You, Like a Green Frog

I never should have run that errand if I didn't want to in the first place.

After I'd gone to the apartment once, Madam Jang called me back again. The thought of having to return to Kwon Hyun-jin's place after that whole fiasco made everything go dark before my eyes.

Living in Hannam-dong was only going to last until the end of this year anyway. I planned to move out and live on my own near campus the moment I started university.

My head understood that I only had to endure these bothersome errands for another two or three months, but my heart felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. After mulling it over, I went to find the easiest person to squeeze for information.

"Assistant Manager Choi, about… the young master."

"Hyun-jin?"

Choi happened to be hand-washing a car in the underground garage.

A few years earlier, he'd been hired as the chauffeur for the vice president of Kwonjin Electronics, then Madam had picked him out because he "had wit." Everyone knew the real reason was his decent face—that was how he'd become her personal driver.

"Yes. Doesn't he go to school?"

"I heard he came back after graduating."

"He already graduated high school?"

"How would I know. England must do things differently."

Could he have skipped grades because he was that smart…? I'd gotten into college and I was still chained to school. Kwon Hyun-jin, a year younger than me, had already finished high school. What an unfair world.

"What time does he usually go to the gym?"

"From what I heard from Driver Kim, he hits the fitness center at nine and comes back around two. Then he goes again in the afternoon."

Was he training for some competition? Who spends more than five hours at the gym…? Just hearing it exhausted me.

"Doesn't seem like he meets any friends either."

"…"

The premise was wrong. He didn't have anyone to meet in Korea to begin with. The house didn't even have a TV.

"Then what else would he do besides work out?"

"…True enough."

Even as a kid, he'd been more active than the hunting dogs the chairman used to raise.

"But why the interest in Hyun-jin?"

Choi, who'd been wiping down the car interior, suddenly turned to look at me. His narrowed eyes glinted with sly curiosity.

"Na-hee, do you have a thing for the young master?"

"No."

A question worthy of the only person in his twenties working in this house. It was so absurd I couldn't even laugh.

"Madam Jang keeps sending me on errands… I'm trying to avoid the times when he's home."

"Why?"

Choi's eyes went wide. He glanced around for no reason, then dropped his voice so no one else could hear.

"Don't tell me Hyun-jin hits you?"

"No."

"Then… with his feet…?"

He was violent, but not the type to do that to a girl.

"It's nothing like that. It's just uncomfortable. And Hyun-jin doesn't like me either."

I found the entire Kwon family difficult. The chairman, of course, and Vice President Kwon Young-moo, and Madam—all of them.

I'd spent most of my time in Building B, so I rarely ran into the family… and the stories I'd overheard about the chairman's household went so far beyond ordinary common sense that they'd only fed my prejudices.

Choi, on the other hand, was the one who saw Madam up close the most often.

"Hyun-jin doesn't like you? I don't think so…"

"Anyway. Thank you for telling me."

I was about to bow and head upstairs when Choi added something.

"Na-hee, you don't have to think about it so hard."

"What?"

"They're different people from us anyway. He's just like that because he doesn't have anyone his own age to hang out with."

Maybe Choi's advice would help me feel even a little more at ease about the Kwon family. So I listened… but that had been a naive hope.

"If you think of this as an opportunity, it might just become one. For you."

"An opportunity?"

"Yeah. These days, even if you win first prize in the lottery, it's hard to buy a single apartment in Seoul. You know that."

Choi's voice dropped lower, like he was spilling a secret.

"The Kwonjin Electronics stock Hyun-jin is set to receive this time—just the taxes alone are over thirty billion won. And that's not all. Buildings, land… The moment he got back, the chairman called in Attorney Kang."

Attorney Kang Hak-soo was Chairman Kwon's closest confidant, the one who handled the will. He'd managed the inheritance issues of the founding chairman as well.

The fact that the chairman had summoned Attorney Kang the moment his eldest grandson returned from studying abroad carried a lot of weight. It also made sense that Madam was on edge.

"Hyun-jin was an only son. After President Kwon Jung-moo passed, the inheritance stayed locked up because he was a minor. I heard he came to Korea this time over the tax issues."

Choi stared right at me, then smiled lecherously.

"If it were me, I'd just grab him right now."

"…"

"The kid's still young, after all. Doesn't even know how to have fun… hasn't been around. Still doesn't know women."

That greasy smile made my insides go cold.

What was reflected on that slick face looked half like the recklessness of youth, half like the premature courage of a fool.

"Hell, Na-hee, if you just had one kid with Hyun-jin? That's pure royal blood. Legitimate royal blood."

Legitimate. Royal blood. He stressed each word.

I knew why Choi was spouting this garbage.

Like any chaebol family, the Kwonjins had their share of illegitimate children. The inheritance lawsuit between the siblings the founding chairman had sired outside the marriage was already famous. It was also an open secret that Chairman Kwon was looking after Vice President Kwon Young-moo's bastard.

"You know what Oppa's saying, right?"

What the hell was with the "Oppa." Why were men so obsessed with that title.

I looked at Choi with pure pity, gave a quick bow, and turned away.

I headed to Kwon Hyun-jin's apartment early Saturday morning.

Chairman Kwon, who normally dismissed Gangnam as a pile of rocks, had built an apartment complex on this land after taking the advice of Master Cheong-un, a self-proclaimed expert in feng shui.

Kwonjin Construction's masterpiece.

The chairman so thoroughly believed in the geomancer—who claimed credit for helping the Kwonjin Group become a leading conglomerate—that he even brought him along when selecting factory sites.

Build apartments here, and the group's lineage would stand firm, or something like that. Kwonjin Construction, the most underperforming of the dozens of affiliates, would leap to the top of the global stage, supposedly.

Dreams and their interpretations—people whispered that it was really about Kwon Hyun-jin.

The chairman's eldest grandson, as precious and painful as a sore finger. Because of Kwon Hyun-jin, whom he hadn't been able to fill the place of absent parents for, and whom he'd sent off on early study abroad that didn't even fit the family tradition.

So the chairman had built an apartment for his eldest grandson—not too far from the main house in Hannam-dong, and not so close that the second son's couple would get twitchy about it either.

"Really empty…"

Just as Choi had said, the place was vacant early in the morning. The moment I opened the front door, the scent of fabric softener hit me from every direction.

He must have dumped in way more than the recommended amount. Still, it seemed he did his own laundry.

The whole apartment felt like a flower field—with every step, his scent drifted up and made my chest flutter.

Lily? No, not lily. Far sweeter than that. It was a pretty, dreamy fragrance I'd never smelled before in my life.

The house had also gotten incomparably cleaner. It hadn't been messy before, of course, but things like the suitcase that had been lying around the entryway were gone. Had something shifted in him? He'd clearly done a thorough cleanup all of a sudden.

"My handkerchief…"

I'd hoped it might still be there, but there was nothing on the display shelf by the door.

The pink checkered handkerchief was obviously not Kwon Hyun-jin's. The helper must have thrown it out while cleaning.

It had been a gift Ji-yul brought back from a trip to Japan, something I'd treasured. I was disappointed. Thinking that, I felt a little sorry toward Kwon Hyun-jin.

Maybe he had genuinely wanted to congratulate Chan-hee on starting high school. Enough to yank the watch right off his wrist and hand it over, after all.