Seoul to London 2017
The place where Daniel lived while running his company was Frankfurt, Germany. However, Daniel purchased a flight ticket from Seoul to Heidelberg via London. This was to meet his 87-year-old father, who lived in a villa on the Philosophenweg (Philosophers' Walk) in Heidelberg.
Cultural Note: The Philosophenweg is one of Europe’s most famous scenic paths, known for its stunning views of Heidelberg’s old town. It was historically a place where university professors and philosophers walked to contemplate life. Living in a villa here signifies immense wealth, high social standing, and an intellectual heritage.
Because he had a crucial meeting scheduled in London regarding a corporate merger, he chose a route that headed to Heidelberg by way of the United Kingdom.
The business class section of the flight from Seoul to London was nearly empty. As he settled into his seat and the plane took off, Daniel’s heart grew cold with memories of his mother from his childhood. It felt strange to think that the mother he longed for might actually be someone he didn't truly know. "Who was Mother? Where did she spend her childhood, and for what reason did she come all the way to Germany to give birth to me?" The realization that he had lived his life so busily every day without taking the time to think deeply about such things felt alien to him.
At that moment, as a flight attendant passed by his seat, Daniel raised his hand and spoke.
"Excuse me, if it’s not too much trouble, could I have a glass of whisky, please? No rush at all."
At Daniel’s polite English expression, the flight attendant replied with a smile. "Ah, yes. If you wait just a moment, I will bring it to you shortly."
The flight attendant soon returned, carrying a glass of whisky on a tray, and said as she placed it on the table, "Please let me know anytime if you are uncomfortable or need anything else." She turned away with a kind smile.
Regardless of age or nationality, Daniel’s dignity and exotic appearance captured the gaze of men and women worldwide. Like a secret code embedded in his genes, there was something about him that made everyone’s heart flutter. Possessing both the contemplative aura of the East and the sensory contours of the West, Daniel’s bright expression seemed to harbor a shadow—a missing piece of a life that remained unfulfilled. It was a gaze so deep it made people feel that if they only offered a kind word, that shadow might finally vanish.
If there were a work of art imbued with magical genes that captured the viewer’s eye and made their heart pound, Daniel was like such a masterpiece, possessing a mysterious charisma that captivated the hearts of everyone he met.
"Thank you. You are very kind." Daniel took a sip of the whisky. Feeling the liquid warming his esophagus and stomach, he relaxed slightly. He tried to understand the connection between Yuriko, whom he had met in Insadong, the paintings, and the statues his mother had made, but he could not easily find an answer.
Contextual Note: Insadong is a historic neighborhood in Seoul famous for traditional Korean art, tea houses, and galleries. It is the spiritual heart of Korean craftsmanship.
If his mother had given birth to a daughter and put her up for adoption before coming to Germany, Yuriko could be his mother’s granddaughter. However, it was difficult for him to imagine that his mother, whose love for her child was almost excessive, would have given her own daughter up for adoption. If such a thing had happened, he wanted to know exactly what the circumstances were.
Daniel’s mother, Mi-hee, came to Germany in the 1950s. While he didn't know the exact year, he knew only that she had left Korea during the Korean War. Daniel was born in 1970. His mother, who had intended to work as a sculptor, gave birth to Daniel at the relatively late age of thirty-nine. And her activities as an artist came to an end then. This was because Daniel became the entirety of his mother’s life. Especially since his father, Hans, was at that time taking over his grandfather Johann’s chemical plant and growing it into a global company, his mother had devoted herself to raising Daniel and supporting her husband.
When Daniel was around three or four years old, his mother began sculpting again. To attempt an exhibition in her homeland rather than the fiercely competitive European art market, she would occasionally take Daniel to visit small galleries in Insadong. However, her artistic career had already passed its prime, and exhibiting in Insadong galleries became more of a nostalgic journey to her hometown.
While lost in these thoughts, he fell asleep. When he woke up, the seat was reclined comfortably like a bed, and a blanket had been placed over him. He straightened the seat and turned on the monitor to check his location. He was flying over the Middle East. He would arrive in London in about three hours. An elegant flight attendant, appearing to be in her thirties, approached Daniel with a smile.
“You were sleeping so deeply that I didn’t wake you. Would you like to eat?”
"Excuse me, it seems I’ve slept through the meal. Would it be possible to get a glass of tomato juice? Also, if you have any Schwarz Vollbrot with cheese available, I’d very much appreciate it."
Cultural Note: Schwarz Vollbrot (German black whole-grain bread) is a staple of German identity—dense, nutritious, and hearty. Daniel’s request for this, rather than standard airplane food, highlights his deep German roots despite his mixed heritage.
The flight attendant responded in German with a smile. “You must be German. My mother is also German, so I always had Schwarzbrot with cheese as a snack.” She spoke in fluent German and then looked closely at Daniel’s face, smiling.
“Ah… you are Mr. Daniel von Klitzing. The CEO of the German chemical company Klitzing. you are much more handsome than the photos in the newspaper articles.”
As if hypnotized, the flight attendant could not take her eyes off Daniel’s exotic face. Large brown eyes with a honeyed hue, black hair mixed with strands of silver, a well-developed jawline, and a nose and mouth like a Greek sculpture. His bronze skin, which gave off a Latin-like feel, and his neat, modern muscular physique typical of an East Asian, made him look as if he possessed all the superior genes in the world.
Because Daniel owned a villa in Mallorca, Spain, and worked from there whenever he had the chance, his skin was tanned dark like someone of Latin descent. In his late forties, Daniel possessed a dignity that made his age impossible to guess, and thanks to his frequent swimming in Mallorca, he boasted solid shoulder and arm muscles.
The flight attendant returned from the galley with a German black bread sandwich, tomato juice, and a glass of water. “The tomato juice is quite thick, so I brought a glass of water as well. If it’s too strong, please mix them.”
Daniel replied with a smile, “You are truly kind. Thank you.”
As he was slowly eating the bread and drinking the juice while looking out the window, the flight attendant came to clear the food. “My name is Anna. Please let me know anytime if you need anything during the flight.” Anna spoke shyly as she cleared the tableware. Daniel had a mysterious charm that allowed every woman in the world to feel as if he were a father figure, a lover, or a brother to them.
What Anna felt as she cleared the dishes was the mysterious scent he exuded. The fragrance of Creed Majalis—which means 'hospitality' in Arabic—surrounded him like a mist. That scent, a mix of the sweetness of dates and the bitter aroma of tea, made Daniel’s very existence seem like an unreachable sanctuary in a far-off foreign land.
His father, Hans, who traveled frequently to Dubai, always gifted this perfume to his son. Majalis is a fragrance at the pinnacle of the "Exclusive" line within the House of Creed, difficult to find in general stores.
Contextual Note: Majalis (Arabic for "gatherings" or "lounges") refers to the traditional Middle Eastern space where guests are received with the highest honor. By wearing this, Daniel carries a scent of elite globalism and warm "hospitality."
The things one uses without thinking, the words and actions one performs unconsciously, the foods one eats out of habit… perhaps those trivial daily routines are what ultimately define a person. These facets of Daniel had the power to pull women of any nationality or age into a dreamlike state. His warm smile was like a door opening to a world of fantasy for people of all races.
There are people you meet only in passing but can never forget for a lifetime. Someone who seems to understand the weight of your loneliness and life all at once and offer you rest. A person who stabilizes your heart with a single look or gesture, as if they had always existed in your life—that person was Daniel.
Though Daniel was the CEO of a giant chemical company, he was single, of mixed race, and had lost his mother at a young age, being raised by German grandparents who didn't understand him well. This background made him profoundly human, and the longing for his mother held in the center of his chest made women want to protect him while simultaneously wanting to be protected by him.
Daniel, who traveled frequently on long journeys, always read paper books. Although it was an era where e-books were common, he insisted on paper books as if his very soul were contained within the printed type. Within them, he found peace, felt his mother’s presence, and sought his identity. It was his habit never to let a book out of his hand, regardless of the field—economics, philosophy, science, or fiction.
His mother, too, always kept books close. She mainly read books in her native Korean and Japanese rather than German, and his father, Hans, would always track down those hard-to-find books for her. His mother, whose hometown was Wonsan in Gangwon Province, said that her family used both languages at home during her childhood. Although she never knew her biological mother’s face, having lost her right after birth, she told him stories of how her mother—Daniel’s grandmother—was a Japanese woman and the daughter of a book merchant, which was why she always loved books. Daniel often thought his obsession with books came from his maternal ancestors who were Japanese book peddlers.
He also knew the fact that his maternal grandfather had been an important aristocrat in Korea during the Japanese colonial period and had collaborated with the ruling powers. “He was such an intelligent and wonderful man. But the situation at the time was truly complex. If he hadn't cooperated with the Empire, all his property would have been seized, and he wouldn't have had the chance to devote himself to the scholarship he loved so much. Your grandfather loved scholarship more than politics, and he knew that the country could not exist without Western culture and exchange with the Japanese. However, Japan did not come for exchange; they came with military force. It was an era of violence where a military regime blinded by ambition tried to go through the Korean Peninsula and China all the way to Europe. Man's destructive thoughts led not only to Asia but also to World War II in Europe, and afterward, Korea suffered a war where ideologies collided…”
His mother remembered the grandfather as a "feeble giant" who loved scholarship more than politics. Those choices—at once cowardly and sublime—made to protect knowledge in an age of violence. Daniel carefully reflected on the weight of that complex lineage flowing through his body within the printed words.
His mother, who would sink into reminiscence while sadly explaining the modern history of the two countries that made up half of his genes—while Daniel moved between consciousness and the unconscious, between his books and the space between Yuriko and his mother’s statues, the plane slowly began its descent into London.