Soho

Chapter 104: < Protect – Episode 103 – Kid Fight [2] >

“CEO Ahn.”

Lawyer Park Jong Chan who was leading the legal team of Hosoo Entertainment ran over as soon as he saw Ahn Soo Ho.

“Team Leader Park. What happened?”

“Thankfully, nothing happened. Miss So Hye was just released with a warning.”

“I heard she used violence.”

“Oh, that’s not exactly what happened. Miss So Hye didn’t hit anyone herself. She was there trying to stop a street fight. But in the process, there was a bit of a struggle.”

Ahn Soo Ho looked confused.

“A street fight?”

“Well, there are some rebellious kids at her school. They call them bullies nowadays.”

“So?”

“A fight broke loose in the middle of the streets during school. And as I already said, Miss So Hye was just unlucky and got involved in the whole mess.”

“Then why was she brought to the police?”

“There’s a reason for that.”

Students with higher-up police officers as parents were behind it. The Do brothers who originally stormed in confidently lowered their tails. Ahn Soo Ho was guided to a Chinese restaurant nearby by Park Jong Chan. The carefree kids on one side minded him while eating when one man wearing a police uniform approached Ahn Soo Ho.

“My name is Seo Kyung Seok.”

“I’m Ahn Soo Ho. Superintendent?”

He noticed that he was the superintendent.

“I’m sorry we had to meet under such unfortunate circumstances.”

“I agree. May I hear the details of what happened?”

“Right this way.”

Seo Kyung Seok led him into a room full of men dressed in kitchen wear or suits. There were five of them including Ahn Soo Ho and Seo Kyung Seok. The one dressed in kitchen wear was the owner of this Chinese restaurant, and the others were company employees who seemed to know Seo Kyung Seok.

“Wow! You’re here with a tycoon, Kyung Seok.”

“Stop the nonsense and say hello.”

“It’s nice to meet you, CEO Ahn Soo Ho.”

“Likewise.”

The topic of this gathering was the accident that their daughters caused. They talked about how they held gatherings as parents of students who were in the same age as Lee So Hye’s. Ahn Soo Ho tilted his head in his mind.

‘I thought those who attended these gatherings were all women.’

It was more common for mothers to attend these gatherings, but they were all men here.

“No matter how well-off their parents are, isn’t this too much?”

“I agree. How about we expose them and humiliate them?”

“It’s true that the vibe is in our favor these days, but once time passes, they’ll come back at us. And if they use the power of the media, there’s no telling what could happen. If they do everything they can to put our kids at a disadvantage at school, there’s no helping it.”

There was a continuous complaint about the rebellious circles.

But the reality was that the ones who started all the accidents had parents who had substantial power. If this was back in the day, they wouldn’t have been able to say a word, but after the candlelight vigils and whatnot, this was their opportunity to speak up. There were too many instances like this that were buried without a peep.

“So what’s going on?”

“Oh, I apologize, CEO Ahn. You probably don’t know since this is your first time here. Let me explain.”

There were bullies at the top of the high school that Lee So Hye went to. It might sound comical to adults, but there were tradition and order in the world of kids. Targeting and attacking weaker kids was a bad thing to do, but if they held back, they could easily become the target themselves.

“Our kids got targeted after they tried to help the kids who were getting bullied.”

“What did the school say?”

“They insisted that there was no such thing as bullying at their school.”

Transfer student Lee So Hye didn’t get any attention at first, but as soon as Hosoo Entertainment Group became an issue, she started to receive the spotlight. But she felt uncomfortable getting so much attention. In spite of it all, she tried her best to keep smiling, but some didn’t like the sight of it one bit.

Kids weren’t stupid.

The reason why they couldn’t act on their hate was because they knew how powerful Ahn Soo Ho was. They didn’t want to mess with her and get into an unfavorable situation. The problem was that kids didn’t have full control of their emotions. There were times when their head said no but their hands and feet wouldn’t listen.

“Your little sister is a very kind girl.”

Seo Kyung Seok sincerely complimented Lee So Hye.

“If it wasn’t for her, the situation could have been much worse. It was a kid’s fight that could have become as nasty as an adult’s fight.”

With the college entrance exam right around the corner, all schools were on edge.

“Were they released with a warning as well?”

He didn’t know what to call those who were hostile towards Lee So Hye, so he just referred to them as kids.

“No. They didn’t even bring them to the police station.”

“Then?”

“The reason why they brought our kids to the police station was kind of like an armed demonstration.”

He probably said it backwards, but this was right.

Power was always relative. The owner of a Chinese restaurant, a chief of a big corporation, a fund manager, and a police superintendent was definitely not powerless by any means, but they were at an iffy place to claim that they have power. Ahn Soo Ho thought of when he was in the Naval Academy. Not all of them were patriotic model students like people thought.

There were definitely some who protected the country, but there were also those who entered with political agendas. Lee Kyung Joon was like that. Despite his act of harassment to other female students, the school still couldn’t punish him, why? Because he had power behind him.

Power was definitely inherited.

‘How amusing.’

Power was definitely relative.

If the owner of a Chinese restaurant, a chief of a big corporation, a fund manager, and a police superintendent was going against normal people who were earning just an average salary, they would have behaved the same way as the ones they were going up against. The people who thought that they were always right and others were wrong were very self-contradictory.

When they started recommending their parental gathering, Ahn Soo Ho gave them a vague answer and left. Once he got out, he was faced with Lee So Hye who seemed guilty. He just sighed and dragged his sister to a nearby convenience store. She finally loosened up after getting ice cream.

“Good job.”

In response to the sudden compliment, Lee So Hye just blinked her big eyes.

“They say you shouldn’t get involved with anything bad, but there are times when you have to face it. Good job.”

“Just like with Dad?”

“Don’t hate your father too much. He’ll always be your father.”

Lee Hyo Geun’s name suddenly came out. Could it be that she had some kind of trauma from her father?

“What are you going to do? Once you get involved with bad kids, you’re bound to get tangled up in it again.”

“How was it when you went to school? Were there any bullies?”

“I fought all the time.”

When he thought about it, he was really young back then.

But that didn’t mean he meddled without a reason. Ahn Soo Ho only got involved in things that were related to himself. Since he hung around Do Kyung Ho, he got into a lot of fights. Once he knocked one down, two came, and once they were knocked down, twenty more came running in. The numbers just kept growing and growing.

‘I also wasn’t very skilled.’

He should have just targeted the bosses instead of the small fries, but he didn’t know that back then.

“But I was a guy, and since things were different back then, I can’t really say who was right.”

“Should I fight, too?”

“Don’t. You’ll end up on the cover of newspapers.”

If Mrs. Park Ok Nam were to see that, she would faint.

“I’m bad.”

“Are you?”

“Yeah, I am.”

Lee So Hye crinkled her nose.

Ahn Soo Ho didn’t think anyone was clearly good or evil. If a bad guy did something good today, did that mean he wasn’t bad anymore? If someone who was good did one bad thing in the end, were they bad? Not at all. Just like how a good person could become a bad person tomorrow, a bad person could become a good person tomorrow as well.

Good and evil coexist.

“Didn’t I already tell you this, So Hye? Do whatever you want, except...”

“Murder and remaining single?”

“Yeah, you can do anything except for that. I’ll give you as much help you need.”

She probably still had no idea how much support and power he had.

“Is it still hard for you to understand? Hm, okay. Let me show you then.”

If Lee So Hye had a hard time understanding, he just had to show it to her. The next day, Ahn Soo Ho went to his sister’s school. He normally would have arrived quietly, but since he was there to show her something, he came looking showy. This was the first time all students gathered in the assembly hall since Teacher’s Day.

“Hey, kids! You know who I am, right? I’m one of the enemies of Korea. But remember this, kids. The ones with courage...”

“Get all the beautiful women!”

The teachers listening to Ahn Soo Ho’s opening couldn’t laugh or cry, but the students chanted along loudly.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a boy or a girl. The ones with courage get beautiful men or women. I know this is random, but with low birth rates these days, don’t you think people should date from when they’re teenagers? That’s what I think.”

“Oh.”

“Also instead of banning under-aged part-timers, they should also make it so that they’re protected from bad bosses and adults. The prices are too high for kids to rely on their parents alone. It’s not your fault you have to ask your parents for money.”

“Wow.”

They were random remarks, but the kids liked it.

“But what we have to pay attention to aren’t materialistic things. You need to learn proper manners. You have to learn how to respect people in order to become real adults. Okay, here’s a question. Are there any outcasts at this school?”

The random question made both the students and teachers look blank.

“It’d be a lie if you said no. That’s because it was frequent back in my day, too. I’ve been bullied by kids, too. Why? Because I was super cool.”

“Aw.”

His sudden bragging received exclamations of adoration.

“I wasn’t the type to get depressed because I was bullied. That’s because I was that cool.”

“Aw.”

The continued bragging lightened up the mood.

“I’m so cool that I’m strong, too. So I didn’t get that hurt by it. Not all people are cool and strong like me.”

Ahn Soo Ho looked down from the platform and smiled once he met eyes with Lee So Hye.

“My name is Ahn Soo Ho and my little sister is Lee So Hye. You’ll probably gossip about how her father’s different. But it’s true. Our father’s different. So what?”

Ahn Soo Ho made it sound like it was no big deal, but he should have been more considerate to his younger siblings. So it was best to announce the back story.

“I really love my little sister. So to those who are trying to date her, you should think again. I’m going to shoot the ones who’ll make her cry. You know how good I am at shooting, right?”

When he gestured the shooting of guns, kids started to laugh.

“What I’m sad about is that So Hye is so nice and cool that she doesn’t ask her big brother for help when she needs it. I hate that.”

His speech sounded like a joke to the kids.

“So that’s why I came today. I might be cool and strong, but I’m not a mind reader. So speak up in my sister’s stead. What would So Hye like?”

“A YB fan meeting!”

“Hey! That’s your wish!”

“Please?”

The courageous female student didn’t back down so Ahn Soo Ho held up both his hands.

“Okay, fine. I’ll hold a YB fan meeting. Next!”

“A girl group festival!”

“Oh!”

Everyone got up and cheered in response to the male student’s suggestion.

“Okay! Next!”

“I’d like to work part-time as a manager at Hosoo Entertainment once I finish my college entrance exam!”

A student who seemed to be a senior got up and made his suggestion. Ahn Soo Ho showed a meaningful expression on his face and pointed at the boy.

“Do you have courage?”

“I get all the beautiful women!”

He gave him a thumb’s up. Many other requests were made after that. Once things got quiet, Ahn Soo Ho held the mic.

“I’ll remember all your precious opinions. Regarding what we just talked about, you’ll be notified through Hosoo Entertainment channel.”

“Oh!”

This was a promise.

“I’m sure some will talk about special treatment and what not. So what? If I want to help out the school that my little sister goes to, that’s my business! Isn’t that right?”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

“This is where you say, “So what?”

He pushed the mic in their direction.

“What do you say?”

“So What!”

“Yo! Say that again!”

“So what!”

The whole auditorium was excited. Ahn Soo Ho winked at his little sister who was avoiding eye contact out of embarrassment and whispered his last words into the mic.

“Now if you bully my little sister after all that I’m going to do for you, I’ll kill you all.”

< Protect – Episode 103 – Kid Fight [2] > The end.