By Zephyria 
Even though the boss had changed, the sashimi restaurant was still buzzing with activity.
“Over here!”
The heat was stifling. Eun-myeong had rolled up the sleeves of his hoodie. Sweat glistened on his exposed white forearms.
“Yes, I’ll be right there!”
Eun-myeong darted across the shop, fluttering about like a freshly caught live fish.
“Why is the spicy fish stew so spicy here?”
As he hurried to a table where a customer was waving their hand, he found them questioning him with an angry expression. This was the customer who had specifically asked for the stew to be spicy and had even added Cheongyang chili peppers.
“I’m sorry.”
Eun-myeong bowed his head quickly in apology. He then swiftly brought over a kettle and poured in a generous amount of broth.
When the next customer called, he rushed over, only to hear this:
“Why is the portion of sashimi so small here? Give me a refill if you have a bit more. I want something to eat with my drinks.”
It didn’t happen often, but there were occasionally people like this. Eun-myeong replied that he was sorry, but since they had sliced everything they had, it wouldn’t be possible. Instead, he gave them two extra refills of corn cheese.
“Sit here and pour me a drink.”
Eun-myeong, who had been moving about almost absentmindedly, felt his forearm gripped painfully.
Looking down, it was that same perverted Mister. The one who had subtly harassed him while telling him to bring some chilies…
“I… I’m in the middle of working.”
“It’s better to take it easy, what’s the big deal?”
His whole body began to itch again. A feeling of disgust crawled over him like a hairy caterpillar.
“I haven’t seen you in a while. When did you get back? I wondered if you’d met some other guy and started a home together, huh?”
A banknote was shoved inside his apron. His skin was fragile enough to be easily scratched by a fish bone, and the edge of the paper left a painful scratch.
It stings. Eun-myeong shuddered.
“You don’t have to give me this, Customer.”
Eun-myeong tried to return the bill immediately, but the man gripped his wrist firmly, stopping him in his tracks.
“I’m telling you, this sashimi shop is running the business wrong. If you sold something else, you’d have a line out the door.”
As he babbled, he squeezed Eun-myeong’s buttocks firmly, as if kneading dough. Eun-myeong could feel the other customers glancing over. He had been reduced to a spectacle.
Calling the police wouldn’t have done much here. It was something Eun-myeong had to handle himself. He put strength into his eyes and spoke.
“Customer, you cannot do this.”
No matter how much of a hand-to-mouth existence he led, he didn’t want his pride to be chipped away for a few banknotes.
“What do you mean I can’t? Hyung just wants to show you some affection and play around.”
But as expected, the opponent was powerful. The smell of alcohol vibrated from his mouth like foul breath. Despite his outburst, Eun-myeong was actually terrified inside and let out a deep sigh.
“One bottle of soju over here, please!”
Just then, like a savior, an order came from another table.
“I… I’m busy, so I’ll be going…”
Fidgeting anxiously, Eun-myeong hurried away from the spot. For the next half-day, Eun-myeong was pushed around by customers, wrestled with sashimi, and desperately clung to his fraying sanity.
Then, as night fell, it began to rain slowly, and the footsteps of customers grew sparse. Twilight descended, and a dim haze settled everywhere. Eun-myeong and Aunt Jeong-hye were the only ones left to tidy up.
“The rain clouds must be coming from above. I heard Seoul is already flooded.”
At the word ‘Seoul,’ the man naturally popped into Eun-myeong’s mind. The man had been away from the hotel for several days already.
As he stared blankly outside, the shop phone rang—trill, trill.
“I’ll get it!”
Thinking it was a delivery call, Eun-myeong hurried over and picked up the receiver.
“Hello, this is Gyeryong Bay Fisheries.”
He prepared a notepad and pen out of habit, but the voice flowing through the receiver was completely unexpected.
—Eun-myeong.
It was Noona. It happened just as his eyes were half-closed from exhaustion.
“Noona.”
Eun-myeong snapped his eyes open and straightened his back.
—Have you been well? I was at a loss as to how to contact you. Hyo-jin told me you’ve been working at a sashimi restaurant lately.
When she asked if anything had happened, Eun-myeong gave a small answer that nothing had.
“No, nothing much happened.”
In truth, it wasn’t that nothing had happened, but since they had parted that way, it was obvious Noona would worry. Eun-myeong told her he was working his tail off at the sashimi restaurant and pleaded with her.
—Is that really all?
Noona was suspicious, but Eun-myeong kept nodding his head, saying yes.
“I’m doing well at the sashimi restaurant. You can ask Hyo-jin noona if you don’t believe me.”
Since it would look no different from before on the surface, he spoke confidently. Soon, a voice that sounded slightly relieved was heard.
—That’s a relief. I was so worried that that gangster bastard might have harmed you.
Just listening to her voice made the fatigue that had clung to his entire body all day seem to melt away.
—Sigh, now that I’ve reached you, I can finally relax. I felt awkward continuing to borrow a colleague’s cell phone to call, so I bought a used phone.
Come to think of it, the man had Noona’s cell phone… After that thought, another word pierced his mind. Colleague? Who was she referring to as a colleague?
“Noona, where are you staying now?”
When he asked, he heard a long, deep sigh.
—Eun-myeong, that gangster found me a job at a capital company. He told me to work and pay off the debt. There’s a dormitory attached to the company, so I moved in. I think I’ll be staying here.
At the unexpected news, Eun-myeong’s eyes grew as wide as lanterns. Immediately, a bright look spread across his face.
“Really?”
Aunt Jeong-hye, who was heading into the kitchen with the rag she used to wipe the tables, approached, asking, “Why? What is it?”
“Who is it?”
Eun-myeong replied with a wide grin, “It’s Eun-joo noona.”
“What?”
Aunt Jeong-hye quickly leaned in, asking to hear the voice too.
“You brat! I thought you’d run away and abandoned your brother.”
—Auntie, run away? I’ve actually made it big. Now I wear a nice uniform and go to a proper workplace.
“You bad brat, you didn’t even give your Auntie a single phone call.”
Aunt Jeong-hye’s eyes welled up with tears, and she quickly wiped them with her floral-patterned top.
—I’ll buy a pear and stop by the shop soon.
“Hmph, you eat the pears, and just buy me a melon.”
He heard Noona’s small laugh. At the end of the hectic shop work, the call ended in a warm atmosphere.
Eun-myeong hummed a tune with messy rhythm and pitch while sorting the cutlery into the bins.
“Hmm, hmm, hmm.”
Since he hadn’t seen a trace of him after going to Seoul, he thought the man had forgotten someone like him quickly, but he never imagined he would go so far as to find a job for Noona.
Noona was taken care of, and now he just had to work hard and pay off the debt. Thinking that things were finally working out, Eun-myeong swayed his shoulders from side to side.
“No, I hadn’t heard a word from Eun-joo, so where did this sudden employment come from?”
At Aunt Jeong-hye’s question, Eun-myeong grinned. His tongue was itching to tell.
“Well…”
But was it okay to say this?
Eun-myeong hesitated whether to speak or not, then carefully broached the subject. Aunt Jeong-hye had looked after him and Noona since they were children, and she was almost the only person who had been anxious along with him because of Noona’s disappearance.
“The CEO who used to come to the sashimi restaurant found the place for her.”
“That wretched gangster?”
Eun-myeong shrank his neck at the immediate curse. I-I mean, it’s not that he wasn’t a bad person, and it’s not that he wasn’t a gangster, but maybe that wasn’t everything.
“Yes, he… he even made sure I ate well.”
Despite saying that, a look of disbelief crossed Aunt Jeong-hye’s face.
“When I told him I had nowhere to go, he even let me stay at his house.”
“My goodness? I’ve lived long enough to see this. He looks like the type who wouldn’t blink even if his own grandfather dropped dead.”
“Yes, he let me bathe, and he even called a doctor when I was sick.”
As he spoke, he unconsciously became excited and started exaggerating.
“He even bought me clothes because I had nothing to wear.”
Although the underwear was a total mess. He swallowed the last part, unable to utter it. They were all too erotic and vivid to even be used as rags.
“Ugh, if that were my daughter, I’d say no to a man like that even if mud got in my eyes.”
Auntie hid her tears again and scrubbed the shop door vigorously. Because of the rain, the door was covered in dirty streaks.
“But I also wonder if it’s better for you two to change your fate like that, even if it’s in that way.”
Eun-myeong looked toward the shop door while holding the cutlery. He wasn’t quite sure what Auntie was talking about.
“I feel sorry for her, wondering how a smart girl like Eun-joo ended up meeting a man like that.”
It was that kind of talk again. Just as he was about to say it wasn’t like that, he heard the sound of shoe heels clicking outside. A pitch-black silhouette cast a shadow across the closed door.
He was so large that Eun-myeong could easily recognize him just by the shadow. It was the man.
“Eh…”
At the appearance of the silhouette like a black goblin, Auntie clutched her chest and quickly stepped back.
“Oh my goodness! My heart almost stopped.”
Rattle! The man flung open the shop door and stepped inside. The man, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, looked down at Eun-myeong.
“Are you still open?”
Swoosh, the rain pouring down behind the man was visible. It felt as if he had entered a forest of rain. Eun-myeong’s lips parted with a feeling of coziness.
“Welcome…”
Being like this reminded him of when he had first met the man. The day Eun-myeong had secretly removed the medicine from the king crab.
“What can I get for you?”
The man murmured lowly. His deep, resonant voice seemed to fill the entire shop.
“Whatever you’re best at.”