Please Look After Mom

Chapter 2 switches to third-person singular. Hyong-chol, the eldest son, hands out flyers at Seoul Station, near the clock tower where his mother used to wait for him to pick her up. Chi-hon is also handing out flyers with Hyong-chol, and though people crumple his flyers without a second look, Chi-hon’s commanding voice finds more success with passersby.

Hyong-chol recalls that his mother always resembled a war refugee because she carried so much stuff strapped to her body and in her hands. A woman takes a flyer and mentions that she saw someone matching So-nyo’s description (at least the eyes) wearing blue plastic sandals and suffering from a deep, festering cut on her foot. The wound was so bad that flies kept following the injured woman. This was around the Yongsan 2-dong office building. Hyong-chol doesn’t understand why his mother would be in Yongsan, but then suddenly realizes that the building is where he worked over 30 years ago.

Hyong-chol, who is now in his 50s, is the marketing director for an apartment building development company. He recently pitched a novel idea that resulted in him selling every unit he was responsible for, so he became the so-called golden child of the office.