The Regressed Chaebol Grandson Finds It Hard to Forgive - Chapter 55

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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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Episode 55. Kneel! (7)

Screech.

The black-lacquered luxury import sedan came to a halt.

The school gate stood wide open, yet remained private property—not to be entered lightly.

Most students had finished arriving by now.

Not a single latecomer in sight.

Inside the vehicle, parked momentarily before the empty gate……

“Ah, counsel.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Why do I feel like I’m the one getting played?”
“Sir?”
“Just last week I was sure he’d be an easy mark—I celebrated with the wife over expensive wine that evening. But today, looking at this…… it feels like I jumped the gun.”
“…….”

A-yu-ra said nothing at her senior counsel and direct mentor Kim Gyeong-min’s words.

She couldn’t speak to whether Ha Tae-ung was an easy mark, but she had never thought of him as one to underestimate.

He was young, certainly, yet the presence he radiated felt distinctly different.

She sensed something that rivaled—no, exceeded—the bearing of the upper-class figures who were Jo & Jang’s primary clients.

Unlike A-yu-ra’s assessment, Kim Gyeong-min seemed to have sized Ha Tae-ung up as a manageable easy mark.

“One wrong move here and I don’t know what becomes of our lives. Forget Seoul—we won’t be able to set foot in the capital region. We could end up in the provinces defending traffic accidents and petty criminals for the rest of our careers.”

Before the school gate bearing the Cheonghwa nameplate, Kim Gyeong-min’s fear was palpable.

Even the families of Jang Mu-yeol, the firm’s lead counsel, were primarily Cheonghwa alumni.

Children of major conglomerates, justices of the supreme court, prosecutors general, cabinet ministers, sports stars—all had passed through Cheonghwa.

A mark against Cheonghwa meant no access to the upper echelons, not even the threshold.

Kim Gyeong-min, who’d worked his way up from a middle-class household to become a counsel at Jo & Jang.

He fixed his gaze beyond the gate, a tumult of emotions in his eyes.

Then a man in uniform, apparently a security guard, approached.

He’d likely been watching them through the CCTV mounted at the main entrance and came to verify their credentials.

“Sir.”
“Yes…….”
“Don’t be discouraged. You never know.”
“Never know what?”
“Whether our client Ha Tae-ung might bail us out if we get thrown out.”
“What??”

Kim Gyeong-min regarded A-yu-ra with indifference as she uttered this dreamlike remark.

“Besides, we should get going now. The client called for us.”

A-yu-ra seemed bolder than her superior.
Her eyes gleamed with curiosity more than worry.

Cheonghwa High School—she’d only heard rumors of it so far.

Until she’d graduated and entered the workforce, she’d known it merely as a prestigious private school in Gangnam.

She’d heard that the upper classes began planning for Cheonghwa High School enrollment from private kindergarten onward.

But after entering law school, she’d met a classmate who revealed that the rumors she’d heard barely scratched the surface.

Through that connection, she’d come to know certain hidden truths.

Her classmate hadn’t been particularly diligent in law school, yet passed the bar exam on the first try.

She’d joined Jo & Jang before A-yu-ra and earned recognition for her abilities in short order.

She’d mostly taken on high-value cases.

Only later did A-yu-ra learn that her classmate was a Cheonghwa alumna and the child of a former supreme court justice.

It was in the past now, but the frustration she’d felt back then had been devastating.

Her parents, who’d run a supermarket in a small provincial city and sacrificed everything to support her.

They struggled even to collect rent with the rise of megamarts and online retailers.

A-yu-ra had studied through tears, knowing she was a burden to them.

Her classmate existed above even the golden and silver spoon tiers—she was diamond spoon.

Jo & Jang was essentially organized to serve them.

They even operated custom services for the highest echelons of power—nothing more needed to be said.

A separate world existed that ordinary people could never imagine.

Kim Gyeong-min, who carried himself with authority in other settings.

Even he was nervous before Cheonghwa’s gates.

In 2022 South Korea, current power flowed from Cheonghwa and ended in Cheonghwa.

The two of them now stood at the threshold of their obligation to answer their client’s summons.

Ping.

A text message arrived on Kim Gyeong-min’s phone.

He checked the message without emotion.

“Mi…… chi!”

The color drained from Kim Gyeong-min’s face as he read the text.

“What is it?”
“Come on, let’s go in!”
“Sir?”

His demeanor shifted abruptly. Kim Gyeong-min straightened his shoulders and his eyes blazed with intensity.

Knock-knock.

The security guard, who’d now approached closer to the vehicle, tapped on the window.

Hiss.

Kim Gyeong-min lowered the window.

“Are you a parent?”

It was an understandable misread by the security guard.

A middle-aged man and a young woman sitting side by side in the front seat.

A common sight among Gangnam’s upper-class circles—a remarried couple.

Kim Gyeong-min withdrew a business card from his card wallet and handed it over.

“I’m Kim Gyeong-min, senior counsel at Jo & Jang. I’m here at a client’s request.”
“Ah, I see. Please proceed through there and park in the visitor lot.”

Jo & Jang—South Korea’s top-tier law firm.
Even the Cheonghwa Foundation security guard could discern that level at a glance.

“Thank you.”

Kim Gyeong-min’s eyes, now carrying strength in his voice, were utterly transformed from moments before.

“Counsel, what’s going on…….”
“Time to work. The young master’s been waiting for us~”
“Young master??”

* * *

Friend?
Lee Jeong-jun’s eyes widened at the unfamiliar term.

‘This bastard!!’

An outcast dared to meet his gaze directly and spout such nonsense.

The other smiled unpleasantly, then brazenly pointed to himself.

And he’d had the audacity to offer that word—friend—in an almost affectionate tone.

“Friend? With Lee Jeong-jun?”
“Aren’t you Jeong-jun?”
“This outcast’s completely lost it. Doesn’t he know what family Jeong-jun comes from?”

The confrontation between Lee Jang-yong and Ha Tae-ung grew increasingly compelling.

The outcast Ha Tae-ung had suddenly drawn in Lee Jeong-jun, who’d never once relinquished the top spot in the entire second-year class.

Jeong-jun was part of a royal family spanning the Do-A Daily News and the Korean Group.

Raised by such a mother, Lee Jeong-jun’s character could hardly be virtuous.

Arrogant as they come.

The type who believed there was nothing in the world finer than himself.

Even among Cheonghwa’s most notable heirs, Lee Jeong-jun counted himself among a select few worthy of standing shoulder to shoulder with.

And today, this outcast had fearlessly named that very Jeong-jun as his friend.

“Why me?”

Contempt laced Lee Jeong-jun’s question.

He was curious why the outcast had singled him out.

“Because you suspect me of cheating too. There’s no way a worthless outcast could score perfect marks across all subjects.”
“…….”

Lee Jeong-jun fell silent, his true thoughts exposed.

The outcast was perceptive.
Everyone gathered here refused to accept the result.

‘What is this guy?’

Lee Jeong-jun stared directly into Ha Tae-ung’s eyes.

The eye contact alone rankled him deeply.

With his identity unplaced.
When confronted by a tier of player whose moves he couldn’t anticipate, that peculiar shrinking sensation took hold.

There was only one person like that in this school.

Among the third-year students, someone who shouldn’t have appeared in the grand auditorium.

Grit.

As the image overlapped in his mind, Lee Jeong-jun clenched his teeth.

The overwhelming sense of helplessness he’d felt facing that senior had lingered as trauma ever since.

The top student of the third-year class, part of South Korea’s number-one conglomerate family.

Cheonghwa High School was a more rigidly stratified system than society itself.

An outcast had no standing to speak of friendship with him.

Worse still, he’d made an impossible demand.

“I’ll do it.”

A quiet voice cut through the murmur and silence of the grand auditorium.

“You, ma’am?”

It was Oh Jeong-hye, one of the second-year mathematics teachers.

“I’m curious too.”

Tap-tap-tap.

Her wire-rimmed glasses glinted, suited perfectly to her short hair.

She wore a polo shirt with a neat plaid skirt underneath.

Though she’d been outshined by Lee Jang-yong in reputation, Oh Jeong-hye too was a graduate of Seoul National University’s mathematics department.

She’d always despised the pervert Lee Jang-yong.

He treated mathematics as a tool to satisfy his own twisted desires rather than a means of educating students.

Lee Jang-yong—a shameless pervert with a serious problem when it came to women.

That was Oh Jeong-hye’s assessment.

Constantly hitting on Oh Jeong-hye under the guise of discussing mathematics education—her involvement today was a quiet form of revenge.

Emboldened by his connection to the dean of academics, Lee Jang-yong had grown ever more brazen.

To Oh Jeong-hye, who hadn’t graduated from Cheonghwa herself, the nauseating dynamics unfolding within these walls made her shudder.

Cheonghwa graduates and most of the student body—educated from childhood to treat ordinary people as servants.

Moral education meant nothing to them.

For them, school was merely a place to learn how to reach the apex of the desire pyramid first.

And today, finally, rebellion had erupted in this place.

Ha Tae-ung—the outcast she’d been watching closely.

In any ordinary high school, he would’ve been recognized for his talents.

Branded as an outcast, Ha Tae-ung was nothing but an emotional dump for these students.

Though her heart ached for him, she couldn’t rashly extend a helping hand.

Most outcast students couldn’t endure second year and dropped out.

Oh Jeong-hye lacked the confidence to embrace them all with pity.

Yet in this case, she wanted to step forward.

Her guilt toward Ha Tae-ung ran deep.

More than anything, she desperately wanted to land a blow on Lee Jang-yong.

Lee Jang-yong, who looked down on the world with his slightly superior mathematical mind.
And the Cheonghwa students, trapped in their own sense of superiority.

“Hah. If teacher Oh steps in, it’ll be fair.”

Lee Jang-yong smiled with satisfaction as he regarded Oh Jeong-hye.

Oh Jeong-hye didn’t respond.

Her gaze turned toward Lee Jeong-jun, who stood below the platform.

The student who’d brazenly ignored her during class.

“Lee Jeong-jun. Will you solve it with us?”

An unexpected line fell from Oh Jeong-hye’s lips.

An unbaited hook cast without warning.

Lee Jeong-jun’s fists clenched.
Then……

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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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