By Zephyria 
Eun-myeong
—The next stop is Gangseong Capital, Gangseong Capital….
Gangseong Capital?
Eun-myeong snapped awake. He quickly pulled his temple away from the window. He hurriedly reached up and pressed the stop bell.
With a screech, the bus came to a halt. He had almost missed his stop while dozing off.
Clutching a bundle in his hand, Eun-myeong hurried out the back door. Behind him, he could hear the bus driver grumbling.
“Goodbye….”
He added a timid greeting, but the bus had already departed with a thud of the closing doors. Eun-myeong let his mouth hang open slightly.
As he walked down the street, he saw his reflection in a glass window; the side of his head that had been pressed against the bus window was squashed in a comical way. He hurriedly rubbed it smooth.
‘This is the place.’
Looking up, he saw a five-story building. The flashy gray building had a sign that was equally dazzling.
So this is where Noona works. And the place where a man named Kang Pyeong-won serves as the CEO of the headquarters.
He was thinking that the building looked surprisingly decent for his expectations when the doors opened and thugs walked out. Men in pitch-black suits with gold necklaces, and strangely, things that looked like baseball bats in their hands, caught his eye.
Gasp, Eun-myeong inhaled sharply. Terrified that their eyes might meet, he quickly looked away and hurried his pace.
Then the home address should be around here.
Turning around the building and entering the back alley, he found a cluster of villas. He stepped slowly between them. He compared the note in his hand with the addresses, but since all the buildings looked similar, he couldn’t tell which one it was.
It should be around here somewhere….
Just then, an old door creaked open, and Eun-joo noona poked her head out of a second-floor window. Her hair fluttered amidst the hanging laundry.
“Eun-myeong, over here!”
Eun-myeong’s face lit up. He quickly ran inside.
The villa looked a bit worn down, but it had an elevator and a separate veranda for growing plants, making it seem like a very pleasant place to live. For Noona, whose leg was slightly impaired, there was no better space than this.
“Was it hard getting here?”
“Mm-hmm,” Eun-myeong answered vaguely.
“The bus stop was right in front.”
A mismatched coffee cup was placed before him. The hot coffee was a bit darker in color than the coffeehouse drinks the aunties used to drink. Eun-myeong buried his nose in it to smell it. It had a rich, nutty aroma.
He took a small sip and was slightly surprised by how bitter it was. Is this what a sophisticated taste is? Eun-myeong’s eyes widened, but seeing Noona enter, he giggled.
“Your house is nice.”
The interior of the house was also decorated cutely. In particular, the suit hanging in the closet caught his eye. Seeing the gold name tag that read Lee Eun-joo, Eun-myeong let out a small gasp of admiration.
“Noona, you really look like an office worker.”
Her cough had also improved significantly. It was truly heart-warming to see. The walls were covered in Post-it notes. Take the GED, get a TOEIC score, get certifications, visit the hospital…
Seeing things she could never have dreamed of in the past now becoming pieces of her life and supporting her firmly, Eun-myeong felt something crumble inside his heart. His eyes stung for no reason, so he quickly changed the subject.
Realizing his mistake, he hurriedly handed Noona the paper bag he had brought.
“This is for you.”
“You should have just come empty-handed. Why did you buy something like this?”
“It’s nothing much. Just slippers.”
They were fluffy with soft soles. Since one of Noona’s legs was impaired, she absolutely had to wear something comfortable, so he had specifically chosen these slippers because the texture around the heel was soft.
“Is there anything you want to eat?”
He happened to be feeling peckish.
“I like everything.”
Noona stood up, saying she would make spaghetti for Eun-myeong, who loved noodles. Eun-myeong helped her by finely slicing sausages and button mushrooms.
In the small but fully equipped kitchen, Noona popped open the lid of the tomato sauce and stir-fried the spaghetti in a pan. A delicious smell wafted through the air. Eun-myeong watched with a look of awe.
“This looks delicious.”
As he poked a sausage and twirled the noodles around his fork, he found no delicacy better than this. With his cheeks puffed out, Eun-myeong smiled brightly, sauce even staining the corners of his mouth, as he praised the taste.
“Eun-myeong, there are so many delicious things in the world.”
Eun-myeong nodded slightly. In the past, he wouldn’t have known what she meant, but now Eun-myeong knew. Because of that man, he had grown accustomed to eating things he never knew existed.
“Let’s stop eating low-quality stuff and start eating things that everyone else eats.”
“Yeah.”
Eun-myeong replied while slurping up the spaghetti.
“I used to hate eating steamed buns at the orphanage so much. They’d buy cheap steamed buns, cram them all into the rice cooker, and distribute them to the kids. Just to stop the kids from whining about being hungry.”
Eun-myeong’s chewing cheeks slowly slackened. He subtly gauged Noona’s reaction.
“Uh, yeah. Right.”
He nodded, agreeing that it was the same for him, but in truth, he still liked steamed buns in a rustic way. He felt inwardly ashamed.
“There are some great places around here, so let’s go together next time.”
Eun-myeong nodded slightly in agreement. Noona smiled faintly, then suddenly frowned slightly.
“Why are your eyes so swollen? Are you not sleeping well?”
“Huh?”
“You look tired, too.”
“Ah, no,” Eun-myeong quickly shook his head. He had even stopped by the barbershop on purpose to see Noona, but it seemed he couldn’t fool her hawk-like eyes.
Eun-myeong had been very busy lately. Every dawn, before the sun rose, he went to the beach to dry the nets and returned to the hotel around noon. Then, after a brief nap of an hour or two, he would eat quickly and rush off to work at the sashimi restaurant. The days passed quickly, and dawn would break again.
Moreover, in the early morning…. The man would suddenly barge in and spread Eun-myeong’s legs.
Even yesterday, he had clearly told the man that he would only be having lunch with Noona and then returning, but the man had been mean again. He was a very wicked person. That was why he had dozed off on the bus and almost missed his stop.
“I think it’s because I rubbed my eyes too much. Some dust got in.”
Eun-myeong made the excuse while rubbing his eyes vigorously with his fists. Then, he tried to awkwardly divert her attention.
“Oh, but the spaghetti is so delicious. I should try making it like this too.”
However, Noona was not so easily fooled. She cut straight to the core, making Eun-myeong’s heart jump.
“Is that man bullying you by any chance?”
Pfft, Eun-myeong choked.
“Drink some water.”
Noona handed him a cup. He almost spat out the spaghetti. Taking the cup, Eun-myeong murmured, “No,” and avoided her gaze.
His eyes darted around anxiously; with the whites bloodshot and wide open, he looked like a rabbit. Eun-joo watched him quietly.
“Do you want to come and live here with me?”
Eun-myeong quietly shook his head. Although it was a 1.5-room apartment, the house was cramped. With Noona’s furniture and belongings inside, it felt full.
The pleasant sense of stability that space provides. Eun-myeong could not find a gap for himself to step into anywhere here. He quietly looked at the Post-it notes on the wall. Nowhere in Noona’s plans was there anything about Eun-myeong.
Of course, it should be that way. He was an adult, and strictly speaking, they weren’t related by a single drop of blood….
The suspicion the man had about him and Noona was excessive, but to others, it would certainly seem strange. Eun-myeong quietly shook his head.
“No, I like where I’m living now. The water runs well, and it’s warm.”
Noona firmly believed that Eun-myeong was living in company housing provided by an office, just as she was.
“Well, that’s a relief, but….”
Eun-myeong smiled awkwardly. Worry still lingered on Noona’s face.
Eun-myeong put down his utensils and clasped his hands under the table. He saw the nails the man had trimmed for him. They were neatly trimmed and reddish, without a single hangnail. They were well-nourished, and the texture of the nails didn’t peel.
“No, he treats me well.”
He spoke vaguely. Noona twirled the spaghetti with her chopsticks one more time and placed it on Eun-myeong’s fork.
“I told you not to trust people so easily.”
Eun-myeong bit his lower lip. It was something Noona had often said in the past. To be wary of people who are kind without expecting anything in return.
“Because you can’t know what they’re hiding inside, they’re the most sinister people.”
“Is that so….”
Small and precious encounters he had gathered so far flashed through Eun-myeong’s retinas. Noona picked up the water glass and emptied it in gulps as if to cleanse her palate.
“You don’t know how filthy the things that man does are.”
Noona lowered her voice as if sharing a secret.
“You really can’t even imagine it.”
Eun-myeong bit his lower lip tightly.
Whether it was someone seeing the man for the first time or someone who had watched him closely, everyone said the same thing. That he was a bad person. They said you could tell by looking at his eyes, or by his attitude of naturally reigning over others, or by his high-handed way of speaking.
“He’ll do anything if it can make money. Absolutely everything.”
“Uh… yeah,” Eun-myeong nodded slightly. At that ambiguous answer, Noona spoke even more strongly.
“I heard there was even a knife fight at a bathhouse before.”
The image of the man’s torso, engraved with scars large and small, flashed before Eun-myeong’s eyes. Was it a trace of that?
“But Noona, he really treats me well. He buys me lots of delicious food, lets me live in a nice place….”
He had pulled him out of the boat, and while Eun-myeong had worried he might harm Noona, he had instead provided her with a job and a place to stay.
It was something he could never have imagined in the past. It was the first time he had seen Noona look so stable. Her cough had mostly stopped, and it was good to see her hair, which she had always kept long down to her waist because she couldn’t afford a hair salon, neatly cut.
As much as he wanted to protect this side of Noona, Eun-myeong smiled vaguely, then trailed off for a moment as a thought suddenly surged into his memory.
“Noona, by any chance….”
An unfinished sound lingered in his mouth. He wanted to ask if Jjangja had come looking for her.
He wondered if that guy had some kind of ability to find out where Noona worked and come here. Still, nevertheless.
Jjangja’s father, the sashimi restaurant owner, was a social butterfly whom everyone in this area knew, and being a recognized thug himself, his sources of information were excellent. If he happened to step on even a shadow of Noona…. Eun-myeong felt as if the world was turning black before his eyes.
“Why? Is there something you want to say?”
Noona asked. Eun-myeong hesitated with his lips.
He still liked steamed buns, and he missed that place which, though it was a falling-apart house, had been cozy. But Noona. Noona alone was already prepared to forget everything from the past and fly away.
He felt as if he alone had been left behind here, in a very distant place. Even if he was lacking, even if he couldn’t be wings for Noona, he wished he could at least be a strong wind for her.
Eun-myeong soon shook his head. He wanted Noona not to know. He wanted her to be at peace.
Noona tentatively started to speak.
“Do you perhaps.”
Her eyes, full of Eun-myeong, were filled with worry. He wondered what on earth she was trying to say.
“Do you perhaps have news about the orphanage?”
At the sudden words, Eun-myeong looked up.
“The orphanage?”
What about the orphanage? When Eun-myeong asked back, a look of regret appeared on Noona’s face. She looked as if she had brought it up for nothing.
“I thought that was what you were going to talk about.”
“No, why the orphanage?”
A sudden sense of anxiety overcame him, and he put down the fork. Noona closed and opened her lips several times, seeming undecided whether to speak or not. Since she was usually so decisive, her uncharacteristic hesitation made him even more anxious.
And the words that followed were enough to fluster even him.
“I heard the Director is gone.”
“Huh?” Eun-myeong asked.