I Became the Lousy Side Top - Chap 23
“Hyeonu, you just keep an eye on Woohee. Let the adults take care of the food.”
“Okay.”
Fortunately, Hyeonu didn’t insist any further. Jaewoo sighed in relief and entered the familiar kitchen. There was egg drop soup1 in a pot on the stove.
“I can just eat this here.”
Jaewoo took out the leftover kimchi and put together a light meal with the warmed up soup. Egg drop soup was easy to make and tastes good. All it took was eggs, green onions, and a bit of seasoning, but the harmony between the ingredients was exceptional.
Jaewoo stirred the soup and brought a spoonful to his mouth. It was a little bland, but Jaewoo’s hungover stomach preferred it that way.
‘Hyunjin is good at cooking too.’
Jaewoo put some warm rice in the soup, scooped up a spoonful, and put some kimchi on top. If you eat it like this, it’ll taste good, but it’ll burn your mouth. That’s why Jaewoo blew on it and only ate it after it had cooled down. The sour and moderately spicy kimchi enhanced the flavor of the rice and egg drop soup without overpowering it.
“It’s good.”
Jaewoo smiled in happiness. If he wanted to keep feeling this happiness for a little longer, he should hurry up and buy the cabbage for kimchi. And this time, he needs to make sure to buy a new phone and ask Hyunjin for his number. The number he’d managed to get the other day was lost when the phone broke.
‘Damn crazy top.’
Jaewoo cursed at the absent Mujin in his head. He ate another spoonful, then winced as the hot soup touched his lips.
“Why do my lips hurt?”
Stumbling over to the mirror in the corner, Jaewoo saw a small cut on his lip. It looked like he’d hit it on something while he was drunk. He hoped that he hadn’t done anything too embarrassing in front of Hyunjin.
Jaewoo felt better after eating the soup and rice. Feeling more alert, he went into the bathroom to get ready for the day. By the time he finished, it was already noon. Jaewoo served lunch to the kids and then left the house rolling a large cart2 behind him.
He’d realized how convenient such things were when he was carrying Mujin the other day, so he’d taken the trouble to prepare one of his own. After all, the store might not deliver cabbage all the way out here. After comparing the weight of Mujin versus the weight of nine heads of cabbage, Jaewoo felt confident that he could manage the load. After all, he’d already handled something much heavier. He felt like an expert as he navigated the cart down the street.
As the weather got colder, cabbages started appearing in every store. Among them, Jaewoo sought out the sturdiest and most delicious ones, and bought nine heads of them. Once they were loaded into the cart, it was quite heavy. Jaewoo asked about delivery, but once he told them where he lived, the shop owner shook his head. In the end, Jaewoo would have to manage alone.
‘No, think of Mujin!’
He’d lugged Mujin all the way back using only a rusted, half-broken down shopping cart. That’s a lot more weight than nine heads of cabbage. Pulling his heavy-duty cart behind him, Jaewoo looked around the market. He bought meat to be boiled while they made the kimchi, and some homemade tofu that was steaming hot.
Jaewoo would often take vinegar, sugar, red pepper powder, green onion, and sliced red pepper and add them into soy sauce to make seasoned soy sauce. It was delicious with tofu, especially homemade tofu. He was planning on eating one piece of tofu today, then frying up the other and eating it with kimchi tomorrow.
He purchased the meat and tofu along with the nine heads of cabbages. He was worried they’d be ruined if he put them in the cart with the cabbages, so he carried them by hand. The supermarket was convenient and had good quality food, but the smaller market stalls had their own unique tastes.
“Oh, right. Salted shrimp3! Glutinous rice4!”
Jaewoo stopped by a salted seafood stall and purchased some salted shrimp and fish sauce, followed by glutinous rice. After buying some vegetables for the kimchi sauce, the cart was almost full to the brim. Still, it was worth it.
Jaewoo bought and ate a tangerine from a fruit stand, and stopped to watch the vendor at a fish cake stand. There were donut stands stocked with freshly fried donuts that couldn’t be missed, either. Jaewoo licked his lips and bought a bag of glutinous rice donuts coated with sugar for the kids. Then he grabbed the cart and headed home.
The fully-laden cart plus the extra bags of groceries hanging from his wrists were quite heavy, but Jaewoo couldn’t keep from humming. As he reached the steep hill towards the house, the ruts and pits in the road caused the cart to start rattling.
Jaewoo persevered up the slope, but before he had reached the top the cart suddenly became suspiciously light. Jaewoo looked back in a panic, wondering if some of the cabbages had fallen out of the back, but what he saw instead was Hyunjin. The cart felt light because Hyunjin had grabbed hold of the back and was helping to push.
“Hyunjin?”
Jaewoo’s eyes opened wide and he called his name. Hyunjin answered.
“Yes.”
Hadn’t he gone to work today? Jaewoo wanted to ask him, but he swallowed back the urge. People were allowed to rest. Why was he so surprised that Hyunjin was taking a break? Instead, Jaewoo focused on something else.
“You don’t have to help.”
“It looks heavy, though.”
“This? This doesn’t even register as being heavy to me.”
Jaewoo’s pride was stung, so he spoke firmly, trying to conceal it. When he heard it, Hyunjin smiled with the corner of his mouth.
“I know.”
Even so, Hyunjin didn’t take his hands off the cart. Still keeping hold of it, he walked towards the front and began to pull it up the hill himself.
“You know what?”
Jaewoo struggled to take the cart handle back from Hyunjin, but before he could, Hyunjin spoke up.
“So last night…”
Jaewoo’s hand, which had been moving, froze.
“You boasted about how strong you are.”
“… I did that?”
Jaewoo blushed furiously. What did he do when he was drunk? He wished that Hyunjin would blackout as well, but unlike Jaewoo, he seemed to have a strong tolerance.
“Yes.”
“… Did I do anything else weird?”
Hyunjin remained silent. The longer the time that passed, the more Jaewoo’s insides burned. It wasn’t until after a long pause that Hyunjin finally spoke.
“No.”
“Nothing?”
“Yes.”
Luckily, it seemed like he hadn’t made a total fool of himself. Jaewoo put his hand to his chest in relief. After that, the conversation between the two naturally died down as they worked together in companionable silence. Even the slope felt less difficult than it normally did. Most likely it was due to the company, Jaewoo thought.
“We’re home!”
Jaewoo walked through the gate carrying the bags. Hyunjin followed after, dragging the cart..
“I bought donuts!”
Like a father who had bought a whole rotisserie chicken on his way home from work5, Jaewoo held up the bag of donuts and handed them out to the children.
“Wow!”
“It’s donuts!”
The children rushed over to the bag in excitement.
“You have one too.”
Jaewoo himself held two in his hands and put one to Hyunjin’s mouth. Jaewoo expected Hyunjin to take it and eat it, but instead Hyunjin just opened his mouth and took a bite of the donut from Jaewoo’s hand. Jaewoo’s eyes went wide in surprise, but then he understood. Hyunjin’s hands were messy from unloading the cabbages and other items. Of course he couldn’t hold the donut himself.
So Jaewoo ate his donuts normally, while Hyunjin continued to eat his out of Jaewoo’s hands.
“Would you like another one?”
“Is it alright?”
“Yeah, I bought a lot.”
Then, when he raised it up to his lips, Hyunjun opened his mouth again. It looked really cute, like a baby bird begging for food.
“Why is he eating Uncle’s donut?”
Seeing the two of them, Woohee asked Hyeonu about it innocently. Hyeonu looked at the two with sharp eyes and replied.
“Brother’s hands are dirty.”
“He could wash them.”
Hyeonu hesitated for a moment to answer. Deep down, he felt like Woohee was right. But as the older brother, he didn’t want to admit that.
“But… then the donuts will get cold.”
Then he took a bite of his own still-warm donut.
“I see!”
Woohee gave a courageous answer and took out a new donut. In the meantime, Jaewoo finished eating and headed into the kitchen to put the other groceries away. He put the meat in the refrigerator, and quickly combined the ingredients for the seasoned soy sauce6. Then he cut off a slice of the homemade tofu and placed it on a large plate.
He went out into the yard and placed the tofu and sauce down on the wooden flooring.
“Come have some tofu!”
The children, who had been staring at the empty donut bag mournfully, came running over. Hyunjin followed after them. Once everyone had settled down, Jaewoo handed out chopsticks.
“This is tofu?”
The children, who didn’t seem to have ever eaten tofu like this before, were watching Jaewoo. It looked like he needed to demonstrate how to eat it first. Jaewoo put a little soy sauce on top of the tofu and popped it into his mouth.
The homemade tofu’s unique savory yet soft taste practically melted in his mouth. How could Jaewoo describe the taste? Involuntarily, Jaewoo blurted out.
“It’s good!”
As soon as he said that, the children followed after Jaewoo and put soy sauce on the tofu.
“It IS good!”
Woohee, the first one to put the tofu in his mouth, shouted out the same as Jaewoo. Hyeonu didn’t say anything, but he looked like agreed.
“You have some too, Hyunjin.”
“Alright.”
Hyunjin waited for the children to finish eating before he raised his chopsticks. Seeing him hold back for the sake of his brothers, Jaewoo’s heart ached. But he knew that he couldn’t say anything about it. Hyunjin wouldn’t want him to.
The piece of tofu disappeared in an instant.
“Should I cut another one?”
There wouldn’t be any left for tomorrow, but Jaewoo would feel like a bad host if he let them go hungry. Fortunately, he hadn’t put the other one in the fridge, so it should still be hot.
“I want some more!”
At the children’s cheers, Jaewoo sliced up the second block. Once again, the tofu disappeared in an instant.
“The supermarket has really good tofu.”
Jaewoo licked his lips and stretched. Now it was time to trim the cabbage. After cleaning up the plates, he placed a large rubber basin near the water tap. As Jaewoo began washing out the basin, Hyunjin brought the cabbage over next to Jaewoo and handed it to him one by one.
“Are you going to make kimchi?”
“Yeah. This should be enough for the four of us to eat all through the winter.”
Jaewoo said so without thinking. However, when he heard that, Hyunjin stopped moving for a moment. Then he asked again.
“The four of us?”
“Yeah, all four of us.”
Jaewoo answered indifferently and raised his head to see Hyunjin’s face. Hyunjin had looked relaxed all afternoon, but now he had an expression on his face that Jaewoo couldn’t read.
“Why four?”
“Uh? With you, me, Hyeonu, and Woohee, that’s four.”
As Jaewoo was answering, Hyunjin managed to return to his usual expression, but in his chest, his heart was pounding. Their rent was now 230,000 won a month, and that was meant to include meals. That’s why Jaewoo was planning on kimchi for four people. But why did he react this way to Jaewoo’s words, when he realized that Jaewoo had automatically included all four of them in his plans?
Footnotes
계란국 – Egg soup. This is made by dropping beaten eggs into a boiling pot of soup stock. Namu Wiki, Recipe
돌돌이를 – rolling stone / roller. I have no idea what exactly this is referring to. My Google skills have failed me. The manwha depicted it as a large handcart, but the text makes it sound more like a smaller collapsible shopping cart.
젓갈 – Jeotgal. A type of salted, preserved dish made from seafood like shrimp, oysters, etc. Wikipedia
찹쌀 – glutinous rice. A variety of rice grown in Asia that is known for being especially sticky when cooked. The name comes from the stickiness (glue-like) and not from gluten. Wikipedia
전기 구이 통닭을 사서 퇴근한 아버지처럼 도너츠 봉지를 높게 든 재우는 그걸 아이들에게 나눠 주었다. – “Like a father who bought electric grilled whole chicken and left work, Jaewoo held up a bag of donuts and handed them out to the children.” I have no idea what this is referring to. Is this a thing in Korea?
양념간장 – seasoned soy sauce. Soy sauce with ingredients added to it to make it more flavorful. Jaewoo mentioned his recipe earlier in the chapter, but here’s another one.
