I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 31

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 31
After English class ended, physical training time and independent reading time followed in quick succession.
I flipped through the shelves, but nothing caught my interest.
Lee Ji-eun approached me.
“Sung-guk, can’t you find a book you want to read?”
“Teacher, can I bring a book from home?”
“Of course. As long as it’s not something strange.”
“Yes!”
I gave a casual reply and grabbed whatever fairy tale book was within reach.
Lee Ji-eun lingered beside me. She clearly had something she wanted to ask.
“Sung-guk, I’m curious about something… have you studied English before?”
“From watching TV.”
“You learned it from watching TV?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
I delivered my prepared answer.
Lee Ji-eun looked slightly surprised, though she didn’t seem to fully believe me.
She patted my head twice before moving over to Lee Se-hee.
[Barely got through that one.]
“Sung-guk.”
[Sigh, one leaves and another arrives.]
Jeon Mi-jin was squirming around behind me.
[Do you need to use the bathroom or something?]
“Sung-guk, this.”
Jeon Mi-jin thrust an ornately decorated card in front of me.
“What is this?”
“An invitation to my birthday party. You’re coming, right?”
“I’ll think about it.”
“No way!”
Jeon Mi-jin suddenly threw a tantrum.
[Her personality has been troublesome since childhood. No wonder she’s always making headlines, screaming whenever things don’t go her way!]
“Sung-guk, you have to come. Okay?”
This time she suddenly grabbed my arm and clung to it.
I quickly shook her arm off.
[This isn’t something family should do.]
Jeon Mi-jin immediately looked at me with reproachful eyes, as if she might cry.
[I have no choice.]
“I’ll go.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
I kept my response as brief as possible.
Lee Ji-eun called the children over.
“Alright, it’s lunchtime now. Everyone, return to your seats.”
Jeon Mi-jin immediately grabbed my hand.
“Sung-guk, let’s go eat together.”
[I need some time alone.]
This time, I carefully slipped my hand free from Jeon Mi-jin’s grasp and rushed ahead.
Jeon Mi-jin came bounding after me and plopped down in the seat beside mine.
“Mi-jin, that’s not your seat, you know.”
“I want to eat here!”
Jeon Mi-jin was being stubborn again.
Even Lee Ji-eun looked like she’d given up.
“Just for today, okay?”
“No! The seat next to Sung-guk is my seat now.”
[This is getting worse and worse.]
The other boys seemed relieved that the stubborn Jeon Mi-jin had latched onto me instead.
[You can’t reason with someone who won’t listen.]
There was no way to reason with a five-year-old.
Soon the door opened, and a man in chef’s attire entered carrying six homemade hamburgers.
The special class’s meals were worlds apart from the regular class.
Korean cuisine carefully balanced for nutrition formed the staple, with special dishes served about twice a week.
Today appeared to be one of those days.
A homemade hamburger dripping with juices was placed before me.
[It’s been forever since I’ve had this.]
I quickly rolled up my sleeves, grabbed the hamburger with both hands, and opened my mouth as wide as I could before taking a big bite.
[Yes, this taste! But… why does my cheek feel so hot?]
When I turned my head, Jeon Mi-jin was staring at me without even touching her hamburger, her chin resting in both hands.
I was at a loss, but I chose to ignore her and focus on my hamburger.
“Mi-jin, you should eat your hamburger. Would you like me to cut it for you?”
“Yes. It’s too big.”
[Your mouth is bigger than the hamburger.]
I clicked my tongue inwardly and continued eating my hamburger. Even after finishing one, I felt a slight pang of regret.
“Sung-guk, would you like another hamburger?”
“Yes!”
I answered enthusiastically to Lee Ji-eun’s question.
Lee Ji-eun cheerfully took an extra hamburger and placed it on my plate.
“Sung-guk, you need to eat slowly.”
“Slowly!”
Following the teacher’s instruction, I ate the hamburger slowly this time, bite by bite.
At that moment, I heard Kang Ju-sung’s voice from behind me.
“Looks like you’ve never even eaten a hamburger.”
“How pathetic.”
Kim Hyun-joong chimed in right after.
I shot a glare at Kang Ju-sung and Kim Hyun-joong.
[Did you just call me pathetic?]
I set the hamburger down on the plate and wiped my mouth as elegantly as possible with a napkin.
I couldn’t very well take revenge on five-year-olds the same way they deserved.
I rolled up my sleeves slightly.
If I showed Kang Ju-sung and Kim Hyun-joong my fists, my Mother and Father might very well plummet into another inescapable abyss.
These were the so-called well-to-do families of this country—children of lawyers who filed lawsuits at the drop of a hat.
Especially in 1995.
It had been just seven years since South Korea hosted the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
Though the Civilian Government had taken power, the Seongsu Bridge had collapsed and the Sampung Department Store had fallen.
South Korea was still suffering from corruption and administrative failures in countless places.
In such times, ultimately, the most pitiful were ordinary people like me.
I rolled my sleeves up firmly to the end and was about to stand when—crack, crack—sharp slapping sounds rang out.
What?
Jeon Mi-jin was slapping Kang Ju-sung and Kim Hyun-joong’s cheeks very soundly.
[You can tell from their early behavior what they’ll become.]
That slap of Jeon Mi-jin’s would become quite famous later on.
One of the female employees at the fashion brand Jeon Mi-jin operated brought her a regular milk latte instead of the oat milk latte she had ordered, and an angry Jeon Mi-jin delivered such a satisfying slap to that employee’s face.
As the saying goes, you can judge the whole by a single part—this wasn’t the only incident.
Some disgruntled employee had secretly filmed the scene, and because of it, Jeon Mi-jin had to make a public apology before the cameras, bringing considerable shame upon her family.
But right now, Jeon Mi-jin was taking revenge on my behalf.
Kang Ju-sung and Kim Hyun-joong, their cheeks stinging from the proper slaps they’d received, grabbed their faces and looked at Jeon Mi-jin with aggrieved eyes.
“Why did you hit us?”
Kang Ju-sung, grandson of the Prosecutor General, tried to act tough.
Kim Hyun-joong, merely the grandson of the Samjeon Electronics chairman, wisely shrank back.
Jeon Mi-jin looked at Kang Ju-sung with contempt and rolled up her sleeves.
“What did you just say to Sung-guk?”
“….”
Kang Ju-sung clamped his mouth shut.
No matter how much of a Prosecutor General’s child he was, the Samjeon Group existed above all systems in South Korea.
Even Teacher Lee Ji-eun could only watch this situation unfold.
Her role was to guide and observe the children well—she had no authority to scold them.
Still, Teacher Lee Ji-eun stepped in to mediate.
“Mi-jin, we can’t have violence in the classroom.”
“Teacher.”
Jeon Mi-jin called out to Teacher Lee Ji-eun in a sharp voice.
Lee Ji-eun looked flustered, unsure how to handle the situation.
“Please contact our mother.”
“Why would I do that?”
“I’m going to tell her about this.”
Jeon Mi-jin spoke with crisp authority.
[Quite impressive.]
Watching this side of Jeon Mi-jin I hadn’t seen before, I slowly lowered my rolled-up sleeves.
Kang Ju-sung and Kim Hyun-joong simply stared at me with resentful eyes.
Lee Ji-eun quickly held Mi-jin and looked at the children.
“Mi-jin, we’ll call your mother later. First, you need to make peace with your friends. Ju-sung and Hyun-joong, you should apologize to Mi-jin.”
An absurd situation was unfolding before my eyes—the one who had been hit apologizing to the one who had hit her.
Samjeon Kindergarten’s special class. This was that kind of place.
A place where one’s parents determined one’s rank, and hierarchy existed even in friendship.
And no one here denied this hierarchy.
Because these children would grow up to shake the foundations of South Korea’s politics and business.
I observed this jungle with fascination.
Kang Ju-sung and Kim Hyun-joong apologized to Jeon Mi-jin with resigned expressions.
“Sorry.”
“Me too.”
“Okay, I forgive you. Don’t do that to Sung-guk again.”
Jeon Mi-jin bestowed her mercy upon Kang Ju-sung and Kim Hyun-joong like a Persian queen.
The hierarchy of this special class became crystal clear.
Jeon Mi-jin sat at the very apex of the pyramid. Below her were Seo Yeo-rim and Kang Ju-sung, whose grandfathers held positions as Defense Minister and Prosecutor General.
Below them were Kim Hyun-joong and Lee Se-hee, grandchildren of the CEO of Samjeon Electronics and a hospital director respectively.
So where did I stand?
I was an entity that didn’t belong anywhere in that pyramid.
Though I was only five years old, the time had come for me to make a decision.
Whether to enter that massive pyramid.
Or to build my own.
I clenched my fists.
* * *
That evening, a phone call came to the house.
It was from Lee Ji-eun, the teacher at Samjeon Kindergarten.
We had just finished dinner and were about to head to Father’s shop.
Mother couldn’t take her eyes off me the entire call.
I caught fragments of the conversation.
“Our Sung-guk? Really? …I knew he had figured out Hangul on his own, but I didn’t know about that.”
It seemed Lee Ji-eun, surprised by my free conversation with Thomas today, had called to get to the truth.
Mother hung up and placed Min-guk in the stroller. Then, as calmly as always, she looked at me.
“Sung-guk, let’s go see your father.”
“Yes!”
I sat down on the edge of the entryway and put on my sneakers by myself.
Mother gazed at me intently.
As I stood up and stumbled, Mother quickly steadied me.
“Sung-guk, are you alright?”
“Yes, Mother.”
Mother gripped my hand tightly.
We headed toward Father’s shop in the Apartment Shopping Complex.
Mother, who normally would have chattered away, was unusually quiet.
I tugged gently at Mother’s hand, but she seemed lost in thought, smiling at me each time I did.
[Mother, why are you being so scary?]
In my five years of life, I had never seen Mother like this, and it made me slightly nervous.
Ding.
The bell chimed as the shop door opened.
Father poked his head out from the kitchen.
“Did you come to pick me up again today?”
“Honey, how was your day?”
“Business is picking up little by little.”
Just then, a delivery driver came in, grabbed the wrapped package Father had prepared, and left swiftly.
Mother sat down in the empty seat.
Since it was a weekday, there were no other customers.
Mother seated me in a chair and gazed at me intently.
[Mother, why do you keep looking at me like that?]
“Sung-guk, would you like some water?”
“Water.”
I nodded.
Mother set a glass of water in front of me, then suddenly pulled a beer from the refrigerator and called out toward the kitchen.
“Honey, is it okay if I have a beer?”
“Craving beer?”
“Yeah. When you have a moment, sit down for a bit. I need to talk to you.”
“Just let me finish this.”
Father set the wrapped boiled pork on the counter and sat down across from Mother. It was past nine o’clock.
Mother gulped down her beer and looked at Father.
“So-young, is something wrong? Did something bad happen at work?”
“It’s not that….”
“Then what is it?”
“Honey, I think we’re not fit to be Sung-guk’s parents.”
[Mother, what are you saying?]
I furrowed my brow deeply.
“So-young, what kind of talk is that?”
“A little while ago, Sung-guk’s kindergarten teacher called. And… apparently Sung-guk is incredibly fluent in English.”
“What?”
Father looked equally taken aback.
I sat there with an expression of complete innocence.
“During English class, all the other children had either lived abroad or come from families with strong English backgrounds, so the teacher was initially concerned about Sung-guk. But it turned out he speaks English better than all the other kids.”
[Mom, I can actually speak Mandarin, Japanese, German, and French too.]
“What did the teacher say?”
“After class, she asked Sung-guk where he learned English, and he said he picked it up from watching TV.”
Father stared at me with wide, astonished eyes.
[Dad, close your mouth. A fly will get in.]
I took a careful sip of water while observing both their reactions.
“So-young… is that even possible?”
“I don’t know either… Honey, I think we’re not qualified to raise Sung-guk. He’s teaching himself English on his own, and we didn’t even know about it as his parents.”
[That’s only because I never told you. How could I explain that I learned it all in my past life, you two inexperienced parents?]
I shook my head back and forth.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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