“I’ve never played before.”
Jaeha smiled brightly as he gently stroked the old man’s reverse scale in the right direction.
“Then, sir, if you have time, could you teach me how to play billiards? I’ll pay for the games.”
A gleam instantly appeared in the eyes of the old man, who had been gloomily subdued throughout.
The old man seemed quite pleased inwardly that this young greenhorn had asked him for ‘teachings.’ I have a Dama score of 300, do you know how much tuition you’d have to pay to learn from someone like me? What has a man been doing all his life that he doesn’t even know how to hold a cue at his age? He rambled on with nagging complaints without a moment’s pause. Then, perhaps worried that Jaeha’s stomach might twist at any moment, he glanced at him cautiously and slyly offered a carrot, saying that seeing how well he followed the angle calculations, he must have a good head on his shoulders.
Do you need a good head to play well?
Well, thinking about how Taesung used to live at the billiard hall all day long before, that didn’t really seem to be the case.
Then again, Taesung probably didn’t use his head but learned through his body. Even if he’s stupid, he’s good at anything physical, isn’t he?
“……”
The old man scolded Jaeha for a long while, saying he was putting in too much force. Once his mouth opened, it seemed he had become uninhibited. Jaeha ordered jjajangmyeon to stop the old man’s nagging. He heard a rumor that there was an old Chinese restaurant in the shopping complex’s basement, but since the owner had disk surgery, it was difficult for him to use the wok, so he was trying to sell the shop. The bedding store on the first floor—apparently the son got into coins or something and ended up 300 million won in debt. Don’t you get into that stuff. From what I’ve heard, it’s no different from gambling.
“My son earned his doctorate in America.”
After completely finishing even the complimentary jjamppong soup, the old man muttered as if he absolutely had to say this.
“America is a capitalist country, you know. Just breathing costs an enormous amount of money. My grandson just started school and said he needed another car, so he was buying some piece of junk used car for a few hundred dollars, and I scolded him, saying what if he gets in an accident riding in something like that…”
His circumstances didn’t seem much different from the bedding store owner on the first floor.
Ever since hearing through the real estate agent that Jaeha was buying up various places within Baekjin Shopping Complex, the locksmith old man avoided Jaeha for a while. Then, when they happened to run into each other, he’d accept greetings as if nothing was wrong and randomly show off what he knew. To the point where it was starting to feel annoying.
“Anyway, these days young people treat everything us old folks say as stale nonsense. I’ve lived here for 40 years. I told them to just leave it alone, but they insist on replacing the door to install this toy-like thing.”
Today was the same. As soon as Jaeha contacted him saying he’d have to change it to a door lock after all, the locksmith old man came up with his equipment bag slung over his shoulder and started nagging. Jaeha leaned diagonally against the front door of the apartment across the way, which had been empty without tenants for a long time, and nodded his head whenever the old man’s voice approached the low ‘F’ note.
“Do you think this lock is just any lock? Baekjin Shopping Complex might look like a dump now, but when it was first built, what was it, it was the same price as Eunjang Apartments over there. It was that high-class, the company that built this place put everything on the line and made it properly. I’ve been doing this work and gone around to all sorts of expensive apartments, but look at this wall. I’ve never seen a place built this sturdy.”
Indeed, seeing how it still maintained its structure without a single collapsed spot, it was sturdy, but no matter how the locksmith old man packaged it, the only thought in Jaeha’s head was: The people who bought units here instead of Eunjang Apartments back then must have suffered from frustration and anger.
Jaeha chuckled and lowered his head.
The old man’s eyes immediately turned fierce.
“This lock too, you know? They brought in Japanese-made ones that were hard to get at the time and installed them all throughout. This, this is the stuff used in those chairman’s safes, so once you install it, you can use it for a hundred years. You can’t get it now even if you tried. Really, even though I’m telling you this thinking of you, if I wanted to make money, hm? I would’ve told you to replace it right away when you first said you wanted to, right? Hm?”
If left alone, his blood pressure would rise and he’d collapse in front of someone else’s innocent door, so Jaeha decided to placate him at this point.
“The guy I live with doesn’t lock the door. What good is a sturdy lock when the guy with the key doesn’t take care of it?”
“That vegetable shop owner?”
The old man asked back with a slightly softened demeanor. This time, the ‘jang’ in ‘owner’ fell just short of the ‘F’ note, but Jaeha nodded anyway.
“Why doesn’t such a sharp person lock the door?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s protesting, asking me to change it to a door lock.”
“But you know what? When thieves see this lock, they don’t even dare try to open it and run away.”
Isn’t it because they don’t feel it’s worth breaking into a house still using such an old lock? Then again, it does help with security as a result.
The locksmith old man put down the beat-up old box he’d brought under his arm. The old hexagonal lock would at least get scrap metal value, but on the faded box remained a glossy-coated photo of an old button-type door lock of questionable value.
Right, whether it’s digital or button-type, as long as the door locks properly, that’s enough.
Jaeha fiddled with the electronic cigarette in his pocket. It wasn’t particularly a non-smoking building, but whenever the locksmith old man saw the electronic cigarette, he’d grumble that young men do all sorts of strange things, so Jaeha held back because he didn’t want to hear it.
Changing the lock didn’t take as long as expected.
“Here.”
At least it was shorter than the time Jaeha had to endure the nagging.
“The password is set to 0000, so here, look at the manual and change it.”
“It’s fine. I’ll just use it as is.”
Looking at the newly installed door lock, it seemed like even thieves wouldn’t bother entering the password to break in.
“More nonsense. Everyone in this neighborhood knows you’re rich. Want to get stabbed in your sleep?”
Is that why he insisted so much on using the hexagonal lock? So it’d be hard to get robbed.
Jaeha chuckled again. Whether the old man nagged or not, he took out his electronic cigarette and put the drip tip in his mouth. Grape scent spread out abruptly. This grape flavor was unnecessarily fancy and he didn’t like it at all.
“I don’t want to bother making a password.”
“Just use a memorable date!”
“Should I use my birthday?”
“Birthday my ass, go ahead and advertise it to everyone. Use something others don’t know.”
“What’s yours?”
“The day I first met my wife.”
“Oh, a romanticist.”
“Romantic my ass!”
The locksmith old man waved his hands in uncharacteristic embarrassment.
“But you use a door lock too. Yet you tell me to keep using the regular lock.”
“……”
He must not have expected this counterattack. Jaeha stuck out his red tongue slightly beyond his lips that had just released white smoke. At the childish mockery that was so absurd it wasn’t even infuriating, the old man only let out a deep sigh.
“I had no choice but to change it because of my wife. I didn’t want to see her shivering in the freezing cold because she lost her keys!”
“As expected, because you’re a romanticist.”
“Don’t say such nonsense!”
Jaeha snorted and picked up the manual. Changing the password wasn’t complicated. The problem was what new password to set.
The day we first met.
Ah, this won’t work.
Because it’s Father’s death anniversary.
Suddenly he became curious about Taesung’s door lock password. Would it be 0000? Did he set it to something like 2580 because it’s easy to press when entering? No, when he’d peeked before, his fingers had moved more complicatedly. Did he also put in ‘some date’?
“When’s your birthday, sir?”
“Why?”
“I’ll use that as my password.”
“Isn’t this guy completely crazy?”
“Ah, why? I’ll even give you a present on your birthday.”
“Don’t need it, you lunatic. You’re acting like this so you can pin something on me if it goes missing.”
“As if. It’s because you’re special to me, sir.”
“You think I’ll fall for that again? You think I don’t know you’re approaching me with your eyes on my house and shop?”
Ah, is that why he’s upset? The locksmith old man was on the side that disliked redevelopment, so he wasn’t even Jaeha’s target.
“Why would I target your place, sir? If I wanted it, I would’ve negotiated already.”
“Then why did you ask me to teach you billiards?”
“To learn billiards. Wait, are we dating right now? Why is our conversation like this? I do like older people, but the age gap with you is too much, sir.”
“Damn crazy bastard.”
Even while cursing, the old man’s voice had softened considerably. They say it’s a world where naive people have a hard time surviving, yet who knows why old people who’ve survived a long time believe people so easily.
Do cunning people all become docile when they age, or is it that in reality, only those who survive like weeds even after getting backstabbed countless times can endure long enough to become old?
Of course, seeing him carefully pocket 200,000 won for installing a door lock that no one would take even if offered as a free giveaway, he did seem like a shrewd old man.
