Siblings Working in Business (244)
The bread guy was the most understanding person when it came to their distrust of others.
And because he understood…
He seemed to know how to help them overcome it.
Instead of telling them to trust or reassuring them that things would be okay, he remained silent, as if wanting them to learn for themselves.
Thanks to that, they learned to understand the world through their own eyes, not through the comforting words of others.
Volunteers often came to the bread guy’s shop to help out.
“I’ll be back.”
Whenever he received a call from the community center, the bread guy would return home with kimchi and a bag of rice.
“Wow! Where did you get that?”
When Eun-ji asked excitedly, the bread guy would reply curtly, “The government gave it to me.”
At first, they wondered why this seemingly well-off man, with his good physique and no apparent financial struggles, would be receiving government assistance.
“Aspirin…?”
“What are all these?”
Eun-ji and he had found a pile of medicine packets under the counter while cleaning.
“It’s medicine. Bring them here.”
The bread guy seemed to be taking a lot of different medications.
Not vitamins or supplements, but prescription drugs, the kind you needed to survive.
He thought he realized then that their time with the bread guy was limited.
The bread guy was rapidly losing weight.
His muscular build, the result of countless workouts, was shrinking, and the number of sticky notes on the walls in the bakery doubled.
Around that time…
The number of complaints from customers increased.
Most of them were about finding foreign objects in the bread.
“Hey! Why is there a chopstick in my bread?!”
He understood their complaints.
The foreign objects were too large to be just ‘mistakes.’
The complaints seemed to have affected the bakery’s business, as the number of customers decreased noticeably.
Despite the situation, the bread guy never showed them his struggles.
Perhaps because of that…
Eun-ji, still young, became a bit rebellious.
The one thing she was grateful for, regarding her parents who sold them to a drug house, was her ‘height.’
Perhaps because of the bread guy taking good care of them during their growth spurt…
Despite their hardships and malnutrition, they grew taller than average.
Or rather, he grew taller after middle school, while Eun-ji had a growth spurt first.
As she grew taller, her confidence seemed to grow as well, and she started wandering outside more often.
“Eun-ji!”
“I’m going out!”
“That girl, again…”
Ignoring the bread guy’s instructions to help out at the store, Eun-ji would run outside every day.
And she always came back with cuts and bruises.
Although the bread guy would frown at her, he never scolded her.
Just like when he taught them about kindness…
He always let them learn through experience.
One day, just like any other day…
Eun-ji ran outside, and he was cleaning up the store, thinking it was just another day, when…
“Eun-ho.”
“Yes, Mister.”
“I can’t be responsible for you two forever.”
His hand, cleaning the store, stopped.
Although he knew, he didn’t want to show it, but hearing it…
He just froze.
“…I know.”
It felt like there was blood in his saliva, a metallic taste in his mouth.
“You’ll have a hard time.”
“I know.”
“Eun-ji is different from you. She’s… stronger, so she’ll face more challenges.”
He looked at the bread guy.
The bread guy had a resigned expression.
An unsettling expression, as if he was about to leave.
“No matter how much you fight, no matter how hard it gets, don’t abandon your family. You’ll regret it.”
“…Yes.”
The bread guy’s words were like law to him.
Even after all this time, after the regression, they still were.
And the bread guy’s warning was right.
He had suffered a lot because of Eun-ji’s stubbornness.
But the true meaning of his words, “Eun-ji is different”…
…he seemed to understand it only after the regression.
A few days after that conversation…
“Eun-ji!”
“Shut up! You don’t know anything!”
The bread guy, seeing Eun-ji’s swollen cheek when she returned after wandering outside…
…dropped the glass of water he was holding and shouted.
Eun-ji, unusually aggressive, talked back to him.
But she seemed to regret her words immediately, avoiding his gaze.
That day, the bread guy grabbed Eun-ji’s hand and led her out of the store.
“Let’s go somewhere.”
“Where?!”
“Just follow me.”
“At least tell me where we’re going!”
The bread guy, dragging the struggling Eun-ji, headed towards the door.
Before leaving…
He casually explained to Eun-ho, who was watching them with wide eyes,
“I’m going to meet a friend who runs a seafood restaurant in Busan.”
“Busan?”
“Eun-ho, want to come?”
“No, I… I’ll stay and watch the store.”
“Okay.”
The bread guy left.
“Mister! I’ll walk! Don’t pull!”
Eun-ji, her face full of displeasure, followed him out.
He was left alone in the bakery.
Although the shelves were full of bread, there were no customers.
The bread guy and Eun-ji returned late in the evening.
“We’re back.”
“Oppa! Oppa!!! I saw flounder and rockfish today, and this thing called gaebul that looks like poop, and octopus, and sea squirt, and sea cucumber!”
The sullen Eun-ji who had left was gone.
Eun-ji, her eyes sparkling, chattered excitedly as if she had seen a whole new world.
After that day, Eun-ji was the same as always.
The only difference was that seafood terms started appearing in her insults.
A few more days passed…
The bread guy came home, carrying two large black bags.
“A friend of mine is starting a business recycling these.”
“So?”
The bread guy, sporting a new injury, casually placed the black bags next to Eun-ji, who was watching TV.
“You know him. The guy we met at the seafood restaurant.”
Eun-ji, seemingly remembering the man, her usual wariness slightly lessened, asked,
“But why do I have to do this?”
“He’s starting a new business, and he needs someone to remove the labels and crush these.”
“So? Why me?”
“He asked me to.”
“Then you do it.”
Eun-ji and the bread guy started arguing, a plastic bag filled with PET bottles between them.
“You said you were angry.”
“I am, but what does this have to do with anything?”
“Crush these.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“It’s ‘Are you kidding me?’ Use proper grammar.”
“Are you kidding me?”
He, who had been wiping a tray, chuckled at Eun-ji’s defiant, yet obedient, response.
Was this supposed to be considered obedient?
Eun-ji, even while rebelling, listened to his instructions.
The bread guy, also amused by her reaction, chuckled and then said,
“Before you ask if I’m kidding, just crush them.”
“This is ridiculous. Making me do such weird things.”
Grumbling, Eun-ji, following the bread guy, started removing labels and crushing the PET bottles.
“If you have the energy to pick fights and cause trouble outside, use that anger for something useful.”
“Stop nagging.”
Despite her grumbling, Eun-ji’s expression was focused as she removed the labels and lined up the clear PET bottles.
“There are many ways to release anger.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Although it was a disrespectful answer, the bread guy didn’t scold her.
Eun-ji, although she complained, seemed to enjoy the new way of releasing her anger, quietly continuing the task with the bread guy for several days.
Although it looked strange, was this Eun-ji’s way of dealing with her pent-up anger?
When the mountain of PET bottles was finally gone…
Eun-ji’s fiery temper had mellowed considerably.
The day they finished sorting the PET bottles…
The bread guy looked at them and quietly spoke,
“If you want to live like humans, not animals, no matter how hard it gets, you have to act like humans for the world to see you that way.”
Live like humans, not animals…
Some might find his words harsh, but to them, who had lived like animals for so long and were finally learning to live like humans, his words resonated deeply.
“I’m thinking of officially registering your names.”
“Our names?”
“Yes.”
The bread guy showed them his ‘resident registration card,’ which had his name, starting with ‘Lee,’ and his picture on it, and explained.
That day, they learned that they hadn’t officially existed in this world.
And that day…
The bread guy dropped another bombshell.
“I’m closing the shop.”
“Closing the shop? But this is your home! Where are you going?”
“Somewhere nice.”
“Are we going with you?”
“No. Come… as late as possible.”
Unlike Eun-ji, who didn’t understand the meaning of his words… he did.
But acknowledging it was a different matter.
“Eun-ho.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t be greedy for free things. Greed for free things is the same as coveting what belongs to others.”
“Yes.”
They continued their conversation, their hands busy gathering the crushed PET bottles into black bags.
“Everything you receive without giving anything in return can eventually consume you, not just what you have, but who you are.”
“Yes.”
“Eun-ho, you’re smart. Don’t lose what’s precious to you because of such things.”
“Yes.”
He kept quiet, figuring the bread guy had his reasons.
But Eun-ji, the oblivious one, stopped collecting bottles and asked,
“Is that your story?”
“…Yes. There was a boy who was greedy for free things.”
The bread guy, instead of getting angry, calmly told them a story, like an old tale.
It was the story of an orphan, a boy who left his family for money, lured by freebies, and then had nowhere to return to.
The boy, who had lived like an animal, met a nun and became human, and then helped other children who reminded him of his past self.
But the time given to him wasn’t long…
So the boy did what he could for the other children.
…That was the story.
Listening to the story, his chest tightened, his breath catching in his throat.
He couldn’t hold it in any longer.
“I… saw it in a… comic book…”
“…”
“They say as long as someone remembers you, you continue to live.”
The bread guy was silent for a moment.
His reply was calm, yet it sounded like he was holding back tears.
“That’s… beautiful.”
Just then, as he choked up, unable to continue, Eun-ji spoke,
“But, Mister, you’re so forgetful that you don’t even recognize me when I tie my hair up.”
“That’s…”
“I know. You’re sick, Mister.”
Eun-ji spoke bluntly, then turned to the bread guy.
“So…”
Eun-ji, holding the ends of her hair, spread it out like wings and smiled.
“I’ll always look like this, so you’ll recognize me.”