I Became a Janitor and Building Owner - 3
My eyes went wide the moment I saw the text.
I had figured she would spend the money, sure—but I had pictured a single apartment unit. Or maybe a freestanding house at most. Never in a million years had I imagined she would just up and buy a six-story building outright.
I'll take care of buying it myself, so you can simply come as you are.
Janet had said it with that firm pressure of hers, so I had let it slip from my mind. Seeing it spelled out like this, though, felt completely over the top.
When I sent a message saying it was excessive, her reply came back brimming with absolute resolve. From where I stood, there was no arguing with that.
A speck of dust… and that speck was a six-story building? I couldn't even begin to guess how much money she actually had. It was suspicious on every level.
We traded a few more messages like that. Texts were cheaper than phone calls, after all.
A hotel felt like overkill; a motel would do just fine. After ending the conversation I searched for nearby motels on my phone. Luckily we were in a city area, so there was one close by—and the facilities looked clean enough that sleeping there would be a pleasure.
Perfect. The moment I stepped into the room and flopped onto the floor, my whole body went limp. All that early-morning travel must have worn me out.
Still, I should wash up before sleeping.
I was a little hungry, but the desire to sleep won out. So I hurried through a shower and changed into the pajamas I had packed—a thin black jersey set.
Maybe it was the pleasant weather. Or maybe it was the luxury of soaking in a clean, good bathtub. My eyelids grew heavy, and I dropped straight into sleep.
I slept, I ate, and I lived rather extravagantly for a few days. Time slipped by before I knew it.
"Sorry. Did you wait long?"
When I stepped out in front of the motel, Janet—who had said she would be waiting—smiled at me. Her hair, dyed black, brought the old days rushing back.
"You've had a hard time of it. But you dyed your hair to come here?"
"It'll fade later, but I didn't want to stand out, at least for the trip over. I did it after arriving in Korea, so there weren't any issues."
"How did you even get the dye?"
"Hair dye exists in France too. The process itself isn't all that hard. It's something you can do at home."
Black dye finishes relatively quickly, so that part I could accept. What surprised me was that there was no chemical smell at all.
"Not a single whiff of dye. That's amazing."
"There are plenty of products that erase smells these days. Unlike the old days, the world is full of every strange thing imaginable."
She had a point, so I simply nodded. Some of those products came from advanced science; others were special goods made from materials ground down from Specters.
"Anyway, thanks for coming all this way. What about the person who was with you?"
"Henri will enter the country once our house is ready. Until then I told him to rest well in France."
"You didn't have to. He could just rest at a motel or a hotel."
"I didn't want to waste the money."
Didn't want to waste the money? Then what about the building? My head tilted in confusion, and Janet gave a soft laugh.
"Money Leo spends. Money spent on Leo. None of that is a waste to me."
I was grateful. Grateful, yet the weight of that devoted affection was almost too much to bear. Cold sweat prickled down my spine.
"Ah—but I can't keep calling you Leo forever, can I? Outside I'll call you Ji-hyuk. That's an ordinary way to address someone in Korea, right?"
Janet made a little "ah" sound as she said it, as if she had only just remembered.
"That's better. If we start talking about past lives, people will think we're crazy."
"This is a special world, so a story like that wouldn't completely lack credibility… but still. No need to tire our mouths out over it either."
Her words matched my own thoughts exactly. After living together for so long, our ways of thinking had grown similar.
"I'll… call you El. El. Is that all right?"
"If Leo—no, if Ji-hyuk is comfortable with it, then I'm happy. So am I."
"Then I'll call you El. And the dye… you don't have to keep it up. Just this once is enough. It's a hassle."
"If I don't dye it, won't it make you uncomfortable? Or should I just cut my hair?"
Janet asked with a look that truly wondered whether it was okay. She had always been devoted, but now that devotion bordered on pure submission.
"No. If it were for your own comfort I'd understand, but don't cut it because of me. It might be inconvenient, but I prefer longer hair."
"Hmm… is that so? You still like long hair, just like before."
The corners of Janet's eyes curved with quiet delight. Her expressions had become so vivid and varied that I found myself marveling at them.
"Yeah. I do like long hair."
"Then we'll leave my hair as it is… and we should start furnishing the house right away, shouldn't we? The interior construction is already finished, so we only need to decorate the inside."
Flooring, furniture, internet—listening to her voice, I realized all over again how much work still lay ahead. She had said the place was empty, and apparently she meant it literally: a completely bare space.
"Then let's wrap this conversation up here… shall we look for an interior contractor first?"
"That sounds right."
Since the leveling and such were already done, the proper order was wallpaper and flooring first, then furniture. Bringing furniture in before the floors and walls would only waste effort. So finding a contractor came first.
"Just a second."
I pulled out my phone right where I stood and started tapping away—checking which companies operated in the area, reading reviews on reliability and trustworthiness. Then I made an appointment, and we headed over, taking the bus and a taxi as needed.
"Thank you so much! We'll head to the address first thing tomorrow and start work."
Once everything was settled in one smooth go, the employee beamed and saw us off. The floor space was fairly large, and we were having two units done, so the job was a solid one. The place we would live was the fifth floor of the building. Like some apartments, the space split left and right from the elevator. One side would be for Janet and me; the other was planned for Henri alone.
"For now, should we just look at furniture? Even if we don't buy today, having a rough plan ready will make ordering later much easier."
We were walking along the road after leaving the shop when Janet's gaze turned toward me. Her unspoken intention was clear: as long as we were already out, we might as well finish the remaining errands too.
"Sounds good. What about him, though? Any preferences?"
"Henri doesn't care much as long as the design is ordinary. He prioritizes durability and function more."
"Then we'll go with that."
I nodded and called a taxi on my phone. Riding the bus earlier had drawn stares from every direction, and the accumulated fatigue was starting to show. On the street I could understand it, but the sheer courage of someone who would ask for Janet's number on a bus was almost impressive.
So we took a taxi to a reputable furniture company and ordered everything we would soon need all at once.
"We won't bring it in right away… we'll place the order as soon as the work is finished. Is that all right?"
"Oh my, of course it's all right! Just say the word anytime. We'll rush over and set everything up for you."
When I asked carefully, a middle-aged woman who seemed to be the owner broke into a broad smile. Wardrobes, tables, chairs, beds, computer desks—we had ordered a great many pieces.
"The lady next to you is so pretty. Is she your girlfriend?"
The middle-aged woman glanced at Janet standing beside me and asked. Janet's beauty made eyes turn to her without fail.
"We haven't held the ceremony yet, but she is my wife."
I nodded firmly, driving the point home. We hadn't filed a marriage registration, hadn't even held a wedding, yet she was unmistakably my woman.
"Oh my goodness! Young people these days hardly ever marry early. How wonderful of you."
The middle-aged woman made a big fuss and laughed. Whether she was flattering me so I would spend more money, or simply excited about landing a good contract, I couldn't tell.
"Thank you."
"Looking at how you managed to catch such a beauty, you must be quite capable yourself."
"Not at all."
"Oh my. So modest."
As the woman kept up her banter, Janet's cheeks flushed even deeper. Standing there looking both embarrassed and happy was a lovely sight.
"We'll contact you as soon as the work is finished. Thank you for your help."
"You're welcome. You two take care of each other."
"Yes. Goodbye."
"Thank you."
Janet stayed bashful right to the end as she said goodbye. Even after we left the shop and walked for quite a while, her flushed cheeks showed no sign of cooling.
"That embarrassed you a lot?"
When I murmured the question, Janet gave a small shake of her head.
"Honestly a little… but the joy is bigger. I got to hear those words again."
"The word 'wife'?"
"Yes. It's the happiest, most important resonance of my entire life."
In terms of time spent, it was more than half her life. So "the most important part" was accurate—yet hearing her say she was happy still felt fresh, even though I had heard similar words often enough while we were alive.
I felt, down to my bones, just how wonderful money could be.
"Here—put it right here, please."
"Yes, sir."
The people who had come to lay the flooring and hang the wallpaper had worked carefully. Electricians had come through and inspected everything. Now the furniture movers were sweating as they carried pieces in. Meanwhile Janet and I didn't shed a single drop of sweat. We simply watched and gave directions.
"Have a bottle while you work."
"Oh? Thank you."
In return I handed each of the workers a bottle of sports drink and offered my greetings. We had already paid them, so technically nothing more was required. I could have cut things off cleanly there, yet something about it felt unfinished.
Maybe my senses are still stuck in the old days.
A person's mind tends to follow the youth of the body. When the body is young, even an old soul can grow immature from sheer vitality. Living in the body of a frail old man, on the other hand, had a softening effect. Of course that rule wasn't absolute. I had met cranky old men and young people as detached as sages. Still, after living so long—and living through other eras—it was impossible not to be affected. Like the impulse to hand a drink even to someone I had hired and paid fairly.
"I'll handle the cleaning."
Once the final work was finished, I put the cleaning tools I had bought a few days earlier to full use. I vacuumed up the dirty dust, diluted a moderate amount of dish soap in water and spread it lightly with a mop, then scraped the water together with a squeegee that was little more than a mop frame. After that I collected the scraped water and dumped it; whatever remained I wiped away with a rag. Done.
"I'll help too."
"Huh? It's fine. Just rest comfortably."
"I can't shamelessly rest by myself."
Janet, who had been watching, stepped forward and began helping in earnest. The house was large enough that it would have been quite a chore, but working together cut the time by more than half.
"Cleaning is pretty hard work, isn't it?"
After we had thoroughly cleaned even the room Henri would use, Janet wiped the sweat from her brow with her sleeve.
"If you do it properly, yes. Today was special. Normally I just use the vacuum and the mop."
"Is that enough?"
"Doing it this way leaves things really clean, but it's exhausting. So I keep it moderate."
I was only human; I couldn't stay perfectly consistent all the time. Even when I cleaned the hallways as a janitor, I mostly stuck to the vacuum and mop.
"Let's eat dinner now. What do you want?"
"Anything's fine."
"Then how about jjajangmyeon? It's basically moving day, so I feel like we should at least have that."
At the mention of food, Janet's eyes lit up. From her years rolling through war, and from eating terrible meals while locked in prison, she had become someone who could eat almost anything. So even though delivery jjajangmyeon was completely unfamiliar, and even the sweet-and-sour pork that came with it, she ate everything without complaint.
"That was delicious. Even though it was my first time, it was really good."
Janet lifted the corners of her mouth in satisfaction. She handled chopsticks well too—so Korean in her mannerisms that it felt endearing.
"Glad to hear it."
"But why do people eat jjajangmyeon on moving day?"
"I don't really know either. It's just something people say."
"It feels a bit like a custom whose roots no one remembers, or a myth whose source has been lost."
As someone who served the divine, she naturally reached for a myth as her example. It was an interesting way to put it.
"Hold on a second."
I pulled a tissue from the box nearby and wiped her mouth. The smudge of black bean sauce at the corner of her lips had been bothering me for a while; I simply couldn't leave it alone.
"Ah… thank you."
When I reached out and cleaned the corner of her mouth, Janet's cheeks flushed bright red. Just like before, she looked embarrassed and happy all at once.
"Oh, right—how should we fill the empty floors? Normally you'd put shops of other businesses in a place like this. In my opinion…"
But she had grown so flushed that she began blurting out whatever came to mind. Strangely enough, her words still sounded methodical, which left a peculiar impression.