Chapter 4 - An Encounter At The Fishing Site (3)
Gun-Ho got up around 10 in the morning. He has been really lazy since he didn’t go to work.
“Should I eat breakfast? Or not?”
The OneRoomTel he was living in provided free rice in a rice cooker, which was located in the laundry room. Cooked rice was always available; the owner prepared for the residents in the OneRoomTel. There was a microwave as well, in the same room.
“If there was a cooktop in the laundry room, I would have been able to cook lomein…”
Licking his lips at the thought of lomein, Gun-Ho opened the refrigerator in his room. Each room in the OneRoomTel had a small refrigerator shorter than a desk.
“Do I have anything to eat?”
Gun-Ho took out a bottle of water from the refrigerator and gulped down water. He further looked in the refrigerator. There were soju, fruit, some left-over pickled radish, and a choco pie.
“I have to have a meal…”
Gun-Ho stepped out of his room with an empty bowl in his hand. He was going to the laundry room to get free rice.
“Eek, why is that guy still here?”
The guy in Room 506 was doing something in the laundry room.
“F*ck, I don’t want him to see me with an empty bowl in my hand; it’s embarrassing. I ran into him with my empty bowl yesterday.”
Gun-Ho closed his door.
“Let’s just go out and have a hangover soup!”
After washing his face and brushing his teeth, Gun-Ho went outside. He then got in the car he parked in front of a women’s clothing store around the OneRoomTel.
“The store owner didn’t come to work yet. If he was here and saw my parked car, he would have snapped at me…”
“Okie.”
Gun-Ho quickly hung up the phone.
“Jong-Suk seems to be not doing well at home, probably because he works at a factory. His dad obviously wants him to prepare for the level-9 government job exam.”
Gun-Ho could picture Jong-Suk’s dad fly into a rage and shake his fingers at Jong-Suk.
“In fact, Jong-Suk has issues. He gave up on the exam even though his dad was more than willing to support him.”
“Are you confident that you could pass the exam if somebody financially supported you?” Gun-Ho felt like he heard Jong-Suk saying that. Looking at himself in the mirror, Gun-Ho saw a man with empty eyes.
“Loser!”
He really felt like he was a loser.
“I studied strenuously for three years but failed the exam. I worked my socks off for several years, but I am broke. What is wrong with me?”
Gun-Ho looked at his hand holding the steering wheel.
“This hand … is not the hand of Midas, but the hand of minus…”
The thought of chopping his hand with an ax passed through his mind.
“D*rn it, let’s just have a pork rib hangover soup!”
Gun-Ho headed to a hangover soup restaurant.
It was a bit after two in the afternoon. Gun-Ho was not hungry since he had had brunch. In order to better present himself at the interview, Gun-Ho went back to his OneRoomTel and brushed his teeth. He changed his shoes; he was wearing flip-flops so he changed into sneakers.
“Where is this? I’ve never heard of this area… the plant is located in Yangju, Gyeongsin Town…”
Gun-Ho drove northwest to Gyeongsin Town.
“If I turn left, that leads to Seoul. I am not meant to live in Seoul. Hew.”
He felt pathetic about himself. Although he went high school in Bucheon City (“Bucheon”), many of his high school friends worked in a big city like Incheon and Suwon City (“Suwon”). On the other hand, Gun-Ho kept moving to further north, away from those big cities.
“F*ck my life!”
While feeling sorry for himself, he thought of his aunt. He remembered her talking about a person’s fate during the family gathering on New Year’s Day.
“There is a famous fortune teller in Gangnam, Seoul. The fortune teller said that my son, Jae-Woong would have a great fortune for the next 20 years.”
His aunt boasted about her son while talking about people’s fate. Jae-Woong was his cousin, two years younger than Gun-Ho.
“Jae-Woong just passed the civil service exam required for the level-9 position in Department of Labor. Just like that fortune teller said, Jae-Woong’s 20-year great fortune must have started.”
His aunt kept boasting about her son to Gun-Ho’s parents. Gun-Ho’s father said with a hollow smile,
“Haha, he surely will be a labor supervisor soon.”
“What about Gun-Ho? What are you doing these days? I heard you gave up on the civil service exam and started working?”
His aunt was smiling as she talked; Gun-Ho felt like she was laughing at him.
“Just… a small company I am working for.”
“Well, as long as they pay, working for a small company is not bad. Where is it situated?”
“It used to be in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, and now it moved to Pocheon.”
“What is the nature of their business?”
“They manufacture motor vehicle parts.”
“Vehicle parts? Terrific. I am impressed. Many young men these days are having a hard time to find a job.”
The aunt was snobbish while Gun-Ho’s parents felt small, looking down the floor.
Gun-Ho remembered that he had quietly left the room before his aunt started talking to him again.