Boys Will Be Boys, No Matter the Age
“W-what is all this?”
“...Didn't you say you were only going to buy a few chickens?”
Dohee and Seungwan looked at Dojin, their expressions filled with utter disbelief.
And for good reason—an endless stream of boxes and bags was being unloaded from the car.
“Haha, well, things sort of got out of hand,” Dojin, who was busy unloading the cargo, offered an embarrassed laugh.
It was hard to blame them. The man who had promised to buy enough ingredients for just one or two servings of samgyetang had returned with enough supplies to open a restaurant.
Only after unloading every last item did Dojin finally reveal his plans.
“I'm thinking of throwing a feast.”
“A feast?”
“All of a sudden?”
“Yeah. I ran into the village chief at the supermarket in town. And, well...”
As the two women stared at him with question marks practically floating over their heads, Dojin began to explain what had happened in town.
Their initial bewilderment turned to surprise when they heard the village chief had been buying instant, pre-packaged samgyetang.
Then, their expressions softened into pity when Dojin mentioned that some villagers couldn't even afford that.
“So, I thought it would be nice for everyone to gather and have a meal together. It's a bit grand, but we can call it a housewarming celebration. What do you think?”
Neither of them gave a verbal reply.
Instead, they silently began carrying the boxes Dojin had unloaded, which was answer enough.
“But is this really okay? Everyone is so sensitive because of COVID right now,” Seungwan asked anxiously as she carried the ingredients over to the schoolyard.
Cooking the food wasn't the issue; gathering the elderly villagers was.
Social distancing guidelines had recently been raised to Level 2.
With the number of confirmed cases rising, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency had tightened restrictions.
The social atmosphere had grown icy cold as a result, making her worry whether hosting a village feast was a good idea.
It would be one thing if we weren't filming...
Her gaze drifted to the cameras set up around the yard.
They were the ones Dojin had asked to be set up before he left for town.
Since they were preparing a feast, Seungwan had assumed he would pack the cameras away.
Yet, Dojin didn't say a word about them.
In fact, seeing him check if the angles were right, it seemed he fully intended to keep filming.
What is he planning?
Up until now, Dojin had adhered strictly to quarantine protocols.
At times, he seemed even more meticulous than the official government guidelines.
So, she couldn't help but worry when he was doing something that could easily draw criticism during such a sensitive time.
Just then, Dojin spoke up, sounding completely unbothered.
“It would be a problem if we served them indoors, but it'll be fine since we're eating out here in the schoolyard.”
Under Level 2 restrictions, gatherings were limited to under 50 people indoors and under 100 people outdoors.
Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—the entire village population didn't even reach seventy, so they weren't violating any regulations.
Of course, there will still be people who complain about gathering in one place at all.
But Dojin had already prepared for that.
“Director, a delivery has arrived. They say it's the items you ordered earlier...”
“Ah, yes. Please guide them over here.”
Dojin smiled brightly at the security team member's words.
It seemed his delivery had arrived right on cue.
A 1.2-ton truck drove across the schoolyard and pulled up near Dojin.
They began unloading the cargo one by one.
“...Aren't those the plastic tables they have outside convenience stores?”
“I think so. But why did you buy so many?”
At a glance, there were easily over twenty folding tables.
Considering each table could seat six people, they certainly didn't need this many.
Dojin smiled and raised a hand, gesturing for them to wait and see.
“Where do you want us to set these up?”
“Oh, you can just assemble them here. We'll move them to their spots ourselves.”
“Understood.”
At Dojin's word, the delivery men quickly began assembling the folding tables.
Since plastic folding tables were incredibly easy to set up, they were finished in no time.
Dohee and Seungwan, who had remained calm until now, widened their eyes at what happened next.
“Huh? What's that?”
“I... I don't know. I've never seen that before.”
Once the tables were assembled, the workers quickly began attaching separate plastic brackets to the tables and parasols.
Once the brackets were secured, transparent acrylic panels and vinyl sheets were fitted onto them.
“...”
When the six-person tables were instantly partitioned into four separate sections by the transparent barriers, the two women looked at Dojin in awe.
They finally understood why he had bought so many.
As if confirming their suspicions, Dojin began to explain.
“These are anti-droplet shields and specialized vinyl covers. They've all been sterilized, so they'll be perfectly safe for today. I even got the safety certificates right here.”
“Oh, they're even sterilized.”
“That's thorough. This should be more than enough.”
Seungwan nodded as she looked over the sterilization and product certificates Dojin handed her.
If they showed these certificates in the video, it would shut up the online complainers to some extent.
Well, haters are going to hate regardless.
Just as their channel had grown rapidly, so had the number of people trying to tear them down.
It was only after Dojin decided to take a hardline stance and sue the malicious commenters that the severity of the hate had died down.
Before that, reading the comments section required serious mental preparation.
Seungwan thought this was already impressive, but Dojin wasn't done yet.
“I also asked the medical staff in the infirmary to help with disinfection. The spray sanitizers I ordered just arrived, so we might as well use them.”
“Ah...”
The medical staff sent by the hospital director had coincidentally started their first day of work today.
Dojin had already requested their cooperation in advance.
On top of that, hearing that he had even purchased quarantine-grade fogging disinfectants—which were incredibly hard to find lately—made Seungwan marvel at him once again.
Come to think of it, Mr. Dojin has always been one step ahead.
Even when masks were so scarce that their prices skyrocketed to ten thousand won each, and when hand sanitizer was sold out everywhere due to a shortage of ethanol, the Three Meals House had them in abundance.
Boxes of them were stacked high in the storage room.
It was all thanks to Dojin buying them in bulk before public demand exploded.
Did he buy these anti-droplet shields and vinyl covers in advance for the same reason?
Even after fitting them onto all the tables, there were still plenty of shields and vinyl sheets left over.
Pointing to the remaining items, Dojin spoke to the security team.
“Please install the partitions in the cafeteria and the vinyl shields on each bed. I heard most of the security team has already recovered from COVID, but there are still those who haven't caught it yet, and reinfection is always a possibility.”
“Ah, thank you.”
At Dojin's words, the surrounding security guards quickly gathered the supplies.
Deep gratitude was written all over their faces.
They were already grateful to be able to use masks and sanitizer without worry thanks to Dojin, so his thoughtful gesture touched them deeply.
“Could the rest of you help move the tables? Even with the barriers, I think it's best to keep them at least two meters apart.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Understood.”
The remaining team members sprang into action at Dojin's request.
None of them complained, as they already knew exactly why Dojin had prepared these tables.
Soon, about twenty tables, each equipped with a parasol, were set up.
But Dojin's unstoppable streak was far from over.
“Sorry, but could you connect one of these to each table?”
“Yes, sir!”
Opening a stack of boxes piled in a corner of the yard, Dojin pulled out electronic devices and connected them to the tubes running up the parasols.
Although the staff didn't know what they were, they followed Dojin's lead, unpacking the devices and hooking them up.
“Oppa, what is this?” Dohee, who had just connected a tube to a hose protruding from one of the machines, asked Dojin.
“This? An air conditioner.”
“An air conditioner? This thing?”
At his answer, she stared at the machine in front of her.
It was about the size of a large suitcase, and with its front covered in air filters, she had assumed it was an air purifier. An air conditioner?
It completely shattered her concept of what an air conditioner looked like.
“To be precise, it's a spot cooler. They're often used in hot construction sites or factories. At my old jobs, we used these to cool down areas with heavy machinery heat.”
“Ah... I see. But why are we installing them here?”
“The weather is insane right now. If we serve hot samgyetang inside vinyl-shielded booths with no airflow in this heat, it's a recipe for disaster. People would collapse before they could even eat a few spoonfuls.”
“Ah, that makes sense.”
“If we connect them like this, cool air will pour down from under the parasols, so they can eat in comfort. And after today, the security team can use them.”
The security team patrolled the Three Meals House in shifts every day.
While some patrolled the grounds, others had to stand guard at fixed posts.
Providing these parasols at their posts would surely bring some relief to the guards struggling in the sweltering heat.
“...”
“Oppa.”
“Yeah?”
“The security guards are looking at you with intense eyes. Their gazes are hotter than the weather.”
“...”
“If I didn't know any better, I'd doubt their preferences. It looks like they're about to steal you away.”
Pfft.
Dojin burst into laughter at Dohee's teasing.
Despite her playful tone, he could feel how proud she was of him.
“...I'll go pull some power lines.”
Feeling a bit nauseous from their lovey-dovey display, Seungwan quickly excused herself.
A few security guards followed to assist her.
Since they had to run power lines for every single table, it was a lot of work.
Dojin smiled with satisfaction as everything fell into place without him even having to ask.
“Alright, I guess I should start building the hearths first.”
There was still plenty of time, but it never hurt to start early.
The longer samgyetang simmered, the tenderer the meat became.
For the elderly villagers, he needed to simmer it as long and thoroughly as possible.
“We'll help too.”
“Should we stack them here?”
The security guards crowded around Dojin.
Off-duty and resting guards had gathered of their own accord to pitch in.
Thanks to their help, building the hearths and prepping the ingredients were finished in the blink of an eye.
All that was left was to place the cauldrons and light the fires.
“It's not like we're filming a survival variety show, so there's no need to do this the hard way, right?”
With those words, Dojin used firewood, charcoal, and fire starters to light the fires in an instant.
“What a sight.”
The schoolyard, which had been completely empty just this morning, now had ten hearths blazing.
With the outdoor tables set up, it looked less like a village feast and more like a grand opening for a massive open-air restaurant.
“I set out to do Three Meals a Day, but it feels like I ended up with Youn's Kitchen. Ah, since my last name is Do, is it 'Do's Kitchen'?”
“Pfft, what is that?”
Dohee laughed at Dojin's silly joke.
“Is everything ready now?”
Seungwan asked, returning after checking the cameras.
In response, Dojin pulled out a box with a mysterious smile.
“...What is that now?”
“I have a very bad feeling about this.”
Ignoring their deeply skeptical expressions, Dojin quickly opened the box.
“Huh?”
“Is that...?”
The two women stared at Dojin in utter disbelief when they saw what was inside.
The box was packed to the brim with fireworks.
“Ta-da! It's a thirty-shot repeater firework.”
“Seriously... why are you presenting that like it's a birthday gift?”
“Huh? Is there a special way to reveal fireworks?”
“Well, no, but...”
Leaving behind Dohee's underwhelmed reaction, Dojin proceeded to open the other boxes he had hidden.
Those boxes were also filled with various types of fireworks.
“I bought pop-its, butterfly spinners, fountains, bottle rockets, missile batteries, aurora flares, and even whistling chasers!”
“...Right. Amazing.”
“Woo. Hoo. So. Ex. Ci. Ting.”
Unlike Dojin, who was practically beaming, the two women responded with dry, monotone voices.
It was the definition of a polite, empty reaction.
But Dojin, already completely engrossed in his fireworks, didn't have the bandwidth to notice their lack of enthusiasm.
The real problem was that Dojin wasn't the only one fascinated by the fireworks.
“...Oh, they make 150-shot bottle rockets now?”
“It's always fun to stick a whistling chaser in a bottle, spin it, and run away...”
“I used to play so many pranks with pop-its. If you put them under the shoe rack mat, the kids' reactions when they stepped on them and they popped was hilarious.”
“...”
Hearing voices behind them, the two women turned around and saw a strange sight.
The usually stern and solemn security guards were crowding around the fireworks boxes.
Their eyes, sparkling with childlike wonder, looked remarkably similar to Dojin's.
“...This is why men...”
“I guess they really are just big kids, no matter how old they get.”
The two whispered quietly, making sure the security guards wouldn't hear them.
But they shouldn't have jumped to conclusions just yet.
Because the saying that men are always kids truly transcended all generations.
Pop! Pop! Pop! Boom! Whoooooosh!
“Ooh!”
“Wow, that's spectacular!”
“Hey, Kim! Do you remember when we were kids and had shootouts with those ten-shot bottle rockets?”
“Heh, how could I forget? You got hit in the hand by one of my rockets and ran home crying.”
“What? Has old age made you senile? That was you! Look at your hand. The burn mark from back then is still clear as day.”
“This isn't a burn mark, it's just an age spot! Look at your own forearm. You cried your eyes out when your sleeve caught fire and burned you.”
The grandfathers bickered back and forth, reminiscing about their childhood memories.
“Should we light a whistling chaser?”
“Put it in a bottle like the old days?”
“Of course. And don't forget to spin the bottle the moment you light it!”
“But are you going to be okay? Didn't you throw your back out last year? You'll get hurt.”
“Hmph! This is nothing! You underestimate how quick I am. Besides, getting hit by one of those won't kill me.”
With old friends eager to recreate their childhood pranks, the creatures known as men had instantly regressed to their youth.
Watching them, the grandmothers also began to recall memories of the past.
“It's beautiful...”
“My old man, Mr. Seo, proposed to me with fireworks just like that.”
“Haha, that was the trend back then. My husband, Mr. Lee, did the exact same thing.”
“Really? Even that stoic Mr. Lee?”
“I was shocked too. But that dummy bought bottle rockets instead of fountain fireworks. One of the rockets flew right through our living room window, and my father beat him half to death.”
“That sounds just like him, haha.”
In this remote village on the outskirts of Paju, Gyeonggi-do, even though it was Malbok, the hottest day of late summer, the village was filled with long-forgotten memories and laughter.