also played a large part. He had destroyed priceless antique artworks worth hundreds of millions of won on a near-daily basis.

The family's young tyrant whom no one could handle. That was the last image I had of Kwon Hyun-jin.

"Ha, seriously..."

Just look at this. The inside of the refrigerator was unbelievable.