[Hey, kiddo. State your business.]
Business… What was my business again…
[Come on, if you have nothing to say, I’m hanging—]
“I, I want to meet you!”
[……]
Surprised by his own words, Geun-yeong took a deep breath and covered his mouth. He couldn’t believe what he had just said. Though unbelievable, for Geun-yeong who could vividly remember events from 18 years ago, his recent words were all too clear. It wasn’t that different from what he had originally planned to say. But there was an enormous difference between “I’d like to meet you because I have something to say” and simply “I want to meet you.” Geun-yeong was astounded by his own mistake. If he was this astonished, the other person must have been equally so. After a not-so-brief silence, the man on the other end asked:
[Are you gay?]
“What? No, I’m not…”
[Are you in heat? Want to do it with me once?]
“What? No! I’m not…”
[This guy is ridiculous.]
The man actually laughed as he said this. It was clearly a mocking laugh, but even that sound was pleasant to hear, and Geun-yeong found this fact quite strange. More than strange, he felt somewhat dizzy. He seemed to be breaking into a cold sweat. Geun-yeong raised his trembling hand to his forehead.
Could it be hypoglycemia…
He had collapsed from hypoglycemic shock before he turned twenty. It hadn’t happened even once since then. This was thanks to Ji Seokhun’s perfect regulation with continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pumps, and also because Geun-yeong himself, having realized the terror of hypoglycemia, maintained regular meals and a structured lifestyle. When he collapsed from hypoglycemia, it felt like being sucked into a dark river. It was the terror of impending death, impossible to forget. So he knew the symptoms of hypoglycemia well.
But now, something felt off. It seemed similar to the symptoms he experienced then, but also quite different.
I need to check my blood sugar…
When symptoms are ambiguous, checking blood sugar is the solution. To do that, he would need to end the call and open the screen, but Geun-yeong didn’t want to do that.
[So, why do you want to meet me? What do you want to do when we meet?]
“…That’s not it…”
It’s not about what to “do.”
“…I have something to talk about when we meet.”
[What talk? The one from before? About seolleongtang or whatever?]
He wasn’t sure why, out of all the numerous topics and various words he had mentioned, the man specifically picked up on “seolleongtang,” but anyway, he was right. Geun-yeong wanted to talk more about Gangdong Dreaming Daycare, which was located behind the 50-year-old Obok Seolleongtang restaurant. He wanted to ask if he really didn’t remember anything. If he truly didn’t remember anything, Geun-yeong wanted to tell his current story and ask him to try, just once more, to remember more sincerely.
“…Yes.”
[This ridiculous guy is persistent too.]
“No, I’m not,” a murmur under his breath, a click of the tongue, and then a long sigh could be heard. Geun-yeong’s ears were not just tingling; his shoulders felt numb as well. He tried clenching his loosely held fist tightly. That didn’t help, so he hunched his shoulders and drew his body in.
[Then, come here.]
What?
[Now.]
He stopped his hunched posture. He unclenched his fist. His heart, which had seemed to be pretending to be calm for some time, started pounding fiercely again. Geun-yeong placed his hand over his heavily thumping heart.
* * *
Kyung Jiho, who was turning around after ending the call, stopped abruptly.
“Hyung.”
Lee Dongjae, who had followed Kyung Jiho out of the room with the phone and had been listening behind him throughout the call, asked with a rather surprised face.
“Is that guy gay? Has he been hitting on you all this time?”
“What?”
Kyung Jiho raised one eyebrow and asked back.
“Just now while talking to that guy, you asked if he’s a homo who fucks with men, if he wants to hook up with you once, if he wants to meet with you privately. I didn’t see Dr. Saetbyeol that way at all, but he turns out to be quite a dark-hearted—”
“Shut up.”
Kyung Jiho pushed away the face of the overly talkative guy and opened the door to the room he had briefly left to take the call. As soon as Kyung Jiho entered, a blonde woman in a tight red mini dress rushed over.
“Oh my, oh my, handsome oppa, what were you doing? I waited for you so much.”
Kyung Jiho looked down at the foreign woman who was clinging to his arm and pressing her body against him while speaking broken Korean in a flirtatious manner, and he put his hand into his chest pocket.
The woman, thinking a tip might be coming out, rubbed her breasts, which were already pressed hard against his arm, even more while her eyes sparkled. However, what was being pulled out of the pocket she was watching wasn’t a wallet.
“Well, I’ve heard enough from all the ladies gathered here, and I’ve greatly enjoyed the drinks you’ve served, but the law is the law. I’m arresting everyone here for violating the enforcement decree on restrictions on foreign employment under the Immigration Control Act.”
Though the foreign woman didn’t quite understand what this handsome oppa was saying, she recognized that the thing the man held up was a police badge and quickly detached herself from the arm she had been clinging to.
The women sitting near the door who had been bending over and moving stealthily—
“Ho ho, where do you think you’re going? Outside this door is still the Republic of Korea.”
…while Lee Dongjae was blocking the way.
With one hand in his pocket, and if that wasn’t enough, standing with his weight on one leg in an extremely casual posture, this good-for-nothing—no, despite appearances, a detective—but a man who looked by all accounts like a gangster, spoke in a manner even more casual than his appearance suggested.
“From this moment on, these ladies are classified as undesirable foreign nationals in the Republic of Korea and will be subject to forced deportation. Gather your belongings properly, hey, you over there, don’t try hiding anything under the sofa. Take that out. Quickly.”
Interrupting himself, the man who had made a threatening gesture toward a woman trying to hide something, clapped his hands sharply and said:
“Now, please move quickly to the limousine specially prepared for you ladies at the back entrance. Go.”
* * *
Rushing in a hurry, Geun-yeong almost tripped in the middle of the stairs going up to the second floor. He barely managed to steady himself by grabbing the railing, then hurried again.
He squeezed through behind the guys who were in the middle of chattering. Near where Woo Donghwa was, he bent slightly at the waist and spoke quickly:
“Donghwa, I need to go somewhere quickly. Can you look after my phone? If Professor calls, tell him I went to the bathroom.”
No sooner had he put down his phone than Donghwa, already the third guy to raise his buttocks as Geun-yeong passed behind him and moved away, asked in confusion:
“Huh? What? Hey! Where are you going? When will you be back!”
“I’ll be back before the second round ends! See you later at Blue Frog!”
“Huh? Hey! Ji Geun-yeong! Geun-yeong!”
Leaving behind Donghwa’s desperate calls, Geun-yeong left Gomo’s and immediately caught a taxi. Then he gave the name of the establishment in a back alley of Gangnam where that man had told him to come “now.” When the taxi driver entered it into the navigation and saw the distance, fortunately, it wasn’t too far. There was enough time to go and come back before the dinner ended.
During the call to get permission for the second round, when the man had asked where the dinner was, Geun-yeong had said it was in the food alley near the back gate of the hospital. That’s why he had left his phone with Donghwa. If the man were to check his location, he would certainly find it strange that Geun-yeong was going to a back alley in Gangnam.
Of course, he needed to check his blood sugar and might need to make urgent calls, but right now, meeting that man and talking to him in the brief time he had bought was the most urgent and important matter.
The taxi driver finished operating the navigation and started the car.
* * *
The room that had been full of foreign women was now completely empty as if it had never been otherwise.
The man sitting in the seat of honor was smoking a cigarette with his legs crossed, and the man sitting next to him was continuously picking at the leftover fruit snacks. Saying, aigo, it’s such a waste.
And the man sitting on the other side of the smoking man, the manager who had rushed over when he heard the news that there were police at the establishment, was making complaints with a tearful face.
“Ah, hyungnim! How are small fry like us supposed to do business if you do this! Didn’t you promise before that you wouldn’t crack down for at least six months!”
“Kid, when I gave you that six-month period, did you think I was telling you to run your foreign merchandise business without worry and then close it properly on your own?”
“Wasn’t that it!?”
“No.”
“Aish, this is dirty and fu—”
The man who was about to say “fucking” quickly pursed his lips like a flower-shaped bun. The eyes of the man lowering his cigarette and glaring at him were too frightening.
And with good reason—the man was currently displeased.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
