PAHO 53

Sitting in the passenger seat, Nam Gyeonhwa let out a dry breath as he replayed the events that had unfolded in less than a few dozen minutes. He really should have just left the items at the door and rushed off instead of wasting his time. Trying not to act like a stray cat, he had made his presence known, which was a complacent decision. He should have insisted he wasn’t hungry and run out. But regrets were futile; he was already in a car, being taken somewhere.

‘…Loach soup, sir.’

That had been Nam Haejin’s answer, offered after careful consideration, his eyes wide and hesitant at the vague and peculiar question of what he liked.

‘Loach soup?’

Na Taebeom had frowned as if puzzled. While not an unusual dish, it was bound to sound peculiar for a seven-year-old child’s palate, an age when they would typically like greasy foods like hamburgers or black bean noodles.

The problem was, Nam Haejin didn’t like loach soup; it was purely Nam Gyeonhwa’s favorite. He should have noticed the way Haejin had glanced his way just before opening his mouth. In that brief moment, the little boy had managed to think all sorts of things and, when asked if there was anything he wanted, had deliberately stated his brother’s preference.

‘He likes pizza. Or omelet rice.’

Reluctantly, Nam Gyeonhwa offered other menu items as a compromise. Now that things had come to this, it was a secondary judgment that it would be better if Nam Haejin ate something he liked. And so, they had ended up in Na Taebeom’s car and were on their way to some restaurant.

Sitting in the passenger seat, leaning crookedly against the door, Nam Gyeonhwa observed Na Taebeom in the driver’s seat out of the corner of his eye. It felt strange to see Na Taebeom driving himself, having only ever seen Gwon Jongdae in that role. He’d heard that recently released cars were electric models equipped with an auto-drive function, where you only had to input the destination for it to drive halfway on its own, but Na Taebeom’s car was half-manual.

Although he blatantly ignored traffic signals here and there, his driving skills alone were far more proficient than Gwon Jongdae’s. He’d heard that the inside of Nakdo was so complexly intertwined with old subway stations, closed underpasses, and tunnels abandoned with the construction of overpasses that even veterans often got lost. Nam Gyeonhwa was also in the process of familiarizing himself with the roads by jogging every dawn, but there were still a ton of streets he didn’t know. Na Taebeom seemed to know the roads perfectly without a map; his navigation system only operated the black box recording function and driving warnings, with no route guidance being displayed.

‘Do you know how to drive?’

‘Huh?’

‘Drive, this.’

Na Taebeom, who had been silently holding and turning the steering wheel, tapped the horn and repeated his question. Beep beep. At the sudden honk, Nam Gyeonhwa first checked on Haejin sitting in the back. After confirming that he had woken up briefly at the noise but quickly closed his eyes again, Nam Gyeonhwa lowered his voice.

‘I know how. But I don’t have a license.’

‘You learned without a license?’

‘Just, it sort of happened.’

It was survival-style driving he had learned by watching others on manual labor sites, so his skills were hardly what you could call proper driving.

‘But, why the sudden question?’

‘Just because. I knew you could ride a motorcycle, so I was curious if you could drive a car too.’

It was a rather flat reason, but Na Taebeom seemed to have no other questions, silently turning the steering wheel.

The pizza parlor, with a sign featuring a white character holding a pizza, was empty except for two tables, likely because it was awkwardly past lunchtime.

As they pushed open the wooden door, which looked like it belonged in a Western movie with its hazy dust motes, a man identical to the character on the sign was sitting at the counter. The man, who had been yawning and wiping a beer mug, saw their faces as they entered and spread his arms wide to welcome him.

“Oh, Director Na, it’s been a really long time!”

The big, heavyset man seemed genuinely happy to see him, not just saying it for show, and tried to pull Na Taebeom into a tight hug. Na Taebeom, avoiding his embrace, looked around at the empty tables and clicked his tongue.

“What’s this, Mason. Is business that bad?”

“No, no, the lunch hour is over now, sir. The clock, look. It is two forty. Director Na is late.”

Mason wagged his finger firmly and pointed at the clock. Na Taebeom shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh, is that so. I was worried that pizza made by a pizza expert scouted all the way from America was too sophisticated a taste for Korea.”

“But I am very sad that I cannot see Director Na often. Are you very busy these days?”

“A bit. I’ve had a lot on my plate one way or another.”

Mason, who had been bantering, belatedly noticed Nam Gyeonhwa standing at the entrance and his mouth fell open. Na Taebeom always brought women with him, regardless of race or nationality. Whether they were sex partners or not, the person who came to a restaurant with him was always a woman, and on the rare occasions he came alone, his gaunt-looking driver and assistants, who followed him around like eunuchs from a historical drama, would stop by and quickly order takeout.

This was an unfamiliar face. Though beauty standards differed slightly across cultures and races, the fundamental atmosphere people sought was similar, and the stranger standing beside him was, without any need for flattery, a handsome man. It wasn’t a masculine face that highlighted thick facial lines and a sharp jaw, but rather a calm and delicate impression, like something you’d see in a lipstick commercial. It was plausible that he’d caught the eye of Na Taebeom, who was a self-professed connoisseur of pretty faces, but he was still clearly a man.

A new assistant? Just as he was about to conclude that, Mason’s eyes dropped lower. A small child was standing awkwardly behind him. Around six years old? With four children of his own, he could estimate the age without difficulty. No, more importantly, why was a child here?

“Director Na, did you finally get in trouble?”

“What are you talking about?”

Na Taebeom’s brow furrowed harshly at the question that popped out, unable to be contained by curiosity. Did I guess wrong?

“Aren’t you going to show us to a table?”

“Oh my, Jesus!”

Only then remembering his duties, Mason hurriedly led them to a table. The spot he recommended was a six-person table with a large window, where a long sofa served as the seating.

“Hyung, it feels like we’re in America here.”

Nam Haejin, seated, whispered. He seemed excited by the unfamiliar appearance of the place he was visiting for the first time. Nam Gyeonhwa, too, was quite awkward in the unfamiliar atmosphere of the shop. Until now, he had only known small neighborhood pizzerias with promotional phrases like “K-style” this or that, so he had expected to go to a small pizza place like that, but everything was completely different.

He didn’t want to seem like a country bumpkin, but most of the areas Nam Gyeonhwa had lived in had very little foot traffic, and the few restaurants that existed either ripped off outsiders or were places that sold Southeast Asian-style stir-fried noodles or soy milk under shabby tents. If not that, he was more familiar with shops with red lanterns, like butcher shops, rather than restaurants, so he had only ever seen proper establishments like this in foreign films on the hospital television.

“What do you want to eat?”

“…Anything is fine. You decide.”

“Don’t be like that, pick something. Most things here are pretty good. The pepperoni is the signature, and oh, there’s a menu item with french fries topped with sour cream and fried garlic, that’s a delicacy too.”

“Then let’s get that.”

Nam Gyeonhwa, who had answered somewhat bluntly, suddenly became aware of Haejin sitting beside him and cleared his throat. Haejin, holding the menu open with both hands, was engrossed in reading it. The pictures for each dish were colorful, and the mix of English and Korean seemed to make it difficult to read at a glance. After some thought, what Nam Haejin pointed to was not the pepperoni pizza said to be the restaurant’s signature dish, nor the grilled chicken wings, but an ice cream topped with colorful jellies and sprinkles.

“That’s ice cream, Haejin.”

“Can’t I have this after we eat?”

It seemed the dinosaur-shaped jelly had caught his interest. Coincidentally, the dinosaur placed in the middle of the ice cream in the photo was a triceratops, which Haejin particularly liked. It was obvious he wouldn’t be able to finish it all if ordered, but more importantly, overly sweet and cold foods weren’t good for his respiratory system, so he usually only bought him ice cream once a month. It had only been a few days since he’d had bead ice cream, and on top of that, he was at an age where his baby teeth were starting to fall out, so the doctor had said he needed to take good care of his teeth.

“If you want it, eat it.”

Just as he was about to say no, Na Taebeom cut off his answer. Frowning at the permission given without a second thought, Nam Gyeonhwa covered the menu picture with his hand.

“Don’t order it. He can’t eat much, so a slice of pizza is enough.”

“What does it matter? He’s still a kid. He has to try it at times like this to learn how damn awful the ice cream they sell at pizza places is.”

“Does that even make sense?”

“Then let’s do this. I’m buying it, and I’m the one who’s going to eat it. No complaints, right?”

Na Taebeom snapped the menu shut and gestured to Mason in the kitchen with his finger. Mason, who brought over a large notepad, began to quickly write down the menu items Na Taebeom called out. Mushroom salad, a pepperoni pizza and a cheese pizza with only meatballs added, special fries piled high with Colby Jack cheese, sour cream, shallots, and garlic crunch, and the colorful jelly ice cream. It was as if he had ordered one of every kind of item on the menu.

Come to think of it, when he was first dragged to Nakdo, he had been taken to a Chinese restaurant by Na Taebeom and had been flustered by the endless parade of dishes, and he remembered being surprised at how Na Taebeom ate most of that vast amount of food without any issue.

He’d once overheard that on days when he didn’t have external schedules, he would sometimes hole up in his personal training room in the basement for as long as ten hours, just hitting a punching bag. He had a big build and was very active, so it was understandable that he ate that much, but it was the first time he had felt sick just from the list of foods.

Before long, the salad, two pizzas, and the french fries were lined up on the table. The pizzas were large, the plate the fries came on was large, and even the salad portion was huge. Unlike him, who felt full just looking at it, Haejin seemed utterly fascinated and amused by the large and abundant table. However, he couldn’t bring himself to show it openly, glancing at the plates and then peeking at Na Taebeom. Na Taebeom, who had been quietly watching Haejin fidget and roll his eyes, placed a slice of pizza on a plate and set it down in front of him.

“Eat.”

Na Taebeom, gesturing to the plate with his eyes, then picked up a slice of pizza and took a bite without hesitation. Haejin, who had been hesitating, followed his example and picked up the pizza with both hands instead of using a fork, opening his mouth wide.

“Hyung! This is really delicious.”

Haejin, mumbling with his mouth full, exclaimed with wide eyes. Unlike the excited boy, Nam Gyeonhwa was busy wiping the grease from his small palms and mouth with a napkin.

“Aren’t you gonna eat, little puppy?”

At the word puppy, Nam Haejin looked around as if searching for a dog. Nam Gyeonhwa, glaring at him, said with a sigh.

“…I’ll eat slowly.”

“You don’t look it, but you’re a surprisingly light eater. You.”

Clicking his tongue, he placed pizza on a spare plate. It wasn’t one slice, but two slices pretending to be one. When he tried to cut it in half, the knife hit the plate with a clink.

“Eat it all.”

“…”

“Hurry up and eat so the kid can see that monstrous ice cream.”