Black Label [EN]: Chapter 115

Black Label 114

115. Your Pieces

After a long 13-hour flight, Jae-seung arrived in Korea and took a deep breath.

The taste of the Korean air rushing into his lungs was, without exaggeration, fantastic.

It struck him that he had gone through so many changes, but this Incheon Airport, no, Korea itself, seemed to remain the same.

Jae-seung put his earphones in and played a song on his smartphone.

Pulling his hat down deeper, he hummed along and started walking.

After stepping out of the airport, he immediately got into a private van.

He dissuaded Director Song and the staff who insisted on picking him up.

He wanted to go home first and reunite with his family.

Leaning his head against the car window, he stared blankly outside for a while. As the van entered Jayuro [a major highway in South Korea], Jae-seung fell into a light nap without realizing it.

It was a pleasant nap accompanied by a good dream.

The dream vividly contained clear memories of his childhood, bathed in warm sunlight.

He was playfully running around with Seung-hee, who looked about six years old, and then returning home, holding her tiny hand tightly.

The house was bathed in orange light because of the sunset seeping in through the window, and the air inside was filled with the savory smell of stew.

His father was reading the newspaper in a t-shirt and shorts, and his mother was wearing an apron, checking the seasoning of the stew.

It was a good dream. A truly, exceptionally good dream.

* * *

At that moment, Jae-seung’s family was sitting around the dining table, engrossed in their dinner.

His father, Lee Kang-soo, who had been silently eating, looked at the empty chair.

There were four chairs, but only three people ever sat there.

It had been like that for some time.

Whenever he looked at the empty chair like this, he couldn’t help but picture his son struggling in a foreign land.

Lee Kang-soo cleared his throat and opened his mouth in an indifferent tone.

“Honey, how is Jae-seung doing?”

His mother, Kim Eun-hyung, responded with a “Who knows?” before adding playfully with a faint smile.

“If you’re so curious, why don’t you just give him a call?”

“Tsk. No need, woman. He’s a grown man, he’ll take care of himself…”

Lee Kang-soo replied in a nonchalant tone, picking up the remote control and adding again.

“I saw him on TV from America last time, and he seemed to have lost a lot of weight, so I was just worried.”

“Should we get him some herbal medicine to send? When I talked to him last time, he said he was coming to Korea soon.”

Lee Kang-soo briefly asked, “Really?”

He immediately turned on the TV.

Once again, silence fell in the house, and the anchor’s clear voice began to echo loudly.

– The next news is truly joyful. Are you familiar with the 20-year-old rising designer Lee Jae-seung, who is making waves overseas? Lee, who is currently studying at Parsons School of Design, became a hot topic earlier this year when he was appointed as the director of the premium brand ‘Alexander King’….

After a long silence, his younger sister, Seung-hee, spoke in a rather indifferent tone.

“It’s crazy. Mom, Dad, it seems like Oppa [Korean term for older brother] is really successful. The news has been all about him yesterday and today.”

It had been just one day since CNN STYLE aired the documentary and LVMH Group’s Chairman Arnault officially announced Jae-seung’s recruitment to Dior.

Since then, news about Jae-seung’s contract had been continuously broadcasted on public television.

Lee Kang-soo put down his spoon and silently began to turn up the volume on the TV.

Unlike Seung-hee, who seemed indifferent, Lee Kang-soo and Kim Eun-hyung were completely focused on the TV screen.

The reality that they could check on their son’s recent activities through public television news still didn’t feel real to them.

– Lee has succeeded in achieving another feat. Through a contract with ‘Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy,’ which has over 60 luxury brands including Louis Vuitton as subsidiaries, he has been appointed as the Creative Director of the premium brand Christian Dior. The reason why Lee’s moves are attracting attention is that he is the first Asian director in Christian Dior’s 70-year history. Let’s find out more.

The video of LVMH Group’s Chairman Arnault announcing Jae-seung’s recruitment began to play.

Then, a part of the documentary ‘Dreams Come True,’ in which Jae-seung appeared, was broadcast as archival footage.

Just as a professor from a domestic fashion department began to praise Jae-seung’s moves.

Beep, beep, beep-.

The sound of the front door lock being unlocked began to be heard.

The family turned their heads like meerkats and stared intently at the front door.

Because, apart from the three people sitting at the dining table, there was only one person who knew the password to the front door lock.

Soon, the front door opened, making a slightly creepy metallic sound, ‘creak-.’

“I’m home.”

Jae-seung, who had just stepped into the house, gave a bright smile.

Even now, the subtitles below the anchor’s chest on the TV screen were announcing the achievements Jae-seung had made.

[Designer Lee Jae-seung Confirmed to Enter Christian Dior House as First Asian. Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy Chairman Arnault Announces Official Position.]

* * *

The dinner time with his family after a long time was a truly heartwarming time.

Starting with conversations about each other’s recent activities, stories that they hadn’t been able to share filled the table.

After finishing the meal, they all sat in front of the TV, eating fruit and continuing their conversation.

Soon, after his younger sister Seung-hee and his mother headed to the bedroom to prepare for their schedules tomorrow.

His father took out the ginseng wine that he had carefully kept in the living room display case and placed it on the table, opening his mouth.

“Jae-seung, let’s have a drink.”

It was late, close to midnight.

He was feeling exhausted from the long flight, but Jae-seung did not refuse his father’s offer.

This was the first time he was drinking alone with his father in both of his lives.

The living room, with only one light on, was very quiet.

Jae-seung filled his father’s glass, and then his father filled Jae-seung’s glass in succession.

An awkward atmosphere settled in. Jae-seung tried hard to calm his constantly pounding heart, carefully choosing his next words.

His father downed a glass of alcohol in one gulp, then carefully opened his mouth.

“Jae-seung.”

Just as Jae-seung replied briefly, “Yes,” his father took out the ‘taxi driver’s license’ he had put in his pants pocket and placed it on the table.

“Maybe it’s because I’m getting old, but my body isn’t what it used to be. It’s hard to open my eyes in the morning, and sometimes even a glass of water feels heavy, let alone my tools.”

“…….”

“But I don’t intend to be a burden to you. After completing 3 years of company taxi experience, I decided to drive a private taxi. There will be no problem for your mother and I to make a living. So don’t worry about your mother and me, and just keep running forward.”

The sound of the ticking clock was particularly sharp tonight. The sound of ‘tick, tock’ pierced the ear indifferently.

As always, time flows. As time passes, the wrinkles of his parents also deepen.

Jae-seung refilled his father’s empty glass without saying anything.

After a moment of silence, his father looked at the alcohol in the glass and began to continue speaking in an indifferent tone.

“I still vividly remember the day you were born. But that day, I cried several times more sadly than you, who was born and crying sadly. It wasn’t because I was happy, and it wasn’t because I was sad. It was because I was sorry. I was just so sorry to you.”

“Yes? Sorry…?”

“Yes. When you settled in your mother’s womb, Jae-seung, I set foot in a construction site for the first time. I had so much morning sleep that I almost couldn’t graduate from high school, but it felt so hard to wake up early every morning and pack my tools….”

After hesitating for a moment, his father took another sip of alcohol and frowned slightly before speaking again.

“Around that time, one early morning. I was packing my tools as usual and saw your mother sleeping soundly. She was resting her hands on her swollen belly, sleeping so well, ‘snoring, snoring’… Suddenly, I felt a surge of tears. In fact, I regretted your existence without realizing it at that time. I was very scared. I was afraid that I would have to live so hard until I was forty or fifty. And I was afraid that I would resent your existence at that time.”

Before he knew it, his father’s eyes were filled with tears.

Jae-seung was just silently staring at his father.

He could understand. He could really fully understand. His father wasn’t a father from the moment he was born.

The young days of his father, full of worries, became the youth of himself and Seung-hee.

He desperately wanted to say something, but the words were stuck in his throat and wouldn’t come out. He wanted to say that it was okay, that he understood, that he was so grateful for giving him such a tearfully grateful life, but he really wanted to say it….

“Jae-seung. What’s really amazing is that you, who gave me such great fear, took that fear away. As I was living aimlessly, you came into our arms. You started to hold your neck, started crawling, and one day you suddenly said ‘Dad’ out loud. It was the most amazing experience in my life.”

After finishing his words, his father paused for a moment and added, “In that short moment, the concepts of all the words I knew changed. Happiness, love, family….”

What should I say? They were warm words that were hard to believe came from his father’s mouth.

His father must have practiced several times for today’s confession.

He must have pondered these words over and over again.

“Thank you for coming to my side, for growing up so well, and for doing so well.”

The few words he added in a slightly trembling tone eventually brought tears to his eyes.

As Jae-seung bowed his head to hide the tears in his eyes, his father gave a faint smile on his lips and patted his shoulder with his large hand.

Not long after, the humble first drinking session between father and son came to an end.

Even after his father returned to the bedroom, Jae-seung remained sitting in the dining chair for a long time, lost in thought.

His father, who had spent half of his life at construction sites to raise himself and Seung-hee.

He contributed to building dozens and hundreds of buildings all over Korea over a long period of time, but the fact that there was not a single building of his father’s among them made his heart ache.

On the table, along with the traces of the alcohol shared by the father and son, was his father’s taxi driver’s license.

Jae-seung, staring at the taxi driver’s license with his lower lip tightly bitten, repeated, “Father, Father…” several times in a weak tone.

The fragments of your life swirl in my heart.

Yes, there is still a long way to go.