Chapter 306 (2/2)

“Of course I do. So your child goes to this school as well?”

“Yes. Yours too?”

“That’s a coincidence. My daughter goes to this school.”

“I see. Why don’t we have dinner together as a family one time? I hope my daughter can befriend your daughter.”

“Haha, alright. Let’s meet at the restaurant from back then one time.”

“My, it’s an honor.”

The man shook hands with lawyer Park with both of his hands. Maru saw that the woman with the ring was slowly walking backwards.

“But it looks like there was a misunderstanding here. You’re not someone that would treat anyone badly, lawyer.”

The man tried to resolve the situation in lawyer Park’s favor. He knew the woman with the ring, so he didn’t want to make a big deal out of this either. Had he come earlier, lawyer Park would have smiled back and have done as the man said, but how about now?

“Oh, no, of course not. It was just an accident.”

“Ah, I see….”

“Looks like I should call insurance then.”

Lawyer Park gave a nod to the woman with the ring before approaching the woman in the car. The woman in the car had left her car. It seemed that she had realized that lawyer Park was not someone to be looked down upon from the attitude of everyone here.

“Uhm, I’m sorry. This is the first time I got into an accident, and this is my husband’s car so I wasn’t used to it. I should’ve apologized immediately. Sorry about that.”

“Not at all. You don’t need to apologize. Insurance will handle everything.”

“S-sir. I’ll pay you all the repair fees, okay? It will be really bad if my husband finds out about this.”

“I see.”

Lawyer Park looked at the woman with the ring as he said that. The driver immediately grabbed the hand of the woman with the ring and made an apologetic expression.

“She didn’t have any bad intentions either. I mean, the world we live in is not safe. That’s why she overreacted a little, so I hope you don’t get mad at her for that.”

The driver jabbed the woman with the ring. The woman with the ring apologized unwillingly.

“I’m sorry, but….”

Before she could continue, the driver cut her off. Lawyer Park also didn’t seem to have any intentions of dragging this out any further, so he relaxed his expression and settled the deal by sending them the repair invoice.

“Sorry for the commotion.”

“Not at all, sir. A skirmish here and a quarrel there is what makes living fun. Don’t worry about this and please take your leave.”

“Then, I shall take my leave first then.”

“Yes, yes. Go ahead.”

Seeing lawyer Park’s signal, Maru got in the car. He saw the group of middle-aged people through the rearview mirror and saw that they were all smiling.

“You must be someone great, lawyer.”

“You should become one too if you feel envious.”

“I told you I’m not good at studying.”

Lawyer Park started driving with a smile.

* * *

Lim Bitna clicked her tongue as she saw the car leave. She didn’t like the fact that the man was talking back to her at every turn, but things went in the wrong direction.

“Is that lawyer someone that great?”

Bitna spoke to the man that resolved the situation. She was on close terms with him since they lived in the same apartment building, so she did not like what he did just now.

“Watch your words, lady. If he’s just any lawyer, then I wouldn’t be like this. He’s different.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s a former prosecutor superintendent. He got that position when he was in his mid forties, so do you get how amazing he is now?”

“Is that something to be so amazed about?” Bitna asked because she didn’t know.

The man frowned in frustration.

“Anyway, you don’t want to get on his bad side, so smile at him the next time you come across him. You don’t know what will happen in life.”

“But he’s still a mere lawyer. Someone we use our money to hire.”

“Oh gosh, don’t go saying that to anyone. You might get in big trouble.” The reason why lawyers and doctors were respected was because they earned a lot of money. Only peasants without money call them respectfully, and people with money just considered them as someone they could hire. Bitna snorted. She had consulted a lawyer due to some problems with deposit. At that time, the lawyer treated her like a queen. What was so amazing about a job that people could use money to hire?

She ignored the words of the man who told her to be careful and left the place after saying that she’d go over to her sister. She had an appointment.

“Yes, head manager Park.”

She got a call when she stopped in front of the traffic lights. It was from head manager Park who was in charge of managing the ‘rooms’. One of the girls who worked there wasn’t coming to work because she was sick.

“Go check up on her. They don’t even have their periods, they can’t be sick. If she really seems bad, then take her to the hospital. But dammit, the rotation rate on the tables is not that high if she’s not around. Do we have any others that are on par with her? We do? Then contact her and have her fill the other girl’s place. Give all the TC to her as well. But you have to bring a girl that’s actually decent, okay? You know that our store is known for being one of the best places that have great girls. Okay, thanks.”

Bitna lit up her cigar. When a prominent girl gets sick, they would make a call. Bitna got very angry whenever girls like them got sick leaves when they made dozens of millions of won each month.

“Goddammit. I’m annoyed as it is because of that dude.”

Just then, she saw a man staring at her from another car. Bitna opened the window and shouted.

“What? Is it your first time seeing a woman smoking?”

The young man turned his face around. The traffic light changed and Bitna tossed the cigarette outside the window and drove off. She calmed down and checked her face in the mirror. The guest she had to meet today was someone she couldn’t show her ugly side to.

After arriving at the store in Cheongdam-dong, Bitna got out of her car and went into the store. It was about time the guest was arriving. She changed her clothes and sprayed some perfume. Her figure in the mirror was still decent to look at despite the fact that she was in her forties.

“Unni, is darling coming today?”

“Girlie. Don’t mind me and just manage the table. Also, did you gain weight?”

“I didn’t.”

The girl left with a smile. Bitna wore the shirt that the guest bought for her. That man liked shirts for some reason. She was waiting quietly in an empty room until the door opened without a knock. Bitna smiled after looking at the guest, and waved at the head manager to go.

“What brings you here today?”

“I wanted a drink.”

Bitna stood up and received the jacket that the man took off. Then, she undid his tie for him. She brought the man, who seemed tired, to the sofa. The man yawned.

Bitna stroked the man’s stubbly beard as she asked,

“Why does my dear Mr. Hong Janghae look so tired today?”

While this says ‘dongsaeng’ (younger sibling). It does not necessarily mean that the two are blood related. It's quite confusing even in the Korean text. So I'll use sister here.

This may sound awkward, but there’s this weird ‘custom/habit’ of Koreans where when two people shake hands, the one who’s trying to suck up to the other party grabs the hand with both hands. So in this case, ‘the man’ is being ‘submissive’ to ‘lawyer Park’.

I had to look this up… TC stands for ‘table charge’ and it refers to the tip that a customer has to pay the ‘table girl’. So yeah, you know where this is going.