#010
Before there was time to say anything to stop him, Yeonwoo ran to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. The belly of the refrigerator that had been full just yesterday was completely empty.
“Why?”
The question “why?” wasn’t asked expecting an answer. It was a single word that escaped unconsciously, representing his endlessly hollow feelings.
Kang Dojun, who had been timing things all along, finally brought up the words he had been holding back.
“We can go to the mart again today. And let’s refrain from stealing from now on. Grandma Kyeong-i came by earlier, and she said you took her vacuum cleaner before too? Let’s return that as well.”
“…Hyung.”
Yeonwoo said, chewing each syllable with a trembling voice.
“Grandma Kyeong-i’s son bought her a new vacuum cleaner, so she gave me the old one.”
“…Huh?”
“She’s an elderly person who keeps forgetting things, so sometimes she uses the vacuum cleaner as an excuse to nag, and I end up helping her clean her house too!”
Yeonwoo looked extremely wronged. He had good reason to be.
He was someone who didn’t even clean his own house properly. Helping clean someone else’s house was a big deal by his standards.
He had cleaned with the good intention of being filial to the grandmother, but what hurt him most was…
“Did hyung believe that?”
“…Well, you see, Yeonwoo.”
“Did you think of me as a thief who steals other people’s vacuum cleaners?”
Kang Dojun couldn’t find words and struggled. In an attempt to somehow break through the situation, he uncharacteristically blurted out anything.
“I thought… this was also rural stealing…”
Yeonwoo’s lower lip jutted out. He clearly looked hurt.
“Stealing is taking food, but taking objects is theft!”
It was like a dictionary definition, but it was a clear answer. Yeonwoo was right. Kang Dojun immediately apologized.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine if you understand. More importantly! We’ve been robbed again!”
Yeonwoo pointed at the empty refrigerator and shouted. He seemed to let the being-treated-like-a-thief incident slide with the apology, but he couldn’t tolerate being robbed again.
At his words, Kang Dojun rubbed his face dry.
“Sigh.”
This damn countryside was like an onion village where bewildering things kept coming up no matter how much you peeled away.
They stole alcohol, they stole eggs, they stole the vacuum cleaner, no actually the vacuum cleaner was given… The circumstances of incidents kept changing constantly, so he lacked the ability to grasp the truth.
He had lived his entire life according to plan and achieved results that matched those plans. But since coming here, forget about plans—nothing was working out as expected.
But why was it that small laughter kept trying to leak out through his lips?
Outstanding actors are sensitive to emotions. There were no emotions he didn’t know, and no emotions he couldn’t express.
Kang Dojun knew very well the meaning of this emotion he was currently feeling, this laughter. It wasn’t laughter from being flabbergasted, nor laughter from finding this onion-like rural life interesting.
Yeonwoo, who noticed the corners of his mouth slightly raised between his fingers, glared at him.
“Hyung, are you laughing right now?”
His eyes were reproachful, as if saying: You’re laughing when we’ve been robbed? We need to come up with a plan!
“Yeonwoo.”
Kang Dojun lowered his hands covering his face halfway and lifted the corners of his mouth obviously, showing an attractive smile.
“Stealing is fun.”
He swears and swears again. This was definitely laughter burning with a desire for revenge.
* * *
Yeonwoo crunched on a lollipop and said,
“Hyung, you’re too naive.”
On the internet, in news, and on SNS, “naive” wasn’t a word that attached to Kang Dojun. However, even though it was the first time this modifier was attached to him, he couldn’t refute it.
Since he had felt guilty believing that Yeonwoo had stolen the vacuum cleaner, he had just watched quietly as the refrigerator was cleaned out right before his eyes.
“You see, stealing is… Even though it might seem like simply taking things, it’s only possible when you steal intelligently through clever deception.”
It was a lecture on stealing that you couldn’t hear anywhere else.
“You saw Grandma Kyeong-i, right? On the first day, she pretended to be my real grandmother, and this time she said I stole the vacuum cleaner. At this point, the forgetfulness might be an act.”
It’s an advanced technique for stealing… is that it? It was quite a plausible deduction. Kang Dojun unconsciously nodded and began listening to Yeonwoo’s words as if mesmerized.
“Hyung, it’s been three days since you came here, right? By that time, you need to move intelligently. Otherwise, you can’t survive in this harsh place.”
He chewed on the stick part of the finished lollipop and spoke as if this place were some kind of jungle.
“So from now on, let’s go with team play.”
“Team play?”
“Yes. We live in the same house, so we’re on the same team.”
It’s not even a game… It sounded like word play that a child would do, but he could feel clear sincerity from him.
“Hyung, promise me.”
Yeonwoo extended his pinky finger and said,
“From now on, we won’t suspect our teammates.”
Kang Dojun reluctantly hooked his finger with his pinky. Yeonwoo looked so serious that he couldn’t say anything.
“Absolutely. Absolutely. You can’t believe things like ‘he stole the vacuum cleaner’ and such. Since we’re on the same team, we must only trust each other. Got it?”
“…Yeah.”
Only then did Yeonwoo show a satisfied smile. He walked toward the store with lighter steps.
“Grandpa, I’m here.”
“Excuse me.”
Grandpa Beom, who had been watching the old television inside the store, lifted the remote to turn off the power and got up from his seat.
“Oh my, the workers are here.”
He shook hands with Kang Dojun and the other people, then looked at the cameras behind them and smiled broadly.
“There’s nothing to film in my store, but please take good care of it.”
Grandpa Beom put on his outer clothes and hurriedly prepared to leave. Yeonwoo quickly asked him as he rushed out.
“Where are you going?”
“Oh, the village hall. More importantly, what’s wrong with your hair?”
“Ah, Dojun hyung cut it for me. How does it look?”
“Hmm, it’s nothing special.”
He proudly spoke while touching his shortened hair. Grandpa Beom brushed off Yeonwoo’s words and patted Kang Dojun’s shoulder, saying,
“I was a bit worried about leaving the store to strangers, but I’m relieved since Yeonwoo is here. I have an appointment so I’ll go first. Well then, good luck!”
In the end, he left hastily without giving any explanation about the store’s work. He seemed to want to get away from his workplace, the store, even for a moment.
Yeonwoo explained the work to the bewildered Kang Dojun in place of the store owner. Since he occasionally came to play at the store and watched what Grandpa Beom did over his shoulder, he roughly knew.
“Most items have prices written under the products, so you can just look at those and collect money.”
“What about items without prices?”
“Then you sell them at whatever price you think they might be.”
He casually replied while taking out ice cream from the store’s freezer. Then he handed one to Kang Dojun as well.
“Have this while you work.”
His behavior was already no different from the store owner. Kang Dojun asked for the price to pay for both his and Yeonwoo’s portions.
“How much is this?”
“Hey, this is part-time pay.”
He was a cute part-timer who took his own wages. At those words, Kang Dojun also silently unwrapped the ice cream and put it in his mouth.
You couldn’t survive in this place with Seoul mindset. On the third day of the harsh countryside, Kang Dojun was somehow adapting smoothly.
As he sat at the counter seat eating ice cream, Yeonwoo subtly said, as if he wanted to sit too,
“Hyung, can I sit with you too?”
At the narrow counter seat, Kang Dojun pressed his body against the wall as much as possible to make room.
Yeonwoo seemed to like the narrow space, sitting right next to him and smiling brightly.
It was a comical sight with two adult men packed tightly into a counter seat that was too wide for one person but too narrow for two.
After they had been like that for a while, the store’s old door opened and someone came in.
“They’re filming here too.”
“Grandma Suni!”
Yeonwoo jumped up from his seat and greeted the grandmother. Kang Dojun also stood up and offered his greetings.
“Hello.”
“Hyung, this is Grandma Suni. She’s married to Grandpa Jongsu who you met yesterday.”
“The grandfather who farms?”
‘She’s the one who helped steal the eggs instead…’
The recognition of “egg grandmother” took up more space in Kang Dojun’s mind than “Grandpa Jongsu’s wife.”
“Yes, that’s right. Grandma, why did you come here? Do you have something to buy?”
Yeonwoo had treated the elderly people he’d met so far rather bluntly. But with Grandma Suni, he followed her around like a duckling, chatting with her.
“You’re quite handsome. Well, is our troublemaker not causing you any inconvenience?”
“No, I’m living comfortably.”
Yeonwoo praised Grandma Suni to Kang Dojun with sparkling eyes.
“Hyung, last year when I ran away from farming and almost got scolded by Grandpa Jongsu, Grandma Suni stopped him.”
“What’s there to be proud of about that?”
When Grandma Suni reached out her hand, Yeonwoo naturally bent his knees to lower his height and made it easy for her to pat his head.
To anyone watching, it was a picture of a grandmother and grandchild. She was the kindest grandmother in this village and the person who indulged Yeonwoo’s whining the most. Naturally, he couldn’t help but follow her well.
Grandma Suni went to the display shelf, picked up an item, and brought it to the counter.
“How much is this?”
“Dog food?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll go check the price.”
Yeonwoo went to the display shelf where the canned goods were placed to check the price tag.
“Hyung, there’s no price written.”
Kang Dojun picked up the can and checked if there was anything written on it. Since he had never raised a dog, he couldn’t even estimate how much it might cost.
Yeonwoo also seemed to have no idea, and he wanted to ask the production team, but they would probably welcome such a difficult situation since they needed to create broadcast content.
“Should we say about 3,000 won?”
Yeonwoo suggested a random opinion. But when Kang Dojun also couldn’t determine the price and was in trouble, Grandma Suni held out a 10,000 won bill.
“Oh my, you’ve come all the way here from Seoul and are working hard, so use this change to buy some snacks.”
“No, we can’t…”
“Thank you. I’ll visit you later with something delicious.”
Leaving behind Kang Dojun who was about to refuse, Yeonwoo eagerly accepted it and whispered to him, giving him a hint.
“Hyung, we don’t know the price anyway, so let’s just accept it and go buy meat later.”
When he put it that way, Kang Dojun couldn’t refuse either.
“…Thank you.”
Grandma Suni smiled kindly and patted Kang Dojun’s shoulder.
Just as Yeonwoo had bent his knees to match her height earlier, Kang Dojun also bent his waist to lower his height so Grandma Suni could easily reach him. He felt like he had to do that.
“This is all rural affection, so accept it comfortably. And please take good care of our troublemaker.”
“Thank you. Please go safely.”
Kang Dojun offered his thanks until the end.
It was the same rural affection, but Grandma Kyeong-i expressed it through stealing, while Grandma Suni expressed it through giving. Today, entering the third day, he finally met proper rural affection and felt fluffy inside.
‘Right, this place isn’t some jungle…’
Just as he thought he had found errors in the lecture content Yeonwoo had given him, the next customer who appeared made him straighten up his loose thinking.
“Why aren’t you watching your houses and all gathered here?”
Grandma Kyeong-i said with a sickly smile.
“Did you lock your house doors properly before coming?”
Living in the house across from Yeonwoo, their greatest nemesis who had consecutively deceived Kang Dojun—Grandma Kyeong-i had arrived.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
