Place to Be Chapter 1

I don’t know how long I had been spacing out. Seo Chiyoung, who had been distracted by the sharp crescent moon that left an unusually distinct fingernail scratch in the pitch-black night sky today, suddenly shivered and hunched his shoulders as a chilly draft seeped into the nape of his neck.

Just then, a voice drifted from inside the glass door. “One more bottle of beer here, please!” Seeing as they were ordering more beer despite having been there for quite a while, it seemed they weren’t planning on leaving anytime soon.

Seo Chiyoung brought them their beer and stepped back out to the shabby cooking counter outside the glass door. The interior of the old, slate-structured temporary building held only four rusty iron tables and a beverage refrigerator; the cooking station, which required a gas fire, was located outside the building, facing a long bench where three or four people could sit side-by-side, much like a street stall.

Since winter hadn’t fully passed yet, the outdoor seating was surrounded by a vinyl tarp, but in about a month, it would probably be okay to take the tarp down. Even today, though February hadn’t even ended, it was warm enough that standing outside in just a sweater and a thin jumper wasn’t difficult.

“Young man, are you still at it? I’m heading in first.”

The middle-aged lady who owned the side-dish shop across the narrow road lowered her shutters and greeted him while dusting off her hands. Once that side-dish shop—the one that stayed open the latest in this market—closed its doors, this was the only shop left open in this side alley.

“Yes, get home safely. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

After bowing his head with a smile, he checked the clock; sure enough, it was ten minutes before midnight. The side-dish shop lady was always punctual.

Watching her retreating figure as she scurried away while pulling her collar tight, Seo Chiyoung pulled his own collar tight as well. It wasn’t particularly cold, but it was still a winter night. Once you started feeling the chill, it was the type of cold that didn’t easily leave you.

Seo Chiyoung cast a glance behind him. Inside the shop, there were only three young women occupying a single table. Perhaps because it was a residential area, occasionally middle-aged women, men, or young ladies in comfortable clothes would stop by.

The food he sold was just tripe and a bit of alcohol. He sold simple side dishes as well, but they didn’t exceed two or three varieties. And among the people who visited this place, almost no one ordered anything other than the tripe.

The radio, turned on low on a shelf beneath the cooking utensils, announced the stroke of midnight. Seo Chiyoung looked up at the crescent moon again as if spacing out.

The shop didn’t originally stay open that late. Because this traditional market was in the middle of a residential area, unlike entertainment districts, the foot traffic of customers thinned out as midnight approached, even for a tripe shop that served alcohol. So he usually closed around midnight, but since he sold alcohol, it was common for seated customers not to get up easily. Because of that, there were often times when he couldn’t close until one or two in the morning.

The bottle of alcohol he had brought to the customers a moment ago wasn’t even a quarter empty yet. Whether they would leave once that bottle was finished, or order a new one, was anyone’s guess. Seo Chiyoung rubbed his stiff eyelids and blinked his tired eyes.

However, this didn’t even count as being difficult. Compared to a few years ago, when he had to run around to earn even a pittance without being able to sit down for even a moment from the second he opened his eyes until the moment he fell asleep, he had to call this heaven.

The debt, which made his chest feel so heavy that even a sigh wouldn’t come out just thinking about it, still remained, but he had at least reached a point where he didn’t feel like he was suffocating and dying every single moment. To be sure, it was still overwhelming just to pay off the interest, but it felt like he could finally relax the jaw he had been clenching so hard it felt like it would crumble.

Just then, one of the customers looked at her watch, said they should probably head out, and started putting on her coat. “Fine, let’s just finish this and go,” another customer said as she poured the remaining alcohol from the bottle into each of their cups. Even the person who had been preparing to get up sat back down and picked up her glass, but it looked like they would be leaving soon.

Seo Chiyoung began to tidy up here and there so as not to bother them. It looked like he could close the shop before it got too late today. Sometimes, when customers wouldn’t leave, he had to keep his spot vacantly until three or four in the morning.

As he was closing the lids of the containers holding seasonings, vegetables, and tripe one by one, the cell phone in his pocket gave a short beep beep. He habitually wiped his hands—which weren’t even wet—on a towel and took out his phone to find a text message.

[I bought some Haenam specialty liquor. I’ll stop by when I get back to Seoul tomorrow night.]

It was the groom, Kim Kyung-chul, who had been complaining that his old bachelor boss was being spiteful by sending him on a week-long business trip right when he was soaked in the sweet dreams of being a newlywed after getting married last month. He was one of the few high school classmates he still kept in touch with. Because he liked alcohol so much, he used to visit occasionally carrying a bottle, but since he got married, they had only exchanged occasional texts or calls and hadn’t seen each other’s faces once.

Seo Chiyoung chuckled and pressed the keypad one by one.

[Your wife will be waiting, so go straight home tomorrow and come another time.]

Not long after he sent the text, a reply came back immediately.

[Thinking of you, who will be shedding tears alone after your last remaining solo friend got married, my heart is so choked up I can’t do it T_T T_T]

It seemed he was determined to come tomorrow. Among his high school classmates, there was no one left who was single, but he originally didn’t have many school friends, and among the other peers he knew, those who were married were actually the minority. However, since he could clearly guess Kim Kyung-chul’s ulterior motive of looking for a drinking buddy under the pretext of being “choked up,” Seo Chiyoung just laughed it off. Since Seo Chiyoung hardly drank at all anyway, Kim Kyung-chul would end up emptying the bottle himself, and it was for that very reason that the friend liked drinking with Seo Chiyoung.

Seo Chiyoung also didn’t enjoy alcohol, but he liked the occasions of drinking with him. Because they were both busy, they couldn’t meet often, but a friend from school days known since childhood is someone missed and precious whenever you meet. Counting elementary, middle, and high school, there were maybe three or four friends he was still in contact with. He hadn’t been the type to have so few friends while attending school, but during the ten-odd years since graduating high school, while living a difficult life gasping for breath, contacts had been cut off before he knew it.

“How much is it?”

The last remaining customers came out. Seo Chiyoung quickly shook his head and spoke as the women laughed sociably, saying it seemed he couldn’t close because of them, while he calculated the amount they had eaten and drunk in his head.

Soon the last customers finished paying and left, and now it was time for Seo Chiyoung’s day to end as well. Looking at the clock, it was 12:30. Today was good.

After lowering one side of the shutter door, Seo Chiyoung began to organize the shop. If he cleared the tables, put the remaining ingredients in the refrigerator, did the dishes, cleaned up, and threw out the trash, the organizing would be mostly finished.

He was just about to stack the side-dish containers to put them in the fridge after dumping the greasy dishes separately into the washbasin with a clatter, when there was the sound of someone lifting the vinyl tarp.

“Oh, here. Kanghee said this place was good when he passed by before. That guy’s palate is surprisingly picky, so he’s trustworthy. …Wow, this place looks like it would collapse if you stomped your foot once. Ha ha, these kinds of places are usually the tasty ones.”

“I don’t know, I don’t really like tripe.”

“Then should we go somewhere else?”