Chapter 180 – [Raccoon Man Beginning]

On the way home from work at the clothing store. And on that road, the time has come to put into practice what I had been thinking about.

Stopping at the facility I grew up in.

No matter how much I am a reincarnated country, there is no way that I do not have attachment to the place where I grew up. Now that Zion is there, the top priority is Zion, but I can’t easily forget where I’ve been for 10 years.

It’s the weekend, but there are still outstanding students. Some kids go to private academies, some go to PC rooms, and some kids go snacking in front of snack bars.

“Ah, that snack bar… I used to go there often too. Sometimes I pass by and buy tteokbokki and fries and it was delicious.”

“How about Sundae?”

“I can’t buy sundae because I don’t have money. It’s tteok-thuri order, but if I don’t have money, I’ll have to quit.”

“It’s delicious if you eat sundae liver with tteokbokki sauce!!”

“The liver needs to be salted!”

“It’s heresy!”

Shion and I giggled and laughed. Ultimately, it’s personal preference.

“Does that house’s tteokbokki taste good?”

“It was good enough. When we ate it inside, we served it in a green bowl for tteokbokki. Her grandmother there gave her a lot because she had big hands.”

“Green bowl! That bowl is hard to find these days!!”

“These days, snack bars have become more branded, so there are not many restaurants that use such dishes. They are mainly used in old stores.”

It is said that the world has a low level of humanity these days, but the level of humanity that the elders see for their children has not disappeared yet. The old woman who runs the snack bar is correct for her age, and she treats her children with cuteness, while occasionally giving them a bonus.

And next to it, there is a stationery store for school children. If you go and buy supplies, just answer what grade you are in and they will give you a set of supplies right away. Awesome.

There, I saved up pocket money that I didn’t have, and bought soybean pellets. It’s fun to play with something like that, even if it’s just for fun.

Even the combined toys for kids on TV these days are of poor quality compared to the past, but when I see them, I want to own them. Shiva, I was born too early!!!

“These days, there are times when domestic gas is more refined than Jeondaemul’s gas.”

“That’s right. All of the recent series have been sticking together. Keugh, it was better when it came out in the days of Eldranmul…”

“That series is also a memory for me.”

“Sometimes I imagine our school transforming, right?”

These days, such mecha doesn’t come out. Hagisa Things like that came out back when Japan was in its bubble period, so it’s only natural. But after that, it is like Korea facing the IMF. How much debt does Japan have…?

Radiation is a problem, debt is a problem. You’re just running wild. To be honest, even if we don’t do anything, it seems like it will go bankrupt within decades, so let’s take it easy. I’ll be ruined before I die.

“Oh, here it is”

I parked the car nearby. The road is narrow and it’s a children’s protection zone anyway, so what’s the point of driving in?

I got out of the car and slowly walked inside. The distance was not far, but it took longer than expected as I looked around and looked around at the familiar sights.

“Ah, there are still scribbles here.”

“Did you do it?”

“It’s not me, it’s a child from the same facility. Because of this, even I was scolded for being dumped.”

Something like a drawstring was drawn on a corner of the wall. Hey, it’s been a long time since I’ve been doing a drawstring man. How many of the kids these days know who they are? If you ask me, I’ll ask if you’re standing.

As we enter further into the alley, a part of the facility gradually comes into view. It feels like a slightly larger daycare center… To give an easy analogy, it feels like a kindergarten where Jjanggu goes to.

There was a small playground in the front yard and a three-story building. First of all, the first floor is a facility mainly used by elementary school students, the second floor by middle school students, and the third floor by high school students.

Inside, it feels like a dorm. There are rooms shared with roommates, but there are also places where you can use a small room for personal use, such as in a gosiwon. To be honest, I was comfortable with the latter, so I almost lived in a gosiwon.

There’s not enough space, so how did you make it that way? If you ask me…Comparing a double room and a single room, the two single rooms are smaller. If you look at it, there are more single rooms.

“Isn’t it almost a gosiwon?”

“It’s like a goshiwon where there are a lot of people. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. To be honest, the environment is a bit…”

There are only a few old-fashioned air conditioners, and they don’t turn on unless it’s really hot. It’s only natural that the national facilities built during the heyday of the heyday were like this. How many people must have missed it in the middle?

Maybe it was the weekend, so there were kids running around in the front yard. There are elementary school students, and big-headed kids who look like middle school students are playing soccer. It’s a lively time, so it’s great to see.

“Wow! She’s a pretty older sister!”

“Really! You’re fucking pretty! You’re a foreigner, but you’re so damn pretty!!”

“……It’s hard to say what kids these days talk like.”

“What is a side effect of the information society?”

As information becomes easier to obtain, there are side effects that arise from it, and this is one of them. Children are also easy to access information, so mental maturity is faster than before. I’m good at cursing too.

When I was in elementary school, I just wore a magic kid magic necklace, put a yellow bridge in my hair, and threw peas while playing, but kids these days… So much of their innocence has disappeared.

“Mister, who are you to come in here? This place is prohibited except for those involved.”

“I’m from here too. Is the seaweed lid inside?”

“Ah, given that you know that nickname, you must have really lived here. The director is inside. He’ll be in the director’s office.”

“You don’t call me like that these days?”

“I used to be shitty, but now I’m fine again.”

Kim lid. My name is Kim Doo-seok. He is the director of the facility here, but the kids call him Kim Lid because he says he opens the lid when he gets angry. Even in the days when I wasn’t there, it seems that the nickname continued.

But what does it mean to be fine these days? Did you even do a dog flight?

“There are more kids than you think.”

“Well, even if it’s not during the Great Depression, there are kids who have no parents and nowhere to go. This is a lot less.”

There were only one or two rooms left by the time I came out, so I wonder if it will be quite spacious by now. Kids are fine now.

We went inside The director’s office was on the first floor, so we had to go through the shared dining room to get inside.

“The distinctive musty smell coming from the restaurant…”

“Isn’t it poor hygiene?”

“It’s an old place, but I can’t help but smell it. Still, if the seaweed lid gets food poisoning from the kids, they say thank you and keep hygiene like a knife.”

And arrived in front of the director’s office. When I knocked, a familiar voice from inside told me to come in.

When I opened the door, director Kim Doo-seok, who hadn’t changed much, was sitting there. The only difference was that he lost a little more weight than I remembered and his complexion was pale. Where is your health? To be honest, I am old enough to suffer from various diseases.

“Hello?”

“Huh? You…”

It seems like it’s been quite a while, but I haven’t seen him since I enlisted, so it’s been over two years. It may be a whopping two years, but for those raising children, it may be only two years. Because kids grow up fast.

He greeted me with an awkward smile.

*        *    *

Shion quietly looks around the director’s office while drinking instant coffee. It wasn’t that wide, but various papers and books were piled up tightly, so it seemed a bit damp.

Director Kim Doo-seok was stunned for a while, staring at Zion, only to come to his senses after I cleared my throat.

“Kuhm!”

“Huh? Ah, yes. I’m sorry. You bastard went out and didn’t contact me, so where did you even marry such a beauty? Why didn’t you send me a wedding invitation?”

“For some reason, I couldn’t hold the wedding ceremony and only submitted the documents.”

“Anyway, since Shinsoo is clear, he seems to be doing well. It’s good.”

He was genuinely congratulating me. Even to me, it feels different than before.

The contemplation I see also changes according to people’s enlightenment. There are facial expressions made according to emotions, and those facial expressions are bound to be reflected in contemplation.

His appearance now did not show the same ferocity as before. It’s like a deflated balloon. It sounds like it will explode if you poke it with a needle, but the sound is different.

His true nature hasn’t changed, but he’s undergone some incidents, so he seems to have changed a little bit. What happened while I was gone?

“Your complexion looks bad. What happened?”

“…….Ah, this”

“A few months after you went to the army, you had a stroke after yelling at the kids… You were taken to the hospital.”

“So I told you to stop drinking and smoking.”

“I don’t know how to drink, but I quit smoking. I called the hospital right away because I was in front of the kids. Junsu is on the 3rd floor… Oh, you know Junsu, right? He’s a year younger than you.”

“The one who used to be a force user?”

“Yeah, right now, as soon as he became an adult, he went to a facility belonging to the state. Anyway, Junsu gave him the force or something, so he barely survived.”

Falling down holding the back of the neck, which is usually one of the pronouns in dramas, is to fall down from a stroke. And stroke is the current reality that if you don’t catch the golden time, you will die as it is, and even if you do well, you will become paraplegic.

If you happen to have a Force user, and thanks to that, your limbs are fine, then he is very lucky. As far as I know, there was only one Force user in our facility. But considering the odds of him being in the facility at that timing, he was really lucky.

“I suddenly felt dark in front of my eyes and was taken to the hospital. They said that if the kids hadn’t helped quickly, I would have died.”

“I’m lucky”

“That’s right. I treated it that way, but seeing the kids help me… To be honest, as a person, I was a bit ashamed.”

Director Kim Doo-seok sighed. It is the sigh of a regretful person. He was used to it, so he knew for sure.

“I’ve been treating the kids too harshly. I’ve cared too much about money. I thought all kids were noisy, but I actually lived thanks to them. It’s a shame.”

“…….”

“I felt sorry for you too. I nagged at you a lot and said that my eyes were bad… I’m really sorry.”

It is a sincere apology. It was an apology that a person who looked back on his life could only make if he saw his footprints and felt ashamed.

I thought quietly.

If I were to choose two things I need the most to live in this world, it would be respect and reflection.

If there is respect, even if there is no law, the world can live in harmony with the conscience of people, and if there is self-reflection, even if a person commits a crime, that alone is a punishment.

Guilt is heavier than decades of punishment, so it doesn’t fall off for the rest of your life. And even if it comes out again, it won’t be like that again.

“I think reflection is the most important thing. Even if you have committed a crime, you have to reflect first and then think about atonement or punishment. If you think about it, you’re great.”

Once you cross the line, you can never go back. But if you didn’t cross the line, you had room to go back.

Director Kim Doo-seok did not cross the line, so he was able to return. Enough reflection and apology are more valuable than money. So I forgave him right here and now.

“But, it’s okay to see that you’re doing well. These days, I give my kids a little bit of pocket money, don’t they?”

“Yumma, you’ve been taking good care of the kids since you came back to life. Even now, I’m only occasionally angry.”

“Isn’t that a guide at all?”

“It’s a bad habit when you raise children, and you raise a handbook. Surprisingly, you didn’t do anything wrong, so you didn’t get scolded.”

“That’s right”

To be honest, without Zion, I live quietly like a plant.

Anyway, I am happy to hear that Director Kim Doo-seok has changed his mind like Scrooge, the owner of A Christmas Carol. Oh, but didn’t we really call this the Scrooge Effect? Anyway, I don’t really care if I’ve been a little naughty in my school days.

So did Jesus. It is said that they rejoice more when one sinner repents and goes to heaven than 99 righteous people go to heaven. For reference, I heard it myself.

The past is important, but it must be left behind. If you carry bad feelings for the rest of your life, only you will lose and get hurt. It’s time to leave it, so let it go

“Take care of your health. If you fall down again, then I don’t think there will be an answer. Find something good for your body and eat it.”

“Thank you for your words. Are you leaving soon?”

“I stopped by this time while passing by. I’ll just look at the room I was using for a while and go back. I’ll be back tomorrow because I have something to do, so bring a present at that time.”

“Did you succeed in society by any chance? Hagi-sa, your cooking skills were recognized here, so it seems that you succeeded by eating? What is it, like that guy from the alley restaurant on TV?”

“Ah, not that much.”

My management skills are poor for creating a franchise. I can be a hotel kitchen chef just by making delicious food, but other than that, I don’t have much talent.

Let’s try on the fitted clothes at the clothing store tomorrow and buy some meat when we get back. Kids in their prime are crazy about meat, and it’s hard to eat meat in places like this.

“Are you going to buy Korean beef?”

“If you leave, you die.”

“You know how much my kids eat!”

Director Kim Doo-seok and I shook off old emotions and laughed lightheartedly.

Yes, there are fun things like this in life.