At Least Double the Reward — 13
"Aigoo, so these are Young Master Yunho's parents! To think I'm only meeting you now."
The Village Head hurried over and bowed to my parents. Han Mija had tipped him off by phone, so he'd turned his tiller around mid-field and come running.
"I was just about to ask when your parents would be arriving, as it happens."
When the Village Head grabbed my father's hand as if reuniting with a long-lost brother, Father looked flustered.
"I'm sorry? Why us?"
"Because you're the ones who brought Young Master Yunho into this world and raised him! Our Yunho is the pride and hero of our whole village."
Mrs. Han Su-ja jabbed the Village Head in the ribs. Surely, I thought, she was trying to rein him in a little. But no.
"Hero's not quite right... a pillar! Yes, we'd call him a pillar. Why isn't he a hero, you ask? Because these aren't troubled times, that's why! Ho ho ho."
"Heroes don't only rise up in troubled times. But calling our Yunho a pillar of the village isn't wrong either."
The Village Head gestured at the three truckloads of kitchen cabinets and assorted interior supplies. "Those sinks over there are what Young Master Yunho ordered while repairing the empty houses. All twelve homes have been made good as new."
"And the whole village is brighter for it. Once people move into those empty houses and the place is bustling again, our village will be as lovely to live in as it ever was."
Mid-speech, Mrs. Han Su-ja's eyes grew red-rimmed. Then she began recounting everything that had happened since I'd moved into a village with no residents left but the elderly — a string of miracles, she called them, that had turned the place upside down.
And where did the story begin? With how she'd exposed the heretical cult leader who had taken root in Ugok 2-ri as a wanted criminal.
Naturally, the tale then stretched long into the simmering old feud of Ugok 2-ri, the whole saga of the solar power project.
"Talking about Ugok 2-ri, we'll be here till sunrise."
Thankfully the Village Head cut himself off there, and I was just starting to relax.
"Every year, wild boars used to come down into our village, attacking people and wrecking the crops."
And on he went: how I'd taken down a boar last winter, how I'd learned to shoot to protect the village from dangerous animals, how I'd caught the thieves stripping the fatsia shoots, filmed a movie, tracked down a ten-million-follower movie star who'd gone briefly missing... The Village Head laid out everything I'd done, in chronological order.
I've really done a lot, haven't I. Even I'm impressed.
Honestly, listening to the list startled me too. In just a few months, I'd accomplished more than I'd realized.
It wasn't that I wanted to be a hero or hungered for recognition. I'd come to the countryside for the mountains and the clean water, intending to live at my own pace doing whatever I pleased — and somehow, along the way, I'd unmasked villains, caught thieves, and ferried earthbound spirits off to the afterlife.
My abilities and my curiosity keep pulling me into the unknown, it seems.
A life of growing stronger, accomplishing more, earning praise. Maybe that was the destiny I'd been born into this time around.
"Good heavens. Our Yunho really did all those things?"
The mere fact that I'd put myself in danger seemed to have shaken my mother badly. Father steadied her and spoke.
"Our boy's been carrying all this on his shoulders, and his father and mother had no idea — just kept treating him like a child and came rushing out here. We really didn't know a thing."
"Honey, at least give Yunho a proper talking-to."
Here it comes.Be careful. Don't get involved. There are so many dangerous people out there these days. Just learn to look the other way. I braced myself for the lecture.
"You did well."
Father looked me straight in the eyes. "Truly remarkable, my son. You're my son, all right."
"Honey..."
"Dear, you know what's in your heart... Stop worrying about Yunho now. You heard the Village Head — he's more than a hero, he's the pillar of the village."
The Village Head nodded along with great conviction. "That's right. No need to worry one bit — he does wonderfully all on his own. Though if you'd come on a clearer day, I'd have shown you around the village properly..."
"We'll take you to our place first. You haven't had lunch yet, have you?"
Mrs. Han Su-ja declared it with total confidence. "I'll catch a free-range chicken and make you proper ginseng chicken soup."
"A chicken? Yunho sent us one before, but it's still sitting in the freezer. We never ate it."
"Aiya, you're supposed to hang it to dry first! Freezing it ruins the whole thing..."
Once Mrs. Han Su-ja confirmed that the chicken she'd given me had been passed along to my parents, she shot me a quick sideways glance. But there was no anger in it — just the mild scolding of a woman wondering whether she hadn't explained, in painstaking detail, exactly how to prepare and store it.
Somehow I doubt she'll bring that up in front of everyone, though.
Mrs. Han Su-ja beamed at my mother. "You're not heading straight back up to Seoul today, are you? My deodeok wine has aged to perfection."
"We came all this way to our son's home — we'll sleep one night before we go."
"Well thought out. Then come along and have lunch with us."
Mrs. Han Su-ja took my mother's arm lightly. "Young Master Yunho, finish up your work here and come to our house at lunchtime. We're off now — you too, Yunho's friend."
Before I could so much as lift a finger, the Village Head and his wife had swept my parents away.
"Haha. I couldn't even keep up with that."
Ko Min-seok watched their retreating backs and burst out laughing. "They've got more energy than anyone I've ever met. And come to think of it... both of them were in a movie."
"Really?"
"Yeah. They had parts in Seo Jinwoo's latest film — even showed up in our village's scenes."
I turned to Master Carpenter Hwang with a smile. "We should move the cabinets before the rain comes. There'll be a number written on each one. Just like with the roof tiles — check the number plates on the front gates and carry each unit inside its matching house."
Renovating twelve houses all at once was no small undertaking. But batching the work was the only way to hold down labor and material costs.
That's why we painted numbers on every front gate and asked the suppliers to mark their deliveries to match.
The cabinet marked Number 1 went to House No. 1; the doors marked Number 12 to House No. 12. Every sink and every scrap of interior material had been ordered so it could find its own way home.
It promised to take upwards of three hours, so Ko Min-seok and I headed for the village community hall's storage shed. Tents, chairs, tables, an electric water heater — everything needed for a village festival was kept there.
We'd used it all for the farming school's end-of-term party and washed everything down carefully afterward, so when we peeled back the tarps, the gear was spotless.
"Let's take this lot. We're camping tonight."
"Camping?"
"Yep."
If I asked the Village Head, he'd happily lend us a spare room his grown children once used. But I wanted to make memories — for Ko Min-seok's son, for my sister-in-law, and for my own parents.
"We're pitching right beside the creek. Roughing it, no fancy campsite."
"You know, camping with his dad has always been Woo-jin's big wish."
"And you never took him? Not once?"
"His mom had the baby just last year. And before that, my mother had cancer."
I knew the full turbulent saga of Ko Min-seok's life as well as anyone, but still — that was rough on Woo-jin.
The poor kid's been told to wait and be patient his whole short life.
I clapped Ko Min-seok on the shoulder. "You've got two kids, but Woo-jin's only got one father. Do right by him, you hear?"
"Look at this guy — never even been married, giving me fatherhood advice."
"Haha. Who says I won't ever marry? I just don't trust myself to do it well."
"Whoa, this place is incredible!"
By the time we hauled everything down to the creek, Ko Min-seok's jaw had dropped. "So where do we set up?"
"Right here. The creek in our village runs wide and drains fast — even in a downpour, nothing dangerous ever happens."
Every so often you'd hear of a tragedy at a creek campground. Narrow streams with normally modest water levels accounted for the vast majority of those accidents.
Our village creek was different. Even in torrential rain, the water had never flooded over and swallowed the farmland — partway down its course, a portion of the flow diverted into a reservoir, keeping the levels in check.
"Woo-jin's going to love this."
"There he is — your son."
Woo-jin had been gathering marsh snails with Chai. He looked up, spotted us, and waved with all his might.
"Dad! Uncle! There are so many snails here!"
"Great — catch as many as you like."
"Chai caught fish for me too! Boss, didn't I do good?"
I grinned and shaped a heart over my head. "Chai, look! This is my heart for you."
"Ahahaha! Did you learn that from Seong-eun? You crack me up, Boss."
Woo-jin copied me, forming a little heart above his own head. "Me too! Here's mine, Uncle!"
"That's the stuff!"
That evening, just as we began lighting the charcoal for the barbecue, the first raindrops started to fall.
And they'd call that the heavens smiling on me, wouldn't they?
Over the grilling and dining area we pitched the canvas brought from the community hall shed. With sturdy poles and heavy-duty fabric, all it took was a careful setup that kept water from pooling — no amount of rain was going to budge it.
Abe, give the charcoal a light, would you?
"Yes, Master."
Abe touched a finger to his lips and murmured an incantation — and the charcoal, which hadn't shown so much as a wisp of smoke, roared to life in a burst of flame.
"Uncle! Fire wizard! You're good at everything!"
Woo-jin seemed to find the sudden blaze on the charcoal positively magical.
"Huh? Oh, uh—"
"Our Young Master Yunho, there's nothing he can't do, I tell you."
"Come sit down and have a roasted potato. I'll grill the meat myself."
Mrs. Han Su-ja rolled up her sleeves and marched over.
"No, no — these are my guests. And I want to grill my parents' meat myself, nice and perfect."
"Aiigoo, wouldn't it be lovely if our boy learned thoughtful things like that. Kkeolkeolkeol!"
Would anyone here ever guess that a Japanese ghost-shaman named Abe was the one who'd fired up this charcoal? I hid a smirk and laid ribeye onto the white-hot grill grate.
Ssssszzz. The smell of good beef searing rose up and filled the canvas shelter.
Mrs. Han Su-ja and Yang Eun-ji, Ko Min-seok's wife, began setting out the side dishes. Last winter's aged kimchi and a spread of mountain-herb banchan soon crowded the table from end to end.
Just as steaming fresh rice and doenjang stew took their places beside the beef I'd pulled sizzling off the grill, Han Mija arrived with her family in tow, and the shelter erupted with noise.
Father came around beside me as I grilled, picked up a pair of tongs, and started helping. "When you said you were living alone up in the mountains, I figured you'd be lonely. Looks like your old man was wrong."
"Honestly, I was wrong about something too."
"Hmm? About what?"
"I came out here thinking how wonderful it would be to live somewhere quiet, all by myself. And somehow I've ended up surrounded by more people than I ever was in Seoul."
And I didn't mind it one bit. No — the truth was, I was happy.
That's exactly why I'd called my own assumption a mistake.
Two days was plenty for savoring solitude. After that, it was this — the bustle and noise of living alongside other people — that turned out to be the fun part.
And if I ever craved solitude again, I could simply go find a quiet corner of my own.
"Ahahaha! Seong-eun lost! That means it's song time!"
"You think there's anything I can't do?"
Having lost a bet with her brother Bang Seonghyun, Bang Seong-eun sprang to her feet and launched into a girl-group number, complete with dance moves. The adults clapped and whooped at how adorable she was. When Ko Woo-jin leapt up and started twirling his arms alongside her, the shelter dissolved into hysterics.
KRAKA-BOOM!
Lightning cracked outside the canvas and the downpour came down in sheets, but not a single person gave it a second thought. Everyone was far too busy laughing, having the time of their lives.
When the night grew late, I brought my parents back to my house. I couldn't very well let people their age sleep out in the open.
One by one, the still-chuckling Village Head and his wife, and Han Mija's family, headed home. Ko Min-seok's family settled down to sleep in the old tent I used to use.
Woo-jin had begged to go camping, so Min-seok and Eun-ji promised to sleep out in the tent with him.
I tossed a few sun-dried potatoes into the coals still smoldering in the fire pit, pulled on a rain poncho, and walked with Abe toward the creek.
"Master, are you ready?"