Chapter 42 …
Even a Fool Knows How to Protect His Mother:
Even after the mother and son disappeared into the sky, I patted Chairman Yang’s back for quite a while.
The possession had ended, but the emotions that the mother had left behind still lingered.
“Sorry.”
“Are you feeling a bit better now?”
At my question, Chairman Yang wiped away his tears and runny nose with a handkerchief.
Then he looked at the stew.
“This needs to be reheated, doesn’t it?”
“Sure. Mansoo, what are you doing? Get some rice and sit down.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Looking a little dazed, Mansoo scooped rice into a bowl and sat down.
The three of us sat right on the bare dirt without even a mat, spooning reheated kimchi stew over cold rice and mixing it together.
It was spicy and surprisingly delicious.
From the taste, it seemed the kimchi had been homemade.
Maybe because the quiet atmosphere felt awkward, Mansoo broke the silence as he chewed.
“Wow, this stew is really good.”
“Yeah, you don’t find this flavor much these days.”
I nodded in agreement. It wasn’t a lie—this was the kind of taste money couldn’t buy anymore.
The old man finished one bowl, then filled another and spoke as he scooped more kimchi stew.
“If there’s something different from the old days…”
“What is it?”
“There’s a lot more meat on this pork fat than before.”
“Pfft, haha!”
“You’re right.”
I chuckled at the old man’s words, while Mansoo giggled obsequiously like some sycophant eunuch from the Ming dynasty.
And sure enough, even though it was supposed to be just fat, there was a fair amount of meat attached.
“I thought it’d be all fat since it had already been trimmed before I bought it, but there’s quite a bit of meat left on it.”
At my words, Chairman Yang looked at me as if to say, Really? Then he heaped more stew onto his rice.
“Back then, times were hard. They’d trim carefully so they wouldn’t lose any of the meat they could sell.”
“True enough.”
“Once, I asked the kitchen to make this stew because I missed the taste… but it just wasn’t the same.”
I smiled faintly and added,
“Maybe it’s the atmosphere too, but this stew… it was definitely made by your mother. Even if it was through my body.”
“Is that so? No wonder it tastes so good.”
I thought we’d made plenty, but the kimchi stew was gone in no time.
“Man… that was delicious. But, sir—”
“Mm?”
“Honestly, this stew your mother cooked tastes better than a fancy breakfast feast.”
“Haha, my mother’s cooking was amazing. She’d take scraps from the market and still make something delicious.”
“Wow, she had real skill.”
“Well… since she couldn’t cook with fresh, high-quality ingredients like others, she had to at least make it taste good.”
I found myself agreeing.
The old man, having eaten two bowls, still looked regretfully at the empty pot.
Maybe it was because he had tasted his mother’s cooking again after such a long time.
Then, smacking his lips, Chairman Yang asked curiously,
“But how did you even think of bringing this?”
“I realized the mother and son lingered here because of you… the youngest son. But since you didn’t recognize him, I thought about it for a while. Then it hit me—you always whined about wanting kimchi stew, and your mother always said you should eat it together when your younger brother came back. Actually, this reminds me of…”
I continued with what Gamdong’s grandmother’s spirit had shown me.
When we left the police station, her spirit had appeared behind the car.
She had been so happy just watching her grandson eat well.
“I figured it’d be the same this time.”
“I see.”
“These days, that kind of thing is disappearing, but back then mothers and grandmothers always wanted to feed you a spoonful of food they made themselves. That’s how they felt fulfilled.”
“Heh, hehehe.”
Maybe, to them, nothing was a warmer reward than seeing their child eat happily.
Mansoo, nodding in agreement, chimed in:
“Even now, people think showing sincerity means buying something expensive, but the most meaningful offerings are always the ones you prepare yourself.”
“Yeah… those are the things that stay in memory.”
I glanced back.
In the distance, I saw the secretary and attendants waiting.
“That secretary of yours handles things neatly. Give him a good allowance later. Same for your driver.”
“Haha, I’ll take care of it.”
Then Chairman Yang turned to the rock where his mother’s spirit had lingered.
“My mother must’ve died in the fire, huh?”
“…Yes.”
“She must’ve suffered.”
I hesitated, wondering whether to tell him.
But this old man, having lived so long, sensed my hesitation and smiled wryly.
“It’s not something pleasant… but as her son, even though I did nothing for her, I should at least know how she passed.”
At that, I let go of my hesitation and spoke slowly.
“She didn’t look like she suffered.”
“You again? Didn’t I tell you not to—”
“No, it came like a fragment, so it’s fine. You saw it yourself—in the possession earlier, it was more excitement than pain. Maybe because it was the first time in so long the three of you were together again.”
“…Right.”
I gathered my thoughts and continued calmly.
“In that moment, she seemed relieved.”
“Relieved?”
“Because her youngest wasn’t there.”
“Ah…”
Chairman Yang sighed but nodded.
He stroked the plain rock beside him, muttering softly, Yes… that must be it.
“She couldn’t escape the fire.”
“Why not?”
I recalled the memory of her lying under the blanket.
“She was injured, so she could only lie in bed.”
The memory rushed back vividly.
Night—or maybe dawn.
Thick smoke, the air growing unbearably hot.
‘Mom! It’s a fire! What do we do?!’
Chang-sik panicked, unable to drag or carry his mother out.
His mother watched him with sad eyes.
‘Go on ahead, I’ll follow.’
‘No! I don’t want to!’
Usually obedient, Chang-sik refused this time. Instinctively, he knew his mother was lying.
‘Go on ahead!’
‘No!’
Instead of escaping, he climbed under the blanket and lay beside her.
Though he was nearly sixty, he was still like a child, happy just to lie under the same blanket with his mother.
Smoke filled the room.
Cough, cough!
Coughing, he pressed closer into her arms.
‘Mom, my eyes sting. My throat hurts.’
‘It’ll be okay, my son.’
The old mother patted his back gently.
Instead of running out, he clung to her tightly, as if he would never let go.
Cough!
‘I want stew. Kimchi stew.’
Out of nowhere, he talked about kimchi stew.
His mother, coughing herself, asked softly,
‘Kimchi stew?’
‘Yeah. Like before—with pork fat. The kind the three of us ate with Mansik. He said pork fat soothed his throat after eating dust.’
At his words, tears rolled down her cheeks.
Maybe from the smoke, or maybe from longing for her youngest son.
‘Mansik hates smoke… it’s a relief.’
‘Yeah. Lucky he isn’t here.’
Even though if Mansik had been there he might have saved them, all they felt was relief that he wasn’t in the flames.
‘When Mansik comes back, let’s make kimchi stew with pork fat again.’
‘Yeah. I even bought him rock candy. Didn’t taste it once—he doesn’t like it.’
‘Really? My, my, you’re a good eldest son.’
Even as the flames roared and the smoke blinded them, she kept patting her eldest son.
Until the last moment, until she could no longer breathe, Chang-sik held his mother tightly, refusing to let go.
In the end, the one who stayed and protected his mother was her “foolish” eldest son.
Finishing the story, I looked at the old man.
“Your elder brother protected your mother to the very end.”
“….”
Chairman Yang slowly opened his hand—the one that had stayed clenched even as he ate.
Inside was the small stone Chang-sik had held out earlier.
A white pebble.
“So this is the ‘rock candy’ he talked about… haha.”
Just a simple pebble.
“It looks the same.”
“Yeah.”
A milky-white stone.
“I hated my brother.”
Calmly, Chairman Yang rolled the stone between his fingers.
“I thought if he weren’t around, our family could live better.”
“I can understand that.”
“I was jealous too, that Mother always cared for him first.”
“Yes…”
“I wanted her affection too, but instead she always told me to look after him. I hated that. Or maybe I just grew sick of it. It became an excuse. I thought if I worked on my own and saved, I could live well without them.”
We just nodded silently.
“And I wasn’t wrong. I left, and look how well I’ve lived. I even enjoyed my own success.”
“Seems that way.”
“Heh.”
He gave a hollow laugh and continued,
“But my brother had something I didn’t.”
“True.”
“He protected Mother to the very end… Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Let’s get going.”
“Shall we?”
At Mansoo’s urging, the chairman dusted off his pants and stood.
But he lingered, staring at the lonely rock beside the tree.
Finally, he called for his secretary.
“You called, sir?”
“Yes. Find out who owns this land.”
“I’ll arrange for purchase immediately.”
“Good. And this rock…”
Caressing the rock, he spoke softly, almost apologetically:
“Can you make sure it’s protected? Even if people think the old man’s gone senile, I want this rock kept safe.”
“Should we move it?”
The secretary asked, but the old man shook his head.
“No. That would only make me feel guiltier. This rock belongs here.”
“…Understood.”
I watched, wondering what they would do.
“I’ll dispatch guards immediately, in shifts around the clock. We’ll secure a camper to stay on-site until the land is officially transferred. After that, we’ll start construction and build a greenhouse around it for protection.”
“Mm. Think of it as building a villa.”
“Understood.”
…In that moment, I remembered something I’d forgotten for a while, while calling him just “old man.”
This “old man” was a conglomerate tycoon.
