Kang Chul-In, the meeting with Lee Chae-Lin behind him, drove his Mustang towards the marketplace near Gyeonggido, Buchun. His mother had run a fruit shop in the marketplace for 20 years.

Yes.

If Alex Rothschild was the typical privileged born-to-wealth scenario, Kang Chul-In was a commoner who was raised by a single mother after losing his father at a young age.

Are you there?

His mother Park Sun-Ja, whom he noticed from far away, was staying warm in front of an antique heater, fighting the cold winter wind.

It was late.

All the other stores had closed their shutters one-by-one, and the grandmas who were selling different things on the ground were packing up, but Park Sun-Ja was not moving with her eyes locked on the TV.

“I need to work hard and earn money if I want to give you a nice home when you get married.”

Kang Chul-In remembered what Park Sun-Ja always said to him.

A nice home.

Park Sun-Ja, who could not give him an apartment worth $400-500 but still said she wanted to get him at least a nice home for rent, opened her store the earliest and closed the latest compared to anyone else. It was her determination to not send her son off with empty hands.

“Son?”

Park Sun-Ja noticed her son Kang Chul-In right away and smiled widely.

“What...