Young-hoon Enters Gangnam (1)
By the time they had finished touring the dorm the Five Girls would be using, it was roughly dinnertime, so they moved to the most famous barbecue joint in the neighborhood.
Before long, Yoo Hyun-kyung arrived from Seongnam, and the table was full.
The Five Girls members, Su-min included, devoured the meat like a gale-force wind slamming shut a crab's eyes, and the managers, coordinators, stylists, and even Yoo Hyun-kyung gave them a run for their money.
"Boss, do you usually just feed the girls instant ramen? It's like they hold a grudge against meat or something."
"No, it's just... they don't have any schedule until tomorrow morning. So I think they're eating with peace of mind for once. Come on, girls, take your time. Mr. Kim's the one telling you to eat up, isn't he?"
"Aigo, come on, Boss. I said that as a joke — why would you take it seriously?"
"I was joking too. How much could Jae eat, anyway?"
With that, President Lee Jae-man glanced at Su-min, and his expression darkened a little.
Su-min, true to her status as a certified meat fanatic, seemed to be vacuuming up the meat like an industrial vacuum cleaner.
"Su-min, let your oppa eat some too. Don't hog it all — share with me."
"Okay~ Since you're mine, oppa, I'll take special care of you."
That remark made Ga-eun bristle.
"Su-min, 'you're mine' is a phrase I hold the copyright to. Don't overstep."
Seeing the two quarrel, President Lee Jae-man jumped into the fray.
"You kids are hilarious. Why would Mr. Kim be yours? You're his. Isn't that right, Mr. Kim?"
"Aigo, now even the Boss is teasing me. Oh, and by the way, I probably won't be able to make it to the Seongnam office tomorrow for the music release. But we'll sweep the charts anyway, right? I'm curious how it'll fare against 'A Loving Heart.'"
"I'd guess 'After Farewell' will take first. 'A Loving Heart' has gotten a lot of love up until now. My prediction is 'After Farewell' at number one, 'A Loving Heart' at number two."
Hye-in, sulking at the news that Young-hoon wouldn't be coming, asked, "Then what are you going to do tomorrow, oppa? Sleep in at home?"
"Ah, I'm moving tomorrow, actually. Somewhere around here."
"Huh? Really? So we'll be neighbors in the same neighborhood?"
"No, different dong. My place is about a ten-minute drive from here. I'm going to live with my younger sister."
"Your sister... you mean Su-jin unnie?"
"You catch on quick. She's working as a nurse in Seoul. We're moving in together this time."
"Aww, so sneaking over to your place uninvited is off the table now. You've got a sister-in-law."
"What sister-in-law, you brat. Quit messing around and come to the housewarming party sometime. Su-jin will probably be happy to see you too."
"When's the party?"
"Once you've all finished moving and have a break in your schedule."
"Aww, will that day ever come? We're Five Girls, you know? The hottest act around these days. Our schedule's packed solid — we're such busy girls. So when exactly will we have time? When pine trees bear watermelons by the bunch? Or when tigers are being chased around by rabbits? That's when you should have your housewarming. Got it — I'll wait for that day."
Ga-eun delivered her corny dad-joke with total confidence.
"Well, would you look at that — Ga-eun can dish out uncle-jokes too. So, Boss, what's the afternoon schedule tomorrow?"
"Yes. There's a department store event. I would've liked to give them a day or so of rest, but it couldn't be helped. The appearance fee is decent."
"I know you manage things well, Boss, but these girls are going to be running themselves ragged for the next several years. Their overseas activities will pick up a lot too. So don't cheap out on them. Please look after their image management as well and let them work properly. By the end of this year or early next year at the latest, their overseas promotion in China, Japan, and elsewhere will begin."
"Really? Orabeoni, we're going overseas?"
Joo-yeon asked Young-hoon in wide-eyed surprise.
"That's right. This is just my thinking, but I expect 'Love After Separation' will sell a lot overseas. And if it does, you girls naturally go global with it. I don't know when you'll find the time, but start studying now — English, Japanese, and at least basic conversational Chinese."
"Then we should start right away."
"You've got two months at the longest. Within two months, you'll all get to travel abroad once. President Lee Jae-man, please arrange a dinner with the Five Girls' parents sometime on the 15th or 16th of next week. Bring the staff's families along as well. That should come to around thirty people, no?"
"Understood. I'll see it done."
"And make arrangements for anyone coming from the provinces to stay at a hotel. Don't worry about the money — our girls are bringing in plenty these days."
"You bet we are. Thanks to you, oppa, we've been grinding ourselves to death lately."
"You kids — it's been barely a week since your activities started. There's plenty more hard work where that came from."
"But oppa, is it okay not to bring your parents up for it? If my mom and dad came up, word would spread in a heartbeat."
"It's fine. I'll be hosting my mother and father separately."
"What a shame. We could've paid our respects to our future in-laws..."
Su-min, the maknae and official mascot of Five Girls, let her sly little scheme show as she pouted in disappointment.
"Aigo, this is unbearable. I really do need to get married — these kids tease me to death."
"Yup, and I meant every word."
Hye-in's dead-straight fastball bored deep into his heart, and Young-hoon panicked for a moment.
"Orabeoni, I'm here too."
"Oppa's mine, remember."
With Joo-yeon and Su-min joining in, the mood mercifully tipped back into playfulness, and only then did Young-hoon quietly breathe a sigh of relief.
Perhaps because they'd started early, by around eight in the evening the atmosphere had all but gone to the dogs. When Young-hoon pulled out his wallet to pay, President Lee Jae-man had already settled the bill. He showed off his corporate card and said he'd write it off as a business expense — that, he explained, was how you achieved proper tax efficiency. With a man this meticulous, it was honestly a mystery why he'd never found success before now.
When Young-hoon got home, the clock's hands were pointing past nine. Tomorrow was moving day, but there was precious little to pack. On the way in, he'd scored some empty ramen boxes from the neighborhood mart, and his whole life fit into three of them. It should fit easily enough in his little car.
With the packing done, he had time to spare. Decent interval since dinner, too — enough for the alcohol to have worn off — so he sat down at his PC and began continuing the drama script he'd been transcribing. He resolved to push himself tonight and wrap up at least through episode thirteen. And he set himself a firm goal: all twenty episodes finished by the end of November, no exceptions.
Deep in the flow, Young-hoon finished writing and stretched his stiff body until his spine crackled. Before he knew it, it was past one in the morning. He collapsed onto his bed, and sleep came sliding over him like a tide. And so another day of Young-hoon's life slipped by.
November 11th — a Saturday, and Pepero Day besides.
A day with absolutely nothing to do with Young-hoon, who couldn't care less about snack foods. And no, that's not sour grapes because he had no girlfriend to gift any or receive any from. He simply despised capitalism's cheap merchandising tricks, that's all.
Carrying that faint bitterness in his chest, Young-hoon rose from bed. Today, at long last, his identity changed from Gyeonggi Province resident to Seoul citizen. The residency registration could wait until some convenient day next week. His moving boxes were packed from the night before, so all that remained was to load the car, clean the place, and hand the keys back to the landlord. The deposit was small enough that he'd agreed to have it returned the instant he surrendered the key. Even so, a certain fondness had crept in somewhere along the way, and one corner of his heart ached a little. The thought that he would never set foot in this place again struck him as strangely bittersweet — he'd worked so hard, after all, to escape it as fast as he could.
Steadying that wavering feeling, Young-hoon ran through the day's tasks once more. At six in the evening, the digital release of "After Farewell." Since everyone already knew it was coming, the tension was admittedly lower than it had been for "A Loving Heart"'s release. Honestly, once the move was done, there'd be little else to occupy his mind.
Young-hoon called Hee-joo noona and told her he was coming over for lunch. There'd been a time when she'd occasionally let her displeasure show, but these days it was a free pass. They'd be neighbors in the same villa from next weekend anyway.
When he arrived at her place around 11:30, the kids came running out to greet him first. When he asked how they felt about the move, they didn't seem too thrilled. Well, fair enough — even he wouldn't be in a great mood about leaving his friends behind for an unfamiliar neighborhood. Still, it looked like their parents had handled it well; there were no tears or tantrums to be seen.
Hee-joo noona, who eventually sauntered out after them, said cooking was too much of a hassle and suggested they just order jajangmyeon instead. From the look of her — exhausted to the point of practically dripping fatigue — she'd apparently gone to overtime and penalty shootouts the night before. The kids, of course, were delighted. They hadn't come hoping for a jajangmyeon treat, but their mother looked genuinely worn out. Young-hoon found himself dying to ask just how badly her husband had run her into the ground.
Her husband, seemingly realizing Young-hoon had arrived, finally shuffled out of the master bedroom. He looked every bit the man who'd played a furious match the previous night.
While they waited for the jajangmyeon and sweet-and-sour pork, Young-hoon probed here and there.
"What on earth did you two do all night that you're this worn out?"
"Ugh, don't even get me started. You have no idea how your brother-in-law pounces. My whole body's gone mushy, I feel like I'm dying. You finish your lunch and head home so I can rest a bit more — I need to recover to survive tonight."
"You say anything you please to your sister-in-law, don't you?"
"Well, did I say anything untrue? The moment night falls he turns into a beast and just grabs me — grabs me!"
"Excuse me? You're hilarious. Then who's the one setting the mood every single night? Who's the one luring me in wearing those racy pajamas, and now you're pinning it all on me?"
"You're supposed to enjoy it an hour or two and call it a night. Who's the one who, once things start, refuses to quit until the second half no matter what?"
"Well, what match on earth only has a first half? You at least have to play out regulation time."
"What match has a first half that lasts two hours? Even with stoppage time, fifty minutes would do the job just fine."
Sensing that leaving them alone would end in an all-out brawl, Young-hoon clutched his head. Thank goodness the kids were in their room.
"You two, please... honestly, aren't you the least bit embarrassed?"
"Heh heh, well, you see... noona started it first..."
"Yes, yes. Enough. You're both exactly the same. By the way, noona — didn't you say your move is next Saturday?"
"Yeah, that's the plan. Why?"
"How are you handling the cleaning? Su-jin said she'd do ours, but will she really? You know how the youngest gets — she'll find every way to weasel out."
"Judging by that tone of yours, it sounds like you're asking me to do it? Dream on, little brother. Last Wednesday, I threw myself at your brother-in-law with the devotion of Shim Cheong hurling herself into the sea. We went to overtime that night, penalty kicks and all, and I nearly failed to feed the kids breakfast before school. So we settled it — we're hiring a cleaning lady. You can share her for your place too."
"Could we? Then we'd just split the cost?"
"Little brother, oh little brother. What chicken are you ordering? They charge per household, so there's no splitting anything. You're rolling in money, aren't you? I'll get the contract set up for your place too, but you pay separately. Okay?"
"If that's how noona wants it, fine. By the way, when's the jajangmyeon coming?"
"It's been barely ten minutes since we ordered. What is it with you and your brother-in-law — why do you both have zero patience?"
"Hey, why are you dragging me into this on a rest day?"
"It's the truth though, isn't it? Or have you forgotten how he pounced on you last night? After the first round, a man could stand to hold back a little. Speaking of which — do you know that the husbands in this neighborhood are dying because of you?"
"What's that supposed to mean? Why would the neighborhood husbands be dying because of me?"
"I was gossiping with the neighborhood ladies a while back and your name came up. Next thing I knew, the fired-up ajummas were force-feeding their husbands tonic broth and, worse, stamina boosters. But compared to you? They don't measure up to a toenail. Anyway, it'll be sad when you move next week. I could've kept teasing the neighborhood ladies for ages."
"Honestly, it's women like you that make my life unbearable with embarrassment. So that's why the neighborhood ladies have been looking at me lately like I'm some kind of wild animal? I need to move out, and fast. Aigo, my goodness..."
After mooching jajangmyeon off his noona, Young-hoon headed back to his place. First, he loaded his belongings into the car, then returned the key to the landlord and got his deposit back.
He was truly leaving Ilsan now.
By the time he drove to the villa in Sinsa-dong, it was just past two in the afternoon. He unpacked his things into the room and the laboratory. Just as Young-hoon finished tidying up, a call came: Su-jin had arrived, come downstairs.
When he went down to the first floor, there were more than ten boxes waiting.
Young-hoon was dumbfounded.
"Hey, sis? I told you to throw out anything you could manage without before the move. Yet you still brought over ten boxes — exactly how enormous was the house you were living in?"
Su-jin jutted out her lips and grumbled.
"What do you mean, so many? I threw everything out and only packed what I needed. They're heavy, so it'd be lovely if my big brother would carry them all the way up for me."
She was treating him like a live-in servant, completely and without shame.