CH2 | MCT

100,000 Won (1)

Even after stepping out of the shaman’s house, Tae-soo remained dazed for a long time.

His mind was in complete chaos.

‘Where the hell am I? Why am I dressed like this? And what was up with that shaman’s house?’

He couldn't tell if this was a dream or reality.

‘So the afterlife feels just as real as the living world, huh?’

Then again, this was his first time experiencing death.

It was strangely fascinating.

Someone suddenly slung an arm around his shoulder.

“Tae-soo, you don’t look so good. Is it because of what the shaman said?”

“…Hol-jjook.”

We had always called him that because he was so damn skinny.

A childhood friend who had seen everything—both the good and the ugly.

A guy who loved drinking, loved people, and had a heart bigger than most.

Seeing him again, grinning just like old times, filled Tae-soo with warmth.

‘Has it been twenty years? Thirty? After he died, I threw myself into work to fill the emptiness.’

But now that he was here again, Tae-soo’s chest ached.

Han Il-kwon’s voice echoed in his mind—accusing him of being the reason Hol-jjook had died.

“I’m sorry, Hol-jjook.”

“The hell’s gotten into you?”

“I took you for granted. Always thought you’d be by my side.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The hole you left was too big. After you died, I quit drinking. Couldn’t even look at alcohol without thinking of you.”

Smack!

Hol-jjook smacked him hard on the head.

For someone as easygoing as him, this was a rare show of anger.

But it wasn’t Tae-soo’s sentimental words that set him off—it was the mention of quitting alcohol.

“The hell did you just say? You quit drinking? Holy shit, you really lost your mind.”

“…Still, thanks. For coming to find me, even in the afterlife…”

“The afterlife, my ass.”

Smack!

Hol-jjook smacked Tae-soo on the head again.

His eyes were filled with confusion, disbelief, and sheer exasperation.

Then, he leaned in close and sniffed.

Immediately, he recoiled, pinching his nose.

“Damn! That stench! Ugh, it’s awful.”

“…Smell?”

Tae-soo instinctively took a whiff.

And then it hit him.

An absolutely foul odor.

The complete opposite of the scent of money.

This smell was unmistakable—

“The stench of poverty…”

He looked down at his clothes.

Worn-out. Filthy.

His socks were full of holes, and he was wearing rubber shoes.

Checking his pockets, he found only 400 won.

“No wonder I reek of being broke.”

Smack!

Another sharp slap to the back of his head.

“What the hell are you babbling about? You stink because you drank all night!”

“…Drank? Me?”

Hol-jjook clicked his tongue, looking at him like he was hopeless.

“Unbelievable. You had the good stuff, and now you’re spouting nonsense? I’m embarrassed for you. You’re a disgrace to drinkers everywhere.”

Tae-soo was dumbfounded.

Before dying, he had been in the VIP room of Cheongil Hospital. What drinking?

Could it be…

“Did someone pour alcohol over my grave? Is that how—”

Smack!

“You’ve been going on about the afterlife this, the afterlife that. Do you want me to personally send you there?”

“Hol-jjook.”

“Don’t look at me like that. You’re making my stomach turn.”

“You haven’t changed at all, even after death.”

“You know what? Let’s just go with beating you to death. That’s the quickest solution.”

Smack.

“Yeah, go ahead. I deserve it. I really am sorry, Hol-jjook.”

“…”

Hol-jjook lowered his fist, which had been raised playfully.

Instead, his eyes filled with concern as he looked at Tae-soo.

“This isn’t good. Let’s sit in the shade for a bit. You’re acting really weird today.”

Hol-jjook dragged Tae-soo over and forced him to sit down under a shady spot.

Then, he went into a small neighborhood shop and came back with a bottle of milk.

“Here. Drink this and sober up.”

“It’s been a while since I had milk in a bottle.”

“What else would it come in? A teapot?”

Tae-soo looked around.

It was nothing like the bustling streets of Seoul in 2020.

Dusty roads, scattered rice fields, and thatched-roof houses. Old-fashioned cars and buses occasionally passing by.

Even the clothes people wore looked outdated, and the single-story shops lining the streets were shabby.

It was exactly as he remembered—his childhood in poverty.

“Everything’s just the way it was.”

As he took it all in, memories started to return.

When he was young, he and Hol-jjook had once drunkenly stumbled upon a famous fortune-teller.

Life had felt so hopeless back then.

And that fortune-teller had told him the exact same thing—go into the business of working with soil.

“That must’ve been… around July, right? It was scorching hot.”

Tae-soo mumbled, lost in thought.

Hol-jjook, who had been sipping his milk, casually replied,

“Today? It’s July 17.”

“…Wait. 1972?”

“Of course it’s 1972. What, you think it’s 1982 or something? What’s wrong with you?”

Tae-soo felt like he had just been hit over the head with a hammer.

He couldn’t even remember today’s date properly.

Even if this really was the afterlife, why would he be shown this specific day?

It wasn’t some particularly significant moment.

Unless…

Had he really… gone back in time?

That couldn’t be possible.

“This is insane.”

Tae-soo was left floundering in complete mental chaos.

One thing was certain—this wasn’t the afterlife.

“This is too vivid to be a dream, but too impossible to be real.”

It felt like he had been possessed by a ghost.

“Monday, July 17, 1972.”

Tae-soo couldn’t believe it.

But no matter how many times he asked people, the answer was always the same.

In the end, he had no choice but to accept it.

“I’ve really… gone back to the past.”

How could something like this happen?

Could it be that God had given him another chance?

A chance to get revenge on Han Il-kwon’s family?

There was no other explanation.

As he walked, a familiar sight came into view—a small shack.

“My house.”

The tiny shack in the hillside slum where he had lived with his family before it was torn down.

Seeing it exactly as he remembered made his chest tighten with emotion.

‘When was it that they demolished this place and built apartments instead? That’s when we ended up on the streets.’

That was where the misery had begun.

‘After that, we moved from one rental to another, and the loan sharks started harassing us. We had to flee in the middle of the night more times than I can count.’

No matter how much they earned, the debt only kept growing like a snowball.

They paid and paid, but it never ended.

In the end, his father was dragged away by the loan sharks.

Not long after, they found his body in the hills.

‘I have to stop it! This time, I won’t let my father die like that.’

At that moment, the front door swung open.

It was his mother.

For the first time in 40 years, Tae-soo saw his mother again.

“Tae-soo? What are you doing here at this hour?”

“…Mother!”

Tae-soo ran forward and embraced his mother tightly.

A familiar scent surrounded him—the warm, comforting smell that had always made him feel at home.

“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

“I’m sorry, Mother. I’ve been so useless… All I ever did was make you suffer… I never even got the chance to give you a good life.”

Pat, pat.

His mother looked bewildered at first.

But soon, as if sensing something, she gently patted his back.

Tae-soo swallowed the lump rising in his throat.

‘This time… I’ll protect you. I’ll make sure you live in comfort.’

He clenched his fists, determination burning inside him.

Sensing that Tae-soo had calmed down, his mother quickly spoke.

“Tae-soo, this isn’t the time for this! What are we going to do? We’re about to be thrown out onto the streets!”

“The demolition is happening already? I thought we had more time.”

“They said we have to move out within two weeks. But your father… He lent all of our compensation money to his friend.”

The memories came flooding back.

That was how his father had gotten entangled in loan sharks.

Because he had co-signed a loan for a friend.

That friend ran away in the middle of the night, and the debt was dumped entirely on his father.

‘Oh Chun-sik.’

That name was impossible to forget.

He was the bastard who shoved their family into the jaws of loan sharks while living a life of luxury with his own family.

‘The one who should’ve been dragged away by those loan sharks… was him.’

There was a promissory note between his father and Oh Chun-sik.

The very document that had bound them to ruin.

‘Yeah… That promissory note was the beginning of everything.’

A single piece of paper with his father’s red fingerprint and the words joint liability stamped all over it.

In his past life, he hadn’t even gotten a proper look at it before the loan sharks took it away.

He needed to find it.

“Mother, do you know where Father’s promissory note is?”

“The promissory note?”

“There must be something he got in return for lending the money.”

“Oh! That.”

His mother reached into her clothing and pulled something out.

Tae-soo snatched it from her hands and quickly scanned the contents.

“The entire demolition compensation… He lent it all to a friend.”

The amount written on the document—

“100,000 won.”

Even if the cost of living in the 1970s was roughly 1/30th of what it was in 2020, 100,000 won was still equivalent to a company worker’s one or two months' salary.

For a home being demolished, the compensation was absurdly low.

But considering it was an unauthorized shantytown house, even that was a blessing.

“He’s been your father’s friend for 40 years. He said he was buying a mine and had taken out bank loans, pooled money from mutual savings groups, and even borrowed from loan sharks.”

“I see… Hm?”

As Tae-soo read through the promissory note, his eyes narrowed.

"In exchange for collecting the principal and interest, Kang Cheol-soo agrees to assume joint liability for Oh Chun-sik’s debt."

“What kind of bullshit is this?”

He read it again.

And again.

No matter how many times he rubbed his eyes and checked, the words remained the same.

A ridiculous scam—lending money yet still taking on joint liability for the debt.

‘So this is why the loan sharks never let us see the full promissory note.’

They had only ever shown snippets—his father’s fingerprint, the liability clause.

Tae-soo clenched the document in his fist.

“Oh Chun-sik, you son of a bitch!”

His mother’s face darkened with worry at his reaction.

“What’s wrong? The amount is right, and your father saw him stamp his seal himself.”

Even after seeing this, she didn’t realize what was wrong?

“I can’t read, Tae-soo. Neither could your father.”

‘Ah, right.’

His parents were illiterate.

They had lived through the Japanese occupation and the Korean War, never getting the chance for a proper education.

“Then who wrote this?”

“Of course, your father’s friend did.”

The entire promissory note was filled with Chinese characters.

Most likely on purpose—to make it impossible for his father to understand.

The numbers matched, and with his “friend” personally stamping the seal, his father must have trusted him completely.

“He said the interest would be high. Your father was so happy, saying a 40-year friend wouldn’t let him down.”

A 40-year friend, my ass!

‘Scamming a friend who lent you money in tough times—just because he’s illiterate?’

Tae-soo suddenly recalled Han Il-kwon’s sneering face, taunting him about how his family had been ruined.

He couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Where is he?”

“What do you mean ‘where’? Where are you talking about?”

“Oh Chun-sik’s house.”

He had to deal with this before the debt was passed on to his father.

Suddenly, his mother grabbed his arm with a worried expression.

“No, you can’t go, Tae-soo. I’d rather die than see you end up in prison for beating him half to death.”

“I’m not going to cripple him.”

“You’ve got the look of someone about to commit murder!”

“I promise. I really mean it.”

But his mother still looked like she was about to cry.

Tae-soo took a deep breath, steadying himself. Then, forcing a smile, he tried to reassure her.

“There’s something I want to give you.”

“Huh?”

Tae-soo rummaged through the storage room and pulled out a small box he had hidden away.

“I won’t let our family end up on the streets.”

“Tae-soo…?”

He took out his emergency savings.

Every last coin.

Then he placed it gently into the folds of his mother’s skirt.

“It’s about 100,000 won.”

“Where did you get this kind of money…?”

“I saved little by little.”

This was the money he had been setting aside for marriage.

“With this, you should be able to find a rental place.”

The weight of the money, heavy in her skirt, made her fall silent.

Carefully, she clutched the fabric, holding it close.

"Thank you, Tae-soo."

"Don't thank me yet. Just wait and see—soon, I'll be giving you a hundred, a thousand times more every single day."

Tae-soo made a promise to himself.

‘This time, I won’t waste my life working for someone else’s company. I won’t let another family live in luxury while my own suffers. I’ll build my own empire and make sure my family thrives.’

In his younger days, Tae-soo had lived recklessly, without a care in the world.

After dropping out of school due to his family's circumstances, he spent most of his time hanging out with friends, wasting away his days.

He had a natural knack for sniffing out money, but he squandered that gift on trivial pursuits—gambling, drinking, and useless bets.

‘Back then, I thought my parents would be around forever.’

If he had known they would be gone within just a few short years, he would have lived differently.

He never got the chance to give them a life of comfort.

This time would be different.

"When I start making money, I'll build you a real home. No more getting kicked out onto the streets, no more being reduced to tears over rent, no more running away in the dead of night. That will never happen again."

"Tae-soo..."

"I'll build you something far better than this shack. A strong, sturdy apartment that won’t shake even in the fiercest storms."

Gangnam.

Right now, it's just an abandoned wasteland, undeveloped and overlooked.

But soon, he would build an apartment there.

That land—the one that would eventually turn Cheongil Group into one of the country's biggest conglomerates.

He would claim it first.

"An apartment?"

"Yes. The tallest, sturdiest apartment in all of Korea. A luxury building with elevators, meant for the rich."

He held his mother’s hand tightly.

Her hands were rough, cracked, and calloused.

She had been working as a kitchen helper at the local gukbap restaurant.

"You always said you dreamed of owning a store, right? I’ll build a shopping complex right in front of the apartment. Ten, twenty stores. The best location will be yours."

His mother remained silent, simply staring at the hand she was holding.

For the first time, she felt self-conscious about her worn and battered hands.

BAM!

The door suddenly burst open.

His younger brother, Kang Han-soo, stepped inside.

‘This brat... still the same.’

After decades apart, seeing his brother again filled Tae-soo with warmth.

He wanted to run over and hug him on the spot.

But there were more pressing matters to take care of.

Tae-soo quickly put on his shoes.

"Perfect timing. Lead the way."

"What?"

"You know where Dad is, don’t you?"

Tae-soo grabbed Han-soo’s arm and started pulling him along.

Then, lowering his voice so their mother wouldn’t hear, he whispered,

"Let’s go beat the hell out of Oh Chun-sik."

I just need to know where that bastard lives.