Chapter 51
We sat down at an empty seat in a quiet cafe with no people.
It was a place that had put a lot of effort into the interior design, and it was also a place that I had visited a few times with my friends when I was young.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been here.
After we ordered what we wanted to eat, we had a moment of silence.
Of course, the ones who were mostly silent were me and my mother, or rather, Mrs. Shin Eun-sook.
On the opposite side, Kang Yura, who seemed to have sparks in her eyes, was asking Kang Hye-rim various questions.
“Sister. How did you become a collector?”
“Uh, me?”
“Yes. Wow. Amazing. What cosmetics do you use? You’re so pretty.”
“Uh, well…”
“And what’s that black thing in your arms? Is it a collector’s exclusive weapon? Can I touch it?”
Kang Hye-rim tried to answer her questions somehow, but she looked quite annoyed by her storm-like barrage of questions.
She was usually ruthless when dealing with third parties, but she was strangely weak against Kang Yura.
She didn’t even know why herself.
“Kang Yura. You’re making her uncomfortable. Stop it.”
“Yes.”
Finally, she calmed down after hearing her mother’s scolding.
Of course, she only calmed down compared to before, and her admiration for Kang Hye-rim did not fade at all.
She reminded me of myself in the past.
I also had a passion for collectors like that.
“I’m sorry about this. My daughter showed you an embarrassing sight.”
“No, it’s okay. She’s lively and nice to see. Well.”
I waved my hand as if it was really okay.
“So, who are you… I mean, I haven’t asked your name yet.”
“Oh, right. I’m Kang Yu-hyun.”
“Kang Yu-hyun…”
Mrs. Shin Eun-sook repeated my name as if she was surprised.
“That’s amazing. Actually, if Yura was born as a boy, we were going to name him that.”
“Oh, really? That’s an incredible coincidence.”
“And you look kind of like him too… Have you ever heard of the name Kang Joon-seok?”
Kang Joon-seok was my father’s name.
She asked me this because she wondered if I had any relation to him.
I shook my head.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Then…”
“You can ask me anything else, but it’s the same. I’m not human in the first place.”
“Not human?”
“Yes?”
Kang Yura, who was listening next to me, also widened her eyes in response.
I smiled bitterly at her natural reaction and told them my true identity.
“I’m a teller, even though I look like this. I’m an employee of Celestial Corporation of Story Office, Kang Yu-hyun.”
As if to prove it, I showed them my status window that appeared in the air.
Mrs. Shin Eun-sook and Kang Yura both opened their mouths in astonishment at the sudden appearance of the status window.
“Wow, wow. A teller? Mom, did you hear that? A teller!”
“Be quiet. Phew. So that’s how it is. I thought you might be related to him, but you’re not.”
“Haha. Well, there’s a saying that there are three people who look alike in the world, right?”
“Still…”
I felt embarrassed inside, but I pretended to be casual.
But even with my answer, she seemed to be bothered by something.
She said no with reason, but she felt something instinctively drawn to me.
‘Sure enough, mother is mother.’
Even though there was no trace of our relationship left, she definitely felt something for me.
Surely, that was the maternal instinct that recognized the child she gave birth to with pain.
I wanted to tell her honestly.
That I’m your son and that I came from the future.
But.
‘Now that place is not mine.’
Kang Yura was in the place where Kang Yu-hyun should have been.
Knowing that, I was able to give up quickly.
Although I had memories of the past in me, they were memories that only I had to keep.
‘Rather than that.’
I broke out in a cold sweat at the gaze that looked at me more intensely than my mother.
Kang Yura.
She was another me in a way.
That’s why she looked at me as if she wanted to pierce through my face.
“Oppa.”
“Hmm?”
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“You said you’re a teller, right?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“Then can you make me a collector?”
“Kang Yura.”
Mrs. Shin Eun-sook scolded her with a stern face.
Normally, she would have shrunk her shoulders, but she came out stronger.
“Ah, why. He’s a teller, so I can ask him!”
“Don’t be so loud. You’re being rude to him. Don’t say things that offend him.”
“How do you know if it’s offensive or not!”
As the atmosphere turned sour, I intervened as if to mediate.
“No, no. It’s okay. Asking is something anyone can do.”
“But.”
“See, mom. I’m right, right?”
“Yura, you…”
Mrs. Shin Eun-sook’s expression hardened in an instant.
That meant she was rarely angry.
I quickly continued.
“Anyway, to answer your question, it’s impossible to make you a collector. Tellers only make contracts with people who have already become collectors, not with ordinary people.”
The reactions were polar opposites.
Mrs. Shin Eun-sook looked relieved, while Kang Yura looked incredulous.
She wiped her chest with relief and opened her mouth.
“That’s a relief. I thought it might be possible.”
“What do you mean, relief!”
In the end, Kang Yura exploded, unable to accept reality. She glared at her mother with fire in her eyes.𝚗𝗼𝘃𝒆𝙡𝘣Ꭵ𝔫.𝚗ℯ𝐭
Mrs. Shin Eun-sook looked at her anger and said in a strict voice.
“What’s so good about being a collector? It’s wrong from the start to achieve your goals by relying on others. Don’t waste your time on something impossible, and giving up cleanly is also a wise choice.”
“Ah, mom…”
Her face twisted with anger and sadness at the words that denied her dream.
Tears welled up in her eyes.
And without anyone stopping her, she ran out of the cafe as if fleeing.
“Hey, Kang Yura!”
Mrs. Shin Eun-sook called out, but she didn’t come back.
She looked at a loss for what to do.
Then she bowed her head to me apologetically.
“I’m really sorry. My daughter showed you a bad sight.”
“No, it’s not like that.”
“Phew. How did she become like this? She wants to be a collector so badly…”
“Well, these days, collectors look cool and attractive to kids my age.”
Kang Yura was another me.
So the behavior she showed now was something I had experienced in the past.
Collectors attracted people’s attention.
They were famous and cool. They were like superheroes in movies in reality.
Of course, the desire for collectors among teenagers and twenties was quite a noisy factor in society.
“Well, being a collector is not bad…”
“But, your life would be in danger.”
Mrs. Shin Eunsuk said in a cold voice.
She looked determined, as if this was something she would never compromise on.
“I know that collectors are very famous and popular in the world. No, I don’t even know if you can call that a profession. Anyway, I know that my daughter is very interested in collectors. How can I not know? But that’s because she only sees the bright side of collectors.”
“…I can’t deny that.”
“That’s probably because Miss Geumho is an exception. I have eyes and ears too. I know more about collectors than Yura does. And I also know how collectors who don’t get attention from people live.”
I had to admit that she was right.
There are quite a lot of collectors.
And among them, only a few succeed.
People are blinded by the brilliance of success, and they don’t see the huge shadow hidden beneath it.
They don’t know how horrible they live, and they don’t even try to find out.
“I know very well. She’s my daughter, so I know what she’s like. It’s not my place to say this as her mother, but she has no talent.”
She has no talent.
When I heard those words from my mother’s mouth, it felt like something was squeezing my heart.
“Wait.”
I interrupted her and took a deep breath.
Kang Hye-rim next to me gave me a worried look, but I waved my hand to tell her I was fine.
“Hyerim. Can you please step aside for a moment?”
“Yoo Hyun.”
“It’ll be quick. Go talk to Yura. She’s probably at the playground we passed by on the way here. Please.”
“…Okay. I got it.”
Kang Hye-rim nodded with a complicated expression and got up from her seat.
She left, and only my mother and I were left.
I wondered what to say first, and then I cautiously opened my mouth.
“But…isn’t it too much to give up on that path just because you have no talent?”
“I think so too. People should always have big goals, I always said that myself.”
Dream big.
Then you’ll be able to succeed.
Yeah.
That was definitely something my mother used to say to me.
“I thought so too, but as I lived, I realized. There are things in the world that you can’t do just by having dreams.”
“That’s…true.”
Well, I agreed with that too.
If everyone lived as they dreamed, there wouldn’t be any difference between successful and unsuccessful people in the world.
That cruel truth was something I had seen and experienced for a long time, and I felt it painfully.
“But she’s your child, isn’t she?”
“Yes. She’s my child. So I wanted to say something nice to her anyway. But collectors are…no. That’s definitely a hard job.”
“Even if she wants to be one?”
“She won’t be able to do it anyway, so I said that. But if she really does it, I’ll try to stop her desperately. She’s not cut out for being a collector.”
My mother’s firm and cruel words.
But because she was my mother, she knew her child better than anyone else.
“All I want is for her to grow up without pain.”
“…”
As soon as I heard that, I felt something rising in my chest.
My mother’s true feelings that I didn’t know.
The fact that I found out about it now made me feel guilty.
Back then, I didn’t know any of that, and I just thought my mother hated me.
But it wasn’t like that.
‘It was all because she was worried about me.’
I closed my eyes for a moment.
It was a very short time, but the things that happened then were vividly remembered in my mind.
“My mother is right. How can you sit still when your child wants to go on a hard path? Especially when it’s not just a job but a collector.”
I understand Kang Yura.
Maybe there’s no one in the world who understands her more than me.
Because she was me once.
But before understanding her, I also understood the position of Shin Eunsuk as a person.
What kind of feelings she had as a mother, what kind of situation she was in.
I respected my mother very much.
She was definitely a successful businesswoman who had her own philosophy and beliefs.
That unbreakable firmness seemed to weaken only when it came to her own child.
But still, that wasn’t right.
“Surely, my mother is right.”
“So…”
“But, Mother. You can’t do that.”
I denied my parent’s will as a child.
This might be seen as a kind of unfilial act, but I thought I had to say this.
“Yura probably knows how you feel. But it’s her dream. No matter how hard and difficult it is, you can’t deny it.”
“Do you want me to just let her go?”
“No. That’s not it either. I understand that it’s hard to support her. So what I’m saying is this. Don’t support or deny her. Just show her the reality.”
“Show her the reality?”
“Yes.”
I nodded heavily.
“You don’t need to persuade her. Just tell her what she needs to do if she becomes a collector, what will happen, and how dangerous it is. Just tell her that properly. And then ask her. Do you still want to do this? Maybe she’ll give up because she’s tired of the harsh truth.”
“What if she still says she wants to do it?”
“Then there’s nothing you can do.”
“Are you saying that…”
“That’s what she chose, knowing all that. Do you think your child’s determination is so light?”
Maybe if I was the old me, I would have thought it was better to make Kang Yura give up on her dream.
But after seeing Han Yongwoon’s book change, I thought differently.
People’s potential can change. A
nd the trigger for that is really nothing.
A simple word, or a small act of pushing someone’s back.
People change.
Possibilities open up.
“I’m sure…you’ll understand if you talk to each other sincerely.”
This was not just a word from Teller Kang Yoo Hyun, but a word from Kang Yoo Hyun who was once her son.
“Please, trust your child’s dream one more time.”
I couldn’t do that back then.
But I couldn’t leave Kang Yura alone now.
“No matter how hard and difficult reality is, you have to dream big. If you go towards that dream, someday you’ll become the protagonist of your own life.”
“That’s…”
My mother’s eyes widened when I said the words she had said to me.
