The guy I met at Sedong Hospital (2)

"Do you have any other material to read? I'd like to read something, too," he said.

I showed him the only other reading material I brought there: The latest issue of Newsweek magazine. "I only have this. Would you care to read it?"
"Thank you." He snatched it happily and went back to his bed.
Minutes passed. From across the old man's bed he asked, "I remember Galilee is the name of a mountain appearing in the Bible. Am I right?" Now it seemed his stuttering was a habit grown out of his intention to avoid inadvertently offending the listener, by making himself look dull or even handicapped—though the habit looked part of him and so irreversible.
He was reading a book-introducing page, "Ready for his Close-up," and the name "Galilee" appeared there. I hadn't yet read till that page and didn't even have any idea what Galilee is. I told him so and said, "Let's search the Internet for it." He got over to my side again. I produced my tiny laptop. On Google, Galilee turned out to be quite famous indeed and there was a complete description of it on Wikipedia. The search result showed Galilee is used in multiple things in the Israel-Palestine region including a lake and there really is "Galilee Mountains" there. I could sense that he was knowledgeable of some English Biblical terms.
From then on he almost stuck to me. He talked about anything coming to mind: books, movies, directors, a video game, cartoons, and so on. Looked like he knew a little bit of everything, not to mention how to talk in English. He said he habituates the Kyobo book store downtown Daegu to have a chance to talk with English speakers often appearing in the English books corner. I started to wonder what kind of background he was coming from.
"What do you do for a living?" I asked. "I'm a handyman, doing manual work. I'm recently learning higher skills—cement plastering." "It will let you earn much money," I perked him up but he was literally a manual laborer—so called a "nogada" man. I had to know how long he had been in that business. "Ever since graduation from high school" was his answer.
At night I treated him to a can of soft drink from a vending machine at a lounge. Our conversation proceeded fluently on many things both personal and non-personal. I let him know enough about me and vice versa did he. He was a video game expert, specializing in only one item called Cheolgwon. He introduced me to the wide and exciting world of Cheolgwon. He had a wish to open a video game arcade if he earns some money—so ingenuous and pragmatic a dream—because that video game is so popular according to him.
He confessed he was innately born with a trait for books. Reading cartoons and fables was his childhood pastime. He was doing pretty well in school and going to university used to be thought to be on his life's natural path. But his father's business went bankrupt when he was a senior in high school and he was forced to make money right after graduation. He was not a lucky boy but he looked happy and content with what he had.