HPK 5

“Yoon Wooseung!”

From a distance, Jaemin raised his hand high. Even at the subway station exit, crowded with people, he stood out. For one, he was tall, and his build was just as large.

“Did you lose more weight?”

“I didn’t.”

“Hey, with this, how are you going to manage the physical fitness test?”

I kept my mouth shut, pretending not to hear him bring up the exam I had given up on long ago. Jaemin clicked his tongue as if he understood.

“What do you want to eat? Want to get meat?”

“Meat again……”

“Dude, you gotta eat meat to have strength.”

“Let’s just get noodles.”

Whether it was pork belly or chicken, if it was meat, it was obvious that Jaemin would drink. So, as much as possible, Wooseung wanted to eat food that was far removed from alcohol. Something where, even if they did drink, it would only be a glass of beer.

“How about pork cutlet?”

“……That sounds okay.”

Jaemin took the lead and started searching for a good pork cutlet restaurant nearby on his phone. The restaurant he found was between two stations, so they had to walk a bit. Wooseung quietly followed him.

There were an unusually large number of shops for tteokbokki, malatang, and four-cut photo booths. Befitting a university district, most of the people passing on the street also looked young.

It was close to lunchtime, so it was not easy to walk through the crowd, but perhaps because it was his first outing in a while, even this was not so bad.

Just then, an elderly woman stepped down from a metal staircase that led to the second floor of a building. She placed a hand on her knee and barely managed to descend the last step, then turned to look up. A shopping cart with wheels was sitting alone about three steps up.

“Ma’am. Shall I bring this down for you?”

“Oh my, I would be grateful if you did.”

Wooseung did not hesitate to approach and offer his hand. The shopping cart was very light, enough to be carried with one hand. The old woman bowed her head deeply, saying thank you.

“Where are you headed?”

The old woman handed him a crumpled business card. On the card, the words ‘OO Hair, Designer Han-gil’ were written along with an address. It was not far from here.

“Want to stop by on our way?”

“……”

“If you’re really hungry, I can go alone……”

Wooseung glanced at Jaemin as he spoke. His courage shriveled when he saw the face full of discontent, but the old woman was already leading the way, so Jaemin probably had no choice.

“……Haah, fine. Let’s go, let’s go.”

Jaemin strode to the old woman’s side and extended a hand. The old woman grasped Jaemin’s forearm, which was full of thick muscles.

As they walked around the shops handing out flyers, the old woman chattered on, unasked, about how she had to return the shopping cart now that her work was done.

“Oh my, thank you so much for your help.”

“It’s nothing, ma’am.”

Soon, they arrived in front of the hair salon the old woman had mentioned. She took the shopping cart, turned around, and smiled brightly. The wrinkles extending from the corners of her eyes were crinkled. It naturally made him think of his own grandmother, lying at home.

“The young man is very pretty.”

With those mumbled words, the old woman disappeared inside the glass door. Wooseung turned around with an awkward smile. What the old woman had mumbled was also exactly what his grandmother often said.

“Let’s go. I’m starving to death.”

They were back on the main street and had just started walking toward their destination.

“Those old ladies aren’t even that grateful. You shouldn’t go out of your way to help them either.”

Jaemin chided Wooseung in a grumbling tone.

“Why would you say that……”

“Hey, there’s a whole truckload of old folks who use patrol cars like taxis every damn day. Do you think I’m going to say anything nice?”

“It’s not like she did that.”

“They’re all the same, all of them.”

Jaemin, spouting such harsh words, seemed a little unfamiliar to Wooseung. When they were studying for the police exam together, he had been a friend overflowing with a sense of justice. In fact, it had been a problem that he had too much of it……. Now, that same Jaemin was carelessly condemning an old woman he had just met today. Even though Wooseung was the one who had offered to help first.

“……You weren’t like this before.”

“Society made me this way. Society, huh? Yoon Wooseung, you’ll become like me too once you have to deal with shameless old folks.”

Jaemin shivered, saying he was now sick to his stomach at the mere mention of the elderly, and in the end, Wooseung chose silence. He had never been able to win an argument with Jaemin anyway.

Jaemin, who had passed the exam first, had already been promoted to corporal. It had been quite a while since he was transferred from the police box to the police station, but he still talked about his time at the police box with disgust. Of course, a lot must have happened to Jaemin during that time. While he understood, he was also uncomfortable with how he openly belittled others. It was even more so because he did not seem to feel an ounce of guilt.

“How long are you going to do that waiter thing?”

“……Just. Until I save up for academy fees.”

He had lied to Jaemin, saying that while it was true he worked at an entertainment establishment, he was a waiter, not a host. At first, he had nagged him, asking what a civil service exam student was doing with a part-time job, but after hearing about the hourly wage and the occasional tips, he would just occasionally chime in with things like, ‘how long are you going to do it for’.

“Is your mother going to the hospital regularly?”

On the way to a window seat, guided by an employee, Jaemin asked as if it were nothing. Sunlight poured in from under the fully opened blinds, warming the chair.

“Yeah.”

Wooseung answered indifferently and quickly opened the menu. It was not a topic he wanted to continue.

“What do you want to eat?”

“Your father must be having a hard time. I used to see a lot of people like that, with alcohol addiction, at the police box, and the family members seemed to have it harder than the person themselves. Even if your father doesn’t say anything to you, his insides must be a wreck.”

Wooseung did not reply and lowered his head deep into the menu. He read each letter carefully, as if he were thoroughly reading an interesting book.

“I’m paying, so eat a lot.”

“Pork loin……. ah.”

He was about to choose the cheapest item on the menu when a molar on the lower side suddenly throbbed. A subtle pain had started a few weeks ago. But it was only a few days ago that his tooth started feeling sensitive when he drank cold water and throbbing unexpectedly.

“A cavity?”

Jaemin said, seeing Wooseung clench his teeth.

“I think so. It hurts a little.”

“Go to the dentist quickly. Don’t procrastinate and make it a bigger problem.”

He added jokingly that the length of the receipt was scarier than the pain. To Wooseung, it did not sound like a joke at all. Wooseung clenched his teeth a few more times before choosing his menu item.

“I’ll have the pork loin cutlet set.”

“Alright. What about a drink? Beer?”

“No. Co……”

He was about to say cola without thinking but flinched without realizing it. That night came to mind again.

The can that rolled to his feet. The sticky liquid that left a black stain on the asphalt.

‘I was helping you pick it up faster.’

And that shameless voice.

The hesitation did not last long.

“……I’ll have cider.”

“Okay. Excuse me, we’d like to order.”

Jaemin raised his hand high toward an employee. Wooseung leaned his body against the soft back of the chair.

Amidst the greasy smell of fried food, for some reason, he could smell the cloying scent of alcohol that he smelled every night.

*

Wooseung stopped in his tracks as he was passing through the parking lot.

His gaze fell on a cola can with a dent in the middle. It was right in front of the automatic door where people came and went.

“……”

He carefully looked around. There were no watching eyes, nor were there any cars just entering the parking lot.

The words of Kim Jungoh, who had told him that hosts only work in the rooms and not to do anything stupid, weighed on his mind, but in the end, Wooseung picked up the trash. Just in case he ran into Kim Jungoh, he also remembered to put the can inside the bag slung over his shoulder.

Perhaps because it was a Friday night, the waiting room was unusually crowded. After seeing one room, he came back to find Hyojun had arrived. He sat next to him and they watched a drama on Hyojun’s iPad. It was a makjang drama that was currently very popular, and the running time per episode was just right for watching during their waiting time.

“Wow, isn’t that crazy? Hyung, do you think that makes sense? She’s still his daughter-in-law.”

“I know, right. That’s really crazy.”

In one corner of the waiting room, gambling was in full swing. The hosts who were stuck in the waiting room because they had not been chosen often gambled. It was said that there were cases where they earned more money from gambling than from being chosen, so the stakes did not seem to be small.

About ten minutes later, the tightly closed door of the waiting room opened. The person who appeared was Choi Hoonyeong, commonly called Manager Choi. He had only heard about him from the other hosts, so Wooseung was a little surprised to see him for the first time since his first day of work.

He took about half a step inside the waiting room.

“Hyungho, Chris, Jaewoo, go in, and Seokhyun, how many rooms have you seen.”

“I haven’t seen any yet.”

“Then you go in too.”

Manager Choi pointed out a few hosts. Unlike with other rooms, when the boss was making a choice, only a few hosts chosen by Manager Choi went in, not the whole lineup. It seemed he was filtering out the hosts who were not the boss’s type from the beginning.

The hosts he pointed out got up from their seats. Among them was Hyojun.

“Alright. Hyung, I’ll be back.”

“Okay.”

Wooseung waved his hand, telling him to have a good one. Hyojun, who had straightened his clothes, left the waiting room with a brisk stride.

Even with a few people gone, the waiting room was still bustling. He had heard that all the rooms were full, so it was surprising anew that there were this many hosts left in the waiting room.

A little while later, the hosts, including Hyojun, returned.

“You didn’t get picked?”

“No. Hyungho got in.”

“I don’t know why they even have a lineup when they’re just going to pick Kim Hyungho anyway. It’s not like they’re training a dog.”

Leaving one grumbling host behind, Hyojun sat on the sofa. He turned on the iPad, saying they should just finish the drama. When he pressed the play button, the drama that had been paused started again.

About fifteen minutes passed, and they were watching a scene where the female protagonist was being slapped by her mother-in-law when the waiting room door opened again.

“Yoon Wooseung.”

The person who appeared was Kim Jungoh.

“Yes?”

“You have a request.”

“……Me?”

Kim Jungoh, who had suddenly appeared in the waiting room, lightly ignored Wooseung’s dumbfounded question and gestured with his chin toward the outside of the door. It was a sign for him to come out.

Wooseung got up from his seat awkwardly. He looked down at Hyojun, but he also seemed to have no idea what was going on.

It had only been a week since he came to the annex. There was no way he would have a request.

With the curious gazes of the remaining hosts in the waiting room behind him, he quietly followed Kim Jungoh. The door closed behind him with a bang.