Chapter 29
A phone box that hadn’t even had its tape peeled off.
After seeing Woo-hyun off and returning home, Byeol took out the phone box she had gotten activated at Gaeddongi’s shop.
“Oh, it’s not Gaeddongi.”
Suppressing the little laughs that kept escaping her, Byeol shook her head and carefully opened the box with a utility knife.
It had been five months since she had lived without a smartphone. It would be a lie to say that it hadn’t been inconvenient.
Even so, she had managed to endure it because there had been something she feared more than the inconvenience. But even Byeol herself didn’t know exactly what she was truly afraid of.
It was like not knowing whether she was afraid of the night or ghosts. Everything from the influence and stimulation that an open society could have on her…
No. In truth, she had probably just been exhausted. She hated the fact that she had to endure so many things, so in the end, she had used fear as an excuse to hide herself away in a corner.
The small room packed with a bed and desk had become her refuge.
Byeol took out the unremarkable phone and stared at it for a long while before finally pressing the power button.
The carrier’s logo flashed brilliantly, and the phone turned on almost instantly.
Messages congratulating her on activating the phone and notifications about her subscribed plan poured in. Byeol placed the phone, which was noisily buzzing, on the desk and sat upright.
She let the red notification numbers pile up from the enormous number of messages. Then, when she saw the phone number appearing on the screen, she let out a small laugh.
“Yes, this is Lee Byeol.”
[Do you know how many times I pressed the call button trying to be the first to call you?]
There was so much delight in Woo-hyun’s voice that her own mood seemed to float softly along with it.
“You’re calling while driving?”
[I have Bluetooth earphones.]
“Still, you’re driving.”
[All right. I’ll keep it short and hang up. Am I really the first?]
“I’m sorry, but the flood of messages from the carrier got here first. Even Seo Woo-hyun can’t beat the system, apparently.”
The man’s grumbling voice came through the receiver in response to her teasing.
Byeol kept adjusting the unfamiliar phone in her hands before flopping forward onto the desk.
[So. Have you thought about it? I have a veterinarian among my acquaintances who’s quite well-known around that area. He seems to have appeared on television several times, so I don’t think he’s a quack. I’ll send him down to Samcheok. Then we can safely take the cats there, have them spayed and neutered, and get them examined easily.]
“Do I get to make the decision by myself? Even if I raise them in the yard, I don’t know whether they’ll settle there or run away.”
[Once construction starts, they’ll eventually have to scatter anyway. Wouldn’t it be better to choose the option with a slightly higher chance of working out?]
That was true.
Someone had once said that the best thing we could do for stray cats was to help them as much as we could whenever they asked for help, and when they suddenly disappeared one day, to turn away without lingering regret.
She had thought that was right, which was why she had allowed herself to grow attached to them only lightly.
But she had met these cats every single day for five months. Strangely enough, they had never left the building or even gone beyond the third floor.
That meant the place was their home. And if that home were taken away, it also meant they would be exposed to great danger.
“I’ll think about it just a little longer. A few more days. I think I’ll regret it if I don’t.”
[Still, don’t make me wait too long. The sooner, the better. The same goes for them. A warm place to sleep with full bellies. Isn’t that the best?]
“Why are you suddenly being so generous to the cats?”
[Because then… my Byeol won’t run away. They’re collateral.]
This man sometimes said heart-stopping things so casually. Definitely Public Enemy Number One.
Feeling that familiar tingling in her toes again, she deliberately answered in an indifferent tone.
“All right, I understand, so concentrate on driving for now.”
[I was hoping to drive while listening to your voice.]
“If you get sleepy, make sure you stop and rest.”
He said he would contact her once he arrived in Seoul, then hung up.
Silence returned once again.
Byeol sat in front of the phone with her lips pressed tightly together, like someone preparing to perform a ritual.
There was a name she wanted to type into the search bar and look up, but now that she actually had the opportunity, her courage disappeared again.
I’m just trying to check whether he’s alive. Whether he’s doing well or not… That’s all.
The internet was strange. The smartphone world even more so.
To her, the media had been like an ancient tree with deep roots, one that couldn’t be shaken by any storm.
Even during times of turmoil, despite government interference and pressure, the media had endured the harsh storms because its roots had run so deep.
But now, she couldn’t even tell whether those were merely superficial roots or the roots deep within.
Of course, she too had been nothing more than a reporter who had jumped into the flood of internet articles that swayed like reeds, hoping to make money. But journalists weren’t the only ones who had forgotten that the pen was mightier than the sword.
She lacked the courage to step back into a world filled with potential murderers who didn’t realize that the pen could be crueler than the sword.
Her fingertips, which had been hovering over the word Internet, eventually settled neatly in her lap.
She was doing considerably better than she had been five months ago, but she thought she would be terribly angry if that bastard was doing too well.
So she decided to endure it a little longer.
“My… Byeol. What am I doing, Byeol?”
Somewhere between flirting and dating. She was satisfied with the current ambiguity because it made everything sweeter.
She didn’t want things to get better, but she didn’t want them to get worse either. She didn’t want to deliberately spend time and effort only to make things difficult for herself.
If that was the case…
“Should I just… move away?”
Yeong-ran, who was plucking the heads and innards from dried anchovies brought up from Namhae, snorted as she looked at her daughter kneeling before her.
It was a weekday, and at Ibyeol Seafood, which had put up a “Break Time” sign in an effort to properly observe its afternoon break—
“So. You’re planning to move to Seoul?”
At those words, Tae-geon, who had been lying on the warm floor with his back supported, turned onto his side and propped his head up with one hand.
“Tell me honestly. You got fired, didn’t you?”
“I wasn’t fired. I told you, I quit. And I found another job. It’s not really a full-time position, more like freelance work? So… I think I’ll have to go to Seoul at least once a week…”
Yeong-ran stared intently at Byeol’s face as her daughter trailed off. Then she dumped the anchovies from the box onto a tray.
“So you’re going to live with Seo?”
“What? You’re going to live with Seo? You two aren’t even married! Absolutely not! Get married first!”
Tae-geon suddenly sprang to his feet and shouted at the top of his lungs.
What is he even talking about?
Byeol let out a deep sigh and shook her head.
“Who’s ‘Seo,’ and what’s this about marriage? It’s not Mr. Seo! It’s Seo Woo-hyun! And that man… well, he’s the chairman of Mooyoung Group’s grandson. His mother is the CEO of Mooyoung Hotel, and that man is a director at M&P. The problem is that the place where I got a job—my workplace—is his house.”
“…Don’t tell me you’re going to work as a housekeeper?”
Yeong-ran’s expression instantly turned cold.
Frustrated, Byeol sat the two people down who clearly weren’t understanding a word she said and began explaining everything with exaggerated gestures.
She explained about ghostwriting the autobiography and how she had discovered that the son of the family was Seo Woo-hyun.
She said that she had originally known Seo Woo-hyun as someone she had occasionally crossed paths with through work (which, of course, was a lie), and that they were now getting to know each other with fairly positive feelings.
But when she drew a firm line and said that since the family was Mooyoung Group, she would only take things this far, Yeong-ran merely blinked blankly before letting out a deep sigh.
“You’re so painfully straightforward that you’ll never get ahead in life. Why did you quit? Do you know how difficult it is to find a job these days? And you quit such a good job? You just handed in your resignation, came all the way down here, and started freeloading at your parents’ house. Are you happy about that? And besides, putting money and status aside, where exactly do you think you’re going to meet a man like Seo? You should be saying, ‘Oh my goodness, thank you!’ instead of drawing a line.”
Seriously, Mom.
No matter how handsome that man was, was it really reasonable for her mother to take his side over her own daughter?
“Seriously! Other parents apparently go crazy protesting when their daughters marry because they think their daughters are too good for the man! What are you and Dad doing? Are you desperate to get rid of me? I get told I’m pretty all the time when I go places, you know!”
“Oh, listen to the sound of anchovy guts hitting the floor. Your pretty face is because you take after me. Don’t you know your father is the George Clooney of Samcheok? You’re not good-looking because you were born lucky. It’s because your parents passed down good genes. If anyone deserves the compliments, it’s me. Why are you getting them?”
“Wow… Mom, you’re incredible. I never knew you had this side to you. Anyway, whoever I date is my decision. What, am I going to die without a man? Can’t I live? I can earn my own money and live perfectly well!”
“That girl is the type to look at a man’s wallet first when choosing one. Isn’t that right, honey?”
Tae-geon, who still looked suspicious, glanced between the two women and groaned while rubbing his lower back.
“Does love put food on the table? Anyway, if the adults in that family say that’s what she should do, I won’t stop her either. But tell them to come visit our restaurant. I’ll serve them the Emperor’s Set. I didn’t know it before, but apparently our restaurant is pretty famous. Our daughter is going to stay with them for half a year. It wouldn’t be right to take their money and not even properly thank them.”
Can I just quietly wipe my mouth and leave? Please?
Wait, why is this moving so fast?
Her leg was starting to cramp again. Startled, Byeol quickly straightened her posture.
After putting everything together somehow, it seemed that she had received their permission, though the process had been rather complicated and peculiar.
“Please, don’t even think about hosting them. Do you really think people like that would come all the way to Samcheok just to eat seafood stew? They’ll probably call a hotel chef and have them cook. Forget that. Just hire a part-timer. Even if I come down to Samcheok, I don’t think I’ll be able to help much.”
“Don’t worry about that, you brat. I thought you were going to marry Taekyung and was already dreaming of having a celebrity son-in-law, but now you’ve turned me into a dog chasing a chicken! Good grief, young people these days. Honestly. So fickle.”
“Moon Taekyung? Why is he coming up here?”
“Weren’t you two dating? You’ve been together for over ten years without dating? Even an old married couple would have trouble being that inseparable.”
“Ahhh! Am I crazy? Moon Taekyung? Ugh, that’s disgusting! I don’t know. I’m getting up. I don’t want to talk anymore. I feel like you’re making me weird too.”
“Since you’re getting up, go buy some tofu. You know the place, right? Just tell them it’s for the afternoon business and they’ll give you some.”
She had brought them the happy news that she had escaped unemployment, only to be sent out on a tofu errand.
But what could she do? For now, she was still a “burden” whose room and board her parents had to provide.
Leaving Yeong-ran behind as she warned her that she’d better not dare bring home red long underwear with her first paycheck, Byeol stepped outside and pulled her scooter helmet over her head.
She had come out grumbling, but when she saw the quiet atmosphere of the restaurant lighting its sign in preparation for the afternoon business, a smile escaped her.
A place that would never turn her away no matter when she returned.
The name was a little sad, but she was just a little glad that it was Ibyeol Seafood.
