Chapter 12

Return (2)

It was an ordinary morning, just like any other.

For two years after sending my daughters to Seoul, I had been waking up to mornings like this all by myself.

I thought I had gotten used to starting my days like this after two years.

But—

‘I guess I hadn’t.’

Since last night, loneliness had kept pressing down on me.

Still, I felt bad asking my daughters to come down to Cheongju every now and then.

‘I can go up to Seoul a few times like last time. If I do that, I only have to endure these two months.’

Two months.

Of course, that wasn’t a short amount of time.

But if I spent that time preparing to leave Cheongju, it would pass quickly enough.

While getting ready for work, I remembered what the landlady had told me yesterday.

Jinhye had paid all the remaining rent until I moved out.

“I should thank her.”

Jinhye would probably be getting ready for work too.

It might be a little awkward to call her in the morning.

“I can call her tonight.”

I had heard she got off work around six.

I could call her after that.

That was what I thought.

After roughly grabbing something to eat.

Just as I was about to finish getting ready to go to work at the apartment, I received a text message.

Could it be Jinhye?

Had our thoughts somehow connected?

‘……Nope.’

The message was from someone else.

Hwang Jiwoon.

He had been my team leader when I worked as a firefighter.

I wondered why the team leader was texting me so early in the morning, so I immediately checked the message.

[ Gichan. How about having some samgyeopsal and soju tonight? It’s been a while. I’ll pay. ]

He was looking for a drinking companion.

Even after I quit being a firefighter, whenever I received messages like this, I would sometimes meet the team leader, talk about the old days, and spend some time together.

The timing was perfect.

‘I had something I wanted to talk about anyway.’

In two months, I would be leaving this place.

Before then, I had planned to have meals with the people I had gotten to know in Cheongju.

Today, Team Leader Hwang would be the first.

[ Okay. But I’ll pay for the drinks. ]

[ It’s fine. You don’t make much money anyway. I should pay. Don’t worry about it. Just come. ]

“Not making much money……”

He wasn’t wrong.

Although the five hundred million won Jinhye had given me was still sitting untouched in my bank account.

Late in the evening.

After changing shifts with the night-duty team, I got on a bus heading toward City Hall.

When I got off at a nearby bus stop, a man called my name loudly.

“Gichan!”

It was Team Leader Hwang Jiwoon, whom I had agreed to meet today.

“Hello, Team Leader.”

“Hey. How long has it been since you quit being a firefighter, and you’re still calling me Team Leader? I told you to just call me hyung comfortably.”

“I want to do that too. But after calling you Team Leader for so many years, I guess it became a habit. The word ‘hyung’ doesn’t come out easily.”

That’s why habits were so scary.

Hwang Jiwoon hyung and I had worked together as firefighters in Cheongju.

The two of us had survived several moments when we could have died.

We were comrades among comrades, people who had returned alive together from the very border between life and death.

Today, we decided to have a few drinks at a samgyeopsal restaurant that was one of Jiwoon hyung’s regular places.

“Boss! Three servings of samgyeopsal and one bottle of soju here…… No, make that two bottles!”

The owner nodded enthusiastically and headed into the kitchen.

Usually, when ordering soju, they would ask which kind we wanted.

But perhaps because Jiwoon hyung and I came here so often, there was no need to ask.

We always drank the same kind.

“Here are your two bottles of Cham-s×l.”

“Thank you, Boss.”

“You’re welcome. By the way, it’s been a long time since you two came. Come more often. At this rate, I’ll forget what you look like.”

“I’d like to come more often too. But my little brother hasn’t been giving me much time lately, so I couldn’t.”

I gave an awkward smile at those words.

Because I couldn’t deny it.

The owner left, saying he would bring the meat soon.

In the meantime, we decided to fill our glasses ourselves.

“Have a drink, hyung.”

“Thanks. You have one too.”

Glug, glug, glug.

The small soju glasses were filled in an instant.

“Let’s have a drink first, then talk. Cheers!”

Clink!

Along with that pleasant sound, no matter how many times I heard it, we emptied our first glasses.

Meanwhile, pieces of meat had already been placed one after another on the grill.

They looked delicious enough to make my mouth water.

It was no exaggeration to say that samgyeopsal and soju were one of the greatest combinations Korea had ever created.

“By the way, what have you been doing lately? I couldn’t even get in touch with you properly. Is it because of your security guard job?”

“That’s part of it. But there were some other things too.”

“What other things?”

I still hadn’t told Jiwoon hyung about my daughters.

Since we were meeting today, I planned to tell him how they were doing.

‘He used to see Jinhye, Seonhye, and Mihye from time to time when they were young too.’

After I became the girls’ father, he had met them several times.

Jinhye and Seonhye actually remembered Jiwoon hyung.

Mihye, however, had been so young at the time that she said she didn’t remember him.

“I went up to Seoul for a few days because I had some business there.”

“Seoul? Why? Were you thinking about finding a new job there?”

“No. My daughters contacted me. They asked if I wanted to move to Seoul and live with them.”

“Really? Come to think of it, I haven’t seen your daughters since they were little. What are they doing these days? Did they all get jobs?”

Getting jobs wasn’t the issue.

They were doing things far beyond that.

Just then, Seonhye’s song was playing in the restaurant.

Perfect timing.

“This song playing right now was sung by Seonhye.”

“Seonhye sang this? Young people listen to this one all the time.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then what about the eldest and the youngest?”

“The eldest is running a business. You know that big café building in the city? The one called Ifrit.”

“That place? My wife really likes that brand. Don’t tell me……”

“Yes. The thing you’re thinking is true.”

Jiwoon hyung’s mouth fell open.

“No way! That belongs to Jinhye?”

“Yes.”

“T-Then what about the youngest?”

“Mihye trades stocks.”

For a moment, I considered telling him that she had won first prize in the lottery too.

But I decided to keep that a secret.

Normally, you shouldn’t casually tell people around you that you won the lottery.

It could cause all kinds of problems.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Jiwoon hyung.

Still, there was always the possibility of something happening.

“Wow! I mean, they had that kind of talent? I had no idea!”

It made sense that Jiwoon hyung didn’t know.

But I had known for a long time.

I had always seen signs that my daughters would do well.

Since university, the eldest had already set the goal of opening her own business and had steadily studied business.

The second daughter had also worked hard to achieve her dream of debuting in the entertainment industry.

As their father, I knew that their success today hadn’t happened suddenly.

Then what about the youngest?

Honestly, I hadn’t expected it.

Still, everything had worked out well in the end.

All three had grown into wonderful adults who could now live well without their father’s help.

“That’s amazing. Those little kids have already grown up that much…… Still, I’m glad they all became successful.”

“Yeah. I’m really glad.”

I placed a piece of garlic covered generously with ssamjang on top of a well-cooked piece of meat.

After emptying my second glass, I put it into my mouth.

I was finally able to sit here and laugh while talking with my hyung like this.

But—

“Before that, things were really…… really hard.”

The story of my past was something I rarely talked about with other people.

Jiwoon hyung quietly put down his glass and listened to me.

After being discharged from the hospital.

When I returned to work, the team leader handed me a small note.

“What is this?”

“That thing I told you I’d look into while you were in the hospital.”

“Ah, is it the address where those children are living?”

“Yeah.”

But the team leader’s expression didn’t look good.

“Actually, I went there myself first. But……”

His voice trailed off, and he strongly shook his head.

“No. Rather than me telling you, it would be better for you to see it yourself. You have some time now, so go check it out.”

“Right now?”

“Yeah. It won’t take long from here.”

What could he have seen to tell me something like this?

Curious, I decided to go and see where the children were living for myself.

Just as the team leader had said, the place written on the note wasn’t far from where I worked.

About a fifteen-minute walk.

It was close enough to reach easily.

But then—

“Why am I going deeper and deeper into these alleys?”

After walking through a gloomy alley that made me wonder if a place like this even existed in Cheongju.

I came across a very small open area.

And at the end of that empty space stood an old house.

It looked so old that it was impossible to guess how long ago it had been completed.

“The children are living in a place like this?”

I couldn’t believe it.

Every time I took a step, rats and cockroaches jumped out.

Garbage was scattered everywhere.

It was immediately obvious that the place wasn’t being properly maintained.

“Excuse me.”

The front gate was wide open.

Just in case, I knocked on the open gate several times before stepping inside.

‘Is nobody here?’

There wasn’t even an answer.

“Kids! Are you there? It’s the firefighter uncle who rescued you before!”

I deliberately raised my voice.

I thought maybe they couldn’t hear me because I wasn’t speaking loudly enough.

Then.

I felt a very faint presence from inside.

Someone was definitely there.

As I moved closer to the house—

Clatter.

A sliding door opened.

I had been expecting to reunite with the children.

But instead—

“……Who are you?”

An old woman I had never seen before greeted me.