BXBX NOVEL Chapter 57 - Old Lady
"Well, it all started when my car almost ran over the poor grandma. Then we…" She started explaining but was quickly cut off by Joon-won who had a shocked expression after hearing her first sentence.
"Wait, a minute. Don't just continue after saying you almost ran over the old lady there. What do you mean by almost running your car over? It's a miracle that you aren't in jail right now and why are you making it sound as if it's something simple?" He was shocked at how casual she was when she told him that. That wasn't something to be casual about.
"Well, it's really nothing. Nothing happened except me hitting my brakes when that lady jumped in front of my car to die. If I didn't slam my breaks in time, I would have been in jail. That old woman wanted to die, and she found my car for it out of all the ones at that time. I was so angry at that moment."
Joon-won was taken back at the sudden revelation of things. He thought of another scenario that made Hea-Jung look like a villain. He looked at the old woman who had a small smile on her face as she was holding a wok and cooking their food and would have never thought that the same woman wanted to jump in front of a vehicle to die.
"What's with that look on your face? Did you think of something else in that head of yours when I said I almost ran over a woman? Hmph! You look at me like an idiot but who is one now." As if she could read his thoughts, he caught him by a rope.
Before he could respond to her sarcastic comments and try to redeem himself, she continued, "Anyway, I almost lashed out at the woman for her actions, but when I got down, the poor lady fainted. I panicked, thinking she was dead, and brought her to a nearby hospital. After a few tests, the doctor just told her she was tired, and she didn't eat for quite a while."
"So after she woke up from the hospital, I asked her why she did something like that and she told me her story. At that time she lost her son and daughter-in-law in a car crash. The insurance company at that time didn't give her the money by stating non-sense reasons and fooling her."
"Life didn't stop posing more problems to her after that. The loan their family took for opening their restaurant came knocking at the door. She was about to lose the restaurant her husband, who passed away already, and her son set up. She couldn't see it being taken and decided to take her life."
Joon-won couldn't help but shake his head a little as he heard what the old woman had to go through. People at their age deserved rest and happiness, after all, they go through, but to face problems at times like that was not fair.
He couldn't help but look at Hea-Jung in a new light. The girl was a narcissistic irritating idiot, but she had something many people these days didn't have. That was the willingness to help others. He can't deny the fact that she helped him by introducing her uncle. Now he heard she helped the old lady.
'If only she could be less cheeky and more mature for her age. She would be a nice person to be around.'
"Then? What happened after that?"
"Nothing happened after that. I wanted to help out the old lady, so I paid off her loan and asked my dad to provide supplies for this restaurant at lower rates. After that, the old lady started running the shop by herself. I tried her cooking once, and her fried rice is very good. So I come here once a week or so to eat it. Today it happened to be with you. That's the end of my fabulous story. Now praise me." Holding her head up high, waiting for some praises from her little junior.
Joon-won couldn't care less about her thoughts as he waited for the food and he didn't have to wait long as it arrived quickly. The old woman placed the food on the table and said, "Well, have some food, young lady. You were talking all this while. Hope you like the food, child." She turned to him at the end with a smile and walked back to attend to the other customers.
He couldn't help but smile when he heard her call him a child. He was anything but a child inside. He accepted the plate and slowly ate some chicken fried rice along with the few sides they got. The food was really good and he could understand why someone like Hea-Jung would come to eat here.
Both of them slowly had the fried rice before Joon-won walked up to the old woman and took out his purse to pay. He didn't want Hea-Jung to pay.
"Little brother let me pay. I brought you here." As she took out her own purse to pay. Joon-won just pushed her purse back and asked the old woman, "How much was it?"
"Oh, both of you don't need to pay." She hurriedly denied him.
"No we both ate, so tell how much?" He insisted.
"Grandma, I already told you, this is a business. You need to make money when you provide food. No matter who it is." Hea-Jung stepped up and reminded her.
The old lady nodded before telling Joon-won the cost. He paid her and both of them walked out. They got in the car and Hea-Jung dropped Joon-won near the supermarket.
Before she drove off, she pushed her sunglasses and asked him, "Do you want a practice partner for that script? I can help you. After all I did go through an audition too, so I can give you pointers."
Joon-won shook his head and replied, "I'm ok. You should practice your own lines for that movie. You don't want to be bad in your first movie." And walked away. Hea-Jung shrugged and drove away.