Chapter 9
Chapter 9. The Insignificant Kind
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The woman was surprisingly formidable. Even in front of Taeseo, who was being difficult, she said everything she had to say.
"I'm truly sorry about what happened at Seongwoo Baekban today. I'll strongly protest to the woman at that place. I'll make sure she apologizes for making such a big mistake with my tenant. Oh, you didn't pay, did you?"
"I paid."
"Then I'll get your money back too."
"Who says ten thousand won is too much to lose?"
Towards Taeseo, who waved his hand saying it was fine, the woman extended her hand with a gracefully smiling face.
"I'm Ahn Yuna."
They say you can't spit on a smiling face, and that fit perfectly.
"We'll be neighbors for a while, so please take care of me."
I was going to curse her out properly, but I was speechless in front of the white, slender hand she extended towards me.
A savory smell wafted from the ramen Ahn Yuna had left. She had said it would be delicious with tuna cans, calling it 'Cham-kkae ramen' or something, and the smell of well-cooked noodles, the broth with MSG, and the oil from the tuna can made my stomach churn.
For Taeseo, eating meals consisting only of instant foods was like a bizarre act. Yet, his stomach, having been emptied, was clamoring for food.
"Maybe food made in a factory is cleaner."
Just then, the green HACCP certification mark caught his eye on the lunchbox. Taeseo, pretending to be unable to refuse, sat at the island counter and opened the cup ramen.
As he stirred the noodles with chopsticks, the red broth seeped out between them.
Taeseo, about to bring a strand of ramen to his mouth, glanced at the tuna can Ahn Yuna had opened and left, then scooped only the tuna chunks into the ramen.
The apricot-colored chunks mixed with the red broth. The visual wasn't exactly appetizing, but the smell was incredible.
He scooped up noodles and tuna together and put them in his mouth, and a salty, savory flavor spread across his tongue. Even though he didn't prefer overcooked noodles, the combination of the mushy noodles and tuna was quite good.
After eating a mouthful of noodles, he picked up the cup ramen container and slurped the broth. The hot broth flowed down his esophagus. Even though the ramen wasn't spicy, it felt hearty and sharp on his empty stomach.
The small cup ramen was not enough to satisfy an adult man's hunger. As the food ran out in just two or three scoops of chopsticks, his eyes fell on the lunchbox placed between the soda can and the tuna can.
Ahn Yuna had called the lunchbox 'disposed.' Disposed meant, literally, something unusable and to be thrown away, but the food inside the transparent plastic lid was perfectly arranged.
He opened the plastic lid. The microwaved lunchbox gave off a savory smell of rice.
Once he opened the lid, his aversion to the food lessened. Taeseo picked up a piece of yellow rolled omelet and put it in his mouth.
He scooped rice and mixed it with the ramen broth, then took a bite of the mushroom bulgogi and the imitation crab stick tempura.
While not as tasty as food made fresh at home, it was enough to fill his hunger.
More importantly, after experiencing the kimchi recycling incident at Seongwoo Baekban, seeing packaged food made him feel at ease.
He shoved food into his hungry stomach. It was ironic, given his earlier declaration that he'd throw trash away, but when he put down his chopsticks, only an empty container remained.
Finally, he opened the strawberry-flavored carbonated drink Ahn Yuna had brought and took a sip to cleanse his palate, then lay back down on the bed.
With a full stomach, his aimless anger seemed to subside a little. In the place where his anger had faded, Ahn Yuna's white hand, extended towards him, came to mind.
'I'm Ahn Yuna. We'll be neighbors for a while, so please take care of me.'
Ahn Yuna was, in many ways, a woman who rubbed people the wrong way.
He had wanted to curse her out for bringing him a 'disposed' lunchbox when he was furious about eating 'trash' food, but all he managed to say to Ahn Yuna, who had extended her hand to him, was one word.
'Get lost.'
Even after hearing that, Ahn Yuna didn't change her expression.
'I'll send you a text message to the number on your lease agreement. It seems like this is your first time in this neighborhood, so if you need anything or encounter trouble like today, please contact me.'
Watching Ahn Yuna leave the room after saying everything she had to say to him, who was threatening to kick her out, Taeseo clicked his tongue.
Sometimes, people are more than they appear. Among the celebrities who came to the Friday residence meetings, there were those who looked refined, like daughters from wealthy families, yet were rumored to have done all sorts of dirty things.
Perhaps, like them, Ahn Yuna, despite her pretty face, had been through thick and thin and had a cunning nature.
If not, she was either accustomed to harsh words or was one of those spineless types.
Whatever kind she was, in Taeseo's eyes, she was insignificant.
His day in Seongwoo-eup was monotonous. The day after arriving in Seongwoo-eup, he used adaptation as an excuse and didn't go to work, sleeping late.
Perhaps the convenience store lunch he ate the previous day had been surprisingly high in calories, as it hadn't fully digested, so he downloaded a mobile game and played it all night.
It was the mobile version of an online game he used to play all night with his peers in his teens, so it brought back memories and was fun. He played until he got bored, which naturally led to oversleeping.
He woke up around 3 PM. Even in Seoul, on days he didn't go to work, he would sleep late and kill time, so time flowed by just fine.
The problem was that as the afternoon wore on, he started to feel hungry.
There were three ways to get a meal. Go to a construction site cafeteria, go to that restaurant, or eat a convenience store lunchbox.
Since he had never cooked, making his own food was out of the question.
First, he dismissed the construction site cafeteria. Showing up at the site just for meals, like a glutton, was unacceptable to Kwon Taeseo's dignity.
Going back to the restaurant that recycled food was out of the question, and the only remaining option was a convenience store lunchbox. However, Taeseo had never eaten the same food more than twice.
"Damn it, this is ridiculous."
He turned on his phone while lying in bed. A few push notifications for the mobile game had arrived while he was sleeping, and there was a text message from the driver.
[I've parked the car in the parking lot. Since you were sleeping, I couldn't hand you the key, so I left it at the site office instead.]
Taeseo had asked for his Porsche, his personal car, to be brought over. The sedan he used for work had a solid feel, but it lacked driving pleasure.
More importantly, that car was bought to show off during his commute, and it was five times more expensive than his older brother's work car, who was the executive director of Namgyeong Development, the parent company of Namkyung Group.
"How did I get this car? I can't drive it on rough roads."
Just as clothes have TPO (Time, Place, Occasion), Taeseo believed cars did too.
Another unread message was from Ahn Yuna.
[This is Ahn Yuna. If you need any help, please contact me.]
Help needed.
He immediately needed help. He had to solve the problem of getting a meal, and since all the options were unsatisfactory, he felt Ahn Yuna should provide a solution, even for the picky tenant.
[Are there any places that deliver food here?]
He sent the text, but Ahn Yuna didn't check it or reply.
It felt like she was returning the favor, not checking texts all night, but he didn't think much of it, as he would likely run into her when he went down to the convenience store on the first floor.
Taeseo, getting up late, opened the window because he disliked the stuffy indoor air caused by the air conditioner running all night. Instantly, a jumble of sounds rushed in.
"Wow, what's that Porsche?"
"I don't know. Some guy brought it over this afternoon."
"A guy? What kind of guy?"
"He parked it and walked towards the golf course construction site."
"Which company is building the golf course? Namkyung, wasn't it? Is he from there?"
"Probably."
They were talking about Taeseo's car parked in front of the convenience store. The same loafers he'd seen yesterday were gathered around the parasol table in front of the convenience store again.
The acrid smoke from the cigarettes they smoked in a line, like catching raccoons, drifted through the window.
Taeseo took a cigarette from the pack carelessly placed on the kitchen sink, put it in his mouth, and lit it. Even as he puffed out white smoke, the voices of the loafers continued to be heard.
"Wow, amazing. Look how shiny it is. If you drove a car like that, women would flock to you."
"Where else would you drive that thing but a rice paddy?"
"If you had the ability to drive a car like that, why would you rot in a rural place like this? You'd leave here and go to Seoul immediately."
Taeseo flicked his cigarette ashes into an empty cup and chuckled. They were making such a fuss over a mere car, he thought, they'd be astonished when they saw him driving it.
Suddenly, he wondered if Ahn Yuna would be surprised too.
"But why are you working at the convenience store today?"
"Yuna's shift changed starting today."
Familiar names came from the mouths of the loafers.
Hearing 'Yuna,' it seemed to be about that woman, Ahn Yuna.
The change in shifts suggested she was doing other work besides manning the convenience store counter.
"So, Yuna works in the evening?"
"Yeah. From 7 PM."
"I'll have to come buy cigarettes then."
Taeseo smirked. He had a feeling the neighborhood loafers wouldn't leave Ahn Yuna alone when he first saw her at the convenience store counter, and indeed, whether in Seoul or here, men couldn't leave pretty women alone.
"What are you going to do just buying cigarettes all the time? I'll just knock you down."
"You need to drink to knock someone down. You set the stage for me."
"Ugh, you idiot. How are you going to get her to drink when she doesn't even drink?"
"Damn, is there no way to get with her? She gets prettier every time I see her. I get so hard I could die."
Stupid bastards. He scoffed and dropped the smoked cigarette into the empty cup.
With a fizzing sound, the cigarette filter absorbed water. As he stood up to take the cup to the sink, his phone on the bed vibrated.
[Ahn Yuna]
A text message arrived from Ahn Yuna.
• Notes
(3) HACCP : Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (Doosan Encyclopedia)
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