About

Seryeong in summer was stiflingly humid. Faded red letters reading "Redevelopment Zone" clung to the walls, and a hot wind carried fishy dust between the row houses that stood frozen in anticipation of demolition. Inside an old supermarket with a missing letter on its sign, she lay slumped over the counter. Raised by her grandmother without parents, she was a prickly, haughty girl who had been pampered and refined, yet she softened instantly at the mere mention of her grandmother's name. She shone brighter than anyone through her writing, but she had to give up college because she couldn't afford tuition. As soon as she turned twenty, she began running the store in place of her frail grandmother to pay off a debt of nearly a hundred million won borrowed for surgery. At high noon, a black van blocked the front of the supermarket. The men who had lent the money grabbed her by the arm. Just as they were shouting at her to work at a bar, claiming there were no other options in this neighborhood, a luxury sedan glided to a halt. The door opened and he stepped out. Ban Siheon, the executive director of Museong Group, a man performing the final test for the chairman who had taken him in as an orphan and raised him like a son. He was the one sent down with orders to clear out Seryeong's red-light district and build a casino in its place. With a single low-toned word, the men scattered. As if nothing had happened, he placed a pack of cigarettes and a lollipop on the counter and handed over a fifty-thousand won bill. He told her to keep the change and gave the candy to her. After that day, he disappeared for a while, only to return to the summer heat along with the rumors. Every time the supermarket bell rang, her heart reacted first. The girl who used to talk back sharply became docile at the touch of his hand stroking her hair, and he smiled mischievously, finding it cute. However, when she boldly confessed, "Mister, what do you think of me?", he would usually avert his gaze for a moment and then flatly reject her. He knew that if someone from the underworld like himself stood by her side, there was no telling what might happen to this lovely child. But in the Seryeong summer, the thing collapsing first was not the buildings scheduled for demolition, but his and her hearts.