52. Duon Thirty Nine
Youngmi’s house.
I said, pointing to the four pictures hanging on the living room wall.
“Is that the first picture you’ve seen?”
“ah! that? These are pictures of me when I was young. I received a framed gift a while ago, and I think my mom pulled out some old photos.”
I got up from my seat and walked closer to the picture.
“The picture at the top, are you right at the entrance ceremony of elementary school?”
“That’s right. The picture below is when I was in 3rd grade, and then maybe… Maybe in 5th grade?”
I shook my head and said.
“No, this is a picture of you in sixth grade.”
“okay? But how do you know that?”
Young-mi had dimples on both cheeks when she smiled, but when she was in 6th grade, the dimples on her left cheek gradually faded, and now only her right dimple remains.
And judging from the clothes and background Youngmi is wearing in the photo, it is clear that the day the photo was taken was the 6th grade summer vacation.
I said to Yeong-mi’s question of how to know.
“just! I feel like that.”
Youngmi smiled at my answer, and I continued.
“Bottom, this photo was taken when you were in your second year of middle school, right?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
I checked the four pictures on the wall again, and quickly flipped through the countless images of England and America stored in my head during elementary and middle school.
For the past nine years… .
As the breasts fell out of her cheeks, the dimples on the left cheek gradually faded, but on the contrary, the dimples on the right became darker.
The bridge of the nose has become sharper, and the face has become thinner overall, but the eyes have not changed and are the same as before.
It was amazing to see how his face changed with the passage of time.
I returned to my seat, opened the book, and in my head, I checked how In-cheol’s face had changed.
I collected the images of Incheol’s face stored in my head, and began to quickly flip through the images in chronological order as if turning on a projector.
In-cheol is also similar.
The playful cheeks gradually disappeared, and as the contours of the face became clearer, the nose grew bigger and bigger.
As the chin grew downward, the face lengthened up and down overall, and the skin became more acne-prone.
However, the playful eyes of In-cheol were the same as when they were young.
I was sitting next to Yeong-mi and thinking about something else.
Yeong-mi’s mother left the house saying she had something to buy at the supermarket, and after a while Young-mi’s father came out of the study and told Yeong-mi.
“Young-mi, my dad left some important papers in the car, could you bring me some? There will be a yellow briefcase in the trunk.”
Yeong-mi took the car key from her uncle and said to me.
“I will come soon. I am studying.”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
As Yeongmi left, I heard the door closing, and her father came to the living room table and took a seat across from me.
The man who looked at me for a moment opened his mouth.
“Jeong-ho, there is one thing I want to ask you, can you answer honestly?”
I nodded with a nervous expression.
“I wonder if it’s your uncle’s ID… Have you ever entered the internal computer network of Balhae Sports?”
“… .”
Uncle’s expression hardened at my silence, and he asked me again in a calm voice.
“2 weeks ago… There was a case where the purchase contract file on the company’s computer network was changed, wasn’t that what you did? What’s wrong with our staff? Is not it?”
My mind calmed down at his question.
I even thought it was a good thing.
If the uncle is still unaware that the payment date has changed, this could be a bigger problem.
I bowed my head and said to my uncle.
“sorry.”
The old man didn’t say anything for a long time.
After silence, the man opened his mouth.
“Why is that?”
“… .”
“Can you tell me why? I thought I knew you well, Jung-ho, but if I had done something like this… There must be a reason, right?”
“I’m sorry, uncle.”
“No, I don’t want to hear you say sorry now. Are you kidding me?”
I shook my head.
“No, it’s not a joke.”
“Then why the hell are you doing that? I think there must be a reason… .”
After a moment of silence, I opened my mouth.
“It was because of the exchange rate.”
“Exchange Rate?”
“Yes, now in November, the exchange rate… .”
Suddenly, the front door opened and Youngmi’s voice was heard.
“Dad! Is there anything in the trunk?”
“okay? Have you checked the back seat and the passenger seat?”
“I checked everything.”
Yeong-mi continued, handed the car key to the uncle.
“Dad, is that an important document?”
“Yeah, it’s important. Hmm… . Come to think of it, it seems that my father left it at work. I’m sorry, my daughter.”
“Ugh! Dad, calm down!”
“I will. haha–!”
A week later.
After summer break, the children returned to school.
friday.
When the night self-study was over, we got on the southwest-facing bus.
As the bus departed, Youngmi said to me.
“Jungho, tomorrow is Saturday, will you come to my house?”
Before summer vacation starts… .
On Saturdays, I studied at Youngmi’s house, and on Sundays, I mostly spent time with Incheol.
But now it seems difficult to go to Youngmi’s house every Saturday.
* * *
Last week at Youngmi’s house.
After studying with Yeong-mi, I got up and grabbed my book.
Youngmi also got up from her chair and said.
“what? Are you going already?”
“Yes, I have some work to do at home today.”
I said hello to Yeong-mi and left Young-mi’s house, but Young-mi’s father followed me saying he had something to bring from the car.
So I went down the stairs with my uncle, and he didn’t say anything until I went down to the first floor.
After the silence, I bowed my head to my uncle and said,
“I’m really sorry, sir.”
read at noblemtl.com
No matter what happened before and after… .
this is what i did wrong
Hearing my words, he opened his mouth with a long sigh.
“I don’t want you to come to my house in the future.”
* * *
When Youngmi asked if she would come to her house tomorrow, I shook my head.
“sorry. Starting this weekend, I’m going to work at Yoon Seok’s hyung’s office.”
“really?”
“Yeah, Yoon-seok hyung seems to be very busy these days.”
In-cheol, who was next to me, added a word.
“It’s no joke these days. I don’t know if our boss is going to become a chaebol like this.”
At Incheol’s words, Youngmi smiled and asked me.
“then… Are you still going to work next week?”
I nodded my head with a bitter expression.
next day.
Yunseong Soft Office.
It was a small office that had been converted into the basement of a detached house, and when I said I was coming, I was impatient with a new seat.
The desk had one leg broken, and rested on a large brick, and the chair creaked with every change of position.
Incheol and I installed the computers we brought from our house, and connected the power and the Internet.
“Is the computer you brought in working well?”
I nodded my head to Yoon Seok-hyung’s question and said,
“Yeah, I think it’s going well.”
“By the way, is this the first time Jeong-ho has been here since it opened?”
“Yes, I will.”
“Then why haven’t you been here before?”
In the meantime, I did not go to Yoon Seok-hyung’s office, because of his mother’s advice.
My mother said that if I was not working at Yunseong Soft, I would only get in the way if I went to the office, and she urged me to be extra careful with my actions and words even when I left the house to go to the office today.
My mother emphasized that in a situation where I made a cash investment in Yunseong Soft and I have an ambiguous stake of 10%, a small speech mistake can lead to a big misunderstanding.
The moment Yoon-seok was about to answer his brother’s question about why he didn’t come, In-cheol opened his mouth first.
“You’ve been busy dating all this time.”
I looked at In-cheol with my bewildered expression, and Yoon-seok-hyung said with a smile.
“ah! That kid named Youngmi?”
“OMG… . How do you even know Youngmi’s name?”
I continued talking to Incheol as if chasing.
“You bastard, did you say?”
Incheol shrugged and said.
“We’re talking about Chae Jeong-ho, but we can’t talk about Kim Young-mi.”
“If you and Ji-eun say you’re dating, I’m going to go all over the neighborhood!”
“Well, is that so!”
Yoon Seok-hyung said with a smile.
“haha! stop fighting That’s not what In-cheol said.”
I looked at my brother in disbelief, and he said with a smile.
“Three years ago? You guys came to the academy back then. That day was probably the day I presented my first conference.”
right!
That day was the day Yeong-mi won the Math Olympiad.
All of a sudden, the events of that day began to come into my mind.
In particular, the image of Yeong-mi smiling brightly after receiving the medal on the podium came to mind.
It is true that Youngmi has a slimmer face compared to 3 years ago, and her facial features have also become clearer.
I nodded and said to Yunseok-hyung.
“Right. You were there when Professor Park gave his keynote speech.”
In-cheol put his hands in front of him and said politely.
“Then the two of you, have a talk. This lower end employee starts work.”
I said with a smile.
“Hyung, please tell me that I will start working from today.”
“Is that so?”
I brought a chair and sat down in front of my brother’s desk.
While Yoon Seok-yi hyung moved the mouse to open the folder, a picture in the right corner of the desk caught my eye.
It was a family photo of Yoon Seok-yi hyung.
Judging by the school uniform and short hair in the photo, it seems like it was taken by hyung in high school.
In the photo, his parents are standing behind him, and a 6-year-old boy is sitting on his lap.
He is the younger brother of Yoon Seok-yi, whom In-cheol talked about last time.
The eyes are sharper than Yoon Seok’s older brother, so at first glance the two brothers do not look alike, but if you look closely, the overall facial features are very similar.
By the way… In the photo, Yoon Seok-yi’s younger brother.
It’s a face you’ve seen somewhere.
In particular, the sharp eyes felt very familiar.
Hmm… Where did you see it?
After thinking for a while, I asked my brother.
“Hyung, did you say your home is Gwangjin-gu?”
“That’s right, Junggok-dong, Gwangjin-gu.”
“By the way, since when did you live there?”
“I was born there. I’m a native of Junggok-dong. haha!”
This means that Yun Seok-yi’s younger brother was also born and raised in Junggok-dong.
By the way, Junggok-dong, Gwangjin-gu is the eastern end of Seoul, and it is far from Namseo-dong, Gangseo-gu, where I grew up.
I nodded and said.
“There is Achasan, so it’s a nice place to live and the fresh air.”
“The air is nice, but it is very difficult to walk up to the house.”
“Then it’s good to exercise, isn’t it?”
“Because my mother has a very bad knee.”
“ah… .”
“However, I can’t move to another place… .”
The Walkerhill Hotel is located at the foot of Mt. Acha.
I opened my mouth carefully.
“Isn’t that a very prosperous town? I heard that a lot of celebrities live there too.”
At my question, Yoon Seok-yi hyung said with a bitter expression.
“It’s not because of the price of the house, but there is something like that in our house.”
I didn’t ask any more because of Yoon Seok-yi’s dark expression, and after a while he started explaining the things I would help today.
That night.
When I got home, washed up, and lay on the bed, a picture of Yoon Seok lying on hyung’s desk flashed through my mind.
In particular, the face of the younger brother, who had died, kept flashing in front of his eyes.
those sharp eyes.
It’s definitely a face I’ve seen somewhere.
According to In-cheol, Yoon Seok-yi’s younger brother died six years ago.
Then he would have been around 11 years old at the time.
I started searching for images stored in my head six years ago, and checked each of the children who looked to be around 11 years old.
So I fell asleep looking at the images in my old memories.