episode_0069

The car, carrying two children, two teenagers, and three adults, quietly sped down the highway.

There is a word called ‘Uijeon.’

Originally meaning the ceremony of holding an event, it is more commonly used among society to mean gathering someone.

For Koreans, Uijeon is doing something with the right hand without the left hand knowing. It is considered a virtue to quietly gather someone, making them feel comfortable as if they are not being gathered, without realizing that they are actually being gathered.

One of the highest priorities in this Uijeon is driving. Even though Koreans are known for their fast-paced nature, during this gathering, quietly and comfortably driving was the norm.

So why keep talking about Uijeon?

“Are you good at driving because you’ve done a lot of Uijeon?”

“Do you get nervous just because the kids are in the car? You seem cautious.”

“Oh, I see.”

Even I get more cautious when driving with my family. I usually drive alone when commuting or going to the market, so especially when the kids were young, I was more nervous.

“But maybe it’s because it’s an electric car, it’s really quiet.”

“Right? This company does have good welfare, right?”

“Oh, right. Did you say it’s a company car?”

“No, it’s not a company car, but the company has a contract with a rental car company. We rented it cheaply from there.”

An electric van, isn’t that a new car that’s occasionally seen on the road nowadays? Even if it’s contracted with the company, it wouldn’t be cheap to rent for just one night… no, thinking about coming back late tomorrow, it might be better to rent it for two nights and ask for reimbursement later.

“By the way, did you go on a trip to Busan last week? Did you have fun?”

Suyeon asked, leaning forward from the front seat. Looking at the kids through the rearview mirror, all four of them were dozing off. After starting, Suyeon and I had various conversations, but at some point, it became quiet, and I realized they were sleeping.

“Just, you know. A vacation? It was my first time going on something like that, but it was better than I expected.”

“What? A vacation? Did you wear a swimsuit then?”

“Oh, um.”

For once, we went to a swimming pool, had fun playing in the water, and enjoyed the nice view. It was definitely a good memory, but…

“You must have caught the attention of a lot of guys.”

“Oh, don’t say that. Seriously, I bet half of the guys at the pool were not looking at Haeundae Beach but at our mom’s body.”

When another story she knew came up, Dayoung woke up and joined the conversation. Anyway… she’ll probably just go back to sleep quietly.

“Well… a bikini on that body does look sinful. Um, um.”

She’s teasing me, not much different from myself. I decided that Suyeon won’t give me any material to chew on.

“Want to see some pictures?”

“Oh, you have pictures? Let me see.”

But it seems that not providing food doesn’t mean there’s no food.

“Wait, that’s!”

But before I could stop them, they were already laughing and looking at pictures in the back seat.

“Wow, this is really unfair. I mean, why are the… shapes so beautiful?”

“Right? It’s so unfair, right? And mom, her face is really pretty too.”

“Hey, you’re not kidding either. How can a high school student… and a first-year at that, be this big? It really is our family’s genes.”

“Even Auntie is big, so what.”

“That’s right? Haha.”

Well, it’s a typical conversation among women. I’m still not very good at joining in on these kinds of things. So I decided to just talk with Sangki.

“Hyung, you said you have a job interview tomorrow, right?”

“Oh, right. Yeah.”

“And come to think of it, it’s the first time you’ve taken such a long break after starting work, isn’t it?”

Since starting work in the corporate world from my fourth year of university, I have never taken a single break. As soon as I became an adult, I enrolled in college, then immediately enlisted in the military, and upon discharge, resumed my studies. However, I ended up getting married in a whirlwind after meeting my ex-wife, and suddenly Da-yeong came into our lives, so I had to balance parenting and academics. It was still better than juggling work alongside everything else, but it was not easy, and when I finally started working full-time at the company, I faced incredibly challenging tasks.

Moreover, my wife, who was two years younger than me, had to take a break from her studies and focus on childcare when the kids were young.

Looking back now, I raised the kids in a whirlwind, not knowing how we managed to do it.

We raised the kids for a while, and once I settled into my job and the kids grew up a bit, my wife resumed her studies and finally graduated. After that, in our thirties, my wife started working full-time, and when Su-yeon went to college, Mom would often come up to Su-yeon’s place to look after the kids.

Looking back, we fought a lot back then. We fought about how difficult it was to raise the kids, and my wife, marrying so young, felt trapped without experiencing her youth, just tied down to the kids. She even experienced postpartum depression, and I was busy working at the company, coming home to take care of the kids, and the stress was no joke.

After going through those tough times and now seeing the kids all grown up, well…

Anyway, the mention of taking a break from work for the first time made me feel a sense of regret and made me think deeply.

“Yeah. Hmm… It was nice. I got to spend a lot of time with the kids and even went on trips. Oh, and! I started exercising this time. With the kids.”

“Oh, really? Going to the gym?”

Suddenly interrupting our conversation, Su-yeon chimed in.

“Yeah. I was worried anyway. If I go down, Mom will probably feed me a lot of stuff, so I need to control my diet now.”

“Huh?! Where is there room to cut back?”

Su-yeon asked, looking back and forth between my phone with my bikini photos and me.

“I’m planning to take body profile pictures this time.”

“Oh, really?”

Sang-gi asked, surprised. I’m not sure why she’s surprised.

“Oh, I’ve taken them before. Ha~ I really struggled back then. I managed to reduce my body fat percentage to 10%, and I thought I was going to die.”

Park Seo-bang is probably similar in height to me but on the bigger side, so even if he reduces his body fat percentage a bit, muscles would probably show. He seems to be working out quite hard.

“I need to reduce mine to 15%. The last time I measured, it was 23%.”

The average body fat percentage for women is around 20-25%, but to be honest, the part of my body that holds the most body fat is probably my chest. Maybe 3% is not from my chest?

“Well, the most important thing is the eye body, no matter how you look at it.”

“That’s true. How does my eye body look to you?”

Su-yeon suddenly handed Sang-gi Da-yeong’s phone and blinked her eyes for a moment after glancing at the phone screen while driving.

“Huh? This is 23%? Huh… At this rate, you could just go straight into taking body profile pictures….”

“I must have been around 25% back then, right? I ate a lot when we went down to Busan this time. When I went to the center on Monday and had my InBody checked, it was 25%.”

“Wow, even just looking at it, you can tell you work out. Let’s take it now, why not. If you get too lean, it might look a bit off.”

Even in my opinion, at this level, objectively, it was a level that others could take body profile pictures, but Yeong-su-nim wanted clearer 11-line abs, so I decided to set a slightly bigger goal.

When I talked to Sang-gi and Su-yeon about the fitness center model proposal and the PT cost reduction benefits, they finally nodded their heads.

“What, if the center says so, it’s right to follow. Anyway, you must have had a hard time. Hyung-nim.”

“Haha, it’s nothing. If it’s free, you’ll even drink dirty water, right? If I can save some expenses by going through a bit of hardship, it’s a good thing. Well, it’s good for my health too, isn’t it killing two birds with one stone?”

“Well, that might not be the case. If you lose too much fat, it’s not good for your body, so after taking a body profile picture, it’s best to maintain your current state.”

Well, Yeong-su teacher also said something similar. This current state is just right. Anyway, since I’ll keep increasing the intensity of my exercise, I won’t need to follow a separate diet if it comes to that.

“Hmm, you’re living quite diligently, brother. Well, you were living diligently before too. If it felt like you were immersed in work back then, now it feels like you’re just living healthily and faithfully?”

Listening to you, it seems like that’s the case. I mean, after going through a big ordeal, I just tried to live diligently for my family.

“That’s why I’m worried. Once you go back to work, it might be tough to cook dinner for the kids, and if you take on a new product development project, you’ll end up working overtime again and again.”

Well, when I think about it, I didn’t live like that because I wanted to. It just happened that way.

“Why not just forget about it all and open a chicken restaurant? Or learn some skills and help me out. It’s hard to hire people these days because labor costs are high.”

“Hey, can you handle it with just your salary? If I go back to work, I’ll be a team leader now.”

“Isn’t being a team leader in your late thirties appropriate? My friend even had a director position.”

-Click!

Somehow, as soon as I heard that sound, I felt a bit of a boiling sensation in my stomach.