I Am Really The Only Tycoon - Chapter 2

Even at this moment, he patted his mother’s white hair. His hands trembled. She used to dye her hair before, so he didn’t know it was actually this white.

“Not yet, mother… You’re still pretty.”

“I missed you. My son… you came to mother, but mother has nothing left.”

“Is there anything you want to eat? Is there anywhere you want to visit? Mother, mother. Mother, tell me what you want to do. I’ll do it for you. Mn?”

He could see his mother’s eyelids getting heavy.  And once again, he was forced to scream in the face of fate. Why now? If he had known before, he’d had lived his life with her. Why is it that when he realised his mother’s love, he was forced to part ways? Is this an immature joke played by the heavens to make him realize the depth of love, only when it’s time to bid goodbye?

“Mother… is happy to hear. I was very disappointed that my son didn’t come to see me when he grew up.”

His heart fluttered. This is how it feels to be cheated by the world. His heartbeat went wild, eyes red.

“You should study… Go study… Study well.”

Why did his parents tell him to study like that when he was young?

Perhaps it was because the path of success depends on the degree of learning for those who are educated. The uneducated parents want their children to live their lives more easily. His mother wanted the same, but he couldn’t fulfill her wish. ‘Studying’.

“Let’s do everything. Think about what you want to do again, mom.”

“You have the talisman mother gave you, right? Make sure you keep it …Do what mom told you to do when you’re having a hard time.”

The feeling of being deceived crashed on him.

Even at this moment, she was really worried about him, her son.

His heart that was holding back all this time, collapsed.

“Hold on… I’m sorry, Mommy. I-I’m sorry…”

Mother did not answer anymore.

“Mom!!!!!

His sister sobbed, heart wrenching cries ringing out.

That’s how his mother left him.

He was wearing a black suit and a resident armband on his left arm.

Sadness is another thing, he couldn’t shirk from his responsibilities.

“Minwook, come here. Be seated.”

“Alright, Uncle.”

“Come here. Have a seat.”

Eventually, he sat down beside his eldest Uncle. That’s only because he was working at a big company. And since the company had sent people, he couldn’t possibly ignore them.

“Pour me a cup.”

“-Yes.”

The words ‘Daehyun Motors’ were clearly stamped on the cup his eldest uncle was holding. He was a strong employee who has been recognized by the company since he has been loyal for over a decade, but now that’s all for naught. After living a hectic life at the company, he turned away from what was important to him.

“You should’ve done better when you were in charge.”

“Yes…”

“Before Kyung suk died…you should have given her a grandson. Hah…”

His uncle had drunk a lot, probably because he was the youngest brother.

Both his uncles’ hair were spotted white, but their words were as rash as ever.

“If Big Brother were still alive…he would have studied more…and let Kyung Suk live happily. More like a human being…”

His second maternal uncle held on to the eldest and condemned him.

“That’s right… But even if we wanted to, it’s too late to bring him back to life. Let’s just thank him silently.”

“I’m just saying this because Kyung suk loved him so much…I can’t help but think about it now that she’s no longer here…”

No matter how he looked at it, they both were jealous about how much she loved their dead brother…

“It’s time to go thank him- Go to heaven and say thanks. But… I don’t hate Big Brother. It’s just that his luck was bad. All because of that…”

The eldest uncle suddenly turned red. “That guy, I HATE him. I understand everything but I still regret…”

“Calm down. I need to go check something.”

Leaving his quarreling uncles behind, he got up from his seat. It was late in the morning, so there were few visitors. He went out to get some fresh air and lit a cigarette.

Eldest uncle… no, his actual first uncle…

He also knew about the existence of his eldest uncle, the first uncle. The name that his mom used to sing when she was drunk like an old song.

His mom had a big brother. She loved him a lot. He was tall and handsome, and did judo at that time. He would have won a gold medal in the Olympics if he was alive.

Her son, him,  reminds her of her eldest brother. He looked similar. She loved her big brother so much that she even used to say she will marry him later.

His mother once hated her eldest brother very much. He spent all of her family’s money. They needed food to survive so his mom had to work right away, but she had only just graduated from the national school.

He sat in a chair and lit another cigarette. Minwook took a smartphone out of his pocket.

A very concise pattern. Lock patterns of older adults were the same. This was his Mom’s cell phone.

It was after his mother closed her eyes that he tried the pattern to inform her acquaintances. That was the only time he used it, so now, he looked into the cell phone again with curiosity. When he opened the photo album, his mother’s history came out. His fingers moved up and down. More than half of the unorganized photos were his. In the mother’s life, everything was about a child.

His eyes turned red again. That’s what life is all about. Few people are exceptionally filial, and fewer are unusually filial.

Just like most of the children, just like the waves of the world, just moderately condescending, filial piety, and pretending not to know nothing.

It is regrettable that the world that is busy looking ahead was one of the most resentful and unusually poor in emotions.

“I’ll take care of my mom next time. Please… Next time, really. I’ll be born first, so bear with me. Mom…”

He was sad. If he hadn’t come to his senses until the end, he’d rather have died. People and regret.

Regret always comes late.

“Mom, I’m here.”

His mother was now forever asleep in a mountainous area in his father’s hometown, Goryeong.

And today is the day of his mother’s death.

Mother’s anniversary.

He heard that his sister visited his brother-in-law and mother in her own way. It was a year ago, but he was always late. That’s what a forty-year-old’s life is like. He had to go to work and write a report even though it was his mother’s anniversary today, he was always a sinner and always ended up late.

“I miss dad, too. But I’m sorry to say that I miss you more.”

Weeds around the grave were pulled out by his hand, rice cakes and fruits were placed on the stone cover, and soju was poured into a glass.

He placed the talisman his mother gave on the mat. There was no wind, but he put a small stone on the talisman just in case.

Talisman, written by his mother’s master. One from heaven supposedly, which had been forgotten for a while.

The first time he received the talisman, it was probably a time when he was very annoyed.

He was hit by a wall of reality.

“This is a talisman. When you really need it, do what your mother tells you to do. Okay?”

“Mom! How many times have I told you not to spend any money on this rubbish?”

“Oh, my… this is a very good thing.”

“If you have any money for this, give it to your son!”

He remembered when he was so tired of working overtime and abusive language from his boss, that he got annoyed with his mother.

He glanced down at the talisman. The past year crossed his mind.

He graduated from college and worked to death. Work and life balance? That’s ridiculous. That’s what work is like. At first, he started working to be a great person, and then he started working to make more money, and as he got older, he needed something unnecessary. He got money, bought a car, bought a house, bought clothes, bought food.

With a blink of an eye, he was already over forty years old, eaten up by time.

After his mother’s death, he studied his country’s past from time to time. Throughout the 1960s and 2010s, Korea’s great history was thoroughly explored. The development process of the Korean economy. Major growth industries by age, where and how land should be invested to make money. As the times pass by, who are the most powerful people?

He kept studying. There were limitations to what can be put in the head. He did as much as he could, even if he can’t put it in his head for 60 years. Some of the things he’d learned while living, so he thought he’d know to some extent if he tried harder.

That day, a year ago, his mother told him.

“When it gets really hard, do what your mother tells you to do…”

‘Write with your own blood, a name and date on the back of the talisman.’

It was absurd.

No matter how burdened he was, believing in such a talisman is…

At that time, he just thought it was obvious that his mother had been swindled, so he blamed his ignorant mother and grumbled.

Still, it was fortunate that he didn’t throw it away in one corner and kept it well.

After his mother died, he went to his mother’s friend and came to visit her master.

If he looked like a fraud, he would grab him by the collar and punch him.  But once he met him, he felt strange.

“Master, is this amulet really genuine?”

“If you believe so, it will be, if you don’t, it won’t be.”

“What if I use someone else’s name?”

The half-closed eyes of the man grew wider.

“That person will live again. However, the date should be right. You cannot enter the body of a living person, the original owner has to be dead, only then you can live again…”