20
Chapter 20
A few days had passed since he came down from the mountain.
Groaning in pain, Lee Yeon-woo walked toward a meat restaurant tucked away in a corner of Sangpyeong City. After trudging along the sidewalk for a while, he finally stopped in front of the establishment.
The rich aroma of grilling meat wafted out from the wide-open door. Lee Yeon-woo swallowed hard, his cast-covered hand dangling by his side. Then, he quickly stepped inside.
"Welcome! How many in your party?"
The owner, who had a gruesome scar on his face, greeted him with a wide smile. He had a truly menacing look.
Subtly averting his gaze, Lee Yeon-woo looked around the room, scanning the sparsely occupied tables.
"We're here for a company dinner today—"
"Oh! Rookie! Over here!"
A booming voice rang out across the room. At a corner table, the Chief, a man of sturdy build, waved a thick hand.
Choi Jae-min and Yu Ji-yu, dressed in civilian clothes at the same table, acknowledged him by raising their hands or nodding. Lee Yeon-woo hurried over to them.
"Hello, Chief, seniors. And Jae-min."
"Oh, this is the first time we've seen each other, right? How's the injury? You doing okay?"
The Chief pulled out a chair for him, though he couldn't take his eyes off the cast. Lee Yeon-woo sat down, swaying his casted arm back and forth.
"I'm fine, thanks to getting some good rest for a few days."
He really had rested well for several days in his cramped room at the exam study house. After an injury like that, there was no way he could have gone to work.
Of course, separately from the rest, his overworked body had been screaming with muscle pain.
"Right, you need plenty of rest if you want to work for a long time. Make sure no after-effects linger."
Just then, the menacing-looking owner brought over a large tray with side dishes. Clatter, clatter. As he set down the kimchi, green onion salad, and bean sprouts, the owner spoke up with a bright smile, glancing at Lee Yeon-woo.
"Oh my, you must be the new employee?"
"Ah, yes."
"I'll be seeing you often then. I'm grateful that you always hold your dinners here. Well, should I get you some drinks?"
"Drinks? Forget that. Just bring the soju."
Lee Yeon-woo looked uncomfortable with the excessive attention, while the Chief ordered with a lukewarm tone. The owner left quickly, only to return diligently with soju, a gas burner, a stone grill, and pork belly sprinkled with coarse salt.
"Enjoy your meal, and please call me if you need anything."
The owner departed for another table. Yu Ji-yu familiarly lit the gas burner and placed the meat on the grill.
Sizzle— sizzle—
The sound of meat cooking. Along with that delicious sound, like a sudden rain shower, the scent of meat wafted up.
Gulp. Swallowing his saliva, Lee Yeon-woo snapped back to his senses and reached into the utensil holder with one hand to grab the chopsticks and spoon. As the youngest employee, he intended to set the table.
However.
Clatter, clatter—
His hand trembled as if he had a tremor, and the utensils collided noisily. The muscle pain had not yet faded.
"Mister, give them to me! I'll do it."
As he handed them over in silence, Choi Jae-min placed the spoons and chopsticks in front of everyone and distributed the soju glasses he had stacked like a tower.
A soju glass was placed in front of Choi Jae-min as well.
Yu Ji-yu, who was grilling the meat, narrowed her eyes.
"What about you? Planning to drink cola?"
"No. I'm drinking too."
Choi Jae-min looked back at her confidently. Yu Ji-yu raised her hand, but realizing she was holding the tongs and scissors, she paused in thought. Would it be okay to strike his head with the scissors?
Sensing the menacing aura, Choi Jae-min pushed his chair back to create some distance.
"No, just listen to me."
"Go ahead. If you can't convince me, I'm stabbing you with this."
"Okay, just listen."
Pulling his chair back in, Choi Jae-min looked around at Yu Ji-yu, Lee Yeon-woo, and the Chief. Then, he lowered his voice significantly.
"I almost died last time."
"And? That's it?"
"No! Listen to the end. I survived last time, but that's just the nature of the work we do in the investigation unit. Usually, it's fine, but if you hit a bad streak, you die."
"...."
In the noisy meat restaurant, silence descended only upon their table. Yu Ji-yu flipped the meat without a word. Choi Jae-min continued.
"We'll keep going on field training, and who knows if I'll even live until I'm an adult? If I'm unlucky, I might die during the very next session. That's why I have to do everything I want while I'm still alive."
Squeak—
The Chief silently twisted open the cap of the soju bottle. The bottle was pointed toward Choi Jae-min.
"Fine, let him drink. It's okay for him to drink in front of an adult. It's a good chance for him to learn how to handle his liquor."
"Yes! Thank you!"
Choi Jae-min raised his glass with both hands politely. He seemed to be imitating something he saw on TV, using an excessively formal posture as the soju splashed into the glass.
Yu Ji-yu watched with a skeptical look, but when the bottle came to her, she set down the tongs and took her glass. Lee Yeon-woo did the same. The Chief paused for a moment as Lee Yeon-woo politely held up his glass with his healthy hand.
"Are you okay to drink right now?"
His eyes flicked to the cast. Lee Yeon-woo nodded.
"A few drinks should be fine. Maybe it'll actually make me feel better?"
"Bwahaha! Exactly! You've got the right idea!"
Meanwhile, the meat was perfectly cooked. Yu Ji-yu snipped the meat with the scissors, snip snip. Into perfect bite-sized pieces.
"Cheers!"
"Cheers!"
The Chief raised his glass high. Four glasses gathered in the center of the table and then pulled apart.
"Ugh! This tastes like shit!"
Choi Jae-min, who had practically turned around to empty his glass, quickly sat back and took three pieces of meat, dipping them heavily in ssamjang. Yu Ji-yu watched him with a look of disbelief and muttered a few words.
"Just drink a little. Don't cause any trouble."
"How can anyone drink a lot of this? This is ridiculous. Why does anyone find this stuff tasty?"
"Bwahaha!"
Amidst the cheerful commotion, Lee Yeon-woo struggled to make a wrap. With his one functional hand, he placed a fresh lettuce leaf on his plate, added a spoonful of warm rice, topped it with pork belly dipped in ssamjang, and gently added some garlic.
As he stuffed the hard-won wrap into his mouth until he could barely breathe, the Chief searched his pocket and pulled out a small glass bottle, placing it in front of Lee Yeon-woo.
"Rookie. Take this."
Munch, munch—
Lee Yeon-woo looked at the glass bottle while chewing.
The brownish glass bottle had no label or paper on it, making it look like a digestive aid or a hangover cure. Inside, a clear liquid sloshed around.
The Chief spoke in a low voice.
"There's no bonus for this mission. You all know why, right?"
"...Yes."
Lee Yeon-woo answered in a muffled voice after swallowing his wrap, and Yu Ji-yu bowed her head slightly.
They had been chewed out by that man called the Company Commander and told what they'd done wrong. The destruction of an Anomaly Entity, the burning of a habitat. The possibility that they had almost erased it with their own hands.
The Chief tapped the table with his utensils, cursing the higher-ups.
"Those bastards. Is this the Humanity Protection Company or an Anomaly Protection Company? Calling that a mistake. Anyway, instead of a bonus, our investigation unit received a few Memory Erasers. What I gave you is one of those."
"Is this the Memory Eraser?"
Lee Yeon-woo picked up the Memory Eraser and shook it a few times. The clear liquid inside sloshed normally. He turned his gaze toward the Chief.
"But why are you giving this to me...?"
"Think of it as a resignation letter. Jiyu already has one."
The Chief poured liquor into his own glass, watching the soju flow.
"Keep it with you like a resignation letter, and drink it when you retire."
"Ah."
Yu Ji-yu nodded in agreement. Lee Yeon-woo carefully tucked the glass bottle into his pants pocket.
After that, they ordered pork belly a few more times and emptied several more bottles of soju. As the hour grew late, their once-clear faces became flushed with intoxication.
After eating every bit of the fried rice made from finely chopped pork belly, kimchi, and bean sprouts, the Chief stood up.
"Let's get going. Look at that brat, he's wasted."
"Aaaaah. I think I can drink moooore? I'm not drunk!"
Choi Jae-min flapped his arms, his voice slurring. He couldn't even keep himself upright. Yu Ji-yu smacked the back of his head.
Whack!
"I told you to just drink a little, didn't I?"
"I only had a liiittle!"
"I'm losing it. What do we do with him?"
"Shall we just drag him out first?"
While the Chief paid the bill, Yu Ji-yu and Lee Yeon-woo grabbed Choi Jae-min from both sides and hauled him outside. His feet dragged along the ground, but Choi Jae-min just chuckled, finding it amusing.
"Wow!"
"Have a safe trip!"
The menacing-looking owner greeted them with a smile as the Chief took out the corporate card and handed it over. The owner accepted it and asked curiously.
"Did you enjoy your meal?"
"It's a meat restaurant; the meat has to be good."
"Haha. So the taste of the meat is fine, then?"
"Why, business not going so well?"
The payment was completed. The owner returned the card, and as the Chief put the card and receipt into his wallet, he asked casually.
"Aside from a few regulars, no new customers are coming in. Even the regulars are dwindling... I worry about how I'll make a living if the business fails."
It was an answer laced with anxiety.
The Chief listened in silence before letting out a short laugh and offering a bit of a scolding.
"Worried about making a living, eh? My friend, you're blessed to even be able to worry about something like that."
"Haha. Do you think so? My wife says the same—why do I go looking for things to worry about."
The owner laughed. The Chief shook his head and stepped out through the wide-open door. A farewell call echoed from behind.
"Have a safe trip!"
Avoiding the flashing signs, the Chief headed to the dim smoking area and pulled a cigarette from his pocket. Click. The sound of a lighter's flint striking.
As the flame flared up, the voice of a man who had once been a fellow investigator echoed in his mind.
'Hey. I can't do this anymore. Every single day is hell. It's not just the work.'
'Will I survive today without any issues? Will those psychos attack? Will the city I live in be destroyed? Will the world suddenly end tomorrow? How is living with these kinds of worries actually living?'
'I just want to live like normal people, worrying only about how to make a living.'
The colleague who had endured ten years as an investigator alongside him had drunk the Memory Eraser and gone to a normal world—one that wasn't strange.
The investigator who lost ten years of memories became the owner of a meat restaurant, met a partner and married, and became a normal person who worried about making a living, just as he had wanted.
He took a deep drag of the cigarette. The Chief spat out a curse like a sigh, letting it drift into the sky with the smoke.
"That brat..."
While chewing over those memories, the Chief suddenly chuckled. Because right in front of him, there were investigators causing a scene.
"Waaaaah! I'm sorry... I'm so sorry I left you behind...!"
"Arm! Arm! Arm! Ack!"
"Snap out of it! Wake up!"
Choi Jae-min clinging to Lee Yeon-woo, Lee Yeon-woo screaming and trying to run away, and Yu Ji-yu grabbing Choi Jae-min to drag him away. People who might part ways at any moment, in any way.
The Chief watched them until his cigarette had burned down.