64 – Toward the End (5)
Kang Eun-chan’s head begins to flash.
‘Am I dying?’
He quietly closed his eyes and looked back on his life.
***
My father was a firefighter. His name is Kang Tae-chun. People think that because he is a civil servant, he earns a lot of money or gets special treatment. However, the appearance of his father that Kang Eun-chan watched was quite different from the civil servant he knew.
“Eunchan, I’m sorry. I heard that there is a big fire nearby, so I need to go quickly.”
“Dad is like that again… It’s just that someone else can work… You don’t have to go there…”
Spending time with his father at an amusement park. My father, who was on a day off after hearing that an emergency manpower was needed because of a large topic, had to quickly go to the site. When I was still young, I used to tease my father. It was because he did not want to be disturbed while playing with his father for the first time in a long time.
My mother spoke with pity.
“Eunchan, Dad is going to do a very important job of saving people whose lives are in danger. You shouldn’t talk like that.”
“I know. I know, but…”
I know. The father is involved in the fire, puts it out, and if there are any people trapped, he rescues them. A father’s job is not only that. From people who can’t climb up to high places, to removing wasp nests that suddenly appeared in the city, to rescuing people trapped inside. Unofficially, the father’s scope of work was vast. He was only doing things that helped people, no matter what. Didn’t it even say that a big topic has occurred now? Father has to go I know. Annoyed.
About why I had to go all the way to my father. Even on his day off, he is upset that his father is being taken away. To be honest, it doesn’t make much of a difference without even one person, right? Whether it’s 30 people or 31 people, you won’t be able to save the person who couldn’t be saved because of just one person. When I was still young, I thought so selfishly and stupidly. In a large fire, how big should the influence of one person be? However, I couldn’t bring it out of my mouth. Because it was clear that my father would be angry. So he just stuck out his mouth.
Then, my father hurriedly ran to the side, and he soon handed me an ice cream and told me.
“Eunchan, it is very important for my father to save and help people, but the most important thing is our Eunchan.”
“Then you don’t have to go…”
Then her mother said with a frown on her face.
“What’s wrong with you today, Eunchan? You don’t usually do that, do you?”
Today, for some reason, I didn’t want to send my father away. Is it because it’s an amusement park where only the family has been together for the first time in two years? Or was it because he was jealous of the kid riding the merry-go-round with his father next to him? Ignoring the calls my father had just received, he wished he was here.
My father stroked my hair.
“Eunchan. I’m sorry dad Dad, of course, wants to play with our Eunchan, and want to be with him. However, it’s not good to do only what you want to do and put off what you have to do. Don’t you know Because my father didn’t go to the scene of the fire, he might not be able to save the one person he could have saved. No, actually, the odds of that happening aren’t high. Even my father knows.”
-Sueuk
My father took my hand and held it toward his heart.
-Kooung
-Kooung
-Kooung
My father’s heart started beating fast.
“Dad, if there are people who need help, I want to help them. It’s not because there’s some great reason, because my dad has so much power. Just. I am happy and excited to be able to help someone.”
“….”
I know. The hero the people of the world talk about. It doesn’t matter if no one recognizes him, so he’s a little hero who sacrifices himself and works hard for people. My father was such a person. He is selfless, nice, and exemplary.
Even at a young age, I admired such a wonderful father.
“Come home, Dad…”
-Ssik
My father smiled brightly and told me.
“Daddy is always sorry.”
My father lived by saying he was sorry. And, he always added promises he couldn’t keep.
“After I return this time, I will play with Eunchan a lot.”
My father hurriedly ran away. If he was in such a hurry, he would have just ignored the bullsh*t of a child and went, he was such a fool.
“Eunchan-ah, let’s have fun together with mom?”
After playing with my mother at the amusement park, I returned home. When I got home, I watched TV all day. I looked at the clock and it was 11pm. Even though it was time for my father to come, he did not come.
-Beep
I turned on the TV and checked the news channel. As it is a big topic, will there be related news? It was because of the heart.
– Breaking news. The big topic that occurred in XX City is still not suppressed. It is believed that a large amount of oil leaked from the inside made it difficult to extinguish the fire….
I was anxious and worried. But in my heart, I always believed. My father will come back But my faith was violated.
– This is the news that just came in. An incumbent firefighter, Mo Kang, died while trying to rescue a person trapped at the site.
“Uh…?”
The area my father dispatched to. The castle is the same. But, it can’t be. It turned out that this could not be the case. Kang Eun-chan looked at his phone with an uneasy mind. And he called his father.
-Turururu
-Tururu, Ruru
My father did not accept it.
No. 1, No. 2, No. 3
Despite dozens of phone calls, my father did not answer. In the meantime.
-Clap
My father answered the phone.
“Dad…! Are you safe? Why are you not answering the phone…! I was worried…”
“…Eunchan…?”
The voice over the receiver was not his father. I knew his voice. Father’s co-worker. Yoo Seo-chun, who was the same firefighter. He was the man I used to call my uncle.
“Uncle Seochun? Why is my uncle calling my father…”
Yu Seo-chun hesitated for a moment before he spoke.
“Eun-chan, can you change her mother for a second?”
From noble mtl dot com.
I handed the cell phone to my mother. The mother spoke with a serious expression, and then she fell on her knees on the floor, sobbing. Even as a child, I could tell by the atmosphere. That something happened to my father.
The next morning.
My mother talked to me. My father died trying to save someone else. Strangely, no tears came out. Is it because you don’t feel it? Or maybe it’s because he’s thinking that his father might still be alive.
-Clap-!
I got into the car to go to the funeral home. But I still can’t feel it. My father can’t die Actually, I went to the funeral home, and it seemed like my father would be standing there smiling brightly.
But the reality was cruel.
“Khaaa…
My mother cried while looking at the picture of her father’s portrait. Countless firefighters and people looked at the picture of my father and fell silent.
It was only then that I started to shed tears.
“Keuheugh…Dad…Dad…”
You can feel it. Father is dead He, who was my own little hero, ended his life in gear while saving someone. Like an idiot, not even properly keeping his promise to play with his son.
“Keahhaaa…”
I cried as if the world was about to leave. It was disappointing. Why the hell I couldn’t understand why my father had to die saving someone.
“Hey…”
A woman called out to me and my mother who were weeping.
“Keuk…Huh…”
I looked at her sobbing at her. At first glance, she looked like a pregnant woman, but with her sinful expression, she approached me and her mother and handed me a pendant.
“Firefighter Kang Tae-cheon stopped saving me… I’m really… Really sorry… He asked me if I ever survived… Hand this to my family…”
Her mother shouted at her.
“Where is this place! Because of you, because of you, my husband died…”
– Plop
My mother shouted and she fell down. She had never seen a mother so angry in her life who never hated or resented others. Even her mother would know. That she is not guilty of her sins. However, it is not always the way the human heart desires. She didn’t know if she knew it either, she just looked at her land with a guilty look on her face.
And then I kept muttering.
“I’m sorry…Really…Really sorry…”
-Sueuk
I brought the pendant that was in her hand.
There was a picture of the three of us, my father, my mother, and myself.
-Sueuk
I cried while touching the picture. Seeing the picture of my father laughing made his heart feel like it would break.
-Doouk
-Doouk
The picture inside the pendant starts to get wet with tears.
“No…”
I hurriedly rubbed the photo with the hem of my clothes, fearing that it might be damaged. At that time.
-Sereuk
Behind the photo, I saw a small piece of paper that had been hidden.
“What…Is this…?”