Stalker (1)
“Thank you for everything.”
The meat restaurant was empty after closing time. Kang Tae-san spoke to Choi Manager in a calm voice.
“I’m sorry, Tae-san. I just can’t keep this place running anymore.”
“Who could have guessed the landlord would jack up the rent that much?”
To Choi Manager, Kang Tae-san had been a blessing. Good-looking, friendly yet professional with customers, and diligent enough never to be late. Despite being much younger, he was the kind of employee you could rely on. Sales had more than doubled since Tae-san started working there, thanks to his handsome face and easy smile. They had even managed to pay off the debts from the COVID years. But when business picked up, the landlord raised the rent like a natural disaster, and there was nothing they could do.
“I added a little extra to this month’s pay since it’s your last. Think of it as severance.”
Kang Tae-san took the thick envelope of cash, pretended to check the contents, and joked, “Boss, what am I supposed to do? You can’t even do bank transfers without me. You’re going to miss me a lot, right?”
“You little punk. You think I can’t send money without you? I just withdrew it because cash is easier.”
“So that’s why it’s all new bills.”
“Last time and all. Ha. Last time… I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into this place.”
Choi Manager’s lament made Tae-san smile bitterly.
“Anyway, I always end up talking too much around you. How old are you this year?”
“Twenty-four.”
“Young. So young. You said you do other part-time jobs too?”
“Actually, the other places shut down because of the economy. I’m unemployed for now. Haha.”
“How can you laugh in a situation like this?”
Kang Tae-san had a habit of smiling brightly when things got tough. It wasn’t because he was some kind of masochist; it was simply his life motto to stay positive whenever possible.
“Stop smiling, you idiot.”
“Why?”
“If a guy who looks like you smiles that easily, how are the rest of us supposed to live?”
“Come on, not this again.”
“If you were going to be this good-looking, you should at least have a bad personality. Being this diligent and nice on top of it? That’s just cheating.”
At Choi Manager’s grumbling, Tae-san waved his hands. “Seoul is full of handsome guys.”
“You’re hopeless. If I looked like you… Never mind. Forget it.”
Shaking his head, Choi Manager stood up and headed to the kitchen. “Wait here. I’ve got something else for you.”
He returned with a heavy black bag from the fridge and handed it over. “I set aside some meat for you. Take it home and eat well.”
“Wow. Working at a meat restaurant has its perks.”
“I made sure you got meat with every meal, didn’t I?”
“Hehe. Thank you, boss. I’ll enjoy it.”
Seeing Tae-san’s bright, innocent smile, Choi Manager couldn’t help but smile himself.
“I’m not your boss anymore. Next time we meet, call me hyung.”
“Yes, hyung.”
“Hahaha. You cheeky kid. You’ll do well no matter what you do.”
“Thank you. I’ll work hard.”
Choi Manager saw him off with a wistful smack of his lips. Watching Tae-san, who was like a nephew to him, made all the usual complaints about young people lacking grit feel like they belonged to another world.
“I’ll be going now.”
Kang Tae-san left the restaurant where he had worked for over a year. The bags of meat in his hands felt heavy. White breath escaped his mouth in the cold winter air. He trudged through the snow-covered streets, leaving footprints, until he reached the ATM two blocks away.
[Now processing. Please wait a moment.]
The final paycheck Choi Manager had given him came to two million won.
“I only worked about fifteen days this month… He really gave me a lot.”
He fed every last bill into the ATM deposit slot.
Account Holder: Kang Tae-san
Account Number: 979-11-XXXXX-XXX
Balance: 7,706,540 won
Looking at the increased balance, Tae-san felt a warmth in his chest despite the cold weather. He had worked every kind of job imaginable—meat restaurant, billiard hall, Chinese restaurant, buffet, night convenience store, construction day labor—ever since he was old enough to work without his parents’ permission. He had scraped together every won he could. Seven million won might not seem like much after all that nonstop work, but there was a reason the money had to go somewhere. A reason that made it all worthwhile.
[The following amount will be withdrawn from your account and transferred.]
- 1,500,000 won.
Only a few minutes after pressing the transfer confirmation, Tae-san’s phone vibrated. The screen showed a simple “Little Sister” with no emojis.
“Oppa, why did you send so much money again?”
“I saw the dance practice video you sent last time. You looked too skinny. Buy yourself something good to eat.”
“If you keep sending everything to me, what about your own expenses? Are you even eating properly?”
“I’ve got some short rib in my right hand right now.”
“I’m not talking about food! You worked hard for that money. Stop sending it all to me and spend some on yourself.”
“This is an investment. You have to take good care of me when you succeed. Wiping your mouth and pretending you don’t know me won’t work. The bank records are proof.”
“Ugh. Fine, fine. I’ll pay you back double with interest.”
Tae-san checked the bus stop display and sat down. The heated seat was a blessing in winter.
“Oh, right. I’m auditioning for a music video this time. Oppa, do you know Giant Kim?”
“Of course not. I don’t watch TV.”
“Yeah, yeah. Of course you don’t. Anyway, he’s a senior singer at our company. His last album charted in the top ten.”
“So?”
“They’re picking one of our trainees to be the female lead in his new single’s music video. I’m one of the candidates. Isn’t that huge?”
“That’s great. I hope you get the part after working so hard.”
Kang So-yeon, his younger sister who had grown up with him in the orphanage, had always drawn attention with her striking looks and talent. Especially gifted in singing and dancing, a video of her performing at a middle school festival had over 800,000 views on YouTube. Casting offers from entertainment agencies had poured in ever since. But even among the countless trainees, only a tiny fraction made it into the debut lineup. And among those, even fewer actually debuted as idols.
“Don’t worry about money. Just focus on practicing.”
“Ugh, stop nagging! I’m already working hard!”
Tae-san had decided to be the nest that protected So-yeon. Thanks to him, she had joined SL Entertainment, one of Korea’s top three agencies, become a regular trainee, and was now on the verge of debuting this summer. She was the pride of his youth and the meaning of his life.
“Oh, oppa. I have to go into the practice room now.”
“Okay. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call.”
“……Got it. Eat well. Thanks for the allowance!”
After hanging up, Tae-san habitually opened a job-search site. Even if So-yeon succeeded, he had no intention of becoming the pathetic older brother who lived off her. He needed to earn as much as he could while he was young and healthy.
He skillfully set the filters for location and working hours and hit search, but the results made him sigh.
“Tsk. The economy really must be bad.”
Years of part-time jobs had given him a sharp eye for spotting shady listings. “Salary negotiable” meant they wouldn’t even pay minimum wage. “Family-like atmosphere” was a phrase he, as an orphanage kid, trusted least. There were even suspicious ads offering cash-only work that smelled like money laundering.
He was willing to do any job, but he refused to do just any job. Taking the first thing that came along often led to unpaid wages or getting dragged into something illegal.
“If they offered a billion won, I’d do anything. Too bad NASA isn’t hiring.”
Just as he was grumbling about how hard it was to find decent work in this endless recession, a new listing caught his eye.
[Cleaning lets you understand life!]
The company “Smile,” which cleans customers’ homes and helps you understand their lives, is hiring cleaning managers.
- 10,000~50,000 won per hour
- Same-day payment after cleaning
- Duties: Cleaning as requested by the client
- Hours: Whenever the client wants
The conditions looked decent. They even provided a 50,000-won cleaning kit and offered liability insurance covering events, holiday gifts, and vaccinations. Signing up was simple: register as a cleaning manager on the app and accept requests whenever you wanted to work.
Since it was his first time cleaning professionally, Tae-san checked reviews from other workers and compared it with similar companies. The pay was solid, the conditions were good, and most importantly, it was run by a large corporation, so it wouldn’t suddenly disappear because of a greedy landlord like the meat restaurant had.
Most young people in their twenties would avoid what was considered a 4D job, but if the pay matched the effort and the benefits were this good, there was no reason to refuse.
“Cleaning, huh. Okay, I can do that.”
That was how Kang Tae-san’s new part-time job was decided.
***
The sturdy twenty-something, hardened by years of part-time work, passed the paperwork screening in no time. After receiving the acceptance notice, Tae-san went straight to the headquarters in Gangnam for a day of basic cleaning training. The training wasn’t particularly difficult or unusual. The day flew by so fast it felt like a blur. As soon as it ended, he officially registered an account on the cleaning app “Smile.”
[Manager Kang Tae-san Personal Information]
- Rank: Bronze
- Smileage: 0p
Kang Tae-san’s first request as a cleaning manager was for a studio apartment three bus stops away. He opened the app and checked today’s assignment.
[Today’s Request]
➤ Client: Kim Mi-sook
- Seoul, Gwangjin-gu, Jayang-dong 6XX-XX, Room 402
- Estimated time: 4 hours
- Hourly rate: 30,000 won
- Note: Stalker
Tae-san tilted his head at the note. Everything else matched what he had been trained on, but he had never heard of “Stalker” as a category.
‘Stalker? What does that mean? Surely it doesn’t mean actual criminal stalking…… Hmm.’
Since it was his first day, he decided there might be things he didn’t know yet and headed toward the address.
“Are you here to clean?”
Following the map on his phone, Tae-san arrived in front of a four-story multi-family house made of red bricks and met a middle-aged woman standing at the entrance. Recognizing the client, he greeted her with a bright smile.
“Hello, ma’am! I’m Smile Cleaning Manager Kang Tae-san. You must be Kim Mi-sook?”
“Oh my, what a nice-looking young man.”
The landlady recognized him thanks to the blue uniform jacket he had received. Tae-san chatted in a friendly manner, and his bright, clear smile quickly put her at ease.
“By the way, I didn’t expect a young man like you to show up.”
“I may be young, but I have over ten years of cleaning experience.”
Tae-san smiled confidently and spread his palms. Of course, he was a brand-new cleaning manager who had just finished training, but he had been cleaning bathrooms and dorms every day since his orphanage days, and every part-time job had included cleaning duties, so it wasn’t exactly a lie.
“Hohoho, such a handsome young man, so thorough and trustworthy. Here’s the key to Room 402.”
“Is this your place, ma’am?”
“The building is mine, but someone else lives there. Sigh.”
The landlady pounded her chest in frustration.
“There was a tenant before. He got arrested by the police and went straight to prison.”
“Goodness, that’s terrible. What did he go to prison for?”
“Well, actually……”
The landlady hesitated, then leaned in and whispered, “He was following a woman who lives in this neighborhood and harassing her. They called it stalking or something.”
“Stalking?”
“I can’t collect rent from someone in prison, so I want to clean it out quickly and get a new tenant.”
“Ah, I see.”
Tae-san accepted the master key, telling her not to worry, but he couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling.
‘Stalker? So that’s why it said “Stalker” in the notes?’
He climbed the stairs to Room 402. As he reached the fourth floor, an indescribable musty smell seemed to hang in the air. He inserted the key.
Click— Creak.
The moment he opened the locked door, a tremendous stench assaulted his nose. Cardboard boxes and trash bags crammed the entrance. Moldy delivery containers sat on top, covered in blue-green mold. Some of the plastic bottles scattered on the floor were filled with black cigarette butts.
“Wow, someone actually lived here?”
“The place was so dirty that other cleaning companies refused the job.”
How long would it take to clean all this? Just looking at the state of the room gave him a headache. He let out an involuntary sigh.
‘This is why they’re paying 30,000 won an hour.’
The landlady peeked in, confirmed how bad it was, and spoke with a guilty expression. “Um…… When you’re done, I’ll give you an extra 100,000 won on top. Is that okay?”
“Phew. Understood. Please go home, ma’am. I’ll call you when I’m finished.”
“Okay. Please do your best. Oh dear…… Is this even a house or a pigsty……?”
Tae-san steeled himself with the thought that if he just cleaned well, he could earn a lot in one day. Of course, he worried whether he could finish this disaster in four hours, but—
‘The more time it takes, the more I earn.’
With nothing but the desire to make money, he picked up his cleaning tools. He sorted the filthy trash into plastic, metal, and paper. He scrubbed sticky residue off the floor, wiped spiderwebs from the walls, and tackled the sink that had become an ecosystem of mold and grotesque insects. After six hours of relentless scrubbing, the room finally looked like a place where a human could live again.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Tae-san exhaled roughly. “Wow, I thought I was going to die.”
Still, working two extra hours meant extra pay, and with the landlady’s promised bonus, the effort had been worth it. He smiled contentedly and flopped down on a now-clean chair.
“Ow, my whole body hurts. Let me rest for a bit.”
Fatigue washed over him the moment he sat. He turned on his phone and pressed the job completion button.
[Settlement amount: 180,000 won]
Plus the extra 100,000 won, he had earned 280,000 won in six hours. His body ached, but the pay was good enough to bring a smile to his face.
“Just…… just a little rest before I go……”
Before long, his head began to nod. At the same time, the phone screen in his hand flashed.
[Cleaning completed.]
[Cleaning fee of 180,000 won and 180 Smileage points have been awarded.]
As if the app knew the cleaning was done, a notification appeared. Half-asleep, Tae-san barely managed to look at the screen.
[You will now experience the life of the “Stalker.”]
Staring at the unfamiliar words, Tae-san unconsciously tapped the screen with his fingertip. His eyes slowly closed, as if falling into a deep sleep.
***
How much time had passed?
When Kang Tae-san opened his eyes, he looked around in shock. The trash that had reeked so terribly in Room 402 was back exactly as it had been before he cleaned.
“I definitely finished cleaning just a moment ago.”
He fumbled along the dark wall, found the switch, and turned on the light.
Click.
“Why did everything go back to how it was before I cleaned?”
He looked around the room in disbelief. Amid the chaotic mess of trash, something new caught his eye.
“Huh? What’s this?”
Photos that hadn’t been there before covered an entire wall. When he stepped closer, he saw they were all pictures of the same woman. She seemed unaware she was being photographed, looking in different directions in each shot. The images were uneven in quality, as if taken from a distance with a zoom lens.
‘Wait a second. This is……’
Stalking?
Right. The previous tenant had been arrested for stalking. He must have been stalking this woman……
A chill ran down Tae-san’s neck. An instinctive alarm told him to get out of this room immediately. As he turned toward the entrance to gather his cleaning tools—
“W-what is this?”
He caught his reflection in the mirror hanging on the wall and instinctively stepped back. The clutter at his feet toppled over with a crash. The man in the mirror had a scruffy beard, hollow eyes, and deep dark circles beneath them.
“This is…… me?”
The man was Yoo Pil-joo, the stalker who had lived in Room 402.