The Beginning
River of No Return“Somin, you better hurry up! You’re gonna be late!”
“I couldn’t find it!” I yelled out while I continued to ransack through my clothes.
“What exactly are you searching for?” a shadow with folded arms appeared at the door.
“My jacket..I bought it specially for my first day at work today. Now, where has it gone to? ” I lifted the tiny alarm clock from the dressing table, hoping to miraculously find the jacket underneath it.
“Are you sure you didn’t mistakenly throw it out with the trash last night?” At that, I turned to face her with horror written all over my face.
“NO!!! That could not happen! I saved so long for that coat!!!”
An evil smile started to twitch on the corners of . My eyes widened instantly and I caught her by both her arms and demanded, “You know where it is, don’t you? Please…please don’t torture me anymore! I’ll die if I don’t go to work in it today and I don’t want to die so young. Please, please pretty Madam Jung Gi Hye!
She flung her arms free from my hold and said exasperatingly, “Alright alright, you drama queen! I’ll get it for you. Silly girl, you left it in the kitchen after showing off the coat to me last night. I thought you are going to donate it as wiping cloth.” She chuckled as she climbed up the stool to retrieve the brown colored jacket from the second tier cupboard.
“Madam Jung! How could you be so cruel to hide it away and enjoying the sight of me searching for it so frantically?” I retorted as I held out my hand to help her down.
“Serve you right! Who asked you to be such a show off and a forgetful brat? If you treasure it so much, remember to keep it properly.” I practically snatched the garment from her when she handed me the jacket.
“Thanks!” I pouted my lips in acceptance of her reprimands. “I’ll be off now!” I lunged forward to plant a kiss on her cheek but she ducked away in time. I hugged her tightly before she could react a second time and planted a wet kiss her on her face.
I chuckled cheekily as I dashed out of the room, chirping, “Bye, Madam Jung! I’m off!”
She wiped away the saliva on her face in disgust and yelled after me, “Jung So Min, you’ll get it from me tonight! And don’t call me Madam Jung! Show some respect for your Mom!”
I turned around and waved, “Bye Mom! I’m so excited for what you have in store for me tonight!”
She waved back, smiling, “Enjoy your first day at work!”
I skipped my way to the bus stop, thinking about the job ahead of me. I was ecstatic that I would finally be earning a decent monthly salary to bring home to Mom. For the past twenty years, Mom had been doing odd jobs; tailoring, assembling light starters, doing laundry, hawking food illegally etc. There was not a job that she did not have hands on for the sake of earning a meal or two for both of us, as far as I remembered. All those hard work deteriorated her youth faster beyond her actual age. She would complain in silence of backaches, injuries but she had never shown any discontentment from the harsh life she led. Nor had I witnessed her wallowed in self pity. She had always been optimistic, repeating the words, ‘When there’s a will, there’s a way’ to encourage herself to carry on.
Her positive view towards life influenced me a great deal. Since young, I had learnt to accept the fact that I did not have a father even though some people accused me of being an illegitimate child, from a poor caste and my mom a loose woman. I had punched a senior who jeered at me in elementary school for wearing a pair of tattered school shoes and was severely punished by the discipline teacher. Mom did not scold or punish me further at home. Instead, she told me firmly, “The whole world could look down on you. They could say any horrible things about you. But you must not look down on yourself and react to them. Cause if you do, you are indeed whatever they say you are.” I took her words seriously and had never let her down thereafter. The first thing I did after the incident was to earn some money by distributing newspapers every morning until I had saved enough for a pair of new shoes. I continued to study very hard, I took up any jobs that I could find to lighten Mom’s load and finance my own studies. My hard work paid off as I was offered scholarships all the way from high school till university. I topped the Dean’s list in Korea University. Before I graduated, I was headhunted to work in a top audit firm but I turned it down. I thought I wanted to start humble in a comparatively smaller firm to gain more exposure and knowledge. I was now the new junior auditor at Kim & Lee, reporting for duty in 30 seconds!
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