Chairman Do Takes Care of Everything Himself 44
Bee-bee-bee-bee~ Bee-bee-bee-beep~
“Ugh...”
Riiing~ Riiing~
“Ah... I’m up. I’m up... no, I’m up...”
Do Jaehyun shut off the alarm clock with a hard press before its noise could grow even louder after a minute, then got out of bed.
“Should I change this alarm clock... Its performance is solid, but it’s far too loud...”
Out of habit, he folded the blanket with military precision, smoothing it into a neat square on the bedsheet the way he had back in the service.
“Mother mustn’t wake up...”
He finished by placing the pillow on the exact center line of the folded blanket, then opened the bedroom door.
His throat burned with the aftereffects of last night’s drinking, and the craving for a cold glass of ice water was almost desperate.
“You’re awake?”
“You’re already up?”
“Don’t drink ice water. Have this instead. I made you honey water. I saw it on TV, and the doctor said if you drink something cold right after alcohol, it wraps around your liver like a spiderweb and does terrible things to it. Honey water is better, he said.”
“Huh? You didn’t see that on home shopping, did you?”
“Oh my, did I? Look at me, forgetting myself. When did I buy the honey...”
His mother looked at him with a benevolent smile. That warm gaze never seemed to lose its light, no matter how many times he saw it. Why hadn’t he known it in his previous life?
Why had he failed to understand the warm love of the mother who had adopted and raised an orphan like him as her own son?
Why had he treated her devotion as something owed, and tried to solve what she needed most with money alone, when all she had really wanted was a single warm word from this useless son, just as she had always given him?
“Mother, I’m going to step out for a cigarette.”
“All right. I should go out too.”
“Huh? Where are you going this early? To the mineral spring?”
“What are you talking about? Have I ever gone to a mineral spring?”
“Then...”
“To throw out the trash.”
“Leave it, Mother. I’m heading out for a smoke anyway. I’ll take it with me.”
“Hm? You?”
“Yes.”
“Is something wrong with you?”
“Huh?”
“Did you not sleep off the alcohol from yesterday... or do you have a fever?”
His mother approached with worried eyes and laid a hand on his forehead.
“That’s strange. No fever. I suppose you’re still drunk.”
“I’m fine, really.”
“Then why are you trying to do things you’ve never done before?”
“...”
Ah. So the old me really was this much of a complete piece of shit.
Come to think of it, he didn’t think he had ever lifted a finger around the house. Sometimes, when his mother wasn’t home, he would boil ramyeon for himself, or scoop rice from the electric rice cooker, open a can of tuna, and leave everything exactly as it was after eating. The best cooking he had ever managed was probably frying an egg and grilling Spam.
And...
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t remember ever doing the dishes at home.
“I should be the one doing it. When I lived alone, I did everything myself too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Huh?”
“When you lived alone, your girlfriend came over and did all the housework for you anyway. Now that I think about it, is that girl you used to see when you were in school still around? I met her once when I brought side dishes to your place a while back... such a proper girl...”
“...We broke up.”
“Really? I liked that girl...”
“Who was she supposed to be...?”
“I don’t know her name either. We were both flustered, so I never even got the chance to ask.”
“Then I wouldn’t know either.”
“Hm? You don’t even know the name of a girl you dated?”
“...”
Mother.
I’d have to remember after meeting only one or two. And I never officially dated anyone. Was she a junior in my department, a senior, a classmate, or some girl from another department? Or someone else entirely?
Honestly, I can’t remember.
Maybe the old me would have remembered, but to me now, those were memories from decades ago.
“Aren’t you going to smoke?”
“I, I should. Give me that. The trash bag. I’ll carry it.”
“It’s fine. Let Mom do it. It’ll be good exercise too.”
“No, I said I’d carry it.”
He and his mother bickered over something trivial after so long, and it felt surprisingly good.
“No!”
But his mother was adamant.
“Why not?”
“Men don’t do that sort of thing.”
“...”
Right. Moments like this made the fact that he had regressed so vividly real he could feel it in his bones. The last time he had died, the word “man” was something he could only ever hear in a dream.
Maybe living like this wasn’t so bad after all...?
“Mother, I’m going to make a quick phone call and come back in.”
“All right. Be back within ten minutes.”
“Yes.”
He tossed out the cigarette butt, then, out of habit, lit another cigarette and took it between his lips. He hadn’t originally been this much of a chain smoker, but the army must have ruined the habit somewhere along the way.
Back in my day, you got beaten from the moment you opened your eyes until the moment you were about to sleep, and that was just how military life was.
There was a time when that kind of line wasn’t even a joke. And when he had served, that had been exactly the sort of era it was. Thankfully, he hadn’t gone in as an enlisted man, so he hadn’t suffered the outright abuse and absurdity that the soldiers had. But he had been an officer in a special task unit under Special Warfare Command, which meant he got the uniquely exacting, uniquely officer-style nonsense instead.
The saying that even dogs weren’t bothered while people ate was nonsense.
He didn’t know about the Army, but during the training periods for the Marine Corps and Special Forces, it was normal for drill instructors and trainers to vault onto the mess hall tables and kick away trays, barking at everyone to eat faster.
Still, smoking had been relatively easy, even in the military.
They would chew you out with words, or sometimes slap you around, but compared to mealtime, cigarette breaks felt almost peaceful.
Besides, when he hadn’t yet built up rank and things were at their busiest, if he didn’t chain-smoke at least two cigarettes after waking, he would be so swamped right up until lunch that it became a habit to burn through two sticks in the morning and start the day that way.
Especially when he had been a new second lieutenant, the most comfortable time of the day had probably been the brief pause after morning roll call, when he could smoke at the designated area. That small comfort had mattered more than he’d admitted at the time.
“So that’s why even nonsmokers come out of the army as smokers.”
That was also how he had grown close to Gilwoo, who had come from the Special Forces as an NCO, and why he had found himself grinning and nodding along when Department Head Lee Jinhee, whom he met in civilian life, emphasized academic ties, regional ties, blood ties, and even smoking ties all in one breath.
Wait.
“...So that’s why I died young.”
Come to think of it, wasn’t the cause of death lung cancer?
“Tch. Enough nonsense. Let’s handle what needs handling first.”
He put out the cigarette and picked up his phone. He had been thinking of calling Shin Gilwoo and Kim Museong, but Museong probably wouldn’t be awake this early, given his line of work as a gang man, and Gilwoo had gotten drunk last night too, so he likely wouldn’t answer either.
When he came back inside after sending texts to Kim Museong and Shin Gilwoo, the smell of something savory and comforting filled the house and pushed straight into his nose.
“Is your stomach feeling better?”
“Yes. I’m fine.”
“Come sit. You need to sober up.”
It had been a long time since he’d had breakfast with his mother.
“Jaehyun. Isn’t the soup a little salty?”
“No. It’s delicious.”
“Hoho, good. As you get older, you start eating more lightly, so I suppose I can keep cooking for our Jaehyun for the next ten years without worrying.”
Yes. That was the kind of woman his mother was.
When she ate alone, she would be satisfied with kimchi, a sheet of laver, and rice. But when he was home, she always set out soup and meat for him without fail.
She was the sort of person who felt more satisfied watching him eat than filling herself up completely.
“Eat slowly and eat plenty, son.”
“Yes.”
Even after emptying a rice bowl that was barely half full, his mother didn’t get up from her seat. She simply watched his face in silence.
“Is there something on my face?”
“I’m looking because you’re handsome, my son.”
“Guess I take after you.”
“Hoho. Was the hangover soup that good? Our Jaehyun is saying all sorts of things he never says.”
Do Jaehyun ate breakfast heartily while chatting quietly with his mother.
“Thank you for the meal.”
“Go wash up and get ready for work.”
By the time he came out after showering, his mother had finished the dishes and called to him.
“Son, sit down for a moment and read the paper.”
“All right.”
A little later, his mother came back carrying two steaming bowls of herbal medicine in teacups.
“Drink this.”
“Huh? When did you buy my medicine?”
“Gilwoo gave it to me last time for Mom to take. I looked at it, and it’s some sort of tonic, so men can take it too. It’d be good for you to drink it as well.”
“...Yes.”
There was no point in refusing.
If there was one thing that could be called a flaw in his mother’s otherwise flawless nature, it was her habit of forcing him to eat or drink anything healthy to the bitter end, no matter how much he shook his head and said he didn’t want it.
“Son.”
“Yes.”
“Have you been going through something hard lately? You suddenly started drinking, and your face looks drawn...”
She couldn’t hide her concern as she asked.
“I’m fine, Mother. Hard times? If anything, things are going too well, and that’s what has me worried.”
“Then that’s a relief. Should I pack you some dried pollack soup in a lunchbox?”
“It’s all right. I’ve got plans for lunch.”
“Son, is business going well these days?”
“Of course. Ah, Mother.”
“Hm?”
“I’ll increase your allowance.”
“Oh, that would be lovely. But son...”
“Yes.”
“This is already enough. You give Mom two million won a month, and that covers my living expenses and everything I want to do. There isn’t anything lacking.”
He knew that well enough.
If he gave her two million won, his mother would live on five hundred thousand won for household expenses and hobbies, then diligently save the remaining one and a half million. And when he got married, she would hand over the money she had saved in one lump sum.
Besides, his mother was a professor of Korean literature at a university and also a literary author.
He knew full well that she never spent a single won of her salary carelessly, but saved diligently enough to buy a small apartment once every ten years, then saved the rent that came out of it too.
She had never told the old him this, but when his business had once collapsed, she had handed over the twenty billion won she had saved over a lifetime without a moment’s hesitation, telling him to get back on his feet.
“And Mom makes good money, right? You know that.”
“Of course.”
“So there’s something Mom wants to talk to you about...”
“Yes.”
“Actually, Mom has been sponsoring the House of Peace.”
“The House of Peace?”
Huh?
He hadn’t known that.
“It’s an orphanage.”
Ah, right. His mother was Catholic.
So she had been supporting the House of Peace, the Catholic-run orphanage that had once been called an orphanage and was now called a children’s home.
“This time, the parish church is being expanded, and they were planning to expand the children’s home along with it, but the church seems to be short on funds. So Mom has some money saved that I’d meant to give you when our son got married someday, and I was wondering if I could donate some of it to the children’s home?”
“Yes.”
“Hm? You don’t even know how much?”
“It’s your money, Mother. You’re not using it for anything bad, and if the children’s home starts the expansion now, the kids won’t have anywhere to go. Is that why you’re asking?”
“Oh my, our son really does think deeply.”
“How much were you planning to donate?”
“Well... I thought a few million might be enough, but from what the priest said, that doesn’t seem likely. I’m worried about it too.”
“Is it urgent? Something that has to be resolved today?”
“No. There’s still some time.”
“You have the priest’s contact information, right?”
“Why do you need the priest’s contact information?”
“I’m going to donate too. Let’s talk about it again tonight, Mother.”
It was already time for work.
“Goodness, look at me. I’m keeping you late. Hurry and go, son.”