LM Chapter 1

Where can you hear the most soap opera-ish stories? Obviously, where people gather. Especially people meeting after a long time. Class reunions, funerals, weddings, drinking gatherings, etc. Among these, the best was drinking at a funeral hall where old classmates met after a long time.

I dropped out of college during my sophomore year, so I probably wouldn’t fall into the category of alumni, but I had to go when I received the death notice of a familiar name. The deceased was a professor of my major who taught me briefly. Plus, she had been acquainted with my grandfather.

But even with such connections, I hadn’t contacted her since quitting school, so I was quite surprised after receiving the notice of her sudden death. I was even more puzzled because the professor’s lawyer contacted my number directly. She had a message for me.

‘Professor Hong left something for you. She wished for you to receive it in person after watching over the funeral until the end.’

“Oh? Aren’t you Im Minha?”

This was after I arrived at the funeral, paid my respects, and greeted the chief mourner, while looking around for a place to sit. I had come up to Seoul for some business, and coincidentally, my accommodation wasn’t far from the funeral home, so I arrived relatively early after hearing the news. There weren’t many mourners inside yet. One of them stood up while eating and called to me. Thinking they might be an old classmate, I nodded.

“Mn, I am.”

The face of the man who called me stiffened.

“Aren’t you the same Im Minha who quit school? You were a year below me.”

Ah, so he’s a sunbae. I nodded again.

“Ah, yes.”

Since he was a sunbae, I answered half-heartedly and just nodded slightly. I was about to sit somewhere else since I didn’t remember his face and didn’t see any need to stay together, but I heard my name again.

“Minha-ya, you don’t remember me either?”

My name was called again. Is my name perhaps easy to remember? Wondering about this, I turned around. The man sitting with the sunbae was pointing at himself. I looked at his face carefully and shook my head.

“No, I don’t.”

That man was also taken aback.

“…I’m your classmate.”

“Sorry, my memory isn’t good. Plus, I didn’t attend school for long.”

“Right, you didn’t. And you only hung out with the idol crowd.”

Idol crowd? Unlike my inability to understand my classmate’s words, the sunbae remembered immediately.

“Ah, right. You used to hang around with our department’s idol, didn’t you? There was such a commotion when he enrolled. People were saying an idol had come to our school.”

Only then did a name immediately come to mind. Jeon Euiyun. He was a guy from the same department that had an unrivaled beauty. And not just that. He was a genius who frustrated his other classmates with his outstanding artistic talent. So, how should I put it, he was like the main character to me.

“There were several good-looking people in your year, enough to form an idol group. There was Jeon Euiyun, and Oh Saebyeok too. But while they were handsome, you were more… oh, wait. Let’s have a drink together.”

Finally, he grabbed me as I was about to turn away and made me sit. Since I couldn’t cause a scene at a funeral, I had no choice but to sit, but unlike the sunbae, my old classmate opposite me was watching my reaction.

“Sunbae, have a drink.”

“Ah, you guys have one too. But Minha, what are you doing these days?”

The sunbae quickly looked me up and down while filling the glasses.

“I work as a freelancer.”

“You quit during your sophomore year, right? Why did you quit?”

Though I was the one being asked, my old classmate made a face like he’d swallowed a bug. I gave a short explanation while bringing the glass to my lips.

“My grandmother was sick, so I had to take care of her.”

“Ah, I see.” The sunbae nodded and looked at my attire again. “Then you couldn’t have had a proper job. If you’re a freelancer… is it related to art?”

“Close, yeah.”

The sunbae seemed about to dig deeper into my work, but the observant classmate saved me again.

“Ah, sunbae, I heard you opened an academy?”

Fortunately, when his own bragging point came up, the interest in me disappeared. I quickly tried to finish my yukgaejang¹ and moved my spoon busily to get up from my seat. However, this plan failed with just one spoonful left. Because the topic, which had jumped from trivial company stories to office affairs and then to trending makjang dramas², came back to me again. More precisely, it wasn’t about me but about someone who had been close to me.

“By the way, what happened to that idol? That one was in quite a makjang drama.”

My old classmate, who had been continuously accepting drinks from the sunbae, nodded drunkenly.

“A total makjang. How did he even get involved with that family?”

“That family isn’t just any family. Mirae Corporation is one of the most prestigious in the country. To have such a dramatic romance with that family’s son… Was his name Bae Taehun?”

Since I already knew the story, I listened calmly. Euiyun, who was the closest to me in college, was dating Taehun, the son of Mirae Corporation. The two had known each other since high school, they said. But their romance hadn’t been that dramatic…

“No, but Bae Taehun was a friend’s boyfriend. How could he think of stealing him?”

“Who?”

I asked without thinking. The sunbae opened his eyes wide as if surprised I didn’t know.

“Who else, Saebyeok of course. He suddenly started hanging around with Taehun. You know, after breaking up with Euiyun. Ah, were you not there then?”

Who? I still thought I must have misheard while remembering Saebyeok’s innocent smile. It was shocking enough to hear that Euiyun and Bae Taehun had broken up, but this fact was even more shocking.

“As it turned out, there were quite a few people who saw Saebyeok chasing after Bae Taehun. Everyone whispered that he’d stolen his friend’s boyfriend.”

Why would Saebyeok do that? How could someone who was such a diligent student? Still suspecting it might be someone with the same name, even more surprising facts came from the sunbae’s mouth.

“Just when we thought they were dating after he stole his friend’s boyfriend, guess what? He was two-timing.”

Two-timing? Saebyeok? I continued to doubt my ears.

“The two-timing was probably just a rumor, right?”

When the classmate objected, the sunbae strongly expressed his opinion.

“It wasn’t just some rumor. That person publicly clung to some sunbae in front of the central library where there were a bunch of people. That was incredible, really.”

“Ah, that caused such a commotion. Saebyeok was crying and clinging to his pants leg, saying don’t go or that he’d die if he left him, screaming hysterically in front of all those people, wow. This was when rumors about dating Bae Taehun were at their peak.”

The classmate shook his head. What kind of development is this? Saebyeok really dated Taehun but he turned out to be two-timing? And on top of that, crying and clinging?

“But the more surprising thing was what came next. The person Saebyeok clung to turned out to be the hidden child of Mirae Corporation’s chairwoman. I didn’t know, but apparently he was a famous alpha in his year. Everyone was so shocked.”

What’s this now? Who’s this hidden son of Mirae Corporation’s chairwoman? I was confused. Isn’t this like cramming 10 episodes worth of drama content into one episode? More than that, to think such big events happened after I quit school. While I was regretting not staying just six months longer, what we’d heard so far was just the beginning of the makjang.

“The really funny story is another thing though. Both of Saebyeok’s parents are prominent in the art world, right? But apparently there were rumors of an affair between Saebyeok’s mother and Mirae’s chairwoman.”

I froze again like a buffering computer. I recalled Saebyeok’s mother whom I’d met just once. She was difficult to approach, but she was befitting enough to be the director of a small downtown art gallery. How has such a false rumor spread? While I was shaking my head to myself, my classmate’s firm answer was heard.

“It’s not a rumor. It’s true.”

What? I almost asked out loud. The classmate drained his paper cup filled with alcohol in one go and lowered his voice as if telling something important.

“Apparently the two had been meeting for quite a long time since their kids were little. The chairwoman’s spouse sued Saebyeok’s mother for the affair and even received compensation. Someone posted the court ruling online. As it turns out, it was a fact that everyone in that world knew but kept quiet about.”

So Saebyeok and Taehun dated knowing their parents had an affair? I suddenly became a confused viewer trying to follow a drama from episode 1.

“But such a noisy love didn’t last long either. So everyone had forgotten about it until they heard news about Saebyeok this year and were all shocked.”

There’s something more shocking? My classmate wasn’t lying. More unbelievable words came from the sunbae’s mouth.

“Shocking indeed. Who would have thought he’d be engaged to Mirae’s chairwoman now.”

“Who?”

I asked again without thinking. The sunbae explained in detail as if frustrated.

“Saebyeok, I mean.”

“Who did what with whom?”

“Got engaged to Mirae’s chairwoman, they say. You know, that renowned Alpha. She’s Bae Taehun’s biological parent, the indifferent one who heartlessly abandoned the sunbae Saebyuk clung to as if he were a child. And if that’s not enough, Saebyuk’s mother had an affair with her.”

My head was confused. So Saebyeok dated all three… this is a total makjang.

“But why would Saebyeok?”

When I muttered without thinking, my classmate opened their eyes wide as if surprised I really didn’t know.

“Right? Saebyeok comes from a well-off family too. He wouldn’t marry an older person just for money, so everyone suspected it might be revenge.”

“Revenge for what?”

“Well, being the person who had an affair with his mother, he could hold some grudge, right? So there was talk that maybe that’s why he dated both sons at the same time. At first.”

“At first?”

“Mn, at first.” As if to say not anymore, my classmate shook his head. “Early this year when news broke about his engagement with Mirae’s chairwoman, the chairwoman kept Saebyeok by her side, mainly at company events. And throughout the events, Saebyeok’s eyes were sparkling from beginning till end. Plus he had pleasant, intimate conversations with Bae Taehun too.”

“Then it must be real love.”

At my point, my classmate immediately shook his head.

“No, there’s no love in his eyes when looking at Mirae’s chairwoman, just like a business smile? And that’s all. Mirae’s chairwoman is a famous player anyway.”

Of course she’s a player since she had the crazy idea of marrying her son’s lover.

“But Minha, you really didn’t know about Saebyeok causing such a commotion in the country earlier this year? Did you live in some remote mountain area without internet?”

“I did live at 900m above sea level.”

“…Aah.”

Though it was at a high altitude, it was still habited and obviously had internet, so the reason I didn’t know was because I had no interest in news about the world.

“But how has a chaebol chairwoman’s engagement become such a hot topic?”

“These days, if you’re good-looking and have good qualifications, you’re practically an influencer, almost a celebrity. Plus, Saebyeok is a successful curator. I thought he’d become famous once his face was known. That’s why I understand even less. Why on earth did he get engaged to Mirae’s chairwoman?”

“Why else? For money, of course.”

While my classmate was explaining to me, our sunbae, who had been drinking too much alone, suddenly jumped in and shouted.

“Even though Oh Saebyeok’s family is well-off, he’s not rich enough to be at a chaebol’s level, is he? But all the groups he hung with at school were higher class than Saebyeok. He must have gotten a taste for money.”

The sunbae, emboldened by alcohol, shamelessly displayed his prejudiced values. Not content with that, he brought up a past incident while trying to think of examples.

“Ah, there was also that thing. The incident that turned the school upside down during the festival. There was this club called Alpha Six that only well-off dominant alphas could join, right? There were some kids who followed them around, haha, and some deranged omega went into heat in their clubroom and they made some porn video or something? Then quit school out of shame. That too must have been done for money. Hmm, who was that again?”

Lost in thought about why Saebyeok would do such a thing, I answered absent-mindedly.

“That was me.”

The voices of the two drinkers who had been chattering non-stop disappeared as if erased. Still unable to believe Saebyeok’s situation, I picked up my glass, unaware of the silence. Then I met eyes with my old classmate whose pupils were shaking. He quickly spoke up.

“But that was all false rumors, Alpha Six officially announced that. Don’t, don’t you remember, sunbae?”

At my classmate’s urgent question, the sunbae, suddenly sobered, nodded excessively.

“Huh? Ohhh, yeah, I remember. Of course it was just rumors. After the rumors spread, Alpha Six got beaten up badly and hospitalized, right? Everyone said they got divine punishment for spreading false rumors. Haha. Ah, besides that, Minha, you’re not even an omega anyway, right?”

“I am.”

“…You?”

“Yes. Please continue your meal. I’ll step out for a moment.”

Leaving the two behind, I left the funeral hall and headed nearby. I still couldn’t understand Saebyeok’s choice. But if this is true, it means Euiyun became a victim. Thinking about how my once close friend must have gone through difficult times made my heart heavy.

Euiyun, Saebyeok, and I used to often stay up all night drawing in the department studio during college. We’d order late-night snacks and have our own pretentious discussions about art. Well, it was more like venting our complaints about the professor’s assignments.

I spent a little over a year in college. Perhaps it’s a better memory for me because it was so short. Even though I drew like crazy, I wasn’t lonely because I had classmates to do it together, and it was fun. College, yeah, it was good.**

While walking mindlessly, I stopped at a convenience store in front of me. I looked up at the sign. Ironically, if I had to pick another good thing about college, it would be the part-time job that was tough to balance with studies.