Omega Dong-Sik-i

Facing death, the scenes of his life flashed before his eyes—and every single one was miserable and sordid. Park Dong-Sik, a thug working as a debt collector for loan shark Moon Ho-Cheol. With no mercy, compassion, or loyalty when it comes to overdue debts, Dong-Sik fulfills his duties admirably once again today. He’ll even go so far as to pull down his pants and urinate in someone else’s shop to collect money. His only hobby is watching porn featuring men in suits. Just as he’s getting fully aroused while enjoying the video alone in his car, a stranger suddenly approaches him. The man, hunched over, asks to borrow a light. This man, so beautiful and elegant that Dong-Sik has never even seen his like on TV, takes Dong-Sik’s lighter and walks away. As Dong-Sik watches him go, he witnesses the man, who had been standing uneasily at the end of the breakwater, suddenly jump into the sea. Without a moment’s hesitation, Dong-Sik jumps into the sea after him. But in the pitch-black darkness, the man is nowhere to be found. Just as Dong-Sik is about to surface in the pitch-black sea where he can see nothing, something begins to pull at his ankle... During his time in an orphanage, after being abandoned by his parents and unable to endure the abuse, he had run away on his own. When he finally managed to reunite with his father, the joy of their reunion was short-lived; his father took all the money Dong-Sik had saved and disappeared again. Dong-Sik then ended up working under a loan shark, taking on all sorts of dangerous jobs and narrowly escaping death on numerous occasions. Dong-Sik’s last memory was a plea: “Please let me be born into a wealthy family in my next life, so I can live without a single worry.” When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a top-tier private hospital room—neither heaven nor hell. And in the mirror stood not Park Dong-Sik, but the man Dong-Sik had been trying to save. As Dong-Sik stood bewildered by this utterly incomprehensible phenomenon, another man appeared, volunteering to be his guardian. The man, who suddenly kissed him while asking, “How could you forget me?” was calling Dong-Sik “sister-in-law.” (Source: Ridibooks, translated)