Everyone got out of the car and got busy with the preparation of Seollal. Servants started cleaning the house first. As it was closed for days, the house needed cleaning. They started with the kitchen as they had to start preparing the food soon. They had to prepare tteokguk (rice cake soup), mandu guk (dumpling soup), bibimbap and many more dishes with ingredients like rice, meat, seafood, liquor, and vegetables.
It was still early in the morning and light mist engulfed the village. The air was a little chilly. While coming to their village, all saw the rising sun which was a mesmerising view. The large orange sun slowly brought warmth, heat, joy and enthusiasm to everyone's heart.
Yong-Sun stretched his whole body to ease the tiredness of driving the car for hours. He looked around and took in all the beauty. He loved Seoul but he loved coming here too. The peace and calm this place induced was an amazing feeling. This place had fond memories for him. His last sweet memory of his father was from this place.
Every year they used to fly kites together, enjoy tteokguk together. He was just a kid when his father died in a car accident. Every children's day they use to go trekking and while returning from one such trekking trip, their car met with an accident. Yong-Sun survived but his father didn't. After the death of Seo Yu-jin, he was raised by his mother and the Park Family.
While Yong-Sun was reminiscing about the past, Bong-Cha and Baek-Hyeon were running circles around Chin-Sun, fighting over something or the other.
"You two, stop it. Everyone, get ready fast," commanded Young-Jae.
"Kids! Get the suitcases," ordered Jong-Woo and went inside the house.
The houses were interconnected with an inner veranda. Every house had four large bedrooms and two bathrooms. The houses had a common large kitchen, an altar room, an open courtyard and a huge library which was converted into library-cum-office space. The library had a wifi connection and a large TV for conference calls.
All the kids shook their heads in disbelief as all the elders went inside after ordering the youngsters to carry the suitcases. For almost fifteen minutes they spent carrying things from cars to rooms and the kitchen.
Slowly, everyone showered as it was tradition to clean oneself up on the day of New Year. All were wearing traditional clothes and would perform Charye and celebrate their collective birthdays by enjoying tteokguk.
One by one everyone got ready in Seolbim which was their new set of hanbok. The women were in the kitchen helping the servants prepare the food for the feast and the men were preparing the altar room to be ready for the rites. The boys were running from the kitchen to the altar room with the food and elder men were helping them to set the table properly.
It is believed in many cultures that the north direction is the direction of the dead, so they set up the screen on the north wall and placed the altar table in front of it. The Shinwi, an ancestral tablet that would carry the names of all the ancestors written in Hanji was placed in the middle of the table, nearest to the screen, enclosed by two candles at the end of the table. The table was filled with soup, bap, meat, dried fish, seasoned vegetables, jujubes, chestnuts, pears, apples, incense, kettle, cups, wine, etc.
When all the food was placed on the table, it was time for the ceremony to start. First, the paper with the name of Park ancestors was placed in the tablet. Baek-Hyeon being the son of the Park family performed the ancestral rites by bowing in front of the altar and burning the piece of paper that had the ancestors' names.
The same process was repeated by Yong-Sun. But for the Man family, the ceremony was done by Jong-Woo as he was the male relative of Man ancestors.
After the rites, all gathered together and ate the delicious food and drank the wine. The main dish tteokguk, a soup of clear broth and white rick cakes had beef, eggs, vegetables and whatnot. They all paid their respect to their ancestors and enjoyed the feast.
After the banquet, first, the youngest generation took a deep bow (Sebae) in front of their elders and the elders gave them a New Year's gift and their blessings. Youngsters were floating in money after they received their gifts. They in turn gifted their parents with a hamper that included sweets, cookies, ginseng and diamond bracelets for moms and diamond wristwatches for dad and granddad.
All shouted together, "sae-hae bok manhi ba-deu-sei-yo (Happy New Year)" and the environment was filled with cheer and happiness.
After the feast, they were playing games together when a car approached. Pan Jung and Bang Young-Mi exited from it. They bowed down to all the elders and took their blessing. They too received gifts from the elders and gave them return gifts. They too were dressed in traditional dresses but had a small travel bag with them.
Young-Mi approached the youngsters. "Hi everyone! Hi Yong-Sun!" she chirped and batted her eyes at Yong-Sun. He looked at her and smiled politely. Her heart fluttered with his smile.
"Hi! Young-Mi. You are looking pretty in hanbok," said Bong-Cha.
"Hi!" said the rest three in unison.
"Thank you," replied Young-Mi to Bong-Cha still staring at Yong-Sun. She only had eyes for him.
"She is looking at you," whispered Baek-Hyeon in a sing-song tone.
"Shut up," Yong-Sun whispered back in a similar way.
"Pan-ssi, Bang-ssi, please change your dress and come to the library. Everyone else, please enjoy the day and do not disturb me," ordered Young-Jae.
"Do you need me, father?" asked Young-Soo.
"That's ok. I will manage," said Young-Jae in a rude manner. He was always angry at his son. He never involved him in his work. He was given a separate small business to take care of. He was responsible for the handicraft business of Park conglomerate which was a very small division. The rest of the conglomerate was under Young-Jae.
Baek-Hyeon chose to work with Yong-Sun who was the textile king of Korea. His mother looked after the Seo Business which she had been pestering him to take over. He always said the day he established Seo textiles as a global company, he will take over Seo Business.
Man's had a large shipping business but Chin-Sun too chose to work with Yong-Sun.
"You are not going back," Bong-Cha jumped near her grandfather and hugged him lovingly. She was the only one who could make him smile in an instant. All his anger would wipe away just by looking at her.
"My family is enjoying the land of my ancestors. If I have to work why you all should suffer? We will have dinner together, rest assured." Young-Jae kissed her on her forehead and moved toward the library
Hearing him made Young-Soo scoff loudly. He was unable to hide his frustration and disappointment.
But his emotions were unseen by both grandfather and granddaughter. "Yay! I love you harabuhji," shouted Bong-Cha after her grandfather.
For a few hours, all were busy playing games, while Young-Jae, Bong Young-Mi and Pan Jung were busy in numerous meetings after changing into formal wear. After completing all his meetings, he was sitting with his family in the open courtyard.
"Harabuhji! May I ask something from you?" Bong-Cha asked in a quivering voice.
"Anything dear. Today being the new year my kid can ask anything from me. I am so happy. I just made a deal worth millions. My whole family is with me, I am the luckiest man in this whole wide world," said Young-Jae with pride.
Again his every word stabbed Young-Soo like a dagger. "Your whole family, really ahppa (dad)."
"Young-Soo!" shouted Young-Jae.
He couldn't take anymore. He stood up and said, "I am sorry everyone. I need to leave."
"Wait!" shouted Eun-Kyung but he didn't stop. She pleaded to her father-in-law, "shiahbuhji!"
"Let him go!" he shouted.
"But harabuhji, it's the new year. Can you guys not fight for a day?" begged Bong-Cha.
"Fine, everyone, pack your bags, we are going back. Everyone should be with family, even if someone is a moron," said Young-Jae, bitterly.
Again they had four cars, Young-Mi sat in Yong-Sun's SUV with all the young people. The women had a car of their own and Pan Jung drove Jong-Woo and Young-Jae.
"You are looking cute in hanbok, Yong-Sun," flirted Young-Mi.
"Thank you," replied Baek-Hyeon when Yong-Sun didn't reply to her. "He avoids talking in the car so that he can concentrate on driving." Baek-Hyeon helped his friend.
But it didn't bother her, she kept flirting with Yong-Sun the whole way and he kept concentrating on his driving and avoided talking to everyone in the car.
As Young-Soo had a head start, all reached half an hour after him. After reaching the Park mansion, Jung and Young-Mi left for their respective home after saying goodbye to everyone. As usual, she wanted Yong-Sun to look at her but he again avoided her.
No one in the Park mansion talked for the whole evening and ate their dinner in silence. After dinner, everyone retired to their room. Eun-Kyung went into her room and found her bed to be empty. She knew where her husband went.
She went to the terrace and found him sitting alone on the swing on terrace deep in his thoughts.
"You need to hide your emotions in front of your kids." Her voice brought him back from his thoughts.
"I was emotional because of my kid," replied Young-Soo
"I know that, and I understand your emotions, but you need to be careful because nowadays you are getting careless," explained Eun-Kyung.
"What would I have done without you? Thank you for spending your life with me and understanding me." He suddenly got emotional.
"Shut up, you know you are my best friend and I love you."
"I love you too." She took his hand in hers and pressed it to comfort him. He smiled at her.
She pulled him towards herself, he stood up and they went to sleep. Due to all the preparation of Seollal, Eun-Kyung was tired so she slept immediately. But Young-Soo was still awake. No matter how hard he tried, sleep won't visit him to take him to his dreamland.
After a few hours of tossing and turning, he jumped out of the bed, went to the closet, and stretched his hand towards the topmost shelf. He takes out a beautiful metal box with a heavy lock on it. He had a gold chain around his neck that was very precious to him. He took his golden chain out of his shirt. It had a beautiful key pendant on it.
He inserted the key in the lock and opened the box. It was filled with pictures, papers and documents. He searched and searched inside the box and took out a document. The document he was looking at was a birth certificate and it had a picture of a cute baby pasted on it.
Next, he took out photographs, there were numerous pictures of that baby growing up. There were pictures of her first walk, her first swimming lesson, her first karate lessons, her first day at school, her dance competition, her graduation ceremonies, magazine cuttings in which she was receiving awards.
Articles after articles were coming out of the box that sang the praise of the baby and her work. He felt so proud of his child that tears started flowing down his face. He didn't even try to wipe them as they would result in putting down photographs and articles about his kid, the kid he never knew yet knew everything about her.
"Why are you crying, ahppa?" said Bong-Cha while rubbing her eyes. Her voice gave him a sudden jolt of electricity. He looked terrified.
"Why are you up at this hour?" he questioned her. He had goosebumps all over him due to fear. The secret was about to see the light of the day.
"Sorry, ahppa, I didn't mean to frighten you. I was just thirsty," said Bong-Cha in a drowsy voice.
He urgently started putting all photographs and newspaper articles back inside the box. His suspicious behaviour made Bong-Cha inquisitive.
"What are these, ahppa?" she asked curiously.
"Nothing, just go have that water and go back to sleep." He tried to hide his emotion and desperately tried to change the topic so that she won't notice anything. But, before he could hide everything, she picked up a few documents and photographs.
"Who is this? Cute child, but this is not me. Here she is grown up. OMG! this is Ashma," she screamed.