Chapter 2
The man went to the most secluded corner of the restaurant. Boss Park hurriedly chased after him to take his order.
“What would you like to eat? And what kind of alcohol would you prefer?” His voice was so overly kind it bordered on obsequious.
All the responses came from the other man who had come with him. “Four servings of pork belly and one bottle of soju. Also give us one doenjang-jjigae and one bowl of rice each.” Boss Park immediately flashed an eye-smile, saying, “The doenjang-jjigae is on the house!”
Yuwon glared at the back of his boss’s head, which was acting completely different from usual. What the hell got into that old man? Just yesterday he had been spitting mad, saying he knew exactly how much all the vegetables that go into doenjang-jjigae cost, and that giving it as a service was absolutely ridiculous.
Regardless, Boss Park put in the order to the kitchen and scurried over to the man’s table with tongs and scissors in hand. This was the same boss who absolutely refused to grill meat, claiming he hated oil splattering, yet here he was—just who were these dark-looking men?
Suppressing his rising curiosity, Yuwon cleaned up the dishes that had fallen on the floor and the spilled side dishes. After bringing a mop to clean up even the sauce that had gotten on the floor, he let out a sigh.
When he glanced up, Boss Park was grinning and grilling meat at the men’s table. No matter how he looked at it, it was a strange sight.
Yuwon tilted his head in confusion and got back to catching up on the backed-up serving. In between, he went into the kitchen to do some simple dish washing. Sohyeon quietly approached and asked if he was okay. Yuwon squinted his eyes and smiled at her.
Even during all this, his gaze kept drifting toward the man.
He was incredibly large. Tall with broad shoulders and thick arms. His companion was also quite big, and he even had a tattoo on his neck. An entire dragon wrapped around his neck.
Could they be gangsters… or something like that? If so, that would explain why Boss Park was groveling like that.
Since redevelopment began, this area had become a den of thugs. Even unaffiliated neighborhood punks would swarm in to interfere with business and extort money. Boss Park had managed to get through several crises with his snake-like survival skills, and today might have been another one of those times.
Yuwon glanced sideways at the man again while filling the utensil holders. Only about an hour had passed, but there were already five soju bottles on the table.
He couldn’t hear any particular conversation, and the two men just silently ate meat and drank. The one with the dragon tattoo seemed to add a few words here and there, but the man would only nod or shake his head, rarely opening his mouth.
Yuwon continued watching the man. He appeared to be in his early to mid-thirties, and his hairstyle and clothes were too neat to call him a gangster. Unlike his companion, there were no visible tattoos on his neck or arms.
Only after emptying even the sixth bottle of soju did the man finally stand up.
Yuwon, who had been wiping tables, bounced out like a spring and stood in front of the register. The dragon tattoo man held out a card.
“Would you like a receipt?”
“No need.”
Even while finishing the payment and handing the card back to the dragon tattoo man, Yuwon’s gaze remained fixed on the back of the man’s head as he opened the door and stepped outside the restaurant.
The man grew distant beyond the glass window. His fine hair lifted lightly with each step. The jet-black color was exactly like the man’s eyes.
Only after the man had completely disappeared from view did Yuwon leave the register and begin clearing the table.
“Oh…”
And not long after, he discovered a black coat left behind.
Usually when customers left their belongings, they would store them separately. It was common for drunk customers to leave behind coats or wallets, and they would typically come looking for their items the next day.
But this situation was a bit different. The weather outside was too cold to have accidentally left his coat behind.
He had clearly seen with his own eyes the man walking away into the distance. Unless he had a body that couldn’t feel cold, there was no way he wouldn’t have noticed.
Could he have abandoned it? Just because he got some seasoned spinach on it?
“……”
Suddenly, a strange courage welled up.
Quickly clutching the coat to his chest, Yuwon rushed out of the restaurant. Running down the slope, he fortunately spotted the man’s retreating figure.
“Excuse me, excuse me!”
At Yuwon’s shout, the man turned around. Just that alone made his heart pound for no reason.
After catching his breath once, Yuwon held out the coat he had been carrying.
“This… you left this behind.”
With each word, white puffs of breath emerged from his small mouth.
The man, with both hands buried deep in his pockets, looked down at Yuwon silently. With the orange streetlight behind him, the man’s body looked quite massive.
Yuwon clenched his chattering jaw firmly and continued speaking.
“If you’re bothered because it got dirty, I could pay for the dry cleaning…”
“Throw it away.”
Before he could even finish his sentence, the man spoke in a dry voice. Yuwon thought he had misheard and asked again.
“Pardon?”
“Just throw it away.”
That was all the man said. He immediately turned around and continued on his way. His retreating figure was as cold as the fierce wind blowing.
Yuwon stood still in that spot, clutching the coat. White puffs of breath still rose every time he exhaled.
***
A residential area that took 15 minutes to reach from the restaurant. Among the buildings densely lined up on the roughly paved asphalt, the most run-down place was Yuwon’s home.
The two-story house with red brick walls topped by a blue roof was already small, but it had been crazily divided into eight rooms inside.
At least there was some conscience involved—the monthly rent was extremely cheap. Yuwon had been completely won over by the real estate agent’s words that you couldn’t find prices like this even if you turned Seoul upside down and shook it out. In fact, while looking for a place to live independently as soon as he turned twenty, he had never seen a place this cheap.
He realized the saying “you get what you pay for” not long after moving in. There was no shoe rack, so he had to leave his shoes outside the door, and the bathroom was so close that the smell of backflowing sewage permeated the room. The cold wind that came through the window cracks making eerie sounds was a bonus.
Still, this single room was heaven to Yuwon. With black mold growing in every corner of the old walls, a space so narrow that it would be packed full with just a floor desk and a wardrobe—it was heaven nonetheless.
The orphanage where he had spent his entire life assigned three people to a room this size. You had to minimize your belongings and avoid fighting with the kids you lived with. Even if you fought, grabbing each other’s hair, you’d still have to sleep right next to each other when night came.
“Yuwon hyung, you’re really mean.”
“I told you not to call me ‘you.’ Do you want to die?”
“What am I supposed to do when hyung is being mean? Don’t you see the handprint still on my back? You’re not even a gangster, how can you hit your dongsaeng like this?”
“Who told you to use my stuff? I said everything else was fine, but not the yellow mechanical pencil.”
“I’m going to tell the director everything.”
“Go ahead, tell him.”
“I’m not a tattletale!”
On nights when he fought with the dongsaeng who shared his room, they would continue their childish arguments right until bedtime. Sometimes when they cried and hit each other, the startled director would rush into the room.
“You two shouldn’t fight, you should get along nicely, okay?” At those kind words, he would suppress his boiling anger and shake hands with his dongsaeng. Even while glaring, they would hug. Yuwon had learned from a very young age that they had to do this.
How long had he yearned for a space of his own? Yuwon still couldn’t forget that quiet night on his first day of independence, when he couldn’t hear anyone else’s breathing.
No matter how small the room was, when he stretched out his arms and legs, there was no chance of bumping into someone. He didn’t have to worry about someone touching his belongings, and if he couldn’t sleep sometimes, it was fine to keep the lights on all night. That alone was enough.
Like a movie protagonist lying in white snow and flailing their arms and legs, Yuwon lay in a starfish position and moved his legs wildly from side to side. Thanks to the boiler he had just turned on, parts of the floor were warm here and there.
Then his foot bumped into something. Yuwon sat up and stared at the rustling plastic bag.
“Throw it away.”
The man’s voice suddenly came to mind. His indifferent eyes and sharp nose. Even his firm lips.
The man’s expression when he casually told him to throw away perfectly good clothes hadn’t contained even a trace of hesitation. It made his trembling worry about expensive dry cleaning costs seem ridiculous.
“So annoying…”
What’s wrong with getting a little side dish on it? Yuwon muttered quietly to himself and took out the coat from the bag he had brought it home in. When he held it to his nose, it had a strange scent—a mix of perfume and seasoned spinach.
It felt like spilling black ink on an elegant work of art. Yuwon collapsed back onto the floor.
This damn life. A lonely life with nowhere to lean on. A life abandoned from the beginning, not even knowing where it started. All he had learned was tenacious persistence, and though he was somehow holding on with just that, he didn’t know how long this could last.
He was just living to survive, with no goals. Even when he mustered up strength from deep in his gut and stubbornly lived on, the days when he felt as weak as bent grass increased. During those times, Yuwon wandered.
Ah, I should wash up.
Before he could grasp his fading consciousness, his eyes slowly closed. He was still holding the man’s coat in his arms.
- Doenjang-jjigae – Korean soybean paste stew
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
