Chapter 147. Kim Giryeo (3)

This was a confirmed fact from Lee Hwayoung's escape.

"What kind of future could I have living like this?"

Kim Giryeo, who had been deeply shocked by his mother disappearing with 27 million won, was in a precarious situation and ended up severely injuring his leg.

If he had been a healthy man in his 20s, he might have gradually overcome such hardships.

But the loneliness he had carried throughout his life ultimately became a great poison.

Giryeo had recently been experiencing several symptoms in his body. It was one thing to feel lazy about eating, but even when he managed to force some food down, his stomach would feel bloated and he couldn't digest properly. On top of that, his forgetfulness had gotten worse. It was as if a fog had settled in his mind, always clouding his thoughts. When he opened a book, he couldn't even focus enough to get through a single page. At this point, he couldn't help but realize that something was wrong with his health.

However, Giryeo didn't attempt to treat these issues. Honestly, going to the hospital wouldn't change his situation fundamentally. Moreover, even if he tried to resolve these emotional problems, he knew deep down that it wouldn't matter in the end.

"Ahem."

Giryeo placed the cigarette he had been smoking into the ashtray, now filled with butts. He had recognized his own condition. And at that moment, he made a decision.

Come to think of it, Giryeo had been working hard at part-time jobs since high school, earning money, but he realized he had never spent it on himself. So, he decided that this was the time to do all the things he had wanted to do. He decided to use two months' worth of his day labor wages for it.

When he made a list of things he wanted to do, it ended up being about 20 items. However, achieving them didn't take long.

Bucket List

①Take a cable car

②Donate to a shelter

③ Buy and drink coffee at a cafe

Most of his wishes were simple.

④ Try dyeing my hair

A while later, Giryeo visited a hair salon to check off the last remaining item on his bucket list.

"Welcome~"

Since he had never paid attention to his appearance in his life, he felt awkward from the start.

"Please have a seat. How would you like your hair done?"

"That..."

However, Giryeo had already made up his mind about the style he wanted. He pointed to one side of the hair dye color chart as he sat down in the chair.

"Dye it like this."

"Blonde? This would require bleaching twice to get the same color~"

"Yes. It's okay."

And the reason Giryeo chose to dye his hair blonde...In fact, among Giryeo's classmates, there was a student who always dyed his hair blond. Back when they graduated high school, that very student council president delivered the fare well address.

He came from a wealthy family, good at studying, and even had a good personality, so he often talked to Giryeo, who had limited social relationships.

"He was really kind."

The thought of having to style his hair suddenly brought the image of that student council president to mind. The fact that he suddenly wanted to imitate him probably meant he had admired that classmate all along. Or perhaps it was envy.

"Alright, it's all done~ Wow, the color turned out really pretty."

But as expected, things like dyeing hair didn't really change people in any significant way. It just felt bland.

"It's not that great."

Still, he had tried everything he needed to, so he guessed it's done now.

Giryeo calculated the cost of the dyeing and headed home. And he never returned again.

<Factory Reset All Devices>

[All personal data and downloaded apps will be deleted, and the deleted data cannot be recovered.]

[Delete all / Cancel]

The first thing Giryeo did when he got home was reset his phone. For some reason, he wanted to clean things up.

Next was cleaning his room. Originally, he had planned to throw away all the books in the house after that, but he suddenly remembered that he had already done that.

"Right. I put out the textbooks last week."

Anyway, his memory.

In fact, Giryeo had hoped that by achieving his past bucket list, he would feel a desire to live again, but as he can see, the attempt ended in failure. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't regain the motivation that had collapsed.

"I'm tired..."

At first, only things like working and eating felt bothersome, but now even moving, and even thinking, had become a hassle.

So, what kind of ending would a weak person, driven to this state, have faced?

Afterward, Kim Giryeo shut himself in his house and truly did nothing. He couldn't feel any hope for his future.

While in seclusion, Kim Giryeo would often skip meals and there were days when he didn't drink water all day. Strangely enough, there was a time when skipping meals would make him feel hungry, but as time passed, he gradually stopped even feeling hunger. He spent his days lethargically, sleeping without even realizing what month it was or what time it was.

One day, Giryeo woke up from sleep and got up from his bed for the first time in a long time.

"Ugh..."

That day was especially strange. Aside from the throbbing headache pressing against his head, his body felt incredibly cold. When he looked at the standby screen of his phone, it was July, and the outside temperature was 29°C. Yet, he was shivering from the cold?

Giryeo first got out of bed. He wasn't sure, but he thought a warm shower might help, so he took one. After a long time, he also shaved.

"It's cold."

After finishing the shower, he checked the hanger to get dressed, and that's when a black cloth caught his eye.

It was a 20,000-won suit set he had bought in advance for the day he would eventually have to attend a civil servant interview. It was brand new, something he hadn't worn since trying it on to check if it fit.

"What a waste."

On a sudden impulse, Giryeo decided to try on the suit that was hanging.

"How do I tie this?"

But even that became bothersome halfway through, so he tossed the tie aside and collapsed back onto the bed...

It was then that Giryeo noticed something was seriously wrong with his condition. It was a scorching summer day outside, yet his body kept trembling, and most of all, he was so unusually drowsy that he couldn't even manage a single word.

"Ah."

That's right. It was today. Only then did Giryeo sense the approaching death. And quietly, he thought to himself. Come to think of it, his eyesight was good, and he was still young. If he were to die like this, he probably had quite a few usable organs.

'I think I heard that in order to donate organs... you need to make some kind of pledge or something...'

If he had known it would turn out like this, maybe he should have gone through the donation process in advance? Even in his final moments, Giryeo had no resentment toward the world. He simply felt uneasy about abandoning the patients who would need organ transplants.

"That's a bit of a waste."

He stared at the ceiling for a long while, then slowly closed his eyes.

'If anyone needs it... it would be better if that person uses it.'

Tears flowed from his closed eyes. The man lying in bed let out a long sigh.

***

When I opened my eyes again, what I saw was a familiar sight. The ceiling of the old, yellowed one-room apartment.

"..."

I, a soul of habit, shook off the astonished Ahn Yoonseung and barely made it back home.

And as soon as I heard Lee Hwayoung's name, the memories that began flooding back kept me collapsed for a whole seven hours while I tried to sort them out.

Anyway, that's all over now. With the memory from just moments ago, Kim Giryeo's past no longer resurfaced. The owner of the body had passed away at that point in time.

"So that's how it was."

It became clear now. Kim Giryeo didn't simply starve to death.

The owner of this body lived a life filled with loneliness, and while trying to resolve it, he was abandoned by his mother again.

His cause of death was loneliness. It was starvation, and it was suicide.

Now that he had reached this point, the questions surrounding his reincarnation slowly began to resolve.

'The reason why Kim Giryeo's brain was empty of memories.'

The [Reincarnation] magic I used required restoring the body to as healthy a state as possible before entering it.

But there were limits to that process. For example, it was difficult to revert the body of an 80-year-old to its condition from when they were 40. The basic structure of my magic is to restore the body to a state from a few weeks before death.

But as you know, Kim Giryeo had already been...

"He had severe memory loss."

Brain damage caused by severe depression. Such a thing hadn't been considered as a variable in the reincarnation magic.

8:00 AM.

Lee Hwayoung sat in front of the dressing table early in the morning. Today was the day she would meet her son. Not just an ordinary son, but...

[[Breaking News] Korea, the 4th S-class appears]

A son who is an S-class hunter.

She didn't usually watch the news, but even so, news about her child was something she couldn't avoid hearing.

They said he had risked his life to retrieve the body of a D-rank Awakener. That he had killed all the Sirens.

Anyway, that S-rank showed unbelievable performances in just a few months after revealing his identity.

"Oh my goodness! G, Giryeo... has become an Awakened?"

Lee Hwayoung recognized her son's face on the news and decided to contact him. It had been quite a while since the y last communicated, so finding his phone number was a struggle. Fortunately, she was able to find the necessary record on her phone not long ago.

[Blocked Caller List]

1533-09...

02-2108...

010-1287...

"Aht 1287. This is it, this is it."

To be honest, she couldn't say there was no hesitation in this process. She clearly remembered her last moment with her son as well.

"Giryeo-ya, could you please help your mom just once?

The time she borrowed 27 million won from her son and left the house. Of course, she felt sorry about it. But she had no other options—what else was she supposed to do?

"Phew."

The days when she struggled with loans she had taken out without understanding the consequences when she was younger. While cleaning the house, Lee Hwayoung had once accidentally checked Kim Giryeo's bank account.

[₩27,007,839]

When she was suffering from debt collection every day, it was only natural that anyone would be tempted to see such a large sum of money.

"What kind of woman wouldn't do that in the worst?"

Hwayoung thought her choice was something that couldn't be easily blamed. And the reason she left the house afterward... it was simply because she felt sorry for Giryeo. She knew it would be impossible to pay off the debt with her job at the restaurant, so she avoided him out of guilt for having to face him.

If she thinks about it, all of this started because her son pressured her to repay the money. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

If he hadn't, she wouldn't have gone so far as to run away. 27 million won. That much should have been given to her parents simply out of gratitude for giving birth to her.

"Anyway, that kid..."

But now, all these little worries are over. In the meantime, Giryeo had awakened to S-rank. The good son, who had escaped from poverty, would forgive her for the brief mistake.

Hadn't he answered her call so warmly just yesterday? As if he had completely forgotten about the past!

"Oh, I've been worried lately because of my back problems... Finally, my fortune is finally improving in my old age."

Lee Hwayoung hummed a tune as she touched up her makeup. Then, it was time to go see her son.

She soon arrived at Mapo Station. From there, she followed the main road, walking for a few more minutes until she finally turned into a narrow alley.

"I've never been here before, so I don't know where anything is."

Let's see, my son said he lived around here...

"Ah!"

Just as she was about to search for her phone to make a call, she noticed someone walking from a distance. A young man, dressed in a dark suit that seemed more fitting for a funeral, was approaching.

"Giryeo-ya!"

Lee Hwayoung spotted her son and waved. Her son, who she hadn't seen in a long time, had grown up in the meantime. She hadn't seen him for, but seeing him in person, she couldn't help but wonder how much money he must have made to afford such fine clothes?

"Have you been... well?"

Hwayoung put down her bag and hugged her son tightly.

"I'm glad you look healthy. Even though Mom had a hard time, I prayed every day for our son to be well."

Originally, she had planned to explain how she had been living.

"Giryeo, I'm telling you this now, but actually, there was a reason for what happened back then..."

"Mom."

"Y, yeah?"

However, her son abruptly interrupted her and brought up a new topic.

"I have something to ask you."

He rolled his eyes and looked down at Hwayoung. His face clearly showed a strong resemblance to his father's bloodline, as always.

"Come to think of it, I don't remember much about Dad."

"Huh?"

"What's Dad doing now? Do you happen to have his contact info?"

But she never expected such a question to come up. Hwayoung was taken aback and replied.

"What are you talking about? That guy died of lung cancer a long time ago. It's been a long time."

"Aha."

Hadn't I told Giryeo this story before? Hwayoung tilted her head as she released the hug. However, the other person continued to mutter incomprehensible words.

"There's a family then."

The blonde hunter asked another question to Hwayoung, who was standing in front of him.

"Mom, don't you think I've changed?"

"Changed...?"

"Don't you notice anything when you look at me?"

Is this a light-hearted joke a young child would make to their family?

"Well, I wonder how our son has changed..."

Hwayoung hesitated for a moment as if thinking about the question, but in reality, it was a problem with no need for much thought. This Hunter was someone who could easily spot the differences from the past.

"Right. You dyed your hair nicely! Hoho. Son, did you get a girlfriend or something? You're looking all stylish for once."

She said with a smile.