Coupang Eats
Friday work that marked the end of the week. Eom Chaewon, granted two weekends in a row for once, looked to be in a pretty good mood.
But not me. After lunch, seizing a brief free moment, I called my uncle.
“Uncle? Is Aunt still really mad?”
“Haha! Don’t worry. She spent the whole night cussing me out, calling me a degenerate who threw his family away over some woman, but it’s nothing serious.”
“N-nothing serious? I don’t think we can call it that. Did she say anything else?”
“Haha! She did say that if she ever sees you again she’ll stop being human and become a dog, but people say all kinds of crap when they’re angry, right?”
“That’s way past ‘all kinds of crap’! Anything else?”
“Haha! She told the kids not to accept so much as a single bean from you. Come to think of it, weren’t you supposed to take them to some amusement park?”
“The moment she said that, the trip was already off, wasn’t it? Aunt really is furious with me.”
“Haha! Still, family’s family. Looking at how you eventually made up with your brother and decided to raise Harin, Aunt’ll come around someday too, don’t you think?”
“...”
Someday, as in eighteen years from now? By then Harin’ll be older than I am now—how long am I supposed to wait?
More to the point, looking at Uncle’s condition—he seemed to carry every adult disease known to man—there was a high chance he’d close his eyes without ever seeing us reconcile.
“Haa… All right, Uncle. Once Aunt’s mood improves a bit, I’ll stop by.”
In the end I hung up without resolving a thing. Then—Brrring!—another call came through right away.
Calling from: Cheonji High School Class 2-2, Park Eunju
“...”
Why is this kid suddenly calling me out of nowhere? Don’t tell me she’s trying to talk me around after yesterday?
“Hello? Eunju, what’s going on all of a sudden?”
“All of a sudden? We still have things left to talk about, don’t we? I’m in front of the gym right now, so come out this way, Oppa.”
“Uh… that might be a little tough.”
Because I wasn’t at school. Even if I skipped first through fourth gear and floored it like a maniac, there was no way I’d make it before lunch ended.
“What… do you mean, Oppa? Don’t tell me you skipped school?”
“Not so much skipped as… look, Eunju, I really thought this through before deciding. Graduating high school doesn’t leave you with much these days, and the GED isn’t even discriminated against anymore—”
“You think that’s a reason? There’s not even a year left. Why can’t you just wait—”
What the hell!? Park Eunju, why are you hiding to make this call!?
Click!
Wonhui’s voice cut in and the line went dead. So even this little hamster could be useful once in a while.
Eunju wouldn’t want anyone knowing she was contacting me separately, so she’d be busy for a while. That didn’t solve the fundamental problem, though.
Someone like Hyeonji, who just lived because she’d been born, might let it slide. But Eunju—armed to the teeth with model-student righteousness—would never sit quietly while I quit school without a proper reason.
If she was already trying to set a meeting the moment camp ended, she might keep chasing me for days trying to talk me out of it. That much I could handle. The real trouble would start if she decided to go looking for “Chulgu” to persuade me.
In the end I had to settle this myself. But how?
Vroooom~
I fretted the whole way home and still came up empty. Aunt was Aunt, Harin was Harin.
And now Eunju on top of it all—I must have looked so uncharacteristically miserable that even Chaewon noticed.
“Team Leader, you’re weirdly quiet today?”
She actually spoke first. I forced a smile.
“Just… a lot on my mind.”
“That so?”
And that was it. Not like I expected empathy or understanding from her anyway.
Still, the fact that she’d found it strange enough to ask when her superior was sitting there looking like death was something to be grateful for.
“I’m about to order Coupang Eats—Team Leader, what do you want?”
“...?”
She hadn’t dropped the subject after all. She was planning to comfort me in a way I never saw coming.
“Uh… what’s this all of a sudden?”
“I’m ordering right now. What do you want to eat?”
“...”
So she’s offering to share a late dinner and listen to my problems? And since the food’s coming via Coupang Eats, that means she’s inviting me into her place?
The thought was genuinely kind, but… was it really okay? No matter how casual our team-leader-and-subordinate relationship was, we were still clearly adult man and woman.
What if I walked into her room and some awkward atmosphere sprang up?
I shook my head hard.
What the hell am I thinking? She’s my subordinate. She’s Eom Chaewon.
Her inviting me in only meant she didn’t even see me as a man. After months of working together, she’d decided I was safe enough to share delivery food with at home.
“Hey—Team Leader, if you don’t order now we won’t get it by the time we arrive. Just tell me already?”
“O-okay. Um… it’s pretty late, so how about something light—chicken and zero cola?”
“I had dakdoritang yesterday. You’re telling me to eat chicken again?”
“Uh… then rice noodles? Low calories, so your face won’t be puffy in the morning.”
“Do you break out in hives if you don’t eat noodles? We had ramyeon noodles in the budae-jjigae at lunch.”
“Haa… then street food? Tteokbokki mixed with sundae, and if we’re still hungry we can add kimbap.”
“Are you a grade-schooler? Your daughter might like that stuff, but I’m a grown adult.”
“...”
Then just order whatever the hell you want to eat! After nearly five minutes of bickering we finally reached a conclusion.
“Whew… how about sushi? That should fill us up without being too heavy…”
“Just chicken and beer. Suddenly craving Bburinkle.”
“...”
You were going to get chicken the whole time—why put me through dog training? Chaewon just beamed and tapped away at the Coupang Eats order.
Calm down. The process hadn’t exactly been smooth, but she’d still gone out of her way to do something nice for me.
She spent every day sniping and needling, yet underneath she was a warm person. I felt bad for having judged her through every prejudice imaginable.
I’d treat her to a proper meal later as thanks. Something other than pork cutlet, of course.
Screeech…
We pulled up in front of Chaewon’s place. I parked at the mouth of the alley and got out. She immediately asked,
“Team Leader, why are you getting out?”
“What do you mean…? You said we’d eat together.”
“When did I?”
“Huh? But earlier you asked what I wanted because you were ordering Coupang Eats.”
After five whole minutes of shooting down every single suggestion I made, she was changing her tune now? Chaewon looked at me like she’d never seen a crazier bastard in her life.
“I asked for reference! Wow, have you lost it!? Are you in your right mind, Team Leader? What makes you think you can just walk into a woman’s place when she lives alone?”
“But I naturally assumed we were eating together…”
“Don’t tell me you planned this from the start? That’s why you suggested carpooling, isn’t it?”
“What are you talking about!? I didn’t suggest carpooling—the manager forced—”
“Is something going on?”
Just as I was about to become the disgusting superior who’d been waiting for a chance to invade a female employee’s home, an unfamiliar voice cut the whole mess short.
Chaewon and I both turned at the same time. A middle-aged woman who’d just stepped out of the building entrance was looking at us, trash bag in hand.
“M-Mom? What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call?”
“Didn’t we talk the day before yesterday? I said I was bringing side dishes.”
I’d been right next to her during that call. Even I, who’d only heard half of it, remembered—how could she forget?
“Then you should’ve just dropped the side dishes and left. What have you been doing all this time?”
“I meant to, but your room was such a disaster I couldn’t leave without cleaning. How do you even find your own things in there?”
Her mother held up the bulging trash bag. Chaewon’s ears went bright red and she started seething.
“Mmmph mwhy are you sayin’ that right nowww? In fron’ of company peopllle, I’m so embarrasseed…”
She was muttering through clenched teeth. Roughly: why say that in front of someone from work. Her mother looked my way and gave an awkward smile.
“Sorry. I should introduce myself. I’m Chaewon’s mom.”
“Ah, hello. I work with Eom Chaewon—”
“Why are you introducing yourself? Aren’t you leaving right now? Do I seriously have to call the police?”
“...”
What did I even do that warrants a report? Chaewon couldn’t stand the embarrassment any longer; she bolted into the building entrance without so much as a goodbye to her mother.
“Sorry you had to see that. She gets a little sensitive when she’s hungry.”
“Ah… is that so?”
If that were true she was hungry twenty-four hours a day. Unless she had a two-meter tapeworm living in her gut, it was just her nature.
“Oh! And just now was a misunderstanding. We carpool together, and there was a little communication error a minute ago. I was absolutely not stalking Chaewon or—”
“I know. If you really had been, she wouldn’t have stayed quiet. You seem to have it rough because of our Chaewon—as her mother, I’m truly sorry.”
“No… I just didn’t catch what she meant. I’ll be going, then. You should go inside and talk with her.”
“I was only going to drop off the side dishes and head home anyway.”
Apparently Chaewon’s personality was famous even at home; no special farewell was needed. But I was a third-generation son raised on Confucian table manners.
I couldn’t just leave an adult standing out here in the middle of the night.
“Please get in, ma’am. I’ll take you to the bus or subway station.”
“Oh my… I’d feel terrible imposing…”
She said that, but at her age she clearly wanted the easiest ride possible. She climbed into the passenger seat without further protest.