Chapter 25

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: The Tumbler Doll
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“Ahem.”

He picked up the remote from the desk on one side of the studio apartment and turned on the TV. The voice of a news anchor delivering the morning news broke the silence.

“You have to watch the news in the morning. That’s how you find out the weather and all…”

He wasn’t the type to watch the news, even if someone forced him to, but he felt he had to pretend.

*Beep, beep, beep.* The microwave alarm sounded. Taeseo walked over, took out the grilled rib patty, and placed the side dishes from the fridge on the table.

He pushed the last remaining rib patty toward Yuna. In response, she pushed the plate back to the center of the table.

“I’m fine.”

“You eat it.”

“There’s only one left. You have it.”

“It’s fine.”

“Then let’s split it.”

“I said it’s fine. You need to eat meat for your wound to heal faster.”

Seeing she wasn’t likely to listen, Taeseo added something he doubted she’d even be curious about.

“I never eat the same side dish for more than one meal anyway.”

An Yuna looked at him as if wondering if such people really existed in the world, then nodded as if in acceptance. Only then did she take her hand off the plate and leave it in front of her.

The two began their meal in silence.

The side dishes from the owner of Seongu’s Diner suited his palate, but he had to practice what he’d preached about not eating the same dish twice, so he stuck to the soybean paste soup and pan-fried zucchini that An Yuna had made.

Every time Taeseo picked up a piece of the pan-fried zucchini, An Yuna would glance at the end of his chopsticks before asking cautiously.

“Um… how is it?”

“How is it?”

Taeseo tilted his head at the question.

Was there really anything to say about the taste of soybean paste soup and pan-fried zucchini?

You ate pan-fried zucchini for the taste of zucchini, and soybean paste soup for the taste of soybean paste, didn’t you?

When Taeseo looked at her with an expression of confusion, Yuna’s face fell.

“Is it… not good?”

Only then did Taeseo realize what kind of answer she was waiting for.

“No, it’s delicious.”

His opinion that the zucchini tasted like zucchini and the soup tasted like soybean paste hadn’t changed, but words different from his thoughts slipped out. A look of relief washed over An Yuna’s face.

Seeing her relief made the white lie feel worthwhile.

Taeseo picked up a piece of the pan-fried zucchini in front of him, put it in his mouth, and chewed. An Yuna’s gaze followed the tip of his chopsticks to his lips before falling away.

“When do you get the stitches out?”

“I just have to go to the hospital in three days.”

“Isn’t that too soon? It’s a woman’s face.”

“A woman’s face, a man’s face, they both get stitches out in a week, I think.”

Yuna seemed to have no awareness of how beautiful she was.

Seo Jiae, whom Taeseo had dated, would frequent the dermatologist as if it were her own home if so much as a single pimple appeared on her face.

So, Yuna’s nonchalance despite having a wound that required stitches was bound to feel strange.

“Did they say it’ll leave a scar?”

“It probably will, don’t you think?”

“What kind of girl talks so casually about getting a scar?”

At that, Yuna turned over the arm that had been holding her chopsticks. On the inside of her elbow was another scar, about three centimeters long. It was raised and bumpy, like a sutured wound.

“I have a lot of scars like that, so it’s fine.”

“What’s that scar from?”

“I got hurt a long time ago.”

Again, An Yuna spoke of it as if it were nothing and resumed her meal. The words of the woman from Seongu’s Diner echoed in Taeseo’s mind.

*‘Back in the day, he even broke the kid’s arm. It was chaos all the time. Now that Yuna’s bringing in money, he leaves her limbs alone, but if you were to see her undressed, there probably isn’t a single part of her body that’s unscathed.’*

That scar, too, might have been made by An Yuna’s uncle. The thought made him curious about how she had gotten hurt.

He knew she wouldn’t welcome questions about the scar, but his mouth moved before he could stop it.

“Did you break your arm?”

“It wasn’t broken, just a tear.”

“Did you get stabbed or something?”

“I hurt it when I fell.”

An Yuna’s denial only strengthened Taeseo’s suspicion. If you fell, you’d hurt your elbow, not the inside of your elbow.

Taeseo’s gaze fell on Yuna’s arm as she held her chopsticks. When she gripped and released the thin utensils, her slender wrist, which looked like it could be encircled by one hand with room to spare, moved. Her pale skin revealed the blue of her veins.

Every part of An Yuna’s body was small and frail. Her uncle was also thin and small-framed, but there was a fundamental difference between a man and a woman.

He could vividly picture how violence might have been inflicted upon this delicate and weak person, how her flesh might have been torn and her bones broken. For a moment, an indescribable murderous rage flared in Taeseo’s chest.

Suppressing the unfamiliar emotion, Taeseo asked.

“Don’t you want to go to college or something?”

“College?”

“Couldn’t you go because you were bad at studying?”

“I wasn’t bad at it.”

The casual way she said it suggested she wasn’t lying. Taeseo asked what seemed like an obvious question.

“So you didn’t go because you had to take care of your family?”

“It’s not just the tuition. I’d need money for living expenses, too, and where would I get that?”

“So you didn’t choose not to go, you couldn’t go.”

“Yes. But I’m satisfied just living like this. If I work hard for another five or six years, I’ll have paid off all the loans, and it won’t be too late to go to college then.”

An Yuna was being optimistic, thinking things would be easier in five or six years, but having lived eight years longer than her, Taeseo knew that at twenty, you have the worries of a twenty-year-old, and when you turn twenty-one, you get the worries of a twenty-one-year-old.

It was obvious that for An Yuna, who was already shouldering all her family’s burdens at twenty, unlike most people her age, even bigger worries would come her way. But Taeseo couldn’t bring himself to say that.

“Right. When the time comes, live however the hell you want.”

“That phrasing sounds a little strange.”

“I mean, live as you please. Make sure you do.”

His words, telling her to live as she pleased, didn’t seem to be unwelcome, as An Yuna gave a bright smile.

“Yes. I hope I can live like that.”

As the two were finishing their meal, a voice calling for Yuna drifted through the open window. It seemed one of the villagers heading out to the fields early in the morning had stopped by the convenience store.

Since everyone in the village knew each other, if the counter was empty, they would either leave money, leave a note to run a tab, or sometimes, just call out for someone to ring them up like this.

“You should go down.”

“I’m sorry for leaving without cleaning up. Thank you for the meal. I’ll take my trash with me and throw it out downstairs.”

Without even enough time to finish a single serving of instant rice, An Yuna rushed back into her life.

***

On Sunday afternoon, Taeseo, having run out of cigarettes, entered the convenience store in his tracksuit.

He didn’t even glance at the items on the shelves, heading straight for the counter.

“Cigarettes.”

An Yunho, who was manning the counter, glared at Taeseo.

“If you smoke in the apartment, I’m kicking you out.”

“What bullshit. There was no clause like that in the contract.”

“Brand new apartments are all like that. Don’t smoke in your room.”

“Brand new, my ass. I know all the appliances inside are used, you know?”

From his conversation with Yuna the other day, Taeseo knew that the appliances filling the apartment had come from a second-hand store.

They were clean as if they were new, but on closer inspection, the air conditioner, the TV, and the microwave were all several years old.

The fact that it was filled with used products didn’t make the new apartment any less new, but faced with Taeseo’s imposing demeanor, An Yunho fell silent.

Taking a pack of cigarettes from the display, Yunho picked up the card Taeseo had placed on the counter.

“I told you before, don’t speak to me so informally. It’s offensive.”

Every word he spoke was through clenched teeth, as if he had a lot of pent-up anger toward Taeseo. Taeseo ignored his attitude and asked.

“Whatever. Where’s An Yuna, and why are you watching the store?”

“She went to work in the fields.”

At the mention of field work, Taeseo glanced out the glass door of the convenience store. While he had been sleeping in on his day off, the sun had already risen high in the sky. Heat shimmered up from the sun-baked asphalt.

He suddenly remembered that An Yuna’s forehead wound hadn’t healed yet. Working under this scorching sun, sweat was bound to get into the stitches.

It could get infected, or leave a scar…

“Stop working her to the bone. You’ve even been to the army, aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

“None of your damn business whether I work her to the bone or not.”

An Yunho tossed the cigarettes and the card onto the counter as if throwing them away. Taeseo picked them up and walked out of the store.

As he opened the glass door and stepped outside, the hot summer air filled his lungs. The heat was so oppressive it was hard to breathe. It was the kind of weather that made you feel suffocated just by standing still.

“This is no different from Africa. No different at all.”

He stood in front of the store, put a cigarette to his lips, and lit it. In the distance, he caught sight of An Yuna, walking toward him, drenched in sweat.

“Why is she walking in this blazing sun?”

Her face, visible under the wide-brimmed hat, was bright red. Taeseo let out a sigh along with a puff of smoke.

“That damn fool…”

An Yuna wouldn’t last even if she had three bodies.

If she had three bodies, it was plain as day that her family would put An Yuna #1 in the convenience store, make An Yuna #2 do the housework, and send An Yuna #3 to the factory.

When their eyes met, Yuna bowed her head in greeting, but Taeseo didn’t acknowledge it.

An Yunho was pressed up against the convenience store glass, watching them. Previously, he had tattled to their grandmother that Yuna had gotten a ride in Taeseo’s car, which had resulted in her getting hit.

Remembering that incident, Taeseo didn’t even glance at An Yuna.

He flicked the ash from his cigarette into the ashtray and took another drag. The glass door of the store opened with the chime of a bell, and An Yunho shot out like an arrow.

A bus was approaching from one end of the road. An Yunho, who had taken off his convenience store uniform as if he were going out, was dressed more nicely than usual.

As he passed by An Yuna, An Yunho said.

“I took 100,000 won from the register.”

At that, Yuna, who had been trudging along, stopped in her tracks and followed after him.

“Brother! You can’t take that.”

“I’ll put it back on Monday.”

“I said you can’t.”

An Yuna grabbed An Yunho’s collar. Meanwhile, the bus was approaching the stop near the store.

An Yunho tried to shake off her arm in annoyance, but even as he cursed at her, An Yuna didn’t loosen her grip.

The hem of his shirt, tucked into his pants, came undone. The crisply ironed shirt was horribly wrinkled in her hand.

“Hey, you fucking bitch, I said let go!”

“Give me the money.”

“I said I’ll put it back! I’ll put it back!”

“You’ve never put it back. The electricity bill gets paid on Monday. You know how high it is, how can you keep sneaking money out?”

An Yunho anxiously glanced at the bus that had stopped on the road in front of the store. Two elderly people were getting off the back door one by one.

The old people’s movements were slow as they steadied themselves with their hands on their knees, but the bus would be leaving soon. An Yunho grabbed An Yuna by the collar and threw her to the ground.

Taeseo threw the cigarette butt in his hand to the ground. He was about to run over and grab An Yunho by the collar, but An Yuna got up like a tumbler doll and lunged at An Yunho.

“You took my paycheck the other day!”