There are times in this world when no matter how much money you have, you can’t really use it.
No matter how much money you have, it’s like having a wallet with the zipper sealed shut.
Just like now.
I can’t buy or drive a sports car.
Since I’m under the age of eighteen, I can’t get a license.
A sports car driven by a chauffeur means nothing.
I had the financial ability to hire even a seven-star hotel chef, but I had neither the time nor the space.
Ah…… a day where a minor gets bullied by high-school punks is just too exhausting.
“Damn…… ah. Even our dog at home eats better than this.”
“Ugh! It’s totally like rotten soybean paste stew! Yesterday it was potato doenjang stew, the day before it was radish doenjang stew, today it’s turnip doenjang stew! Crazy— even the smell alone is enough to make me puke.”
“Meat! There’s no meat……”
A few pieces of kimchi, one spoon of braised tofu, and the friends who received doenjang soup over wilted greens let out groans of disappointment.
Today’s lunch menu, clearly announced in advance, was supposed to be chicken.
The young lambs who had cheered and run toward the cafeteria.
The expression of despair as they looked at the side dishes placed on their trays was incredible.
All we got was a single notice saying the menu had changed due to ingredient issues.
The nutritionist who couldn’t produce anything beyond a 3,500-won meal suddenly looked grand and mighty.
‘So this is the disaster planted by the administration manager.’
It’s really hard to root out a bad apple.
A woman who looked like someone’s drinking buddy stood in front of the cafeteria wearing the nutritionist uniform, pouting her lips.
She even flirted with the handsome male students.
A woman who managed the meals with a red manicure on her nails tapped against the stainless steel wall.
There had been rumors she was the administration manager’s mistress, but ever since my first year, she was the one who reduced the cafeteria into a wasteland.
“Kids, eat up. You know doenjang soup is good for you, right? This is homemade doenjang. Very special.”
Her lips coated with red lipstick were disgusting.
This is “homemade”? I literally saw it this morning.
It was the gigantic industrial-use tub of doenjang that even the cafeteria suppliers didn’t want to touch.
If I made a fuss about food in front of this, I’d just look like a brat.
But this wasn’t that.
Tap, I put down my spoon.
“Tae-san. Should we at least have a ramen or something later?”
“You got money for the snack bar at lunchtime?”
“……I’m hungry.”
As soon as I put my spoon down, the guys stood up as well.
Even after eating rice, my friends were still starving.
The rice didn’t have even a hint of stickiness.
Imported rice might have tasted better than this.
“You want to eat meat?”
“I’ll sell my soul to anyone who gives me meat!”
“I want to worship the Meat Lord!”
As I rose from my seat, the kids responded with desperate devotion.
A perfect opportunity.
The chairman comes to school every day in his son’s place.
Back when I was hospitalized, the chairman personally came to the hospital building to visit.
The chairman spoke to me.
If I had anything to say, I should come to him anytime.
Carrying my tray, I headed toward the return area.
“Oh my, handsome student. Why did you leave so much? Don’t you know you’ll be punished after you die if you waste food?”
The red-lipped ajumma said that while smiling with her eyes.
She was clearly trying to reduce the meal portions so the kids couldn’t eat.
“You’ve never been punished while alive, right?”
I dropped my leftovers into the food waste bin while asking her dryly.
“Of course not. Someone as kind and pretty as me— who would say such a thing to a woman like me?”
She even wagged her finger at me.
Her tone had this sickly sweetness.
“Then why don’t you take your punishment now? So you won’t be punished after you die.”
“What, what did you say?!”
Her expression twisted viciously in an instant.
A personality like that doesn’t come from nowhere.
“You shouldn’t live life that way. And don’t you have any sense?”
“Student! You’ve said enough!”
“The administration manager is doing well, right?”
“…….”
At a single sentence, the ajumma shut her mouth.
And I coolly walked away.
“Hey! You little brat!!!”
Cursing filled with the passion of someone who truly loves doenjang stew came flying from behind.
Knock, knock.
“Who is it.”
“I’m Jang Tae-san, a 2nd-year student!”
“Jang Tae-san? Ah! Send him in.”
Receiving guidance from the secretary who assists the Chairman, I entered the Chairman’s office.
The Chairman seemed to have just finished his meal.
It was a simple lunchbox brought from home.
It had kimchi, chili peppers, lettuce, and ssamjang.
It felt pitiful.
Even with such a frugal personality, he curses his old age because he failed in raising his son.
“Hello, Chairman.”
“Come on in.”
I bowed deeply and formally. It comes out automatically from the habit of going to work.
The Chairman watched me with a faint smile.
“I’m sorry to disturb you during your meal.”
“No. I finished it all. When you get old, you don’t need to eat a lot. Have a seat.”
I sat down.
“So, what is it?”
I can see the Chairman’s personality. Someone who wouldn’t even bat an eye at such a trivial errand, yet knows I must have come because I have something to say.
“Please give us some meat.”
“Meat? You want to eat meat?”
“No. Not for me— for the kids.”
“What are you talking about? Giving meat to the students?”
“Have you tried the school meal?”
“……I only eat home food. I can’t digest outside food.”
“Would you please come and see for yourself?”
“……Is there a problem?”
Anyone would say I’m truly an insolent student.
In the past, I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing something like this.
Just the news that the Chairman was coming to school would make every student scramble to clean. A Chairman was someone who only appeared to students once a year at most.
And here I was, telling such a person to come inspect the cafeteria.
Even I knew how absurd it was.
“The Administrative Director’s lover is working as the nutritionist. And for the past year, the school meals have turned into dog food.”
“……!”
At my extreme wording, “dog food,” the Chairman widened his eyes.
I guess the part about the lover of his son shocked him even more.
But I didn’t stop.
“Students are paying 3,500 won per meal. Other schools provide meat dishes at least three times a week as a requirement. There is no school in the world where students pay lunch fees and still eat only soybean paste soup and pickled radish. They need to eat to study. Chairman, this is a meal fraud case. Please officially report it to the police.”
I did not bother to add the implied line that I could report it myself.
Honestly, even if I stopped attending this school, I’d be fine.
I had money, and I had high grades too.
But my friends didn’t.
If things went wrong, they might end up having to “save” the school.
How ridiculous must a countryside school be, if someone has to rescue it.
“Tae-san…”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“No matter how hard things are, you must take responsibility for your words.”
“I only said what everyone already knows, Chairman. I don’t think it’s right for one person’s private greed to be protected by authority, hindering proper management.”
“It contradicts the school’s founding philosophy, ‘Let us nurture righteous and exemplary talents,’ does it not?”
No matter what, this was still a matter related to his own child.
Depending on what the Chairman decided here, my actions would change going forward.
It took 500 million won to deal with Hong Seong-hyeon.
Moving large sums of money was never light.
But handling the matter itself was simple.
If things went wrong, I could overturn the school again.
I wasn’t afraid.
The old “Super Eul” Jang Tae-san of the past no longer existed in this world.
“……”
The Chairman stared straight into my eyes.
There was nothing that could change by staring.
Meeting his gaze, I gave a faint smile.
“Secretary Park!”
“Y-yes! Chairman!”
I heard the secretary outside stiffen at his sharp call.
“Call the Principal and the Vice Principal immediately!”
“Ah, yes sir!”
With the Chairman’s angry shout, the secretary could be heard running frantically.
I had to finish this properly.
“Then I’ll leave the rest in your capable hands.”
I bowed politely, hiding my inner satisfaction.
I only wanted one thing:
For all schools nationwide to have school meals that were not dog food,
and for the meat dishes to be plentiful—
just that one thing.
“Hyung-nim, shall I handle it?”
* * *
“Can you take care of it quietly without causing me any trouble?”
“Of course. Roughing up one punk is nothing. There are guys who are desperate to get into the organization. If we just give some pocket money to the ones who’ll be treated under the Juvenile Act, it’s simple. At that age they love committing crimes. As long as Hyung-nim covers for us from behind, it’s easy.”
“Then do it. Give the job to two big ones.”
“Aigo, Hyung-nim. Thank you!”
In a hidden inner room of the bar, Hong Jang-hyeok was having a conversation with a subordinate full of tattoos.
The man gripping his poem-shaped wrinkles was the leader of the Yeokjeonpa.
To work as a lawyer in the city, he had to manage not only the upper-class powerful people but also the gangs.
If not, he could be crushed inside the tightly woven web of connections.
And Hong Jang-hyeok and the Yeokjeonpa boss had developed a relationship like older brother and younger brother.
He had handled almost all the cases of the Yeokjeonpa members.
It was a relationship between a crocodile and a plover bird.
And today, Hong Jang-hyeok took out the silver tooth he’d been holding back.
Money was not the issue.
All the specs and connections he’d built up to run for National Assembly were now ruined.
For the rest of his life, he would be dragged around by the trouble caused by his useless son.
Now all he had left was money and thuggishness.
‘Jang Tae-san. You bastard, I will definitely kill you!’
Hong Jang-hyeok chugged down the strong whiskey in one shot.
Thinking of the young punk who ruined both him and his son, he clenched his teeth until they felt cold.