Siblings Work in Business (39)
Lee Eun-ho walked endlessly, carrying me on his back, passing by the sparsely lit streetlights.
He kept checking our direction, as if determined to avoid going anywhere near that house.
After walking for a long time, Lee Eun-ho found a playground with a tunnel slide.
He struggled to climb the slide with me on his back, and only after checking several times that it was safe did he finally sit down.
I then noticed that my leg was swollen, almost as big as my head.
“Why did you trust and follow a stranger! You idiot!”
Lee Eun-ho, after hearing how I ended up with the ajumma, yelled at me.
“Oppaaaaa…”
I buried my face in Lee Eun-ho’s narrow shoulders and cried.
Hearing Oppa’s angry voice, I finally realized, ‘Ah, I almost died.’
But I was alive.
I had escaped.
It slowly sank in.
Lee Eun-ho just hugged me and patted my back without saying a word.
Thinking back, I think he was crying too.
Because my back was cold and wet, as if drenched in rain, that day.
“Sniff, Oppa, how did you find me?”
“I was searching the whole neighborhood when I overheard the ajumma talking to a man.”
“Was she talking about me?”
“No. She was saying something like, ‘I caught a little kid,’ and I had a feeling it was you.”
“Hehe. It was a gamble.”
“You’re laughing? I should just…”
“Hehe…”
Lee Eun-ho said he hadn’t slept while searching for me.
He searched the entire neighborhood.
And when he couldn’t find me, he went to the next neighborhood, and then the next.
The soles of his shoes, which he had found a week ago, saying they looked brand new, were completely worn out.
It was clear he had been running around.
“Oppa, your feet…”
“Ah.”
Lee Eun-ho’s feet, after he took off his shoes, were covered in blisters.
His hands, perhaps injured while trying to open the door, were swollen like my leg, covered in dried blood.
“Does it hurt?”
“Not really.”
It didn’t look like a “not really” kind of injury.
He was sweating cold sweat, just like me.
“…Why didn’t you call the police? Let’s go to the police station now. They’re bad people.”
Lee Eun-ho always told me to go to the police if something bad happened to me.
So why didn’t he do that?
I asked out of curiosity, and Lee Eun-ho’s expression darkened.
“Of course, I went to the police station.”
“Did the officers bring you to where I was?”
“No.”
Maybe it was the neighborhood’s fault.
Or maybe we were just unlucky with the people we met.
“They kicked me out. They said I was dirty.”
One thing was clear.
Lee Eun-ho’s eyes, as he said that… were devoid of hope, unlike a child’s eyes.
Same day, Same time
Same day, other crime
On the dawn road I had to step on
The dawn road I had to walk
Same day, same time.
Same day, different crime.
The week I searched for Lee Eun-ji.
The despair and hope I experienced during that time changed my life’s motto.
‘Even if they ignore and neglect us usually, they’ll protect us in dangerous situations, right?’
That’s what I thought about adults back then.
But reality was different.
“Um…”
I was showered with curses just for uttering a single word.
It was a curse I was used to hearing, but perhaps because Lee Eun-ji wasn’t there…
I became a helpless child.
The day I found Lee Eun-ji…
The invisible wounds in my heart hurt more than my swollen hands.
That foolish us back then
Only rough, young breaths and worthless values remain
Same day, Same time
The physical wounds were fine.
But they were limited to my body, not Lee Eun-ji’s ankle.
I couldn’t go to the hospital because of the memory of being kicked out of the police station.
I hoped Lee Eun-ji, who was still young, wouldn’t experience that.
So I went to the pharmacy instead.
To buy medicine with all the money I had.
Before entering, I even dusted off my clothes and hair, afraid of being kicked out again.
“Here, this is for swelling, and this is a pain relief patch.”
I remember taking the bag from underneath, feeling sorry for my dirty appearance, as the pharmacist’s trembling hand tried not to touch mine.
Only dreamt of prime, lacked cash
Still holding onto the same wish
Perhaps because of that experience…
I always kept my guard up, even after becoming an adult.
At the same time, paradoxically, I wanted attention from people.
The pretty and handsome faces on TV.
Nice clothes, cheers and applause, people offering help immediately when asked.
That’s why I dreamt of becoming an idol.
I was told I was a decent singer.
And even if I wasn’t, Lee Eun-ji was a genius at making music.
But geniuses were more common than I thought, and I wasn’t one.
—Doesn’t everyone have thoughts like that?
—Like when you’re a kid, you imagine a monster behind a closed door, or as an adult, small but significant anxieties like, ‘Did I turn off the gas?’
During the music video concept meeting with Dark Ocean Production…
Eun-ji and the CEO had prepared a concept video.
Eun-ji said in the narration,
—I will continue to write songs with all my emotions and stories.
—So, for the first single, I tried to capture the anxiety of my brother, Lee Eun-ho, the person closest to me.
—Lee Eun-ho and I are family and the closest to each other, but we also don’t understand each other at all.
Before the regression, I desperately tried to surpass Lee Eun-ji, who had reached the top from the same starting point.
But after Lee Eun-ji passed away…
After being tormented by her hallucinations for almost a year, I was sick of the “who’s better” debate.
So now, having returned to the past, I was just enjoying the situation.
Making Lee Eun-ji’s wish, which she had only written in her diary, of performing together on stage, a reality.
Same day, Same time
Same day, Same Dream
On the dawn road I had to step on
The dawn road I had to walk
Lee Eun-ho, 12 years old.
Lee Eun-ji, 10 years old.
Back then, when we were just kids…
We walked and walked that day, our eyes swollen.
As we walked, the familiar neighborhood didn’t appear.
After a long time, we finally checked the map at an unfamiliar bus stop.
And we realized we were going in the wrong direction.
“Let’s move, Lee Eun-ji.”
Lee Eun-ho suddenly said with a smile, his eyes swollen.
There was nothing to tie us down, since we had nothing.
Having nothing meant we could go anywhere.
I clung tightly to Lee Eun-ho’s back as he carried me.
So I wouldn’t lose him again.
So I wouldn’t let go.
Good night
So we can meet again tomorrow with a smile
It was a phrase I thought I’d never hear again.
But I’m hearing it again like this.
“Let’s see each other with a smile tomorrow. Sleep well, Lee Eun-ji.”
Although it only lasted for a week, after that day…
Lee Eun-ho said that to me every night before I went to sleep.
It had become an embarrassingly cheesy phrase…
Good night
As Bae Jin-soo clapped in admiration, watching Eun-ho flawlessly sing the entire track…
Eun-ji jumped up from the sofa and waited for Eun-ho to come out of the recording booth.
“Hey, you rockfish head!”
“Why are you yelling as soon as I come out…”
The moment Eun-ho stepped out…
Eun-ji grabbed him by the collar and yelled,
“You’re a damn good lyricist!”
“What? What… ah, hahaha.”
Eun-ho, about to retort, asked back in surprise.
But he quickly burst out laughing, understanding the situation as he saw Eun-ji’s teary, swollen eyes.
The atmosphere outside the booth was strange.
Lee Eun-ji was grumbling with swollen eyes, the composer was clapping silently…
And Hyun-woo, sitting in a corner of the studio, seemed confused.
The camera CEO Park gave to Hyun-woo was still recording everything.
After Eun-ho and Eun-ji left the studio…
CEO Park, visiting the studio late in the evening, listened to the guide track Bae Jin-soo was working on.
“Eun-ho wrote these lyrics?”
“It took him less than an hour.”
“This?”
Bae Jin-soo nodded as he set the dinner CEO Park ordered on the table.
“He even decided how to sing it.”
“Eun-ho? Not Eun-ji?”
“Yes, this is what he recorded right after writing the lyrics.”
CEO Park looked stunned.
In disbelief, he replayed the recorded guide several times.
“This was recorded in one take…?”
“Siblings are siblings. Unlike Eun-ji, he has an extraordinary natural talent.”
The first time, he listened to get a feel for the song.
The second time, to see if it fit the next album they were preparing.
The third time, simply because he couldn’t believe it.
CEO Park tapped his fingers on the table, ignoring the cooling fried rice.
“This…”
CEO Park quietly spoke, and Bae Jin-soo, about to take a sip of the jjampong broth, stopped.
“I’ll have to think about the title track, but it’s perfect as a B-side.”
“Really?”
“It fits the theme of this single.”
“So you’re saying it’s a done deal?”
“Yeah.”
Bae Jin-soo smiled, finally taking a sip of the broth.
“How’s the single preparation going?”
“Filming starts the day after tomorrow. We’re short on time, so we have to hurry.”
“Who are you working with?”
“Dark Ocean.”
CEO Park continued, and Bae Jin-soo, who had been eating jjajangmyeon, put down his chopsticks and asked again,
“D-Dark Ocean?”
“Yes.”
“You’re really serious about these kids.”
“I brought them here, so I have to make sure they shine.”
Concept Video
Ding—
Ding—
Joo-yeon’s phone, which she was working on, vibrated repeatedly.
“Who is it? Who set an alarm during work hours?”
“Sorry!”
Just as Joo-yeon was about to turn off the alarm…
She stopped as she saw the notification.
“Holy shit!”
The moment she saw the notification…
Joo-yeon screamed, forgetting that she was at work.
“Joo-yeon!”
“Sorry!”
Despite her boss’s scolding, she trembled, unable to calm down.
She was sorry, but!
It was the video title on the notification that triggered her instincts more than her boss’s scolding.
[E-UNG – DUO Concept Video.]
Guys can we stop cutting onions?