Chapter 14

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: It's Because of You
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“Contact the main house and have them send my computer.”

Hyunwoo asked.

“Your computer?”

“Yeah. It’s hard to work on my phone.”

“Not to play games?”

“If you don’t want to get fired, don’t talk back.”

“Ah, yes. Understood.”

Watching Hyunwoo pull his phone from the inner pocket of his suit jacket, Taeseo turned away. His steps were light as he walked toward the building.

It was surprising that Kim Kkotnim's granddaughter was An Yuna, but that wouldn't change how he handled things.

It was just a little amusing that he was a tenant in Kim Kkotnim's building.

* * *

As Taeseo stood by the window, puffing smoke from the cigarette between his lips, he caught sight of An Yuna walking from the far end of the road.

The way she walked with her shoulders slumped looked utterly exhausted.

When An Yuna reached the convenience store, she looked up at the second-floor window. Her eyes met Taeseo's.

Watching Taeseo puff out smoke, An Yuna opened her mouth as if to say something, but then closed it.

Taeseo took a few more drags from his cigarette before turning on the air conditioner with the window still open to air the place out.

A moment later, a knock came from the studio's front door. When Taeseo opened it, An Yuna was standing there.

“Are you going to forcibly acquire the land?”

He thought she might have come to tell him not to smoke, but she was here for a different reason.

“If persuasion doesn't work, we'll have to resort to compulsory acquisition.”

Taeseo looked down at An Yuna as if she'd stated the obvious.

“Don't do it.”

An Yuna's expression was quite resolute as she told him not to.

“You think I want to do this?”

Taeseo was sincere. Not in the sense that he didn't want to forcibly acquire the land, but in the sense that he didn't want to be stuck in this backwater town handling such a trivial task.

“Right... I suppose you're just an employee, so you don't really have a choice.”

It seemed An Yuna had interpreted his words in the former sense, not the latter.

Just an employee? Taeseo was about to refute her but held his tongue.

He considered flaunting his identity, asking if she knew who he was, but An Yuna was a close relative of the negotiating party.

If her grandmother heard that the second son of the Namgyeong family had come down to negotiate, she might get cocky and demand an even higher price for the land. It was better for An Yuna to think of him as just another employee of Namgyeong Development.

“Why aren't you at work? It's a weekday.”

“My grandmother told me to stay and listen since the company building the golf course was coming to talk about the land. So I took the day off.”

Considering that sly fox An Yunho was older than An Yuna, yet she was the one told to handle the land discussion, it was easy to guess the family's situation.

An Yuna was the only one in that family who acted like a proper adult.

“Instead of listening to any talk about the land, it looked like you were just getting beaten by your grandmother.”

His mocking tone made An Yuna's brow furrow.

“The reason I got hit was all because of you.”

“What did I do?”

“She yelled at me for riding in your car, asking why I was getting friendly with an outsider.”

Ah, Taeseo sighed in understanding. So that's why the old woman had been shouting about her wearing herself out.

“There are hardly any buses around here. What's the big deal about sharing a ride?”

It was ridiculous, making such a fuss over sharing a car ride in a country that doesn't produce a single drop of oil.

He was about to mock her for getting yelled at over something so trivial when a loud voice echoed from the bottom of the second-floor stairs.

-An Yuna! An Yuna! You bitch, get down here!

It was An Yunho's voice. She had managed to get a day off because of the land issue, but at An Yunho's roar, the color drained from her face.

“Well then, take care.”

An Yuna gave a quick bow and hurried down the stairs. The bold determination she'd shown just moments ago, telling him not to acquire the land, had vanished without a trace.

A moment later, the sound of a motorcycle drifted through the open window. It seemed An Yunho was leaving An Yuna at the convenience store and heading out.

Taeseo went straight to the bathroom and took a shower. Some of the salt An Yuna's grandmother had thrown seemed to be stuck in his hair; he could feel clumps of it on his scalp.

He showered with warm water to wash out the salt embedded in his scalp, then changed into a comfortable tracksuit.

He went downstairs to the first floor, planning to grab a convenience store lunch box, and saw the counter through the glass door. An Yuna was sitting there alone, studying from a book.

The type of people who succeeded through studying was already set. Most people studied through high school, but after graduating from college, very few actually made a living from what they'd learned. In the end, to survive, they learned a company job completely unrelated to their studies and lived their lives that way.

To Taeseo, who knew this fact, An Yuna's studying seemed like the most pointless thing in the world.

Would An Yuna, who worked at a factory and ran a convenience store, ever have a chance to use what she was studying? Taeseo pushed open the convenience store door. A small bell chimed. An Yuna looked up at the same time.

“Welcome.”

“Yeah.”

Seeing it was Taeseo, An Yuna lowered her head again to look at her workbook. It seemed she was resuming her studies after confirming who the customer was.

As he passed the counter, he noticed a red scratch on An Yuna's pale face, like a slash mark. It looked like a scrape from the broom her grandmother had swung. Taeseo clicked his tongue as he headed for the refrigerated section with the lunch boxes.

He picked up a lunch box with five side dishes and two cans of beer. On his way to the counter, the display of over-the-counter medicine caught his eye.

Taeseo grabbed a disinfectant wipe and some ointment from the shelf. When he went to the counter and presented the lunch box, beer, and medicine, An Yuna scanned the barcodes.

“Are you hurt somewhere?”

Apparently, she was unaware of her own disheveled appearance from being hit by her grandmother.

“You said you got hit because of me.”

“What?”

An Yuna's eyes widened as she processed the payment with the card Taeseo handed her.

“They're for you.”

Taeseo left the disinfectant wipe and ointment on the counter, picked up only his lunch box and beer, and headed for the second floor.

* * *

An Yuna's grandmother had been going to the township office for several days.

Just as she had in front of Taeseo and Hyunwoo, she would make a scene, grabbing onto a public official and complaining, threatening to gut herself and die or asking why they were trying to force her to sell land she didn't want to sell.

On the days An Yuna's grandmother showed up, an official from the township office would invariably visit the Namgyeong Development site and demand they resolve the civil complaint first. They warned that the township office's operations were being paralyzed and that they had to resolve the conflict with the complainant before proceeding.

The Seongwu Township golf course was planned to be developed into a comprehensive resort and operated jointly with the local government. With constant trouble ahead of the construction of Korea's first public golf course, the township office was in a difficult position.

‘How is a golf course a public sports facility!’

But in truth, the "public golf course" development was just a pretense. It was a classic case of collusion between business and government, slapping the "public" label on it because proceeding with the project in the private sector was proving difficult.

In that respect, what An Yuna's grandmother said was right.

‘How can you call a place where a bunch of idle bastards wander around giggling and swinging sticks a national sports facility and try to take away someone's land!’

An Yuna's grandmother reportedly repeated those same words she'd said to Taeseo at the township office like a broken record.

The old woman's fiery personality was a problem, but her insight was sharp.

The plan was to operate it as a national sports facility for a few years under contract with the local government, and as soon as the contract expired, Namgyeong Resort, a subsidiary of Namgyeong Group, would take over the operating rights.

Unfortunately, thanks to An Yuna's grandmother's sharp insight, Taeseo also had to spend several days at the site office, taking on the role of placating the public officials.

In many ways, An Yuna's grandmother had an outstanding talent for bothering people.

The type who couldn't be persuaded by any reasonable amount of money. The type who confused who held the power and who was at a disadvantage. An Yuna's grandmother was exactly the kind of person Taeseo found most exhausting.

Thanks to her, he had diligently performed the ritual of commuting to and from work like everyone else for a few days.

When he returned at the time most people were getting off work and parked in front of the convenience store, a middle-aged woman ran toward him, her face lighting up.

There was no one in this neighborhood who would look happy to see Taeseo. As he was wondering who it could be, the middle-aged woman reached him.

“Young man.”

Hearing that form of address, he immediately remembered who she was. The owner of the shabby restaurant called Seongwu Baekban.

The woman who had run up to Taeseo pulled a white envelope from her bosom and held it out.

“What is this?”

“Money.”

At the word "money," he didn't take it, but she insisted, pressing the envelope into his hand.

“I was shocked when I saw the kimchi after you left, young man. I don't know what kind of bastards would pull a prank like that in someone else's restaurant... No, my bastard of a husband was just as wrong for putting that kimchi back in the container.”

The middle-aged woman explained the circumstances of how the food had been reused and tearfully promised it would never happen again.

“Anyway, after you left, I threw out all the side dishes in the containers and I'm not leaving the restaurant to my husband anymore. Even if I have to step out for a minute, I lock the door. I'm so sorry.”

He had no intention of ever eating at that restaurant again. He was about to tell her he understood and that she could go, but the owner added something else.

“I heard from Yuna that you moved into the studio here, so I brought some side dishes I made. I didn't know when you'd be back, so I put them in a cooler and left it by your door. Make sure you eat them.”

He could understand the apology, but bringing him side dishes was unexpected.

“That's not necessary.”

The refusal to accept the side dishes slipped out, but the woman refused his refusal.

“What do you mean it's not necessary? I heard you've been starving because there are no decent restaurants in this town. This time, I really made everything fresh.”

While the owner of Seongwu Baekban was speaking, a bus pulled up and stopped in front of the convenience store. There was no bus stop, but it seemed the bus would let people off in front of the store.

“The vegetables are all homegrown, so they're clean. I'm not the kind of person who does business without a conscience, so make sure you eat them when you have a meal at home.”

The person who got off the bus was An Yuna. She bowed her head toward Taeseo and the owner of Seongwu Baekban, who were standing in front of the convenience store.

“Anyway, you have to come eat next time.”

The restaurant owner accepted Yuna's greeting and earnestly pleaded with Taeseo.

“I won't even charge you for the meal, so you have to come. I'm saying this because I think it'll help ease this feeling of being indebted to you.”

It seemed the conversation wouldn't end unless he agreed, so just as he was about to give a vague answer and send her on her way, a scream came from the direction of the convenience store.