“Mm?”
Jaeha, who had been cupping his hands delicately like flower petals to support his chin, made a coquettish nasal sound and looked up languidly at Yeom Chaewoo, the owner of Singsing Fresh Produce. Yeom Chaewoo made gestures of poking both her eyes and Jaeha’s eyes alternately and shuddered. What good are ghosts if they can’t even take away someone acting like this?
“He bought one mango and told me to be careful?”
The ripe olive-colored eyes turned toward the three mangoes remaining on the stand. The round eyes soon curved into crescents. Because of the shadows cast by his long eyelashes, Jaeha’s eyes were no longer visible.
“Hyung’s always been nosy.”
Jaeha made his index finger and thumb into pincers and stealthily picked up a bunch of Shine Muscat from the red basket beside him. It was a crime carried out as secretly as a cat thief stealing fish, but Yeom Chaewoo calmly pulled out her ledger and added the number 15,000 next to Jaeha’s name.
The people in this neighborhood didn’t buy Shine Muscat anyway. Even when she pitched them to try one, they’d reach for other green grapes, saying, “It was good at first, but it’s not so great these days.” Their words weren’t entirely wrong either. Most Shine Muscat these days only tasted bland and watery.
Shine Muscat is only delicious for the first three years of harvest. After three years, you have to cut down the tree and plant a new one for the fruit to taste good.
Why does the fruit become bland after three years?
Jaeha had asked once. It was probably during a conversation when Yeom Chaewoo was nagging him not to buy Shine Muscat.
That’s just how it is. Everything fades after three years. Even people’s faces become hazy if you don’t see them for three years.
Yeom Chaewoo had said it self-deprecatingly while thinking of her own family, but Jaeha seemed to have taken it differently. Looking at the Shine Muscat with a somehow melancholy expression, he ended up putting a whole box in the cart. Damn bastard.
Still, the Shine Muscat she’d stocked in the shop lately was decent. It was thanks to breaking into a good wholesaler. Jaeha plucked off a plump green grape and held it up to the sunlight. The grape shone in a brilliant light green color, as radiant as new sprouts emerging in a spring flowerbed.
Jaeha popped the grape into his mouth. One of his slender cheeks bulged out in the shape of the grape. Rolling the grape around in his mouth, Jaeha slowly savored the sweet juice gradually seeping from the edges. Bursting it at once between his molars was delicious too, but rolling it endlessly like candy had a pretty good taste as well.
The problem is that he spreads sweet smells everywhere, attracting bugs.
“Is that mister really the person who tried to kill you?”
“Mm.”
“You said he took care of you since you were little. But he tried to kill you? He didn’t seem like such a cold-blooded person.”
“Well, adults must have their circumstances.”
As it rolled around between his teeth, sweet juice dripped steadily from the damaged skin. Jaeha hooked the grape on his canine and bit down, splitting it in two. Then he ground up the pieces that rolled to the insides of both molars. In an instant, the grape disappeared beyond his throat without a trace.
“You waited.”
An aftertaste remained in his mouth.
“Then just let it slide with that one hit today. There’s no point holding a grudge—it’ll only make things harder for you.”
His gaze, which had been scanning the grapes one by one, soon turned to Yeom Chaewoo. Jaeha widened his already large eyes even more and stared at her intently.
“What?”
“Ah, I get it. Right, you almost died so it’s hard to let it go coolly. What I mean is…”
“No, you said one hit. Who hit who?”
Yeom Chaewoo pointed at Jaeha as if it were obvious. And only then, as if thinking it was strange, she slowly lowered the finger that had been pointing at Jaeha.
“Really not you? His face was all swollen when he came out, but he said you didn’t hit him, so I thought he was just putting on airs. According to the mister, he hit himself to wake up. If that’s true, he’s pretty harsh. How could he hit his own cheeks enough to make them swell like that?”
Looks like he struck everywhere my hands touched before leaving.
Jaeha snorted and turned his head. Then he plucked Shine Muscat grapes, tossed them into his mouth, and bit down on them in one go. As expected, this was sweeter than licking them for a long time.
“Where are you going?”
Yeom Chaewoo shouted at the back of Jaeha’s head as he stood up to cross the street. Jaeha waved his vape pen back and forth.
“You told me not to smoke next to the shop.”
“Hey, do you have to do deliveries today? I almost shit myself yesterday doing it alone!”
Jaeha waved the hand holding the vape pen languidly. It was an ambiguous gesture that could mean either yes or no.
“Mister?”
Across from Baekjin Shopping Complex was a residential area densely packed with old multi-family houses that had to be at least 20 years old. Jaeha blew out smoke reeking of polar pop flavor and whistled sharply. The hulking figure that had been floundering suddenly dashed into the left alley.
“Ha, I’m not really into playing tag.”
Rattle rattle—from the other side of the alley, a hunched old person approached pushing a stroller. Jaeha discreetly hid his vape pen behind his back and smiled brightly at the elderly person.
“You’re the young man from the vegetable shop, right?”
Though they weren’t particularly acquainted, a faint smile appeared on the grumpy old person’s face. Jaeha glanced sidelong at the left alley where the man had disappeared and leaned toward the elderly person.
“If you go now, you’ll get ripped off. The bargains don’t start until after 4:30, right?”
“I’m not going now. After I stop by the hospital and the pharmacy, it’ll be 4:30.”
“Why the hospital? Did you get hurt?”
“Just my knees are cold, so I’m going to get acupuncture.”
“Ah.”
Jaeha gently patted the old person’s bent back and greeted them warmly.
“Well, have a good acupuncture session and see you later.”
“See you later—you won’t even recognize me.”
“Then I’ll just have to check later. Whether I really recognize you or not.”
The old person snorted and left the alley, pushing the stroller with another rattle rattle. Jaeha hummed the idol song that had been playing all day from the phone store across from the shop and followed into the alley where the hulk had disappeared.
“Baby, we both know what’s what, so what are you so embarrassed about that you’re hiding?”
As expected, the hulk was nowhere to be seen. Either he’d already escaped through the alley, or…
At the tingling sensation on the top of his head, Jaeha turned around. A dirty piece of lumber came flying right at his face. He leaned his body to the side, struck down the rough wrist holding the lumber with his elbow, and then jabbed the corner of the vape pen he’d been gripping tightly into the philtrum dripping with greasy sweat.
“Ugh, argh, ahhh!”
“Our baby’s violent.”
The lumber clattered to the ground. Jaeha kicked it, pushing it further into the alley. Because if I picked up that lumber with rough splinters sticking out for no reason and got a wood splinter in my hand, it would hurt.
Then he stepped firmly on the hulk’s neck. Because his neck was short, he ended up inadvertently trampling down to between his collarbones. The hulk flailed like an overturned turtle. Jaeha unconsciously brought his vape pen to his mouth, then frowned when he saw the bloodstains on the corner. Ah, it got dirty. I haven’t even had it that long.
“Did Jang Hyeokjin send you?”
“Kuk, kugh!”
“Oh, your face looks familiar. Aren’t you that pig bastard who used to get spending money from my grandfather?”
“You, fu—”
“You’re the one sucking on Jang Hyeokjin’s asshole. What did Hyeokjin say? Did he tell you to come ask how our young master is doing? Fucking hell, when the grandson of the master you served shows up, you should come and bow your head, but here you are sizing up this person and that person alternately.”
Even a worm will wriggle when stepped on. The hulk barked noisily with a squeal and swung something at Jaeha’s leg. Jaeha lightly jumped up, stepping on the jiggling belly fat. A sharply curved blade ripped straight through the sneaker logo.
“Ha. This is fucked.”
Jaeha landed lightly on the hulk’s face as he was and kicked the damn knife hard with his torn shoe. As the bridge of his nose, which had barely existed to begin with, collapsed completely, the hulk made choking sounds and rolled his eyes back. But Jaeha paid no mind and tapped his chin with his toes.
“These are my favorite shoes, baby. I wore them to look pretty for our hyung, so how do you think I feel when you mess them up like this? I’m torn up. Right?”
His trembling hands and feet went limp. Only then did the hulk shake his head and mumble something through his bloody mouth. Save me, or maybe I’m sorry.
Or maybe neither.
“Does it hurt?”
The hulk nodded.
“A lot?”
This time he nodded his head even more vigorously.
Jaeha chuckled and crouched down beside the hulk. His clingy shirt, stuck tight to his plump body, rode up, revealing his belly covered in colorful tattoos.
“You’ve got irezumi all over your body, so why are you whining that this hurts?”
Jaeha lifted the hulk’s shirt with his fingertips. His entire belly, swollen like a hill, was covered in tattoos. It seemed like it was originally a proper depiction of a yaksha, but his body must have gotten bigger since then—the yaksha’s face had also swelled broadly, oddly transforming into a benevolent expression.
“Baby.”
Jaeha tapped the yaksha’s generous cheeks. Each time his palm touched the belly fat, a light slap sound rang out.
