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Kang Chan and his parents got off the plane at the Gimpo airport and arrived home at around eight in the evening.
“What would you like to have for dinner?” Yoo Hye-Sook asked.
“Are you hungry?” Kang Chan asked his parents.
They were all still full.
“Should we just have fruits later?” Yoo Hye-Sook asked.
“Sure, Mother.”
While his parents were unpacking their luggage, Kang Chan took a shower. He wouldn’t trade this comfort for anything.
After showering, Kang Chan went into his room and lay down on his bed. He didn’t feel that tired, but he still ended up falling sound asleep.
Creak.
Checking in on Kang Chan, Yoo Hye-Sook looked at him with an expression that clearly showed how bad she felt for him.
“Is he asleep?” Kang Dae-Kyung asked.
“Yeah.”
Kang Dae-Kyung stood behind Yoo Hye-Sook. His expression wasn’t any different from hers.
Yoo Hye-Sook quietly approached Kang Chan and gently put a blanket over him.
“He must have been very tired,” Yoo Hye-Sook commented.
“He did look exhausted. He was probably forcing himself to keep going even though he was struggling.”
Tears threatened to fall from Yoo Hye-Sook’s eyes. As she bit on her lower lip to stop herself from crying, Kang Dae-Kyung hugged her around her shoulders. “He was very upset that he couldn’t go on the trip with us. He was also worried that you wouldn’t be able to enjoy the trip.”
“How hard must all of this be for a kid, honey?”
“Now, our job is to silently support him. Let’s make sure he knows we’re in his corner before he leaves, so that he knows he can come to us whenever he’s having a hard time resting.”
Yoo Hye-Sook nodded.
“Did the trip make you happy?” Kang Dae-Kyung asked.
“Of course! It was the best trip I have ever been on, and it’s all thanks to Channy.”
The two smiled, seemingly satisfied.
***
Kang Chan woke up around the same time he normally did.
His mind was completely blank—almost as if he had just woken up after drinking the night away—and he could no longer feel any of the fatigue that had been accumulating in him.
Kang Chan stood up while tousling his hair, put on his workout clothes, and went outside.
“Whoo!”
The morning air here was nothing compared to the fresh air in Switzerland, but he still enjoyed the peculiar freshness that came with it.
“Good morning.”
Kang Chan, who had been warming up, burst out with laughter. Choi Jong-Il was approaching him with a small water bottle.
“You should rest!” Kang Chan said.
“I got enough rest already.”
“Doesn’t your family say anything? Don’t you have a child?”
“I met my wife at the 606.”
Kang Chan smiled dumbfoundedly. After taking a sip of water, he ran with Choi Jong-Il.
It was great to be alive.
Kang Chan felt as if he was being recharged whenever he extended his leg.
He didn’t speed up not because of Choi Jong-Il but because he didn’t want to overexert himself.
They ran in a circle for ten kilometers, then stopped at the entrance of the apartment.
“Haah. Haah.”
Kang Chan caught his breath with Choi Jong-Il, drank water, then did simple exercises that did not require any equipment.
“Where are you going to wash up?” Kang Chan asked.
“There’s a sauna at a nearby shopping center.”
“What about breakfast?”
Choi Jong-Il smiled as if he found him funny.
“I’m going home,” Kang Chan said. Smiling, he walked toward the entrance of the apartment.
“Channy! You should’ve rested today. Phew, look at all that sweat!” Yoo Hye-Sook exclaimed.
“I’ve gotten enough sleep anyway. And running actually made me feel more relaxed.”
“Go take a shower quickly.”
He smelled kimchi soup—a spicy soup made with aged kimchi, bean sprouts, and tofu.
It hadn’t even been a few days yet, but he already felt at home again.
Kang Chan sat at the table after showering. Kang Dae-Kyung, who seemed to have also taken a shower before he did, sat at the table as well.
“Did you get enough exercise today?” Kang Dae-Kyung asked.
“Yes. I have completely gotten rid of my fatigue.”
After Yoo Hye-Sook put the soup on the table and sat down, the three began to eat.
Kang Chan liked the soup as much as anything that he ate at Jeju Island.
After having breakfast, Kang Chan stayed in the living room while his parents changed.
Kang Dae-Kyung always tuned in to the news channel on TV until it was time to go to work. Currently, the news revolved mainly around the expected visit of the Russian president to South Korea. It continued with the hopeful news about the probability of an adjustment to the limit of the number of fish that South Korea could catch, which the country had been requesting for some time now.
“Are you okay?” Kang Dae-Kyung asked, having come out to the living room before Yoo Hye-Sook. He glanced at the master bedroom, seemingly hoping that Yoo Hye-Sook didn’t hear what he was saying.
Kang Chan didn’t understand what he meant.
“The look in your eyes makes me think you’re lacking strength.”
“I’m probably just tired. I can’t feel anything wrong with me right now, so I don’t know why my eyes look like that.”
“Well, it does. I feel bad for you.”
As Kang Dae-Kyung patted Kang Chan’s shoulder, Yoo Hye-Sook came out to the living room.
Search bit.ly/3iBfjkV for the original.
After they exchanged a few words, Kang Chan turned off the TV, sent off his parents, and went into his room.
Some people were waiting for Kang Chan to contact them.
Kang Chan called Lanok first and set up an appointment with him. He then called Kim Hyung-Jung. While talking to her, he decided to visit the office at Samseong-dong after his meeting with Lanok.
His appointment with Lanok was at two in the afternoon in the Namsan Hotel, so he still had some time to spare.
‘Now that I’m done making appointments, it’s about time I ask someone about the school festival so I can help.’
To comply with Kim Mi-Young’s request, Kang Chan had to first figure out what on earth the people at the festival wanted.
Kang Chan eventually decided that it would be best to meet Heo Eun-Sil and Lee Ho-Jun.
I still have time before my meeting with Lanok. Since it’s Monday, should I go to school? While I’m there, I might as well have lunch at the school cafeteria with Kim Mi-Young. I’m going to need my school uniform for that, though… Damn it!
Since the students had lunch at around noon, he would have to make his way to the hotel as soon as he was done eating. That would mean he would still be in his school uniform by the time Joo Chul-Bum greeted him and Lanok met with him.
As Kang Chan smacked his lips, his phone rang.
“Hello?”
- Are you busy?
“I’ve been waiting for you to call me. Let’s go get some coffee.”
- Phuhuhu. Come out here, then.
“Where are you?”
- I’m parked right in front of your house.
Kang Chan quickly put on his suit and went outside.
He and Seok Kang-Ho had really great chemistry.
As soon as Kang Chan got in the car, Seok Kang-Ho drove to Misari.
Seok Kang-Ho glanced at Kang Chan.
“My father talked about my eyes. Are my eyes still glinting?” Kang Chan asked.
Seok Kang-Ho looked as if he was about to say, ‘Obviously.’
“I asked how it looks.”
Seok Kang-Ho glanced at Kang Chan again, then frowned. “Honestly, you look like you’re forcing yourself to endure everything despite being full of spite.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It would perfectly match the look in your eyes if you pick up a knife.”
“My eyes can’t look that bad. They’re probably just fiercer.”
“Are you sure you’re not thinking that way because you’ve grown even sharper? Maybe you look the same to those around you even after your eyes calmed down because the amount of spite that you were filled with was excessively higher than normal.”
Kang Chan looked outside the window.
Nobody died during his last operation. Rather, they actually yielded great results from it. So why was he like this?
He remained the same as he boarded the plane and the helicopter that Kim Hyung-Jung had prepared for him. And even though he enjoyed the yacht trip to his heart’s content, he was still somehow full of spite by the time he returned home.
They ordered coffee and started smoking as soon as they arrived at their destination.
“I’m meeting Ambassador Lanok at two o’clock this afternoon. After that, I’ll visit manager Kim at his office.”
“I saw the news about people going crazy because the President of Russia will be visiting South Korea.”
“Yeah. We’ll probably hear about that from Manager Kim himself.”
After talking about a couple more topics, Kang Chan also told Seok Kang-Ho about the favor that Kim Mi-Young had asked him to do.
“I’m thinking of going to school tomorrow,” Kang Chan commented afterward.
Seok Kang-Ho grinned at Kang Chan. “Your face relaxes a bit when you’re talking about Mi-Young.”
“It does?”
“Yes!”
Kang Chan confessed how he felt when she held his hand in the school cafeteria.
“Let’s be honest. From what I can see, you definitely like Mi-Young,” Seok Kang-Ho commented afterward.
He did like Kim Mi-Young, but did he really like her enough for the mere thought of her to change his expression? Before he reincarnated, had there ever been a time when he wanted to see someone during an operation?
Kang Chan looked at the river.