3
3. Saskatchewan (2)
Jeongmin’s paternal grandfather was Canadian.
He had immigrated in the mid-1980s, and apparently, he had started out with a restaurant back then.
It was just a small restaurant, and from what I had heard, he had started working somewhere other than Saskatchewan at
the time.
‘He said he settled here after moving to Saskatchewan later on.’
I had already heard that they ran a restaurant while also farming.
I didn’t know anything beyond that, nor was I particularly curious.
“......This is your house?”
“Yeah. What do you think?”
“What do I think? Forget that..... It’s really nice.”
Jeongmin’s house was a two-story mansion, the kind of country house we commonly saw.
It was nighttime, so I couldn’t see it very well, but it was still an incredibly beautiful house.
“We built it.”
“Huh?”
Jeongmin chuckled and casually parked the car.
“Since it’s made of wood, if you just ask people around here for help, they’ll help you. You can also ask people who
came here on working holidays.”
“Even so, a house this size must have cost quite a bit.”
“Well..... Even if it did cost money, that’s by Korean standards. There’s wood everywhere in Canada, so we were able to
build it pretty cheaply.”
I had no idea how much he meant by “pretty cheaply,” but I was still a little jealous that he took having a house like
this for granted.
“Come inside.”
I followed Jeongmin into the house.
“Take off your shoes and change into slippers.”
Apparently, everyone had their own slippers, because Jeongmin handed me a pair labeled “Guest.”
After changing my shoes and entering the living room, I saw a middle-aged man who appeared to be his father reading a
book.
“Dad. I’m home.”
“You’re back?”
When we entered, his father looked away from the book he had been reading and looked at us.
The book was written in English, so I couldn’t tell what the title was.
“Hello. It’s been a long time.”
“It’s been a long time, Shinyong. Was the journey uncomfortable?”
“Haha..... It wasn’t exactly comfortable.”
“Get plenty of rest before you leave. I heard you got burned out from working all the time in Korea.”
“Did Jeongmin tell you that?”
At those words, his father closed the book he had been reading.
“No. I can tell just by looking at your face.”
“.....My face?”
“Yes. You’ll understand later.”
He placed the book on the table beside him and stood up.
“Let’s eat.”
He didn’t explain what he meant by being able to tell just by looking at my face.
I followed his father and Jeongmin toward the kitchen, where a middle-aged woman was cooking.
“Hello, Mother.”
“Oh my. Shinyong is here. It’s been such a long time, dear.”
It seemed that the cooking was almost finished, because the dining table was already filled with food his mother had
prepared.
‘There’s Korean food..... And there are some dishes I’ve never seen before. I don’t even know what country they’re
from.’
Perhaps because the beef jerky earlier had been so terrible, I had absolutely no expectations for Canadian food.
“Coming all the way from Korea must have made you hungry, right? Let’s eat. Jeongmin, take Shinyong’s luggage to his
room first.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
It was only one bag, but Jeongmin still didn’t refuse his mother’s request.
“You’re hungry, right? Hurry up and eat.”
“Ah. Yes.”
I quietly looked at the dining table before carefully taking a seat.
‘.....There’s a lot of meat.’
Since Korean meals tended to have more vegetables, I felt like this was the first time I had seen a table so full of
meat.
Only after Jeongmin sat down a little later were we able to start eating.
“Do you like meat?”
“I do.”
It was meat I couldn’t even afford to eat regularly in Korea because it was expensive. There was no way I could dislike
it.
“Canada has a well-developed livestock industry, so meat is very cheap. Don’t hesitate and eat as much as you want.”
“Ah. Yes.”
Only after his father picked up his spoon could I pick up mine.
‘There’s a lot of Korean food..... But since I came all the way here, maybe I should try some Canadian food.’
Since the entire family was Korean, I assumed that was why there was so much Korean food.
Otherwise, perhaps they had prepared it out of consideration for me, who had come all the way from Korea.
‘Oh..... It’s poutine.’
As I looked around to decide what to eat first, I spotted a dish I recognized.
It was a potato dish originating from Quebec, and I knew it was one of the foods you absolutely had to try when visiting
Canada.
‘There’s meat in it?’
Since it was a dish I had never seen in person before, I became curious and reached for it first with my chopsticks.
‘Cheddar cheese.....?’
The recipe was so simple that I knew roughly how it was made.
However, the poutine I knew had curdled cheese in it, while the poutine his mother had made contained cheddar cheese.
‘It has to taste better than the beef jerky.’
Since the first foods I had eaten in Canada were beef jerky and cheddar cheese, I couldn’t help but have a negative
impression.
I picked up some poutine with my chopsticks and put it into my mouth.
“......”
“Doesn’t it suit your taste?”
“A little..... It’s kind of greasy.”
The rich taste of the sauce and the salty flavor of the cheese filled my mouth with every bite, making it difficult to
even taste the meat.
Maybe Canadian food simply didn’t suit me.
“It might be the gravy sauce that doesn’t suit your taste. I prepared plenty of Korean food too, so eat that.”
“Ah. Yes.”
Perhaps because I had just eaten something rich and greasy, I was happy to see the Korean food.
It was Korean food I had eaten just yesterday, but eating it on the opposite side of the planet somehow made it taste
even more special.
“Oh, right. Jeongmin. I heard the kids are coming tomorrow.”
“When are they coming?”
“They said they’d come after school, so take care of them and play with them together with Shinyong.”
I quietly ate while listening to the family’s conversation.
‘Kids? What kids?’
I was more surprised that there were kids than anything else.
‘Are they talking about horses? Like the ones they have on Jeju Island?’
I had heard that they ran a farm while operating the restaurant, but I had never imagined they raised horses too.
As I quietly listened, his mother, who was sitting beside me, smiled gently and said,
“There are grasslands everywhere around here, so lots of people raise things like horses as a hobby.”
“Raise..... horses..... as a hobby?”
“You can ride one tomorrow if you want.”
“.....It’s okay.”
When I was young, I had ridden a horse once.
When I went to Jeju Island, there was a ranch experience where children could ride horses around.
At the time, the employee hadn’t properly secured the strap on the saddle, and I fell off the horse.
Since then, I wasn’t exactly afraid of horses, but I had still felt uncomfortable around them.
“By the way, what do you mean when you say the kids are coming?”
“It’s nothing special. Jeongmin takes care of them whenever he has free time.”
“......”
What was this supposed to mean?
That guy took care of kids?
“It’s like being a babysitter.”
Seeing my puzzled expression, Jeongmin spoke as if it were nothing special.
“You know how babysitters appear in American movies? It’s something similar to that.”
“Ah..... I understand.”
Babysitters often appeared in teen movies or dramas.
They were usually neighbors, older brothers or sisters from nearby, who looked after the children.
‘Although I’ve heard that it’s not exactly viewed positively even in America.’
Could anything good come from leaving children in the care of teenagers?
There were good older brothers and sisters, but there were bad ones too.
There were also plenty of cases where babysitters committed crimes or bullied the children they were supposed to look
after.
“I teach them too, feed them, and basically do it as a part-time job.”
“So you get paid?”
“Of course. Do you think I’d teach them for free? What era do you think we’re living in?”
“True......”
“Anyway, eat your food. When you’re done, I’ll take you to your room.”
“Okay. Hey, by the way, what about my laptop?”
“Confiscated.”
“......I won’t write. Can’t you give it back now?”
“I’ll see how you behave.”
Anyone listening would think he was my mother.
‘Ugh. I’ll just eat.’
I was too hungry, so for now, I focused on eating.
---
“This is your room.”
“It’s right next to yours.”
“Isn’t that better?”
“I like it. Are you okay with it?”
“I’m fine, so don’t worry about it. Anyway, get some rest.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
At those words, Jeongmin chuckled and left the room.
As soon as Jeongmin left, I stared blankly around the room.
‘.....It’s spacious. And for some reason, it smells like a new house.’
I didn’t know whether it was because the house was made of wood or because this room had been left unused for a while.
‘Should I unpack first?’
I approached the bag sitting on the table.
‘I should have brought more clothes. It’s a little cold.’
I had checked the weather in Canada before coming, but it was colder than I had expected.
‘And the house is colder than I thought too.’
I quickly opened my bag and put on a few more layers of the clothes I had brought from Korea.
Perhaps because Canada was a country located farther north, the weather was quite chilly even though spring had passed
and summer was approaching.
“I should have brought more luggage.....”
It was the first thing I regretted.
I had thought I would only be staying for a short while and figured I could just endure it with youthful energy, but it
was ultimately too much.
‘By the way, I didn’t expect him to take my laptop.....’
After roughly unpacking, I had some time left.
‘Sleeping..... probably won’t work.’
My fear of flying had only lasted for a short while after arriving at the airport and getting on a plane for the first
time.
After spending more than ten hours in the small space of economy class, there was no way I couldn’t have fallen asleep.
“Should I take a bath?”
I had finished unpacking and had nothing else to do, so I was just about to take a bath when—
Bang!
“.....!”
I couldn’t hide my bewilderment at the sudden sound.
“What, what was that?”
Bang! Bang bang! Bang bang bang bang!
The sound continued, a sound that no man who had served in the military could ever forget.
I hurriedly dropped to the floor.
‘A gun, a gun? A gun? Are guns legal in Canada too?’
I quietly covered my head with my hands and lay flat on the floor.
Bang.....!
After that final shot, I heard no more gunfire.
‘Is it..... over?’
When the gunshots stopped, I cautiously moved to get back up.
Click!
But suddenly, the door opened and Jeongmin came inside.
“Hey. I brought your toothbrush..... What are you doing?”
“.....Just getting some exercise.”
“If someone saw you, they’d think you were an Asian guy secretly doing drugs and getting arrested.”
“.....Hey.”
That was a little harsh.
I carefully got up from the floor and took the toothbrush Jeongmin was holding.
“By the way, I heard gunshots earlier. What was that?”
“Ah. Nothing special. A bear got into a residential area, so we fired some warning shots.”
“.....Oh. Okay.”
Seeing Jeongmin talk about it so casually, I felt like an idiot for being scared earlier.
“Oh, and close the window when you sleep.”
“I’m not going to open it anyway. But why?”
“Sometimes stray cats or raccoons come inside because it gets cold.”
“......”
“And don’t worry. Thieves don’t come in.”
“Normally..... shouldn’t you say that thieves are more dangerous?”
At that, Jeongmin clicked his tongue.
“You can catch thieves, but raccoons and cats can carry diseases, you know?”
“.....Oh. Right.”
I didn’t know anymore.
I simply decided it was a cultural difference and trudged toward the bed.
“You’re going to sleep without washing?”
“I’m a little dazed right now, so I’m going to lie down for a bit and wash later.”
“Really? Then I guess you won’t need this?”
Wondering what he meant, I looked back at Jeongmin, and he was holding the laptop he had confiscated from me earlier.
“Huh? You’re giving it back?”
“Yeah. I think you’re okay now.”
At those words, I tilted my head.
‘You’re okay now.....?’
While I was lost in thought, Jeongmin placed the laptop on the bed and was already walking out of the room.
“Look in the mirror. Then you’ll understand what I mean.”
“.....The mirror?”
After Jeongmin left, I picked up the mirror sitting on the bedside table.
“.....Nothing really looks different.”
As always, my handsome face was reflected in the mirror.
With the corners of my lips slightly raised.