Series: The All-Rounder Employee Becomes a Legend
Chapter: 45
Title: Father's Memento
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The branch manager's praise seemed like it was just moments ago, yet Taeseok and Minseong were already in Samcheok, Gangwon Province.
A full three hours and twenty minutes.
All that time invested just to meet a single client.
By the time their appointment with the client was over, it was already 9 p.m.
Team Leader Kim Minseong asks Taeseok.
“A jjimjilbang? Or a hotel?”
“I heard the seawater jjimjilbangs around here are famous.”
“Spending our last day at a jjimjilbang? You won't regret it?”
“Yes!”
So, they entered the jjimjilbang instead of a hotel.
The two men showered to wash up before changing into the jjimjilbang clothes.
They were well past the point of being shy with each other.
His senior spoke bluntly to Taeseok.
“Hey!”
“Yes?”
“Why are you so damn big?”
“Hey, don't say things like that.”
“Haha, I'm just jealous. Once you're done washing up, change into the jjimjilbang clothes and come up. I'll go ahead, order some beer, and start peeling some roasted eggs.”
“Ah, yes. I'll be right up.”
Taeseok grinned.
*Dangle, dangle.*
He was definitely not lacking in that department.
Taeseok thought as he dried his wet body with a towel.
‘Thank you, ancestors. Truly.’
* * *
They talked all night.
The two of them, as if they had endless things to say, chatted nonstop at the jjimjilbang.
And then, dawn came.
On the way back to Seoul from Samcheok after sleeping in a clay cave room.
As if saddened by their impending farewell, neither of them said a word.
In front of the Gangnam Express Bus Terminal.
No matter how sad, the moment of parting had come.
Taeseok was the first to bid his senior farewell.
“Senior. Thank you for everything.”
But then, his senior unexpectedly started counting on his fingers, calculating the day he would see Taeseok again.
“Is it eight months until you can come back?”
“…Senior.”
“If you don't get into the Strategic Planning Office in eight months, don't even think about going anywhere else. Come to our branch. Let's do sales together. I'll always have a spot for you.”
“Yes. I'll do that.”
Taeseok had parted with people in the military and met and said goodbye to many on construction sites.
He should have been used to separating from people he'd grown fond of, but he wasn't.
Though they never said it, the two had grown attached to each other.
His senior was the first to put things plainly.
“Taeseok, since you've already made your decision, just go for it. No regrets.”
“Yes. I'm really going now.”
The moment Taeseok turned around, memories of the past two months with his senior came flooding back.
It was the same for his senior.
This was the kid he had traveled the country with, visiting famous restaurants, sometimes bathing together in hotels and jjimjilbangs, and brainstorming how to approach clients and what they might need…
The kid who had worked with such sincerity, as if they would be together forever… And now that kid was leaving to pursue his own goal.
Was that why?
Feeling a sense of loss, the senior called out his junior's name.
“Taeseok!”
“Yes?”
And he brought up the insurance policies they had signed together.
“I'll take over and manage the contracts signed under your name, so don't worry about them. Got it?”
Taeseok was grateful to him for doing that.
So he bowed his head 90 degrees and said,
“Thank you for taking care of me until the very end.”
Senior and junior.
Junior and senior.
A mutual, sincere affection for one another.
“Don't thank me. I should be thanking you.”
“Yes, Senior. I'll see you again.”
“Yeah.”
In the end, their different goals split their paths, as if by fate.
Thinking they wouldn't be able to see each other for a while, Taeseok boarded the express bus.
The young man, heading to his hometown, Cheonan.
A new window appeared before him.
Perhaps because his commission from the insurance premiums exceeded 20 million won, the reward was quite large.
[You have acquired 40 Points.]
* * *
He arrived back home. The moving day was soon.
Tomorrow was the day they were scheduled to pack up the house where he and his mom lived and move into the middle-aged man's house.
A small house.
In the closet were the belongings of his late father.
Taeseok watched his mother sorting through his father's clothes and spoke up.
“Mom, don't we have to throw these clothes out now?”
“We do. Go put them in the used clothing collection bin.”
“Okay.”
But inside the clothes, he saw a thick wallet.
His father's wallet.
And a photograph inside it.
Taeseok looked at it and said,
“Mom! This is our family photo, isn't it?”
“Huh?”
Kang Hyejung took the photo from her son and was lost in memories.
It was a picture taken on the day Taeseok first entered elementary school.
In it was her, wearing what now looked like a tacky floral dress, and Kim Hyunggon, who had snuck away from his construction job to attend his son's entrance ceremony.
And holding both his mom's and dad's hands was a brightly smiling child.
That was a young Taeseok.
Looking at the photo, the grown-up Taeseok smiled.
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“I should probably keep this, right? He'll hate it if he sees it.”
“You think so?”
“Of course. Do you think he'd be happy if you were carrying around Dad's picture?”
At Taeseok's words, Kang Hyejung nodded and replied.
“You're right. It's better if you carry this photo, son.”
As his mother suggested, Taeseok tucked the photo of his late father into his own wallet.
And another photo in the wallet.
This time, it was black and white.
In front of a building, a middle-aged man stood with about 40 children.
Taeseok spoke up.
“Mom? Isn't this the orphanage director who officiated your wedding?”
“No. That's the director's father. It was the 1970s, so the director would have been around your age back then, Taeseok.”
“Ah…”
Taeseok smiled, looking at the black-and-white photo of the orphanage director's father with a group of children.
Just then, the middle-aged man came in without knocking.
He asked the mother and son, who were close together, in a gruff voice.
“What are you two doing? Got a secret you're keeping from me?”
The middle-aged man, Kim Hanul, sidled up to them.
He looked at the photo Taeseok was holding and smiled.
“Hahaha, son! Were you looking at the picture of me and Hyunggon? I have that one too.”
A picture taken in their childhood at the orphanage.
“You have one too, sir?”
He took the exact same black-and-white photo from his own wallet and began to tell the story.
“The director took this the day after Hyunggon and I arrived. 1970, we were so hungry back then. See how all the older kids from the orphanage have sour looks on their faces? It's because they were hungry.”
Just as the man said, his father's and the man's faces looked as if they were furious.
“You're right. It seems like it was a really difficult time to live.”
Taeseok nodded as he watched the man lost in his memories.
And said,
“Mom, can I keep this photo?”
At that, Kim Hanul said to Taeseok.
“Why? You want a picture of your handsome new dad?”
Taeseok thought.
‘This guy could be serious, but sometimes he joked around too much.’
So he decided to push back a little.
“No? It's because this is the only picture I have of my dad when he was young.”
But the middle-aged man, Kim Hanul, deftly parried his defiance.
“A father and son having the same picture... doesn't it feel like some kind of poignant father-son bond?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, come on. You, Taeseok, share a secret with me, your dad.”
“…That's weird.”
"Heh heh."
After the man's joke, as Taeseok was about to take the rest of his father's things from the closet to throw them away, the middle-aged man, Kim Hanul, asked his mother.
“Are you sure you're okay? They're his mementos.”
“I have to forget now.”
“You don't have to forget.”
“It's okay. I'm really okay.”
Kang Hyejung began to sort through all of it—the clothes, valuables, and photos that held memories of his father.
Watching her, it finally sank in for Taeseok.
That his mom had really married this man.
That they were a family now.
Was that why?
The middle-aged man, Kim Hanul, began to share his own story with his mother.
“Hoo hoo, when I look at that photo, I start to wonder. What might my father be doing? Where could he be living right now?”
Hearing Kim Hanul's words, Kang Hyejung asked with a worried expression.
“Have you never tried to find him?”
“When I was young, I didn't have the presence of mind. You know how it was, Hyejung. In the 1970s, it was hard enough just to get by. Who had the time to look for anyone?”
“That's true. Times were hard for everyone back then.”
“Of course, not everyone had it hard. My family was very wealthy. I'm telling you, the house I lived in before coming to the orphanage had a refrigerator.”
“Oh, you really had a refrigerator back then?”
“Of course. My family was incredibly well-off.”
“Hoo hoo, Hyunggon used to say the same thing all the time.”
“Haha, Hyunggon also always went around saying his family was originally rich. He used to bet with me every day about whose parents would come looking for them first. Well, in the end, no one came for either of us.”
At his bitter words, Kang Hyejung asked again.
“Why didn't you try looking for your parents first, Hanul?”
“After I became an adult, I searched a lot, asked around. Even after becoming a doctor, I spent my weekends traveling all over the country looking for them. But I couldn't find them. The world had changed too drastically. The world I knew as a child and the world I knew as an adult were completely different. The streets, the scenery, the people. Everything.”
“……”
At his words, Hyejung and Taeseok were left speechless.
A bitter memory.
Because that memory belonged to the middle-aged man, Kim Hanul, alone.
Nevertheless, Kim Hanul, who had endured the hardships of time, was resilient.
“Haha, want to hear a funny story?”
“What is it?”
“Neither Cheol-seong nor I know our original names. Even now.”
“What?”
“The first director of the orphanage gave us both our names. The father of the man who officiated your wedding.”
“Oh, really?”
“If we just knew our names, if we had just remembered them, we probably could have found our real families easily. That was the crucial part. We lost our parents when we were too young.”
“……”
“It's strange, isn't it? That I still don't know my original name.”
“Don't worry about it too much.”
“I'll try. It looks like we're mostly done here. Let's leave the rest to the movers coming tomorrow and go get a meal as a family, shall we?”
“Okay.”
“Taeseok, you're coming with us, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good.”
Kim Hanul felt a pang of disappointment at his new son, who still hadn't opened up to him.
Still, he didn't show it.
The boy would call him 'Dad' someday.
He looked forward to that day, but for now... no, for today... he desperately wanted to hear it.
* * *
Kim Hanul took his family to the nicest family restaurant nearby.
It was to treat Hyejung, who rarely got to eat nice things, and Taeseok, who had been working so hard at the company.
But then, Taeseok suddenly pulled out his debit card.
“Hey! Your dad was going to pay.”
“Sir, I make a lot of money now too.”
“How much could you possibly make? Your dad makes over 8 million won a month.”
“Hehe, last month I earned twice as much as you, sir.”
“Don't lie.”
“It's true. So let me treat you today.”
Kim Hanul felt resentful as his new son insisted on paying.
He had planned to treat them to this meal and then say to Taeseok.
‘I bought you dinner, so call me Dad! Huh?’
But now that chance was snatched away.
And still, the boy insisted on calling him "sir."
‘This kid. Is that one word, [Dad!], so hard to say?’
It wasn't about the money; it was an emotional matter between people.
They were family now, but the boy still kept his distance.
The boy piled his plate high with delicious food from the buffet, bringing back far more than the three of them could possibly eat.
And he said,
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“Let's try one of everything.”
“Okay.”
“You're feeling all better now, right?”
“Yes. The doctor said I'm all clear. Not a single cancer cell left. So don't worry.”
“Yeah. That's great.”
Annoyed that Taeseok was only paying attention to his mother, Kim Hanul ordered a bottle of wine and moistened his mouth with a sip as he thought.
‘Hmph, you cheeky brat. You have no idea how I feel!’
But just then, Taeseok spoke his true feelings.
“Sir.”
“What is it?”
“Before the year is out, I'll... I'll try to call you... D-Dad.”
“Wh-What?”
The boy knew.
He knew what Kim Hanul wanted. That's why he was so surprised.
Was it because he had spoken so honestly? A wave of emotion washed over him.
“I'm sorry. I still haven't fully sorted out my feelings. So please, just give me a little more time.”
Hearing Taeseok's words, Kim Hanul thought.
Had he been pushing Taeseok too hard?
‘That's right. I was only thinking of myself. Taeseok must have needed time.’
Was that why?
Tears welled up in his eyes.
Seeing this, Taeseok was certain his guess had been right.
That he desperately wanted it.
To be called Dad.
But his heart wasn't quite ready yet.
So he said.
“Sir? Are you crying?”
Hearing this, Kang Hyejung smiled.
Kim Hanul wiped the tears from his eyes with his sleeve and spoke to his new son beside his wife, feigning a serious expression.
“No. I'm not crying! Why would I be crying?”
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