99
While he hesitated for a moment, the door swung open. From inside, the man opened the door with a displeased expression. Taein stepped back while extending his hand forward. It was a half-resigned gesture showing he would go in obediently.
“Were you always this slow?”
The man left only those words and went inside. This time, Taein didn’t delay any longer and stepped into the tent.
The first thing he saw was a long light fixture. A light hanging from an iron pole was swaying in the air. It was so old and dim that rather than illuminating the surroundings, it only created an eerie atmosphere. It vaguely looked like there were rows of tanks lined up, but he couldn’t tell whether those were tanks or pits for dunking people. Taein couldn’t even think of looking for the man and just stopped in front of the door.
Then, from the side, he heard someone calling “Kang Taein.”
It was the man’s voice.
Taein snapped to attention and headed toward where the man’s voice came from. Although it was the man who had dragged him here, he felt he should listen to what the man had to say first. When he changed direction and passed a large pillar, a makeshift door was revealed. With light coming through the slightly open door, it seemed the man was here.
Maybe not.
Taein carefully opened the door.
It was a small single room. Unlike where he had just been, this space had white lighting and a spacious table prepared. Taein made eye contact with the man sitting across from him and hurriedly took off his shoes. The man looked up from his phone. He was looking at him with eyes that said “You’re finally here.”
“Hyung-nim, it’s been a while.”
Someone tapped him from behind. The man who appeared saying “hyung-nim” was a giant who must have weighed at least 130kg. His shaved head and white waterproof apron were impressive. He seemed to have tapped Taein without knowing who he was, tilting his head with a “Huh?”
“Who is this… Is this a hyung-nim I don’t know?”
He asked Taein that directly. Taein went “Ah” and opened his mouth, then closed it. Because the man sitting at the table spoke first.
“Oh, he’s my partner.”
“Partner?”
It seemed they didn’t usually use such words. The giant man asked “Partner?” while laughing. The two seemed to have some familiarity. Taein felt distant from the giant man’s appearance and impression at first, but when he smiled, he at least had the courage to look at his face. Taein looked at him with his shoes half off, or looked toward Donghwan.
“Right. Partner. But how much of the stuff do you have? Enough to float four pieces?”
“Oh, we have plenty, hyung-nim. Shall I prepare it for you?”
“Yeah, let me see your knife skills after a while.”
“Yes.”
The man who bowed properly made an “ugh” sound as he lifted his torso. He also made an “mm” sound when he briefly made eye contact with Taein, but that was all. The man just nodded once and disappeared into the darkness. It wasn’t visible up close, but as the man gradually moved away, Taein could see a large, square knife in his hand. Taein looked at the dangling knife and turned his head.
Inside, the man was looking at him with a “what are you doing” expression.
“What, are you interested in that bastard?”
It was such nonsense that he didn’t answer. No, it was closer to being unable to answer. What kind of knife was he carrying anyway—it was a large, menacing knife that Taein had never seen in any kitchen during his years delivering alcohol. Taein just stared at Donghwan. Since he hadn’t stepped up into the room yet, running away was his choice. He’d been thinking that all along.
“Oh ho. You’re not saying anything? Now I get it. Since your taste is like that, I was just eaten and thrown away?”
“What kind of ridiculous…”
He muttered quietly, but there was enough emotion in it. His feelings of absurdity and bewilderment were fully revealed.
“Huh, really? You still like well-built bastards?”
“…I didn’t say anything.”
“Again.”
The man seemed unable to stand the formal speech he heard again, going “Waah” and throwing his head back sharply. After making eye contact with the hazy lighting like that and lowering his face, he nodded as if giving up completely.
“Fine, fuck it. Do whatever you want. But I’m going to keep talking like this. If you feel wronged, why don’t you drop the formal speech?”
He started speaking as if angry, but ended on a coaxing tone toward Taein. The man who suggested coaxingly “Why don’t you drop it?” added one more thing to Taein standing at the door.
“You’ll get cut by the knife if you stay there, Taein.”
How well does he know me to call me “Taein”? That was his momentary thought, but the part about getting cut by a knife stood out much more. Taein’s eyebrows twitched slightly as he finished taking off his shoes. Then he put his legs against the floor that came up to about knee level and climbed up. It was less than a step’s distance to the seat across from the man.
The small room had everything it needed. Two suits of unknown ownership hung on the wall, and there was something like an opening congratulations clock. Looking at the jewelry store business name written on it, it seemed like a clock unrelated to this place. The roughly applied wallpaper was bothersome, but this wasn’t originally a space that should have walls. The thugs must have forced the walls up. He was thinking such thoughts as he looked around.
“What are you rolling your eyes around for?”
At those words, Taein’s eyes immediately met the man’s.
“Hm? Your eyes are like this.”
He made glasses with two fingers to express eyeballs, which felt rather childish. Taein was in a confused state, unable to know exactly the man’s purpose or the use of this place. In the midst of such confusion, seeing a childish gesture, there was no way any reaction would come out. Taein just nodded his head slightly and lowered his eyes. Looking only at the table edge, he acted to avoid irritating the man as much as possible.
“Kang Taein. Am I making you uncomfortable?”
However, as if that was more irritating, the man leaned his face all the way to the middle of the table and threw those words.
“…A little.”
It seemed like an attitude of trying to listen to him, so honest feelings naturally leaked from Taein’s mouth.
Whether the word “a little” was funny, Donghwan frowned and burst into laughter. After laughing by himself, right after, he also banged his head against the wall. At the “thud” sound, Donghwan touched the back of his head saying “Ah, fuck,” and showed exaggerated raised eyebrows saying “Really?” Taein saved his words there. It was a delicate situation where he couldn’t give a definitive answer that he was uncomfortable, nor could he turn his words around saying it wasn’t like that at all.
“Hey, you.”
Donghwan, who had been laughing, gradually had his expression erased as he looked at Taein staring at him. He started with “you” but just stuck out his tongue once and stopped. Then he leaned against the wall with a thud and muttered something like “working again.”
“Huh? More scheming again.”
He threw such words at him as if concluding, but he couldn’t understand what kind of scheming he was talking about.
Then, the door opened wide and small noises were heard. The giant man climbed up himself and was placing something on the table. What came up on the table was white sashimi. The fish head and tail were placed as they were, with only the flesh thickly sliced in the middle. After that, one more skinny man appeared to place side dishes and left.
It was a proper meal that didn’t match this kind of place.
“Hyung-nim, I caught the most lively one.”
“What good does being lively do?”
The man who picked up a piece of sashimi saying “The chewing texture should be good” put it straight into his mouth. Even though there was red pepper paste and soy sauce in front, he tasted the sashimi raw. The giant man was looking at Donghwan with a smiling face. He seemed confident in both the fish and his own sashimi-cutting skills. Donghwan only reacted after chewing and swallowing all the fish flesh. He briefly commented that it was edible.
“Hyung-nim, this bastard goes for fifty, sixty these days.”
“So what. You want money for it?”
“Ey, no way.”
The two seemed to get along well. Taein listened to their conversation while keeping his eyes on the table. Besides the sashimi, he could see small rice balls, fried squid, and steamed eggs. There was even steaming rice placed one each in front of Donghwan and himself.
How many days had it been since he stayed at the inn? During that time, Taein had never properly filled his stomach. When he was too hungry, he would boil tap water and mix it with coffee mix to drink. Fortunately, on his way out from a restaurant interview, he grabbed a few with his hands, so he could substitute meals with those. The rumbling sounds continued, but it wasn’t enough to starve to death. But.
Perhaps because he had food that looked like real food in front of him for the first time in a while, saliva kept pooling in his mouth.
The giant man who had been chuckling for a while got up from his seat with the final words “Hyung-nim, then please take good care of it.” Even while rustling and leaving the room, he said “My knife skills aren’t ordinary knife skills.” Donghwan could be seen laughing lightly at that. Probably because he found such words amusing, the giant man seemed to keep joking around like that. Soon the sound of the door closing was heard and only the two of them remained in the room.
“Mm, do you have refined taste?”
Donghwan evaluated Taein like that for not picking up his utensils.
“That’s because you don’t know. Do you think that bastard is ordinary? Try one. Your mind will change.”
It wasn’t because of reasons like having refined taste or not knowing that he wasn’t picking up his utensils. Taein was hesitating with an uncomfortable person in front of him in an uncomfortable place.
“If you don’t want to eat, don’t. I’ll eat it all.”
And he put two pieces of sashimi into his mouth at once, but it didn’t seem like just casual words. He quickly chewed and swallowed two pieces, then brought another two pieces to his mouth. Except for once specifically mentioning the fish name in the middle, he didn’t recommend eating more either. Even if I give you red sea bream, you won’t eat it. That was the last thing he said.
Because of the man chewing and swallowing sashimi at an unbelievable speed, half of the fish body was emptied.
Taein became anxious because the man lifted another two pieces of sashimi.
When something starts to bother you, only that thing catches your eye.
Taein was exactly like that right now. The diminishing sashimi, the side dishes being picked off one by one kept catching his eye.
Finally, unable to overcome the impulse, Taein grabbed his utensils and swept broadly across the entire table.
“If you don’t eat quickly, it’ll all be gone.”
“…Please eat.”
Then, pretending not to care, he scooped rice with chopsticks and put it in his mouth. It was ordinary white rice, but he wondered if it had always been this delicious. The warm, savory rice taste brought a feeling of stability to his heart as well. Taein ate three spoonfuls of plain rice and rummaged through the surrounding side dishes. Fried food and steamed eggs. The shapes weren’t neat or pretty, but they tasted so good it was as if they were drugged. Taein ate rice for a while, then brought his chopsticks to the sashimi as well.
He was so absorbed in eating rice that he could no longer watch the man’s actions, but the man seemed to have lost interest in the sashimi after quickly eating about half. The other half remained as it was. Taein dipped the red sea bream sashimi he was eating for the first time in red pepper paste and tasted it. So this is what it tastes like. Honestly, he couldn’t feel much difference from other sashimi, but since it was said to be expensive, it seemed different somehow.
Then he thought about whether he’d been lucky enough to taste it before, long ago.
Old things sometimes bring sadness.
Taein put aside the taste that seemed familiar yet not, and tried the red sea bream dipped in soy sauce and also ate it raw. Like Yoon Donghwan.
It wasn’t a special taste, but the texture sticking to his mouth was nice. It seemed subtly savory too. Taein closed his mouth and slowly chewed the sashimi, then casually raised his eyes. He’d been feeling a gaze piercing his forehead since earlier… Sure enough, the man was looking down at him uncomfortably. When their eyes met, the man sharply raised one corner of his mouth.
“What are you looking at? Should I eat you as a side dish too?”
He’d been talking about eating and throwing him away since earlier, and he seemed to still be saying something similar. He must be a lighter person than expected. His first impression wasn’t like that at all. Taein lowered his eyes without responding and thought about this and that regarding the man while focusing on his meal. The meal he bought, his way of walking, the debt he owed him, his meaningless words and actions.
“Eat me since I’m free. Who told you not to look?”
And as if that was amusing, the man added one more thing.
Taein ignored him while eating the fluffy, well-cooked steamed eggs.
Still, thoughts about the man floating around in his head.
It was the first time he’d thought about someone like this while eating.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
