Chapter 10: Debt Settler (2)

The scarred man snickered as Kang Ra-Eun mentioned that she was the debt settler.

“What? You’re gonna pay in his stead?” the scarred man asked.

“Yup,” she stated.

The men didn’t take her seriously because she was a minor, but that was only for a moment.

Whoosh—!

The man shot up into the air all of a sudden.

“Huh...?”

Thud!

The man fell hard on his back. Ra-Eun had tripped his feet and completely disturbed his center of gravity at an imperceivable speed. She stomped on the man’s left ankle with the heel of her foot, causing him to scream.

“Gaaaaaahh! Fuck! You bitch, how dare you... Argh!”

“I hate nothing more than someone trying to touch even a strand of my hair without my permission. And you’d better stay still before I make it so that you can never run again.”

Crack!

The scarred man cried like a newborn baby every time his ankle cracked. Right when the other loan sharks moved in great numbers to help their colleague who was incapacitated by the high school girl...

“Stop.”

The men froze from a single word from the man in sunglasses. Ra-Eun smirked, having expected him to stop them.

“Are you their boss?” she asked.

The man assumed to be the boss did not answer her, but asked her a question instead.

“You said you’d settle that son of a bitch’s debt. By ‘settle’, did you mean that you’d settle it with your fists?”

“Of course not,” Ra-Eun remarked. She threw down one of the backpacks that she was wearing. From the sound of it hitting the floor, it seemed fairly heavy. While pointing at the bag, she said, “Open it.”

“...” At the boss’s signal, one of his subordinates checked the bag’s contents.

“B-Boss! I-It’s filled with money!”

It was jam packed with 50,000 won bills. Ra-Eun continued after they checked the money, “I brought exactly 30 million won that he owes you. You’re free to count it.”

The boss wondered how a high school girl came across 30 million won in cash, but he didn’t pay much mind to it. All they cared about was getting their money, regardless of who or how they had procured it. A few moments passed as the subordinates counted the money.

“It’s exactly 30 million, boss.”

“Any chance of them being counterfeit bills?” the boss asked.

“None. They are real bills.”

“I see.” He had suspected that the high school girl may have pulled some sort of trick, but it had been meaningless. He spoke to Ra-Eun in a low voice, “We’ll withdraw, so let Du-Chil go before you actually cripple him.”

Two subordinates helped the man named Du-Chil up as soon as Ra-Eun took her foot off of his ankle.

“I’ll kill that bitch! I swear!” Du-Chil exclaimed, but his threat went in one of Ra-Eun’s ears and out the other.

After the boss safely secured Du-Chil...

“Hey, young lady.”

...He took off his sunglasses and revealed his menacing face that was missing an eye. “I don’t know who you are or where you live, but you’d better watch your back or you’ll get stabbed.”

Ra-Eun raised her right hand and straightened her middle finger toward him.

“I’ve been stabbed plenty of times already,” she expressed.

“...”

Through Congressman Kim Han-Gyo’s betrayal, Park Geon-Woo had been reborn as the high school girl, Kang Ra-Eun.

“What an interesting young lady.” The boss put his sunglasses back on and left the alley with his subordinates along with the money. Ra-Eun lightly sighed and turned around as she fixed her messy hair.

“Hey, mister, are you alr—”

However, Park Seol-Hun, the loan sharks’ target, was nowhere to be seen. He had already run away.

“That goddamn son of a bitch.”

Yet another annoyance had been added.

***

Park Seol-Hun ran away to a nearby park. He couldn’t believe what had happened before his eyes. A high school girl fell from the sky out of nowhere, overpowered the loan shark that was harassing him and paid the loan sharks his debt of 30 million won.

“Who the hell was that girl?”

Why did she help him? Could it be...

“Does she want my organs?”

That money may have been organ harvesting fees.

“N-Now isn’t the time! I have to run...!”

As he was about to get up from the bench, someone forcefully dragged him back down by his shirt collar.

“Kurgh!”

“Where do you think you’re running to?”

“Eek!”

It was the high school girl who had made that scarred man cry like a baby. Ra-Eun stuck her head out from behind him. Seol-Hun was so shocked that he assumed a defensive stance. Ra-Eun couldn’t help but laugh at how scared he was.

“How could you run away from someone who was kind enough to pay off your debt? Do you even have a conscience, mister?”

“Wh-Who are... you?” Seol-Hun asked.

“That’s none of your concern. This is gonna take a while, so let’s go somewhere else. There’s a cafe nearby. Oh, and...”

Ra-Eun’s eyes momentarily reflected bloodlust.

“I might do something even worse than what those loan sharks were about to do to you if you run away again, so you’d better be good and follow me.”

“O-Okay! I got it! Shit...!”

It looked like Seol-Hun had gotten himself into some deep shit.

***

Ra-Eun and Seol-Hun sat together in a cafe. A beautiful high school girl and a homeless man together caught the attention of everyone around them, but most of their eyes were fixed on Seol-Hun, not Ra-Eun.

“Why did we have to come to a cafe...?” Seol-Hun muttered.

Ra-Eun didn’t know what to say. She sometimes forgot that she was a high school girl, just like now.

“So, what do you want with me?” Seol-Hun asked directly. Before Ra-Eun even had a chance to speak, he announced, “Don’t even bother telling me to pay you back the 30 million. I don’t even have a single thousand won bill in my pockets.”

“Good for you,” Ra-Eun clicked her tongue as she looked at Seol-Hun with a baffled expression. “How many of your businesses have gone to shit, mister?”

“How did you know about my businesses...?”

“I have my ways.”

From what Ra-Eun remembered, Park Seol-Hun would rise to become a bigshot who would dominate the Korean clothing industry in the future. However, he had once said that he didn’t even have a penny to his name ten years ago because he had failed in six of his businesses.

Seol-Hun found Ra-Eun highly suspicious, but he couldn’t just ignore her either. Whatever the reason, she had saved his life.

“Let’s see. The first was a shoe store, the second was selling fruits, the third was...” Seol-Hun pondered.

“Just tell me how many,” Ra-Eun stated.

“I failed four times.”

“Is that so?”

There were still two more left. Ra-Eun handed him her second bag.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“Money. There’s about 20 million in there, so come see me again after failing in two more business ventures.”

“What?” Seol-Hun thought he had heard wrong. Who would give someone money to fail in a business venture?

“I’m not gonna fail! M-My next venture is gonna succeed for sure!” Seol-Hun declared.

“I’m sure it will,” Ra-Eun said sarcastically.

Ra-Eun didn’t take him seriously because she already knew the future. She took a sip of her orange juice one more time and pointed at Seol-Hun with the straw.

“I’ll invest even more in your seventh business venture, so don’t forget to come see me after your next two businesses go to shit.”

“...”

Seol-Hun was now 50 million won in debt to her. He at least had some sense of responsibility. He didn’t fully understand what was going on, but he decided to accept Ra-Eun’s terms.

Ra-Eun got up from her seat first.

“I’ve added my contact information in the bag, so save it on your phone. Oh, and call me if those loan sharks come for you again, and I’ll beat the shit out of them again.”

“O-Okay, I’ll do that,” Seol-Hun said.

Seol-Hun was struck dumbfounded by how a high school girl like her was so full of drive.

***

Kang Ra-Hyuk welcomed his little sister as soon as she came back home. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Where have you been?” he asked.

“Just to make an investment.”

“Investment? On that guy you said had talent in business?”

“Yup.”

Park Seol-Hun. He was a lottery ticket that she had yet to... No, couldn’t scratch yet. If coaxed well, his business would become solely hers.

‘To have a chance against Congressman Kim, I need to slowly stack money and power one by one.’

She needed to rise to the same class as him to hold her own, which was why she was advancing her stock trading, connection with Chairman Ji Seong-Geum, and her own business simultaneously. Not just that, but she even involuntarily took up acting. It could be because she had so many things to worry about even during summer break, but...

‘Why does my lower abdomen hurt so much since this morning?’

She kept feeling a throbbing pain. She went back into her room and took off her pants to change into something more comfortable, but then...

“...!”

Ra-Eun saw something. She was so shocked that she ended up putting her pants back on.

‘C-Could this be the thing that I’d only heard about...?’

That?day had come.

1. 50,000 won is the highest printed bill in Korea.