Chapter 16
Episode 16. The Hamster Wheel
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“The convenience store.”
Taken aback by the unexpected answer, Taeseo turned his head towards the back seat and looked at Ahn Yuna.
She was gazing out at the dark river, her head leaning against the window.
“When they opened the convenience store here, headquarters came out and projected the profit margin for a year. They said at least 3 million won would be left over, but with me and Yunho oppa taking turns, we barely make 1.5 million won.”
“Then just quit.”
“If I quit, they say I have to pay a mid-contract termination penalty. They say there are cases where the penalty can be reduced... but you have to properly fulfill your franchise obligations to prove that the business isn't failing due to your own lack of diligence..."
Her life already looked tough, and it was even harder with a good-for-nothing family, who’d glare with greedy eyes to snatch even the meager earnings, attached to her.
What made it worse was that her cousin, who worked at the convenience store with her, didn’t seem normal either. For the first time, Taeseo felt a pang of pity for another person.
“But, sir.”
Ahn Yuna asked, unaware of Taeseo’s thoughts.
“Does that open?”
“What?”
“The ceiling.”
Yuna pointed to the ceiling with her fingertip. What Yuna pointed to was a square, black opening in the center of the ceiling.
“A sunroof?”
“Yes. That.”
He turned on the ignition and opened the sunroof. Ahn Yuna shifted her position and looked up at the night sky.
The wind that came through the windshield flowed out through the opened sunroof.
The chirping of insects also filled the space, carried by the air. Yuna, like the insects by the river, remained still in her spot, gazing up at the night sky for a long time.
“There were so many stars in my hometown.”
Taeseo also looked up at the opened ceiling.
He had no memory of properly seeing the Seoul sky, nor had he ever seen stars in the sky. He had lived forgetting that something existed in the night sky, and it was only now that the existence of stars was brought back to his mind.
“Stars, well... it’s natural to have many in the countryside.”
“I suppose so. It’s natural because it’s the countryside...”
Ahn Yuna laughed emptily. Her laughter was light and clear, like the sound of the wind chime on the convenience store door.
“I...”
But what followed was a statement so dark it contrasted sharply with her light laughter.
“I lived without even knowing what was up in the sky.”
The twenty-year-olds Taeseo knew didn’t say things like Ahn Yuna. They weren’t at an age for such words yet.
“It’s just... that’s how it was...”
As Ahn Yuna leaned back in the seat, gazing at the night sky, a soft breathing sound could be heard.
Listening to her calm breaths, in and out, Taeseo was suddenly reminded of how difficult Ahn Yuna’s life was.
She went to work, labored, and after work, she worked at the convenience store until dawn. A twenty-year-old youth’s life.
Barely getting a few hours of sleep before repeating the cycle like a hamster wheel – this was the life of Ahn Yuna, who was only twenty years old.
Her life was so monotonous that even Taeseo, who was indifferent to others, could understand what kind of hamster wheel Ahn Yuna was trapped in.
“You idiot.”
But unfortunately, Kwon Taeseo was a seed that had been twisted from the start.
Taeseo couldn’t understand not only why Ahn Yuna had no choice but to run in the hamster wheel, but also why she lived like that.
“Why are you living like that?”
If he were Ahn Yuna, he would have found an easier way to live.
Being twenty and an adult, why wouldn’t you run away? Especially not for your biological parents, nor your own siblings.
“I don’t know why I’m telling you this...”
Was she upset because he called her an idiot?
Or did she know herself that she was pathetic?
“Thank you for today. I think I need to get back to the convenience store now. I have to check inventory and place orders.”
Yuna decided to end their short break.
Taeseo scoffed, thinking she was the one twisting her own fate.
Separate from the pity he felt for her, he realized he might never understand Ahn Yuna.
He started the engine and headed back the way they came, towards the convenience store.
Like the country road running parallel to the river, Taeseo’s and Ahn Yuna’s lives were parallel. At that time, he thought they would never touch.
\ \ *
The next day during lunch, when he visited Seongwoo Baekban, the restaurant owner, who was sitting at a table trimming perilla leaves, suddenly stood up.
“Oh my. The young man is here, he’s here.”
As Taeseo bowed his head to the owner, Hyunwoo, who followed him into the restaurant, also greeted her.
“Bringing a friend this time? That’s for two people, right? Wait a moment. The rice is about to be ready, so I’ll quickly go pick some lettuce from the garden.”
The owner ran to the vegetable patch with a bright smile. It seemed her words about feeling indebted from the food recycling incident weren't just empty talk, seeing how happy she looked.
Inside the restaurant, after the owner left, the savory smell of cooking rice wafted through the air. Unlike Taeseo, who felt hungry constantly since living alone, Hyunwoo looked around the interior with a bright face.
“How did you find a place like this?”
“Passing by.”
Seeing the table with rounded corners, the menus like Samgyetang and Dakbokkeumtang with red lines crossed out, and the words ‘Baekban only’ written below, Hyunwoo asked with a face full of curiosity.
“You seem close with the owner here too?”
“I told you, I found it passing by.”
“You don’t seem like the type to ever come to a place like this, Manager. It’s surprising.”
Taeseo didn’t answer and went to the refrigerator to get a bottle of barley tea and poured it into a cup.
As if even that was surprising, Hyunwoo’s eyes widened as he watched Taeseo, then took out cutlery from the dispenser and placed it on the table.
He had brought Hyunwoo here as soon as lunch break started because of a sudden thought.
If he could hear about the local situation from a local, wouldn’t it be easier to approach Ahn Yuna’s grandmother?
The land could be expropriated by force, but the best outcome would be to wrap things up without any trouble, so Taeseo was making his own efforts.
Just then, the restaurant owner came back inside with a large red basket full of lettuce.
Carrying the lettuce, the owner went into the kitchen and, without mentioning the menu, quickly prepared the food. A spicy aroma spread through the restaurant.
“What are you making?”
“Just wait and see. I’ll serve you something that will make your eyes pop.”
A moment later, the restaurant owner brought a large aluminum tray with Jeyuk Bokkeum, rice, soup, and side dishes, and set it on the table.
“Try wrapping the Jeyuk Bokkeum in lettuce. The lettuce grown fresh in the countryside is different from what you buy at the market. It’s so tender and delicious.”
The lettuce on the wide plate wasn’t uniform in size like the lettuce sold at the supermarket, but it was much fresher.
“Thank you for the meal.”
As the owner had said, he placed the Jeyuk Bokkeum on the lettuce, dipped it in ssamjang, and added garlic before taking a bite.
The savory flavor of the meat combined with the gochujang was excellent. It was savory without being bland, and the spicy taste was superb.
As Taeseo’s chopsticks moved faster, Hyunwoo, seeing his expression, said.
“You said you came here for work.”
It seemed Taeseo was too engrossed in his meal to have come just for work.
“It is work.”
Taeseo took another lettuce wrap, then leaned towards Hyunwoo, who was sitting opposite him. Glancing towards the restaurant owner who had started washing dishes in the kitchen, he lowered his voice.
“That ajumma is the neighborhood gossip.”
“Gossip?”
“Know your enemy and you will win a hundred battles. For now, fill your stomach.”
When they had eaten about half of the food in front of them, the restaurant owner, having finished washing dishes, came out wiping her hands on her apron.
The owner sat at a table next to Taeseo and Hyunwoo’s, where perilla leaves were placed, and began trimming the stems. The woman, who was stacking the perilla leaves into piles of about ten, looked back at Taeseo’s table.
“By the way, is Yuna okay?”
When Yuna’s name came up, Hyunwoo’s eyes widened. He knew that Ahn Yuna was the granddaughter of Grandmother Kim Kkot-nim, who owned 400 pyeong of land within the golf course property.
“She was at the convenience store counter yesterday right after coming back from the hospital. She wouldn’t be working the counter if she wasn’t well enough to do so, would she?”
As Taeseo said, Yuna had gone straight to the counter yesterday after returning from the hospital and worked as usual.
An Yunho, Yuna’s cousin, had seen a younger person than himself being beaten to the point of his head bursting, yet as soon as Yuna arrived, he handed over the counter and left on his motorcycle without a care.
“She’s not okay, she’s just got no one else. Yunho, that damned scoundrel, didn’t even check on the store once after seeing her get beaten like that right in front of him. Is there anyone more pathetic in this world?”
“Are they not biological siblings?”
He asked, even though he knew the answer.
“They’re cousins. But even if they’re cousins, if you live together for twenty years, you’d think they’d be like siblings, but the men in that family are just so pathetic. If they took after their late grandfather, they wouldn’t be like this. Yunho, that kid, and his father, they only know how to spend money and be loafers, they don’t know how to be proper people.”
“Looking at yesterday, it didn’t seem like the first time she’d been hit.”
“Yesterday was nothing compared to before. In the past, they’d break her arms and it was a constant scene. Now, they leave her limbs alone because Yuna brings in money. If you stripped her bare, there wouldn’t be a single uninjured spot on her body.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
“Of course, it’s unfortunate. In Seongwoo-eup, there’s no one living as pitifully as Yuna. By the way, I heard you’re working at the golf course construction site?”
“Yes.”
The Seongwoo Baekban owner added words that weren’t necessary, as too much talking leads to mistakes.
“If you happen to go see Yuna’s uncle, don’t mention anything about compensation for the land with the graves.”
“Why?”
“Yuna’s uncle might steal her seal and sell it off. The only land left in that family is the place where the store is and the land used for graves. If that scoundrel touches that, the family will be ruined.”
