A Chairman Who Has No Regrets - Chapter 65



Only Krnovel

The Chairman Who Has No Regrets Episode 65 – Samgochoryeo (4)

A scholarship quiz where we laugh, get angry, and cheer together. The Sanggye-dong guys cheer passionately as if they were seeing each other for the first time, even though they went together and cheered together.

“Oh my- whose son is that? He’s so handsome.”

My mother smiles bashfully at the landlady’s compliments.

“Oh my, swimming is pretty too-”

Gyu-il’s mother suddenly intervenes and says.

“Harmony! Are you proud of Sanggye-dong?”

“That’s right!”

“yes!”

Again, the townspeople who make me fly so high that I can reach the moon.

My mother and older sister just smile happily and show a lot of humility, but my younger sister’s face is a bit ambiguous.

I wonder if something is wrong.

My little sister who looks a little dark.

“Oh my, Hye-ri is coming out, Hye-ri- oh my, she looks even prettier when I watch her on TV-”

Gyu-il’s mother speaks as if she were a man.

The little sister laughs faintly.

The guys from Sanggye-dong and the neighborhood people nodded their heads in agreement with the compliments about the younger sister’s beauty.

My little sister, who had been shaking her head alone as if she had been feeling a little better, started to socialize brightly with the neighborhood people as if she had never been grumpy.

“But you’re not going to marry me, are you?”

At the words of the younger sister, Mr. Choi, the old bachelor and uncle of the younger sister’s friend, who was holding a sip of makgeolli in his mouth, heard the sound.

“Phew, kekeke.”

“Hey! Dilovara!”

Gyu-il’s mother’s reaction to being drenched in makgeolli rain brings a smile to his face once again.

Whatever it was.

What’s good is good.

The shadow that passed over my little sister’s face bothered me for a moment, but for now, I wanted to enjoy this place.

As I was looking around, absorbed in watching the people in the neighborhood, I saw three shantytown brothers and their father standing timidly at the entrance of a restaurant.

“mister.”

As I approached, Chang-Hyeon called out to me happily.

“First place hyung-ah! No, now you’re the best hyung-ah!”

The man, who seemed nervous for a moment, smiled and handed me a black plastic bag.

I took a quick peek inside and saw two exercise books and a pencil.

“Yes, I guess so… but there’s always a shortage of school supplies.”

I lowered my head slightly at the sound of the man’s rough voice.

“I’ll use it well, sir.”

“You don’t like it?”

“No, I just needed a practice field.”

The old man who had been embarrassed by my words looked much more at ease.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, welcome. Let’s sit over there and watch together, sir.”

“No, I’m busy, I just wanted to congratulate you.”

Contrary to what the old man said, the children’s eyes were focused on the banquet food.

“Oh my – where are you going – since you’ve seen the rice cake, why don’t you eat it and go to the ancestral rites?”

The old man smiled awkwardly and bowed deeply in greeting at the words of the mother who had come to the door of the store without him noticing.

“Hello, ma’am.”

“Oh my, ma’am, come in again- come in quickly.”

The mother grabbed the uncle’s arm and pulled him towards her, and the Sanggye-dong guys pressed closer to her side, giving them a place to sit.

“Only the kids eat here. Mr. Park, come here. Have a bowl of takju too.”

When Taesu started to take care of Changhyun’s children as per his mother’s words, the old man finally felt relieved and sat down, led by his mother’s arm.

“Brother, brother.”

The little girl, Miyoung, grabs my collar.

“huh?”

He hands over the rolled up paper from his bosom, looking around. He feels something hard inside the paper.

“Only you can use this, oppa.”

“What is it? Can I open it?”

“Blindfold, it’s embarrassing.”

“Haha, okay. I’ll open it later.”

“yes-”

“Eat quickly, I’m hungry.”

After being given permission to eat, Chang-hyeon and Mi-yeong finally reach for their food. The eldest child, Mi-gyeong, bows her head to me.

I smiled softly, patted the guy’s head, and placed chopsticks in his hand.

“Thank you, brother.”

“I am grateful that you came to congratulate me.”

“That’s paper… I drew it.”

“Really? It’s a gift that Mikyung and Miyoung prepared together?”

Miyoung nods with a mouthful of Jeon in her mouth.

“Me too, me too! I colored it!”

Chang-Hyeon says that he also helped, spitting.

“Okay, okay, I got it. Eat it quickly, quickly.”

I’m curious about the pictures the guys drew.

The kids finally focused completely on the food. I turned the film over and took a picture of them. They were eating the pancakes that had more flour on them than the fillings. Just watching them eat made me feel full.

I turned my head and saw the guys’ father also downing a bowl of makgeolli.

“Oh my, it must have been hard raising three kids.”

“Oh my, are you Nusanne Earls? You’re really good.”

The townspeople accept him without any prejudice, even though he is awkward and embarrassed.

Is praising your children a cheat key?

Before he knew it, a smile was on his face.

By the way, what kind of gift did the kids prepare? I can’t help but wonder, but will the kids who eat food in a hurry in an uncomfortable place get sick?

I’m trying to hold it in by force.

“Waaaaaaaaaah!”

“It’s Jangwon! Jangwon!”

After the scholarship quiz is over.

People cheering and shouting for the neighborhood to leave. Taesu and I were even beaten to death by the neighborhood people and the Sanggye-dong guys.

“Unnie- I’ll just say this, we’re going to finish it up.”

The neighbors forced me and my family to leave the store and go home.

They sent us home in the owner’s car and offered to clean up the banquet table themselves.

“Hey! I don’t know- just take a break today!”

The older sister smiles bashfully and is pleased with her drunken mother’s decision.

It seems that my sister and I both have the same wish to have some days off.

As soon as I entered the house, my mother, who had been patting my butt, barely took off her outerwear and got under the blanket, and my older sister also barely brushed her teeth and got under the blanket.

I understand since they both poured their glasses. I wish I could have had a drink on such a nice day, but it’s a bit unfortunate that I’m still a high school student.

“hey.”

I called my younger sister one day when she was reading the newspaper alone.

“uh.”

“Well done.”

It was a compliment that was hard to hear coming out of my little sister’s mouth. However, unlike the words that came out, I could see regret on my little sister’s face.

“Oh, thank you.”

“i envy you.”

“huh?”

“I’m jealous, you punk.”

“what?”

My sister said, looking at the closed door.

“When Mom smiles, I feel happy too.”

Well, I think I know what it means. Maybe he felt something when he saw his mother being proud of him. Maybe it wasn’t jealousy, but rather he wanted to be proud of his mother.

“I’m proud of you too, sister.”

“what?”

“I am also proud of Jeon Hye-ri who is going to Seoul National University Medical School.”

“what-”

My little sister waved her hand and laughed out loud as if to say, “When was I ever gloomy?”

I couldn’t just sit at home any longer, with the awkward words blurting out without me knowing.

“I’m going out and I’ll be back.”

“Where?”

“I’ll be back before dinner.”

I quickly grabbed my camera and left the house. I still feel like I lack the skills to comfort someone. The same goes for my ability to empathize.

I said I was proud because I was really proud, but those words made me feel unbearably awkward, as if a thorn had grown on my tongue or a needle had been stuck in my butt.

A photo that had to be taken anyway.

I started taking pictures of the shantytown area.

“Ke-hack-”

Old people coughing and staring blankly into space.

Children running around in shabby clothes.

A dirt floor full of mud.

One by one, the scenery shows the shantytown as it is today.

People smiling brightly while petting a cuddly puppy.

Hope and despair, emptiness.

I tried to capture the scenery of the shantytown, a place where people live, with such strange things coexisting, as much as possible.

“Hey.”

As I moved like that, I came near the screen, and soon, instead of the blue steep slope, there were many pictures drawn in black charcoal on a thin, yellowish cloth.

Some of the paintings are quite beautiful and have flowing lines, while others are so childish that they look like they were drawn by someone who doesn’t know what a painting is. But somehow, they are all strangely harmonious.

In those paintings, human and animal figures are unusually numerous, and they have something in common.

“Everyone is laughing.”

Is the world that children see only smiling faces like that? Or is that what they want to see?

Knock, click, knock, click.

I carefully captured each and every picture with my camera. Just like the animals and people in the pictures.

I wish the people here had smiling faces too.

My family too.

All of Sanggye-dong.

I wish you had a smiling face.

“Shut up.”

I hurried to my feet before the sun set. My goal was to take a picture of the Sanggye-dong shantytown area seen from the middle of Bul-am Mountain.

I climbed the mountain and looked at the shantytown.

I don’t see any chimneys with smoke or steam rising. How do they spend this cold winter?

After taking pictures of the shantytown and other places in the distance, I started walking home.

Should I buy a cake on the way?

Not the Christmas chocolate pie cake that my mother and sisters prepared last time, but a real cake.

Knock, click. Knock, click.

Here and there, there was film left, so I kept pressing the shutter on the way.

It’s just across the street from the shantytown, but so many things are different, it’s bittersweet and makes me laugh in vain.

“Do you need a starter?”

“Please give me one.”

“One?”

The pastry shop owner looks at me with a strange face.

I nodded.

“Yes, one.”

Because this is my first cake in my life.

One candle would be enough.

Because this is my first celebratory cake in this life.

I bought the largest size cake, but it has only one thin candle, so I wonder if it’s visible.

Even if it’s empty now, it will be soon.

Not long after.

We need to make sure that there are plenty of things to celebrate, enough to fill a cake much bigger than that huge cake with candles.

Let’s increase the number of things to celebrate one by one.

I wonder if that will happen soon.

“Huh-”

Is this what humming is?

I think it’s the first time I’ve heard that sound come out of my nose since I was born. Even if I think about it carefully, it’s the first time.

It’s fun.

Is this what fathers feel like when they buy whole chickens for their families on their way home from work on payday?

Squeak.

I carefully opened the door and entered the house. All I could hear was the sound of my mother and sisters breathing. It seemed like they were still deep in sleep, oblivious to the world.

I didn’t wake him up because it was a blessing to fall into a deep sleep without worrying. Sometimes, there should be days when you sleep soundly like that.

“ah.”

When I turn my head, I see the gift that the three brothers had given me.

I quickly unfolded the rolled up paper inside the black plastic bag.

“Foot.”

In the picture, I was standing there with an expressionless face. Miyoung is a pretty good painter who knows how to draw points. It can’t be called a perfect portrait, but it’s still a picture that looks pretty similar to me reflected in the mirror.

“You have six fingers.”

The feeling of the line is completely different from other places, so perhaps this hand was drawn by Chang-Hyeon.

I carefully placed the picture on the desk and unrolled the thin newspaper that was rolled up as shown in the picture.

“ah.”

It’s small, thin, and has a shape that makes you feel the sincerity.

“Guys.”

I rolled it up again in newspaper and wrapped it.

I wanted to give this to Kim Up-joong, not me.

“Tsk.”

But when I actually try to give it to him, I feel regretful.

I think that would be more useful.

“Youbi went there three times.”

I really hope I succeed the second time. I feel even more anxious after seeing the guys’ gifts today.

The general election is coming up in February.

A bald head with lots of horns growing out of it.

Officials who flatter him.

Because they overlap, soon a sad wind will blow through the shantytown.