Old Faces in Gwanseo-dong
By the time we reached Gwanseo-dong, it was right around lunch.
Surprisingly, we hadn’t stayed at the amusement park all that long. Hui-gyeong had suddenly come down with a bad case of motion sickness, but I was still satisfied. We’d hit the rides hard and fast, and more importantly, the date wasn’t over yet.
Even so, while Hui-gyeong looked happy, I couldn’t shake a small sense that something was off—like a piece that didn’t quite fit.
“Oh, there’s a rice-and-side-dishes place!”
When I suggested we grab something to eat, Hui-gyeong lit up and pointed at a perfectly ordinary back-alley eatery. They did a solid stir-fried pork, sure, but it didn’t strike me as a first-date kind of spot. I smiled and said,
“Not there. Let’s find somewhere nicer. Somewhere couples would go.”
“C-couples would go?”
Hui-gyeong looked flustered, her eyes darting around as she tried to think it through.
“I don’t really know… Isn’t a regular rice place or a kimbap joint the normal thing?”
She glanced at me, her voice uncertain. This time I was the one who was thrown.
Sure, after you’ve been together a long time maybe you settle for that, but this was a date I’d held out two whole weeks to earn. A sky lounge would be overkill, obviously—but shouldn’t couples at least hit a place that shows up on blogs?
“Pasta or brunch spots. Or Japanese—donburi, sushi, something like that.”
“Japanese?”
She perked up at the mention of Japanese food—she liked seafood—but then her shoulders slumped.
“But I don’t have that kind of money. You know that. I’ve been stuck at home. I haven’t been able to do any part-time work at all.”
“You used to work part-time?”
“My hands shake, so I couldn’t wait tables. Just kitchen help.”
“Wait, you worked kitchen and you still don’t know what the good places are?”
“I was stuck in the kitchen of a tiny ramen shop the whole time.”
That was the first surprise. With her reputation, how had she even landed a job? I’d always assumed Hui-gyeong lived off the guys she dated. Met those so-called strong men, let them feed her, take her spending money—that kind of thing.
“Your exes never paid for anything?”
“What, you think I’m some gold digger? And they weren’t exactly raking it in either.”
“Then whose money were you eating on?”
“Mm~. When they hit it big on sports betting, or with the money I made from my jobs?”
What the fuck was I hearing right now? They only bought her dinner when they lucked out on toto?
My face hardened before I could stop it. Even if Hui-gyeong had been running around, this was too much. Those bastards had no idea how precious she was to me, treating my little sister like garbage.
Beyond the sheer absurdity of it, I barely managed to swallow the stream of curses rising in my throat.
“You said you were dating strong men.”
“Yeah. They were strong.”
“Strong in the body?”
“Strong in power, yeah.”
Her voice shrank as she talked about her exes. I was the one who’d opened this Pandora’s box, and now I couldn’t stop the foul mood welling up inside me. Before I knew it I was pressing her.
“Hui-gyeong, the strong men you talked about—some of them might’ve been physically strong, but didn’t that include guys who were strong socially too?”
“Strong socially?”
“You said the men Dad used to grovel in front of looked strong, so you made them your type. You think he bowed and scraped just because they could throw a punch? They made more money than him, had better connections, were strong in every way that counted—that’s why he grovelled and why they could walk around like they owned the place.”
“Uh…”
Confusion washed over her face. It was obvious she’d never thought that far.
Fine—she hadn’t milked guys for money and had handled things herself. That was good. Admirable, even. But the guys she’d chosen had all been complete losers. God, this was still pissing me off.
“But… the only guys around me who acted that confident were those kinds of guys…”
Only then did Hui-gyeong seem to realize something had gone wrong.
“It’s not like I can take any of it back now…”
Watching her darken so suddenly, I could already guess what had led to this. She’d been trapped in the neighborhood her whole life. In middle and high school, the delinquents and the sports kids looked externally strong, so you chased them. Most people, once they hit college or got a job, finally saw the real inequalities of the world—the gold spoons, the self-made powerhouses. Hui-gyeong never got that chance. She just kept dating the same high-school definition of “strong” all the way past twenty, never once expanding her field of vision. Exactly as she’d always said: she’d never had a real relationship.
I forced my racing pulse to settle. Just like Mom had told me before—no matter how angry I got, no matter how much she regretted it, none of it could be undone. If I loved my little sister, the only way that love could hold was by accepting it.
Still… the bitter thought that I should have pulled her into my arms sooner was almost unbearable.
I apologized to the now-silent Hui-gyeong, who understood the weight of it.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said any of that…”
“No. You’re right, Oppa. And if you hadn’t told me, I never would’ve known.”
“Hui-gyeong.”
“Wow. The world suddenly feels huge.”
“Just like that?”
“It feels like I found a whole world I never knew existed.”
Then she went quiet again, sinking into thought. I told her I’d treat her and suggested Japanese, but she shook her head firmly. She wasn’t going to let me cover everything when I was out earning the household money too. In the end we walked into the rice-and-side-dishes place.
“You’re already buying me a phone…”
This wasn’t what I’d wanted. Making her feel like she had to watch herself only made me feel worse.
Even while we ate, Hui-gyeong set her spoon down first and refilled my water every time the glass emptied. The scene was so different from her usual do-whatever-I-want attitude that I almost wondered if something was wrong with her.
“There’s a phone shop right across the street. Let’s go there.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“What are you getting?”
“An iPhone, obviously. They take the prettiest pictures.”
“Get a Korean one. Local is best—body and soil are one.”
“Wow, total boomer! Wait, what’s ‘body and soil are one’?”
As we left the restaurant and I spotted the phone shop, I deliberately kept my tone light. Hui-gyeong matched me, answering brightly.
“How far along are you in looking?”
These days people talked about unlocked phones and budget carriers, but neither of us knew much about that side of things, so a regular shop was the safest bet. I couldn’t haggle at an electronics market anyway; this was simpler and less stressful.
Out of pure affection I got her the newest iPhone model. Hui-gyeong tried to stop me, saying it was too expensive, but I insisted that since she’d be using it for two or three years she might as well start with the latest. I finally managed to put it in her hands. Her old phone had been completely smashed and thrown away, so there was no data to transfer—we walked out of the shop right away.
“Thanks, Oppa.”
“In six months, switch the plan. They’re forcing an expensive one even though you barely use it.”
“I know, right?”
I was relieved. The new phone seemed to have lifted her mood again. After fiddling with it for a while, Hui-gyeong suddenly held it out to me.
“What?”
“Put your number in.”
“You don’t know my number?”
“Do you know mine?”
…I didn’t. That was just how siblings were.
I typed my number in without a word.
Gyeong-hun Oppa♥
“Hehe, saved~.”
She was so cute I thought I might lose my mind. I was thrashing around inside my own head when I suddenly came back to myself and realized we’d entered a quiet stretch of street.
That was one of the real problems with this neighborhood—so many dead commercial strips, “For Rent” signs everywhere, empty streets and alleys. Even in the middle of the day there was no one around.
There was a girl standing over there. The makeup, the whole look—cheap. At the very least she needed to be city-polished and refined, the way my Hui-gyeong was…
“Hui-gyeong!”
“Hyeon-ju? It’s Hyeon-ju!”
“Why haven’t you been answering your phone? What have you been up to?”
“I lost my phone. Just bought a new one.”
“For real? Give it here, I’ll put my number in.”
“Uh…?”
Just like that the two of them recognized each other and launched into chatter. When Hyeon-ju offered her number, Hui-gyeong looked awkward and glanced at me. It was because of the promise that she’d only save my number. Still, when she couldn’t reach me she must have been lonely, and she’d already sworn she wouldn’t do anything stupid. Besides, this was a girl friend. I decided to trust her.
Only after I nodded did Hui-gyeong hold out the phone.
“Here.”
“Jo Hui-gyeong, you’ve really moved up. New boyfriend?”
“Huh? Haha…”
Hard to answer that one. I would have struggled too. Were we dating? Not yet—but there was plenty of mutual interest, and I was also her older brother. Not an easy question.
This Hyeon-ju girl was so airheaded that even after putting her number in she kept running her mouth for no reason. Hui-gyeong was starting to look worn out when the guy appeared.
“Lee Hyeon-ju, the bathroom was fucking far!”
“Hey, you talk casual to your noona?”
“You used to let me.”
Eyes like sesame seeds crammed into the middle of his face, features all bunched together. On top of that his skin was completely tanned, his body was a stick, and he was short. The clothes and the pouch he was carrying looked designer, but they were fakes. Having spent some time in the underworld myself, I could tell at a glance.
A hollow little punk. Acted tough only among his own crowd; in reality a coward.
But fuck, he looked weirdly familiar. That ugly mug of his reminded me of someone.
“Hui-gyeong? You know this guy? He’s Sin-hyeok’s little brother! Your ex’s brother.”
“Huh? Ah…”
Every hair from the crown of my head down my spine stood on end as if I’d been struck by lightning.
Choi Sin-hyeok. The fighting champion of our school days. And this little shit was that champion’s younger brother?
“Hello.”
“Keh-heh, why the polite speech to your noona? And I know you. You were my hyung’s girlfriend back in school, right?”
My insides twisted. I did not like this. Not even a little.
“Hyeon-ju noona said it too. That among hyung’s exes there was this girl who only dated the guys who could fight and treated them real nice. That’s her?”
“Hey! Hey! Why would you bring that up…! Hui-gyeong has a boyfriend right here.”
“Huh?”
Flustered, Hyeon-ju pointed at me. Only then did the guy look at me and dip his head, as if noticing me for the first time. I’d seen him size me up the second he appeared.
“Annyeong~.”
I was not feeling particularly peaceful.
That smirk was a clear provocation.
Yeah. That was enough.
You.
From this moment on,
I’ll only put up with you
exactly
three times.