Return To The Building Owner [EN]: Chapter 59

Kim Il-soo arrived home.

“Grandma!”

At Kim Il-soo’s call, the door burst open, and Shin Yu-bok greeted him happily.

“Oh, my baby. You’re just coming now?”

“Yeah, did you wait long, Grandma? What about dinner?”

“Dinner? Just… roughly….”

It was obvious. Grandma probably hadn’t eaten dinner yet. He must have been out of his mind to even think about going to Seoul, leaving her like this.

It’s said that when someone is possessed, they don’t even see their parents or siblings; he was exactly like that.

Kim Il-soo looked at his grandmother, Shin Yu-bok, and asked,

“Grandma, is the brazier lit?”

“The floor gets a bit cold in the early morning, so I lit a fire in the evening. There’s a fire, but why do you suddenly need it?”

“Just wait a moment; I’ll grill some delicious meat.”

“Meat?”

“Yeah, Grandma. Beef. It’s called ‘flower sirloin’ [marbled sirloin], and it melts in your mouth.”

“Hehe, thanks to my grandson, I get to eat beef… I’m happy, this old woman is.”

Kim Il-soo’s heart grew impatient.

It was already past 9 PM. He felt rushed, thinking about his grandmother, who must have been waiting anxiously for him to return.

Shortly after.

“Grandma, ah~”

Kim Il-soo dipped a piece of meat in salt and put it into his grandmother, Shin Yu-bok’s mouth.

Chew, chew.

Shin Yu-bok, chewing the meat, suddenly looked at Kim Il-soo.

“It really melts in my mouth.”

“Right, Grandma?”

“I’ve never eaten meat like this in my life. But who bought so much of this precious stuff?”

“You know Min-young hyung [older brother/friend] who used to live in the lower neighborhood? He bought it.”

“Oh, how grateful I am.”

“Grandma, ah~ again.”

Kim Il-soo couldn’t help but laugh, thinking about it again.

The image of Choi Min-young’s face as he calculated the 12-month installment plan at the meat shop was vivid in his mind. He would feel the pain every month for at least a year.

It was a weak revenge for the betrayal, but it was somewhat comforting to have retaliated in that way.

After Grandma Shin Yu-bok finished her meal and Kim Il-soo finished the dishes, he left the house and headed towards the new road.

The surroundings were all darkness.

Whether it was cloudy or not, no stars were visible in the sky.

Just like his future.

Since when was it?

He started to hate everything. He never had any interest in studying in the first place, but everything felt trivial, and school life became boring.

To relieve that boredom, he bullied innocent friends.

What was the problem?

Kim Il-soo stopped walking.

And he thought.

He wasn’t like this even in elementary school…

‘What on earth…’

Just as he was about to take another step after pondering, it happened.

The outline of the road began to appear gradually. The moonlight, which had been hidden by the clouds, was revealed. But that was only for a moment.

“Huh?”

The road disappeared again.

The clouds had covered the moon again.

‘Road?’

In that moment, something flashed through Kim Il-soo’s mind like lightning.

He turned abruptly.

Kim Il-soo turned and headed home.

Step, step.

Kim Il-soo’s pace quickened.

It was pitch dark, so he couldn’t see in all directions, but he had no problem walking because it was a road he always used.

Kim Il-soo entered his room and began searching for something under his desk.

After a while.

“That’s it! This is what it was.”

Kim Il-soo found a notebook he had been searching for.

He blew the dust off it.

Rustle.

When he turned the first page, thick letters pressed hard with a pencil appeared.

– How to make delicious Mallow Soup.

He vaguely remembered. It was probably in the fall of his third grade of elementary school.

One day, his grandmother made soybean paste soup, and it tasted better than any soup he had ever eaten.

So he asked his grandmother.

– Grandma, what kind of soup is this?

– It’s mallow soup, why?

– Grandma, it’s so delicious. I’ve never tasted anything like this before.

– Hehe, our Il-soo already knows the taste of autumn mallow soup. Your maternal grandfather liked it so much; our Il-soo is just like him.

– How do you make this?

That’s how it started.

Every time his grandmother made soup, he would ask. Then he would remember it and write it down in a notebook.

Rustle.

Kim Il-soo turned the notebook again.

Sure enough, this time there was a recipe for pumpkin soybean paste soup.

Rustle, rustle.

He flipped through the notebook.

It wasn’t just soup. It was the same with side dishes. Starting with potato stir-fry, it was a method of making side dishes that he always ate in the countryside, such as eggplant, cucumber, and pumpkin.

That’s how the notebook was filled with methods for making soups and side dishes.

“Hmm…!”

It was written in such detail that even he was surprised.

But after about 2/3 of the way through, the rest was blank.

Probably, without knowing it, it was when he was just starting winter vacation in the 6th grade.

His grandmother called Kim Il-soo, saying she had something to say. She said she would tell him now that he was going to be a middle school student.

It was about his mother and father.

After that, he didn’t write anything in the notebook.

That was the end.

Thud.

Kim Il-soo closed the notebook.

“I had a dream back then.”

He had forgotten.

But a moment ago, seeing the road that briefly appeared in the moonlight, he suddenly remembered. At the same time, he remembered what his homeroom teacher, Shin Min-ho, had said during the day.

So he came into the room and found his old memories.

The homeroom teacher probably looked at his student record.

When he entered high school as a freshman and was asked to write about his future hopes, he just wrote something down roughly because he didn’t want to be nagged.

But when he thought about it, it was what he wanted to do when he was a child.

And after that, he had no thoughts.

But today, the homeroom teacher told him to find his dream again. He said that if he just set a direction, this wandering would end.

“Can it really be like that?”

Now he has confirmed that Choi Min-young is a con artist. He had dreamed of going to Seoul for a while. But today, he clearly realized that it was fake.

It was the end of everything.

But, he’s told to start again. He says there’s plenty of time.

“Can I do it…?”

Kim Il-soo rubbed his face several times with both hands and then closed his eyes tightly.

***

“Oppa!” [Older brother (used by females)]

Kim Ji-yeon called Hyun-sung in a loud voice.

Hyun-sung’s brow furrowed.

“Kim Ji-yeon, don’t shout. What kind of teacher are you? If a student doesn’t understand, you should teach them slowly. Why are you shouting like that?”

Kim Ji-yeon was dumbfounded by Hyun-sung’s response.

It wouldn’t be a problem if it was just a little bit, but it was practically a blank slate. It was natural to feel frustrated when he said he didn’t understand no matter how many times she taught him.

Sigh!

Kim Ji-yeon took a short breath and asked,

“How many times is this now?”

“How am I supposed to know if I don’t remember?”

Hyun-sung was just as upset as Kim Ji-yeon.

He had been receiving private lessons from his younger sister, Kim Ji-yeon, every night for several days, and even he was dumbfounded. Of course, even considering how much time had passed, he thought it was too much.

Moreover, it was math.

It was the subject he was most confident in during his school days.

Of course, a lot of time had passed, but he thought he could do it with just a little effort.

But the result was a complete failure.

Was it arrogance?

Sigh~.

Then Kim Ji-yeon took a long breath and said,

“Oppa, let’s just stop here for today. If we go any further, I don’t know what words will come out of my mouth.”

“Huh! How am I supposed to study if I’m scared like this?”

“Oppa, stop… I’m holding back right now, so shut your mouth….”

“What? This brat… Alright, alright. Okay, let’s do that.”

Hyun-sung was dumbfounded, but he couldn’t fight back. He thought he might really suffer even more if he did.

He couldn’t get scolded by his younger sister after turning 50.

That’s when it happened.

Knock knock.

It was his mother.

“Is it going well?”

“Mom! Don’t even ask. This oppa is a complete doltae [idiot]… no, a blockhead. I mean, how long has it been since he graduated from middle school that he doesn’t remember anything? He doesn’t even know the concepts of rational numbers, irrational numbers, and imaginary numbers. His head is just clean. It’s like someone cleaned it out.”

His younger sister, Kim Ji-yeon, started to vent her anger as if she had been waiting for it.

His mother, who was watching the scene, looked at Hyun-sung with pitiful eyes and said,

“Why were you like that? I don’t know what Ji-yeon is saying, but it’s clear that there’s something wrong with you….”

“Mother, that’s… no. It’s my fault for having a clean head, I guess.”

Hyun-sung closed his mouth.

It was obvious that he would only look pathetic if he said more useless things. He judged that it was best to just keep his mouth shut in this situation.

However, he soon realized that this thought was only Hyun-sung’s.

“Look at him, he still says everything he wants to say.”

Kim Ji-yeon opened and closed her mouth once more.

Hyun-sung was desperately realizing that you should learn to drive and study from someone else.

Then his mother spoke again.

“Okay, eat this and do it.”

His mother placed honey water on the desk.

He was already feeling parched, so he thought it was a good thing.

He quickly picked up a glass of honey water.

Gulp, gulp.

Then he started drinking it all at once.

Tsk, tsk….

Then he heard a clicking sound from somewhere.

The culprit was obvious. It was his younger sister, Kim Ji-yeon.

“Does that even go down, Oppa?”

“……”

Hyun-sung stopped drinking the honey water and stared at Kim Ji-yeon.

Then Kim Ji-yeon raised her eyes and said,

“What?”

“Huh? Oh, no. Sorry, it goes down well. Hehe….”

Hyun-sung burst into laughter without realizing it. At first, he was upset and his pride was hurt, but after hearing it a few times, he developed immunity, and Kim Ji-yeon’s whining seemed rather cute.

Then Kim Ji-yeon turned her head and glared at Hyun-sung.

Smirk.

A smile spread across Hyun-sung’s face.

“What?”

He repeated the words Kim Ji-yeon had said a moment ago.

It was childish but petty revenge.

Then Kim Ji-yeon’s eyes began to narrow even further.

“Are you really going to do that, Oppa?”

“Don’t frown on your pretty face. You’ll get wrinkles. And stop frowning. I’ll work hard in the future, so don’t scold me too much. When you become a teacher later, there will be many kids who are worse than me, what are you going to do?”

“Tch, you always have to say something….”

Gulp, gulp.

Kim Ji-yeon was also thirsty, so she drank the honey water that her mother had brought in one gulp.

Then his mother looked at the two of them and said,

“Anyway, I’m so happy that you guys, who used to fight whenever you met, are now studying like this.”

“Mom, don’t say that. My heart is bursting.”

Kim Ji-yeon said, patting her chest. Then his mother, who was watching the scene, spoke again.

“You want to be a teacher, right? Have you ever heard this saying?”

“What saying?”

“Even dogs don’t eat a teacher’s poop. That’s how hard it is to be a teacher. Why else would such a saying come out?”

“Mom….”

Kim Ji-yeon pouted as if she was dissatisfied.

Then his mother patted Kim Ji-yeon’s shoulder and continued,

“But our Ji-yeon will do well, right?”

“Of course. Who do you think I am… hehe.”

Kim Ji-yeon finished with a laugh, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Of course, the perception of teachers has changed a lot these days, but back then, the trust and expectations for teachers were almost absolute.

As a result, responsibility and a sense of duty were naturally proportionally high.

That’s how hard it was. Instead, the reward of respect was certain.

That’s why, I don’t know, but the job of ‘teacher’ was always included in the students’ future dreams. That’s how much they were admired.

Was it because of his mother’s words?

Kim Ji-yeon looked at Hyun-sung and said,

“Oppa, was I too harsh? Like Mom said, not just anyone can be a teacher.”

Hyun-sung looked at his younger sister.

It wasn’t the Kim Ji-yeon who had been shouting a moment ago.

He chuckled.

She was thinking in her own way.

Then, his younger sister’s clear eyes sparkled.

Kim Ji-yeon was staring intently at Hyun-sung as if she had something to say, and her lips were moving.

Then Hyun-sung asked immediately.