Chapter 22. The Clue to the Miracle
The three of them looked at Seojun, who was kissing the goddess on the Rolls-Royce.
“The kid is sturdy. You must be happy that he’s healthy.”
At Chunggi’s words, Seonha and Sangjeong looked at each other and laughed.
“Hey, don’t even say that. We worried ourselves sick about him from the time he was in the womb…”
“Was it at seven months? They said the baby was upside down and the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. I slept standing up for days. Then in the last month, they said there was a problem with his heart. He went into emergency surgery. He had barely seen the light of day, and we had to send him straight to the operating room without even being able to hold him.”
As the couple spoke with smiles, their eyes grew moist.
“We did somehow get discharged from the hospital, but can you imagine how worried we were? We checked several times a day to see if he was still breathing.”
“Until that rascal turned one, we barely slept three hours a day.”
Even though it was something that had happened a long time ago, Sangjeong and Seonha’s voices cracked.
Chunggi looked at the couple with respect.
“Parents really are incredible… Still, it’s a relief. He’s healthy now.”
Seonha and Sangjeong looked at their son with wistful eyes.
“He has a big scar on his chest, so he hates going to the swimming pool. He doesn’t go to public baths either. Even now he still has to get checkups regularly. His stamina is weaker than other kids his age…”
“Just… I still feel kind of sorry.”
“Whenever I think back to when the obstetrics doctor told us to be prepared…”
Sangjeong tightly held the hand of Seonha, who had bowed her head.
“‘This is absolutely no one’s fault. So you must not blame yourselves. Do not lose hope. I will do my best.’”
The obstetrician who had said those words with a firm expression came to mind.
“His name was unusual… Rok-something, wasn’t it?”
In any case, he was this healthy now, so what problem could there be? Light filled their faces as they looked at their son.
Watching the couple, who looked as happy as could be, Chunggi smiled in satisfaction.
Suddenly, he wondered if his own father, who had already left this world, had felt the same way.
From as far back as he could remember, his father had been someone whose face was hard to see except at the dinner table.
Had he, too, felt those kinds of parental feelings when he looked at him?
The only thing he remembered was him talking only about work with Grandfather.
“Ah…”
One day, on the day he had climbed over the wall, he had come face to face with his father’s car.
Even though he had covered his face from the front, there was a good chance that his father had realized it was him…
He had been on pins and needles, but nothing happened.
He soon shook his head.
“He definitely didn’t see me.”
He couldn’t picture him overlooking his son’s misbehavior.
It was because his father had been someone who could never defy Grandfather’s orders.
He had already passed away, so there was no way to ask.
“Ah. What about your phone?”
“I threw it away on my way here yesterday. I didn’t know what my brother might have done with it.”
Seonha opened the drawer of the chicken shop’s register, took out a phone, and wiped it with a wet tissue.
“This is the kids’ phone Seojun used in first grade. Aside from the screen being a little cracked, it should be usable.”
The case, printed with a bear character that was popular among children, was cute.
The screen was small, and its performance probably wasn’t that good, but it would be the first symbol of freedom granted to Chunggi.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll have it activated under my name.”
It was only his phone that had changed,
yet it somehow felt like he had been given a new identity.
Changcheon Group headquarters.
“Three bodyguards can’t even catch just that one…”
Chairman Kim Chungseok ground his teeth.
“Where is he?”
“There are still no traces of the card being used, but the car has moved. We have given the police a heads-up, but since we have to proceed carefully, it looks like it will take some time.”
“The media? No reaction yet, right?”
“Yes.”
“Look at how you handled things…”
President Kang Gyeonghwan, the head of EMP Entertainment, bowed his head.
He was a trusted confidant of both the chairman and the vice chairman.
“As soon as we catch him, plan to send him straight to America and prepare material for a press release. Say he’s going to quit music now and focus on the family business. Release it as soon as we ship him off to the United States.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
Once they got the vehicle tracking data from the police, they would be able to figure out his route.
He would not be carrying cash anyway, and he would have to sleep somewhere, so if he used his card even once, his location would be exposed immediately.
As long as he was in Korea, he could not completely escape their reach.
“All right. You can go.”
Chairman Kim Chungseok did not care about the safety of the younger brother who had run away.
He was only inwardly bothered by the fact that he might cause some incident and damage the company’s image.
“That coward is thrashing about.”
Beep.
The intercom rang.
“What is it?”
“The vice president of Changcheon Trading is here to see you.”
Before Chungseok could answer, the door to the chairman’s office burst open.
“What brings you here without an appointment?”
Woohee smiled brightly and waved.
Without even asking permission, she poured herself some juice from the reception table and drank it.
“Just let Chunggi go, big brother.”
“Hmm. Is this one of your pranks?”
“Not yet, but I’m about to start playing a prank.”
“Stop talking nonsense and stay out of this.”
“This lawsuit in the United States.”
When Woohee raised the corner of her mouth,
Chairman Kim Chungseok’s eyebrow twitched.
“Why do you think our paper company funds ended up in the opposing law firm’s account?”
“You…”
“If I send a copy of those secret account records to the Cheonggang Foundation’s legal team, I think things will get really interesting, don’t you?”
Kim Chungseok clenched his teeth.
“So? How do you like my prank?”
In the past, ever since the arranged marriage to a politician’s son, his youngest sister had been crooked about everything.
The politician’s life had effectively ended when his long-standing corruption was exposed, and seeing that as her chance, she had immediately divorced him and then quieted down a bit, but—
“For now…”
Woohee sat down on the sofa and crossed her legs.
“I’ll play along with your prank.”
Chairman Kim Chungseok sat in the seat of honor on the sofa.
“However, if I hear word anywhere that he’s gone back to being some entertainer, there might be an ‘accident’ that even I know nothing about.”
The corners of Woohee’s mouth, which had been curved in a smile, trembled slightly.
“I won’t go out of my way to track him down and drive him out. This should be enough, right?”
Woohee barely endured the gaze of her eldest brother, who was staring straight at her.
“Is this as far as I can go?”
She had laid down the best card she had in one go, but she had not managed to win complete freedom.
Surely, Kim Chungseok knew as well.
That even if he didn’t play along with this little game, Woohee would not actually be able to use that card.
That brat might cause some trouble overseas.
It was better to keep him in Korea.
“If you ever secretly support him in any way, you should be prepared to step down along with him.”
With this level of threat,
at least the company’s name would not be tarnished.
He was the third son who had never managed to do anything on his own in his entire life. Once he ran out of money, he would quietly bow his head.
It might be different for someone who had originally had nothing, but a person who had lived that lavishly would never be able to live in poverty.
“If he wants to leave the family and find freedom, he should live as if dead, just barely breathing…”
Chairman Kim Chungseok, who had been watching Woohee’s face, lifted the corner of his mouth.
“Tell him that.”
Woohee bit her lip hard and nodded.
“Sir! Let me try to summarize.”
Obstetrician Rokyeong, who was sitting in front of Jinhyeok, had his eyes shining.
The paper he had published in one of the world’s most prestigious journals.
On the effects of dolphins’ ultrasound on human brain waves and a medical approach through sound.
While preparing that paper, he had come across countless cases.
From cases that people commonly knew, like plants whose growth was promoted when they were played classical music every day, to cases of music therapy in some African tribe.
Or the case of a terminal brain tumor patient whose condition improved thanks to the song his wife sang to him every morning.
There had been more than enough cases he couldn’t include in the paper because there was no clear evidence.
Some of them had elements of superstition or exaggeration mixed in, so he himself had shaken his head at them.
Of course, sound could influence the brain, but treatment?
As someone whose profession had to be thoroughly grounded in scientific evidence, it had been a world full of cases he simply could not believe.
In the end, because he had not been able to obtain proper samples, it had not had much value as a paper.
Still, since it was an intriguing topic, it had drawn interest.
Today, he had not seen and felt it himself, but all the pregnant women he had interviewed said the same thing.
It was not just one or two; everyone who had been in the waiting room had.
It was everyone’s experience, such that he didn’t even need a sample.
What had just happened a little while ago was something that absolutely could not be explained scientifically.
“Sir! The ability you possess is…”
Was there no word for it other than this?
The thing he had hoped for as he looked each day at lives on the verge of going out.
The last desperate hope he could lean on as a doctor.
“It is a miracle.”
He looked straight into Jinhyeok’s eyes.
“Sir. I am begging you.”
“Ah…”
Rokyeong held Jinhyeok’s hand tightly as he spoke.
“This is something that could save lives.”
As someone whose profession as a doctor had to be based only on the most firmly verified science, it was something he should not acknowledge…
Without a doubt, that music had a great connection with the miracle just now.
Rokyeong looked straight into Jinhyeok’s eyes.
“Could you make it so that the pregnant women can listen to it comfortably and sing along?”
If, by any chance, that music flowed throughout the entire obstetrics department and the pregnant women could each hum along to it, might it not become a help in those occasional situations where a miracle was needed?
It was highly unscientific, but when you had to grasp at straws, you needed anything you could get.
Jinhyeok furrowed his brow.
Jinhyeok himself had also witnessed the miracle just now.
He was the one who had started it, but he had not been confident.
Certainly, he had understood and done his best to guess, but the music Jinhyeok had created alone had lacked something.
The music had begun to surge after someone started to sing along.
The small ripple had grown larger, and at some point, Jinhyeok had stopped playing.
Both his instrument and his humming had stopped.
And then, a chorus filled with true emotion had resounded throughout the waiting room.
The stream of light that had been clearly visible even to Jinhyeok’s eyes.
That had been a miracle.
A miracle even he had not foreseen.
Could he really reproduce that miracle?
The one who had actually caused the miracle, Jinhyeok himself, was the most curious of all.
“I will support you so that you are not short on funds to produce the audio track.”
“No.”
Jinhyeok smiled brightly and shook his head.
A firm refusal.
Rokyeong’s pupils trembled.
“I do not need any sponsorship.”
“What?”
“I will try making the audio. I am also very curious whether it will be possible. However, I would like you to make absolutely sure to keep this a secret.”
Rokyeong’s face brightened, and he hurriedly nodded.
“In return, you must tell me exactly what results the music I make for you produces.”
“But…”
Rokyeong tried to bring up the matter of financial support again, but at his resolute expression, he could not continue.
When the man of the miracle walked out into the waiting room, every gaze turned to him.
Feeling their eyes on him, Jinhyeok smiled brightly and bowed his head.
And then, applause loud enough to shake the waiting room rang out.
“Um… Section chief?”
“Yes?”
“How did you do that?”
Minseok had not witnessed the miraculous scene.
But judging from the atmosphere, it seemed certain that something huge had taken place.
Hadn’t the hospital director treated him with the utmost respect?
And then, the standing ovation that had filled the waiting room at the end.
His chest had swelled without him even realizing it.
“I just played and sang.”
Jinhyeok looked out the passenger-side window.
The first time he had started doing music had been to see Sister Agatha happy.
It had been a performance purely for her, with the goal of turning her emotions into happiness.
And in fact, she had been happy.
He had known from the moment he first put his fingers on the piano keys that his music could touch people’s emotions.
Then, he had met the church band that was preparing for a Christmas performance, and the guitar he had picked up without much thought.
The playing of Jinhyeok, who had only been an elementary school student, had astonished everyone.
The reason he had abandoned the piano and taken up the guitar had been simple.
“Because you can carry it around.”
He had rearranged sheet music written for adults so he could play it with his small, short fingers.
That Christmas performance was still vivid in his mind.
It had been the day when someone who had performed for only one person had, for the first time, touched the hearts of dozens.
Music is the transmission of emotion.
That was how he had defined it.
After that, he had moved in order to be with more people, and discovering Hongdae, full of youth, had been a blessing.
And then, there had been the accident.
Jinhyeok furrowed his brow.
After he had returned as the forty-three-year-old Jinhyeok, had a different ability appeared?
He recalled the performance at Yeongdeungpo Station.
That day, he had tried sincerely to understand them.
He had wanted to fix the parts of them that were broken.
And he had thought that it was just the transmission of emotion.
But thinking about it now, perhaps he had “healed” them.
If, by any chance, he had known in more detail the painful places they carried, might he not have been able to heal more people?
He leaned back against the passenger seat and closed his eyes.
As if something were just within reach yet could not be grasped, like an imaginary creature in the fog.
He focused on that something that was floating around.
At a traffic light, the car came to a stop, and Minseok, who had been about to ask something more, saw his boss with his eyes closed and shook his head regretfully.
In any case, the standing ovation in the waiting room today had been tremendous.
He had never thought the moment of returning to the office could be this enjoyable.
He imagined the employees filling the smoking area and the corners of his mouth lifted.
“They won’t be able to believe it again, will they?”
The studio of Im Doyu Band in Hapjeong-dong.
Suchan, who had been sprawled on the sofa, suddenly sprang to his feet.
It was the YouTube channel of his favorite band, “Box43.”
A video with a Korean title had been uploaded.
“What is this?”
[Get up!]
Looking at the description written in English below,
“If you don’t want your song stolen, hurry up and come find me.”
He quickly played the video,
and a miraculous sight unfolded.
The editing was truly a work of art as well.
The countless crowd in the video even felt sacred.
“Wow… It’s like some kind of movie… Huh?”
At a melody that sounded somehow familiar, Suchan tilted his head.
More than anything,
when clumsy yet distinct Korean rang out, he was convinced.
“What is this?”
The editing was more intense and most of the lyrics had been changed into English, but this song was definitely the one his girlfriend had played for him on Sunday evening.
In terms of timing, it was only a difference of one day, but his girlfriend had played it for him first.
That unpolished song had been turned perfectly into Janis’s style.
Having listened to both versions, Suchan could tell exactly which of the two was the original composer.
“Plagiarism?”
“Box43?”
Looking at the message below, that did not seem to be the case.
It had not yet been released as an official track, and if it had been plagiarism, they would not have shouted like that in Korean.
More than anything, as it showed a huge crowd of homeless people,
the ending caption that appeared at the end said, “I did it better.”
He recalled the miraculous situation his girlfriend had talked about.
The scene in the video where some of the homeless people stood up and shook off their bodies.
Hadn’t more than half of the homeless people in Yeongdeungpo gone back home?
And now, this video he was watching.
The line of people behind the performance truck were the “homeless” of their country.
It was as if this were a provocative message aimed at that paper-bag band from Yeongdeungpo Station.
He quickly went to a famous foreign community site.
There were countless speculative articles and comments.
[The Miracle of Liverpool]
┗Janis, is he really the reincarnation of God?
┗He said a new album was coming out, and now he’s pulled off something this incredible.
┗Aaaah! I should have gone there too! Wind up my mainspring too!
┗Get up!
┗This is crazy! It’s a real miracle!
The local TV station article that had dubbed their performance a miracle from the beginning described the situation in the greatest detail, and the comments beneath it were tremendous.
[Excessive staging. Just how much money did they spend?]
As expected, there were also conspiracy theories that never failed to appear anywhere.
But when people faced a situation that was hard to believe even when they saw it, they tended to look for other reasons.
And that was only natural, because even Suchan, an ardent follower, thought that this made no sense.
Rather, the theory that they had slipped a dollar bill into each of those homeless people’s hands was more believable.
“Why aren’t they holding a press conference?”
It was strange that Janis, who loved attention, had done something this huge and yet was staying quiet.
Therefore,all the information that had come out so far could only be speculation.
Suchan quickly turned off the video and dialed his girlfriend’s number.
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