12. Meetings, Farewells, and Beginnings
1962.
Moreover, the moon in the countryside shone far too brightly.
To hide from that light, I lowered my head toward her and slipped into the shadows.
I carefully placed my hand on the head of my mother, who lay on my lap.
“Can oppa leave the house again?”
“Yeah. It’s okay. If oppa holds back what he wants to do and lives giving it up, we have to do that too, child. If oppa doesn’t do it, how could we? I’m sorry.”
“······.”
“So do what you want to do and live.”
I gently stroked her head.
My hand that caressed her head trembled.
Would she break if I touched her? Would she fly away if I blew on her?
As carefully as touching a sandcastle···.
“Thank you···.”
“Hmm?”
“Really, thank you···. Oppa will protect our Gyeongsuk and definitely make her happy···.”
In this world, she was supposed to be my younger sister, so why was she so much like my mother?
Her expressions were a bit childish, but her heart was still like the sea.
Had she been born from the sea, or was I still just a tiny fish?
“···Our oppa··· can do anything···. I like him··· the most in the world···.”
My younger sister, who was also my mother, fell asleep mumbling like that. I picked up my mother, asleep on my lap, laid her down inside the room, and went back out to the yard.
Choi Hee, who had been sleeping crammed between the women, quietly rose, received the twelve-year-old mother into her arms, and laid her down at her side.
Choi Hee seemed to notice that somewhere on my face, illuminated by the moonlight, was red and swollen, but she, too, silently gazed at me before lying down next to the twelve-year-old mother and warmly embracing her.
Leaving that sight behind, I exited the room and went outside again.
My twelve-year-old mother sent great waves crashing through me.
How should I live, having been reincarnated?
Now that I had met my mother, what was I to do?
I had spent nearly four months since my reincarnation with such questions.
Luckily, the timing of my reincarnation was February, and after making money from the securities fluctuation, I couldn’t even figure out what to do with this money.
Because I knew too much.
Knowing the future.
With just that alone, without lifting a finger, if I simply rolled this money around, I could become rich and live proudly.
When the time came, I would know where to buy land,
and later I could invest the appropriately swollen money in stocks as well.
Anyway, if I just sat still and moderately ordered people around, I could continue making enough money for the whole family to do nothing for the rest of their lives.
Would such a life truly be enjoyable?
If necessary, I would make money in that way too, but that mustn’t become the main purpose.
“No···.”
It was the moment when the goals after reincarnation, which had only been vague, were etched strongly into my heart.
That was right.
In this era, were our family the only ones having a hard time?
Minsu too, and others too.
Everyone at this time was a victim of the era.
The ordinary people of this era made thorough sacrifices for those who would come after, and as time passed, they could not even receive proper treatment. They did not even properly know how to enjoy a life that had become somewhat easier as they grew old.
Having worked their entire lives, there was no way they could know how to play.
A hero for as many people as possible!
It might be a bit corny and funny to say, but I wanted to become a hero.
With the knowledge of my reincarnation, if I were to just eat and live well on my own, I could live as comfortably as I wanted, but I decided to live a bit more impressively.
Something that could help many people.
Let me live impressively too, just once.
If you’re a man, live properly for once!
Let me become an oppa of whom she could be so proud that she’d go crazy!
I resolved that today would be the last day I thought of her as my mother. Of course, I wondered if it would go as well as I wished.
-···Our oppa··· can do anything···.
To become an oppa she could be proud of, the first minimum goal I thought of was farming.
Not having hungry children, as in our mother’s original life.
Making sure no neighbors starved to death.
Still, before coming down to Gunwi, it seemed I had buttoned the first button properly in Yeongdong.
*
While walking around the village with that Minsu guy, my morning drowsiness completely vanished.
The very existence of the countryside morning air was like a nutritional supplement.
A refreshing feeling circulated through every corner of my body.
During that time, my resolve hardened.
The resolve that I had to go to Seoul with my family.
I had considered having the family live in their beloved hometown while I traveled back and forth between Seoul and Gunwi, but with the current transportation, that was very unrealistic.
If something happened, it was hard to even contact them properly.
I had already made up my mind and was even building a house in Yeongdong, but I worried that perhaps I might be inconveniencing my family because of my greed.
Gunwi was not a place where people couldn’t live.
However, I judged that for the family who had to live a better life going forward, going to the city was at least a little better.
I immediately returned home and told my family about moving to Yeongdong.
Father and Mother were worried about leaving the home they were attached to, but soon agreed with my opinion.
My parents, having held dirt in their hands all their lives, when I told them we’d do large-scale rice farming in Seoul, nodded as if to say, “Then nothing much will change.”
Though it was a slightly different story that the large-scale rice farming would be much larger than they thought.
The younger siblings’ studies.
And the vague worry that we mustn’t fall behind in the rapidly developing era.
Since I had already unintentionally taken care of the house, the decision was easy.
“I’m counting on you.”
“Yes.”
Choi Hee helped with the younger siblings’ school transfer issues and taking care of the household belongings on behalf of me and my parents.
I had thought coming down with her would be full of inconveniences, but she was certainly a great help with handling administrative tasks and small, detailed matters.
One week.
When one week had passed since I arrived in Gunwi, our family finished all preparations and headed to Seoul. Precisely, to Yeongdong.
“Dongho.”
“Yeah.”
“This time, you’re the one taking the train.”
Tears welled up again in Minsu’s face, who had followed us to Daegu.
“It’s not like we’ll never see each other. Didn’t I tell you? Come up to Yeongdong anytime with your family.”
“Yeah···.”
I had suggested to Minsu that he come to Seoul too, but he was different from me. The household and work he had more or less established here were unavoidable circumstances, and decisively, he still didn’t want to leave his father’s grave far behind.
“We haven’t had a drink together yet.”
“Hmm?”
“Think of your younger siblings. You have to show them the world, even just a little more. That’s what your father really wants. Got it? Whenever you decide, just come. Don’t worry.”
“···Yeah. Thank you.”
“Then I’ll really have a drink with you. I will. I’ll be the one to ask, so you can have that drink with me. Got it? I’m going.”
And so, leaving behind the short meeting with Kim Minsu—who should have been a bad relationship in the original Lee Dongho’s life, but was now a benefactor who had cared for my family—I boarded the train of farewell.
Someone may say that people cannot change. I, too, partly agree with that thought.
Because that was an empirical fact I had learned from living forty years before my reincarnation.
But people sometimes change on their own. It is rare, but that, too, is a fact.
-Screeeeech—chug chug chug chug
The train departed with a loud noise.
As the train gradually picked up speed, that Minsu guy shouted from afar.
“Tha-······*sob*···. Thank you!!!! *sob*······ I’m sorry!!!”
That cry mixed with sobs was not drowned out by the train noise, but dug not into my ears, into my heart.
Before going to Seoul, I went to the bank with Minsu, opened an account for him, and deposited some money.
The day the currency reform’s deposit freeze would be lifted was not far off, so he could withdraw that money and feed his family and live for quite a while without starving.
Thinking of how he had taken care of my family while I was away, I didn’t feel it was a waste at all.
Still, it wasn’t an absurdly large amount, so Minsu only shed tears without refusing. No matter how I looked at it, Minsu cried too much.
A friend···.
Even if the previous Lee Dongho had thought of friends merely as subordinates, I decided to trust Kim Minsu once more.
As a friend.
────────────────────────────────────