#81

The man dropped the child off in front of the village hall and headed straight for the persimmon tree house.

“Cheer up a bit. If you look so down, the elders will feel sorry, thinking it’s their fault.”

At Tae-heun’s words, the man finally relaxed his stiff expression.

“See? You look much better. What would you have done without me?”

Saying this, she tried to assert her presence to the man.

As expected, there was no response.

The persimmon tree house was empty. When he drove the truck to the field, he found, as expected, two elderly men bent over, clearing away rotting crops. The man rushed over and stopped them.

“Come on, old man. Why are you working when you can’t even wait?”

“You’re here? What else is there to do? We have to do something like this.”

“Right. If you can’t even do this, you might as well die, why live?”

“Exactly. We should die.”

The extreme words of the elderly made the man feel awkward.

“Hello, elders. Did you sleep well? I’m here too. Do you remember me?”

Tae-heun greeted loudly. Even she found her tone reminiscent of a rural market peddler, which made her laugh. The old woman recognized Tae-heun before the old man did.

“Why are you always sticking together like that?”

“Of course. We’re like a needle and thread, we have to stick together.”

Just like she had told the child once, Tae-heun was the man’s thread. He went where she said to go and came back when she said to come, so she was indeed the thread, not the needle. Moreover, she could even be threaded through the needle’s eye. Hehe. Having such lewd thoughts, she quickly straightened her face.

“Elders, did you hear what Ki-beom said? You can leave the field work to me and Ki-beom now and go inside. Please prepare some snacks. If possible, make it cold noodle with young radish.”

She requested calmly.

Perhaps her words were too fast, as the old woman nodded after a long pause.

“What should we serve to drink?”

“Cool barley tea will be enough.”

The man watched Tae-heun with a somewhat incredulous expression.

“I did well, right?”

“Tae-heun, you’re really shameless.”

“Did you just realize that?”

Tae-heun grinned and lightly hit the man’s arm. He laughed along.

Who said the countryside was quiet? The sounds of various engines—tractors, weeders, motorcycles, and trucks—made it unbearably noisy. Because of that, people were shouting, making it resemble a chaotic scene. It became clear why all the elderly in this village were hard of hearing.

People in the surrounding fields recognized the man and shouted greetings at him. They acknowledged Tae-heun as well. After wasting a good 15 minutes exchanging pleasantries, they finally began their field work.

The field at the persimmon tree house was messier than it looked. They had to pull out the crops that had not been harvested yet, then turn over the muddy field, apply fertilizer, lay down plastic mulch, and sow seeds. It was work for not just one day, but two.

While Tae-heun was estimating the time by looking at the field, the man had already started working. Seeing him pulling out rotten crops with his bare hands, Tae-heun handed him a pair of gardening gloves.

“At least wear gloves when cleaning up trash. You might get sick.”

At Tae-heun’s nagging, the man put on the gloves.

“I’ve never gotten sick before.”

“Have you never had a rash from weeds?”

“When did that happen? I haven’t had one in a long time.”

The man grumbled.

“I heard you struggled last year?”

“That was from poison ivy.”

“How can I believe that?”

“Have I lived my life being deceived?”

“Yes. That’s how I’ve lived.”

The two bickered while tidying up the field. It was hard labor that took over an hour. The man tied up a pile of trash he had set aside with a rope and stuffed it into a waste bag. Tae-heun helped. Only after clearing all the crops that had become trash did they turn over the field.

Since the persimmon tree house didn’t have a weeder, they used a rotary shovel. It took twice as long as using a machine and was physically exhausting.

“Can’t we borrow one?”

Tae-heun asked, looking enviously at the machines of other houses.

“It seems like they just started too, so when would we wait until they’re done?”

“There must be some at other houses.”

The man hesitated, his lips twitching. He continued his silent work. It seemed that it wasn’t just the weeder that the persimmon tree house was unwilling to lend. He wondered how much the two elderly men had annoyed others, but he thought that the rural community was quite generous.

Tae-heun also worked hard with the shovel, and both of them, already drenched in sweat, took off their shirts without thinking about who would do it first. The two men revealed their bare upper bodies under the sun and busily moved about.

Just as they had turned over two rows of soil, the two elderly men appeared with snacks. Tae-heun noticed first and ran over to receive the basin the old woman was carrying. The old man spread out a mat big enough for four to sit on. The metal kettle smelled of makgeolli.

“Eat up. It’s refreshing and quite good.”

The old men also gathered around to eat together.

It seemed everyone was eating snacks at about the same time, as the machine noises suddenly stopped. With the noise that had been deafening gone, it felt like they could breathe again.

First, they gulped down the cold barley tea with ice. It was delicious. Ah, after making a sound, they downed another bowl and picked up their chopsticks. The young radish noodles the old woman had made were plentiful. The bowl was larger than a cold noodle bowl, filled to the brim with noodles and topped generously with young radish kimchi. The broth made from anchovies was slightly fishy, but the kimchi masked the fishy taste. Compared to what the man had made, it was neither hygienic nor tasty, but still, Tae-heun enjoyed it.

“But is the young man really that rich?”

The old man asked. The old woman poked him in the side, but he paid no mind.

“Is that the rumor going around?”

Tae-heun asked nonchalantly.

“Yes. The whole village is buzzing. They say you came to buy land here.”

“Is that so?”

Slurping, she ate the noodles.

She had intended to tease Choi Gi-cheol and the Eagle Brothers by pretending to be rich, but before she could even start, the rumor had already reached the old man in Angol. It was not something she could simply laugh off. She could vividly imagine Officer Oh scolding her, saying, “Come on, live quietly.”

“Have you looked at any land?”

“Just passing by. But all the land here is agricultural, so there isn’t any land worth buying.”

She replied indifferently.

“Right. That’s good. Why would you buy land to live on when you can farm? Not all country folks are naive like that. Don’t go getting free drinks or anything.”

The old woman advised. The old man nodded in agreement, saying, “That’s right.” Whether it was alcohol, food, or meat, they warned her as if something terrible would happen if she got something for free. Feeling a bit guilty towards the two elderly people who genuinely cared for her, Tae-heun changed the subject.

“But you two don’t seem to be from here. Am I right?”

The elderly men nodded.

“I’m from Eumseong. This gentleman is from Goesan. Half the people in this village probably came from Chungcheong-do.”

Their faces wore warm smiles as they answered. They longed for their hometowns, which they could easily visit if they wanted.

As always, the man did not join the conversation. He quietly ate his noodles and did not refuse the makgeolli offered by the old man. Tae-heun deliberately refused, thinking about driving. Instead, she engaged in a profound conversation about how to make kimchi while sipping barley tea with the old woman. It was mostly Tae-heun asking questions and the old woman answering, but when she asked a bit too detailed, the old woman would get annoyed.

The man and the old man exchanged a word or two.

“Is Ji-hye growing well?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t she going to middle school soon?”

“She’s still in the fourth grade.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes.”

Then they fell silent.

After a moment, the old man spoke again.

“When Ji-hye goes to middle school, her father should also remarry.”

“I have no thoughts about that.”

“Why think about such things? A man should always have a woman.”

The man tightly shut his mouth.

“Is there no woman you like?”

The old man asked without a hint of awareness.

“If not, shouldn’t it be difficult? I heard there’s a good medicine for that.”

He said something absurd.

“What are you talking about! Are you out of your mind?”

The old woman hurriedly interjected.

“Stop saying useless things. Do you think he can’t manage on his own?”

The nagging continued.

“I married you. I married you! Who could endure that harsh life as a daughter-in-law?”

At the unexpected complaint, the old man grunted and gulped down his makgeolli.

“Old man, if you’re done eating, get up. Why are you sticking your butt to the mat?”

At the old woman’s shout, not just the old man but also Tae-heun and the man hurriedly got up from the mat.

The elderly men did not allow anyone to help with folding the mat. The old man soothed the grumbling old woman as he tidied up the dishes and packed the kettle. The bent old man took care of his even more bent wife. With his wrinkled hands full of liver spots, he supported the old woman.

Tae-heun found the two of them lovely. Tears welled up in her eyes without her realizing it.

“I hope we can grow old like that.”

She muttered to herself.

Whether the man heard her or not, he quietly looked at Tae-heun. Their eyes met. The man, with his back to the sun, had dark, deep eyes. Those eyes made her anxious, as she couldn’t read his thoughts.

“What’s so difficult about that? If you live like now, you’ll end up like that.”

The man suddenly said. Then he turned his broad and beautiful back to Tae-heun and walked toward the field.

“Is that how you propose?”

Tae-heun shouted loudly, following the man.

The man’s neck, tanned from the sun, turned a ghostly red, as if it could hardly redden any further.

“Hey, why are you just walking away?”

Tae-heun couldn’t help but smile as her lips curled up.

She approached the man and asked again, “That was a proposal, right?”

“How is that a proposal?”

The man grumbled in a low voice.

“Isn’t it? You’ve been to Ki-beom’s wedding, right? The officiant says that, doesn’t he? ‘Live happily until your black hair turns white.’ So just now, Ki-beom said to me…”

“Stop talking nonsense and get back to work.”

The man picked up a hoe, saying something uncharacteristic.

Tae-heun also picked up a hoe and sat opposite the man.

“Ki-beom, Ki-beom.”

She called the man while covering the soil she dug with plastic. The man, with his head down, asked, “What?”

“Is there a wedding in the village or something?”

The man’s mouth tightened at Tae-heun’s question.

“Oh, I didn’t ask to say something strange. I suddenly wanted to eat galbitang.”

With a thud, soil fell onto the plastic.

“If you want galbitang, you can just go to a restaurant.”

The man replied curtly.

“Hey, is that the same? I strangely think the galbitang at wedding halls is the best. What about you, Ki-beom? Is the galbitang at wedding halls not good?”

“What? Just okay.”

“It’s delicious, right?”

“……Yes.”

The kind man answered a question he didn’t have to, feeling embarrassed, and dug into the ground with the hoe. Seeing that, Tae-heun smiled brightly, and even the man, who had been looking down, lifted the corners of his mouth.

The previously quiet surroundings were once again filled with noise.