Ace
“Ahh, that hits the spot~”
Min-hyeok stepped out, towel-drying his hair, finally feeling clean after a body that had been sticky with dust and sweat.
It had been the same when he did courier loading and unloading — any work that put the body through its paces drained stamina, sure, but more than that, it left a man soaked. By the time he got home he was wrecked, coated in grit and sweat, thoroughly unpleasant. So the first thing he did after coming back was always hit the shower.
“You already set the whole table?”
A-reum nodded.
“Man… then I’d better dry my hair and sit down.”
He pulled out the hair dryer, plugged it in, and shook his head under the hot blast until the moisture fled and his hair went soft and fluffy.
“Looking good…”
Min-hyeok gave himself a satisfied little smirk, dabbed on some skin toner and lotion, then took his seat.
“Thanks for the food, Noona.”
“…Mm…”
Hearing A-reum’s quiet reply, he lifted his spoon and went straight for the kimchi stew.
“Kimchi stew’s gotta have a can of tuna in it, no exceptions~”
The rich, oily savor unique to canned tuna came through, with the bonus of tuna flesh and a faint breath of the sea. Watching Min-hyeok shovel white rice and side dishes, it was obvious how hungry he was.
“Noona, have you been sitting like that this whole time?”
From the moment he’d opened the door, he’d seen her sitting there, just staring.
“Mm…”
A-reum answered the same way again.
“Looking at you~ I start talking about Seong-min hyung and you go quiet like that… I’m right, aren’t I?”
Min-hyeok flashed a bright, toothy grin. A-reum didn’t answer. Instead her cheeks flushed a little deeper than before.
“Heh… so that was it. Got it. Then I’ll spin you the whole story.”
He took another spoonful of kimchi stew and set the spoon down in the bowl for a moment.
“I told you I did gombang work today, right?”
A-reum nodded.
“When Seong-min hyung gave me the rough version, I figured it’d be like courier loading — just moving stuff around, same kind of thing. Holy crap… but once I actually did it? Totally different. When we got there, cement bags were stacked this high…! This high~!”
Min-hyeok threw in hand gestures so A-reum could picture it, and kept going.
“We didn’t just haul all those cement bags inside — we had to stack them floor by floor from the fifth down to the first, matching the counts. Hearing that from Seong-min hyung, my mental state actually shook.”
Courier work had given Min-hyeok confidence in his own grit and endurance, but once he arrived on site, the sheer number of cement bags waiting to be moved was more than he’d expected. And more important than the volume was this: the bags didn’t just go into the first floor — they had to be stacked in order starting from the fifth.
“With courier loading, you pull stuff off the truck, set it on the auto-rail behind you, and it just crawls along to where it needs to go, right? This, though… I had to sling it on my back, climb the stairs, and put it down myself. Just hearing that, it already sounds brutal, doesn’t it?”
“…Mm… sounds hard.”
“Ordinary stamina can’t do this. Literally the only way through is your own refusal to quit — pure willpower and grit. You really only get it once you’ve done it. Not like I can tell Noona to go try it… Anyway, that’s how hard it is. For real, for reeeal~! Hard~!!”
Emphasizing “real” twice, Min-hyeok sold the difficulty with exaggerated gestures. A-reum listened with a kind of wonder.
“I made two hundred fifty thousand won today. Now you get why they paid that much, right?”
A-reum nodded.
“Listen close, Noona. This is the real part. So there was this one guy doing that brutal gombang work like he was living in a completely different world. The other ajusshis and me, we were all grinding just to move the bags — but one guy was different. You know who?”
A-reum shook her head.
“Don’t freak out, Noona. That guy was… Seong-min hyung~!”
For a second A-reum’s lips parted slightly.
“Seong-min hyung slung cement bags on his back and ran the stairs alone — up to the fifth, down again, over and over, fast. Me and the ajusshis all split the work: first to third, third to fifth. But Seong-min hyung alone went from the first all the way to the fifth like he never got tired, moving so fast. Watching that, I was so shocked… I literally couldn’t speak…!”
All that came out were gasps of awe.
Min-hyeok went on like that, spinning the tale of how incredible and cool Seong-min had been at gombang work, complete with over-the-top body language and voice. He didn’t really need the exaggerated gestures — but he did it for one reason only. It made it easier for Noona to understand. It was his way of looking out for her.
A-reum sat with her mouth faintly open, completely absorbed in what Min-hyeok was saying.
“Ah, I talked so much my throat’s dry…”
A-reum stood, left the room, opened the fridge, and brought back a bottle of water. She carefully poured it into an empty cup.
“Whoa, Noona, why are you moving so fast? Is it because I’m telling Seong-min hyung stories?”
A-reum didn’t answer. She only looked at him with her cheeks softly colored.
Min-hyeok took a couple of swallows from the cup and set it down again.
“Noona, be honest. Are you interested in Seong-min hyung?”
A-reum flustered, her lips working soundlessly.
“Oh~? Looking at how flustered you are, that means it’s true, doesn’t it?”
“I… bathroom… going…”
In a tiny voice, A-reum stood and left the room. Watching her go, Min-hyeok let out a small laugh.
Truth was, he’d already known. When he’d started courier work again and told her stories about what happened there, he’d felt it. The moment Seong-min hyung came up, Noona pricked up her ears like a puppy and locked onto every word. Even someone with zero social sense would figure it out after seeing that enough times.
Looking at her like this… Noona’s a woman too, huh…
His noona, four years older than him — twenty-six. For a woman, twenty-six was right in the prime of freshness, when everything was in bloom. Honestly, Min-hyeok was proud of how she held her own anywhere she went. A slender face, clear eyes with a soft, graceful droop at the outer corners — pure and cute at once. And with looks like that, she had never once dated. She’d gone to a special school, too. Her intelligence sat lower than most people’s, and the way she spoke wasn’t ordinary either.
Come to think of it, I’ve never seen Noona act like this before.
She was always cautious and guarded with anyone but him — even with the people who helped at the welfare center. Seeing her like this now, Min-hyeok couldn’t help feeling a little new about it.
“You back?”
A-reum returned to the room and nodded. Min-hyeok knew. She’d gone to the bathroom because she was embarrassed.
“Good job, Noona. If you need to go, you go right away. Don’t hold it.”
He knew, and pretended he didn’t. A-reum sat back down and simply watched Min-hyeok eat. He said nothing more and quietly finished his meal.
A few minutes passed.
“Min-hyeok…”
A-reum’s lips moved as she called his name softly.
“Min-hyeok what…?”
She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again.
“The… story… is it over…?”
“Hahaha!”
Min-hyeok finally burst out laughing. The reason he’d gone quiet and just eaten was deliberate. He wanted to see Noona get restless — wanting more of the story while he said nothing at all.
“You want to hear more?”
“…Mm…”
“Then I’ve got a favor to ask Noona. Can you do it?”
A-reum nodded.
“You can’t just nod without hearing what it is, Noona… You’re lucky it’s me, your little brother. With other people, don’t nod first before you even listen to the favor. Got it?”
A-reum nodded again.
“What I want isn’t hard. I can’t reach my own back, so I want Noona to put on the pain patches I bought. Can you do that?”
A-reum nodded once more.
“Great. Deal’s sealed, so I’ll finish the story. So like I was saying…”
Min-hyeok cheerfully launched back into the rest of it for A-reum. And so the tale of his first day of gombang work stretched on for quite a while.
“There… put it there.”
Lying face-down on the floor, he pointed near his lower back with a finger, and A-reum carefully peeled a patch and pressed it where he’d asked. One after another, she applied the rest of the patches to the spots on his back he indicated.
“Pain patches at this age… still, nothing beats them…”
Lying there in his early twenties getting pain patches stuck on felt a little absurd, but he decided it was proof he was living hard.
Min-hyeok got up and pulled his shirt back on.
“Noona, tomorrow you’re going to work at the center the welfare office introduced you to, right?”
“…Mm… going to work.”
“They won’t give you anything too hard. So don’t get too nervous — just listen carefully and do what they ask. Got it?”
A-reum nodded.
“Noona’s a working adult starting tomorrow, huh?”
A-reum smiled.
“Me too… like Min-hyeok… I’m a working adult…”
Min-hyeok scratched his nose, a little sheepish.
“Well… I don’t exactly work at a regular company, but if you think about it, I am a working adult…”
He made money and did a job, so in the big picture he counted himself as one.
A freelancer, maybe?
The random thought crossed his mind and he let it go.
“Tonight before bed, pack everything you need carefully and sleep, Noona. When the staff comes to pick you up in the morning, greet them properly. I’ve got to head out early again for courier work.”
Min-hyeok took both of A-reum’s hands.
“Noona, you can do this, right?”
“…Mm… I won’t shake. I’ll do well…”
“I’ve said it before — Noona just thinks a little slower and a little different from other people. You’re not stupid. So no matter how people look at you, don’t shrink. Got it?”
A-reum nodded, and Min-hyeok grinned wide.
“That’s enough, Noona. Want some cocoa? I’ll make it real quick. We’ll clean up the table after we drink.”
“Min-hyeok’s… making it… for me…?”
“Yep~! I can’t always just freeload off Noona~! Today I’m making you delicious cocoa!”
Min-hyeok stood and left the room. Alone, A-reum sat still for a while, lost in some thought. Then she rose, went to the mirror, and looked at her own face.
“……”
She blinked at the reflection, then carefully touched it with her hand.
Min-hyeok said… I’m pretty…
I’ve seen a lot of women while working, you know? Noona knows, right? I did waiter work too? There were plenty of pretty girls there, but the way I see it, our Noona’s the prettiest~!
Min-hyeok had said things like that proudly from time to time. That their noona was the prettiest. A-reum remembered those words as she touched the face in the mirror. Then, for some reason, both her cheeks flushed softly again. Embarrassed, she went back to her seat and sat down. Her heart gave a small, quick thump.
Back from gombang work, Seong-min showered at the gym first, then worked out. The job had finished far earlier than courier loading, so he had time to spare. Normally a single gombang run left a man physically spent and exhausted — but not Seong-min, not now. Through his stats, Physicality and Martial Power were both pushed high. Of every gombang job he’d done so far, today had been the easiest.
And even so, the pay was three hundred thousand won.
Last week, courier work had earned him eight hundred fifty thousand. Monday and Wednesday added another hundred forty thousand — ninety-nine thousand total from loading and unloading. And today, gombang work brought in three hundred thousand. Through today, Seong-min had pulled in one million two hundred ninety thousand won.
Soon he’d have to deposit another three hundred thousand toward the debt, but that was fine. He’d spent some money saving Min-hyeok and dropped below a million, and now he had over two million in cash on hand again. He’d transferred it into his account, of course — he only withdrew cash when he needed it, and otherwise paid by phone or card. Bank transfers were fine, but there was no helping how much more satisfying it felt to receive the envelope.
At the gym, Seong-min trained longer than yesterday, stacking experience and leveling up. The experience and level-ups from gombang work, plus the level-ups from the gym — he allocated them at once.
Name: Lee Seong-min
Age: 24
Education: Hancheon High School graduate
Level:158
Points: 0
Banter: 10
Appearance: 20
Vigor: 10
Martial Power:79
Physicality:80
EXP: 17/100%
Physicality sat at 80, Martial Power at 79. Looking at those numbers alone, it was no wonder gombang work had gotten so easy.
And from here on, that efficiency is only going to accelerate.
He would keep developing from this point forward.
Then Friday. On the way home after finishing courier loading, the team leader called Seong-min.
“Let’s do a job on Saturday.”
“Work came in?”
“Looks like the contractor from Wednesday introduced our team to an acquaintance. Said we work fast and clean.”
“Really?”
“Hahaha~! That’s all thanks to you, Seong-min! Anyway, you free Saturday? This job…”
Assuming Seong-min would of course show up, the team leader laid out Saturday’s location and the work. Just like that, Seong-min had another gombang job lined up sooner than expected. Two more days of leveling and stacking stats meant his efficiency moving cement bags would be even better. Work coming in this fast felt good.
“Is that true?”
Back home, he ordered chicken and beer, sat on the sofa under the air conditioner, and ate.
“It is. So I’m doing gombang work again tomorrow.”
“That’s great~ The job that day finished faster than expected, so the contractor must’ve taken a liking to you, huh?”
“Seemed that way.”
Seong-min took a swallow of beer.
“So he introduced our team to an acquaintance.”
“Hohoho~ This is good fortune for you, Seong-min.”
“It is! Gombang work doesn’t come in on a regular schedule.”
“If you keep handling this well, more jobs might start coming in~”
“That would feel amazing… but I think we should wait and see a bit more.”
“It’ll work out for sure~ You always live hard and diligently. Shall we toast once — for fighting spirit?”
“Sounds good.”
Seong-min raised his beer can and lightly clinked it with Hye-suk’s. Gulp, gulp, gulp. Then he drained a cold, satisfying pull.
“Ugh… my head’s buzzing.”
Hye-suk pressed a hand to her forehead.
“Haha… maybe you drank too fast?”
“Must be. It’s also proof the beer’s that cold… so I’ll endure it, hohoho…”
“Ajumma.”
“Hm?”
“Watch me. I’m going to make even more than this from now on. So…”
“So…?”
Seong-min started to continue, then smiled.
“Never mind. Just that I want to succeed.”
“Did you change what you were about to say? Suspicious~?”
“Hahaha… you felt that?”
“Be honest. You switched, didn’t you? You can be honest with me~”
“Who knows~”
“I said be honest~~”
“I was being honest.”
“Don’t you lie to me~~~”
Hye-suk tickled his side, and Seong-min broke into laughter again. This quiet happiness in the middle of ordinary life — that was one more thing Seong-min had learned after moving into the rooftop room of this house.