I Became the Lousy Side Top - Chap 33

Mujin spoke, trying to remain as calm as possible.

“Can’t you just buy pickled garlic?”

Even if Jaewoo wanted to buy a mountain of it, how expensive could garlic be? The card Mujin gave him to purchase necessities had a high limit, so it shouldn’t have been an issue.

“How could I use someone else’s credit card for that?”

Why was it okay to peel garlic at someone else’s house? The whole apartment reeked of garlic.

“Can’t you buy them already peeled?”

“They’re so expensive, though.”

“It’s cheap compared to labor costs.”

“Oh, but it tastes better when you peel it yourself. I’ll give you a taste later. More than anything, I’m an expert garlic peeler.”

This fucking bastard. Mujin had never met someone as stubborn as Jaewoo was. Eventually he gave up and shut the door to his room again. Mujin sat in front of laptop, but unlike before, he wasn’t able to concentrate on his work. He looked through his documents a few more times, but eventually gave up and went to go sit on the sofa. If he couldn’t work, he might as well keep an eye on what Jaewoo was doing.

Jaewoo diligently chopped garlic regardless of whether Mujin was looking at him or not. He must have done it a lot, because like he’d said, he was very good at it. The mountain of garlic shrunk in an instant. Jaewoo quickly washed the white, plump garlic and placed it in a colander to dry.

“Now we’ll leave this here until all the moisture is drained.”

So until then, they were just going to leave the garlic out in the kitchen. After that, Jaewoo cleaned up the remaining garlic peels, then stood up and stretched his back.

“Is there anything you want to eat for lunch?”

“…Anything except for fermented soybean paste stew.”

It was a hassle to change clothes every time he ate. Mujin knew very well how important appearances were in his profession. Because of that, he’d been changing into a new suit each time he’d had to leave for work, but he couldn’t do that forever.

“But it’s delicious.”

“It wasn’t that great.”

Mujin said, squinting at him.

“If you say so. You sure ate enough of it.”

Jaewoo chuckled and opened the refrigerator door.

“Alright, alright. I’ll make whatever you want.”

Then he started preparing lunch.

It was time to change the menu anyway. He’d spent enough time tormenting Mujin with soybean paste stew. Prolonging it any longer would just make Mujin angry, so Jaewoo obediently changed the lunch menu. He’d bought a lot of fresh mackerel, so he’d use the rest of it for lunch.

Braised mackerel with radish1. First, Jaewoo cut the radish into pieces. After that, he added the radish to a pot, along with water and anchovies, and started boiling them for a broth. He washed the mackerel in water to remove the fishy smell and then took out the side dishes that he’d prepared in the morning and started the rice cooking. Before the radish was fully cooked, he scooped up the mackerel and added them to the pot, making sure each piece was evenly coated in the seasoning.

If he was following a precise recipe, he could have created a cleaner taste, but Jaewoo liked cooking it like this. A dish made by hand, roughly, by following the basics, just like Jaewoo’s grandmother did. Still, everything that he made this way turned out delicious. Was it because he inherited his grandmother’s talent?

Jaewoo grinned as he looked at the boiling mackerel and radish stew. When mackerel and radish were thoroughly seasoned and boiled, it made a great side dish in itself. Jaewoo especially liked radishes. Deeply cooked radish soaked in seasoning: it was delicious to eat with barley tea on rice, but it was also delicious with just plain white rice as well. Just thinking about it made him drool.

‘Now that I think about it, I guess I should make some barley tea too.’

There was enough bottled water in the refrigerator, but Jaewoo really didn’t like drinking expensive French water with every meal. But he didn’t dare drink alcohol, so it would have to be barley tea.

“Do you have a favorite type of tea?”

“I don’t like tea.”

“Then barley tea it is.”

Jaewoo could sense Mujin’s feelings of shock through his body language, but he quietly ignored it. Right now, Jaewoo was conducting an experiment. It was a test to see how much Mujin would tolerate. So far the results were that he was willing to tolerate quite a lot, although Jaewoo didn’t know why. He let Jaewoo cook whatever food he wanted, and it was alright for him to run the noisy vacuum cleaner during the day. He didn’t even complain when Jaewoo left a pastel cushion on the sofa.

‘It’s fascinating.’

Jaewoo knew that Mujin wasn’t acting like this because he was a good person. He had to have some sort of agenda behind his apparent forbearance, because that’s the sort of person Mujin was.

‘It’s probably related to Hyunjin, right?’

Why did Mujin enjoy torturing others so much? Couldn’t he try a more gentle approach for once?

‘Well, but then it wouldn’t be a misery porn novel2.’

Jaewoo clicked his tongue. There was nothing he could do about any of it, since this was a novel about putting the protagonist through the wringer, only for him to triumph in the end3. As his thoughts reached that point, something suddenly occurred to him. Maybe this was all a result of the novel’s plot trying to reassert itself?

The first meeting between Hyunjin and Mujin was ruined because of Jaewoo, and the two of them became distant because of that. The story seemed to want to reconnect them. That was why Mujin wanted to hire him as a housekeeper and why Hyunjin was showing excessive interest in him. If that was the case, there was only one thing Jaewoo had to worry about now.

Mujin and Hyunjin, let’s all survive somehow. And if possible, let’s try to help Hyunjin be happier and prevent Mujin from crossing any lines.

‘Then if that’s how it is, there’s only one thing to do right now.’

Jaewoo had been purposely annoying Mujin all this time, so now it was time to calm him down. He was going to give Mujin a feast to remember.

Hyunjin stopped working and looked at his watch. It would be lunchtime in a little while. During meal time, all the workers would flock to the cafeteria, dragging Hyunjin along with them.

“You’ve been bringing lunch boxes for a few days, but now you’re not bringing them anymore? They looked really tasty.”

One worker with a pleasant face asked. Hyunjin just smiled and sat down on a chair at the table. Jaewoo had told him to pack a lunch with the side dishes he’d prepared at home, but Hyunjin hadn’t wanted to. Instead, he’d just go to the cafeteria. There was only one type of meal, a simple, modest one with rice, beef stew, and a few dry side dishes. The table was soon set, and everyone started eating.

“Hey, the cooking here is great, isn’t it? No matter what it is, I never get tired of it.”

The cook smiled at the compliment.

‘Is it delicious?’

Hyunjin wasn’t sure about that. Hyunjin had agreed with them at one point, but now he knew what it was like to eat a warmer, heartier meal. Jaewoo’s meals never looked like they were anything special, but they were the most delicious ones that Hyunjin had ever had. He finished his meal mechanically and stood up. Was Jaewoo also eating lunch right now? Hyunjin knew that Jaewoo had a bright and cheerful personality, but he was secretly worried about him.

Jaewoo’s body looked weak, and he’d said that his new job was helping to carry things and stock shelves. He’d seemed fine when he left home, but he’d also tried to hide his sickness the last time, so how could Hyunjin be sure?

‘I’d like to visit the supermarket sometime.’

He wanted to go and see how Jaewoo was doing.

“He said it was Ullim Mart…”

Hyunjin searched for the name of the supermarket on his old phone. It was a bit far from the neighborhood where they lived, you needed to take a bus to get there. He’d passed by it a few times, but if he wanted to visit, he’d need to miss a night of work. Hyunjin tried to add up in his head how many thousands of won would be lost if he took another night off.

Because he’d worked hard from a young age, although his wages were small, they were enough to keep his family out of poverty. But since the interest had increased, he really couldn’t afford to take any more breaks. There were only so many hours in the day. It was so hard to find time just to see someone.

Hyeonu and Woohee were too young to ask them to go. Hyunjin felt the old, familiar tightness in his chest. Even if he pounded on his stuffy chest, nothing would get better. All it did was deepen his resentment towards the world. Hyunjin shook his head. He needed to stop thinking about this. These were things that were useless to consider now.

‘This is still better than before.’

At least his younger siblings were able to eat better, and study and sleep in a warm place. It was all thanks to Jaewoo. He had hated people’s pity for a long time, but strangely enough, he was willing to accept it from him.

‘I’ll try calling him when I have some time.’

As he thought that, their lunch break ended.

“Come on, let’s get back to work!”

Hearing someone’s voice, Hyunjin put away his phone and headed back to work. When this job was done, he had to move on to the next one. Every day, this repeated itself. It was a terrible bondage, but Hyunjin had no way to escape it.

He finished work later than usual and didn’t have time to go home. It wasn’t until after dawn that he started climbing the slope. A man he’d met while working had given Hyunjin some advice.

“If you work like this, your body won’t last. I don’t know the details, but you should still take a break sometimes.”

He was right, but Hyunjin couldn’t help it. If he took a break, he’d never be able to pay all the interest. If that happened, the life he had now would be lost. Hyunjin really didn’t want to jump into the world that those loansharks kept trying to push him towards. Unfortunately, as he was trudging home, exhausted, a man blocked his path.

“Hello.”

The tall man introduced himself, holding out a business card.

“I’m Park Dongsoo, from Isak Finance. From now on, I’ll be in charge of your loan.”

Despite the laws, these gangsters could find your information so easily and block your way. Hyunjin suppressed his rising anger.

“Yes, I understand. I’ll make sure the interest payment is deposited on time.”

That was all he had to say. He was about to pass by, but Dongsoo’s voice caught Hyunjin.

“That’s not it.”

Hyunjin gritted my teeth and turned around, feeling an ominous premonition. Could it be that that person had an accident again? Did he pile up more debt? Hyunjin’s fingertips were trembling. But what he heard was different from what he expected.

Footnotes
고등어 무조림 – spicy braised mackerel. A popular Korean dish known for its spicy flavor. Namu Wikipedia, Recipe
피폐물 – waste material. This is apparently a Korean web novel trope, where the main character is driven into despair by circumstances and falls into poverty, struggles over and over only to be constantly screwed by circumstances outside their control, and eventually triumphs. The closest Western tags might be misery porn / angst / Hurt No Comfort / Hurt Eventual Comfort. Misery Lit is similar, but usually focuses on real people. Namu Wikipedia, TV Tropes
피폐 소설 – impoverished novel, according to google translate. It’s basically saying the same thing as the footnote above.