Chapter 5

© Yeongwan (映完)

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Yang Taepyeong, bewildered, returned and firmly grabbed Yeonhoon’s arm.

Only then did Yeonhoon seem to come to his senses, noticing his mistake and giving an awkward smile.

“A, I’m sorry. I was just thinking about something else.”

“What are you talking about? Thinking about something else in this situation? Anyway, let’s go quickly. Miss Lee Joohee, grabbing us like this won’t do any good. I’ll be going now.”

Yeonhoon, urged by Taepyeong’s insistence, got into the car.

Naturally, Taepyeong started yelling at Yeonhoon.

“Hey, what are you doing, man!”

“I’m sorry. I just remembered something…”

“What kind of thoughts are you having while working? Let me ask you one thing. Have you been to the military? This is almost at the level of a conscientious objector.”

“I haven’t been to the military.”

Having only attended elementary school and prepared for the high school equivalency exam at a temple, he was naturally exempt from military service.

“Is that so? You didn’t go. With that attitude, you would have been beaten up a lot in the military. It’s fortunate you didn’t commit suicide. You, I’ll tell the company when I get there, so don’t come to work from tomorrow. I’ll talk to the boss.”

Taepyeong said this and immediately started the car.

Yeonhoon, about to protest, decided to hold his tongue.

After a while, when Taepyeong seemed to have calmed down a bit, he parked the car in front of Myeongdong Station and spoke calmly.

“I thought about it on the way. It seems you don’t really fit this job. Think about it carefully. If you can’t do the job, I’ll talk to you properly.”

“I understand.”

“Go on.”

Yeonhoon watched the car drive away after dropping him off and immediately searched for public transportation on his phone.

He started moving according to the public transportation route displayed on the navigation app.

His destination was the house of Lee Joohee, which he had just visited.

He took the subway, got off at Daehwa Station, took a bus, and after a while, arrived back at the house.

Yeonhoon took a deep breath at the front gate and knocked on the door.

After a moment, Lee Joohee opened the door with a dark expression, just like before.

“Oh… Are you giving me one more month of grace?”

Lee Joohee asked, brightening up.

Yeonhoon thought for a moment.

When he saw the girl who had grabbed his arm, he was reminded of his own childhood.

Why did he remember the moment he parted ways with his mother when he was six?

He thought it was a truly ironic and cruel situation.

The image of the monk who had changed his fate when he visited the place where he had lived with his mother as a child now overlapped with his own.

Was it too hasty to intervene?

Could it be that they were destined to meet anyway, and he was forcing a connection?

Would he end up becoming a fortune-teller by interfering in other people’s lives one by one?

Despite trying to avoid it and sacrificing his youth, was he destined to return to the same place?

Many thoughts raced through his mind, but he concluded that if he knew, he couldn’t pretend he didn’t.

And if he was going to start, it would be better to recover the money without causing harm to anyone.

That’s why he came back.

“That’s not it. Can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Yes? Yes… Please come in.”

Yeonhoon sat in the same spot where Taepyeong had sat earlier.

He met the eyes of Eunji, who peeked out from inside the room.

Indeed, his thoughts were correct.

The girl’s face, in general, did not show any extraordinary or remarkable features.

It was a common face, but the problem was that it did not match the current situation of the family.

Fortune-telling can be divided into three stages: early, middle, and late life. When he looked at the girl’s face, her early life fortune was very strong.

That was why he had stared at her face intently.

Wasn’t it strange?

To be born with a very good early life fortune in a house that was almost falling apart.

Such cases do occur occasionally.

Someone with a very good fortune but whose parents’ current situation is poor, so they cannot fully enjoy their good fortune.

Although rare, such cases do exist, so he thought this might be one of them.

So, while riding back in Taepyeong’s car, he deduced the year, month, and day from the resident registration copy attached to the contract and estimated the hour of birth based on the temperature he felt when he touched her hand.

A person’s fortune is described by four pillars, each corresponding to the year, month, day, and hour of birth, making a total of eight characters. Without knowing the hour of birth, a proper fortune reading is impossible. However, Yeonhoon had a strange ability to estimate the hour of birth, so he could determine a person’s fortune with just their birthday.

“Would you like something to drink?”

“No, thank you. I’m fine.”

Lee Joohee glanced at the contract copy in Yeonhoon’s hand.

He could sense her frustration.

“I’m not here to demand immediate repayment.”

“Then why are you here?”

Yeonhoon hesitated to speak.

On his way from Myeongdong, he had carefully calculated the fortunes of Lee Joohee and her daughter, Jo Eunji.

Lee Joohee’s fortune was a tragic one.

A life with no money, no academic success, and no good fortune in marriage.

When he first met Lee Joohee, her face did not show any good fortune, so he was not surprised.

Her narrow forehead and pointed chin indicated a poor early life fortune and no financial luck. Her faint eyebrows suggested a lack of support from others.

Even if she was once considered beautiful, her face reflected a life of poverty, which was confirmed by her fortune.

However, Jo Eunji’s fortune was astonishing.

Her early life fortune was very good, just as he had observed from her face.

Usually, a child’s fortune is not read separately.

An individual’s fortune is influenced by the family’s fortune, which in turn is influenced by the country’s fortune.

No matter how well a person does, if a war breaks out or a national crisis like the IMF occurs, they will be affected.

Therefore, a child’s fortune is not read separately because it follows the parents’ fortune.

If it were just one aspect, it might be understandable, but the fact that both her fortune and her face showed the same thing was definitely strange.

So, Yeonhoon cautiously asked Lee Joohee, who was watching him closely.

“May I ask what the father does?”

“Yes? He used to work on a ship, but he went to catch a friend who had guaranteed a loan…”

He had heard the story.

Why this ordinary family had fallen into difficult circumstances.

The husband, who did not bring in money, had accumulated debts, and it had been over three years since he left home.

Yeonhoon shook his head.

“I mean… someone else.”

“Someone else?”

Yeonhoon took out a notebook and pen from his bag, wrote something, and handed it to her.

He did this so that Jo Eunji, who was listening from the side, would not hear.

Lee Joohee, holding the notebook Yeonhoon had given her, turned pale and began to tremble.

“How did you know that…”

Indeed, his thoughts were correct.

The end.