A Chairman Who Has No Regrets - Chapter 3



Only Krnovel

The Chairman Who Doesn’t Regret Episode 3 – Bad Dreams (3)

I have lived for over half a century, but there are still many things I do not know. I never knew there was such a landscape on this road, and I never knew about the consideration of my mother and sisters.

You only just found out about all that. No, you only just realized it.

The smell of poverty lingered in my memory, and there was something warm and affectionate, not just a bunch of poverty. I didn’t want to see that.

Squeak.

The man who opened the green door came out and looked surprised at me.

“Hey? Kang-i is with me today?”

An awkward laugh forms. I can’t quite remember who he is.

Just as I was about to say hello, the black door next door to the man’s house opened and another man came out.

“Really? I used to live every morning enjoying seeing Hye-ri, but today there are only guys.”

He remained faintly in my memory.

I remember he was an old bachelor. Well, I can’t remember his name.

The green gate man takes his word for it.

“Where did Choi Ga, who used to nag Hye-ri all the time because she was whining, go?”

“Oh my, this guy! The river is coming in.”

He said he was listening, but his eyes were fixed on the repair shop owner who was coming out of the sliding front door across from him.

“Oh my, I thought you smelled like a widower, but you still say that Hye-ri is a woman?”

Mrs. Hwang, the owner of a repair shop and the mother of a classmate, is vaguely memorable.

The old bachelor is startled by her words.

“Oh! I misunderstood.”

“Dog, don’t be so stubborn. I’ll make sure that Mrs. Choi doesn’t come near Hye-ri.”

A lovely dialect.

I left Korea and lived in the United States for nearly 30 years.

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard a dialect, and it feels so good.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“What are you talking about? I’m more thankful for Hye-ri and Kang-i, who are having a hard time the day after it snowed.”

Now that I think about it, it’s been Hye-ri, Hye-ri since a while ago.

Everyone in the neighborhood was mentioning my little sister’s name.

“I guess your little sister came out often?”

“Harmony! Don’t you remember this time last year? Why, when you and your mother Insuk first came here?”

“Huh? Oh… My memory is a bit hazy.”

“Oh my, young one, will you do that?”

The way she speaks in a reproachful tone is both endearing and surprising.

Is this really a dream?

“Did it snow a lot that day too? Did that make it so hard for you?”

Oh, yeah.

I remember the day we first moved to this neighborhood.

A moment in the middle of winter when I was sweating profusely while moving boxes because my blue truck couldn’t move due to snow piled up on the hillside road.

“Ah, yes.”

“The next day, my mother-in-law, In-suk, fell down. What happened to the child?”

Has that ever happened?

But why do I only think about and remember the things I suffered through?

“Oh my, In-sook’s injured back then still hurts when I touch her.”

Sometimes I think of my mother, who would hold my waist and frown.

In my dream, Mrs. Hwang knows things that I don’t.

My head keeps getting more and more complicated.

Thinking of my mother, thinking of my little sister, and wondering if this was a dream or reality.

“It was from that time, right? Hye-ri went from house to house to get the used briquettes and spread them all over the hill.”

The townspeople nodded their heads while saying, “Yes, yes.”

“Thanks to Hye-ri, the number of people falling has decreased significantly.”

“Even briquette, newspaper, and milk deliverymen take this road with confidence?”

“That’s why I was wondering why we didn’t do it before when we could have just done 10 minutes of exercise before work.”

“Harmony! Oh my, how pretty is your mother-in-law? Even if our Gyu-il was just a little girl, I would want her as my daughter-in-law, wouldn’t I?”

The townspeople praise the little sister. There is no lie in their eyes or expressions.

My younger sister, who I thought was really mean to me.

Even if I was wrong, I might have been wrong for a long time.

As I was bowing my head, an old bachelor named Choi approached me and gave me a carton of milk.

“Puppy, don’t worry too much about what the aunties and uncles say. Do you think I have feelings for Hye-ri?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Hye-ri really likes milk, so give her some of that too. Okay?”

“Your little sister likes milk?”

Mr. Choi nodded vigorously and answered.

“Then! Sometimes, when I have milk left over and give you two cartons, you finish one carton right away?”

no.

The little sister I know was someone who said she didn’t want to look at milk because it gave her a stomachache.

By the way, you like milk.

Could this be an error in the dream?

Mr. Choi, an old bachelor, tapped me on the shoulder and turned around to go back to his house.

“Oh my, Kang-i worked hard today so there’s less work to do. Should we hurry up and go to work?”

The neighbors started to leave one by one and disappeared into their homes. I stared blankly at the milk carton in my hand for a long time.

This milk carton was very familiar to me.

Because during my high school years, he was the guy who filled my hunger that wasn’t in my lunch box quite often, if not every day.

“I lived in vain.”

Even though I lived to be over half a hundred years old, I truly felt like I lived in vain.

I didn’t know there was this much I didn’t know.

I really am a pathetic person.

Suddenly, the strength in my arms gave out and a dark path covered in light beige charcoal ash appeared.

Why did I only realize now that someone’s consideration was scattered widely along the road I walked along every day without a care in the world?

Living under such consideration, what kind of person was I to my family? Was I not someone who always received but never gave back?

‘That makes sense.’

I can’t help but understand my little sister who always frowns in front of me.

I would have been like that too.

“Phew.”

I let out a big sigh.

It would be fortunate if we could leave behind a generous inheritance.

In this situation, I felt sorry that all I could give was money.

I thought money could buy everything.

I realized that besides not being able to extend my lifespan, there was one more thing I couldn’t do.

I guess money alone won’t be enough to repay my family’s generous consideration. Leaving an inheritance is ultimately just my selfishness.

“Tsk.”

it’s a shame.

That there is no time left for me to turn back the clock on my past choices.

I wish dreams could last forever, but that would be too much to ask.

“It’s a bee.”

This dream.

This dream, so sweet and happy, was like a punishment to me.

Okay, take it sweetly.

Even that makes me happy.

Squeak.

I opened the blue iron door and headed back to my beloved semi-basement home.

The glass window attached to the brown iron door looks just like me. It’s shaking and trembling with anxiety.

Crunch.

“Did you make and spread briquettes? Why did it take so long?”

The grumbling of my younger sister, who was squatting in the multipurpose room and washing the breakfast table.

Pick, laughter bursts out.

Look at this, it’s not a punishment, it’s a gift.

“I talked to some neighbors.”

“Who? Mr. Suyeong?”

“Oh, the landlady was there too, and all the neighbors came out.”

“Really? Did Mr. Choi do his job properly? Hey, I should have gone out and nagged him.”

“Haha, good job, I saw it.”

“That’s why I don’t believe you, you punk.”

Choke, choke.

My little sister is pouring cold water over the dishes. Her hands are red, so I guess she washes the dishes with cold water too.

“I’ll do it, drink this.”

“Huh?”

My little sister opens her rabbit eyes and looks at me. Then she stares at the milk carton in my hand.

ah.

My sister really liked milk.

In my eyes, which have lived for half a century, I now see the momentary hesitation that passed through my sister’s eyes.

“Don’t you know that I get a stomachache if I drink milk? You drink it.”

“Okay… I’ll do the dishes.”

My older sister said with a look of wondering why he was like that.

“You tell me honestly.”

“what?”

“Are you sorry?”

“What crime?”

“No matter how much I think about it, it doesn’t make sense to you.”

“what.”

“Why are you crying in the morning? Why are you going to scatter the coal briquette ashes? Why are you even offering to do the dishes? Something is fishy about this. Just tell your older sister, and I’ll keep it a secret from your mother.”

It’s a sin.

Yes, I am very sinful.

It was a sin not to know about sacrifice, consideration, and compromise for me, and it was also a sin to pretend not to know.

“Get out of the way.”

Since I couldn’t think of a good answer, I decided to just go for it. I shoved my butt in and pushed my little sister out of the plastic bath chair.

thud.

Thanks to that, my little sister got a small butt bump.

“This is real!”

“I will do it.”

“Something is fishy… This guy never comes near the kitchen because he keeps getting chewed.”

Is that so?

Did I say something like that?

When I see my older sister, a few memorable memories flash through my mind again.

I hid my complicated thoughts and spoke as I knew how.

“Will it be a mess even if I help you?”

My little sister briefly thought about what I said and then nodded.

“Hmm, then you do the dishes, and I’ll pack your lunch instead.”

“okay.”

While my older sister is busy, Sak-gak-yang prepares two lunch boxes. Just looking at those lunch boxes makes me giggle.

I open the lid of the empty lunch box and put about a third of the rice I cooked that morning in it, then put a pinch of the very precious stir-fried anchovies in one corner. Then I put my mom’s kimchi in the other corner, tearing it into long pieces by hand.

At that sight, I was startled and a mutter came out of my mouth without me realizing it.

“Kimchi has to be torn by hand, yea, yea.”

How delicious would that simple, hearty lunchbox be? My mouth is already watering.

“What are you saying? Do you tear kimchi with your hands? Or with your feet?”

“No, you’re right.”

“You? Are you telling me now?”

“What my sister said is right.”

“Hurry up and do the dishes! Are you going to be late?”

“Oh, we have to hurry.”

Chook.

“Oh.”

The sound of water bursting out in a chilling manner without me knowing. My sister was washing dishes with this kind of water, and she was very used to it.

“Hehe, why are you cold?”

“No, it’s okay.”

“You little punk, since you did something cute today, your older sister is giving you a special treat.”

“uh?”

My older sister started searching through the cupboards and all over the kitchen, smiling faintly as if telling me to just wait and see.

“It must be here somewhere.”

“What are you looking for?”

“Found it!”

My sister shakes a small can of tuna with the lid open.

“Did you see? I thought you only used half the tuna in the kimchi stew you made this morning!”

“Isn’t that what Mom was saving for next time?”

My sister said, bringing her index finger to her lips.

“Be quiet – Big sister is coming in.”

My sister, who was smiling and pouring all the tuna into her lunch box. That tuna must be really expensive, but it was enough to be a burden to us at the time.

I thought that if I got caught doing that, my little sister would get hit on the back again. But I couldn’t stop her. The expression on my little sister’s face as she carefully packed her lunch looked so good.

“This is a prize from my older sister, you punk.”

My older sister, who had been cautiously observing the situation and closing the lunch box lid, went into the room humming a tune as if she was so excited about something.

Choke, choke.

Even though the dishes were already done, I kept pouring cold water on my hands. The vivid sensation kept making my head complicated.

‘I wonder if this is a dream.’

The townspeople were crushing the coal briquette ash.

My younger sister secretly packs canned tuna that her mother has been saving into her younger brother’s lunchbox.

The sensations are so realistic.

Things that weren’t in my memories.

All of this was telling me that what I was going through right now wasn’t a dream.

“If.”

If all this I’m experiencing right now isn’t a dream, then…

Swish.

I opened the lid of the lunch box my older sister had packed for me.

There is a little bit of canned tuna in my lunch box, and my little sister’s lunch box has not only no tuna, but also a little bit of fried anchovies. There are so few anchovies that you can count them if you want.

I put the lid back on and changed the position of the lunch box. Then I put the lunch box containing the tuna and milk into my little sister’s bag.

“If you do this···”

Could it change a little?