INFB Ch 1

The way to the gosiwon is rugged. On top of it being a continuous uphill slope, he had to walk for a long while down a road where the street and sidewalk were not divided. Potholes were sunken here and there in the old asphalt ground, so if he lost his focus for even a moment, he was bound to stumble.

“Haa…”

Seobin, who walked without fail on this road that showed no sign of growing gentle despite walking it every single day, let out a long sigh. Above his head, the light of a streetlight cast over him flickered intermittently. Seobin stared up at it blankly.

The streetlight, filled with insect corpses, had been broken for a year, but no one reported it, so it stayed that way. It seemed the people living around here were not bothered by the broken streetlight. Of course, Seobin was also one of those who were not bothered by this streetlight. A greater ‘inconvenience’ was lurking close by.

Watching the streetlight, unable to tell whether it was flickering or twinkling, Seobin started walking down the road again.

Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. Even though the weather was cool, trudging up the uphill slope made his hair flop down limply and sweat soak into his spine.

And just around then, an unpleasant odor shot straight into his nostrils. The source of the stench was the trash illegally dumped under the streetlight. Even though a sticker was plastered loudly on the streetlight saying,

― No Illegal Trash Dumping Area ―

Trash Dumping Prohibited

CCTV Recording in Progress

Violators Will Be Reported

the people here used to throw away their trash indiscriminately. They did so because they knew that the CCTV didn’t actually exist. Thanks to that, walking down this road became even more agonizing as summer approached.

Seobin crossed through the stench, which seemed to welcome him, with a nonchalant expression. He didn’t complain, nor did he swear. He merely wiped away the beads of sweat on his forehead loosely with the back of his hand.

“I should wash up as soon as I get there.”

Seobin quickened his pace, looking forward to the cold water that would pour over his body. A smell of dirt and meat vibrated off his body. This was because he did odd jobs at a construction site in the early morning and grilled meat at a charcoal ribs restaurant at night.

Every single one was on the heavy side in terms of workload, but they paid a high hourly wage. At the construction site, they gave him a hearty breakfast and even took care to give him bread and milk as a snack. At the meat restaurant, they gave him soybean paste stew, seasoned soybean sprouts, kimchi, and the like that were served to customers as complimentary items.

All of them were workplaces that Seobin didn’t envy big corporations for.

And finally, another workplace.

Stopping his steps in front of a familiar building, Seobin raised his head.

Gosiwon. This place was Seobin’s home and, at the same time, his workplace. The gosiwon was in such a secluded place that it made one wonder how it came to settle in a place like this. So much so that despite being in Seoul, there wasn’t even a single convenience store nearby.

The building had four floors in total; the first floor was a chicken & pub shop that hadn’t opened its doors in a long time, and from the second floor up was entirely the gosiwon.

Adjusting his backpack, Seobin went up the pitch-black charred stairs. The stairs, lacking such a luxurious machine as a sensor light, were dark. The streetlight’s glow seeping through the wide window was all there was, and a musty smell of mold, cement, and urine wafted in. Still, as it was a home where he could lay his body down, smelling this musty odor put his mind at ease.

Seobin lit up his cell phone as he climbed the stairs. After that, he sent a message to someone.

Are you awake? Make sure to eat breakfast.

There probably wouldn’t be a reply. Because ten times out of ten, there was no reply. But since the read indicator popped up, that alone was enough. It was when Seobin shoved his cell phone into the side of his backpack and reached the second floor.

“Ah…”

In front of the glass door with a loosely clinging sticker reading Hapgyeok Gosiwon. A heap of piled-up trash greeted him.

Biting his lower lip firmly, Seobin counted the days in his head. Then he realized that tomorrow was the day to throw out recyclables.

Seobin went inside the gosiwon for now and set his bag down in front of the shoe rack. Then, rolling up the sleeves of the shirt he was wearing, he stepped back outside.

Chicken boxes, numerous bottles of soju, plastic bags smeared thickly with kimchi soup, slippers he didn’t know the reason for being there, parcel boxes of various sizes, cigarette packs, paper cups used as ashtrays, PET bottles with about a sip of cola left, etc. All kinds of trash were waiting for Seobin’s touch.

Even though he always asks the tenants to sort the trash. [Paper], [Cans], [Plastic]. He had even personally made signs and attached them himself. How is it that not a single person does it properly?

Since it was a situation repeated every week, Seobin picked up a parcel box bound up with tape without a shred of annoyance.

Seobin worked at this gosiwon under the title of ‘Manager’. He was in charge of tasks such as bathroom cleaning, kitchen management, trash management, and move-in/move-out management, receiving a pay of around a hundred thousand-plus won a month. It was an extremely small pay, but instead, the gosiwon fee was free.

Since the gosiwon fee was 250,000 won a month, counting that as well, it wasn’t a bad job. Especially, earning money by working in spare moments without time restrictions was a very good condition for Seobin.

Seobin went on organizing the trash piled up like a mountain neatly. Reducing the volume, classifying, stepping on it with his feet, washing it with water, and so on. Then, a bandage stuck to his hand peeled off and fluttered, so he roughly tore it off and shoved it into his pocket.

There were many small wounds on Seobin’s hands. It was because he got hurt, scraped, scratched, burned, and seared while doing various jobs. At first, every single wound stung terribly and hurt, but now it was nothing.

What he couldn’t get used to was his lacking physical stamina.

Seobin, who was organizing and putting an exceptionally large number of soju bottles neatly into a box, shook out his arms. His arms were shaking and in a frenzy because he had moved a lot of heavy things at the construction site today. If he overworked his body like this, it would make sense for muscle to attach. Is it because his eating is meager? How is it that without missing a single day, it’s exhausting?

It was when Seobin crumpled his thin body and was pulling out a soju bottle caught between the trash.

“Seobin, you ain’t a high schooler anymore, right?”

A rough bass voice called out to Seobin. Seobin, his shoulders flinching, looked around. Then he discovered cigarette smoke creeping out from beyond the corridor corner. Seobin moved toward that direction on his knees.

Over there, a man in his mid-thirties wearing short shorts and three-striped slippers was leaning against the window, smoking a cigarette. He was the man from Room 209, a gosi candidate, and it was said he had been here for about four years.

Seobin gave a short nod.

“Hello.”

Then the man flicked his hand with the cigarette between his lips.

“No, I’m not a high school student.”

Seobin answered the question. At that, Room 209 turned his body toward Seobin and leaned against the wall.

“What about university? You don’t attend?”

“I do.”

“Where do you go?”

“Hankuk University.”

Room 209’s eyes opened wide. It was understandable, as the name of the best university in Korea had come out.

“Heol. You go to a crazy good place. You must be insanely smart, huh? I’m envious. I’m a dumbass, so I’m still doing this shit.”

At the intense self-deprecation, Seobin just let out a faint smile and stopped there. And then he continued organizing the trash again. But whether Room 209 suddenly became interested in Seobin, he dragged his slippers over and started blabbering by himself.

“Come to think of it, since it’s a university of that level, isn’t that why the owner here picked you as manager?”

Seobin responded shortly, “Is that so.” In fact, it probably wasn’t a wrong statement. The competition rate for a gosiwon manager is fierce. Especially for a gosiwon located in such a secluded place. When most of the residents are those to whom a thousand won or ten thousand won is precious. But when the previous manager left, Seobin, the youngest among the residents, came to take that position. Even though the only special thing about him was his academic background.