chapter 28
< Father and Son >
I stood in front of the living room window and looked out the window.
It was still snowing heavily.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the backs of my mother and father sitting side by side on a garden bench.
Snowflakes flew over my parents’ heads.
It was like a picture.
‘It must be cold.’
I want to bring a scarf and cover it.
I wish I could bring a shawl to cover it.
I couldn’t bear to jump between those beautiful pictures.
‘Since we haven’t seen each other for a long time, there must be a lot to share.’
He would need time to tell his parents what he hadn’t been able to say.
I watched my mother’s smile and my father’s eyes through the window.
It’s pretty to look at.
she was a beautiful lover
‘My mother really loves my father.’
I guessed that she was putting off her mother’s feelings by pampering the watch her father left behind.
Seeing my mother make such an excited expression in front of my father really touched my heart.
She was my mother, who smiled as if she were drawing, but seldom laughed out loud.
In front of his father, he burst into laughter like a rose in full bloom.
Happy as if you have the whole world.
‘That seems to be the same for my father.’
What about the father looking at the mother?
The man who rarely smiled couldn’t take his eyes off his mother.
It doesn’t match the atmosphere that seems cold, stiff, reticent, and heavy at all.
My father looked at my mother with eyes dripping with honey.
As hot as if there was only one person in the world.
‘They’re a good pair.’
It was heartwarming.
It was nice just to watch from a distance.
‘My mother’s age is twenty-seven or twenty-eight this year. He gave birth to me when he was in full bloom.’
Until a young woman gave birth and raised me alone.
How much suffering would that have been?
My mother dedicated her twenties, the most flowery age in her life, to me.
So thank you, so sorry.
My mother, who left me many beautiful and warm memories until the day I die.
For 45 years, I hoped to see my mother again, even in a dream.
I wanted my mother to be happy.
‘Come to think of it, how old is my father?’
Come to think of it, I don’t know anything about my father.
All I know is that my father’s name is Seok-Ja, and my father is the youngest son of the Taesung Group’s CEO.
Also, he was scheduled to take charge of Taeseong Construction, but died at an early age in a plane crash.
As soon as I realized that, somewhere in my heart jumped up.
‘That person was my father.’
Just looking at his back, he was a handsome looking man.
He was tall, had a handsome face, had a good family, and had good hair.
From the way you walk to the posture you are doing.
There is nothing to criticize.
I wonder if I could feel the luxurious dignity and intimidation of being properly educated and raised upright.
‘It’s something my mother couldn’t forget.’
I stared down at my father’s watch.
‘Would you like to return this to your father? My mother said it was my father’s treasured possession…’
So I sneaked it from the living room.
But I shook my head.
‘Even if I give it back when I return it, my mother should return it, not me. That’s right.’
I glanced down at my watch.
‘Come to think of it, I came all this way by trusting only this watch.’
A poor child, only seven years old.
What I believed in as a last resort was, after all, this father’s watch.
to save my mother’s life.
I was thinking about giving this to Jaeho’s father and renting a truck to go to the hospital.
When I was about to finish my oxygen treatment early, I thought about giving this watch as a bribe to persuade the doctor.
I took this watch as collateral to a pawnshop to buy this house.
I thought about changing my living expenses with this watch when my mother said she would wash the dishes in the kitchen.
‘I’m glad I didn’t sell it.’
Actually, I know this is just a thing.
This watch contained not only the memories of father and mother, but also the mother’s heart.
‘It’s pretty. Our parents.’
I wiped the windowpane, which was constantly blurring from steam, with the palm of my hand.
“Hey, kid. Don’t tremble here for nothing, just go and ask for it. Are you a family?”
“That’s Okay.”
Instead of running out into the garden and leaving clear footprints on the white snow, I chose to watch them through the misty glass, wiping off the steam.
Mr. Cheol-gu stood side by side with me in front of the living room window and put his hand on my shoulder.
“Didn’t you want to see Dad?”
“I missed you.”
“Then run and hug me right away.”
“How is it?”
I smiled bitterly.
“It’s me, I’ve been drawing while thinking that my dad would be somewhere. But my dad probably didn’t even know I existed.”
Otherwise, in the past, when I became an orphan at the age of seven, there could be no one who came to visit me.
“However, a child I had never seen before would say, ‘Dad, I missed you!’ How burdensome it would be if I just ran away.”
I stroked my father through the window with my fingertips.
The cold of midwinter, the moisture of the steam came out.
“You think too much about the kid thing.”
Mr. Cheolgu tousled my hair in a mess.
“A seven-year-old kid can ignore the circumstances of adults. That’s a child’s privilege.”
Mr. Cheol-gu held out a lollipop to me.
“Want some?”
For some reason, a smile came out.
He drank black coffee and put chocolate in his mouth, so the man frowned.
Why would I buy a lollipop that doesn’t match?
I took the candy and grinned.
“Because I’m a man who doesn’t refuse favors.”
“If you are a man, go straight. Are you saying it’s over once you run into it and give it a hug?”
I pretended not to notice and sucked on the lollipop.
“What if Daddy is a little embarrassed? After all, you are my son. isn’t it? Are you going to just watch from afar for the rest of your life?”
Then my parents, who were sitting side by side on the garden bench, stood up.
side by side walk this way
step by step.
As I got closer to the front door, my heart began to beat faster and faster.
Click.
The front door opened.
“Come in, old man.”
“Then don’t hesitate.”
My father entered with unstoppable steps.
The moment our eyes met his father’s, he smiled.
“Jung Hyuk.”
My heart, which had been beating wildly for a moment, felt like it was about to drop.
It was the first time my father called me by my name.
I feel dizzy as if only my father and I were left in the world.
I couldn’t move like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web.
My father got down on one knee and brought me to eye level.
“My name is Seongjun Cha.”
I had no idea.
The words of Mr. Cheol-gu, the worries he had had, and the support of the bodyguards of Taesung Group.
My mind turned white like pure white snow, so I couldn’t think of anything.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard from your mother, but I am…”
“dad!”
I was running towards my father with open arms.
“okay.”
Father opened his arms.
I jumped into his arms.
He hugged his father’s neck tightly.
“Dad, I missed you!”
“okay.”
The smell of heavy, sophisticated and luxurious men’s cologne struck me.
As if that was my father’s smell.
Inhaling deeply into my lungs, I buried my face in the nape of my father’s neck.
“I wanted to see you too.”
My father hugged me and smiled softly.
It was a pleasant laugh.
I wanted to give Dad a pretty smile like that too.
For some reason, the tears welled up in my eyes.
“Daddy daddy······!”
From the day I opened my eyes in this world to the moment I closed them.From noble mtl dot com
No, even in the underworld, whenever I met my father, I always wanted to tell him this.
“I am my father’s son. I’m Cha Jeong-hyeok.”
In fact, there were so many things I wanted to ask when I met my father.
Who are you, how did you find out about me, and why did you leave our hat like that?
There were so many questions I wanted to ask and resentments I had to ask.
At this moment, nothing like that came to mind.
“i love you.”
The words I promised to do if my father came to visit me someday.
Words that I have only drawn vaguely in my mind without ever being able to say them out of my mouth.
Unlike my mother, it was the first time I met my father, so I believed that I would never say it because it was awkward.
After putting the words that have remained in my heart like resentment for the rest of my life out of my mouth.
Unknowingly, tears welled up in my eyes.
“Dad, I love you.”
Sobbing and crying is not my style.
“My son…”
I really liked the heavy and warm arms of my father.
“Jung Hyuk.”
I love the name my father calls me.
“thanks.”
I cried in my father’s arms.
Damn it, a child’s body.
* * *
Throughout the meal, the table was full of laughter.
My mother asked while pouring water for my father.
“Is the food right for your mouth?”
“huh.”
“Which is the most delicious?”
“All.”
Fortunately, this morning the landlord’s grandmother made it.
The cooking skills of the landlord’s grandmother were famous enough to be counted among the first in the Guro-dong shantytown.
Maybe if I opened a restaurant, it would have been a jackpot or something.
‘This is the first time in my life. Eating with my father and mother.’
My father was a quiet man.
My mother, on the other hand, was very excited and made a lot of noise.
‘I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen my mother talk so excitedly.’
The mother turned to face the father while eating and drinking.
My father nodded and listened to my mother in silence.
Just like it always has been since the beginning.
Like lovers who met again after 7 hours, not 7 years.
It was nice to see them, like people who had never loved each other in 7 years.
“Does Jeonghyeok like galbi?”
“yes.”
My father put ribs on top of my rice bowl.
I accepted my father’s favor with a smile.
“it is delicious.”
“Do you want to hate japchae?”
“no. I like them all. There is nothing to cover.”
“You are nice.”
My father chose only the side dishes that a child would like and put this and that on my spoon.
Seeing this, the mother smiled.
“Junghyeok has a short mouth, but he eats really well today.”
Mother, I’m not short-mouthed, it’s just that I can’t eat my mother’s food well.
“Jeonghyeok, shall we eat and build a snowman together?”
“A snowman? great!”
I was excited and answered quickly.
It was like a dream.
I wanted to eat everything quickly and play outside together.
I also have to hold my father and mother’s hands and make clear footprints on the white snow in the garden.
Ding-dong! Ding dong ding dong!
It was the sound of a doorbell.
The quick-witted Taesung Group bodyguard, self-proclaimed Number 2, ran and whispered in my ear.
“Secretary Kim brought a bribe.”
so fast?
He said it would take three days to prepare the bribe.
The bribes I demanded at that time were four.
To apologize for the rudeness to mother, to allow marriage, to bring father, to receive 100 million won worth of shares in Taesung.
“Chairman Cha came too.”
I realized why the preparation for bribery, which was considered impossible, was carried out in an instant.
As soon as he finished speaking, the front door burst open.
“Jung Hyuk, the old lady is here!”
A voice that is loud but has a friendly tone.
Cha was the chairman.
“father?”
My father jumped up from his seat, terribly embarrassed.
“Fathers and Sons”