[미안해, 기억할게] The Story of Itaewon Victims 26 Choi Jae-hyeok
The respectable husband who lived ’10 times the time’ than others
He carefully left the words to tell his two sons when they become adults.
Illustration Kwon Minji
The story of the victims of the Itaewon disaster and their bereaved families is published one after another. <한겨레>and <한겨레21>will record how precious each person’s life is that we should have kept, what the family’s life is like after it disappears, and what the bereaved family wants to know. We are waiting for the contact of the bereaved family who will tell us the unfinished story. <한겨레21> Reader communication mobile phone (010-7510-2154).
The calendar hanging in Choi Jae-hyeok’s house is still stuck at October 2022 even in February 2023. In the middle of the living room, in a frame hangs a picture drawn by his oldest son. It is a picture frame that my father, Choi Jae-hyeok, bought. There are family photos everywhere on the table and on the wall. Her wife, Kim A-ri (43), pointed to a camping chair in the living room and said. She said, “The groom is very fond of the second child (she usually has a child), but it didn’t go well.” My second son in the second grade of elementary school liked to play with his body like boxing with his dad rather than being hugged. One Sunday night, it was the day before the Taekwondo promotion examination. The second child cried bitterly because he did not want to go to the academy. Dad sits in a camping chair, sits his son on his lap, and shows him a YouTube video of Taekwondo promotion. He explained the screening process one by one and said to make good use of the memories he learned. Still, the child whimpered. “The groom, who was wondering what the child wanted, hugged her child silently instead of calming her down. She hugged me and said it was really nice and didn’t let go. She smiles and says she wants to keep hugging me.”
Forty-eight-year-old Choi Jae-hyeok was a warm father. He played well with his children and graded his study guides individually. January 2022 is when he went to the Salvador Dali exhibition with his children. 5th grade of elementary school My first son went to Dalijeon and wrote this in his diary. ‘I don’t want to go to the art museum anymore.’ Choi Jae-hyeok, who saw this, said. “Don’t try to understand the picture from now on, can you find the color that daddy won’t be able to see?” When the child asked for help from his father, he looked intently at the painting from the next exhibition he visited. Dad often took the child not only to art exhibitions, but also to various exhibitions and museums. He was also a husband whom his wife respected more than anyone else. After getting married in June 2010As a result, these couples have never had a fight. He was a faithful husband. Even after work at 11:00 p.m., I would wash the dishes. “A person who is always comfortable and unshakable like a calm lake.” (wife Kim A-ri) Even while traveling around the world for work, she bought a gift for her child in advance. After watching a movie with the kids, they took Star Wars toys out of storage. Choi Jae-hyeok worked as a founding member and head of strategic planning at SLL, a content studio affiliated with JTBC. He set up the company’s growth strategy and mainly did investment work. He also handled mergers and acquisitions. Unlike his cold work, Choi Jae-hyeok was originally a friendly person. He said, “He was a warm senior who kindly explained and encouraged juniors if there were things they didn’t know. He is the older brother who preferred to give rather than be treated.” These are the words of Mr. A, a junior at the company who worked with me for five years. Her friend of 20 years, Jae-mo Koo, said that her friend’s nickname was ‘Jae-hyeok’s mother’, who “lived ten times as long as her peers.” Choi Jae-hyeok was diligent and kind enough to meticulously organize receipts when he went on a trip with his friends.
On October 29, 2022, a week after returning from an overseas business trip, Jaehyuk Choi I went to meet an old colleague I worked with in Itaewon, Seoul. It was a regular meeting held every month in Itaewon. It wasn’t until 10 p.m. that day, two out of the four people gathered took a taxi and left. Choi Jae-hyeok and one of his colleagues walked to Itaewon Station. Around 10 p.m., Choi Jae-hyeok took pictures of the crowded streets of Itaewon on his mobile phone. After that, a disaster happened. “The two of them were walking together, but got swept away by a crowd and fell and tore the two apart. (My colleague) fell down on the street and woke up two hours later and came back alive.” (Kim Ari)
“How are you outside?” children could not understand
Until midnight that day, his wife, Mr. Kim, had no contact with her husband. The news of the Itaewon disaster continued to come out. He was a husband who didn’t drink and answered the phone every time. I found my husband’s old cell phone and managed to get in touch with the old colleagues I met that day. With the help of his colleagues, he was able to contact the police to locate his husband’s cell phone. Kim went out of her house and waited for her taxi to come. He said, “Every time the taxi came, I prayed for the groom to get off. Even now, just looking at the taxi brings tears to my eyes.”
In the early morning of the next day, Mr. Kim recklessly headed to the multipurpose gym with Wonhyo that the victims were gathered. When he arrived at 3 am, he found the victims lying covered in white cloth. I knew it was her husband just by looking at the white sneakers. “I checked my husband’s face then, and he seemed strangely comfortable sleeping, so I didn’t accept it as reality.”
The police gave her husband’s cell phone and wallet and told him to take it because identification will be done with his fingerprints. but in a few hours Suddenly, I heard that all the victims in the gym were dispersed to the hospital. I called the police earlier and checked here and there, but it was not confirmed where her husband had gone. It was only at 3:00 p.m. that her husband was confirmed to be enshrined in a hospital in Ilsan, Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province. “When I first found my husband, I didn’t want him to accept an ID card.” Choi Jae-hyuk, a son of a filial son, issued a highway toll gate high-pass card in his name to his mother, Kim Hyeon-suk. In mid-December 2022, after his son left, her mother drove out of the toll gate in Gwangju, Jeollanam-do, and it was not passed because there was an unpaid approval. “I cried because I felt like I had confirmed my son’s death.” To his mother, Jaehyuk Choi was a proud son. He is a curious son who used to put coins in the radio as a child, His son graduated from Seoul National University’s College of Engineering and Graduate School of Business and has published several business books. “He lived like a real flame. ‘See you soon, my son,’ I wrote (in my KakaoTalk profile).” (Mother Kim Hyeon-sook) The children have not yet come to terms with their father’s death. After the funeral, her first son asked her mother. “Did your father die in Itaewon?” Kim answered calmly. “Yeah, it was.” the child asked again. “why?” When I explained that the accident happened because a lot of people gathered, the child asked again. “Did it happen because there was not enough air in the subway?” Kim tried to answer calmly. “No, it was outside.” A difficult question to answer came back. “It’s outside, but it’s not even an enclosed space. How could that happen?” she had nothing to say “Even my mother doesn’t understand. I guess time will tell.” After that, the eldest son never asked about his father’s death.
A memo written by Choi Jae-hyeok to teach him when he becomes an adult after his first child is born.
I can’t open the Lego gift I bought to play with my first child
The second son asked first, “Dad went on a business trip to heaven?” “Now that Dad is in heaven, and you believe in God, God’s power, Dad’s power, and Grandpa’s power. Now you’ve got super powers.” This is what Kim said to the second. The second son did the boxing he used to do when playing with his father instead of saying hello in front of the memorial stone at the church retreat in Gonjiam, Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do, where he had sent his father away.
Choi Jae-hyeok, who went on a business trip to France throughout October 2022, bought a lot of gifts for the children. He also has gifts he bought on previous business trips and has yet to give to his children. “I was looking for Christmas presents in the warehouse, and I found a Lego gift that I had been saving for my first son to share with his dad when he grows up.” He said, ‘There are many things I want to pass on to the first person. Picture of my imagination. CEO. A company that is neither too big nor too small, has a vision and knows how to serve its employees… .’ Dad is gone, but there are still many presents he left behind.
Reporter Lee Jeong-gyu [email protected]
A memorial post posted on Facebook by Choi Jae-hyuk’s friends.
A memorial post posted on Facebook by Choi Jae-hyuk’s friends.
A memorial post posted on Facebook by Choi Jae-hyuk’s friends.
At the request of the bereaved family, quoting from other media outlets is prohibited.
