The furniture that had been in his grandfather’s room had all been replaced with new furniture. Though the furniture was discarded, he couldn’t bear to throw away the belongings inside, so he’d packed as much as possible into boxes and brought them to his room.
Excluding Ganghyuk’s room, the other places still held intact the time the grandfather and grandson had lived together, so it felt strange.
Restless, helpless, uncomfortable, yet strangely his heart seemed to pound. It was an emotion difficult to define in one word that stirred his heart.
When he thought of Sangmin, who would be excitedly gambling after selling the building containing his grandfather’s blood and sweat, sighs kept leaking out. Even the large sum of 10 billion won would be worth less than scraps of paper once it entered Sangmin’s hands.
After cleanly finishing the cleanup, Ian lingered unnecessarily in front of Ganghyuk’s room. He had nothing to do, and with the thought that he should at least earn his meals, he wanted to help with something.
Sensing a presence, Ganghyuk got up and opened wide the door that had been half-open.
“What are you doing here like a dog that needs to poop?”
The more he looked, the more his actions resembled a dog, so when he said that, Ian immediately brightened. It seemed like an invisible tail was wagging vigorously behind his bottom.
“Shall I help you unpack? I’m pretty good at organizing. Grandfather was busy running the restaurant, so I did a lot of the housework.”
It wasn’t empty words but the truth. Though the soup restaurant was small, since his grandfather alone did both the cooking and serving, he had almost no time for housework.
When he was too young, his grandfather wouldn’t let him, but after his head had grown considerably, it became natural for Ian to take charge of all the housework.
“The organizing is done. Come here and sit.”
Ganghyuk gestured with his chin toward the sofa in the living room. At the suddenly changed atmosphere, Ian followed behind Ganghyuk while gauging the situation.
Since there was only one three-seater sofa, they sat side by side. When sitting with just his grandfather, he’d thought it was quite large, but sitting with Ganghyuk made the sofa feel like a two-seater.
“Did I do something wrong?”
As the atmosphere grew heavy, Ian wiggled his fingers and opened his lips. Just a moment ago they’d been deliciously eating jajangmyeon together. His heart shrank, thinking he might have made some mistake without knowing.
“What’s your dream?”
“Pardon?”
While waiting tensely for what Ganghyuk would say, an out-of-the-blue question flew at him. When his eyes widened in bewilderment, Ganghyuk draped his arm over the sofa backrest and asked once more.
“What’s your dream? You’re twenty, so you must have a lot you want to do.”
“Uh……”
It wasn’t the first time he’d been asked what his dream was, but that had all been when he was young. Even his grandfather had asked a few times what he wanted to become when he grew up, until Ian was in elementary school.
Like someone who had decided to support whatever dream his grandson had.
Each time, Ian said his wish was to become healthy. It was hard to see his grandfather secretly crying whenever he was sick, and even at a young age, he knew that hospital bills and medicine costs were considerable.
“Why didn’t you go to university?”
While Ian couldn’t readily answer, Ganghyuk tilted his head. Though it wasn’t an interrogating tone, Ian’s words stuck again and he only fumbled his lips.
Would it be okay to tell the truth? His grandfather had never once scolded Ian for being bad at studying, but seeing Ganghyuk’s expressionless face, his lips stiffened into a straight line.
Why do I feel like I’m being scolded?
His heart pricked, as if he’d been caught living thoughtlessly. In fact, Ian was proud of himself just for graduating high school. His grandfather had thought so too. He realized anew how preciously his grandfather had raised him.
“Perhaps you were bad at studying.”
“……It’s not wrong, but if you say it so directly, it hurts my feelings.”
A disgruntled sound popped out from being hit right on the mark. There was a reason euphemistic roundabout ways of speaking existed in the world.
“I’m stating a fact, so why are you hurt? Were you really bad at studying?”
Seeing the face full of pure curiosity, Ian bit his lips. In fact, he wasn’t terribly bad at studying. It’s just that his grades weren’t good enough to go to a four-year university in Seoul.
He’d never attended a hagwon or received tutoring. Still, for having studied alone listening to internet lectures, he’d received decent grades.
He’d never thought he had a good head for studying, but he’d never thought it was particularly bad either. He didn’t know why he was shrinking so much at Ganghyuk’s question. Was it because he’d never studied extremely hard?
“Why are you asking that?”
Not wanting to explain at length, he deflected. Ganghyuk looked at Ian’s protruding lips and smiled faintly.
“If you’re good at studying, I want to send you to university.”
“……Why?”
Though they’d come to live together by chance, there were still unresolved questions. Just how great a favor had his grandfather bestowed on this man? Enough to take in someone like him who couldn’t do anything.
The words about sending him to university didn’t sound light. Tuition for a decent four-year university in Seoul exceeded 7 million won per year. That was based on humanities and social sciences, and engineering, medicine, or arts and physical education majors were even more expensive.
He remembered it well because he’d looked it up with a just-in-case feeling after the college entrance exam ended. And it didn’t seem like he’d just say he’d send him. Starting from hospital bills to the debt owed to Hongdo, Ganghyuk had been casually spending large sums of money without a care.
Buying this building could be understood if you tried to understand it. The talk that redevelopment would happen soon was almost certain, and Ganghyuk was a person of Taehyun Construction. You could think of it as an investment concept, but he didn’t understand at all why money was being spent on him.
From his biological father who sold his child to gangsters, he’d never received even a ten-thousand-won bill as allowance. For what reason was this person showing him kindness?
He’d asked once at the hospital what exactly his relationship with his grandfather was. But he hadn’t heard a proper answer.
He kept wondering if being ‘just acquaintances’ was deep enough to spend this much money. Moreover, he was curious why he wanted to send him to university. In fact, just saving him from Hongdo and letting him live in this house was a grace he couldn’t repay even if he spent his whole life repaying it.
“Because I want to. If university isn’t good, is there anything else you want to do? Just playing around and eating won’t do. You’re a penniless pauper with nothing now, so you need to think about the future.”
At the tone that pointed out reality, Ian felt even more puzzled. Ganghyuk was acting exactly as if he were Ian’s guardian. Enough to remind him of his deceased grandfather. The thought jumped right out of his lips.
“Executive Director, you’re like my grandfather.”
“Really? I don’t think there’s such a young grandfather in the world.”
The face smiling broadly looked so handsome in that moment that Ian hung his head low. When a person who seemed like they’d be so blunt in the world joked like this, his heart stirred. Feeling his heart with nowhere to go kept trying to lean on the man, he felt alarmed.
“Think about it until tomorrow. What you want to do. Whether it’s university or whatever, I’ll support you.”
At the low voice, now even his earlobes burned. Ian couldn’t bring himself to raise his head and only stared intently at the part where the leather had peeled off from the old sofa.
“Then rest.”
As Ganghyuk stood up, the deeply sunken spot slowly returned to normal. Only after the sound of the door closing did Ian raise his head.
His confused gaze touched the closed door. In Ian’s view, Ganghyuk was a puzzling, enigmatic person. Was that why? Thanks to that, he could avoid being buried in the sadness of losing his grandfather. He gained the strength to bury deep in his chest both the anger toward Sangmin and the fear of Hongdo.
He thought how fortunate it was that Ganghyuk had visited the funeral home. That he didn’t ignore him when he came up as merchandise on the club stage, that he saved him from Hongdo, that even though he’d bought this building from Sangmin, he didn’t kick him out—all of it.
The question of what his dream was threw a stone into Ian’s heart. Gentle ripples spread out in concentric circles.
