Chapter 105
Father had spent half of his life with the Taeryeong Group. Hyeon-woo felt uneasy with guilt, as if his father’s lifelong work was being entirely negated because of him.
After driving on the empty highway for a while, they soon reached their destination. They parked the car in a corner of the dark pier and got out. The salty sea breeze brushed against their cheeks. Hyeon-woo stared blankly at the pitch-black horizon stained with moonlight, letting the wind wash over him.
Splash, splash.
Listening to the waves breaking under the yellow moonlight, he felt like the cherished sensations of that summer day, tucked away in a corner of his heart, might surge up on their own.
He had once thought it would be nice to be able to bookmark the precious moments of life, to easily open those memories anytime.
The memory of sipping canned beer while listening to the waves breaking into white foam, letting the pleasant sea breeze ruffle his hair under a night sky as dark as ebony, spread with a white Milky Way.
The bookmark placed in that memory was trying to open its pages on its own.
No.
I shouldn’t recall it.
Trying hard to think of something else, he followed his father into a store that rented fishing gear. His father approached and kindly explained the use of unfamiliar fishing equipment.
Listening to his father’s gentle voice, forgotten memories started to rise like smoke. Memories of happily assembling toys with his father in the living room, catching marsh snails with his family in the valley, excitedly leading his parents by the hand at an amusement park. These were all from the distant past before meeting Tae-geon, but there was a time when the whole family was this harmonious.
They climbed onto the rocky shore after leaving the store. Following his father, Hyeon-woo baited the hook and cast the fishing rod. However, even after a long time, there was no sign of a bite. Meanwhile, his father had already caught his second fish.
As Hyeon-woo stared blankly at the empty bucket, his father poured warm barley tea from a thermos and handed it to him.
“Hyeon-woo, do you know what the charm of night fishing is?”
Sipping the barley tea in his hand, he shook his head. He couldn’t understand what charm there could be in just staring at a motionless float in the pitch darkness.
“During the day, predators hide in deep waters, but when it gets dark, they start hunting freely. So they fearlessly bite the bait, and you can catch big ones one after another. That’s why night fishing is called real fishing.”
His father took the fishing rod from Hyeon-woo’s hand and cast the bait into the shallow waters of the rocky shore as he continued speaking.
“But these predators can only hunt when they can see their prey.”
Hyeon-woo’s eyes, which had been blankly staring at the float on his father’s fishing rod, suddenly widened. The float that hadn’t moved at all when he was holding it started to bob up and down as if by magic.
“Darkness is advantageous for predators to hide, but it’s also that much harder to identify prey. In the end, they have to gather in bright areas to hunt. Being able to enjoy fishing like this, on the edge of the water surface stained with moonlight, is the charm of night fishing.”
At that moment, the bobbing float suddenly sank. As the fishing rod bent sharply, his father quickly reeled in and pulled the rod. Even just watching, Hyeon-woo could feel the heavy mass through the taut fishing line that seemed about to snap.
Splash!
Finally, a fish as big as a forearm burst out of the water surface. His father firmly grasped the flapping fish to prevent it from escaping, removed the fishing hook, and placed it in Hyeon-woo’s empty bucket.
“I’ve only caught a few this big myself.”
Does that mean he’s caught one or two before? At those words that only a fishing enthusiast could say, Hyeon-woo asked his father,
“Dad, do you like fishing?”
“Of course, I do.”
It was the first time he knew this fact.
“I knew you liked golf, but…”
“Actually, I don’t like golf that much.”
He had never seen his father’s fishing gear at home. Because there were only golf clubs and golf equipment, he had vaguely believed that golf was his father’s hobby. Hyeon-woo suddenly realized that he knew too little about his parents.
It was a line he had drawn himself. Caught between his mother who disapproved of his association with Tae-geon, and his father who told him to be friends with Tae-geon despite numerous conflicts with his mother, Hyeon-woo was gripped by guilt as if he had become the seed of family discord.
As time passed, the distance from his parents deepened. For over a decade, he had lived wearing the mask of a good son who didn’t cause trouble, locking away his true feelings and being sparing with his words.
“…I see. I didn’t know.”
“I never talked about it.”
“Let’s come together often from now on.”
Surprise was evident in his father’s eyes at those words.
“Just don’t scold me if I don’t catch anything.”
“How could I do that?”
His father’s expression finally softened at the added joke.
“Hyeon-woo.”
“Yes?”
“Actually, there’s one more charm to night fishing.”
“What is it?”
As Hyeon-woo was about to turn his gaze back to the float on the water surface, his father pointed a finger towards the vast horizon. Hyeon-woo shifted his gaze there.
The red glow he had glimpsed when they started fishing had now changed to a vermilion color, spreading widely across the sky and pushing the darkness far away. Soon, a bright sun like a burning flame began to peek out from beyond the horizon.
At that moment, everyone around who had been focused on fishing unanimously raised their heads, mesmerized by the overwhelming spectacle created by nature.
“They say the darkest time of the day is right before sunrise. But when you watch the sun rise yourself, you realize that’s not true.”
“……”
“Even right before the sun rises, the surroundings are already bright and warm enough.”
“……”
“Hyeon-woo.”
At his father’s voice calling his name with a serious expression, Hyeon-woo shifted his gaze from the horizon to meet his father’s eyes.
“Your greedy and foolish father almost lost something precious that had been illuminating my life for a long time, living only for the moment of sunrise.”
“……”
“I realized this fact too late. Thank you for coming back like this, for making my life shine again, when my life might have been nothing but pitch darkness.”
Hyeon-woo’s heart ached at his father’s face, confessing sincere words towards him. Night fishing was just an excuse; he must have brought him here because he wanted to say this.
He had personally experienced that one’s mere existence could be a light that brightens someone’s life. The baby he had once carried in his womb was such an existence for him, and further in the past, Tae-geon had been that. He had vowed never to hold that light in his heart again after it had left only scars and extinguished, but like a fool, he only now realized that he was already such an existence for his parents.
He felt something hot and moist spreading into his barren and dry heart, where he thought he had let go of everything. Hyeon-woo’s eyes burned as he faced his father’s reddened eyes.
The fully revealed red sun was dyeing the silhouettes of the two people in orange.
*
He visited a dermatologist to start belated treatment for the self-inflicted wounds left all over his body. From the day his father’s sincerity had warmed his heart, Hyeon-woo stopped neglecting himself. He couldn’t make the precious existence that had illuminated his father’s life any more shabby. He wanted to live as a shining person who brightens the lives of his loved ones from now on.
