I Became the Lousy Side Top - Chap 19
When Jaewoo opened his eyes, the house was empty. The children were at school, and Hyunjin must have left for work, but where had Mujin gone? Jaewoo searched throughout the house, but he didn’t see any sign of him. Finally he discovered Mujin’s business card under the pillow in Jaewoo’s bedroom, along with a check for the sum of two million won.
‘I can’t accept this.’
The idea of taking Mujin’s money made Jaewoo’s skin crawl. As he was absentmindedly tapping the check against his palm, a thought suddenly came to mind. It was of the phone that Mujin had smashed against the wall and destroyed. It hadn’t been an expensive phone, but it had done all he needed. This must be Mujin’s way of repaying him.
“Still, this is too much.”
It seemed that Mujin had really left.
‘His clothes are gone too…’
Jaewoo had been trying to figure out what Mujin was going to wear today, so it was good that he was gone.
‘But is it really?’
Originally, Mujin should have stayed at the house until his wound healed. Jaewoo couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on.
He sat on the floor blankly and stretched his legs out, watching the clear blue sky. Since the weather was nice today and winter will be here soon, should they make kimchi?
Before he decided one way or another, Jaewoo decided to search through every nook and cranny to see if they had the tools they’d need. His search turned up two large rubber basins that would be perfect. He could use one for salting the cabbage and the other for the seasoning.
Luckily, the yard was quite large, perfect for making kimchi. There were plenty of places around the edges that weren’t covered by cement where Jaewoo thought he could bury the earthenware pots. He’d need to go buy the cabbage, of course. How many heads of cabbage should he get?
“There’s myself, Hyunjin, Hyeonu, Woohee…”
Would nine heads be enough to feed the four of them all winter long? He could probably pickle that much kimchi on his own. Napa cabbage kimchi1 in winter; bomdong cabbage2, green onions3, and chives4 in the spring. In the summer, Eolgali cabbage5, young radish6, and cucumber could be made into kimchi, while in the fall you had nabak kimchi7 and chonggak kimchi8. There were so many types of kimchi you could make.
Jaewoo was worried he’d forget the ingredients , so he found a pen and paper and wrote them down one by one. There were quite a lot of ingredients.
“Ah right, can’t forget the pork.”
When he thought of boiled meat9, a smile came to his face. Tender pork stewed with soybean paste, sliced thin and eaten with freshly made kimchi was the best!
Gulp.
Jaewoo wiped a bit of drool from his lips. Freshly made kimchi tastes delicious with basically anything. You can have it with boiled meat, or just plain rice. It’s amazing even if you’re just eating it by itself!
Energized, Jaewoo leapt to his feet and grabbed his wallet and a reusable grocery bag. He could buy a new phone along the way.
‘They’ll deliver the cabbage, right?’
Jaewoo really wasn’t confident in his ability to drag nine heads of cabbage up to the house. He was just on his way out the door when he spotted two children sitting on the edge of the road. Jaewoo immediately recognized Hyeonu and Woohee just from the way they were moving their heads.
“Hyeon–!”
Jaewoo had started to call out to them happily, raising his hand, but was cut off by a grumble from Woohee.
“Me too, I want to go to an amusement park too!”
“Woohee, it’s…”
Hyeonu sounded embarrassed as he spoke to Woohee.
“Do you want some candy?”
He took out a piece of candy as an obvious distraction, but Woohee, who was very upset, didn’t even look at it.
“Today, Jiyeon in my class was bragging about going to an amusement park.”
“Woohee, we can’t do everything that we want.”
Hyeonu’s voice was calm as he spoke. He sounded so grown up, it was hard to believe he was still in elementary school. Hyeonu rubbed Woohee’s back comfortingly and held out the candy once more. Woohee sniffled a bit before taking it and popping it into his mouth. His cheeks were bulging with it.
Seeing them made Jaewoo’s heart ache. Childhood should be a time to play and have fun.
‘There has to be something I can do for these kids…’
While he was thinking about it, the kids spotted Jaewoo.
“Hello.”
Hyeonu smiled shyly after saying hello.
“Ah, hello.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going grocery shopping. Would you boys like to come with me?”
It was a spur of the moment offer, but Hyeonu’s expression turned thoughtful, and he nodded his head.
“Yes, we’ll come help you.”
‘No, there isn’t anything you can do to help.’
That was what Jaewoo thought, but the children seemed to take their self-appointed job seriously. Hyeonu took the grocery bag, and Woohee held Jaewoo’s hand to help him down the steep roads. Woohee’s hands had gotten plumper, and Jaewoo felt inordinately proud of that fact.
Jaewoo took the children and headed to the larger supermarket that was further away. When they entered, Hyeonu’s eyes widened in surprise. Then he swallowed and cautiously stepped inside.
“What would you boys like to eat?”
“We’ll eat just about anything.”
As Hyeonu was speaking, Woohee looked like he wanted to interrupt, but in the end, he kept his mouth shut.
“It’s okay, just tell me.”
Jaewoo gently soothed the children. Then Woohee took in a breath and spoke up cautiously.
“Chicken!”
“Woohee, don’t-“
Hyeonu tried to stop him, but he was too late. As soon as the words came out of Woohee’s mouth, Jaewoo had already picked up two large pieces of chicken.
“What sort of chicken? Fried chicken? Marinated chicken?”
“I like both!”
Woohee excitedly replied, and Jaewoo held back a smile. It was wonderful to see Woohee acting like a child again. On the other hand, Hyeonu still had a worried expression on his face.
“Aha, I see you finally figured it out.”
Jaewoo said to Hyeonu jokingly.
“What?”
“That cooking chicken is my specialty.”
“Really?”
Hyeonu’s eyes got wide.
“Absolutely. When I fry chicken, people come from miles around just to get a taste.”
Jaewoo said humorously and stroked Hyeonu’s head.
“How about we make some soy sauce fried chicken10?”
“Awesome! Soy sauce fried chicken!”
Woohee jumped up and down excitedly. Jaewoo took advantage of the opportunity to get the shopping bag back from Hyeonu and put three packs of chicken in it. One to marinate, one to fry, and one for the soy sauce chicken. Today would be a chicken party!
“What about some snacks? What sort of snacks do you like?”
“Anything is fine.”
Hyeonu said politely. It seemed like he didn’t want to be a bother to Jaewoo. It wasn’t like Jaewoo didn’t get it, but he really wanted to spoil the two of them. He tried to subtly add a bunch of snacks to the bag, but Hyeonu spotted him.
“Why are you buying so many snacks?”
“Huh? Because I’m going to eat them.”
“You’re going to eat all of those?”
“Not all at once, but eventually, sure.”
Hyeonu tried to stop Jaewoo, but Woohee was staring at some chocolate candy.
“Woah, this looks delicious.”
Hyeonu’s expression darkened at Woohee’s careless words. He took a step back and started searching through the pockets of his jacket. When he dug all the way to the bottom, he found a crumpled bill. It was a thousand won.
Hyeonu double-checked the money and then checked the price on the chocolate.
It was 1,500 won.
He didn’t have enough for it. Hyeonu put the money back into his pocket and turned to try to soothe Woohee.
“Eating chocolate will rot your teeth.”
“But I’m really good at brushing my teeth?”
“It’ll still rot them.”
“What if I brushed my teeth right after eating it?”
Woohee said with a sullen expression. Still, Hyeonu stubbornly shook his head no.
“We can’t.”
Even at Hyeonu’s firm words, Woohee looked at the chocolate snack with a lingering gaze.
‘I want to buy it for them.’
Jaewoo was being tormented by the urge. But if Hyeonu, the older brother, had told Woohee no, then should Jaewoo really go against that? He had the money to pay for it, but what about the next time? He didn’t want to just buy it impulsively.
‘Could I ask Hyunjin to buy it for them?’
No, he absolutely couldn’t do that. If it was for his brothers, Hyunjin would find a way, but he didn’t want Hyunjin to have to spend a single penny. After considering it for a long time, Jaewoo finally picked up two boxes of the candy while the children were looking elsewhere. The boxes had a long expiration date, so he’d have time to figure out how he could give it to them.
“You guys go wait outside while I finish up.”
Jaewoo sped through the checkout process and picked up the heavy grocery bag.
“I can help!”
As soon as Jaewoo stepped outside, Hyeonu rushed to him.
“No, it’s okay.”
“But I’m really strong.”
No matter how strong he was, Jaewoo wasn’t going to let a child carry something this heavy. He flexed, showing off his nonexistent muscles to Hyeonu, and said.
“I’m stronger!”
Jaewoo said that and then immediately blushed out of shame. What the heck was he saying? He was an adult, of course he was stronger than a kid was. However, neither Hyeonu nor Woohee laughed at him. On the contrary, they stared at him with admiration and their eyes were sparkling.
‘What good kids.’
All of this was due to Hyunjin’s efforts. Even in tough times, he’d been their family’s bedrock. He’d allowed the children to grow up so well. It was just another example of how exceptional Hyunjin was. As he thought of Hyunjin, Jaewoo began to smile unconsciously.
“Well then, shall we go home?”
Jaewoo said bravely and lifted the shopping bag higher.
“Yes!”
“Ready!”
The children followed Jaewoo excitedly. The slope was just as steep as ever, but somehow it felt less strenuous today.
Hyunjin didn’t mind manual labor. Working hard meant that he could put his body on autopilot and not have to think about anything else. He could forget about the things that were troubling him. That was what he thought, but for some reason, he was having trouble focusing today.
If you didn’t want to get hurt, you needed to keep your eyes peeled. Construction sites could be dangerous if you weren’t paying attention. He had to get his head out of the clouds.
‘Even so…’
Hyunjin was troubled. Just hearing his father’s name from Mujin, a known gangster, made his stomach churn.
‘What has he done now?’
They may have shared the same blood, but Hyunjin hated his father. He was a man who’d abandoned his family and lived for nothing but his own selfish gratification. It’d reached the point where Hyunjin barely even considered him as his father. He’d suffered for so long because of him.
‘Why am I the one struggling to pay off his debt?’
There were many times when Hyunjin had despaired because of it. But what else could he do when the debt was owned by people like those gangsters? Hyunjin had no choice but to give in, in order to protect his younger siblings.
