A Chairman Who Has No Regrets - Chapter 145



Only Krnovel

Episode 145 – Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter – (1)

Announcer Cha Tae-in extends his hand and shouts.

“20 points for Korean history, there’s a question-”

It is received by a female announcer who reads the problem.

“A special civil service examination held when the king pays homage at the Sungkyunkwan Confucian Shrine…”

Without me having to press the buzzer first.

Beep-

Taesu quickly presses the buzzer.

“Yes! A team of friends with Jeon Gang-gun!”

At the announcer’s signal, Taesu looks at me instead of answering. He presses the buzzer and asks me to guess the correct answer.

“Alseongsi.”

“Alsungsi! That’s the correct answer!”

“Your friend’s team is overwhelming again today? But are you still dividing up the roles today?”

Announcer Cha Tae-in also smiles at me as if he finds it amusing to see how much Tae-soo does.

“We have to do at least this.”

“Phew.”

What’s funny?

People laugh and applaud at Taesu’s words. Since we are filming outside today, it is no exaggeration to say that all the people of Sanggye-dong have gathered here. Taesu looks incredibly confident.

“Ahaha, I see. Does Jeon Gang agree?”

He nodded and crossed his arms.

And then people laugh and clap loudly because it’s so funny.

“Witty and smart! I’m really looking forward to seeing how long these two geniuses will continue to dominate! Now, the next opportunity to choose a problem is for the friend team!”

“National history.”

“Yes, there will be a 30-point question on Korean history-”

Beep.

“ancestor.”

“That’s correct!”

Taesu presses the buzzer and I answer like a machine. Maybe my memory has improved, or maybe the part of my brain that remembers learning has grown. I don’t have a photographic memory or anything, but I can feel that my brain has become incredibly more efficient than before.

Glance.

A short-haired woman glaring at me as if she was going to kill me. I don’t know her name because we didn’t exchange names, but she is said to be my younger sister’s classmate.

I haven’t even met my mortal enemy, but he’s glaring at me so much that my cheeks are burning.

The moment a problem arises.

Beep!

“Yes! Friend Team!”

Taesu is definitely good at sports. After all, he left his mark on the poor history of Korean soccer and earned the nickname of eternal libero. His reflexes are so fast that the short-haired woman keeps pressing the buzzer, but Taesu is ahead.

“Hey, hey, press gently.”

“uh?”

“I’m going to kill you.”

The guy glances over my shoulder at the woman and tilts his head.

“Wouldn’t it be more frustrating if you just let me watch?”

“Oh, I see.”

The guy’s words sound convincing at first glance, so I nod my head and answer mechanically again.

Boom, boom.

Fireworks explode and scraps of paper flutter in the spring breeze.

“Scholarship Quiz Special Team Battle! Gijangwon is taken by your friend’s team!”

As if they had won a huge competition, the people gave thunderous applause and cheers at the announcer Cha Tae-in’s shout. It was so loud that my ears were itching.

“Whaaaaaaaaaa!”

The people of Hodori Village rush in without exception, embrace Taesu, and throw him into the sky, catching him, and repeating the process.

“Hey hey! Get off! Get off-”

This is the first time in my life that I’ve ever received a hangar, and I couldn’t figure out how to handle it. I guess I can’t trust human hands at all.

“The pride of Sanggye-dong!”

“Hodori is the hero of the village!”

“Jeon-gang! Jeon-gang!”

Like a henchman.

That kid, Kim Gyu-il, was the most excited.

But fortunately, Sang-geun is on my side and not Tae-soo’s. He should be able to lift and lower me by himself with ease.

“Hohoho.”

“Hahaha.”

I was a little nervous and made a fuss to get off, but my sisters and mother laughed happily. Well, it doesn’t seem like it would be so bad to wash this.

As I was flying through the sky of Sanggye-dong, which was filled with the scent of spring, I turned my head absentmindedly and saw a man who couldn’t properly raise his head among the cheering people.

Hot.

As the washing up was finally over, the Sanggye-dong guys put me down.

“Director.”

“Yes, Jeon Gang-ssi.”

“I guess I should go.”

“Where?”

I glanced at the man waiting for me with an anxious expression in the crowd. Director Baek, who had been looking at me like I was, nodded his head.

“oh my…”

Director Baek’s elasticity is full of many things.

He nodded his head and said.

“Well, since filming is over, I’ll tidy up this place a bit, so go ahead and take care of business.”

“Yes, let’s talk about the documentary separately.”

“is it so.”

My sisters and mother had a slightly regretful look on their faces as they heard the conversation with Director Baek.

“It won’t take long.”

maybe.

What could possibly take a long time?

All you have to do is ask for permission.

“So? Come on time, Sanggeun will prepare the feast.”

The Sanggye-dong children giggle at their mother’s joke and Sanggeun smiles awkwardly.

“Okay, Mom. I’ll be back soon.”

Leaving my regretful family and the guys from Sanggye-dong behind, I walked among the people from Sanggye-dong and Hodori Village who smiled at me, gave me a thumbs up, or clapped their hands.

The path opens up so that my steps are not impeded, and at the end of the path, a man who had been bowing his head raises his head in surprise.

“Huh? Where does that guy say this is!”

“What? Don’t you have a conscience?”

“What kind of scam are you trying to commit again!”

He bites his lower lip hard and lowers his head again.

It’s only been a week, but my face looks puffy, so I think I’ve been through a lot. I’m not sure if it’s my heart or my mind that’s been through a lot, but I keep thinking about the face of Bokdeokbang Kang Noya, who couldn’t get over the shock.

Thanks to you.

Have a great time with your family.

Having a good time with the guys from Sanggye-dong.

I feel a little better about being deprived of fun times with my people. It’s funny how just thinking about someone can relieve stress.

“Why did you come?”

Of course, aside from that.

It wasn’t easy for me to say nice things. I still didn’t like him. If it weren’t for the friend of Buk-am Mountain behind that person, I wouldn’t have met him.

“Mother… Could you tell me where your grave is located?”

His speech is extremely polite.

I can’t check someone’s eyes because they’re looking down. I’m not a mind reader, so how can I know what someone’s mind is like just by looking at their eyes?

I can only vaguely recognize the many people I have encountered so far.

Glance.

Looking at his shoes, he was wearing black shoes. No matter how small the mountain is, climbing Bukamsan Mountain would be no easy feat wearing shoes like that. It looks like he’s going to have a hard time.

“Let’s go.”

I feel like he’s taking the lead and I’m following behind him.

“mountain?”

Park Jeong-yong was the first to speak at the entrance of Buk-am Mountain. I walked up the road without saying a word. How could I have thought it would be easy to go to the burial site? Aren’t most burial sites in Korea usually in the mountains? Of course, if a columbarium is built over time, it would be a little different, but I don’t know if there is one now.

When there was no response, he followed me down the street again.

Spring has come to Mt. Buk-Am as well. New shoots are sprouting on the once barren tree branches, and the once dry green pine trees are showing off their greenness with new life.

‘Has spring come there too?’

I ask a question to my friend whom I will meet soon, but there is no answer. I glance at Park Jeong-yong, who is breathing heavily behind me.

Is it just my imagination that I can picture my friend’s smiling face?

Even hedgehogs think their children are cute.

If I knew her.

You’ll laugh and cough.

And then, he will firmly grasp your hand with his dry, cracked palms, and pat you on the back, telling you that he knows everything.

It’s not like I’m a spring.

I’m sure there are people like that among us.

On the flat rock on the side of Bukam Mountain, overlooking Hodori Village at a glance, I tapped my palm on a spot and spoke.

“He said he wanted to see Hodori Village.”

Thud at my words.

He kneels, lets out a ragged breath, and touches the dirt floor with trembling hands.

“Here… here…”

The man who had been glancing at me from time to time suddenly began to get wet in his eyes, and soon he started to choke up and start talking as if I wasn’t even in his sight.

“Are you comfortable after going like that? Your son… Did you hate your son that much? Yes? Thanks to you, your son is now a beggar. Everything is ruined-”

He pours out his frustration and resentment.

For some reason, when I see that tongue-licking sight, I am reminded of my past self.

“Was it really that precious… that you would give it to a complete stranger, and that you would give it to me? You let your older brother live a comfortable life in America, and you even gave your older sister, who is a married woman, a place to live so that she wouldn’t have to worry about getting married… All I got was a small apartment, right? Yes?”

chagrin.

His mouth holds his grievances.

however.

I see it in his face, in his eyes, and in his touch.

I saw something other than injustice.

“If only I could live well… If only I could live more comfortably and prosperously! Why! Why-!”

Raised his hand.

To clench one’s fist and then try to put it down.

In his hands, which were unable to knock or strike the ground where my friend was buried, while screaming as if his anger was exploding.

I saw my mother.

I felt like I could see my past in Park Jeong-yong, who had a face and eyes similar to mine from some time ago.

Don’t you know better than anyone else what it means to be blinded by greed?

“Sob… sob sob… ah- ah-”

Crying and screaming.

Whether the climbers are looking or not, Park Jeong-yong probably doesn’t notice his surroundings right now. He’s staring at the yellow dirt floor, tears streaming down his face, but his eyes must be seeing something other than dirt blowing away in the wind.

‘memory.’

He must be reminiscing about some moment that will never happen again.

The day I took my last breath.

What remained in my head was regret.

All I could do was scold and criticize myself for being distorted by dirty greed, so that the memories from that time could not continue any longer.

Memories.

It becomes deeper when we face a breakup.

Memories that have disappeared into the well of oblivion suddenly reveal themselves and cause pain when you think that they can never be repeated.

“Euaaaah- euaaaaah-”

So it is only natural that you would writhe in unbearable pain.

The saying goes that health is the best filial piety.

Isn’t it because some parents knew that soon, the heart of the parent being left behind would be torn apart and unbearable pain?

which.

The moment of separation that we cannot meet again, called death.

Even if you’re not a parent.

The same moment will come to your children too.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry! I’m sorry-!”

What remains is.

Regret and longing.

Endlessly.

Can never be repaid.

I’m sorry.

All the bad memories are useless.

Only good memories keep coming to mind.

In that whirlwind of pain, all you can do is writhe in guilt and offer an apology that will go unanswered and unaccepted.

“I’m sorry- I’m sorry- Ugh.”

That’s how Park Jeong-yong’s greed collapsed.

Regret is always early and late.

It’s so fair to everyone.

“It’s too… too… unworthy… too late… Mother- Mother-!”

Listening to the echo of apology, I looked down at the village of Hodori that my friend would look down on every day.

That is my pledge.

This is my pledge to live without regrets.

“The house price will be half of the original market price.”

As the crying subsided, Park Jeong-yong, exhausted from pouring out everything, looked at me with surprised eyes. His eyes seemed to be asking why I was the one who was causing the damage.

I turned my head and looked at the village of Hodori, which was smiling brightly.

The sight of Hodori smiling brightly.

Sure enough, it looks like my grandmother is laughing at my decision.

“Because it’s spring.”

“yes?”

“Because it’s easy to move.”

Because I will live without regrets.

Just as new buds are sprouting on a tree that has just lost its leaves, if you have realized something even a little, I hope that spring will come to Park Jeong-yong as well.

So, I will live without regrets.