Return To The Building Owner [EN]: Chapter 261

After finishing his class, Hyun-sung headed to Lee Cheol-seung’s house.

About 30 minutes passed.

Hyun-sung stopped when he arrived at the shabby corrugated iron house.

“Lee Cheol-seung!”

Hyun-sung called out Lee Cheol-seung’s name loudly.

Bang.

The door opened and Lee Cheol-seung came out.

“Hey, what brings you here?”

Lee Cheol-seung looked at Hyun-sung, surprised. He never imagined that Hyun-sung would come all the way here.

Hyun-sung looked at Lee Cheol-seung and asked,

“What happened? Why didn’t you come to school?”

“Huh? Well…”

Lee Cheol-seung couldn’t answer right away.

Then Hyun-sung asked directly,

“What’s wrong?”

“My mother…”

“Your mother? Is she sick or something?”

Hyun-sung’s voice grew louder.

Then Lee Cheol-seung quickly said,

“Yeah, she’s been having stomach pains since this morning…”

“Stomach pains?”

Hyun-sung went straight into the main room.

“Who…?”

Lee Cheol-seung’s mother, Kim Young-soon, looked at Hyun-sung with surprise as he entered the room. Then Lee Cheol-seung, who was next to her, introduced Hyun-sung to Kim Young-soon.

“Mom, this is Hyun-sung, a friend from my class. He came to see why I didn’t go to school today.”

“Oh, okay…”

Kim Young-soon’s voice was so weak that she could barely answer.

Then Hyun-sung continued,

“Hello, ma’am. Are you feeling very unwell?”

“Just a little stomachache…”

“Let me take a look.”

Hyun-sung immediately took Kim Young-soon’s hand. Then he concentrated and began to examine her.

Lee Cheol-seung, who was next to him, looked at Hyun-sung with a puzzled expression and asked,

“What are you doing?”

“…”

Instead of answering, Hyun-sung closed his eyes and focused on examining Kim Young-soon.

After a moment.

Hyun-sung opened his eyes and said in an urgent voice,

“Ma’am, does it hurt here?”

Hyun-sung gently pressed on Kim Young-soon’s right side.

Then Kim Young-soon cried out in pain.

“Ah, there…”

“Ma’am, it’s appendicitis. You need to go to the hospital quickly.”

Lee Cheol-seung was shocked to hear Hyun-sung’s words and shouted,

“Appendicitis?”

“Yes, we need to get you to the hospital quickly. You must have been in a lot of pain. How did you endure it until now?”

“Mom said it would be okay after a while…”

Lee Cheol-seung barely managed to say in a frightened voice.

Then Hyun-sung immediately continued,

“Call 119 [South Korea’s emergency telephone number] right away. And get ready, ma’am, you’ll need to be hospitalized for about a week.”

“119?”

“Yes, there’s no time.”

“We don’t have a phone…”

“What? You don’t have a phone? Then run quickly to a public phone and call. Hurry!”

Hyun-sung said urgently.

But then something strange happened.

It was Lee Cheol-seung’s behavior. Instead of running out as soon as Hyun-sung finished speaking, Lee Cheol-seung was just pacing around the room, not knowing what to do.

Hyun-sung immediately asked,

“What are you doing? I told you to go call 119 right away.”

“Huh? But…”

“What’s the problem?”

“Hyun-sung…”

Lee Cheol-seung called Hyun-sung’s name with difficulty.

Then Hyun-sung immediately said,

“What’s wrong?”

“I, well, we don’t have any money…”

“Money?”

“Doesn’t surgery cost a lot of money?”

At that moment, Hyun-sung seemed to understand why Lee Cheol-seung was hesitating.

The problem was money. Even though someone was groaning in pain, he couldn’t move because he was worried about money. But he couldn’t blame Lee Cheol-seung at that moment. He understood his feelings.

Just then.

Kim Young-soon, who was lying down, called Hyun-sung with difficulty.

“Student…”

“Yes, ma’am. What is it?”

“Are you sure it’s appendicitis? Not just a stomachache?”

“Yes, I’m sure it’s appendicitis. We need to get you to the hospital before it’s too late.”

“Do I really have to go to the hospital?”

“Of course, there’s no other way to treat appendicitis. Surgery is the only option.”

“How… we’re poor… we don’t have any money…”

Kim Young-soon struggled to speak.

At the end of her difficult words, the word ‘money’ finally came out. She didn’t want to believe it.

Why wouldn’t Kim Young-soon know?

She probably knew that surgery was the only treatment for appendicitis. Nevertheless, the only reason she was reluctant to go to the hospital was probably because of one thing.

The fear of money. The fear of not being able to go even if she wanted to.

He knew. Those who haven’t experienced it wouldn’t know. He knew in his head that he had to go, but his body was rejecting it.

Kim Young-soon’s expression was telling him that.

Hyun-sung turned to look at Lee Cheol-seung.

Lee Cheol-seung was still pacing around, not knowing what to do.

It was the sad reality brought about by poverty.

Hyun-sung looked at Lee Cheol-seung and said urgently,

“Don’t worry about the money. Go call 119 right now.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Lee Cheol-seung couldn’t believe it. Of course, he knew that Hyun-sung was running a business. But he didn’t think that just because he was running a business, he could help without any conditions.

Moreover, it wasn’t just a regular checkup, but surgery. The cost alone could be enormous. In that situation, he couldn’t blindly believe Hyun-sung’s words.

Lee Cheol-seung looked at Hyun-sung.

Then Hyun-sung’s voice grew louder.

“Hey, what are you doing? I told you to go call!”

“Huh? But…”

“I told you not to worry about the hospital bill. If you keep wasting time, your mother will be in danger.”

“Ah, okay.”

Lee Cheol-seung was jolted awake by the words that his mother was in danger.

He realized that the hospital bill wasn’t the issue at that moment. And anyway, Hyun-sung had told him not to worry about the hospital bill. It was hard to believe, but he had to believe it. No, he wanted to believe it. Hyun-sung was the only one he could trust and rely on right now.

He rushed out of the room.

Just then.

“Ugh…”

Kim Young-soon groaned in pain.

Then Hyun-sung took Kim Young-soon’s hand.

“Ma’am, the ambulance will be here soon. Just hold on a little longer.”

“Student… thank you.”

Kim Young-soon barely managed to say.

How much time had passed?

The sound of an ambulance began to be heard in the distance.

Kim Young-soon arrived at the hospital and was immediately taken to the emergency room.

After several tests, she was diagnosed with appendicitis. Fortunately, it wasn’t acute, but they said it would have been a big problem if it had been any later.

Kim Young-soon immediately went into surgery.

The two men came outside.

Hyun-sung looked at Lee Cheol-seung and said,

“Are you okay?”

“No, I’m a mess. What’s going to happen to my mom?”

“She’ll be fine once the surgery is over. And they’ll tell her to be discharged in 3 or 4 days. After that, she just needs to rest at home for about two months without overdoing it, and she’ll be completely cured, so don’t worry too much.”

“Is my mom really going to be okay?”

“Yes, she is. Just calm down now.”

Lee Cheol-seung was still anxious and didn’t know what to do.

Looking at Lee Cheol-seung, Hyun-sung said,

“Here, take this for now,” Hyun-sung said, handing him some cash.

“What is this?”

“Use it to buy yourself some food. I’ll withdraw some money from the Nonghyup [National Agricultural Cooperative Federation] bank tomorrow, so you can use that to pay the hospital bill.”

“Hyun-sung, how can I ever repay this kindness?”

Lee Cheol-seung stared at Hyun-sung.

This was his first experience. He had never received such kindness from a stranger, let alone a family member. Moreover, it was from a guy he wasn’t even close to.

He was helping him without any conditions. It was a new experience for Lee Cheol-seung.

Then Hyun-sung said,

“What kindness? Don’t say that. Just take good care of your mother. And from now on, you have to be the one to keep your head straight, no matter what happens. You can’t waver like this time. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, I understand. I think I know what’s important now, no matter what happens in the future. And through this experience, I’ve come to realize what a friend really is.”

“That’s good. As you know, we’re seniors in high school now. We’re not just kids anymore. We may have lived carelessly until now, but from now on, we have to pull ourselves together and live right.”

Lee Cheol-seung nodded.

Seeing that, Hyun-sung continued,

“And while we’re on the subject, let me talk about one more thing. You should seriously think about what you’re going to do after graduation. We’ll be going out into society soon.”

“I wanted to talk to you about that issue. Actually, the reason I wanted to become friends with you yesterday was because of that.”

Hyun-sung nodded.

He didn’t know that.

To be honest, yesterday was absurd. How could he not be taken aback when a guy he had been fighting with until noon suddenly wanted to become friends after class?

He didn’t know he was thinking that.

Hyun-sung said,

“It must have been difficult to make that decision?”

“Of course, I thought about it a lot in my own way. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t think of any other way.”

“But why did you suddenly think that way?”

“I mentioned it briefly yesterday, but Il-soo’s change was the biggest thing. I didn’t notice it when we were just fighting, but I was honestly surprised to see him ranking in the top 20 in the class. It made me think that a person could change that much.”

Hyun-sung nodded.

There’s nothing more certain than what you can see with your own eyes. Lee Cheol-seung felt Kim Il-soo’s change greatly.

The reason was simple.

The two people’s environments were similar. Kim Il-soo and Lee Cheol-seung were almost the same until the first semester of their second year. But from the second semester, the two were completely different.

Lee Cheol-seung’s life remained unchanged as before. So, it was natural that there was no change.

But Kim Il-soo was different. He had many changes while being close to Hyun-sung. The biggest change was that he found his future dream. As a result, his school life itself had to change.

It was obvious to anyone that he was not the same Kim Il-soo as before.

From Lee Cheol-seung’s point of view, Kim Il-soo’s change would have been seen as significant.

Lee Cheol-seung said,

“So, I was worried about it from then on, and when I became a senior, I thought I couldn’t put it off any longer.”

“So, you provoked me?”

“That’s right, I thought that was the only way. I thought that if I became friends with you that way, my life would change too. Like Il-soo changed.”

Hyun-sung nodded.

Then Lee Cheol-seung continued,

“I didn’t want to live like this anymore. I was afraid of living like this.”

“Afraid?”

“Yeah, graduation is only a year away. I was afraid of graduating and going out into society without any preparation.”

“That’s a relief. I’m glad you thought that way. I thought you weren’t thinking about anything, but that wasn’t the case.”

Smirk.

Lee Cheol-seung smiled.

Then he immediately continued,

“Can you help me?”

“Well, I don’t know how much help I can be, but let’s talk about it after your mother is discharged from the hospital. Let’s stop here for today.”

“Okay, let’s take care of Mom first and talk about it later.”

“Okay. After your mother’s surgery is over, take her up to the hospital room. I’ll come again after class tomorrow, so I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Hyun-sung turned away after saying that.

Hyun-sung had walked a few steps when.

“Hyun-sung!”

Lee Cheol-seung called out to Hyun-sung.

Then Hyun-sung turned around.

“Why?”

“Thank you. I’ll never forget this kindness.”

Hyun-sung smiled and raised his hand to say goodbye, then turned and left the hospital.