Gopchang and the Weight of Memories
I turned off the ignition and got out of the car. The peculiar coolness of early evening wrapped around my body.
"Huu."
My hand unconsciously went to my waist for the cigarette. Even though it had been a while since I quit smoking, habits are scary. The hand that had nowhere to go went straight into my pocket.
'It'll be over soon.'
I leaned against the car and looked ahead. What I saw was a shabby, small building. There were only a few occupied stores, probably the building that charged the lowest rent in this neighborhood.
'If I can just finish this one job well...'
I slightly lifted my gaze. In the middle of the building, a sign reading 'Dan Ju-hee Law Office' was visible. The office lights were off, so my wife was probably already downstairs.
As expected.
"Tae-wan oppa!"
A clear, refreshing voice called out. I looked down. At the entrance of the building, my wife was walking towards me, waving her hand.
Her black bobbed haircut, neatly cut just below the neck, still gave volume. Her pale skin contrasted with her sharply defined eyes, but the tips of her eyebrows curled inward slightly, softening the sharpness.
In her blue-tinged eyes, her nose was straight and prominent. Under her rose-red lips, a delicate jawline completed the face.
Below the lightly visible neck was a white shirt under a tailored jacket. Despite the outfit of a light-fitting skirt and shoes, her voluptuous figure was in place.
The upper body had a heavy, prominent chest. The narrow waist met the wide hips. The firm, rounded buttocks ended with her long, straight legs.
A rare beauty. To put it mildly. In my case, I hadn't seen a woman more beautiful than this one in my life. Not just her appearance. Her heart was incomparable to anyone else.
"Tough day at work, Ju-hee. Didn't you eat dinner? Is there something you want to eat?"
The woman's name was Dan Ju-hee. She was the woman I loved most in the world and my wife who had tied our marriage.
Her profession was lawyer, and she ran a private office in the building in front of us.
"Hmm~ gopchang?"
"Gopchang? Haha, yeah. Let's go eat."
"Why are you laughing?! You think I'm eating gopchang again and that's my hobby, right, oppa?"
Smack! Her fist lightly tapped my chest. It was a small impact at the level of knocking, so it didn't hurt at all. I smiled faintly and opened the passenger door.
"I was just laughing. Why do you misunderstand? Let's go! You must be hungry."
"It doesn't seem like it..."
Even in the car, my wife glanced at me sideways. Really, if she says it's not, then it's not. Why is she so suspicious?
Of course, I thought that too, but...
...
"Delicious!"
Dan Ju-hee, with a happy expression, putting grilled gopchang wrapped with lettuce, ssamjang, and garlic into her mouth.
Seeing her like that, I opened my mouth with a tired tone.
"...It seems like you eat gopchang once every few times, but every time you eat it, your reaction is as if it's the first time."
As she said, Dan Ju-hee's love for gopchang had been consistent from our dating days until now. After eating this much, one would think she'd get tired of it, but the expression on my wife's face whenever she put food in her mouth always looked the happiest.
"Of course! Gopchang is a food that gives a new feeling every time you eat it! Look at the chewy texture with the savory flavor. If you can blame food for being sinful, this one is definitely guilty."
"So gopchang is such a sinful food..."
I laughed lightly at my wife's words and also wrapped a large ssam and put it in my mouth. I had developed a taste for gopchang to match my wife's preference, and it was definitely delicious. Even though I got a bit tired of it from eating often, it went down smoothly.
So, while having dinner with my wife like this,
Geunwoon Group's Chairman Chu Kwang-keun...
The TV in the corner of the restaurant broadcast the news of the unforgettable person.
"..."
The TV volume in the store wasn't loud. Still, because the person was so impressive to us, my wife and I froze our bodies as if we had made a promise.
Then our heads turned towards the screen. It was a news program. The news was that Chu Kwang-keun, chairman of Geunwoon Group, was on the hot seat for sexual harassment charges.
"Trash kid, what a mess."
A curse word spilled from Ju-hee's mouth. It was rare. Since she thought language was a mirror of the person, it was even more so.
But if you look into the detailed underbelly...
"That's right. It seems like it's still the same."
Looking at the chubby face of the bald middle-aged man with greed oozing on his face in the TV, I nodded my head.
Chu Kwang-keun of Geunwoon Group. He was the chairman of a major IT group in Korea, and at the same time, the bad blood from last year when I had legal disputes with him.
Before explaining the underbelly, let me first introduce myself. My name is Do Tae-wan. I was a person running a startup company in the computer memory sector.
I hadn't long ago grasped the title of 'young startup CEO' which mixed swagger and pretension. Just a few years ago, I was just a memory developer.
Since childhood, I had been interested in IT, and I majored in engineering and finally became a researcher in memory development.
The company I entered was the subsidiary of Geunwoon Group that appeared on the screen.
I don't mean to brag, but my ability in the memory field was truly outstanding. After joining the development department, my performance had skyrocketed several times over the years, so I don't think it's an exaggeration.
If that 'incident' hadn't happened, I would still be working at the company. Honestly, even thinking about it myself, I wasn't someone who had the caliber to start a company with me separately.
The reason I got into trouble with Geunwoon Group was simply because performance bonuses weren't paid. The memory chips developed by the development department brought huge profits to the group. According to internal regulations, a certain portion of the profits should have been paid to the department, but the group didn't pay it.
Because of that, we filed a lawsuit to seek our rights in our department, but the scale was small. The department heads gave up joining for their own positions and future, and only a few of them joined together to fight alone.
I took the lead. Somehow, I had the highest seniority among them. Eventually, we got into a fight with the large corporation.
"So, you bad guy. You've done all the dirty things and more."
There, I met my wife, Dan Ju-hee.
We were preparing a small-scale lawsuit, and the opponent was the famous Geunwoon Group. It was also difficult to find a lawyer. Even though there was clear evidence, due to the difference in scale, defeat was more likely than victory, and above all, joining this side meant clashing with the group. Finding a person to defend the weak, risking their own future, was too difficult a task.
"Aw, thinking about that time suddenly makes me angry. Oppa! Just eat your meal!"
Waaang! My wife, stuffing two or three gopchang into her mouth and eating a large ssam.
At that time, Dan Ju-hee was the lifeline given to me. She defended the weak that the world had turned its back on.
"What kind of bastards are there? We win no matter what! Leave it to me!"
At that time, she was a lawyer who was thriving at a famous law firm. Originally, I had no intention of challenging her. It was just that after going around and around, I accidentally knocked on the door.
"This and this, the ambiguous ones won't work anyway. Let's go with the definite ones."
But she was sincere. She really put all her strength into helping us. The battle continued for a long time, enough to change the calendar.
And finally, we won against Geunwoon Group. We received the unpaid amount.
However, since we had already clashed with the upper echelons, we could no longer work at the company. Therefore, the employees of our department quit and started a separate company. That was the startup company 'Taeju Memory' that I am currently in charge of.
It was around that time that I got closer to my wife Ju-hee. Honestly, I fell in love with her not because of her appearance but because of her heart.
Of course, I admit that at first, I was fond of my wife's appearance. But staying up all night preparing for the trial, I fell deeply into her sincere appearance and her heart for us.
While preparing for the trial, my wife said that the law was made for the weak. The reason she studied desperately despite her difficult circumstances was to overcome the resentment she had received as a weak person. But the reality was different, and she said she felt a nauseating sense of incongruity. She murmured that the reason she took on this case was because our lives looked the same.
To her, Chu Kwang-keun, the chairman of Geunwoon Group, was a hated existence. Since he had used his power to create unjust profits, he was bound to be at odds with her worldview.
However, we overcame the adversity and won. In the end, her worldview had not been broken.
However, soon we faced real problems. Due to the large company winning the lawsuit, my wife left the law firm she was working at. The reason we are in this situation now was because she opened a private office.
"Ju-hee."
"Hm?"
Recalling the past, I became aware again of how much sacrifice my wife had made for me in front of me.
'Soon, I'll be able to repay it.'
But there wasn't much more of this hardship. I started a company separately and recently finally developed more efficient memory chips. I successfully secured investment partners. If I secure the transaction partners through the meeting, the current hardship would end.
"I'll make you happy."
I'll repay the wife who sacrificed for me. Instead of sitting in this small office like now, I'll make it wider and taller so she can fly high.
"What's this, oppa. You haven't even drunk alcohol but you're drunk?"
Looking at the beautiful wife waving her hand in front of me, my resolve became even stronger.