18 – Future Groups
“Ahahahaha.. It’s fun, it’s fun..! Maybe it’s because kids these days watch dramas a lot..! They have a lot of imagination..! Hey! Someone over there bring something to drink!”
The image of me sitting on the sofa again in a confused, hesitant manner must have been funny in the president’s eyes.
I’m not funny at all.
Anyway, anyway, where did that serious face from when I first saw it go and that innocent feeling like a neighborhood kid..? I think I played a lot of pranks when I was young.
The bodyguard came with a tray. A wine bottle and a wine glass on a tray. And… There were drinks. Everything- everything here now was foreign to me.
The one red can on the tray was a familiar object I had seen at the nursery school, so seeing it made me feel at ease.
That… The feeling of discovering an oasis after wandering around empty plains…?
“It’s been a while since I laughed, my stomach hurts”
Knock-knock-The president, who had been laughing like that for a long time, started pouring alcohol into his glass quietly, wiping the tears from his eyes with his hand.
-Karangkarang..
The more the alcohol went into the glass, the more the ice cubes moved around and made a sound, but no other sound was heard.
Because I didn’t know what to say. To be honest, I don’t know why the president laughed at me. Did what I said just sound like a joke..?
Seriously, really, don’t meet Jin over there- I couldn’t meet you if I told you. At least i think so There is no special relationship between Jin-ah and me.
“Do you want to drink?”
He held out an ice cup filled with golden liquor in front of my eyes.
“I’m still in middle school…”
“More than I thought, they keep it thoroughly. If I were you, I would have drank it.
I’ve been drinking since I was in middle school. Now that I think about it, it doesn’t matter at all how long I started drinking.
If you don’t drink and study hard, you think you’ll become a great person..?
The chance to succeed through studying is already over. I’m a teacher… Well, it’s because if the students don’t study, they have no way to make ends meet.
These days, even if I don’t study, I take care of everything and live well.”
We talk about this and that while drinking, and I’m sorry, but none of it touches my heart.
This is a lot of money, but of course you don’t risk your life studying.
I’m not looking for success. I just need to take care of enough to eat and live on my own.
As I savored the drink in the glass, the president stopped talking and looked at me.
Where did the mischievous face go, and the chairman speaks to me again with a serious expression?
“Don’t play with Jin-ah. If I thought I would ask you that kind of request. I haven’t met you like this. It’s a problem that can be solved by telling the lower ones roughly and feeding them kusari. Isn’t it..?”
“…”
“What you have to do in the future is something more difficult than that.”
Judging from the way he holds his glass towards me, it seems that he meant to have a toast.
-Karang
Changing a can and a glass.
I haven’t had anything to drink on the way here, and I’m very thirsty from the oppressive atmosphere.
A sip of cool coke was enough to become the water of life for my dry, twisting throat.
A rich man like this eats the same Coke as I do.
“Ah, yes. Eat snacks too. Yes.. Yes, you have to eat to grow well..!”
Well, to be honest, I don’t think there’s anything else in it besides coke. Jin-ah, yes, her grandfather keeps trying to feed her.
I opened one of the teapots on the table and poured it into my mouth.
…. It was wrapped in very thin tinfoil, so I thought it was chocolate or something.
…This salty taste was cheese. Rich people eat this as a snack.
I could have swallowed it as much as I wanted because it was the size of my fingernail, but I just gnawed at it and savored the taste.
I have a feeling that if it’s not an opportunity like this, when will I try something like this, but at least I don’t think anyone will tell me if there’s something in my mouth.
“I want you to be friends with Jin-ah. I mean it.”
“…”
“You must have seen the news before, but Jin-ah has a very painful past. So she can sometimes act out of the blue, and she can do things that don’t make sense.
So, while you watch Jin-ah from the sidelines, she calms down and teases her well. After graduating from high school… Until all the wounds of pain are healed, I will become a friend you can rely on.”
“……”
– Voila!
It was a hidden camera until here..!
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
Jinah.
Yeah, a long time ago… I remembered that there was a lot of buzz on TV about Mirae’s murder case and all that.
A wife with an unstable mental state.
She always wanted her husband’s love, but unfortunately, it led to an arranged marriage with her husband.
Her husband had a woman she had always liked, but because of the marriage between her family and her family, she couldn’t connect with the woman she loved.
Contrary to her family’s interests, her wife wanted her husband’s love, and she always sent one-sided courtships that never returned.
Even if that became a day, two days, and a lot of time passed and a daughter was born between them, the husband’s heart still did not turn toward his wife.
Her wife resents her husband while frying him. She poured out her anger and obsession.
So, they beat, imprisoned, and harassed her husband and her daughter for the slightest reason.
The husband, who could not stand her abuse and obsession, kept trying to escape from her wife… Eventually, the story of her wife killing her lover and her husband.
It seems like the contents of a morning drama that women often watch in the morning.
Besides, because this happened in a group competing for first or second place in Korea’s business world, it became a topic of conversation.
I wonder why Jina lives in a whaleback house, why she doesn’t wash her clothes so badly, why her clothes are always the way they are, and why her hair is soggy.
Perhaps, it happened because her mother, who was supposed to take care of herself, wasn’t doing her motherly role properly.
It could be something like this. I expected.
…I’m obsessed with killing people right away, but there’s no way there’s a servant or someone like that in the house. It is clear that Jin-ah’s mother was scared and ran away from that house.
Yet, Jin-a wasn’t capable enough to run away like that… So she must have been exposed to her mother’s violence all the time.
“Of course, she doesn’t mean to do it for free. Of course, a decent reward will follow.”
“I will refuse”
“…What do you mean…?”
“I’m not great enough to help anyone…!
I’m sure Jin-ah has someone better than me..! She will have a counselor, and sometimes a psychiatrist, who will find out what kind of scar she has in Jina’s heart.
Future High School.
At that school, she studies as hard as Jin-ah, and also tries to exercise, and… She must have someone at home with a good background..! Jina is still young..! And she’s a student.
That’s why it’s important who you meet in the future. I wanted to say this.
Jinah will be able to meet various people in the future…!
Although it may be difficult right now, in the future, Jina will be able to meet someone better than me… I feel that way..!
I’m just an ordinary person..! It’s a world where it’s hard for me to take care of myself… Taking care of Jin-ah, there’s no way I can do that.”
Help a friend who was emotionally devastated by exposure to domestic violence..? There’s no way I can do that. And that… Especially if the person is the granddaughter of a conglomerate family.
I don’t have a professional education, and I don’t have a hobby of helping others. I have to be honest and say that I can’t.
“My granddaughter and daughter always called me by your name every time I ate… I used to play with Yoo Seon at the playground. In the past, Yoo Seon taught me a lot of things I didn’t know. In the past…”
“Well, you’ve done a good job. That’s literally the old story… For Jina, it’s just a rocket propellant – flying to the stratosphere, it disintegrates and falls to the floor. That’s me.”
“These days, rockets that go to Mars with propellants suspended are also invented?”
“…No, that’s not what’s important…! The reason I helped Jin-ah… Wasn’t what I was hoping for…!
It’s just… I couldn’t help it… I felt sorry for him… So I helped him. I’m sure there will be many friends who are as understanding and caring as I am at that high school.”
“She says stop whining, do it quickly. … Jina wants to be with you. She says you are a rare young man these days… No boy. She liked her.”
“President”
Since I got up from the sofa and stood by the window, I could see everything under our feet.
A skyscraper soaring high into the sky.
And… The shantytowns below. Everything from the cool and glamorous look to the mean and crappy look.
A long time ago… Before entering elementary school, I entered the neighborhood where Jina lived.
Thumping.
Thumping-thumping- What is this heart-thumping feeling..?
Is this the world beyond the nursery school? It didn’t seem that curious.
Or was it because I couldn’t keep my promise to the director, and guilt settled in my heart? Or… Was my heart pounding with anger and hatred because my brothers had stolen my birthday present that day?
I… I didn’t understand the feelings I felt at the time.
The pounding I felt was a feeling I had never felt before in my short life…
But now I know.
It is only now that I realize.
It’s not the space I’m supposed to be in, but the anxiety that arises from being in a space. Fear. Shiver
It wasn’t a neighborhood for an orphan like me to set foot in.
Clean and tidy, so poverty is not visible
Just stepping foot in such a town was sinful enough.
“…Do you really think that a kid from the shanty town and a kid from that villa complex can truly be friends…?”
“…”
Now. The reason Jina needs a friend now. The wall between us was too high to be Jin-ah and her friend with just that.
“Someday, Jin-ah will also follow the president’s footsteps later on. I’m so worried that the bad parts of me that I didn’t realize might pass on to Jin-ah.
Can I really… Be Jina’s good friend..? Also, will she be able to be my good friend Jina..? I don’t want that.
From noble mtl dot com
I just want to get out of Jina’s head.
It’s just… This has happened in the past- such an insignificant person who could be the subject of a brief conversation while talking to people much better than me.
I want to remain that kind of person. I… I’m not capable of helping Jina…”
“…..”
What is not possible is what is not possible. You just have to cut it out and say it.
“Usually, even if you don’t have an opportunity like this, don’t you say I’ll do it…?”
“I don’t want to live so shamelessly”
“…This is so. Should I say stupid, he speaks well in front of me. Is this all the generations these days…?
Hey, just a nice word..? What are you thinking, what did you feel when you saw that shantytown?
That’s not my business. Jina wants you
I have to grow up with you helping me, inheriting my family’s business, and I think I can spend my old age comfortably. I don’t want to go through any more heartache.
She says she wants to be with the guy she likes, but I can help her by being her grandfather.
Now I have nothing left but ‘Jinah’. You will too. Me too. And Jina has the right to pursue a life that will be happy for everyone.
Wouldn’t it be advantageous from a utilitarian point of view if Jin-ah and ‘I’ could be happy at the expense of you alone?”
“…I don’t think it’s okay to trample on other people’s freedom just because you want to live happily”
“… Yoo Seon Ah..! You were with her grandfather..!”
A voice is heard. Brown hair, petite build. Jin-ah came out of the elevator and ran to me.
“…Have you talked to Grandpa..? I’m hungry, let’s go eat something delicious…!”
“Jin Lee. I need to talk to you.”