Chapter 2
Three years was a short but long time.
Especially for the guys who had been to the army, they would understand what I mean.
How could 21 months be so long?
I never thought that 21 months would feel longer than six years of trainee life.
-The army is… no.
I understood what Seok-hwan hyung said before we parted at the terminal.
A lot had happened in three years.
I had helped out at my grandmother’s shop and lived there until I enlisted in the army as soon as I became an adult.
It was because I hated to pay for food or rent when I couldn’t make any money.
I also thought about my career then.
After giving up on my childhood dream of being an idol, I wandered for a while and finally changed my future goal.
It was to be a composer.
Maybe I inherited it from my parents who were musical instrument players, but I had some musical talent of my own and I chose to be a composer to make use of it.
If I couldn’t be an idol, why not make idol music?
That was one of my thoughts.
And I thought it would be a pretty cool career path to start as a composer and later become a producer.
So I prepared for the college entrance exam.
I thought it was essential to enter a good music college if I wanted to be a composer.
Of course, preparing for the college entrance exam in the army was not an easy task at all.
There were many obstacles.
For me, who had been obsessed with only one idol for six years and neglected my studies, the GED and the college entrance exam were huge barriers.
It was lucky that I mastered English and Chinese during my trainee days, otherwise I would still be preparing for the college entrance exam.
With a fresh start, I studied for two years.
I went through countless workbooks and mock exams, and now I only had the college entrance exam left.
Winter of 2013. Present.
Three years after leaving the company, I, Seon Woojoo, a 21-year-old who had just been discharged from the army, was a college entrance exam taker.
The cold weather that made my breath visible.
Every year, when the college entrance exam day came, I understood why people said it suddenly got cold.
Ugh. It’s cold.
I browsed the internet with my new smartphone that I bought after being discharged and walked down the street.
It was still early in the morning.
The street lights were still shining.
[Who are the stars taking the college entrance exam today?]
I clicked on the article in the entertainment section of the portal site and saw familiar faces.
TNT Han Tae-hyun, Lavi En Rose Jeon Yu-bin, and so on.
The faces that I had seen here and there at TJ Entertainment were crowded on the screen.
They were all familiar faces.
The one that caught my eye was TNT’s Han Tae-hyun.
TNT.
After I was cut and a new member was added, TNT debuted right away.
The result was a huge success.
Not just a success, but a super hit.
They swept all the rookie awards that year, and the prefix of the best rookie idol ever was attached to them.
Honestly, I didn’t expect them to do that well.
Well.
It had nothing to do with me anyway.
I took a deep breath and looked at the hill in front of me.
Maybe it was because of the snow yesterday.
There was ice on the hill that led to the test site.
How am I supposed to climb this?
I was momentarily in a state of panic when I heard a strange noise.
Clank-
It was the sound of a manhole cover and a wheel hitting each other.
An old man was pushing a cart and struggling to climb the hill.
Maybe it was because we were of similar age.
He reminded me of my grandmother in Gunsan.
He was climbing the hill with difficulty, but he swayed every time the wind blew.
I felt sorry for him.
Should I help him?
I had plenty of time to enter the test site since it was early in the morning. I checked my electronic watch that I had been using since the army and nodded.
I might as well get some good luck.
You never know.
Maybe the high and mighty one in the sky would see me and say, ‘What a cheeky kid’ and bless me with some luck.
I thought so and smiled brightly.
“Sir.”
“…”
“Sir.”
“…Are you calling me?”
A weak voice came back.
“Are you having a hard time? I have some strength left, so I’ll take you to the end of the hill.”
“You’re helping me?”
“Yes.”
“You’re cheeky and weak-looking.”
“Don’t worry. I may look like this, but I haven’t been discharged for long, huh…!”
As soon as I grabbed the handle of the cart and pushed it, I realized something was wrong.
“…Huh?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, haha!”
I laughed outwardly, but cold sweat ran down my padding.
Is this weight for real?
I soon realized two shocking facts.
“…”
I thought it was only paper boxes, but when I looked inside, I saw that there were old junk like radios and discarded electronics piled up.
The second was that the old man’s arms were muscular and alive.
And every time his pants fluttered, his magnificent calves were exposed.
I felt embarrassed that I had meddled with someone who could easily handle it on his own.
“Kid, are you okay?”
“This is really heavy. It looked light.”
The old man chuckled.
“Oh, kid. Is there anything easy in this world?”
“You’re right.”
“Not just anyone can do this. You need to have some know-how.”
“How long have you been doing this, sir?”
I blurted out anything that came to my mind as I was out of breath.
“I’ve been doing this all my life.”
“Huff, huff… That’s amazing.”
A proud smile appeared on the old man’s face, who was selling junk.
“I sent my son to college with this… Oh, you’re already out of energy? What good are you young people for?”
When we finally reached the top of the hill, I grabbed my knees.
Wow, this is crazy.
Steam was rising from inside my padding, and sweat drops rolled down my forehead.
One lesson I learned today.
Never underestimate this old man.
“Thank you, kid. You didn’t help much, but you have a good heart. You’re pretty and handsome, too. I could die for you.”
“Yes, yes, thank you for your hard work.”
“Where are you going now, kid?”
“I’m going to take a test at the school over there.”
“Oh, the college entrance exam?”
“Yes.”
“Oh dear, you suffered a lot trying to help an old man.”
The old man held my hand tightly, and I felt a warm heat.
“You did a good deed, so you’ll be blessed.”
“Thank you.”
I didn’t feel like I helped much, but it was rewarding.
Is this why people do volunteer work?
I exchanged warm words with the old man and bowed my head to say goodbye. Then I moved my steps toward my destination.
It was soon the entrance to the test site.
But as I walked, massaging my sore shoulders, I couldn’t help but turn my eyes to a strange sound.
Boom!
It was a car speeding from afar.
What? Are you crazy?
A white sedan was racing like mad on the side road near the school.
The driver must have been drunk, because the movement was abnormal.
And the direction the car was heading was clear…
“Sir!”
On the path of the angry car, the old man was on the phone, standing next to his cart.
I shouted desperately.
“Grandpa!”
But he didn’t react at all.
He must have been hard of hearing, because he was almost screaming on the phone.
Meanwhile, the car was speeding toward the cart, and my heart started to beat anxiously.
‘No!’
I had no time to think or do anything.
I felt a sense of time stopping as I ran with all my strength toward the old man.
In the meantime, the car had quickly closed the distance.
“Watch out-!”
When the license plate came close to my eyes, I pushed the old man away.
Crash!
The car that smashed the cart in an instant broke into the hair salon window.
“Are you okay-?”
The old man who fell to the ground was fortunately fine.
The problem was me.
“Ugh-!”
My feet were slipping as I pushed the old man away.
Huh?
What is this?
It was because I stepped on the ice.
In an instant, my center of gravity shifted to my back, and my body fell into a temporary state of weightlessness.
It felt like a viking going down.
The next thing was a flash.
Thud-!
My body that hit something once rolled down the hill.
When the rotation stopped, I saw a sign of a meat restaurant with a smiling cow.
Ow. My head hurts.
My vision was fading.
‘45,000 won for three servings of sirloin…’
That was my last memory.
***
When I came to, I was in a hospital.
It was 10 o’clock.
When I heard that I missed the test time by a long time, I felt like the world was collapsing.
If there was a god, I wanted to ask him.
What grudge did he have against me?
It was always like this.
Whenever I thought my life was going well, he always gave me a hard time.
When I was seven, my parents passed away.
When I started practicing for a piano contest, my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer.
When I was about to debut, I was eliminated from the debut group.
And now, I saved a person on the day of the exam, but I couldn’t take the test.
What should I say to my grandmother?
She must be praying for me to ace the exam at the temple.
I felt hopeless.
I was going crazy.
Thanks to years of experiencing misfortune, I was able to recover mentally quickly.
Actually, this time was better than the others.
Other times, I had no reward for the misfortune that came out of nowhere, but this time, I saved a person’s life, so it was rewarding.
The problem was that I only saved his life.
“Cough!”
The old man was lying on the bed next to the emergency room, and he cringed every time he coughed.
It was because I broke his ribs when I pushed him.
I felt sorry for him and opened my mouth.
“I’m sorry, you seem to be in a lot of pain because of me.”
“Oh, don’t say that.”
The nice-looking lady who came as his guardian waved her hand.
Her husband next to her nodded his head.
“If it weren’t for you, Mr. Seon Woojoo, our father wouldn’t even be lying on this bed.”
“I appreciate your kind words.”
The people who came to the hospital were the old man’s son and daughter-in-law.
I thought the son looked like a professor, and when I received his business card, he was indeed a professor at a university hospital.
The old man’s name was Choi Ik-hyun, and the son’s name was Choi Yong-jae.
“Is Ik-hyun a common name in the Choi family?”
“Yes, that’s my father’s name. Is there a problem?”
“No, not at all.”
I suddenly remembered the representative of the Wijeongcheksa movement that I saw in the college entrance exam book.
He looked at me with concern.
“How are you feeling?”
“The doctor said it was a miracle that I’m fine. He said I’ll be okay if I rest for a day.”
“How about staying at the hospital? We haven’t paid you properly yet, and we’ll pay for your hospital bills too…”
“I’m fine. I didn’t do it for money.”
I waved my hand at them, who kept insisting that I have a meal with them.
I felt uncomfortable.
And I wasn’t in the mood to have a cheerful meal with them.
As I was about to say goodbye to the couple, the old man who was lying on the bed grabbed my wrist.
“Kid…”
His voice was weak and hoarse, probably because of his broken ribs.
“I’m sorry.”
“What?”
“I’ve committed a great sin. You had to take that important test, but you got involved with an unlucky old man… I did something unforgivable. Really.”
“Don’t say that.”
I held his hand tightly, which seemed to be full of guilt, and tears welled up in his eyes.
As if I was making a vow to myself.
“You can take the test again, but you can’t bring back a life.”
“Still…”
“It’s really okay.”
I smiled to reassure him, and he wiped his eyes.
The couple next to him looked at me with a helpless expression.
“Then I’ll see you later.”
I said goodbye to them, who wanted me to have a meal with them, and as soon as they were out of sight, I sighed.
Is it true that I have to study for another year?
I felt hopeless as I realized that I had unintentionally become a repeater. Then I noticed the TV hanging in the hospital lobby.
An action movie was playing on the movie channel.
It was a movie I had seen in the army.
The protagonist was the best spy in the world, but he lost his memory and ran away.
The scene in the movie was the beginning.
A policeman pointed a gun at the protagonist.
The protagonist, who had lost his memory, raised his hands and surrendered.
Then the policeman approached and grabbed his shoulder.
And then.
The protagonist, who had martial arts in his body without knowing it, reflexively flipped the other person over.
…Huh?
I felt strange watching the familiar movie scene.
No, was it a sensation?
It was not one of the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch.
It was a different kind of sensation.
As I tried to figure out that mysterious sensation, my phone vibrated.
“Hello.”
-Is this Mr. Seon Woojoo?
It was a heavy voice.
“Yes, who is this?”
-Good day. This is Detective Jang Kyung-il from the Eunpyeong Police Station’s Traffic Investigation Unit.
“Oh, yes.”
-Yes, I’m calling you in relation to the traffic accident investigation this morning. Do you mind telling me where you are right now?
When I told him the name of the hospital, a bright voice came from the other side.
-That’s good. I’m actually in the hospital lobby right now.
“Really? I’m in the lobby too.”
-Are you the tall man who’s on the phone right now?
“Where are you?”
“I’m right here-”
I felt someone’s hand on my left shoulder from behind, along with a voice.
At that moment.
My body started to move on its own.
…What?
It felt like someone else was controlling me.
I grabbed his hand and turned my body like lightning, and in an instant, I threw him to the ground.
Thud-!
A tense silence filled the hospital lobby.
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