Chapter 830. Sequence 10

“I got a bunch of fresh ones today. I’ll give you some as a bonus, so don’t you go around spreading rumors.”

“Auntie, you didn’t have to do so much. I feel sorry all the time because you give me so much.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m giving them to you because you’re such a good boy. My hubby will get jealous, but what can he do about it? Kang Giwoo likes our stew house and wants to come. Also, I’m really grateful that you upload things about my restaurant to uh, what was it again, Insta-whatever(?) every time you come around. Thanks to you, my sales have skyrocketed. I really want to feed you for free, but there’s no way you’d accept that, young man Giwoo.”

“Food tastes the best when it’s paid for in full. I’d get punished if I earn free food off of people.”

“You’re such a sweet talker too. You can’t blame me for liking you, young man. I’m telling all the visitors to the store to watch ‘Doctor’s Office’. All the people in this neighborhood watch Doctor’s Office on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so the viewing rate should be good.”

“It was really good this week, and it turns out that it was thanks to you, auntie. Thank you. I’ll come here more often.”

“Right right, you can be a regular in the future. But when is your company coming? The food won’t taste good if it’s cold, so I was planning on getting it ready once they come.”

“They’ll be here soon. I think you can bring out the food. Your food is still good when it’s cooled down after all.”

“Warm stew is best eaten when it’s hot. I’ll bring over the sashimi for now. As for the stew, I can boil it when they come.”

Giwoo watched the auntie leave the room after telling him to wait a little before turning his eyes away. The tattered wallpaper he saw last time was still there. The changed prices on the menu were marked by crossing out the old prices with a sharpie and writing the new prices next to them. The beer ad poster was discolored, the electric fans were so dusty that he doubted they had been cleaned even once, and the TV was small and old, with the text all blurry. Nothing about this restaurant was to his liking. He wanted to immediately call for a contractor and have this place made over right now. Or maybe, it might be quicker to tear down the whole place and build it anew. In the main dining hall outside, day workers had come to a get-together. He saw them through the gap of the open door. Whenever he watched laborers pouring rice wine into their throats inside this tattered restaurant while shouting, he felt a sense of relief. He found himself really fortunate that he didn’t live like a beggar in a dirty place like this one. People really had to look down and feel humble. Whenever he looked at people squirming for survival below him, he felt gratitude for the things in his possession.

“Have some of this before your group arrives. I just got them early this morning, and they’re so fresh and tasty.”

The owner said that it was a bonus just for him and gave him supposedly expensive raw abalones. Giwoo picked up a piece of thinly sliced abalone. He couldn’t hold back his laughter when he saw the auntie speak as though she had given him something incredible when what she did was slice abalones into oblivion. The texture was what was good about them. How ignorant. He felt like he was watching a clown. They act like they know despite not knowing anything. He put the raw abalone inside his mouth and chewed it a couple times. Compared to the raw abalone prepared and given to him by a master chef last week, the thing inside his mouth was no different from food waste. He wanted to spit it back out, but he held back.

“Auntie, it’s really good.”

“Right? This is expensive stuff, so I don’t give it to other regulars. I’m giving it just to you.”

“Thank you.”

Seeing the auntie stare at him, urging him to eat more, he ate some more of the abalone. It was hard to pretend to chew on the slices because they were really thin. He ate them all before putting the plate before the auntie. She, who should be taking the plate away and leaving, kept sitting by the door in anxiousness. Giwoo knew why she was acting like that. As expected of the auntie of ‘Jeonho Restaurant’, known for being proud. She was probably going to stay like that until he spoke about the matter she wanted to talk about first.

“Oh yes, how is your son’s acting career coming along?”

The auntie spoke as though she had been waiting,

“Actually, that’s what’s been worrying me these days.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m not saying this because I’m his mother, Youngho really has the talent. He has a talent for acting. Moreover, he also wants to become an actor. A man should do something he wants to the fullest at least once in their life, right? Don’t you think so too, young Giwoo?”

“You should at least do it once so that you don’t leave behind regrets.”

“I think so too. That’s why I enrolled him in an acting school so that he can learn and sent him to college too, but.”

The auntie sighed. Giwoo poured some water in a cup and gave it to her. The auntie seemed to be feeling frustrated as she tapped on her chest and drank some water. He almost ended up bursting out laughing after seeing her contorted face for a while. Oh, no – it was about to get more fun, so he wasn’t going to spoil it now.

“But?”

“He entered some agency a little while ago, and apparently, they need some upfront money in order to do a good piece. Youngho doesn’t know that yet. They only told me about it in secret. That’s why I wanted to ask you if things like this are common. I know I shouldn’t be asking you this, but you’re the only one I know who can answer questions like this.”

“Well, it’s a sensitive topic.”

“Please don’t say that and tell me about it. If it means that my son will do well, I can give them that money.”

“That’s not a question I can answer for you.”

“So it’s like that after all, huh? This is about money, and you have your position to think about after all. Sorry, I asked you something I shouldn’t have.”

“Not at all. I’m sorry that I couldn’t help you.”

The auntie tapped on the floor while smiling cheerfully, telling him that it was okay. The shadow of anxiousness behind her smile said that it wasn’t okay, though. Giwoo rubbed his hand and waited until the auntie turned around about halfway.

“Do you remember the money envelopes you gave to teachers in the past?”

“I do.”

“Apparently, that’s quite effective. Even students who have similar grades can have different student records, or one might get a recommendation.”

The auntie blinked several times in confusion before smiling brightly and standing up.

“Young Giwoo, thank you.”

“I’ve never said anything worth thanking.”

“Right, right. You didn’t say anything. I’m just thanking you. I’ll give you an extra-large, no, an extra extra large stew for today, so you can look forward to it.”

“Alright, I’ll look forward to it.”

The auntie left the room while dancing. Giwoo stood up and closed the door before blocking his mouth. That was close. He almost burst out laughing after seeing her smiling brightly. That auntie will probably prepare the money for the sake of her son. The start will be around 5 million won, and the cost will keep increasing, so the auntie will use all sorts of methods to prepare the money until it reaches an unmanageable state. He didn’t know how much money she had saved up, but if she actually got a loan, she would be putting her restaurant in jeopardy. After all, the landlord’s call to increase the rent will soon be heading her way after all. A laugh leaked out of his mouth when he thought about the despair she would feel after getting the call.

Giwoo called up his friend and told him that he had set things up and that he could begin. Youngho, who was praised a little for his acting skills, should be hearing about his mother wasting her money because of him. By the time he hears about it, the money she spent would be in the fraudster’s hands, and the fraudster would no longer be seen anywhere. Those who fall for the temptation of using money to solve a problem are bound to keep spending foolishly without giving up. It would be fun if the auntie didn’t betray his expectations and actually got a loan. Just imagining it made his stress go away.

“Right, this is how it should be.”

It would be really fun if she moved according to his expectations like a chess piece. Giwoo wanted to see the contorted expression of the auntie in a few months, but this was the last time he was visiting this restaurant. He brought some people here because it was the perfect place to cosplay as an ordinary civilian, and it was about time he looked for a new restaurant. After all, it wasn’t going to last long once the landlord, a friend of his, increased the deposit and the monthly rent. Moreover, the auntie would touch her savings in order to pay a fraudster, so this restaurant was as good as gone.

“You should have known your place. Who do you think you’re discussing acting skills in front of?”

As the son was known to be quite dutiful, he would probably stop acting once his sole parent, his mother, collapses. Giwoo was so happy that he was in a position to toy with other people’s lives as he wished to. Just as he felt good and wanted a drink, the guests arrived.

“You two came here together?”

Giwoo offered seats to Maru and Gaeul, who entered the restaurant.

“After I got your call, I called him up and said that we should go together since we’re going. But hey, this place is pretty good. The people outside are saying that the stew is good too,” Gaeul said as she took off her coat.

“I told you this place is good. What do you think, Maru? Isn’t this place pretty good?”

“This is a restaurant, so I’ll give my opinion after eating the food,” Maru said as he looked around inside.

Giwoo poured some water for the two of them.

“It just occurred to me that we haven’t eaten together even once. It’s been years since we got to know each other too. It’s a curious thing, isn’t it?”

“I’m sure it was because we weren’t close enough to eat together face to face.”

Maru drank some water after saying those words. Gaeul tapped on Maru’s arm, scolding him for always speaking like that. It seemed that she was taking it as a joke. It was definitely not, though. Giwoo thought that he should really deal with this guy somehow for the sake of his mental health. For the past five years when Han Maru couldn’t be seen on TV, Giwoo lived without knowing stress. Even when he met him at the gym, he was sometimes taken aback by his eyes but could soon ignore him by consoling himself with the fact that Maru was a loser in life. However, ever since his face appeared on TV, especially when he found out that they were in competing dramas in the time slot, he had a hard time sleeping. He even had a dream once where he was pushed out by Maru in terms of popularity and had become a mere minor actor. That shitty dream kept getting on his mind. Maru overlapped with the figure from the past when he acted in his stead as a demonstration when shooting Apgu a long time ago. He could also picture his pathetic self that barely got a passing score from the producer by imitating his act. When he imitated Lee Hyuk’s acting, he felt proud that he was improving, but when he imitated Maru’s acting, he was full of shame.

What pissed him off the most was that he kept leaving the chess board despite being a chess piece. A chess piece that should go forward if told to and go back if told to was doing whatever it wanted and even ended up threatening the king. Giwoo wanted to rip him apart to death, if possible.

“You’re gonna make me fall for you if you keep staring at me like that”, Maru said.

Giwoo responded with a laugh. To him, Maru was a trial. Once he overcomes it, he would no longer have to wake up in the middle of the night because of a bad dream nor would he have to take antacids because of a bad stomach. His grandfather used to tell him that superior species would encounter trials in order to evolve. Giwoo was convinced that he would be able to overcome it. That was how the world was after all. Its very structure was formed so that the superior entities were protected. It was just like how the flight trajectory of a fly was hard to predict. This guy’s movements were hard to predict, but that did not change the fact that he was insignificant. As long as he solved the problem where he felt his grandfather’s presence from his face, he would be able to stomp on that guy like stepping on an insect. Though, at that time, he might ignore him because just being concerned might make him feel pathetic.

“Both of you are so good-looking, as expected of young Giwoo’s friends. As for you, lady, I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before too.”

The auntie brought some food. Giwoo portioned the food out into some bowls and handed them to the two people. He was planning to see this guy as much as possible in the future. If he did, then he would gain immunity, and if lucky, even find a weakness.

“We should drink a little too, right?”

His way of dealing with a problem was to smash the problem apart as that was his grandfather’s way. Today, he planned to have a look at the problem and figure out what he needed.

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