Chapter 8. Please Give Me Samgyetang
Chapter 8. Please Give Me Samgyetang
After checking in, Bella collapsed the moment she entered the room.
It was her first time traveling this far in her life, and the flight had exhausted her.
Maybe the soundproofing was bad, because she heard loud noises while she slept, but Bella didn’t care and slept comfortably.
When she opened her eyes, it was 4 p.m.
She had slept like she was dead for about five hours.
It had been a long time since she’d slept this deeply without a worry.
The bedding was clean, but the bed was cheap.
The mattress was so terrible her back actually hurt.
She needed to replace it soon.
Bella blinked herself fully awake and looked around the room.
It was simple. A TV that looked about sixty inches, a small sofa, a table, and that was it—plus the bed and a vanity.
She turned on the TV. There were dozens of channels. Netflix was there too. Once she entered her account, it worked right away.
It looked nothing like a luxury hotel—more like what people called a “love hotel”—but surprisingly, the amenities were well set up.
From now on, this would be the place she lived.
Bella looked up information about Korea on her phone.
A country she’d never cared about at all.
K-pop, dramas—lately she’d been hearing about “Korea” more and more even back home. But she’d never imagined she’d end up here.
It was such a sudden trip to Korea that she hadn’t learned even basic language.
If she was going to live here, she needed to learn the language first.
She bought a paid app and installed it.
“Annyeonghaseyo.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Thank you.”
The Korean the app taught her was hard to pronounce.
Grrrrrr.
Her stomach growled.
It seemed the hamburger she’d eaten at the airport snack bar that morning was fully digested.
What food was this country famous for?
Kimchi, bibimbap, bulgogi… oh, samgyetang?
In the video, an entire root of the famous Korean ginseng was stuffed inside.
Bella put on the robe hanging on the wall. The fabric felt scratchy against her bare skin—cheap material.
There were too many things she needed to buy.
When she opened the room door and stepped out, the counter was right there.
Bella showed the motel employee a picture on her phone. But he didn’t answer—he only smiled.
The Russian guest from Room 102 came out wearing only a robe and showed a picture of samgyetang.
Maybe she hadn’t even put on underwear properly—there was a clear glimpse of cleavage through the robe.
I wanted to pull it closed for her, but I couldn’t do anything, so I just kept smiling.
For a few seconds, silence hung between us.
Did she want to eat samgyetang?
Or was she asking me to tell her a restaurant that sold samgyetang?
The woman stared at me for a moment, then used her phone translation app to communicate.
“Can you bring me samgyetang?”
Ah… she wanted delivery.
I opened the app and ordered one samgyetang.
16,000 won.
How was I supposed to explain 16,000 won? For a moment, I considered calling Auntie Sookhee over to translate, but when I looked, the aunties were in the middle of frantic lodging-room cleaning.
I grabbed a calculator, typed in “16,000,” and pronounced the words “Korean money” as clearly as I could.
The woman nodded once, then pulled two 10,000-won bills from her pocket and handed them over.
When I gave her four 1,000-won bills as change, she examined the money for a long time, then went back to her room.
Should I learn at least some basic Russian conversation?
Tomorrow, I should probably go to the bookstore and buy a beginner Russian phrasebook.
Somehow communication seemed to have worked, so Bella headed back to her room.
But the door was locked.
The key was inside…
The employee ran over and opened it with the master key.
A polite, friendly East Asian man.
Bella’s friends said Korean men were good these days, but Bella didn’t find Asian men of a different ethnicity attractive.
She felt a bit uncomfortable that he opened her room so casually, but she quickly shook the thought away.
This was the safest place on Earth.
She didn’t have to worry about anything anymore.
She was taking a quick shower when the room bell rang.
When she opened the door, food in a disposable container was sitting in front of it.
Bella dried herself off, put it on the table, and unpacked the meal.
It hadn’t even been that many minutes since she ordered—how did it arrive this fast?
A chicken stew with ginseng inside.
Light, warm, and comforting.
A few hours after I ordered samgyetang for the long-stay Russian guest, this time she showed me a phone video with a picture of bulgogi.
When I checked the price in the app, it was 13,000 won. But the minimum order was 15,000 won.
So I added steamed eggs from the side menu, took 18,000 won, and placed the order.
Then I brought it right to her door and rang the bell…
Good thing I gave her a first-floor room.
I’d have to order her food three meals a day for sixty-two days… If she’d been on the fifth floor, it would’ve been a disaster.
After the aunties clocked out, around 1 a.m.
The rooms were about 70% full.
It looked like we’d fill maybe three or four more and end the night there.
Still, because I took the long-stay customer’s lodging fee all at once this morning, today was the biggest single-day sales total I’d recorded in my five years here.
If the owner had been around, it would’ve been the kind of day he’d say I worked hard and suggest a staff meal.
But the manager had already disappeared before lunch.
Just as I was about to start working out, I saw a taxi enter the parking lot.
A man got out of the back seat.
The screen was dark so I couldn’t see his face, but by his build, he looked like the gangster boss I’d seen in the morning.
He was staggering badly, like he could barely stand.
He braced a hand against the glass entrance door, and a blood smear was left behind.
I stood up from my chair and greeted him with a friendly smile.
“Welcome!”
But the man staggered all the way into the counter area, then suddenly dropped to his knees and shouted,
“Please save me!”
At the man’s contextless words, I stayed silent.
“I know you’re a master. I’m being chased by vicious men right now. My brothers were all butchered. If you help me, I’ll never forget this kindness and I’ll repay you for the rest of my life.”
What was this guy even saying?
“Uh… I’m just a motel employee. Do you need a room to sleep in?”
Without lifting his head, Cheolmin thought.
He expected this. A master trying to hide his identity wouldn’t easily help a stranger.
“Just give me a room first. I’ll stay for a few days.”
Still on his knees, the gangster boss pulled out a bundle of cash from his inner pocket and held it out.
The bundle was 1,000,000 won.
After giving him change, I guided him to a standard room on the first floor.
There were plenty of rooms upstairs too, but since he might be able to help translate for the Russian guest, it was better to put him on the first floor.
Today’s second long-stay guest looked seriously injured—he kept staggering.
Blood was dripping nonstop, and the lobby floor was soaked red.
I supported him into Room 105, then brought a first-aid kit from the office.
Inside the room, the man struggled to take off his shirt.
There were long gashes on his shoulder and side, and blood was still seeping out.
He wet a towel in the bathroom, wiped the blood away, then wrapped himself expertly with a compression bandage.
Working at a motel, you met all kinds of people.
Today’s events were pretty unusual, but not shocking.
I watched him do first aid for a moment, then was about to close the door and leave.
“Uh… the men chasing me might come here. They’re vicious.”
The man said to me.
“So if someone comes looking for you, you want me to say I don’t know. Got it.”
I answered kindly to a long-stay guest who’d paid a large amount.
I should fulfill his requests as much as I could within reason. I didn’t know what his situation was, but while he stayed here, I intended to make sure he could be comfortable and safe.
“Shiva svab shiki.”
At that moment, I heard Russian behind me at Room 105’s door.
No matter how many times I heard it, it sounded like swearing.
Rooms 105 and 102 faced each other across the hallway.
The Russian guest had opened Room 102’s door and was saying something. From her angle, she could clearly see the gangster boss inside Room 105 wrapping bandages.
“Ah… ma’am, what do you need?”
As I said that, I glanced at the gangster boss.
“Um… she says tomorrow she wants to personally buy a new bed and bring it in. She’s asking if you can help.”
“What? A mattress?”
The Russian woman went on and on in Russian for a while.
“She says the current bed is so uncomfortable her back hurts. She says buying a better product wouldn’t be a bad thing for the hotel either, so she wants to do it. While she’s replacing things, she says she’ll replace the sofa and the refrigerator too. She’s just asking you to tell her where to buy them.”
This was the first time I’d ever heard a request like that.
But thinking about it, it wasn’t harmful to the motel at all. I didn’t know how the owner and manager would react, but it seemed like it might be possible.
“Tomorrow I’ll ask our manager, and if he approves, we’ll do that for you. As for buying things, you’d probably need to shop online or go to a department store…”
“Oh. Don’t worry. I’ll handle it myself.”
The gangster boss said.
“Thank you.”
The Russian guest seemed to think her request had gone through. She said that and went back to her room.
If the guest in Room 105 hadn’t translated, I would’ve been stuck.
Why was this guy so helpful even though he was a guest…?
While he stayed, I should do everything I could for him.
As I returned to the counter thinking that, it hit me—
The owner of the thing I’d hidden was probably this gangster boss.
And I suddenly felt guilty that I’d intercepted such a good person’s property.
After stopping the bleeding and lying on the bed, Cheolmin felt a bit calmer.
He could still vividly see those men chasing him with knives like demons.
He’d quickly caught an empty taxi and screamed at the startled driver to go—fast.
If he hadn’t gotten into that taxi, it was terrifying to think what would’ve happened by now.
The back seat was soaked with his blood and would need cleaning. Feeling sorry, Cheolmin had given the taxi driver a bundle of cash and headed straight to the motel.
Once his mind steadied a little, he thought of the men who had fallen.
He’d seen about half of them escape, but the mid-level executives and over ten men hadn’t made it.
He’d watched his brothers on the ground get their bellies split open and their throats cut.
Those lunatics didn’t hesitate to kill.
Cheolmin clenched his teeth.
This war wasn’t the level of a half-assed fistfight anymore.
If they came at him like that, he’d split their bellies too…
At that moment, his phone chimed repeatedly.
[Boss, where are you? Are you safe?]
[Yeah. I’m hiding somewhere safe. How are you guys?]
[Five of us who escaped safely are together. We’re at Jinyeong’s biological younger brother’s one-room studio. But be careful. The Incheon guys picked up our phones and are pretending to be us now to find the rest of us.]
[Got it. I’ll be careful, so you be careful too. I’ve got a room at the motel I stopped by this morning. Gather everyone and stay somewhere safe.]
[Yes, boss. We’ll contact you.]
After ending the messages, Cheolmin felt suffocated.
He had to take revenge, but it felt hopeless figuring out how.
From here on out, it had to be a fight where lives were on the line, but he didn’t want to drag his men into something that dangerous.
With his mind heavy, he desperately wanted soju.
But now wasn’t the time to blur his mind with alcohol.
He opened the fridge. There was green plum drink, Let’s Be, and three bottles of water.
He drank a canned coffee and smoked a cigarette.
Then the room phone rang.
“Yes.”
Cheolmin answered politely.
It was the call of an unknown martial master.
“Uh… there are a few men with knives coming into the parking lot right now… Should I just turn them away?”
At the master’s words, Cheolmin’s mind snapped awake.
He’d only told the older brother who escaped that he was here.
“Yes… yes, they’re vicious men. You need to be careful.”
I hung up after the urgent reply from the guest in Room 105.
Then I snapped the ankles of the guys who were just about to walk into the motel holding sashimi knives.
A heart attack or a brain hemorrhage was an option too, but then how were these guys supposed to go back?
Should I break their hands while I’m at it?
In South Korea in 2025, walking around with weapons like that…
If the guest said they were vicious, they deserved a harsher lesson.
I applied pressure to break their wrist bones too.
They screamed like they were dying, then crawled out of the parking lot.