The Old Woman and the Young Man
At my suggestion that he make me a suit, Karki rounded his lips into an O.
“...Oh!”
Excited, he clenched his fist and huffed through his nose, practically vibrating in place.
And that made sense. Karki was a huge fan of Atelic Comics, the American publisher.
Spider-Guy, Captain Soldier, Iron Suit, and the rest—he had devoured every superhero story that had ever become popular around the world.
Then again, it wasn’t just Karki. The saga of a brave hero who saved people was pure, blood-stirring romance for men. I was no different. I’d been a die-hard fan of the dark hero Zin Shark since I was a kid.
For the record, Zin Shark wasn’t part of Karki’s beloved Atelic Comics. He was a character born from the rival titan that stood shoulder to shoulder with Atelic.
“A hero suit? That’s insane! If you’re making one anyway, shouldn’t it be something bulked-up and cool?”
Karki mentioned one of Atelic Comics’ signature heroes. I shook my head and answered flatly.
“No. The model for the Purple Devil is Zin Shark.”
Karki snatched up a green chili resting on a lettuce leaf and pointed it at me as he jumped to his feet.
“Whaaat? Zin Shark? You mean that gloomy little shut-in loser? Boss, I’m disappointed. Don’t tell me you were a Zin Shark fanboy?”
At that point, I couldn’t help bristling.
“Bulk-Up is just a pig with a huge frame and muscles for brains. He couldn’t survive one punch from Zin Shark.”
“What the heck! You honestly think that? Don’t you know Bulk-Up’s finisher? Power Tack—le!!”
Karki tossed the chili aside and lunged at me as if trying to take me down.
I lunged right back, grabbing him, and the two of us ended up wrestling around in earnest.
Of course, we weren’t really fighting. We were both drunk and just acting like idiots, squabbling over pride like two grown men with all the maturity of middle schoolers.
“Zin Shark’s ultimate move is coming. Absol...!”
“Yeah, right! Power Tack—le!!”
Some time later, we were both sprawled out on the factory floor, gasping for breath.
“Aigo. Getting old is hard, huh? Right, boss?”
“Yeah. Every day’s different.”
In truth, I still had plenty of energy, but I went along with it.
Karki pushed himself up with one hand on the floor.
“You want me to make you a suit?”
“Yeah.”
“You got a design in mind?”
I picked up a pen and paper from the shelf, then sketched a masked face and a figure draped in rags on the drawing pad.
“Something like this?”
“......”
Karki studied the sketch and then opened his mouth.
“Boss, you draw like total crap.”
This bastard.
“I know that. I drew it rough. You get the idea, though?”
“Umm. I think so? It’s like Zin Shark, right?”
“Exactly.”
“Ahh, I can see the image now.”
Karki had a talent for understanding even the most mangled explanation as if it were a masterpiece.
“How long will it take?”
“Maybe a few months?”
A few months. That was far too long.
“What about a prototype?”
“That much? If I work at it, a week should be enough.”
The factory was fully stocked with all sorts of materials and equipment for making machinery and devices. It was a bit like building a chair in a workshop with all the lumber you could ever need.
One thing did bother me, though.
“The materials cost must be pretty steep.”
Hunter gear used all kinds of specialty components. It was only natural that the price would be high.
Karki shrugged and grinned.
“What’s there to worry about? This place is crawling with raw materials.”
He picked something up.
It was a panel fragment made with wyvern scales. It was both lightweight and incredibly durable.
That was the same material Seo Gwang-pal had used for his helmet.
Karki went on, “That bastard of a boss doesn’t even pay wages properly. Skimming a little off the top is only fair.”
Skimming a little off the top.
Was there a more practical phrase in Korean than that?
Come to think of it, it wasn’t even really skimming. If you added up all the unpaid overtime the boss still owed, then...
“That’s a perfectly reasonable trade.”
“Bingo!”
Karki held out a fist. I clenched mine and bumped it lightly against his, then we both slapped our palms together with a sharp smack.
At some point, that had become our natural little high-five ritual.
“Boss! Then I get a codename too!”
“A codename?”
“You’re the Purple Devil, so as your sidekick I need one too!”
Karki’s eyes sparkled.
I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.
This guy was more serious about hero work than he looked.
“How about Brahma?”
I tossed out the first thing that came to mind.
According to something Karki had once told me, it came from Brahma, the Nepali god who governed creation.
“Brahma. Brahma... That’s freaking awesome?!”
Karki’s eyes shone brighter than I’d ever seen them.
He snapped to attention and raised his voice.
“Purple Devil! Please give Brahma his first mission! Let’s start making the suit tomorrow! What should I do right now, then? Should we go beat up some robbers together?”
Man. He was way too motivated.
But I couldn’t exactly disappoint him, either.
After some thought, I looked around and pointed at the floor.
“All right. Brahma. Right now... let’s clean this up.”
We’d eaten pork belly on top of newspaper.
“Since we’re done eating.”
“......Yessir.”
Karki and I awkwardly cleaned up after ourselves. He grumbled under his breath while his hands moved busily.
“The first mission of Purple Devil and Brahma is just cleanup. What a shame.”
Then he burst out laughing.
“Puhaha! Right! Saving the world starts with tiny things! Of course!”
Karki even whistled as he swayed his hips to the beat.
I could guess why he was enjoying himself so much.
For Karki, who had come all the way from a distant foreign land, there probably wasn’t much in the way of hobbies. Other than killing time on his phone during breaks or after work, he had little else to do.
Just as I had lived a life on a wheel that never stopped turning, Karki must have spent his days lonely and isolated, too.
Maybe my suggestion that he become a hero had been the thing that brought a little vitality back into his life.
“Should we go to karaoke too?”
“Of course! Boss!”
Well, I hoped that was all it was.
“It’s pancreatic cancer.”
The doctor said it on the day Grandmother came in for her health screening and received the results. I had come with her as her guardian, and she sat beside me.
The doctor lowered his gaze as he continued, “The tumor is fairly large. It’s already metastasized quite a bit as well. I’m truly sorry to have to tell you this.”
He even bowed his head, as if ashamed to be the one delivering such news.
Compared to what I remembered, this was actually gentle.
In my previous life, the doctor had barked at us instead, asking why we had let it get this bad before coming in.
Back then, those words had planted guilt in me with frightening efficiency.
I had believed Grandmother’s death was my fault.
I had thought I deserved punishment for it.
So I whipped myself and worked without rest at the factory.
For thirty years.
Life is a comedy when you look at it from afar, they say. The past I had once thought so miserable had plenty of ridiculous parts when I looked back now.
For instance, the name on the doctor’s name tag was Kang Dobum.
I turned toward the rough breathing and saw Grandmother trying hard to keep her face calm.
Maybe the shock had hit her so hard that her fingers were clenched tight around the fabric of her pants near her thigh.
“Doctor, what kind of nonsense are you spouting? I’m fine! I was hauling my cart just the other day, weren’t I? Huh? And besides...”
Her voice, rising in volume, began to tremble.
Grandmother was a strong woman.
That was something I knew better than anyone.
She had never once knelt before miserable poverty, and she had raised me and my younger brother on her own, and done it well.
To me, that was more admirable than any hero I had ever dreamed of.
I hadn’t understood it back then.
The truth was, the most magnificent being in my life had been right beside me all along.
“Right! There must be some mistake. Isn’t that right? Maybe you mixed me up with someone else, or...”
I raised my hand and covered the back of Grandmother’s hand where it rested on her thigh.
Rough, warm skin met my palm.
Feeling it there somehow steadied me.
“It’s okay, Grandmother.”
At last, I was facing the thing I absolutely had to do.
I looked at the doctor.
“What do we need to do?”
“It’s not too late, even now. There are chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and beyond that...”
Once again, I was grateful for the fact that I had regressed.
Thank God.
Thank God I had come back before Grandmother left my side for good.
“We’ll use carbon-ion therapy.”
I cut him off and spoke with certainty.
“I heard Sejong Cancer Research Center recently brought in a new third-generation carbon-ion machine. Is that correct?”
“...Yes. You know your stuff.”
At Sejong Carbon Ion Therapy Center, there was a massive cancer treatment machine that had cost 400 billion won, stretching from the fifth basement level all the way up to the seventh floor above ground.
It worked by sending particles into the cancer cells and then releasing radiation, destroying only the area surrounding them.
There was an old saying that if you kept a dog in a Confucian academy for three years, it would end up reciting poetry. After spending more than thirty years working in a factory, knowledge of chemistry and machinery had piled up in me on its own.
Carbon-ion therapy used carbon particles, which were twelve times heavier than hydrogen, and could deliver powerful results against cancer.
There were only six countries in the world with such machines, including Germany and Japan.
That was why so many cancer patients traveled overseas for treatment.
Even after spending a fortune and leaving the country, though, many of them still died there.
The reason was simple: carbon-ion machines had no effect on metastasized cancer.
But that was old news now.
With the introduction of the third-generation carbon-ion machine in Korea, a device had been invented that could cleanly treat even metastatic cancer.
Three years from now, this technology would be recorded as a revolutionary invention, and countries all over the world would begin paying attention to Korea.
“I’ll have Grandmother admitted there and get her treated.”
“Yongki.”
Grandmother rubbed the back of my hand.
After living with her for so long, I had learned her habits.
Usually, when she shouted, “You bastard!” it meant she was fired up and in good health.
When she called my name like this, it meant her heart had gone soft.
The doctor leaned forward.
“If she receives treatment there, she should recover quickly. But, guardian... the third-generation carbon-ion machine...”
“I know.”
At this point in time, the third-generation machine had only just finished clinical trials.
And, of course, the treatment was expensive.
“The cost is considerable. Will that be a burden for you...?”
The doctor trailed off.
The third-generation carbon-ion treatment cost a staggering 100 million won.
It was an amount poor people couldn’t even dream of.
Three years ago, if I had known this method, could I have saved Grandmother?
I didn’t know.
I hadn’t had that kind of money then.
And I certainly hadn’t had the credit or means to borrow it, either.
After killing Big Lava, I sold the mutant magic stone I’d obtained from it.
I had more than 100 million won on hand.
“I’ll arrange the admission right away. We’ll pay the treatment cost immediately.”
“Understood. Then I’ll process it that way.”
All the way out of the hospital room, Grandmother didn’t say a word.
When we stepped out of the hospital building, the weather was unusually bright and clear.
“Grandmother. You hungry? Let’s eat something good before we go home. How about some hot beef soup?”
“......”
Grandmother kept silent for a moment before finally speaking, as if the words were painful to force out.
“Truth is, I knew. I knew something was wrong with my body. I just pretended I didn’t.”
Was she the only one?
The nights when I had groaned and suffered in silence.
Maybe I, too, had been pretending not to know.
Of course.
Grandmother’s death had been my fault after all.
But this time, I would never repeat that mistake.
“I didn’t want to worry you boys...”
I pulled Grandmother into an embrace as she bowed her head and sobbed.
The familiar smell of old dampness rose from her body.
Oddly enough, breathing it in made me feel at ease.
“Yongki. But how are we supposed to pay for the treatment...?”
“We’ll talk about that after we eat.”
I took her hand and led her forward.
“If you’re going to be admitted, you need to eat well first. Beef soup, okay?”
Seeing me make such casual remarks seemed to loosen Grandmother’s tension, too.
“...Hah, you damn bastard! I make you beef soup all the time, and now you want to eat that again?”
“Hey, calling it beef soup is generous. It’s basically just fat!”
“Look at this punk! You’re happy enough to stuff your face, but now you want to complain about side dishes?”
Grandmother gave my backside a quick kick with her short leg.
Dodging it easily, I slipped an arm around her shoulders like a loving lover.
Under the dazzling sunlight, an old woman and a young man who had both found a bit of life again walked through the city together.