Sangwoo greeted the morning just like any other.
His niece took the school bus to school.
His sister pressed 20,000 won into his hand as she got ready to leave for work.
“If you need to go out for something, use this.”
Holding the money in his hand, Sangwoo felt a strange sensation.
He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d been given pocket money.
Twenty years ago, he must have received it often—but at forty, he’d never imagined being given pocket money again.
“Where would I even go, really?”
“You might suddenly want something to eat.”
“Ah. That could happen.”
“I made breakfast already, so eat at home. Don’t try to stretch that 20,000 won over two meals—you’ll run out.”
“Come on, 20,000 won is plenty. I’d be stuffed.”
“This isn’t twenty years ago, you know.”
His sister shook her head and left in her car.
He had already confirmed at the supermarket that prices were no longer what they were twenty years ago.
Still, he couldn’t help automatically thinking in terms of the old prices.
It would take time to get used to the present.
“Well, I guess I should get going too.”
Sangwoo stretched his arms.
One thing had changed in his daily routine—he was now visiting his mother.
He planned to go see her every single day.
To cleanse her body of toxins, he had to keep massaging her regularly.
It was frustrating that, due to her old age, she couldn’t take in much of his energy.
“I’ve got a bit of time, so maybe I’ll jog over there.”
Visiting hours started at nine, so there was still some time left.
He could take the bus, but he didn’t want to waste the 20,000 won his sister had given him.
And breaking a 10,000 won bill into smaller ones felt like a hassle.
‘Wait, how much is bus fare these days?’
After twenty years, he had absolutely no idea.
“It can’t possibly cost more than a thousand won, right?”
Thinking that, Sangwoo started off at an easy pace.
He had memorized the route yesterday when riding in his sister’s car.
Getting there and back wouldn’t be a problem—unless he went somewhere unfamiliar and got lost.
Jogging slowly, he took in the scenery around him.
Tap tap tap.
He quickly overtook some kids running in the distance.
“Wow, that guy’s really fast…”
He thought he had been holding back, but maybe he was still too fast?
He gradually slowed his pace.
He didn’t want to draw attention.
If he ran fast enough to overtake cars, he wouldn’t exactly look human.
At that point, he’d probably end up on TV shows like Unbelievable Stories or in the news.
He definitely didn’t want that.
In the other world, standing out had been nearly the same as courting death.
‘Here it is.’
Before he knew it, he had arrived at the nursing hospital.
He wasn’t even slightly out of breath—it felt effortless.
For a Swordmaster, this level of movement was no more than a casual stroll.
It even felt good to move his body lightly again after a while.
He hoped his mother would also feel just as refreshed and cheerful today.
“Oh? You’ve come again today?”
When he stepped into the building, he saw the same staff member who had handled his registration yesterday.
“Yes. I came to visit my mother again.”
After registering, he went through the temperature check and put on a mask before he could see his mother.
At this nursing hospital, there was a unique rule—only outside in the courtyard area, could one take their mask off.
‘They said it’s because of something called COVID or whatever. How serious of a disease was it supposed to be?’
Apparently, even though people no longer wore masks much these days, up until last year, everyone had to wear them constantly.
He also heard that visits had been restricted back then.
‘Guess I’m lucky.’
It was fortunate that he had returned at a time when all of that had already ended.
If he had come back when that “COVID” thing had been at its peak, he might not have even been able to see his mother’s face in person.
“Mom, I’m here.”
“Hm? Oh, Sangwoo, you came again today?”
“Of course. I came to give you another massage.”
“Just seeing your face makes me so happy.”
His mother’s deeply wrinkled face brightened with a smile.
Sangwoo’s nose stung for a moment.
“You can’t even see my face with the mask on, though.”
“A mother can recognize her child even if he’s wearing a mask.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“A mother knows everything.”
Sangwoo chuckled softly and moved behind her.
In the hospital room, three of the elderly women were sitting close together, playing hwatu (a Korean card game).
‘This hospital’s more easygoing than I expected.’
Indeed, the nursing home was a bit unusual.
He placed his hands on his mother’s shoulders and began to massage them.
Slap!
The crisp sound of hwatu cards echoed through the room.
“Wow, your son comes to see you every day?”
“I know, Hyewon, I’m jealous.”
Kang Hyewon—that was his mother’s name.
The three of them seemed close enough to call each other by name.
“My son’s so busy I barely see him even once a week.”
“Mine comes every two weeks, but I wish he’d visit more often.”
“Most hospitals still only allow visits once a week, but here you can come every day—and my son still only shows up once a month.”
“Then why’d you tell him ‘why did you come when you’re busy~’ the last time?”
“That’s just something you say.”
It was clear that everyone here wanted to see their children more often.
Hearing that, Sangwoo felt even more determined to visit his mother as often as possible.
He wanted to bring her home soon.
He hadn’t seen her for twenty years.
And he didn’t know how much time they had left together.
Especially since his lifespan, as a Swordmaster, was far longer than most—he didn’t want to live through the years without her, drowning in regret.
He wanted to spend as much time with her as he could.
For now, her health came first.
As he gently infused his aura into her body, he burned away the stagnant energy that remained inside.
“Ahh, that feels so good.”
His mother smiled softly.
One of the women slapped down her hwatu cards and asked,
“So, what does your son do for a living?”
Sangwoo couldn’t exactly say he was a swordsman.
A forty-year-old man in South Korea—currently unemployed.
That was his status now.
‘Should I just say I’m jobless?’
Before he could answer, his mother spoke first.
“My son’s unemployed.”
At that, the woman in front of them flinched in surprise.
“Oh, I shouldn’t have asked. Sorry.”
“Good grief, they say finding a job is really hard these days. You must be having a tough time.”
Another woman pulled a crumpled 1,000 won bill from her pocket and pressed it into Sangwoo’s hand.
“It’s not much, but take it and cheer up.”
Then the other woman took a small carton of soy milk from somewhere and handed it to him.
“Make sure you eat well. Don’t give up, alright?”
All of a sudden, two elderly ladies were giving him pocket money and snacks.
He was forty years old—and yet he was accepting them like a little kid.
“Ah, no, no, it’s alright…”
He was so flustered that he hadn’t been able to refuse in time.
He never imagined that at this age, he’d be receiving pocket money again.
Something about this felt completely wrong.
***
Sangwoo walked down the street with his hands in his pockets.
Inside were the crumpled bills.
He had money now.
Not money he had earned himself, but pocket money he’d been given.
Even though it hadn’t been long since he’d returned here, he already knew one truth— whether in the other world or this one, money was essential.
In the other world, you didn’t need a particular profession to earn it.
If you had the power of a Swordmaster, you might not live in luxury, but you could still earn enough to get by.
‘A job, huh…’
Honestly, he did need to think about what he should do.
Even to enjoy a hobby, you needed money.
His hobbies weren’t anything special.
Just lying around at home reading comic books, watching dramas or movies— the kind of ordinary hobbies everyone talks about, those were truly his only hobbies.
‘I’ll think about it slowly.’
It hadn’t been long since he came back here.
The world twenty years later was still unfamiliar to him, and there were too many things he didn’t know.
He planned to adapt little by little and think about what he could do along the way.
‘But what should I buy with this?’
When he looked at the money in his hand, there wasn’t really anything he wanted to buy.
Then one thing came to mind.
If possible, he wanted to rent some comic books from a rental shop.
Borrow a few and flip through the pages with his hands.
How far had One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach gone?
Surely, they must have been completed by now.
‘But I didn’t see a single rental shop…’
Even on the long way to the nursing home, there hadn’t been a single comic rental store.
‘I think I did see a couple of bookstores, though.’
Sangwoo stopped by one as he passed.
It was quite large, and it had plenty of comic books.
And among them were exactly the ones he’d been looking for.
One Piece — still ongoing.
Naruto — completed.
Bleach — completed.
“This one’s not finished?”
He was shocked to discover that even after twenty years, it still wasn’t complete.
“Unbelievable.”
The fact that it still wasn’t over after all this time truly stunned him.
He checked the price.
About 5,000 won per volume.
Even if he spent all the money he had, he could only buy five books.
“With this money, I could’ve rented a lot more.”
Regretfully, he decided to just buy one volume.
It felt like a waste, but he wanted to read a comic so badly that he couldn’t leave empty-handed.
“Should I just start again from volume one?”
He couldn’t remember where he had stopped reading.
Even the story was hazy in his memory.
So he bought One Piece volume 1.
He didn’t know where to find a rental shop, but it felt right to at least buy one as a keepsake.
After all, it was a series he had genuinely loved.
“I want to read the others too, but with my budget, I can’t help it.”
It felt like being back in middle or high school, buying a single comic book.
Buying something he wanted with pocket money brought back a sense of nostalgia.
“I should hurry home and read it.”
It was nothing special, yet his heart fluttered with excitement.
Even though it was a comic he’d read before.
It felt like he was going home with that same thrill he used to feel when walking back from the rental shop as a kid.
“I’m home.”
He lay down on the sofa in the empty apartment.
He tore open the plastic wrapping and opened the comic book.
“Oh.”
The art style felt so familiar.
Forgotten memories seemed to come back one by one.
“This is fun.”
Maybe it was the nostalgia, or maybe it was the feel of the paper as he turned the pages, but the pages flipped so easily.
Before he knew it, he had reached the end.
“That was short.”
Comics were always like this — over before you knew it.
“I should read it again.”
With lingering regret, he opened the first page once more.
And like that, he reread it several times until his niece came home.
***
Yewon came back home.
“I’m home!”
Before, there was never anyone to greet her — but now, there was.
“Welcome back.”
For some reason, those words tickled inside her chest.
They weren’t familiar.
Until now, whenever she came home, there had only been the empty scenery of an apartment with no one there.
But now, there was someone called “Uncle.”
Even so, she didn’t want to show that she was happy.
Because if she showed it and then there was no one to greet her again later, it would only hurt more.
“Yeah.”
Yewon put her bag in her room, washed her hands, and came back out.
She looked at her uncle.
“Uncle, are you reading a book?”
“Yeah. Do you know this? It’s a comic called One Piece. Ah, it’s so old, maybe you don’t know it? I don’t even know if girls like it.”
“I know One Piece.”
“Oh, you do? You’ve read it too? It’s really fun.”
Her uncle chuckled and laughed, as if it was the best thing ever.
To Yewon, the sight of her uncle flipping through a comic book looked strange.
“But why are you reading it as a book?”
“Of course I’m reading it as a manga. What else would I read it as? Hey, this one volume costs 5,000 won, you know? Isn’t that expensive?”
“Then don’t buy books, just watch the anime.”
“I want to start from the beginning, but they won’t air it from the start. Looks like a lot of episodes have come out.”
Yewon tilted her head.
“You can watch that on OTT.”
“OTT?”
Yewon turned on the TV.
Then she went straight into the OTT app and scrolled through the list of anime to show him.
“You can watch all of them for free here.”
“…What on earth is that?”
Her uncle’s expression looked completely shocked, as if he was seeing it for the first time in his life.
Seeing that look, Yewon couldn’t help but say one thing.
“Uncle, are you stupid?”
Her uncle stammered.
“T-this… this kind of thing has to be read as a manga for it to have the right feel!”
To Yewon, it sounded only like an excuse to protect his pride.
“Uncle.”
“What?”
“You can read tons of those if you go to a manga café.”
“…What café?”
“Stupid Uncle.”
Yewon had already realized it since the spelling test.
Her uncle really was stupid.
