Chapter 20: The Idol I Never Really Knew
Kim Jun woke up suddenly in the early morning.
He closed his eyes again, hoping to drift back to sleep, but no matter how much he tossed and turned, once awake, sleep refused to return.
“Of all the damn times…”
He muttered to himself, but there was no one around to hear it.
He walked toward the small room sandwiched between the sliding door to the next bedroom and the bathroom. The snoring coming from inside was thunderous.
“Yeah… even female celebrities snore. They’re only human. But… it’s so fucking loud! Seriously!”
Kim Jun grumbled to himself as he opened the refrigerator.
He scanned the contents, pulled out two packs of soju, then grabbed a carrot still wrapped in plastic after searching for a decent snack.
He gave the refrigerator a light tap with his fist.
Thank god this thing is still running. If it weren’t… the kids would be eating rotten food… ugh.
Even after the official power grid from the Korea Electric Power Corporation had gone dark, the electricity continued thanks to the equipment Kim Jun had installed himself.
That was why he could afford to be this relaxed.
In a world where self-sufficiency in water and power meant everything for survival, he could still enjoy soju and decent food without worry.
Then a smell tickled his nose.
“Sniff, sniff!? What the hell is that?”
He sniffed again. It was definitely cigarette smoke, drifting through a house where everyone was supposed to be asleep.
Just to be sure, Kim Jun cracked open the door to the room with the swinging handle, then checked the small room across from his own master bedroom before closing it again.
The smell wasn’t coming from inside. If anything, opening the door only made the snoring louder.
This scent was coming from somewhere else, and it was the sharp, cool aroma of menthol cigarettes—ones he himself never smoked.
So he unlocked the front door and stepped outside.
As he walked down the steps, he suddenly sensed a presence.
“Ah! Ah!?! Wait! Hot!”
“...”
He couldn’t see who it was yet, but the scene painted itself clearly in his mind.
They’d been startled by the sound of the door opening. When he came down, they tried to throw away the lit cigarette, only for sparks to fly and burn their hand.
It reminded him exactly of the clumsy recruits he’d supervised during his sergeant days at the training camp, weeks four through six.
“Hey!”
“N-na… nani suru…”
That was Japanese.
Then there was only one possibility.
“Nanika!”
“Hwaaah?!”
A shadow rolled frantically across the ground in front of the camper van.
Kim Jun chuckled and hurried over, grabbing her before she could tumble any farther.
“What are you doing?”
“Ah, I’m sorry. Sumi… I mean, sorry… um… ano…”
The girl was panicking, her words tumbling out in a frantic mix of Korean and Japanese. Kim Jun stretched both arms out and firmly gripped her shoulders.
“Calm down, Nanika.”
“Ah, y-yes. Sumi… I mean, I’m sorry.”
This was the Japanese-born Korean idol he had never once heard speak Japanese before. Yet here she was, so flustered she was slipping back into her native tongue. He steadied her until the panic faded from her eyes.
“What’s got you so worked up?”
“S-sorry. I couldn’t sleep, so I just…”
As she spoke, Kim Jun noticed what she was trying to discreetly crush under her foot.
He had come outside because of the strange smell. Now the mystery was solved.
“Menthol? Ice Blast?”
“I’m sorry. I was just…”
“Hey, what’s there to apologize for? It’s just a cigarette.”
The sharp scent of menthol. The moment Kim Jun appeared after catching the smell, she had panicked, tried to hide it, and ended up burning herself. Now the idol kept bowing her head in apology.
Kim Jun calmed her down, opened the camper van door, sat on the edge, and pulled out a cigarette for himself.
“Everyone here is an adult. There’s no need to hide something like that.”
“But… a girl… smoking… it’s just…”
“Nanika, are you a high schooler?”
“No. I’m twenty-one.”
“Then it’s fine. Seriously, what’s the big deal?”
Kim Jun sat beside her, tore open one of the soju packs, and took a long swig.
He handed the second pack to Nanika, who had been watching him smoke with nervous eyes. She accepted it carefully, tore the seal with her front teeth, and took a sip. The sharp burn hit her throat; she nearly gagged but forced it down.
Crack.
Kim Jun broke the carrot in half and offered her a piece.
It wasn’t even fruit—just an old carrot that had been wrapped in plastic and sitting in the fridge for who knew how long. Still, Nanika took a bite.
“Now that I think about it, we’ve barely talked, have we?”
“Yes… I haven’t really spoken with you much either, oppa…”
“Exactly.”
Excluding Gaya, the oldest, and Rana, the youngest. Excluding Emily, the striking blonde who stood out wherever she went. Among those left, he ruled out Do Kyung, the tallest of them all, Mari with her doctor title, Eun Ji who had been quiet until recently opening up after making the baduk board and preparing snacks, and finally In Ah, who was currently in charge of their meals.
That left only her.
“Still, you do have one unique trait. You’re the only one from Japan.”
“Ah, y-yes, that’s true.”
“I wonder what it’s like over there right now?”
“...”
Nanika fell silent.
When you thought about it, she had come to a foreign country to debut as an entertainer. Somehow the world had ended instead, and now she was living as a guest in his house, always careful not to overstep.
Nanika quietly sipped her soju, then spoke softly.
“Even if I went back, there’s no one there for me to see.”
“Hmm?”
“I’m from an orphanage.”
“...”
“I was in the vocational track in high school, then worked as a celebrity makeup artist before I got cast. That was when I was eighteen.”
After that, everything had moved quickly.
Korean agencies were deep in the K-pop wave, gathering pretty faces from different countries who could speak some Korean to form international girl groups. She had joined the project, endured two years of brutal training, and debuted.
For a year she enjoyed peak activity, only for the world to collapse before she could even receive her settlement payment.
Thinking back on it all, her life really had been difficult. Nanika drank deeply from the soju pack.
“I shouldn’t have asked.”
“No, it’s better this way. Talking like this helps us understand each other.”
“Hoo… yeah.”
Kim Jun finished his cigarette and offered her one, telling her to smoke too.
“You don’t need to hide it. Everyone here is free. Except for clinging all over me or picking fights with each other.”
“Ah, yes.”
Kim Jun chewed on his half of the carrot under the moonlight, sipping soju, and murmured.
“I wonder what we’ll have for breakfast tomorrow.”
“In Ah unnie says she decides based on the ingredients we have each day.”
“Is there anything you want to eat?”
“Hmm…”
Nanika thought for a moment, then chose the one thing she would love to have right now.
“Gyoza dumplings.”
“Mmm~ Got it.”
Kim Jun emptied his soju pack and stood up.
Nanika rose as well, reading the room. They returned to their separate rooms and went to bed.
The next day, Kim Jun got up, washed lightly, and stepped outside.
In Ah and Eun Ji were already moving busily in their aprons.
Rana was unfolding the table and setting out spoons.
“Good morning~”
“Ah, oppa, you’re awake?”
Nanika, who had washed up a little later, joined them in preparing breakfast. When their eyes met, she gave him a small smile.
She had the smallest frame but a surprisingly good figure. Even with her short, curvy build, her eyes were always darting around.
“So what’s for breakfast today?”
“I made seaweed soup with some dried pollack.”
“Perfect.”
His head had been pounding after last night’s soju and restless sleep. A hangover cure like this was exactly what he needed.
As they took out the other side dishes, a sudden scream rang out.
“Oh my! What are we going to do with this?!”
“Kyaa! What is this?!”
“What’s going on? Why are you yelling?”
Kim Jun walked in from the living room after hearing the commotion in the kitchen.
What Eun Ji had opened—and what shocked the other girls—was the kimchi in the refrigerator.
It was covered in white mold. The red broth had faded and a foul odor rose from it.
“Ugh, it’s completely spoiled.”
“We haven’t even eaten half of it yet. If it goes bad like this…”
Even with plenty of food stored, the girls thought mournfully that they had just lost another item.
But Kim Jun scratched his cheek and said,
“Take it out. It’s still edible.”
“We’re supposed to eat that? With mold on it?”
“That’s not mold.”
In Ah, who had come running at the noise, brought an empty glass jar and used a spoon to scrape the white substance into it.
By then the other girls had come out for breakfast and were staring in confusion at the noisy kitchen.
So today they decided to open fresh kimchi from the kimchi fridge and deal with the leftover containers that no longer had space.
“After we eat, let’s all work together to process those two big containers of kimchi.”
“Can we really… eat that?”
The white color, sticky broth, and strong sour smell triggered an instinctive rejection.
“How bad can it be? We’ve been self-sufficient for over two months now. Are we really going to throw away food in this situation?”
To Gaya’s question, Rana answered,
“Unnie, you should see it in the kitchen. It’s completely ruined. If you look at the mold…”
“I keep telling you, it’s not mold. It’s just over-fermented yeast.”
In Ah explained patiently.
“It’s in the middle of turning into aged kimchi. You can rinse off the yeast, boil it, add tuna and make stir-fried kimchi. Or if we have tofu… mmm, drizzle it with sesame oil and sprinkle sesame seeds…”
In Ah licked her lips while describing the dish, lost in her own words.
Having one person with strong practical skills really helped keep the others in line.
Even in the apocalypse they were still enjoying nutritious, home-cooked meals three times a day just like before.
Kim Jun ate his rice and thought for a moment.
Since he had been the one to suggest dealing with the kimchi, he considered what to make with it. He thought about stir-frying it all as In Ah suggested, but a better idea came to him—one from the old days when families prepared massive batches of kimchi and used up all the leftover aged kimchi in one go.
“In Ah.”
“Yes, oppa.”
“We have plenty of bean sprouts, right?”
“Yes, I prepared a big batch to season. Should we make that for dinner tonight?”
“No. Bring all of it, and take out every bag of flour from the cupboard. I’ll go down to the storage and bring more.”
“Huh?”
Kim Jun addressed the remaining eight people.
“Let’s make dumplings today. Using everything we have on hand.”
“D-dumplings?”
“There’s a big basin on top of the washing machine, right? There’s a steamer behind it. Take it out later, wash it, and let’s get everything ready.”
At the word “dumplings,” the girls who had been eating began imagining the possibilities.
“Ah… pan-fried would be amazing.”
“I like tteok-manduguk.”
“No, the steamed ones. Freshly made, the moment you lift the lid and the steam rushes out…”
The girls were already smiling, happily sharing what they wanted to eat.
And among them, Nanika—who had said yesterday that she wanted gyoza—felt her heart flutter with excitement. She decided to throw herself completely into today’s cooking.
And so the day was dedicated to making dumplings.
After the dishes were cleared, Do Kyung reached up to the cabinet above the washing machine, grunting as she pulled out the heavy steamer. Eun Ji began cleaning it.
Kim Jun went down to the storage and brought back flour with a bear printed on the bag. In Ah was already preparing the filling.
“Hmm, first we’ll rinse the kimchi lightly, squeeze all the water out with the bean sprouts, then…”
“If we gather mushrooms and vegetables from the rooftop and open some canned goods, the filling should be fine, right? There’s plenty of sesame oil and salt in the cupboard.”
“Yes, that should work. The problem is the tofu and eggs though…”
Those were the two things they simply couldn’t get.
“What can we do? It’s not like we’re competing on a cooking show. We have to make the best of what we have.”
“Moments like this really make me feel how much the world has ended.”
They couldn’t even get something as ordinary as a tray of eggs or a block of tofu. They had to struggle and improvise with self-sufficiency.
In that moment, Kim Jun wondered if wild chickens or pheasants might appear later. Maybe he should try to catch some.
But I’m genuinely curious. Can animals get infected? Or would it be safe to eat them?
To find out, they would need to experiment, but he had no desire to risk lives when they already had food stockpiled.
Anyway, that day was still far in the future. For now, Kim Jun decided to focus entirely on making enough dumplings to feed everyone today.