On the way to the market with Seung Joo on the weekend, my phone rang. It was a tip-off call after a long time.

“Yes, I’m the elder sister of the missing person. Where did you see them?”

The age seems similar, around early twenties, but listening to the description, the appearance is different. Eun Ho doesn’t have a large birthmark on his wrist and his earlobes aren’t uneven.

“I don’t think it’s my younger brother. But thank you for calling. I think it would be good to report it to the police.”

This isn’t the first or second time this has happened, but it’s still disheartening no matter how many times I experience it. As I hung up the phone and sighed, Seung Joo, who was walking beside me carrying a shopping basket, carefully asked.

“Did something happen?”

“Yeah. Someone said they saw a young man about Eun Ho’s age working like a servant at some house in the countryside. But it doesn’t seem to be him.”

Thanks to consistently handing out flyers and hanging banners, I occasionally get tips like this. However, not once has it ever been correct.

“I’ve been to islands, mountains, the sea, there’s nowhere I haven’t been. I’ve gone to check on people locked up in prayer houses so many times.”

“Are there still people like that in this day and age?”

Seung Joo asked as if newly realizing.

“15 years ago, they said there were people imprisoned in prayer houses, or women sold to islands working in coffee shops, so I searched a lot in those places too. But is it still like that now?”

“Of course. Even in today’s world, all sorts of things happen.”

“I see…”

“Even normal people are locked up, you know?”

Eun Seo suddenly brought up a story she remembered.

“I’ve even secretly freed someone before.”

Two years ago, or was it, I received a tip by phone. Someone said they saw a person locked up inside while delivering goods to a prayer house. They said they caught a glimpse and it looked like a young man.

Eun Seo knew from experience that the police are of no help in these situations. The police wouldn’t be able to enter without a search warrant, and they wouldn’t even try to get a search warrant without definitive evidence that her brother was there.

So Eun Seo, as she had done several times before, infiltrated the prayer house disguised as a resident. At night, she snuck out of bed and went to the innermost part of the prayer house, where she found someone actually imprisoned behind bars like a jail cell, bound in shackles.

Fortunately, the key was hanging outside the cell, so she took it and went in, only to find that the sleeping person wasn’t Eun Ho, but some woman. It seems they had mistaken her for a man because her hair was cut short and she was so thin. What’s more, she wasn’t even young, which was frustrating. At that time, Eun Ho was nineteen, but to mistake him for a woman who looked at least 50 years old.

Sighing, she turned to leave, when suddenly the woman she thought was sleeping grabbed her clothes. Startled, she tried to shake her off, but the woman was so strong she couldn’t move an inch.

[Young lady, please free me. I’m not crazy.]

Though she looked skeletal as if she hadn’t eaten properly, her eyes shone frighteningly bright.

Even in her surprise and fear, Eun Seo was reminded of her late mother.

Eyes filled with long-held resentment.

The eyes of someone who had something they absolutely had to do.

After losing Eun Ho, her mother had exactly these eyes.

[I need to get out of here. I have something I must do when I get out.]

Though it seemed tinged with madness, they were certainly not the eyes of a crazy person.

Even if she was crazy, it’s illegal to imprison someone who wants to leave. And with shackles on her feet, no less.

In the end, Eun Seo gathered her courage. Luckily, the key to the shackles was with the cell key, so she was able to free her.

[Can you walk? Hold onto my arm.]

Who knows how long she had been imprisoned, the woman could barely walk. As she supported the woman who could hardly keep her balance and escaped from the prayer house, even Eun Seo, who had become numb to most things, was terribly scared. It felt like at any moment someone would come chasing after them and grab them by the scruff of the neck.

Anyway, she managed to escape safely and take her to the bus terminal.

“So what happened after that?”

“I don’t know after that. I went straight up to Seoul, and she said she was going down to the southern region, so I bought her a ticket and we parted at the terminal.”

Eun Seo shuddered. She had been to many places following her mother since childhood, but that was truly a place she never wanted to visit again.

“Why did you do something so dangerous instead of just calling the police?”

“Even if you call the police, they can’t really do much. I don’t know if they won’t do it or can’t do it.”

Until now, she had been to all sorts of places looking for Eun Ho. Pseudo-religious facilities, prayer houses, temples, and so on. She learned that police power is surprisingly weak. Even if you know for sure that someone is locked up inside and go with the police asking to be shown, if they don’t let you in, there’s nothing you can do.

“Watch something like ‘I’ll Let You Know’ when you have time. Can you believe the police can’t do anything even when they know someone is locked up inside? Only when it makes a huge fuss on broadcast do they finally take action.”

“Is ‘I’ll Let You Know’ still on air?”

Seung Joo asked in surprise.

“Of course. ‘But you see.'”

She showed her palms and delivered her best impersonation, but Seung Joo looked like he didn’t know what it was.

“You don’t know this?”

“I don’t.”

“Who’s the MC you remember?”

Realizing they remembered different hosts, Eun Seo thought anew. So this is where the generation gap shows.

While talking and losing track of time, they arrived at the market.

Today too, Seung Joo was explosively popular with the market ladies. Now used to being called “husband”, Eun Seo even took advantage of it sometimes.

“It’s too expensive. My husband really loves this.”

When she said that, the ladies would send them off with it even if they had to give it at half price.

On the way out of the market, Seung Joo said curiously.

“But why do the ladies keep giving us things?”

His pronunciation was off as he spoke with a fish cake in his mouth that the fish cake lady had put there. Eun Seo chuckled and answered.

“They like you because you’re handsome.”

“…Me?”

Seung Joo pointed at his own face with a truly surprised look, which surprised Eun Seo even more.

“Don’t you look in the mirror?”

“I used to hear I was handsome and all… But now I’m just an aging sir, aren’t I?”

He said dejectedly.

Well, to an eighteen-year-old, thirty-three might well look like nothing but a sir. But to say “just an aging sir” with that face.

About to correct his misunderstanding, Eun Seo stopped herself. It might be fun to just let him think that way.

“Let’s go home, sir!”

Chuckling, she headed home with the heavier shopping basket, when suddenly Seung Joo stopped walking.

“Oh, Min Seok?”

Wondering what was happening, she saw Seung Joo calling out to a passing person.

“It’s me, Kwon Seung Joo from Class 1, Year 2! You still live in this neighborhood?”

To twenty-seven-year-old Eun Seo, he looked every bit a sir, but judging by Seung Joo’s attitude, it seemed to be a friend. Now she understood why Seung Joo had called himself a sir earlier.

“What brings you here?”

Seung Joo’s face brightened with joy, but the other person seemed somewhat disgruntled.

“It’s so good to see you, Min Seok. Remember how we used to skip night study and go to the PC room to play StarCraft?”

“Oh, yeah, we did.”

“I was Terran, you were Protoss. Don’t you remember?”

“Hey, aren’t you being a bit shameless?”

Suddenly, the man called a friend snapped sharply.

“When a friend begged you so earnestly to help him get a job at your company, you ignored it, and now you’re pretending to be glad to see me, it’s disgusting.”

Seeing his friend speak as if spitting the words, Seung Joo’s face hardened.

“Thanks to you, I learned well that there’s not a single person in this world you can trust, and now I’m running my own shop.”

“…”

“It wasn’t nice meeting you, and let’s never see each other again.”

Ugh, what bad luck. The friend even spat and turned away.

“Seems you’re utterly incompetent.”

Eun Seo’s voice flew and pierced his back, making Seung Joo’s friend flinch and turn around.

“What?”

Seeing the friend approach with a fierce face, Seung Joo reflexively stepped in front of Eun Seo to block him. But Eun Seo pushed Seung Joo aside and stared straight at the other person.

“How incompetent must you be to ask a friend for a job? Don’t you think about trying hard yourself?”

“…”

“Don’t you know that in today’s world, agreeing to such things could lead to big trouble?”

The other’s face turned bright red at the words of a woman who looked much younger than him.

“Who are you to talk like that?”

“Me? I’m someone who got into that company you tried to get into through proper channels, fair and square.”

Proudly retorting, Eun Seo pulled on Seung Joo’s arm, who had been standing frozen and pale until now.

“Let’s go, CEO!”

Walking silently towards home, Seung Joo suddenly spoke.

“…What kind of person was I?”

It was a very sad-looking face.

“Min Seok wasn’t a bad kid. We were really close too. For such a friend to treat me like that… I must have been a really bad person.”

Eun Seo stopped walking. She spoke firmly to the face that looked so sad.

“It’s not your fault.”

“…”

“I don’t know how it was 15 years ago, but that’s not how the world is now. Even if you’re a CEO or an executive, if you accept requests and help people get jobs, you could get into big trouble.”

Eun Seo tried to console him, but Seung Joo’s expression still wouldn’t brighten.

“You hated me too, elder sister. You said if I knew what kind of person I was, I’d want to die…”

“No.”

Wishing she could go back in time and stop her own mouth, Eun Seo shook her head.

“I just spoke without really knowing about you.”

It wasn’t just words of comfort; Eun Seo truly thought so.

“It’s just that you seemed cold because your shoulders were heavy from doing important work. You’re the one who revived a company that was on the brink of collapse, aren’t you? How could you have saved the company like this now if you had worked carelessly and pleasantly?”

Eun Seo spoke each word with emphasis. Hoping these words would reach Seung Joo’s heart.

“It’s just that I didn’t know, you definitely weren’t a bad person.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I can tell by looking at you in front of my eyes now. A person’s true nature doesn’t change.”

Only then did Seung Joo’s face soften a little.

“…I hope that’s true.”

*

“I’m off, take care of the house!”

After Eun Seo left for work, Seung Joo once again immersed himself in studying.

By now, he had a general grasp of the company’s situation.

Originally, Daewon Construction was quite a significant subsidiary within the group. However, about ten years ago, winning a large-scale construction project in the Middle East became the beginning of its downfall. Unfortunately, around that time, ISIS began to dominate the area near the site, causing endless delays in construction and enormous losses.

To make matters worse, issues of substandard construction by subcontractors came to light, and Daewon Construction recorded massive deficits. It was to an extent that even the headquarters found difficult to handle.

In the end, when they were considering withdrawing from the business, leaving only the management department, he came as an executive and miraculously secured a consortium with Daehan Construction and attracted external investment, reviving the company.

Knowing this, he saw the man on the screen differently.

‘You’ve been through a lot too.’

Muttering that to himself, Seung Joo got up and changed into the suit Eun Seo had bought him. Then he sat back down at the desk and took out the paper he had prepared in advance.

− Resume