Chapter 35 : A Trick of Fate. (5)
Chapter 35: A Trick of Fate. (5)
After finishing my hunter registration, my phone rang on the way to pick up Grandmother.
It was an unfamiliar number.
‘Who is it?’
Just a short while ago, I had turned the Dio Guild into a wasteland.
I had even killed Go Ju-hoon, the guild’s leader, with my own hands.
Right now, Purple Devil was a hot potato in the hunter world.
‘It’s not like my identity’s been exposed, right?’
With my nerves on edge, I pressed the answer button.
“……Hello.”
Hello. Are you Mr. Choi Yong-gi?
A middle-aged woman’s voice came through the receiver.
Without letting my guard down, I asked back.
“That’s me, but who is this?”
I’m Choi Seong-min’s homeroom teacher.
In that instant, the tension drained out of me and I let out a short breath.
It was a call from the high school my younger brother attended.
I’m calling because I need to consult with you about Seong-min. Do you have some time?
I remembered.
In my previous life, I had received the same call.
What had I answered back then?
“I’m busy.”
I had said that and coldly hung up.
I had been responsible for making a living, desperate to escape poverty.
Back then, I was fixated solely on working like a madman.
My younger brother’s school life hadn’t even registered to me.
Maybe because of that,
much later, my brother and I ended up worse than strangers.
We resented each other, lived separate lives, and met our ends that way.
At the very least, I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake in this life.
Grandmother was scheduled to be discharged in the late afternoon after finishing her final tests.
I still had some time to spare.
I tightened my grip on the phone.
“I’ll come now.”
What if I had still been working at the factory?
In my previous life, I hadn’t even taken a day off, let alone left early.
Work had been my entire life,
and it had taken priority over family.
Looking back, I couldn’t understand why I had gone that far.
Maybe I had been trapped by a victim mentality.
Supporting my family had only been a superficial reason.
Perhaps I had rationalized it all to numb my thoughts because my life itself had felt cursed.
Now, it was time to cast off the shackles I had bound myself with.
As my heart grew more at ease, things I hadn’t noticed before came into view.
“Dad! Hug me!”
A little girl walking along the street stretched out her arms.
The man beside her chuckled softly and muttered,
“She’s exactly like her mom.”
Then he scooped the child up with one hand and walked on unhurriedly.
As I watched the peaceful backs of the father and daughter, a warm breeze seemed to blow around me.
Suddenly, the child turned around.
Her big, pure eyes met mine.
I casually lifted my hand toward her.
The child broke into a smile and waved her tiny hand at me.
I had attended a hunter-specialized vocational high school.
It focused more on teaching practical skills than academics.
Because of that, there were a lot of delinquent students.
Tattoos were common, and most pockets held cigarettes.
Back then, I had even learned how to ride a motorcycle from a friend.
Since they were tasked with managing students like that, the teachers were rough as well.
There were teachers who slapped students caught smoking in the bathroom,
and even a grade head who dragged around a steel pipe like a straight-up gangster.
Maybe that was why.
The faculty office at the regular high school my brother attended looked incredibly peaceful.
‘It feels unfamiliar and strange.’
Students in neat uniforms, wearing bright smiles, greeted their teachers warmly.
“Please have some of this.”
The homeroom teacher handed me a paper cup filled with instant coffee.
I didn’t bring the cup to my lips and instead set it down on the desk.
Then I looked him straight in the eyes.
There wasn’t much time left before Grandmother was discharged.
I skipped the unnecessary talk and got straight to the point.
“What is it you wanted to say?”
“Ah, well…….”
The homeroom teacher hesitated briefly before speaking.
“Could you take a look at this?”
What he handed me was none other than my brother’s report card.
At first glance, there didn’t seem to be any major issues.
My brother was a model student, so most of his grades were excellent.
Except for math, which was all zeros.
Up until middle school, he had often ranked first in the entire school.
Back then, I had just thought his puberty had come late.
Neither Grandmother nor I had paid much attention to his grades.
“It seems Seong-min doesn’t get along well with the math teacher.”
The homeroom teacher continued talking about my brother.
“Apparently, the math teacher said something like, ‘Poor people are lazy.’ After hearing that, Seong-min snapped back, and the angry teacher severely scolded him in front of the other students…….”
I more or less understood the situation.
It wasn’t just me.
Poverty was practically a stigma for my brother too.
Getting a zero on an exam isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Even if you guess randomly, you usually get a few right.
My brother had been deliberately getting every answer wrong as a timid form of revenge.
“Seong-min is a student with a kind nature. He’s very smart as well. It’s not too late even now. Could you, as his older brother, help him?”
My brother was smart enough that, in my previous life, after being devastated by Grandmother’s death, he had buckled down and gotten into medical school.
But now, Grandmother had been treated and her cancer was completely cured.
There was no way she would die like she had in the past.
“I’ll talk to him.”
As soon as I finished the consultation and stepped out of the faculty office, I ran into my brother standing in the hallway.
“…….”
My brother avoided my gaze.
The homeroom teacher had called me because there was no one else to call.
Grandmother was around, but in practical terms, I was his guardian.
“Hey. Choi Seong-min.”
I raised my hand.
Maybe he thought I was about to hit him, because he squeezed his eyes shut.
‘I did beat him a lot when he was younger.’
Especially when he ran away from home, I had beaten him badly.
I gently lowered my hand and slung an arm around his shoulders.
“Let’s go.”
“Huh, where?”
“Outside.”
“Am I leaving early? Sweet! Does that mean no night study?”
My brother cracked a pointless joke.
“Hyung. Should I just drop out while I’m at it? Going to school doesn’t even…….”
“Do you want to die?”
“Tsk.”
My brother lowered his head and hunched his shoulders.
I patted his shoulders, which were folded in tightly.
“Grandma, you know you’re getting discharged today, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s all go eat together. What do you want to eat?”
“Jajangmyeon!”
He answered without hesitation.
“……Sweet and sour pork too.”
“…….”
“If…… if that’s not okay, then never mind…….”
When I stared at him silently, my brother’s voice trailed off.
He was being considerate of my wallet.
The shoulder under my grip felt painfully slender.
My brother was smaller than other kids his age passing through the hallway.
‘He’s at the age where he should be growing.’
What was money, anyway.
Had I really failed to even properly buy him a single meal he wanted?
“Follow me.”
From afar, a familiar face came into view.
It was Grandmother, with her hair turned completely white, looking like a small animal.
My brother and I walked up to her.
Grandmother pulled both of us into her arms.
Her familiar scent rushed over me.
“You little sons of bitches! Have you been doing well?!”
For security reasons, family visits were prohibited at the Sejong Cancer Research Center.
We talked on the phone often, but it had been nearly two months since I’d seen Grandmother in person.
Thankfully, she looked bright and healthy.
“I’ve been fine. How about you, Grandma?”
I had been asking about her health, but Grandmother gave me an awkward wink instead.
“Perfectly. Fine! What was it again? I flew on a plane and traveled all over the world! Went to Japan! Went to some big-nosed foreign countries! Even went to the Soviet Union!”
The Soviet Union had collapsed ages ago.
And besides, we were standing in front of a hospital, not an airport.
The fact that Grandmother had been hospitalized had been kept a secret from my brother, at least on the surface.
It had been a prearranged lie so he wouldn’t worry.
My brother puckered his lips and stepped closer to Grandmother.
“Grandma. Are you feeling better now? Are you all healed?”
“…….”
Sharp as he was, my brother asked about her condition.
He must’ve already known.
After all, he was already eighteen.
Seeing Grandmother’s eyes wavering, I shrugged my shoulders.
When her clumsy acting was exposed, Grandmother let out a deep sigh.
“Damn it. Even lying takes teamwork. Of course I’m fine! My little mutt. What about school?”
My brother hugged Grandmother tightly without saying a word.
“It’s my fault. I didn’t even know you were sick all this time…….”
The homeroom teacher had been right.
My brother was kind-hearted and smart.
Grandmother patted his back.
“Your fault, my ass. Don’t talk nonsense! This old lady will take care of her own business.”
She cursed bravely, but before we knew it, her eyes had grown moist as well.
I led them forward.
“That’s enough of the separated-family reunion. Let’s go grab a celebratory drink.”
“This dish is Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, made with twenty-four fresh ingredients and pre-steamed shark’s fin. The bowl is hot, so please be careful.”
The female staff member continued her explanation in a gentle voice.
It was my first time at a high-end Chinese restaurant.
The moment we stepped inside, a neatly uniformed server guided us to a private room.
I acted natural as if it were nothing, but I flinched when I saw the prices.
‘590,000 won per person.’
Even though I still had tens of billions left in the vault after acquiring the factory,
expensive was still expensive.
I made an effort not to show it and calmly picked up my spoon.
Grandmother and my brother leaned toward me, moving stiffly like robots, as everything seemed unfamiliar to them.
“Grandma. What’s Buddha Jumps Over the Wall?”
“Isn’t that like branding something with fire? Back in my day, we used hot irons.”
Honestly, I didn’t know either.
It was my first time seeing shark’s fin in my life.
“Hyung. Is Buddha Jumps Over the Wall really like a hot iron?”
I whispered into my brother’s ear.
“Shut up and eat.”
“……Okay.”
As if on cue, we scooped up the broth with our spoons.
Using top-grade ingredients definitely made a difference—it was unmistakably special.
‘It’s like a thick seafood stew.’
The shark’s fin had a chewy texture that popped lightly in my mouth, which was interesting,
but.
‘I don’t know if it’s insanely delicious.’
Unlike me, who tilted my head in doubt, my brother and Grandmother’s eyes sparkled every time a dish came out.
“This is coconut bird’s nest, served to cleanse your palate during the meal.”
“Bird’s nest? Is it really made from birds?”
“Yong-gi, how much does this cost? Didn’t we come to eat jajangmyeon? Why do weird things keep coming out? Shouldn’t we say something to the chef?”
The female staff member smiled and kindly explained.
“According to the course, jajangmyeon will be served later. It’s not actually made from birds, but from seaweed and swiftlet saliva…….”
After that, dishes I’d never seen before came out one after another.
“Wow. Peking duck? This is insanely good! It doesn’t even compare to Gochon.”
“Oh my. Steamed longtooth grouper? Why is this fish so huge?!”
My brother and Grandmother made a fuss and cleaned their plates completely, not leaving behind even the sweet and sour pork and chili shrimp.
Watching them,
‘So this is it? Being full just from watching others eat.’
I looked at the two of them with a satisfied smile.
Even the apple mango shaved ice for dessert was scraped clean.
“Ha. I’m stuffed. I shouldn’t have eaten school lunch. It was fried saury today.”
“Seong-min. But food Grandma makes is tastier, right?”
“Well, that’s kind of…….”
“What did you say? You little bastard.”
Grandmother rubbed her belly and stood up.
“Where are you going?”
“To take care of business.”
“Want me to go with you?”
“Bullshit. You gonna follow me into the women’s toilet?”
After Grandmother left the room, it was just my brother and me.
Once the meal ended, silence settled over the table.
We’d been really close when we were young, but as we grew up, moments like this awkwardness cropped up from time to time.
“The math teacher.”
I spoke first.
“He’s the one in the wrong. Poverty isn’t because we’re lazy, and it’s not our fault.”
My brother listened quietly.
“But if we stay poor until the day we die, then that part really is our fault.”
I had saved one billion won through thirty years of hard labor.
I couldn’t have lived extravagantly with that money, but at least I could’ve escaped poverty.
“The environment we’re born into isn’t something we can decide. The only things we can change are our attitude and mindset. Knowledge is the same. You can steal money, but what I learned at the factory is something no one can ever take away.”
Instead of forcing him to study, I briefly shared what I had felt and realized in my previous life.
“……I’m sorry, hyung.”
My brother spoke with a choked voice.
“I knew that too. I just acted out because of my inferiority complex.”
The uncomfortable air in the room warmed.
My brother lifted his head and looked at me.
“Hyung. Thank you. I’ll work hard again.”
I smiled at his resolve, picked up the bill, and stood up.
The amount printed on the receipt was excessive for a single meal.
But it didn’t feel like a waste.
“Yeah. A man’s got to pay for his meals.”