IEM Ch 1

“How about it, still usable, right?”

Sitting at an old office table cluttered with miscellaneous tools, Wonjin slurped his coffee.

“Ahem.”

At a temperature hot enough to make his hair stand on end, Wonjin secretly touched his Adam’s apple. His palate was half-scorched, but thanks to doubling up two paper cups, he avoided the misfortune of peeling the skin off his palm.

The silver kettle, just used to boil coffee water, was puffing white steam vigorously from its spout over the stove.

“Mr. Jeong, this thing’s condition is pretty bad…”

The man, who had been squatting and inspecting the item Wonjin dragged in, finally twisted his body. He looked at Wonjin and shook his head. Wonjin hurriedly gulped down a sip of the coffee he’d been cooling by blowing on it like a flute.

“Come on, you can do it. Our boss can handle it.”

“Mr. Jeong, you know what they say about people. The back of someone who knows when to leave is truly beautiful. You’ve got to know when to let go, and, well… anyway, what I mean is…”

“Yes, you’re right. But don’t we need some mental preparation? We’ve been through a lot together. I’m planning to stick with that guy just until the end of this year.”

“Damn it. Until the end of the year, what…”

Faced with Wonjin’s momentum, which didn’t seem to back down easily this time either, the man touched his forehead. There was only one answer from the start. He knew it but hoped otherwise. Scratching his wrinkled cheeks roughly, the man slowly stood up. His slightly jaundiced, yellowish face turned toward Wonjin.

“You’ll get hurt, man. Coming in every other day saying the brakes don’t work, the chain’s off, or the gears won’t shift. It’s no job for a human.”

“But when I bring it, the boss fixes it right up like this, so what am I supposed to do?”

“Forget it! This junk heap, I’m sick just looking at it.”

Despite saying that, Hwang Gilho, the owner of ‘Nuri Comprehensive Bicycle Shop,’ reluctantly grabbed some tools and parts. Following the elderly man, Wonjin played along, catering to his mood and assisting.

They lubricated the chain and forcibly fitted a bolt they hadn’t even noticed was missing with another one. When they finally finished repairing the bicycle, which was closer to a lump of scrap metal, the coffee had, unsurprisingly, gone cold.

“It’ll last another ten years.”

Wonjin proudly gazed at the cheap bicycle that had been his feet for about fifteen years. He patted the saddle as if slapping his own backside and only then took a seat across from Boss Hwang.

He respectfully poured hot tea into the paper cup that held only coffee grounds for Boss Hwang, as if pouring liquor. Hwang Gilho sipped the coffee slowly, with great care, until his cheeks hollowed out.

A brief silence enveloped the two men.

Boss Hwang set down the plastic handle holder that supported the paper cup. Then, pulling out tissues from the table with a rustle, Hwang Gilho vigorously wiped his hands, blackened with grease.

“By the way, the neighborhood got all chaotic in just a few days without Mr. Jeong.”

“Oh, chaotic, you say?”

Wonjin’s lively eyes shot up. He naturally rummaged through the snack basket near the tissues and picked up a ‘peanut caramel.’ Instead of making the mistake of biting into the rock-hard caramel all at once, he licked it little by little, savoring the sweet taste.

While meticulously cleaning the grime from his fingernails, Boss Hwang clicked his tongue disapprovingly.

“Don’t know, just heard, heard… They say young folks are creating quite a rough atmosphere. You know the real estate office up there. According to Boss Gong there, kids in school uniforms are flocking together, smoking in groups somewhere on the middle school playground… shamelessly fooling around with romance… You know, Cheonmok Middle School’s playground is so big that our residents go there a lot to walk.”

“Yeah, that’s right. Hmm… I don’t think we have kids in our neighborhood who’d do such bad things.”

Responding appropriately to Boss Hwang’s complaints, Wonjin grabbed another caramel from the palm-sized basket. As he tried to slip the caramel into his puffy jacket pocket, Boss Hwang suddenly looked up. Wonjin, acting as if he’d been looking at Boss Hwang all along, straightened his back and folded his arms with a serious expression.

“In that case, we’ll need to step up neighborhood patrols for a while. Give me three—no, two days.”

Due to his naturally large build, when Wonjin squared his shoulders and puffed out his chest, he looked less like a person and more like a beast at first glance.

That wasn’t all. His height was so great that his eye level was different from most people’s, wasn’t it?

“Our residents’ association is always grateful to Mr. Jeong, but they say kids these days are really scary…”

Taking another sip of coffee, Boss Hwang glanced over the paper cup at Wonjin, who confidently stared at his index and middle fingers. The loud digital pattern on his puffy jacket immediately caught the eye.

For a man who’d been unemployed for years, supposedly preparing for a job or starting a business, his hands were covered in calluses. Those weapon-like hands seemed capable of easily bending rusty nails. Rose thorns wouldn’t even scratch his palms, let alone pierce them. The thick line running from his jaw to his neck pulsed with vibrant youth, exuding an overwhelming presence that didn’t invite curiosity to touch it. One wrong move, and it felt like your neck would be bitten, your bones shattered. That was the premonition.

“Scary, sure… but still, two days! If it comes to it, I can call some friends.”

Boss Hwang, whose frame had only shrunk more with age, laughed heartily, finding Wonjin’s confidence very reassuring. At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel a tinge of envy at the undeniable, raw masculinity.

But the fact that Wonjin’s skin remained so fair despite patrolling the neighborhood day and night somewhat soothed Gilho’s noisy heart. For Gilho, a man’s greatest virtue was bronzed skin, forged by labor under the blazing sun.

He pushed the last remaining caramel toward Wonjin, suppressing his petty thoughts. Startled for some reason, Wonjin cleared his throat. Unnoticing, Hwang Gilho reassured him.

“But don’t overdo it. The redevelopment committee is really sensitive about the neighborhood’s image these days. Take it easy, easy.”

Hwang Gilho was one of the miscellaneous members of the Cheonmok-dong Redevelopment Promotion Committee in Pyeongju City.

Grabbing the caramel, Wonjin grinned without answering. It was an utterly innocent but dazzling smile. For a moment, Boss Hwang, captivated by Wonjin’s smile, murmured as if entranced.

“Did you go to the bathhouse this morning?”

“Bathhouse?”

“No, your face is all shiny, like you scrubbed off a layer with a washcloth…”

Swirling his coffee, Boss Hwang trailed off. Nodding, Wonjin rubbed both cheeks alternately. He waved his hand lightly and laughed good-naturedly.

“Baths are usually allowed once a month, but I used up all my remaining sessions last week.”

“…So you just showered. Young folks use that foam cleansing or whatever, some fancy stuff, I hear.”

“Oh, yeah. Due to water bill issues, I shower once a day, usually at night.”

He rambled on, but the conclusion was that he hadn’t even washed his face.

Boss Hwang looked at Wonjin’s face, which glowed with a subtle sheen like a polished pearl. It was flawless. Even as he moved slightly, his clothes didn’t reek of musty mold but exuded a refreshingly crisp lemon scent.

At that point, Boss Hwang was so dumbfounded that he was speechless. Suddenly, indignation welled up from the depths of his soul. Overcome with emotion, he even went so far as to snatch back the caramel he’d given Wonjin.

“Your sugar’s up! Stop eating!”

“How stingy, taking back what you gave…”

Wonjin grumbled about giving and taking back but didn’t argue further with Boss Hwang. Instead, he kindly asked if Boss Hwang had diabetes, continuing the conversation with his usual charm.

By switching topics like that, an hour passed in a flash.

Wonjin got up, saying he’d go patrol the neighborhood. Gilho vaguely watched Wonjin’s back as he bumped into the aluminum doorframe while leaving.

Black track pants, slippers, a black hoodie, and that puffy jacket he always wore like a uniform…

“Do a good job, boss. I’ll bring the repair fee later after getting money from home.”

A breeze rushed in through the briefly opened door. The sunlight pouring from the clear, open sky was warm, but the wind still carried a cool edge.

“He looks perfectly fine. Man, he’s a good guy…”

Smacking his lips, Boss Hwang barely swallowed his trailing words.

The self-proclaimed Cheonmok-dong sheriff, Wonjin, rode his bicycle, fading into the distance beyond the stained glass window. He pedaled diligently toward the end of March, now fully spring, into the shimmering sunlight