The Farm-Idol and the Survival-Idol (2)
Sizzle…!
Park Deok-cheol gulped as he watched the marinated pork ribs sizzling on the commercial-grade grill. On the stainless steel table set up in the yard of the container residence, there were fresh vegetables like lettuce, perilla leaves, and carrots, along with ssamjang and gochujang, and instant rice. Beneath the table sat an icebox filled with cans of soda and beer.
“Awesome, Unbelievable….”
Park Deok-cheol marveled at the veritable feast, chopsticks in hand, waiting impatiently for the ribs to finish cooking.
“Leave this to me. Just wait a little longer.”
Jo Yu-na, in charge of grilling, stared at the meat with more intensity than she ever had while sewing clothes with a machine. As much as she was dedicated to her profession as an idol, she was equally serious about eating.
“It’s almost done now. Sunny, can you pass me the scissors?”
Jo Yu-na flipped the ribs at the perfect moment, her eyes never leaving the grill as she held out her hand. But the scissors she expected didn’t arrive.
“Seon-hui?”
“…Huh? Oh! Sc, scissors? Here.”
As Jo Yu-na turned to look, Park Seon-hui, who had been lost in thought, jumped in surprise and handed over the scissors.
“What’s wrong? You love pork ribs, don’t you? Do you not have an appetite?”
“No, no. It looks delicious. When will it be done?”
“Just a little longer. By the way, where did he get all this? I could understand plain meat, but marinated meat like this must be hard to come by.”
“Hard agree. The ribs are one thing, but I really never thought I’d be able to drink ice-cold beer like this again. Want some? It’s ice cold.”
Park Deok-cheol grinned, pulling a frosty beer can from the icebox. But Jo Yu-na, who wasn't much of a drinker, picked up a cola.
“I’ll have a cola. But seriously, where are we, and what does that man do for a living? Like you said, oppa, is he just a professional killer? He doesn’t really seem like one.”
“I don’t know either. But he’s definitely intelligent and professional, but like you said, he doesn’t seem like just a killer. Look around here.”
Park Deok-cheol continued as he looked around the container residence.
“I think the other containers are just like the one we live in. There are twelve of them. That must have cost a fortune.”
“That’s true. The furniture and refrigerators in our place were all brand new. Even if it’s a bit cramped, honestly, it’s better than our first dorm. Right, Seon-hui?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.”
“Right. The bathroom ventilation and soundproofing are perfect, too. Right, Sunny?”
“You wanna die?”
Park Seon-hui, reminded of the horrific memory from a few mornings ago, scowled.
“No thanks, Sis.”
Park Deok-cheol chuckled, then carefully looked up at the sky before speaking with a relieved expression.
“The drone is gone now. I was really scared earlier today. I never dreamed a drone would follow us.”
“You said that thing was super expensive, right?”
“Yeah. Drones are my hobby, so I know a bit about them. The model that was following and monitoring us earlier? The body alone costs over 10,000 dollars. If you add the payload camera and accessories, it’s over 20,000 dollars. It’s insanely expensive.”
“Wow… he must be really rich.”
“Right. But a rich guy who’s also a good shot, works well, is incredibly strong, and… huh? Isn’t this perfect?”
“A superhero?”
“Exactly. A superhero and….”
Park Deok-cheol looked between Jo Yu-na, who was carefully cutting the ribs with scissors, and Park Seon-hui, who was fiddling with her can, and continued.
“Your die-hard fan.”
“……!”
Unlike Jo Yu-na, who hadn’t heard him well because she was busy cutting the ribs, Park Seon-hui was startled. Park Deok-cheol waved his hands frantically.
“No, no. Forget what I said before. I sincerely apologized for that. By the way, in my opinion, he’s a real fan of Psyche Flare.”
“Like seriously?”
“Sure. First of all, look at our working conditions. This is a top-tier company. 45 minutes of labor, 15 minutes of rest. And in Korea, a 9-to-5? Goddess, even before the world went to hell, this would be the best. An angel company.”
“Is it that good…?”
“Sis, you came to Korea later than me so you don’t know, but you know I do, right? Our company employees were always working overtime. But overtime pay? There was no such thing. But look at this.”
Park Deok-cheol gestured to the food spread on the table as if he were introducing it.
“He gave us this extra because we worked hard and stayed late today. In this world, food like this? You can’t even buy it with money anymore. But he gave it to us. We’re just workers. Why? There’s only one reason. He’s your fan.”
Park Seon-hui couldn’t help but nod at Park Deok-cheol’s analysis, which sounded like nonsense yet had a strange, persuasive logic to it. Even to her, Lee Jun-ho didn’t look like the type of person to show such kindness for no reason.
“Crucially….”
Her brother’s voice, like a devil’s whisper, continued to burrow into Park Seon-hui’s ears.
“There’s pork or beef out there. Korean BBQ is more popular and famous for those… so why did he send marinated pork ribs? This is your favorite, isn’t it?”
“……!!!”
“Sunny, I think this is a fan tribute. So forget what I said before. You should treat him like a die-hard fan of Psyche Flare, and a personal fan who considers you his bias. That’s only natural, right?”
“A, a tribute….”
“Yeah. So remember what Grandfather said, Sunny.”
“If you forget kindness… you’re not a human.”
“Yes. A person must never forget kindness received. And I swear he’s a real Flare Stan.”
Remembering her grandfather’s dying words, and hearing the ‘fact’ her brother had reiterated, Park Seon-hui made a resolution. She would definitely repay Jun-ho, their benefactor and a fan of her group, Psyche Flare.
“It’s all done! Let’s eat!”
At the proud voice of Jo Yu-na, who was serious about eating, the siblings picked up their chopsticks, placed the perfectly grilled pork ribs on lettuce, topped them with vegetables and ssamjang, and swallowed them in one bite.
“Kuh! It’s so delicious….”
“Really. It’s so, so delicious.”
While Park Deok-cheol and Jo Yu-na chewed the meat with teary, moved expressions and began making another large wrap, Park Seon-hui savored the pork ribs—the seasoning was perfectly to her taste—and flashed a look of determination.
And….
Yun Yeong-su, who had seen and heard all the idols’ actions and conversations again today, was rolling on the floor in the control room, clutching his stomach.
***
“We need to finish organizing the shelter and strengthen our internal foundation before winter comes.”
As a place prepared for two years, our shelter was perfect in almost every aspect, but when the actual situation hit, some shortcomings were discovered. Of course, since it was something he had fully anticipated, Jun-ho intended to reinforce and reorganize the shelter now that the overwhelming evil and threat known as the Eoktens had been removed.
With the evil of the Eoktens gone, there was no longer any force in Gahyeon-ri that could threaten the shelter. Of course, the local delinquents hadn’t had a direct impact on our shelter, but for Jun-ho, who planned to bring Gahyeon-ri under his influence, they were pests that were better off gone sooner rather than later, so they had to be eradicated.
Furthermore, Jun-ho’s eradication had an unexpected effect.
“The survivors hiding around the mansion and the people from the Sang-dong apartment complex know about our existence?”
“Well, they don’t know exactly. A few residents were snooping around the day after you set the fire on the third floor, boss. It turns out they were people who had been hiding well in the basements of other nearby villas or mansions.”
And about ten residents had taken food and other useful things from the mansion where the Eoktens punks had lived. According to drone surveillance, it seemed some of them had seen Jun-ho fighting that day and taking the rescued children toward the mountain pass near the reservoir.
“So, they didn’t really go that way before, but they’ve already installed barricades with cars and furniture at the entrance to the mountain pass. Well, you were pretty scary that day, boss.”
Jun-ho nodded. It was actually a good thing. There were only three paths from Gahyeon-ri to the safe zone where our shelter was located. The tunnel had been closed long ago, so no one thought to use it, and the secret passage by the industrial road was known only to Jun-ho and a few shelter members. In other words, the mountain pass toward the reservoir was the only place previously known to the people of Gahyeon-ri, and if they had blocked it themselves, our shelter would be even safer than it was before the regression.
‘We can go out to Gahyeon-ri whenever we want, anyway.’
He could go out through the secret passage on the industrial road and take the nursing home route using the side path toward the communication relay station, or he could make the closed tunnel accessible only to us. Also, while vehicle passage might be difficult, Jun-ho alone could use the mountain pass by the reservoir at any time.
“Good. Then let’s take the reservoir, too.”
“Ah! You said there were a lot of fish there, right? So can we eat fresh food now?”
“Yeah.”
That was one of the reasons Jun-ho had removed the artificial wetland that performed the final purification of the shelter’s wastewater. All sorts of freshwater creatures inhabited the reservoir, which was only a five-minute drive away. There was no need to keep an artificial wetland right next to the shelter that attracted mosquitoes and wild animals. Even if the wastewater was primary-purified at the shelter and released into the valley without a wetland, it would naturally purify as it flowed over two kilometers to Gahyeon-ri.
“Find a spot to build an outpost at the reservoir. No, let’s go and work on it today. If we mount a relay and install a PTZ camera there, we’ll be able to see much better than from the Sang-dong apartments.”
“Yes. The Gahyeon Hanbit Riverview Edu Town was visible enough, but Gahyeon The First….”
“Just call them Edu Town and The First Apartments.”
Why did they have to attach such ridiculous English names to apartment complexes in the middle of nowhere? At Jun-ho’s words, Yun Yeong-su chuckled and continued.
“Understood. If we build an outpost on the mountain by the reservoir and install a PTZ camera and relay, we’ll be able to see The First Apartments and Jung-dong clearly. We’ll fly the drones depending on the situation from now on. Oh, and from now on, I think it’s better to mainly use modular drones. Drones have a lifespan, and honestly, we’ve been running them pretty hard, haven’t we?”
Of course, for the two models mainly used at the shelter, they held 20 spares each. Among them, they were currently using 5 or 6 of each, and the rest were well-packaged new units, but if they kept running them like this, half of them would likely be unusable within a few years.
“Modular is fine, too. They’re for pesticide spraying, so they’re a bit loud. But if you lift the altitude limit and fly them over 200 meters, it’s the same—people can’t really hear them.”
There were about 50 of the modular assembly-type drones for pesticide spraying. Since they were bought in bulk, the price per unit was around 1 million won, which was very cheap compared to the finished models the shelter mainly used.
“They’re designed to carry 20 liters of pesticide anyway, so they’re good for transporting goods. And you can attach a camera payload for reconnaissance. The only downside is that the flight time is only 15 minutes.”
“Then let’s do that. We’ll use those inside our safe zone, and use the existing drones only when going outside.”
“Understood.”
“Aigoo, if we have to modify all of those… well, I guess it won’t be too hard.”
Yun Yeong-su grinned at Baek Ha-il, who had clicked his tongue and then immediately contradicted himself.
“Yes. Akina will assist with the modification work, too. Sensei, the workshop was a huge help, right?”
“My, the AI is a real treasure. It helps with work that would take Jung-woo and me an hour, so it takes less than 20 minutes.”
At Baek Ha-il’s words, others stepped forward.
“Me too. It was a huge help when I made the anti-inflammatory painkillers and sulfa drugs this time. I was originally going to make them by referring only to public recipes, but it compared the reaction temperature and crystallization time from a Japanese Chemical Society paper from last year and suggested the optimal values. When I experimented myself, the yield was definitely higher.”
“Same for us. It’s been a long time since I quit the hospital, so I didn’t know much, but the AI was definitely amazing. Heh, well….”
“It marked the suspected lesion areas in the endoscopy video frame by frame. When I enlarged and checked those parts, there were indeed tissue changes. When I did a biopsy later, the accuracy was 97 percent.”
Following Baek Su-ah, who was in charge of the pharmacy, the medical room’s Choi Ui-su and Kim Hui-yeong couple also marveled at the capabilities of the shelter’s AI computing system, Akina.
“Good. Anyway, let’s all finish setting up our assigned parts perfectly before November. I’ll take the kids at the container residence and finish the external work.”
“That’s right. Are they good at working? How did making clothes for the kids go?”
At Baek Ha-il’s question, Choi Ha-neul smiled brightly and said.
“They brought two autumn outfits each for Ji-u and Jun-seo, and some underwear today. Oh my, how is a twenty-year-old girl so skilled? I was really surprised.”
“Is it that good?”
“I thought they were store-bought, honestly. Ji-u and Jun-seo loved them too.”
“That’s a relief. I’ll finish the other clothes within this week.”
Jo Yu-na was a pass. With her sewing skills alone, she was the kind of personnel our shelter needed, regardless of other survivor groups. Furthermore, since she had grown plants and vegetables in her home’s greenhouse in Japan since she was young, it was clear she would do well if put in charge of managing the shelter’s greenhouse.
“How are the Dallas Park siblings, hyung?”
“They’re fine.”
To Jun-hyeok’s question, Jun-ho nodded quietly. They found climbing mountains a bit difficult, but since they were ‘farm-idols,’ their labor power was definitely reliable. Thanks to them, they had installed over 200 meters of barbed wire to prevent harmful animals in just two days, yesterday and today. Park Deok-cheol had worked hard, but Park Seon-hui, in particular, had shown tremendous enthusiasm.
Furthermore.
“The younger sister is good at identifying and picking mushrooms and wild greens.”
Park Seon-hui said she had been picking mushrooms and wild greens since she was young in America, following her grandmother, Ms. Lee Sun-rye, who was born in Korea in 1953. She was even good at picking chestnuts, and while working on the barbed wire, she had even found colonies of wild pears, wild grapes, and silver vine. In other words, the two idol siblings were true farm-idols and survival-idols.