Chapter 162 : Epilogue 1 [His Story] (3)

Shim Hyun-woo was standing with his mother Gu Seon-young in front of a newly built shopping complex in the neighborhood.

Inside the complex, various facilities including a convenience store and a billiard hall were already occupied, and on the most prominent spot on the first floor was a neatly arranged fruit store.

Inside, it was bustling with girls’ voices.

A girl with impressive long black hair and black dobok was lifting and moving heavy furniture with one hand. Next to her, a grumpy-looking blonde girl was grumbling, and a brown-haired girl wearing glasses was giving them various instructions.

A girl with long hair swept back and a girl wearing a kimono were just watching from a corner of the store.

“Haiyun, put that a bit further inside! Damn, not everyone has as much strength as you.”

“Got it.”

“Emily, why aren’t you doing anything?”

“Haha, Fatima. Smart people are supposed to oversee everything from behind.”

“Ah~ Somehow…”

“Pfft, stupid Fatima. I wonder how long you’ll keep being played by Emily.”

“Why are you sneering when you can’t move at Emily’s words either, Anna?”

“…”

Amina was grinning while looking at Anna’s crumpled expression.

Conversations exchanged in English with accents from various countries.

Emily

Lee Haiyun

Fatima

Amina

Anna

Inside the fruit store where construction was completely finished, 5 girls were busily moving around and moving things. Originally it wasn’t even their job to do, and at first Seon-young stopped them in shock, but they didn’t listen.

“Is this your building too?”

“Yes, but I’m planning to transfer it soon.”

“My goodness, are buildings overflowing from your pockets so you can’t handle them?”

“I just owned it, so I should hand it over to someone who can manage it well.”

“You can’t handle the girls overflowing either, what are you going to do about that?”

“…”

“Mom doesn’t even know who’s a daughter-in-law past five… Saebyeok and Hyun-woo, sort it out yourselves.”

“…Yes.”

Seon-young looked at the fruit store once more and marveled again.

Though products haven’t come in yet, the fruit store with sophisticated-looking display cases would look even better when all kinds of fruits come in.

“It’s a bit of a shame. Mom used to dream of opening a fruit store too.”

“I’ll make that dream come true.”

“Huh?”

Hyun-woo pointed at the fruit store with a playful gesture and said.

“Please take good care of guarding the building, Boss.”

“…Pfft.”

Seeing Hyun-woo’s playful eyes, Seon-young seemed to roughly guess the situation, at first showing a touched expression but gradually changing to a cold gaze. Because she had already been surprised enough by his genius since elementary school, she knew her son was up to something again.

Still, it didn’t seem right to exploit the girls.

Not knowing which one among them might become a daughter-in-law.

“Are you exploiting girls to show filial piety?”

“No, Mother. We said we wanted to do this ourselves.”

Pat pat

Light footsteps.

Emily, who had been giving various instructions to the 4 girls in the store, pushed up her glasses and spoke proudly.

Fluent Korean.

Emily, who was born and raised in England from birth, mastered Korean in just a month and often talked with Hyun-woo’s family. Emily, who felt drawn from Hyun-woo’s first visit to England and followed him to Korea with just one suitcase, had now volunteered as an advisor to the Shim household.

‘Perhaps Hyun-woo could show me a world I haven’t seen.’

Emily was pinning her hopes on a boy who might be able to show her human hearts that exist between victory and defeat… especially love.

“Because Hyun-woo said he would make my heart beat.”

With both hands on her chest, Emily made an expression recalling precious memories.

The face of the boy who seriously spoke words no one else had in front of the subway station with the evening glow shining. That was Emily’s first tremor, and the first noise in a life that always moved regularly like a clock.

The machine breaks and the heart comes alive.

The girl is fascinated by that noise, always looking into the clock of life and waiting for the next noise.

The face of a girl anyone could see had fallen in love.

Seeing that face, Seon-young calmly asked her son.

“Hyun-woo, didn’t Saebyeok’s face flash in your mind when you said that?”

“…”

Hyun-woo was speechless.

Strangely, every time he went abroad, he encountered girls with worries as if a magnet was placed on a needle case. And Hyun-woo always fatefully came up with ways to solve their worries each time.

‘My first meeting with Saebyeok actually started with that feeling too.’

Saebyeok who needed a friend to empathize with her different sensibility from other children.

Meilin who needed someone to protect her beliefs from the world’s storms.

Haiyun who wanted to see the world from a corner of an old dojo.

Fatima who was abused by a soldier named Alex in a refugee camp.

Amina who was discriminated against for being an orphan in a wandering puppet troupe.

Anna who needed a place to live with her family abroad.

And Emily who sincerely wants to understand human emotions.

Girls always appeared reaching out for help on the path Hyun-woo was advancing, and Hyun-woo always had solutions to help them. The girls who gathered around Hyun-woo like that had been living together in an apartment Hyun-woo owned and helping with Hyun-woo’s work for a year already.

-Six is too much!!! You bad guy!!!

-Sa-Saebyeok, I can explain everything… Uwah?!

Ping

Ping

Ping

Ping

On the first day Hyun-woo brought them, he was shot by Saebyeok with a toy gun.

When exactly six magazines were emptied, Saebyeok faced Emily, the strongest among the uninvited guests, with cold eyes. Somehow there seemed to be a red energy swirling in the brown eyes shining beyond her glasses.

Emily also thought she saw pink waves of strong yet intense emotions in Saebyeok’s eyes.

Reddish-brown and pink

The two girls looked at the light felt in each other’s eyes and spoke in low voices.

-You came from far away.

-Yes, I came from far away. Following Hyun-woo.

-It’ll be hard when you go back.

-Huh? Why? It’s really comfortable going with Hyun-woo.

Ah right

Emily smiled and clapped her hands.

-You said Saebyeok hasn’t traveled alone with Hyun-woo, right?

-Hmm.

-Huhu.

Saebyeok’s eyes burning fiercely and intensely.

Emily’s eyes shining calmly and faintly.

-Hiing… Why did you shoot me…

At the moment the two gazes clashed, Meilin had already been defeated by Saebyeok and was trembling in a corner of the living room. Fatima stood blankly with a confused face unable to read the atmosphere, and Amina and Anna judged who was more dominant between those two.

Li Haiyun went straight into Hyun-woo’s room and was caught sleeping beside him.

Poke

Hyun-woo’s thoughts disappeared far away due to the finger on the bridge of his nose.

“Hyun-woo, you’re thinking about me, right?”

“Huh? Oh yeah.”

“Hehe, Hyun-woo rolling your eyes like that while pondering… you were thinking about when Saebyeok and I talked, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“That’s strange… shouldn’t you take Saebyeok’s side since you’ve known her longer? Time spent together is an overwhelmingly advantageous basis in winning these emotional battles.”

“Get rid of that bad habit of dividing people’s hearts so sharply.”

“Huhu.”

Emily had expected that answer, but she was still happy to actually hear it from Hyun-woo’s mouth.

She still hadn’t gained victory over Saebyeok yet.

But every time his gaze fell on her once, his voice reached her once, she didn’t care about such victory or defeat anymore.

‘Why? This irrational and unreasonable emotional change is like…’

There was a black silhouette appearing behind Emily like that and instantly occupying Hyun-woo’s side.

“Hyun-woo!”

Black gale

She made Hyun-woo embrace her instantly through mysterious movements from her slender body hidden in the dobok. That appearance looked like a python completely wrapping around a pine tree.

“Haiyun?!”

“Yes, Hyun-woo.”

Creep creep

Answering the surprised voice while tightening her soft body.

Waist pressed close

Legs sticking stickily

Though the strength extending from her hands was so powerful, there was no part that wasn’t soft among the touching parts.

Hyun-woo was startled by the sudden feeling on his body and the girl’s fresh scent entering his nose.

“Wa-Wait, let’s talk after letting go of this!”

“Hyun-woo, I did everything Emily told me to.”

“Huh?! Oh… good job Haiyun.”

“Hyun-woo.”

“Yes?”

“Hyun-woo.”

“What?”

“I’m going.”

Smooch

Hyun-woo, who was completely tied up before he knew it, was even more flustered seeing Haiyun approaching with her lips pursed. He couldn’t understand why this sudden action was happening right now.

“Why all of a sudden!?”

“Hyun-woo…”

“Oh my, I can’t watch anymore because it’s embarrassing.”

Seon-young waved her hand at that sight and quickly walked towards home, and Emily stuck close to Seon-young’s side and spoke in a gentle tone saying ‘Mother’.

At first, Seon-young didn’t show a good reaction to Emily who threatened Saebyeok’s position, but she was gradually opening her heart to Emily’s friendly and decisive actions.

Hyun-woo sent a gesture for help towards the two disappearing people.

But the two just chatted while moving away.

Haiyun’s moist lips slowly approached.

Hyun-woo had a feeling that if he met those lips directly here, something big would happen.

There would be a big change in the Saebyeok and Emily front that had barely become fixed.

Because Hyun-woo had a lot to do in the future, he wanted to avoid such a disaster.

“Urghh!! Haiyun!! Let’s talk rationally!!”

“Okay, let’s have a ‘rational’ body conversation.”

“No!!”

“That’s enough.”

Swish

Anna’s kimono sleeve blocked Haiyun’s lips, and Fatima and Amina untied Haiyun’s limbs to free Hyun-woo. Haiyun struggled with her lips rounded even amidst Fatima and Amina’s restraint.

“Ah ung. Hyun-woo!”

“…”

Suddenly freed, Hyun-woo leaned his body slightly forward and patted his back, and Amina saw that and grinned while pretending not to see.

Hyun-woo felt Amina’s consideration and patted his back faster as if more embarrassed.

Pat pat pat…

Amina let out a hehe laugh and casually threw out a topic to change the awkward atmosphere.

“Hyun-woo, you said you have something you’re going to do from now on, right?”

“Oh yeah, that’s right. I wanted to explain it to you guys too.”

As Anna and Fatima who were standing with somewhat bored faces paid attention, and even Haiyun who was causing a commotion calmed down. Hyun-woo showed the girls a paper with an outline of the business he was planning written on it.

“Dream… Star Company?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“What is it?”

Hyun-woo had accumulated quite a lot of wealth while acting as a ‘genius boy’ until now. And those methods would increase further in the future, and the remaining methods were easy ones for him who knew future knowledge.

He suppressed his father’s illness early,

Avoided his mother’s accident and opened a store for her.

All the businesses he touched prospered, and he always encountered good connections and good people.

It could be said he had already achieved almost all the happiness attainable in ‘Shim Hyun-woo’s’ life.

‘But is that everything?’

There was too much time and strength left to end with just being satisfied living well alone.

Hyun-woo looked at the girls gathered around him.

Girls who were in situations they couldn’t overcome on their own, with extremely narrowed vision trying to confine themselves in darkness.

“…Want a kiss?”

“Focus when we’re having a serious conversation, Haiyun.”

“I’m hungry.”

“…Why are you like that again?”

Haiyun, Amina, Fatima, Anna.

Hyun-woo realized something while helping these girls who gave greater meaning than what he had been doing. The thought that sometimes warm hands extended to someone could become great salvation and move this world.

Great path

Hyun-woo now wanted to become a person who walks a great path that can help someone.

“I’m going to do a business that helps people.”

“How will you do it? Are you thinking of creating a foundation?”

Anna, who decided to leave Japan due to the tyranny of her uncle running a large company, muttered with a cold smile. She still sent cynicism towards most people except Hyun-woo and his family, and colleagues who went around with him.

“Hyun-woo, you don’t need to show goodwill to everyone. Not everyone returns goodwill with goodwill.”

“Nevertheless.”

“…”

“Nevertheless, if we don’t give up and don’t break.”

Hyun-woo declared in front of the girls with both fists clenched.

“If I become a person firm enough to show hope to people. Will you follow me?”

“Haah.”

Anna turned around completely and put her hands completely inside her kimono sleeves.

But her ears had turned red.

“Do whatever you want.”

“Thank you, Anna.”

“So what exactly are you doing?”

“I’m thinking of making an application.”

“An application?”

While showing a winning smile to Anna who glanced back, Hyun-woo shook his smartphone.

An application with a transparent star drawn on it was already installed on his smartphone. Various notifications were popping up on that application linked with the SNS messenger app Hyun-woo had invested in advance.

“A channel where you can post and reveal your dreams.”

“A place to open up about how you want to live.”

“The first step to realizing dreams.”