The Ace
When he arrived right on time, Min-hyeok was already there.
He had been chatting with the other older guys, and the moment Seong-min showed up he broke into a smile and welcomed him.
Team Leader Jeong came over and laid out the day’s work.
Today they would be hauling paint cans and ceramic tiles up to the fourth and third floors. Most of the load consisted of ceramic tiles packed in boxes that each weighed more than twenty kilograms. The paint cans would only take two per man to finish.
After that brief rundown everyone pulled on their work clothes and safety gear and got down to business in earnest.
And then the sight they had been waiting for appeared.
“He’s even more amazing than last time, isn’t he?”
“Look at him carrying those.”
“Seong-min, aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?”
Starting with the paint cans, which he whisked up to the fourth floor in no time, Seong-min moved with even greater speed than before. He slung the boxed ceramic tiles onto his back and began climbing the commercial building’s stairs at a relentless pace.
With Seong-min working that hard, the rest of them could hardly stand around watching.
They threw themselves into it with as much drive as they could muster and hauled tiles of their own.
“Haaah… hah… this is… fucking… hard…! …Heeeek! …I’m dying…”
Min-hyeok was right in the middle of that struggle.
He had already done gombang work once, so he had come prepared, but the moment he actually started it was every bit as brutal and exhausting as before.
Even so, Min-hyeok kept grinding away with stubborn persistence.
Every time he made one round trip, he watched Seong-min—his hyung—complete two or more at blistering speed.
Hyung is… a real monster. You can’t call that human stamina… that…
Min-hyeok could only click his tongue in awe all over again.
As a result, today’s job—including the mid-shift breaks—finished a full one hour and fifty-three minutes ahead of schedule.
That was more than ten minutes faster than last time.
Part of it was Seong-min’s almost frightening efficiency as he ferried ceramic tiles; part of it was the way the other team members and Min-hyeok, refusing to be outdone, threw themselves into the work with real fire.
In the end they wrapped up one hour and fifty-three minutes early.
The instant the job was finished, Team Leader Jeong called the contractor and gave him the update.
They waited only a short while before the contractor himself appeared, inspected everything with his own eyes, spoke with Jeong who had walked the site with him, then shook hands, thanked them for the hard work, and left.
Of course Jeong used the brief window to press a business card into the man’s hand and ask him to keep them in mind or introduce them to anyone who needed the same kind of work.
Once everything was settled, envelopes containing the day’s wages were handed out to the whole crew.
Team Leader Jeong preferred stuffing cash into envelopes rather than transferring money whenever he could.
He knew that receiving actual bills made a man feel the reward more keenly and left him more energized.
There was simply a different feeling to taking an envelope of cash straight into your hand.
“It’s 250,000 won again today, but as everyone expected I put 300,000 in Seong-min’s. No complaints about that, right?”
“Hyung-nim, how could anyone complain?”
“After watching Seong-min work, there’s no way anyone could feel short-changed—no way!”
“That’s right! If someone works like hyung, of course he should get that much more—I think so too!”
Even Min-hyeok chimed in; no one had the slightest objection.
“Honestly, if you look at it, today’s job only came our way partly because of Seong-min, didn’t it?”
“That’s stating the obvious! They introduced us to a contact after seeing the last job, after all.”
“Our team’s ace—he’s the ace!”
“Ace? That word fits perfectly!”
Laughter rolled through the group.
No matter how sore and exhausted their bodies were, having work come in so they could actually earn was a wonderful thing.
“All right, all right. Like I said yesterday, today’s Saturday, so let’s all hit the sauna together and then have a proper team dinner to celebrate.”
“Hyung-nim’s treating?”
“Hahaha! Of course I’m treating! Just now the contractor was talking to me and he was completely satisfied. Our team’s got a real ace now! On a day like this, how could the team leader just sit still? Sauna and dinner are on me, so don’t worry about a thing.”
“Aigoo—today we’re gonna feast.”
“If hyung-nim’s buying… we ought to drink a bit tonight.”
“After we sweat it out in the sauna first, of course.”
“Am I invited too?”
Min-hyeok, who had been listening, pointed at himself with a finger.
“Of course you’re included.”
“Obviously! You’re one of our team members. Right, Seong-min?”
“That’s right.”
“Yes!”
Watching Min-hyeok’s delighted face, the whole crew burst into hearty laughter.
Then Team Leader Jeong clapped his hands.
“All right—let’s clean up and head out.”
They had worked on a weekend, but with the sauna and the drinking party that followed they fully unwound the day’s tension.
The next day was Sunday.
Today everyone planned to drink as much as they wanted.
That night.
Drunk Min-hyeok came home and was met by his older sister A-reum.
“Ahh… I’m wasted.”
The moment he stepped into the room Min-hyeok collapsed onto the floor.
A-reum brought him a pillow.
“Thanks, noona.”
With a tipsy face Min-hyeok looked up at her and smiled.
“Noona, today I went and listened carefully and didn’t mess up…?”
A-reum nodded.
“Good job~ I worked hard at gombang again today and it was really tough… but I earned another 250,000 won. With the courier loading and unloading… 170,000 each time… and gombang 250,000 twice… if we just keep this up we’ll be rich in no time, noona… hehehe…”
“Min-hyeok… you’re drunk.”
Staring at the ceiling, Min-hyeok drew a deep breath and let it out.
“…You… smell like booze…”
“Heh heh heh…”
When his sister pinched her nose with her fingers, Min-hyeok gave a small laugh and opened his mouth again.
“Noona, the reason I can live like this… the reason I can keep going… I think it’s all thanks to Seong-min hyung. You think so too, right?”
Muttering as if gazing at a distant mountain while staring at the ceiling.
A-reum took her hand away from her nose and nodded.
“In my whole life I’ve never met anyone like him… Seong-min hyung is… a good hyung… more than that.”
A good hyung.
People usually called someone like Seong-min a good person.
But Min-hyeok already saw him as something beyond that.
“Let’s… work hard. Work hard and… repay him for everything he’s given us, noona.”
“…Yeah… we have to repay him…”
“I heard at the dinner tonight… Seong-min hyung’s birthday is coming up soon. So this time on his birthday I’m going to treat him properly with the money I’ve been earning.”
Still looking at the ceiling, Min-hyeok turned his head toward A-reum.
“Doesn’t that sound like a good idea to you too, noona?”
A-reum nodded.
“That day you should come celebrate with him too.”
“…Me… too?”
“Yeah, you too.”
A-reum’s lips parted slightly.
“Why? You don’t want to?”
A-reum quickly shook her head from side to side.
“Heh heh heh…”
Min-hyeok burst out laughing.
“Min-hyeok… why… are you laughing…?”
A-reum tilted her head and asked.
“Just now you shook your head faster than you ever nod.”
A faint flush rose on A-reum’s cheeks.
Min-hyeok looked back up at the ceiling.
“Noona… that day… let’s celebrate together. It’s our way of… repaying hyung for everything…”
Min-hyeok’s eyes slowly closed.
Watching him, A-reum quietly rose from her seat.
She took out a blanket and gently spread it over her sleeping brother’s body.
Then she patted his chest with her hand.
“Min-hyeok… good night…”
There is a saying about riding a wave of momentum.
The gombang team—more precisely, Seong-min—was doing exactly that.
He stacked experience.
He leveled up.
He allocated his stats.
The more his body developed and his physique strengthened, the easier the intensity of the work became. As a result, whether he was doing courier loading and unloading or gombang work, his efficiency climbed even faster.
Courier loading and unloading did not pay extra for speed.
But finishing early simply meant more rest.
Gombang work was different.
The daily wage varied with the job’s difficulty, yet doing the work well also spread word of mouth.
That was exactly what was happening to Seong-min now.
As he leveled up and his physical abilities improved, every time gombang work came in he finished it at high speed.
The time savings grew larger and larger.
The gombang team already treated Seong-min like their “ace,” yet the more gombang jobs they took, the more the only sounds that came out were gasps of admiration.
After the dinner and the weekend, another two weeks passed. Jobs that had once come maybe once a week became two a week, and this week three jobs arrived.
Not every gombang job was the same, but the core was always the same: men personally shouldering heavy loads and moving them.
Day by day Seong-min’s market value rose.
Of course it did.
Because he worked so well and raised the team’s efficiency, the entire gombang crew benefited.
On top of that the work itself became easier.
Seong-min had already been well-liked among the gombang team, so the goodwill only deepened.
On the third gombang job of this week, the wage Seong-min received was 500,000 won.
A full 500,000 won.
He was single-handedly doing the work of more than two men.
The other team members received 300,000 while Seong-min took an extra 200,000 as a bonus.
Yet neither the team members nor Min-hyeok had a single complaint.
Anyone who worked alongside him understood.
Of course he deserved that much.
So this week alone Seong-min earned a full 1.3 million won from three gombang jobs, and with two courier shifts on top of that the total came to 1.64 million won.
Seong-min had made 1.64 million won in a single week.
Adding what he had earned the previous week, in just two weeks he had brought in more than three million won.
If he simply maintained this pace he could clear over five million won a month.
That alone was impressive, yet the important point was that two more gombang jobs were already booked for next week.
That was what people meant by riding a wave of momentum.
In the meantime Seong-min had also leveled up quite a bit.
Name: Lee Seong-min
Age: 24
Education: Hancheon High School Graduate
Level: 207
Points: 0
Banter: 10
Appearance: 20
Vigor: 15
Martial Power: 100
Physicality: 100
Experience: 11/100%
His level was 207, and he had finally begun raising the Vigor stat as well; it now sat at 15.
He had only put five points into it so far, so he could not yet pinpoint the exact changes, but he was certain his sexual stamina had improved by that much at least.
While raising the Vigor stat Seong-min was also carefully observing the changes in his genitals.
It had been the same with every other stat.
To feel even a modest difference you needed to invest at least ten points.
So he planned to put another five into Vigor and bring it up to 20.
That night.
Seong-min and Hye-suk left the house together.
Hye-suk had dressed up in a stylish two-piece suit, put on makeup, and carried a shoulder bag.
She looked like a refined, mature beauty.
Why had Hye-suk taken such care with her appearance?
Because they were headed to the Italian restaurant Seong-min had reserved.
Even as they left the house and made their way to the restaurant, Hye-suk kept fretting.
“Are you really sure this is all right…?”
“It’s fine. It’s not like this happens every day. Compared to everything you’ve done for me, this is nothing. And just this week my income already topped 1.5 million won.”
“Even so…”
“I told you it’s fine. When else are you going to let me treat you? So tonight we’re going to have a proper fancy dinner.”
The worried Hye-suk finally gave a helpless little smile.
“Being treated to a meal this nice by Seong-min… it really is a special day…”
“It is a special day…”
He had scraped and clawed to earn money just to pay off debt.
Because of that Seong-min had always been short on cash.
But now a certain amount of breathing room was appearing.
In two weeks he had earned more than three million won; adding the 600,000 from the two earlier courier and gombang jobs brought the total past 4.5 million.
Living expenses came out of that, and another 300,000 would go toward the debt this month as well, yet even after those outflows more than three million remained.
Looking at the current flow of gombang work, it seemed things would only get better, not worse.
So Seong-min had steeled himself and reserved a well-known Italian restaurant in Gangnam.
As expected of an expensive place, both the food and the atmosphere were on another level.
It was Seong-min’s first time somewhere like this, so his knife work was awkward enough to make Hye-suk laugh.
They ate a delicious dinner.
“Thanks to you I ate wonderfully, Seong-min.”
“It was my first time somewhere like this too, so I didn’t really know what was what. But hearing you enjoyed it makes me feel good.”
“How much did the bill come to?”
“710,000 won.”
Just the basic course for 710,000 won.
It truly was not a cheap place.
“Spending that much—doesn’t it feel like a burden?”
“A burden? Not at all. It’s for you, not anyone else. Money I can always earn more of, but someone like you doesn’t come around again.”
“Someone like me doesn’t come around…?”
“You’re not even family, yet you look after me this carefully and treat me so warmly. Compared to everything you’ve done for me, this is nothing.”
“Seong-min…”
Perhaps because she felt the sincerity in his words, Hye-suk’s eyes shone with emotion.
“Even though Seong-jun hyung is overseas… if I can keep you from feeling lonely… I want to do that for you.”
“What you’re doing now… is already enough. Because of you… I’m living without feeling lonely…”
Seong-min said she had given him so much, but the reverse was just as true for Hye-suk.
The empty, lonely corner of her heart had been filled by Seong-min, the tenant who had moved into the rooftop room.
Watching him live so steadfastly without letting his status as an orphan crush him made her think she ought to do the same.
So even though Seong-min claimed he owed her a great deal, Hye-suk had received just as much emotional comfort from him.
“By the way, the day after tomorrow is your birthday, isn’t it?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“What are you doing that day?”
“I’m going out to meet Min-hyeok.”
“Min-hyeok?”
“He asked me not to make any other plans and to keep the day free. Said he wants to repay me for all the help I’ve given him or something like that.”
“I see… what time are you leaving?”
“Around ten, I think.”
“Then when will you be back at night?”
“Hmm? I’ll only know once I meet Min-hyeok… but no matter how late it gets I should be home before ten in the evening, right?”
“All right. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“‘Keep that in mind’? What does that mean?”
“Hohoho, you’ll find out when you come back that day.”
“Saying it like that just makes me curious.”
“It’s a secret~”
“Mmm…”
“You treated me to such a fine meal, so coffee’s on me.”
“We’re going to a café?”
“A café with a great Han River view. After a fancy dinner we ought to have coffee at a fancy café, don’t you think?”
“Do you already know a place?”
“You’ll see when we get there, young master~!”
Hye-suk winked one eye.
They left the restaurant, rode in Hye-suk’s car, and stepped into an atmospheric high-floor café inside a hotel that looked out over the nightscape of the Han River.
They sat down, ordered two coffees, and waited.
“How is it?”
“The Han River view is no joke.”
“Hohoho… right?”
“I admit it! At this level I have to give it full marks~!”
“I told you you wouldn’t be disappointed.”
Hye-suk smiled with her eyes.
A splendid dinner and a café with perfect atmosphere.
All in all, it had been a fine evening.