Chapter 68
“Aaagh…”
Eun-hwi cried out, clutching his head at the sight of the stack of bills that looked to be at least several dozen.
Reading books was one thing, but an unexpected money-counting homework?
Long ago, while traveling with Gabi, he had seen students being beaten with a rod by a Seodang teacher. He shouldn’t have mentioned the stick; now he might end up like those children back then.
His head was already throbbing, and he hadn’t even counted a single bill yet. At this rate, he felt he’d only embarrass himself rather than win Yeo Moon-beom’s heart. He wanted to forget about flirting and everything else and just flop down on the blanket.
“Yeo Moon-beom, I think my back suddenly hurts. Can I go lie down in the room?”
Eun-hwi made exaggerated groaning sounds and demonstratively poked his lower back with his fist.
Despite the fairly convincing act, Moon-beom’s sharp gaze didn’t soften, and he stared at Eun-hwi.
“I know you’re not in pain. Don’t pretend.”
“Tch. You told me to just lie down and not do anything.”
“That was before you started wandering around unnecessarily and causing trouble.”
“I didn’t cause any trouble, though?”
“You did. You caused a big one, so hurry up and take this to the room.”
His stern gaze suddenly curved into a gentle line. His expression was full of composure, as if saying any effort was useless.
Eun-hwi couldn’t argue further, having met Dr. Hong and received the pain patches without permission. The half-dokkaebi had no choice but to lower his head and look down at the bundle of money in his hands.
He had often seen blue and green money while visiting Young-ok’s store, the only shop in the village, but this was his first time seeing yellow money. Curious about the number 5 written on it instead of 1, he examined it front and back.
“One, two, three, four… Gasp! There are four zeros!”
He barely managed to steady himself after almost falling backward in shock.
What should I do? It’s too difficult.
He had only learned to count up to ten thousand, so he was confused about how to count beyond that.
“A question before you go.”
“…Yes?”
Yeo Moon-beom took out two bills from a bundle tied with a white band and showed them to Eun-hwi, asking:
“How much is two 50,000 won bills?”
“Two 50,000 won bills?”
Eun-hwi spread out one hand and began diligently folding and unfolding his fingers.
“Umm… Five twice, so… One, two, three, four, five… Six, seven, eight, nine, ten… It’s ten, ten man won!”
“Not ten man won, but hundred thousand won. When man is ten times, it becomes hundred thousand.”
“Ah, I see! Hundred thousand won!”
“It’ll be much easier to count based on hundred thousand rather than fifty thousand.”
Despite acting so scary earlier, threatening to bring out the stick, Yeo Moon-beom was now subtly helping, which Eun-hwi found very kind.
He had felt overwhelmed, like standing in the middle of the ocean, and wanted to give up without even trying. But now it seemed he could reach the correct answer if he counted diligently.
The half-dokkaebi, who had been staring blankly at Yeo Moon-beom as he handed back the hundred thousand won, called out to him in a slightly excited voice.
“Yeo Moon-beom.”
“What?”
“If I count it all correctly without making mistakes, will you give me a reward instead of beating me?”
“Of course. What would you like?”
“It’s a secret for now. I’ll tell you if I get it right.”
To become lovers.
That was the reward he wanted most, but Eun-hwi planned to ask for something else, not wanting to receive it as a compensation for something.
I’m sure Yeo Moon-beom will like it too.
Just thinking about receiving a reward made him excited and happy, causing a ticklish feeling in his chest. Eun-hwi hugged the bundle of money to his chest and smiled brightly. His round, puffy cheeks turned a light pink, matching the shirt he was wearing.
“Let’s see…”
Eun-hwi untied the band wrapped around the middle of the bundle and placed the 50,000 won bills on the floor one by one. He planned to count how many bills there were in total first, then convert it to hundred thousand units to calculate the total amount.
“Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight. Twenty… Oh, where was I? Was it twenty-six?”
He got confused for a moment and checked the floor. But there were too many bills laid out to roughly estimate the number by eye. He still had more than half of the money bundle in his hand.
“This is bad.”
No matter how many times he recounted the money, he felt he wouldn’t be able to get the correct answer. At this rate, he was headed for a beating.
Gabi had said that love makes you cross between life and death several times a day. At this rate, he felt he might end up in the afterlife due to the pain of not meeting Yeo Moon-beom’s expectations.
“That’s it! I’ve thought of a good method!”
Eun-hwi jumped up and ran with small steps to the bookshelf, took out an inkstone, ink stick, brush, and paper, and returned to the room.
He couldn’t trust his own head, which often got distracted and forgot things quickly. So he thought he could calculate accurately without making mistakes by using tools to record the numbers.
“If I do it like this, I can count properly without getting confused!”
He was incredibly proud of himself for coming up with such a clever idea. The half-dokkaebi ground the ink stick on the inkstone with his shoulders tensed. Then he wrote on the rice paper in crooked handwriting:
一 row equals 十 sheets
“One sheet, two sheets, three sheets…”
Eun-hwi counted the bills like Mr. Kim from Young-ok’s store, slightly wetting his fingertip with saliva. He made sure to carefully draw a stroke of the Chinese character for “correct” on the paper every time he counted ten sheets.
Although he had learned about Arabic numerals used by foreigners from Yeo Moon-beom, he still found it easier to distinguish using Chinese characters.
The half-dokkaebi’s cheeks slowly puffed up as he concentrated intently. His small lips moving slightly resembled a rabbit eating food.
一 row equals 十 sheets
正 正
“Phew…”
After drawing the final horizontal stroke, Eun-hwi put down the brush on the stand and exhaled a thin breath. His eyes hurt as if they were about to pop out after counting the money with his nerves on edge, worried about making a mistake.
“But I counted it all!”
Looking down at the floor where ten bundles of ten sheets each were laid out, he stretched both arms towards the sky and let out a cheer of joy.
“So. How much is it in total?”
“…Huh?”
Eun-hwi’s gaze fell on Yeo Moon-beom, who was entering through the wide-open door with a towel around his neck.
“You’re already done washing, Yeo Moon-beom?”
It didn’t seem like much time had passed, but apparently, a full meal’s worth of time had gone by.
Yeo Moon-beom approached, rubbing his still-damp hair with the towel. A cool yet fresh scent, like mint leaves touched by morning dew, penetrated Eun-hwi’s nostrils.
Eun-hwi blushed for a moment as he looked at the chest muscles and abs exposed through the open shirt, then hurriedly gathered his wits and examined the money on the floor.
“Umm…”
He had learned that ten ones make ten, ten tens make a hundred, and ten hundreds make a thousand. There were ten bundles of ten bills each, so there were a hundred bills in total.
Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty…
Since two bills make a hundred thousand won, ten bills make five hundred thousand won. Counting fifty ten times…
“F-five million won?”
Surprised by the enormously large number, Eun-hwi unconsciously fell back and blinked his wide-open eyes repeatedly.
The money before him was worth enough to buy five pairs of the sneakers Yeo Moon-beom had gifted him.
Perhaps the village’s Mr. Kims had bullied Yeo Moon-beom because they coveted the magic bag that produced a hundred yellow bills. He felt a bad urge to sprinkle gravel in their fields and yards again.
“I was sure you’d get it wrong and even prepared a stick… But you got it right?”
“A stick? Where?”
Eun-hwi looked at him curiously, as he wasn’t holding anything besides the towel. Yeo Moon-beom curled one corner of his lips into a smirk and pointed to the area near his right-sided crotch.
“Here.”
“Ah…”
So that’s what he meant by beating with a stick…
If he had known this, he should have gotten the answer wrong instead of right. As he was weighing in his mind which would be better between receiving a reward or punishment, Yeo Moon-beom gathered the bills and started counting them quickly.
Chak, chak, chak, chak.
The sound of crisp, unwrinkled paper being flipped at regular intervals was fascinating. Eun-hwi’s bright red lips gradually widened as he watched, mesmerized by the sight of Yeo Moon-beom counting money with incredible hand movements.
As expected, there was nothing Yeo Moon-beom couldn’t do. Eun-hwi felt proud to have come to like such a person.
“Five million won. Exactly correct, customer.”
After flipping the last bill, he snapped it with his thumb and index finger and said in a low voice, looking into Eun-hwi’s eyes seriously.
“But customer, you should have added the service charge too.”
“…Ye-es?”
“Didn’t you know there’s a 500 won withdrawal fee for transactions outside bank hours?”
“With-drawal fee?”
It seemed to be Chinese characters, but he couldn’t understand what it meant at all, like some twisted language. However, it was clear that he was asking for more money, so Eun-hwi earnestly asked Yeo Moon-beom, who was holding out his palm:
“I don’t have any money. Can’t it be free like last time?”
“That might work for regular customers, but you’re a first-time customer, so it’s not possible.”
Yeo Moon-beom’s expression was firm as he shook his head. The half-dokkaebi, unable to hide his bewilderment, hurriedly reached out and grabbed something. This was the only thing he could give him.
“Th-then I’ll pay with this instead, teacher.”
