Chapter 791
He wondered what kind of design it was, but it turned out to be a messenger character emoticon.
‘He’s been doodling since before.’
Yoo-hyun looked at the character, remembering the first time he bought a tablet for his younger sister.
The cute character, wearing boxing gloves as big as fists, made various expressions.
Jeong Da-hye smiled when she saw the champion belt around his waist.
“It’s so cute. Is this modeled after Jang-woo?”
“100 percent. The big eyes, the spiky hairstyle, everything is the same, what do you mean?”
As Yoo-hyun said that, Han Jae-hee shrugged his shoulders.
“So what? He’s my boyfriend.”
“Hey, I have a share in this expression of getting smashed on the back.”
“What are you talking about? It’s Jang-woo who gets hit and hurts, why are you making a fuss?”
Next to the incredulous Han Jae-hee, his mother asked.
“But this looks like a messenger character. Where are you going to use it?”
“Of course, it’s going to be on With.”
“With?”
“Just wait and see. Now With will take my character and spread it to the world. Just like Jang-woo.”
“Yes, it will be like that.”
The two people who held hands nodded their heads after looking into each other’s eyes.
They were a perfect match.
‘By the way, Han Jae-hee’s joining.’
It was unexpected, but it was sure to help.
If he could use his experience and skills from Hansung at Double Y?
He might be the pioneer of With’s globalization, as he boldly proclaimed.
After having a meal and chatting endlessly, the day turned dark.
Yoo-hyun, who came out, walked along the street with Jeong Da-hye.
Sararak.
The sound of the branches shaking was pleasant.
Jeong Da-hye’s voice was carried by the cool breeze.
“I was nervous today, but I’m glad you treated me so comfortably.”
“Weren’t you overwhelmed?”
“No. I felt like this is what family is like.”
Yoo-hyun answered the lingering words.
“Actually, I didn’t know either before.”
“It was hard, right?”
“It was harder for my parents. The house was poor. During the IMF…”
In the past, Yoo-hyun never told his wife about his shabby family.
He only told her what she needed to know, who comforted him at his mother’s funeral.
But now he couldn’t speak for a different reason.
He thought his pain was nothing compared to what she had suffered.
But he didn’t want to hide it anymore.
Jeong Da-hye nodded her head as she heard Yoo-hyun’s family history.
“Your father must have had a hard time.”
“Yeah. He tried hard to protect the factory workers and the family. He never showed it, even when he heard the resentment of his young son.”
“He’s a strong person.”
“My father is like a tree. He held his ground and endured in any situation. Thanks to him, we have our family now.”
He used to look down on his father as incompetent, but he knew better now.
His father was bigger than anyone.
Jubeok jubeok.
Was it because he poured out the words in his heart?
The distance between the two was closer than before.
Yoo-hyun opened his mouth to get closer to Jeong Da-hye.
He didn’t want to wait any longer with the excuse of figuring out his feelings.
“You said you contacted your mother?”
“Yes. I got in touch with her through my father. I met her a while ago.”
“How was it?”
“She had a lot of wrinkles. I thought I would resent her, but I felt sorry for her instead. Ah, she must have had a hard time too. That kind of thought.”
“I see.”
“Actually…”
Jeong Da-hye, who smiled, calmly revealed her hidden family history.
The fire that burned down the clothing store and the house that the couple ran was the beginning of their misfortune.
They had a lot of money to pay back, and they lost their house, so they had no choice but to leave their young daughter at a relative’s house.
They didn’t know what kind of hardships Jeong Da-hye had gone through as she moved from one relative’s house to another.
They only thought that the money they earned hard was delivered to their daughter.
They thought it was because of the circumstances that they couldn’t see her face when they visited once in a while.
They never imagined that the relatives were stealing money and preventing their young daughter from meeting them to cover up their mistakes.
When they found out the situation, it was after Jeong Da-hye had left for the US.
They wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, but Jeong Da-hye didn’t answer their calls.
After that, the couple lived separately.
There was a financial problem, but the mother had a hard time seeing Jeong Min-gyo’s face because of the guilt for her daughter.
That’s how 10 years passed.
It was not easy for a woman to live alone without a decent job.
Jeong Da-hye felt the hard times of the past when she faced her mother.
What was she feeling?
Swish.
Yoo-hyun turned his head and met Jeong Da-hye’s eyes.
He saw his past wife’s face in her affectionate eyes.
-I regret not knowing about my mother too late. I should have approached her sooner. Then I would have been less lonely.
After getting married, Jeong Da-hye, who lived with a wall between her and her family more than Yoo-hyun, started to contact them again when her mother was sick.
She opened her heart little by little and realized that her mother had aged a lot.
She regretted that moment very much.
But it was different now.
The family was not cut off like before, and they met again sooner than before.
And most importantly, Yoo-hyun was by her side.
Wouldn’t she be happier this time?
He was determined to make it happen.
Squeeze.
As Yoo-hyun held her hand, Jeong Da-hye smiled.
From the next day, Yoo-hyun went around the neighborhood with Jeong Da-hye.
They ate tteokbokki at the traditional market they used to go to when they had pocket money, and they stopped by the school and looked around the classroom.
They went to the old stationery store that still used the old sign and made dalgona together.
They didn’t forget to play a two-player arcade game at the arcade they used to go to often.
“Let’s shoot the water droplets.”
“Be quiet, please. I’m trying to concentrate.”
Thump thump thump.
They bickered a little, but that was also part of the fun.
It was nice to share the memories of their childhood with Jeong Da-hye.
That’s how she entered into Yoo-hyun’s old memories.
On their way back from the holiday.
Jeong Da-hye, who was sitting in the passenger seat, licked her lips with a smile on her face.
“The dalgona was really delicious.”
“I didn’t know you liked sweet things so much.”
“It’s the taste of memories, the taste of memories. But it’s amazing when you think about it.”
“What is?”
“How did the stationery store grandma remember you and your friends?”
“I know, right?”
It was 20 years ago, when they were in elementary school, or rather, national school.
But the grandma amazingly recognized Yoo-hyun.
She even called him by his name correctly.
At that moment, Yoo-hyun had a strange experience of his childhood memories passing by like a panorama.
Jeong Da-hye chuckled.
“I was so amused when I heard how the grandma remembered the names.”
“What was it? Calling them by nicknames?”
“Yes. Ddol-ddoli Han Yoo-hyun, Adult Kim Hyun-soo, Ppae-jil-i Ha Jun-seok, Kka-bul-i Kang Jun-ki. They all seem to match their current images.”
“Especially Jun-ki.”
“Wouldn’t he be angry if he heard that?”
Jeong Da-hye had met the other friends for the first time, but she had seen Kang Jun-ki a few times in Seoul.
They had a drink together, so she knew his personality well.
Yoo-hyun snickered as he recalled the moments they chatted together.
“He would never admit it.”
“But why didn’t Jun-ki come down this time? Is his company that busy?”
“I don’t know.”
Yoo-hyun thought it was because of his busy work at first.
-This time, our company is all stop during the Lunar New Year holiday. The president said we should rest because we worked hard.
But he realized it wasn’t after receiving a message from Lim Han-seop, the manager of the semiconductor sales team.
Come to think of it, Kang Jun-ki’s voice wasn’t very good when they talked on the phone a while ago.
He kept avoiding meeting him.
He thought it was nothing at the time, but it bothered him a bit.
‘I should meet him once.’
Jeong Da-hye smiled as she saw Yoo-hyun lost in thought for a moment.
“Anyway, I’m glad you came this time. I feel like I got to know you better.”
“Me too. Let’s meet your father and mother next time.”
“Wait a little longer. I need some time.”
“Okay. Anytime.”
Yoo-hyun nodded and stepped on the accelerator, looking at the sunset sky.
A registered mail was delivered to Yoo-hyun when he arrived home.
Ziik.
Inside the sealed mail, there was a stiff document.
Yoo-hyun looked at the title that was stamped in large letters on the shiny cover.
-2014 1st Quarter Hansung Electronics Board of Directors.
Board of Directors.
It was an important decision-making body that determined the direction of the company, and only a few registered directors could attend.
Yoo-hyun was one of them.
Sigh.
Yoo-hyun flipped through the document and checked the list and agenda of the board of directors.
There were quite a lot of decisions to be made, but the outcome was already decided.
In the corporate culture of Korea, the board of directors could not produce a result that went against the owner’s will.
Especially when that owner was Shin Kyung-wook, the president who had a close relationship with Yoo-hyun.
It was awkward for Yoo-hyun to challenge him on anything.
‘There’s no reason to do that anyway.’
Yoo-hyun put down the document and contacted his friend Kang Jun-ki.
He wanted to see his friend’s face that he hadn’t seen for a while.
The next day.
Yoo-hyun went to Kang Jun-ki’s house, which was a two-room apartment near his home.
He pulled the slightly open door and saw the inside.
The house was bigger, but it was not much different from before in terms of being messy.
‘He still keeps a soldering iron at home.’
He used to make things at home since he was a semiconductor newbie, and he still seemed to be doing that.
He was a friend who was passionate about one thing.
Thud.
Yoo-hyun, who smiled faintly, put down the paper bag he brought on the table.
Kang Jun-ki, who came out of the bathroom, shook his hair with a towel and grumbled.
“Why did you come when I told you not to? You made me take a shower.”
“You wouldn’t meet me, so I had to.”
“What’s so good about seeing each other as men?”
“Funny guy. Are you eating well?”
Swish.
Yoo-hyun touched the refrigerator with delivery food coupons all over it, and Kang Jun-ki shrugged it off.
“I’m eating well and living well. The quality of delivery food is good these days.”
“Don’t do that and take this. It’s mother’s side dish.”
Yoo-hyun, who sat down at the table, took out the food container from the paper bag first.
“Oh, why did you bring all this?”
“You like liquor, too.”
“What liquor in broad daylight?”
“Don’t you like it?”
“Of course not. I feel like drinking a little. I’ll have to get mine, too.”
Kang Jun-ki didn’t refuse, but rather brought another bottle of liquor.
Clack.
Kang Jun-ki opened the bottle and filled Yoo-hyun’s glass with liquor.
“It seems like a long time since I drank with you, Yoo-hyun.”
“It’s been a long time. More than six months, six months.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. I haven’t seen you since the beginning of River. You always said you were busy when I contacted you.”
It was the first time they hadn’t seen each other for such a long time, even though they lived in the same Seoul.
Kang Jun-ki took Yoo-hyun’s liquor and answered.
“I was busy in my own way.”
“So busy that you couldn’t go home for the Lunar New Year?”
“Yeah. I had a lot of things to worry about.”
Kang Jun-ki’s expression looked somewhat bitter.