#083
Jung Hwi-kyung’s mother, Kim Ji-ae, was born with a fate that seemed to bring her misfortune at every turn.
You know those people, right? Those who fail at everything they do, and no matter how hard they try, their efforts are never recognized. Unfortunately, Ji-ae was one of them.
Born into a poor family, she studied until her nose bled, but her grades always remained average. She couldn’t get into her desired university and had to settle for one two tiers lower. Paying off student loans was even more difficult.
She struggled and finally got into a good company, but that job didn’t last long either. The problem was that she met and married a man from within the company. In the end, Ji-ae left the company almost as if she had been driven out.
Would it have been better if she had been blessed with good parents? As an only child, she couldn’t even imagine getting help from siblings, and she had to take turns with her mother caring for her bedridden father from an early age.
Naturally, the marriage that started in a daze wasn’t good either. All the good times during their dating period seemed like an illusion. Who would have known her husband would start having an affair as soon as she got pregnant? She only found out after giving birth and couldn’t easily divorce because she no longer had financial independence.
Nothing went according to Ji-ae’s intentions. Life was always her enemy. She went to church and even to Buddhist temples, but no matter how desperately she wished, no one granted her wishes.
“Hwi-kyung.”
Except for just one thing.
“Don’t die.”
She never knew what had granted that desperate wish.
Ji-ae sensed that even the fulfillment of her wish didn’t go as she intended. She must have mistakenly drawn in something strange in her attempt to save her son, who rarely showed signs of illness.
Otherwise, how could her son, who had been struggling to breathe due to a fever, die for a moment and then come back to life? Ji-ae quietly looked at young Hwi-kyung lying on the bed.
How many parents would wish for their only child to die? So her wish wasn’t really that extraordinary.
But even the most trivial wish could have different outcomes depending on who granted it and how. Five-year-old Jung Hwi-kyung died once and came back to life. His breathing had clearly stopped, but then it was as if his fever and vomiting had never happened.
Because time had reversed to just before Hwi-kyung got sick.
Ji-ae sensed that something had gone wrong. Hwi-kyung had been sick for two days and died on March 18th, but when she woke up the next day, it was March 16th. The son who had died was now walking around perfectly fine, as if he had never been ill.
How was this possible? It’s true that she had prayed aimlessly without a specific recipient, wishing for her child not to die, but this shouldn’t have happened.
My son died before my eyes, but when I begged him not to die, he came back to life… Time went back, you know? Ji-ae couldn’t share this bizarre phenomenon with anyone. If she said such things, she would surely be treated as a madwoman.
So after asking around, she went to see a Buddhist medium. She remembered a neighbor saying that Hwi-kyung’s near-death experience might have been due to spiritual illness.
At the time, she had dismissed it as nonsense, but after her child came back to life, she realized this was the only place she could turn to for answers.
The old woman who called herself a ‘shaman’ (Buddhist lay practitioner) despite not living in a temple, clicked her tongue as soon as she saw Ji-ae.
“Oh my, you made quite a mistake in making your wish.”
“…”
“You brought back something that should have died?”
What on earth had granted Ji-ae’s wish?
The shaman only explained that it was very dangerous. Like the monkey’s paw in the old fable, it grants the desperate wishes of people, but you never know what it will take in return.
She went on to say that even trivial wishes have a price, so bringing back someone who had died would be too much to handle.
Although Ji-ae couldn’t fully trust the shaman, she desperately confided about Hwi-kyung’s death and the time reversal. Fortunately or unfortunately, the shaman listened to her story quite seriously.
“The wish has already been granted, so you can’t avoid paying the price.”
“What kind of price do I have to pay?”
“Well, this is the first time I’ve seen a case like this in my entire life. You probably won’t be able to live with a sound mind.”
“Will my son be okay?”
“Hmm.”
No clear answer came from the shaman’s lips. It was impossible to gauge what price had to be paid for a life. To begin with, it was unclear why that strange entity had saved a child who was supposed to die.
“I’ll need to observe a bit more.”
“But…”
“There’s nothing visible right now. Come back if something else happens, but for now, you should go.”
“…”
“And if possible, it would be better to send the child to his grandmother before he becomes an adult.”
“Why?”
“If he stays with you, that child will keep dying. Because for your wish to be fulfilled, the child must keep dying…”
It was exactly as she said.
Hwi-kyung really did die often. He died from illness, from being hit by a car, from being found dead alone in his room after Ji-ae returned from work at the restaurant… And the next day, time would revert to before he died.
Ji-ae tried hard to maintain her sanity. She thought that since she had saved her son, she should take responsibility until the end. Due to her misguided wish, Hwi-kyung became unable to truly die. Ji-ae wanted to protect her son even if it meant overworking herself.
But ironically, Hwi-kyung kept dying endlessly when Ji-ae was by his side. For Ji-ae’s wish to be granted, Hwi-kyung inevitably had to die. Because the foundation of the wish “Don’t die” was based on a “situation where he would die.”
If that was all, it would have been fortunate. At some point, Ji-ae began to wait for Hwi-kyung’s death whenever situations turned bad. This happened more often when she had arguments with her husband over divorce issues, or when the restaurant owner made excuses to delay her pay.
If I commit murder, but only my son dies, I can go back in time… Anyway, if time is reversed, Hwi-kyung wouldn’t even realize he had died.
Then, couldn’t my child die for me once or twice?
When such thoughts unconsciously crossed her mind, Ji-ae visited the shaman again. She was unsure if these thoughts were right, and at the same time, she was afraid this might be the price of her wish.
“At this rate, you’ll die first. It’s time to send the child to his grandmother.”
“But he doesn’t die that often anymore. Since he became a middle school student, it’s only been about seven times…”
“I expected this. This is why I said you wouldn’t be able to live with a sound mind.”
“No, shaman. I’m really in my right mind now…”
“Right mind? You’ve clearly lost it.”
“…”
“You don’t even get surprised when he dies now, do you? At this rate, you’ll end up killing your own child just to turn back time a little.”
The shaman clicked her tongue, saying this is why she had warned about making a wrong wish. Ji-ae had a strong mentality due to her difficult life, but even that was bound to wear out after enduring so much.
The shaman didn’t really want to help Ji-ae. Although she felt sorry for her, what was behind her was too unsettling. It was better not to get involved with such things if possible.
But there was a limit to pretending not to know. The shaman realized as soon as she saw Hwi-kyung that he was entangled with her own grandson. It was clear that if something went wrong with Jung Hwi-kyung, Lee Gyo-ha wouldn’t be safe either.
If it were just about Gyo-ha, she might have dismissed it as bad luck with grandchildren, but the real problem lay in the ‘oath’ Gyo-ha had made. Seven-year-old Gyo-ha hadn’t just risked his own life when making an oath to Hwi-kyung. He had unknowingly staked everything he had. Family, clan, company… The situation was worse than cosigning a bad loan.
The shaman’s prediction that third son Lee Gyo-ha would cause fewer problems compared to second son Lee Sung-ha had been completely off the mark. The shaman felt overwhelmed. Was this a grandson or an enemy? She saw a future where the BK Group, which her son-in-law had painstakingly built up, could be completely ruined due to being entangled with this ‘oath’.
So the shaman willingly helped Ji-ae. She arranged for her to go overseas and took care of Hwi-kyung when he was in danger, even at her own expense. The shaman had no choice. How could she stand by when her family was facing ruin and her grandson was likely to end up worse than dead?
Thanks to the shaman’s efforts, Ji-ae managed to maintain her family until Hwi-kyung became a high school student. By that point, issues like her husband’s infidelity due to maintaining two households were no longer important to her.
Hwi-kyung thought Ji-ae didn’t care about him, but that was a misconception. Ji-ae really did care about Hwi-kyung. It’s just that having witnessed her child’s death dozens of times, she had become somewhat worn down.
A woman who goes back in time every time her son dies. She endured solely to fulfill her responsibility. It was a miracle that she hadn’t harmed Hwi-kyung despite her deteriorating mental state.
“There’s no need to get angry. I’ve won in this marriage.”
Before leaving, Ji-ae said her goodbyes to send Hwi-kyung to Ok-ja.
“Who could blame me for leaving you now? It’s all your father’s fault…”
By now, seeing her hurt son’s face wasn’t so difficult anymore. Who could blame me? I saved you… Ji-ae was truly insane by this point.
That’s why she was always eerily calm. That serene and cold face. The shadowed smile saying “I’m still sorry to you” while sitting in the dimly lit kitchen with one fluorescent light out. These things persistently followed Hwi-kyung throughout his long life.
After Ji-ae left, the shaman watched over Hwi-kyung in her stead. Nothing could be more troublesome than Hwi-kyung suddenly dying if left alone. The shaman had to help Hwi-kyung at least until her grandson fulfilled the ‘oath’ he had made with Hwi-kyung.
She said she was helping out of pity for Ji-ae, but it was all for the sake of BK Group and her grandson. The shaman reluctantly put in a long time and effort to protect Hwi-kyung. She had no choice but to follow Jung Hwi-kyung around, postponing even her son-in-law’s requests for help with business.
While the shaman couldn’t prevent everything – like Hwi-kyung facing injustice in the military, suffering in a black startup, or Ok-ja getting cancer and shaking the household – she did her best in her own way.
In fact, just sending Ji-ae overseas was a big help. It was tantamount to temporarily detaching the strange entity that was trying to collect its price and helping Ji-ae escape abroad. However, with Ji-ae’s departure, Hwi-kyung became endangered in a different way.
The entity that had granted Ji-ae’s wish began to lurk directly around Hwi-kyung.
