56. Duon Sixty Three
Saturday after a week.
Yunseong Soft Office.
“Puhahahaha—-! Incheol-ah, is that real? ha ha ha—!”
In-cheol, who saw Yoon-seok, who was joking, widened his eyes and looked at me.
I was surprised to see Yoon Seok-hyung’s changed so much, too.
Yoon Seok-yi hyung stopped laughing.
“ah! right. I forgot to tell you guys.”
“… ?”
“Are you guys okay next Saturday afternoon?”
In-cheol said at his brother’s question.
“I have to get out of the office and work, work!”
“ah… ! So, would you like to finish up a little early next week and go to my house for dinner?”
“Dinner?”
“Yeah, Eunseong was supposed to come next week, but my mother said she wanted you to come too. I still eat with Eunseong, so I think the atmosphere will be good when you guys are together.”
Incheol nodded and said.
“Are you going to have pizza? I don’t eat bulgogi pizza or anything else.”
“Ha ha ha ha ha! Sure!”
My brother spoke to me.
“Jeong-ho, are you okay? My father misses you a lot.”
“Yes, I like it.”
Yoon Seok-yi hyung smiled brightly at my answer.
“OK! My parents used to run a restaurant. You’ll taste real delicious bulgogi. ha ha ha—!”
Seeing Yoon Seok hyung’s cheerful appearance made me feel better too.
I told my brother.
“Hyung, there is a program that Incheol made. A program to find a missing child.”
Yoon Seok-yi hyung nodded while In-cheol intervened.
“a! You have to speak right away. That’s Jungho, you made it. I actually just coded what you wrote.”
I said with a smirk.
“Is that important?”
“It doesn’t matter!”
“Yeah, then… How about delivering the program Incheol coded, to the police station? I think it can be used for a lot of good things.”
“Five! That’s a good idea. But in order to deliver it, I think you need someone you know at the police station… .”
“There is someone I know. He has worked in the police station for a long time, so I think at least the person in charge knows.”
“OK! great!”
I said to Incheol.
“Oh yeah! It seemed that the sharpening of the nose and the brightening of the skin color needed to be corrected.”
At my words, In-cheol said with a sad expression.
“Is that so? Actually, that’s just me tweaking the formula a bit… .”
“what?”
“haha! Nothing. I will fix that.”
again a week later.
As I climbed the endless hill road, sweat was forming on my forehead.
In-cheol, who was holding his breath, and Yoon-seok-hyung, who saw me, said with an apologetic expression.
“Is it very difficult? Here it is.”
My brother opened the door, and we followed him into the house.
“hello!”
In response to our greetings, Yun Seok-yi’s father came out to the living room and said,
“It’s hot too, wasn’t it very hard to come up here?”
“no.”
“Come on. The meal was just ready, but it arrived just in time.”
She was Yun-seok’s mother.
However, the two of them seemed to have become completely different people in the meantime.
Because he looked at least 10 years younger.
I thought that Yoon Seok-yi’s parents were older than Eun-seong’s adoptive parents, but I thought that might not be the case.
I handed the box of cakes I brought to my aunt.
“What is this?”
I said to my aunt’s question.
“It’s a whipped cream cake.”
“cake? Whose birthday is today?”
“It’s not my birthday, I just want to come empty-handed.”
After a while, Eunseong came out of the room and greeted Incheol.
“Are you the program genius?”
At Eunseong’s words, Incheol scratched his head as if he was in a good mood.
“Oh, this is embarrassing… haha!”
“thank you. I heard that my birth parents found me like this, thanks to the program you made.”
Incheol pointed at me and said.
“Actually, I just coded, and he did it all.”
At Incheol’s words, Eunseong looked at me, and I shook my head with a smile, pointed to Incheol with one hand, and raised my thumb with the other.
Bulgogi, kimchi stew, whipped cream cake, pizza and salad were placed at a table of unknown nationality, and we sat down to eat.
By the way, he said that the kimchi stew was prepared for Eunseong.
Looking back, Eun-seong’s taste resembles that of Yoon-seok’s brother.
While eating like that, I was able to talk with Eun-seong.
Unlike his sharp eyes, Eunseong seemed to have a soft personality.
Eunseong said that she likes to read books, so I asked.
“What books do you usually read?”
“I mainly read novels, but if there are interesting books, I tend to look at them without choosing anything.”
After the meal, Yun Seok-yi’s mother said to me.
“I wasn’t in a good mood that day, so I couldn’t properly say thank you.”
“no. How many times have you said thank you?”
At my words, the old woman smiled and said.
“Did I? Then I’m glad In fact, after seeing Eun-sung in Daejeon that day, I’m not sane, and I can’t remember.”
After finishing the meal and before heading home, Eun-seong came out of the room with two envelopes, and handed one to me and the other to In-cheol.
When In-cheol and I looked at Eun-seong with curious expressions, Eun-seong opened his mouth with a shy expression.
“I was thinking about how to convey my gratitude to you, and I thought it would be better to write a letter… .”
“ah… ! really?”
Incheol and I received the letter, and Eunseong nodded and said.
“But don’t look here… Go home and read.”
When I got home, I opened the envelope Eunseong gave me.
I started reading the letter that started with ‘To Jeong-ho’, and at some point I was reading the last line of the third chapter of the letter.
uh… ! what?
The ten minutes of reading the letter seemed to have disappeared in an instant.
Eunseong’s letter started with a story about her childhood.
The frustration caused by the vague memories of childhood, the emotions I felt when I found out that I was an adopted child, the gratitude for my adoptive parents who raised me, and the vague longing for my biological parents I didn’t even know… These feelings were written in a calm voice on a white letterhead.
The contents of the letter continued with the story Eun-seong heard from Yun-seok-yi hyung.
The episode where I developed the program to find the missing child and went from Seoul to Busan and from Busan to Daejeon in search of myself felt like reading a short novel.
And Eun-seong expressed her gratitude to me, and the letter ended.
What I felt while reading Eunseong’s letter was that Eunseong was really good at writing.
There was no expression of gratitude in the letter, but it felt like Eunseong’s sincerity was touched.
Also, despite the fact that the story of her childhood is easily emotional, I did not feel uncomfortable at all while reading the letter, and I was able to empathize without knowing it.
The next day, Sunday afternoon.
I found the basketball court in the apartment complex with Incheol.
As usual, we played ice cream betting basketball, and I was able to earn 5 ice creams in addition to the ice cream I’m eating now.
I said, savoring the sweet taste of the ice cream.
“If you want to buy ice cream from now on, you have to work hard.”
“haha–! Yes, eat a lot. I’ll buy you something more delicious next time.”
I opened my mouth with a surprised expression at Incheol’s answer.
“What are you? What did you eat wrong?”
“haha! I feel good today. Hmm… What? Would you say today is a turning point in your life?”
“… ?”
“I have a new life goal!”
“A goal in life?”
In response to my question, Incheol nodded and said.
“I want to try programming properly. I’m going to study and go to college.”
“… !”
I looked at In-cheol with a blank expression, and In-cheol threw a basketball at me and said.
“men and horses! Wake!”
I said while receiving the ball that In-cheol threw.
“In-cheol, why are you like this all of a sudden? Where did I tell you to hit your head against the wall?”
In response to my question, Incheol smiled and said.
“Right, I think so. I think I got hit in the head hard last night.”
“Last night? What happened?”
“Yeah, something big happened.”
“What? Tell me!”
“Did you get a letter from Eunseong yesterday?”
I nodded, and Incheol continued speaking with a serious expression.
“As I read that letter, I got goosebumps all over my body. After reading all of that letter, it seemed to be clear what I was going to do next.”
After eating ice cream, I broke up with Incheol and headed home.
While entering the apartment building… I stopped walking.
A gray car in the apartment parking lot.
It was the car I saw in front of the basketball court a while ago.
Perhaps?
I turned and headed for the parking lot and knocked on the car’s heavily tinted windows.
The window went down and a familiar voice came in.
“her… ! You noticed it like a ghost.”
As I got into the car, Team Leader Kim Jung-soo asked me.
“Then why did you contact me?”
“In-cheol and I made a computer program. It’s a program to find a missing child… … .”
After my long explanation, Team Leader Kim Jung-soo opened his mouth.
“So you want me to connect you to the police station?”
“yes.”
“The disappearance case is in charge of the Criminal Division, but… Guess I’ll have to ask the police department about this? The Seoul Metropolitan Police Department has a manager named ㅁㅁㅁ, so I will contact you and ask.”
“thank you.”
“And if it’s a program like that, it’s better not to give it away for free, but to get a development fee.”
“Yes, I will think about it.”
“But how is In-cheol doing?”
I said with a smirk.
“You saw it before. And I just remembered, you came to school a few days ago, right?”
He smiled without saying a word, and after a while he looked into my eyes and opened his mouth.
“Jeong-ho, but the exchange rate rises… It’s November, isn’t it?”
As of early October, the exchange rate has remained largely unchanged.
This is because the government is loosening its foreign exchange reserves and defending the exchange rate.
“Yes, I think it will start at the end of this month or early November.”
Team leader Kim Jung-soo silently nodded at my words, took a candy from his pocket and put it in his mouth.
Looking back, team leader Kim Jung-soo seemed to be getting better at first glance.
The thick belly fat has completely disappeared, and the skin looks good.
“Have you completely quit smoking?”
At my question, he let out a short sigh.
“Tobacco is not something you can quit smoking. Just be patient.”
“Then why did you quit smoking?”
Unable to grasp the intent of my question, he said, staring at me.
“Why did you quit?”
“You were like that last time. You don’t have to live with the low-key. You said you can live as you please.”
He smirked at my question and said.
“This life seems to be working fine. So now I am going to prepare.”
“Are you going back? What does that mean?”
“Middle and high school boys and girls.”
I asked him with a puzzled look at his sweet answer.
“that is… Is it working properly?”
Team leader Kim Jeong-soo nodded without a word, and I asked again.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“haha! I only know that much. Actually, there are a lot of things I don’t know, and I don’t want to ruin things by giving you too much information.”
As soon as I was about to ask what you mean, Team Leader Kim Jung-soo reached out a large hand and patted my shoulder and said:
“Don’t worry too much about what I say… You just have to do what you want.”