Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1619

“A foundation?”

“Yeah.”

“Why a foundation?”

“Because I think it would be good if you were there.” Park Yu-min stared blankly at Kang Jin-ho.

*Slurp.*

Park Yu-min took a sip of his smoothie and then stirred it with the straw.

“Um, Jin-ho. I think I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have when I was drunk last time.”

“You weren’t drunk.”

“…Oh, was I not?”

“Yeah.”

Park Yu-min scratched the back of his head.

“Then I guess I just said what I wanted to say. Anyway, I remember telling you that I wanted to start an orphanage like yours.”

“Yeah.”

“But that’s not what I meant. I’m not in a position to do that yet. And what I meant wasn’t about taking a position in the foundation you created, but about creating my own.”

Park Yu-min smiled awkwardly.

“Of course, it’s a bit grand to call it a foundation, maybe just a small orphanage?”

“I know.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded calmly.

“But I didn’t come up with this idea after hearing you. I’ve been thinking about it for a while.”

Park Yu-min took a big gulp of his smoothie.

“If you say so… I guess so.”

His hand, unsure where to go, eventually landed on the back of his head.

“…Wouldn’t there be someone better than me? Jin-ho, think about it. I’m just… just a guy who didn’t even graduate from college and became a pro gamer. What do I know about being a director of a welfare foundation?”

“Is there anyone who knows orphanages as well as you do?”

“…Isn’t knowing it like that a bit different? There must be many more qualified people than me. Especially since I’m still a bit young to take on such a position, and I haven’t learned much.”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled.

“If you don’t know, you can learn. Age isn’t a problem.”

“More than that, even if there are many qualified people, could I even work with them?”

That would be difficult.

Kang Jin-ho understood the concern immediately. Kang Jin-ho was so set in his ways that it wouldn’t be easy to work with him.

“The administrative stuff can be handled by Chief Jo or Chief Lee.”

“Right. Those guys are… legends in the office world.”

Park Yu-min didn’t know exactly what Lee Hyun-soo and Jo Gyu-min did, but he knew very well that they were competent.

Just by looking at their faces, they seemed like people who were good at their jobs.

“Yeah.”

“So, you just need to do what they can’t.”

“Is there anything they can’t do?”

“There is.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled faintly.

“What kids like, what they want, what they’re thinking, how they perceive the orphanage. Those are things they can’t know no matter how hard they try. At best, they’d just hand out surveys.”

“…I guess so.”

“But to create a good orphanage, you need to understand that. This is something that neither I, Choi Yeon-ha, nor those people can do. That’s why we need you.”

Kang Jin-ho stared at Park Yu-min.

At that serious gaze, Park Yu-min finally sighed.

“Okay.”

“Thanks.”

“But I have a condition.”

A condition?

Kang Jin-ho looked at Park Yu-min with a questioning gaze.

“What is it?”

Park Yu-min took a sip of his smoothie, cleared his throat, and opened his mouth.

“First of all, I can’t be a director. I can’t handle that position. Just give me a deputy position or something.”

“But if you’re a director, you have the decision-making power…”

“You’re going to do whatever you want anyway, so what’s the point of decision-making power? Are you going to hold a vote or something?”

Kang Jin-ho couldn’t argue with that.

“Of course, I understand why you want to put me in the director position. But I’m not qualified for that position right now.”

“Why do you need qualifications?”

“Jin-ho.”

Park Yu-min sighed softly.

“There are too many capable people around you.”

“…Huh?”

Kang Jin-ho tilted his head.

“So, no matter what position you put them in, they’ll do their part. And they’ll do even better than you expect. But not everyone in the world is as capable as those people. Especially someone like me, who has limited abilities.”

“Yeah.”

“What I’ve learned from being a gamer is that if you sit in a position that doesn’t match your skills, that position will eventually become poison. People who could grow more might regress because they can’t handle the pressure, or they might not be able to perform at their best because of the tension.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded calmly.

He understood what Park Yu-min was saying.

“So, I can’t be a director. If I want to do my job properly, that position would be too much of a burden.”

“Even if it’s not right now?”

“Would I be that much different then?”

Park Yu-min smiled gently.

“Sometimes, taking a detour is much better, Jin-ho.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded.

It wasn’t a matter of agreeing or disagreeing. If Park Yu-min was more comfortable with that method, it was good to support it. This wasn’t something they were doing for profit, but for comfort.

If Park Yu-min could work comfortably, the children would also be comfortable.

“So, when do you think you’ll be able to join properly?”

“That’s asking when I’m going to retire, isn’t it?”

“…Does it sound like that?”

Kang Jin-ho scratched his head. Now that he said it, it sounded like an insult.

Park Yu-min chuckled and said,

“Don’t make that face. I know, too, that I don’t have much time left as a pro gamer. Two years at most.”

“Two years? What about last year’s champion?”

“It’s very common in this industry for a champion to plummet the next season.”

“That’s because they’re complacent, but you’re not that type.”

Park Yu-min scratched his cheek.

It wasn’t awkwardness. It was a gesture unique to Park Yu-min that came out when he was dissatisfied with something.

“It’s not because they’re complacent. People who reach the top in this industry can’t be as complacent as ordinary people think.”

“At some point, there’s a limit. It’s just that my limit is coming later than usual. I’m just lucky.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled faintly.

‘It’s not luck.’

Long ago, Kang Jin-ho had implanted internal energy [a concept in martial arts and fantasy, referring to a life force or energy within the body] into Park Yu-min to make him a little more comfortable with his limping leg. And even now, he occasionally removes the impurities from Park Yu-min whenever they meet.

That probably had an effect.

“Anyway, I’m starting to feel my limits. My reaction speed isn’t what it used to be. I think I can manage until the end of this year… but I’ll have to think about next year. It depends on how this season goes.”

“Yeah.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded calmly.

This was up to Park Yu-min’s choice.

“Have you ever thought about coaching or anything like that?”

“Would I be good at coaching?”

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes flickered slightly.

Kang Jin-ho was someone who could confidently say that he could do anything well, but he hesitated a little when it came to this area.

Seeing Kang Jin-ho’s hesitation, Park Yu-min chuckled.

“I know, too, that I’m terrible as a coach. Leading people strongly is a field I struggle with. In fact, for coaches and managers in this field, that aspect is more important than knowledge. I don’t try to hold onto things that don’t work.”

“…That doesn’t sound like a bad choice.”

“Of course, you know I’m like that, so you’re trying to find me something to do after I retire, right? Isn’t that so?”

“I know that you’re offering me the director position to give me a bigger salary. Thanks, Jin-ho.”

“No, I really didn’t think about that?”

The two friends looked at each other. Park Yu-min chuckled.

“I should say that’s like you.”

“Let’s go.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s go have a smoke. You haven’t had one in a while.”

“Ah.”

Park Yu-min got up from his seat and walked into the smoking room.

Kang Jin-ho followed Park Yu-min. His slightly limping leg caught Kang Jin-ho’s eye.

In the past, Kang Jin-ho couldn’t fix that leg.

But now?

Kang Jin-ho narrowed his brow slightly.

Kang Jin-ho, who had entered the smoking room, opened his mouth.

“You can go if you want, I can smoke alone.”

“It’s okay. A little cigarette smoke won’t kill me.”

“Secondhand smoke…”

“Then quit!”

Kang Jin-ho closed his mouth.

He was about to get nothing out of it if he kept talking.

Park Yu-min chuckled and said,

“Anyway, thanks for telling me.”

“You’re saying strange things.”

Kang Jin-ho stared at Park Yu-min, then lit a cigarette. Then, he gave Park Yu-min a subtle look.

“Why?”

“No.”

Kang Jin-ho hesitated slightly and then opened his mouth.

“How should I say this… I think you accepted it too easily. I thought you would refuse a little more. Although I thought you would eventually accept it.”

“Ah, that.”

Park Yu-min smiled faintly.

“We’re not kids anymore.”

“Huh?”

Park Yu-min’s voice gained strength.

“In the past, I thought it was natural. To set one path in life and walk it to the best of your ability. And to achieve your goal.”

“But after living, I realized that’s not all there is. There are times in life when you have to make choices. When you have to start a new life again.”

“Yeah.”

Park Yu-min shrugged his shoulders.

“I have pride as someone in this industry. But that doesn’t mean I have to stay in this industry forever. If there’s a better path or a better choice, you have to be bold enough to take it. That’s life.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled.

“Have you ever thought about doing multi-level marketing?”

“…Don’t tease me.”

A subtle emotion arose.

In the past, the two of them were just playing with the children at the orphanage, but now they were having conversations like this.

“However, there’s one thing that bothers me…”

“Yeah?”

Park Yu-min looked at Kang Jin-ho with a calm gaze.

“Wasn’t it a story that didn’t need to be told yet?”

“…Was I a little hasty?”

“Yeah. Hasty. The Jin-ho I knew was overly laid-back in these situations. You told Choi Yeon-ha this too, right?”

“Ah.”

Park Yu-min’s face hardened a little more.

“…Then you must have told either Chief Jo Gyu-min or Chief Lee Hyun-soo that they should do things a certain way for the next ten years?”

“To Chief Jo.”

Upon hearing that, Park Yu-min sighed deeply.

“Jin-ho.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know what you’re going through. You’ve always been like that. You don’t even tell me the really important things.”

“That’s…”

Park Yu-min raised his hand and cut off Kang Jin-ho’s words.

“No. It’s not that I’m upset. If it was a story you had to tell, you would have already told it. What I want to say isn’t that, but…”

Park Yu-min sighed and looked at Kang Jin-ho with an even more serious gaze.

“It feels like the things I’m doing now are preparing for when you disappear.”

“It’s like you’re trying to make sure that even if you suddenly disappear one day, the Seongsim Orphanage Foundation will still run smoothly. Isn’t that right, Jin-ho? Or am I just worrying too much?”

Kang Jin-ho couldn’t say anything. He just took a deep drag of his cigarette.

The cigarette smoke that went deep into his lungs felt a little bitter today.