Chapter 8

Chapter 8

You’re Not Jin-myeong, Right?

A notice saying ‘SOLD OUT (ingredients exhausted)’ was stuck on the restaurant’s glass door.

“Really sorry!”

The parents who had been continuously bowing and apologizing toward the customers turning their steps entered the restaurant.

As if the tension had finally released, the mother plopped down on a nearby chair.

“Haa...!”

In her gaze raising her head with blank eyes, the scene of the hall that had become a mess entered.

Empty bowls, napkin pieces crumpled haphazardly, and even the jet-black chunjang stains splashed on the floor.

But strangely all this just felt like a dream.

And the mother who got up from the chair went in front of the counter.

“Ho, honey······”

The father who approached drawn by the mother’s voice also lost his words looking down at the cash box.

Though most were card payments, there were many customers who paid cash too.

In between, dollar bills foreigners had given as tips were also visible.

“Is this really... a dream or reality...”

The mother’s pupils trembled.

“In half a day······ and this much with only one jajangmyeon···.”

It was only a few days ago that she had even harbored the harsh thought that dying would be better because it was too hard.

But such a miraculous thing.

“Heu, heuk······.”

In the end the mother couldn’t hold back and burst into tears covering her face with both hands.

A cry mixed with relief and overwhelming emotion.

The father forcibly wiped his reddened eyes and silently patted his wife’s trembling bent shoulder.

“...”

After swallowing tears for a long while like that, the parents simultaneously turned their heads as if by agreement and looked toward the kitchen.

“...!”

“...!”

The person who created this miracle.

The son who had suffered the most was silently wiping the counter and cooking tools and finishing up.

Seeing that appearance, the mother was startled and entered the kitchen.

“Ji, Jin-myeong! Leave it, leave it! Mom and dad will do the cleaning, so you just go into the room and rest!”

The mother hurriedly approached and tried to snatch the cloth in Jin Myeong’s hand.

But Jin Myeong lightly twisted his body and continued the hand movements.

It was natural for a chef to do the kitchen cleanup.

“······.”

Jin Myeong silently wiping the cutting board like that.

Seeing that appearance, the mother’s expression became distant.

Had the son she thought was lacking become this reliable already.

Hot tears welled up again in the mother’s two eyes.

She slowly approached and carefully stretched both arms to tightly hug Jin Myeong’s back.

“······!”

Jin Myeong’s shoulder stiffened in surprise.

The unfamiliar yet affectionate warmth felt from behind the back.

“Jin-myeong······ our son. Today really, really you worked hard. Thank you······.”

The mother’s breath sobbing with her face buried in his back circled around Jin Myeong’s ear.

“...”

‘Is this the feeling. The warmth a parent gives···’

The warm emotion he who had to survive wandering as an orphan in the back alleys had never once felt.

At that time, the father whose eyes had also reddened silently walked into the kitchen.

“Dad must have been too indifferent until now. Not knowing you had such amazing talent, just trying to live holding you in my arms. Really admirable, our son.”

The father spread his large and rough two arms and tightly hugged his wife and Jin Myeong all at once.

The father’s solid and reliable embrace, and the mother’s body temperature fully leaning on him from behind.

“······.”

Jin Myeong lowered his wariness and stood still for a while trapped in the parents’ embrace.

*

Late evening.

In front of the firmly closed restaurant glass door.

Jin Myeong was leaning his body deeply into the plastic chair, quietly looking at the faintly flickering streetlight.

“...”

Speechless carriages running quickly on the road, the bizarre world where the whole world lived and breathed inside a palm-sized object.

Everything was different from the Central Plains he had devoted his whole life to.

Why on earth.

Why had he who died with his neck cut come to this world?

Moreover of all things he entered the body of a child with a similar name.

Whether it was simple coincidence or the heavens’ spiteful prank, there was no way to know.

It was around the time he was submerged in such deep thoughts.

Seuk.

One shadow that suddenly approached without a presence blocked Jin Myeong’s view.

“...?”

Jin Myeong’s brow who woke from thoughts slowly narrowed.

The appearance of the middle-aged man standing with the streetlight backlight was extremely bizarre.

A skinny build and tangled unkempt hair as if he hadn’t combed for months.

The man wearing an old and worn trench coat that didn’t match the season looked clearly of unsound mind just by looking.

Just when Jin Myeong was about to casually take his gaze thinking it was a madman roaming the neighborhood.

“...”

The unkempt-haired man suddenly began circling around Jin Myeong.

Soon the one who stopped stuck his face in.

“...?”

The two pupils that seemed focus loosely released yet strangely flashing were persistently scanning Jin Myeong in the darkness.

“You.”

A bizarre and cracked voice.

“You’re not Jin-myeong, right?”

“...!”

In an instant, without even time to be conscious of the empty dantian, Jin Myeong’s whole body muscles instinctively pulled taut.

Jin Myeong’s pupils that had always been indifferently sunk expanded minutely for a moment.

‘How...?’

He couldn’t know all what kind of behavior the original owner of this body usually showed, but at least the outer appearance was Lee Jin-myeong itself.

But this unidentified man had seen through at a glance that the core inside the shell was different.

Toward Jin Myeong who was silent while forcibly suppressing the surprise, the unkempt-haired man rolled up the corner of his mouth and smiled bizarrely.

“My eyes can’t be fooled. The shell is Jin-myeong, but what’s sitting inside is a different fellow.”

“...!”

“You’ve taken Jin-myeong’s body. Who are you.”

“...”

Jin Myeong furrowed his brow.

Did a master of strange martial arts who saw through illusion techniques or souls exist even in this world.

Jin Myeong reflexively drew up the qi of the dantian and became wary of the opponent.

But the internal energy wriggling along the meridians was insignificant.

The moment Jin Myeong roughly clicked his tongue inwardly from frustration and tightly clenched his fist.

The man patted his own chest and said.

“My name is Park Gi-bal. I have eyes that see the real reverse side of the world.”

“...?”

“In the world, huge gears that ordinary humans absolutely can’t understand are meshing and turning.”

If ordinary people heard it, it was unmistakably a madman’s nonsense, but to Jin Myeong who had actually reincarnated across dimensions, it didn’t just sound like empty talk.

“······.”

At that time Park Gi-bal raised the corner of his mouth with a strange look.

“You’re the same······.”

“...”

“The you from another world, or another dimension, drove out the original soul and crawled in boldly. How is it, am I wrong?”

Chillingly accurate insight.

A bizarre smile spread on the man’s mouth.

“Then let me ask just one thing. Where is the real Jin-myeong who was originally in this body? Did you eat him up? Or did you drive him to another dimension of the universe?”

“······.”

Jin Myeong kept his mouth firmly closed and gave no answer at all.

No, he couldn’t.

He himself had only opened his eyes and found himself in this body after dying with his neck cut, so there was no way to know what happened to the original Lee Jin-myeong’s soul.

When Jin Myeong consistently remained silent, the man suddenly tilted his head back and giggled bizarrely.

“Keuk keuk keuk! Seeing that you can’t answer, you don’t know either. Indeed··· that means this soul transfer didn’t happen by your will?”

The man stroked his chin and began asking and answering as if he had realized some tremendous truth.

“Interesting. Very interesting. If an invisible huge hand forcibly put you as a piece on this dimension’s chessboard······. The axis of space-time is shaking! Souls’ frequencies crossing and bodies swapping is a precursor symptom that those guys’ huge plan has started!”

The man again pointed into the air and poured out incomprehensible nonsense.

“You coming here is absolutely not coincidence! You’ve also been caught in the spiderweb those guys who hold and shake this world’s economy and order have set! We’re all just pieces on a huge chessboard!”

Just when the man who had been continuing gibberish like crazy with gleaming eyes was highly excited and trying to continue the story.

“What are you doing there again!”

A neighborhood uncle who was walking while dangling a black plastic bag from the alley entrance shouted.

“Hey, Park! Are you bothering Jin-myeong who’s just staying still again? The kid is kind so he stays still, and you’re always bullying him.”

At the uncle’s scolding, the unkempt Park jumped as if wronged.

“Bothering! I’m having a conversation now, conversation! A very important information exchange!”

“Information exchange my ass. You were probably spreading that weird conspiracy theory again. Something about secret forces dominating the world economy or whatever.”

“Conspiracy theory! That’s all truth! I can see it all with my eyes!”

Park jumped and protested, but the neighborhood uncle let out a hollow laugh as if absurd.

“Aigo, sure.”

At that sarcasm, Park Gi-bal who became frustrated as if his insides would burst turned to Jin Myeong and yelled.

“Ah, it’s real! This damn human! Jin-myeong, right now another world person has entered this kid’s body! The soul has changed!”

But the neighborhood uncle only clicked his tongue.

“Doing that again, again. Tsk, really. A perfectly fine man went bankrupt in business and somehow went crazy like that... tsk tsk. Jin-myeong, don’t listen to that uncle’s words and go in quickly.”

At the uncle’s attitude of dismissing it at once as a mental patient’s nonsense, Park’s face turned red and blue.

“Just watch! Am I wrong! Soon a very big thing will happen in this world, a big thing! The world economy will all flip!”

Toward Park who was backing away while screaming, the uncle dangled the plastic bag and giggled.

“Even now big things are happening all over. Just looking at the news there are full of incidents!”

“Ignorant fellow! Guys like you don’t know the world at all!”

“Come to your senses, don’t always read only weird things.”

“Shut up! What do you know!”

“Yeah, okay so don’t bother the kid and go quickly.”

“Chet! This place is full of guys who don’t understand words at all.”

In the end Park Gi-bal grumbled and disappeared into the dark alley.

“Ahyu really. Thought he died somewhere since he wasn’t seen for a while, but still lively.”

The uncle who had been muttering while looking at Park Gi-bal glanced at Jin Myeong.

“Go in quickly. Don’t catch a cold for no reason. Then uncle is going.”

He waved his hand at Jin Myeong like that and went his way.

The alley that had emptied in an instant.

“······.”

Jin Myeong, still sitting on the old chair, was staring at the end of the dark alley where the unkempt man had disappeared with a very strange gaze.

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