Rabbit Hole Chapter 24

Go Unha, unlike usual, had his hair down plainly. It was a natural look. Not only that, he was wearing a hat that looked exactly the same as the one Go San wore when he screwed him. Geumseo was briefly startled when he saw that logo. Every time his eyes inadvertently went to it sitting on the table, he was still startled.

“Diligent. Good for you.”

Unha said that while poking at his salad.

“Hyung. You look tired.”

Geumseo cautiously broached the subject towards Go Unha, who seemed to have no appetite at all. At those words, Go Unha let out a languid sigh and sank back into his chair.

“I’m about to go abroad soon, so I have a lot to prepare. A lot of people to meet, too.”

“Oh, I see…. When are you leaving?”

“Next week? I’m busy. I can hardly find any time.”

Saying that, Go Unha wrapped his hand around his neck and slowly turned his head. In doing so, the side of his nape and collarbone area were somewhat visible. There were marks there, the kind Go San often left on him. They were in a really similar spot, and freshly made, bright red. But as soon as his head returned to its place, they quickly disappeared from sight, so it felt like a mirage, making him wonder if he’d even seen them properly.

“Geumseo, I heard you changed jobs?”

“Huh? How did you know?! Did Go San tell you?”

“No. That place, it’s somewhere I know. Looks like San heard me mention it in passing and plugged you in there.”

“Ah….”

Geumseo, who had straightened up stiffly in surprise, let out a sigh of relief. Seeing Geumseo so openly relax, Go Unha laughed. He brought his water glass over, took a drink, and asked.

“Why? Are you relieved because it’s a place I know?”

“Yeah…. It’s not like hyung would just know any random place…. When you said it was a place Go San knew, I was worried, but since it’s a place hyung knows, I’m relieved. Actually, the work is easy, too.”

And as long as he listened with one ear and let it out the other to the drunken ramblings of the intoxicated customers, the tips were generous too. That’s why the amount he paid back this time was a bit larger.

“Well, it’s not like we’re that closely acquainted….”

Go Unha, murmuring that, emptied his water and rested his chin on his hand. His expression was one of great interest. That expression resembled Go San so much that even Geumseo was inwardly surprised.

“Geumseo, why do you think so well of me?”

“Because hyung… helped me so much….”

“Is that all?”

“That’s all…. Hyung. Even my relatives all stopped taking my calls. You were the only one who came looking for me….”

Came looking for him, indeed. It was Unha who had helped him renounce his inheritance when he was twenty. After that, he said he was going back and forth to America and wasn’t around, but hyung had no obligation to do that anyway. The loan sharks had harassed Geumseo all that time, but that was merely joint responsibility for the things his father had done. Besides, somehow finding out about it, Unha hyung resolved the loan shark problem as soon as he came back.

“Hyung helped me more than people who share my blood….”

If it hadn’t been for Go Unha then, Geumseo would have been dragged off somewhere, used until his body was completely worn out, and then had even his organs cleanly harvested. He tried not to think about such things as much as possible, but whenever it came to mind like this, it was terrifying enough that he was guaranteed to have nightmares at night.

“I see.”

Unha smiled brightly.

“So that’s it.”

“Hyung…?”

“Anyway, that establishment, it’s run by someone I know. Did you meet the boss? That’s the person.”

“Yeah. He was a unique person. He wore sunglasses indoors.”

“He still does that?”

Go Unha giggled for a long time. Then he leaned his body back towards Geumseo and spoke as if whispering a secret.

“Geumseo-ya. Trust San more than me.”

“Huh…?”

“That will be better for you. It’s advice hyung is giving you because he feels sorry towards you anyway.”

“What does hyung… have to be sorry about to me?”

Geumseo was dazed, unable to digest Unha’s words. Unha drew his body back and repeated.

“Just… a few things here and there…. Anyway, Geumseo-ya, you know well that San is soft on you, right? Don’t make him angry for no reason….”

∞ ∞ ∞

Don’t make Go San angry? It was the most difficult and most novel piece of advice. He had been making Go San angry all along, and until now, it hadn’t been a major problem. By Geumseo’s standards.

“You, kitchen. You too, kitchen. You are… you little shit. What’s with your fingernails. You’re fired. And you are…”

The boss, who wore sunglasses even indoors, assigned tasks one by one to the closing team standing in a row in the hallway. Usually he didn’t do this, but today, suddenly, following the novel advice, came a novel distribution of roles.

The boss sharply aimed his finger between the brows of the dazed Geumseo.

“You, serving today.”

Consecutive serving shifts. The guy who got fired for having long fingernails yelled and screamed that this was unfair dismissal and that he’d report it to the labor office. The boss picked his ear, then called one of the big guys over and tilted his chin. The guy shouting about the labor office was dragged off down the hallway. Geumseo wondered if that guy, too, would end up never being able to get a job at any other establishment in this alley again, just like him.

“Hygiene is the basics, what bullshit is this. To me, fuck, the public health center is scarier than the labor office. Got it?”

The boss gave a full speech about how scary a business suspension was, and on top of that, if a single hair or a single fingernail turned up, the regulars, who were scarier than a business suspension, would stop coming. Every time the veins bulged on his neck, thick paws and claws—from some beast, he didn’t know what—that crept up to his nape writhed together. Like the shark that would loll its maw every time Go San broke through the water’s surface while swimming.

“Alright then, dismissed.”

“Boss! Isn’t the hall staff way too few?”

“Are you the boss? Dismissed.”

The boss simply brushed off the suggestion. It was definitely two fewer than usual. They’ll probably add more as they go, I guess? Geumseo didn’t think much of it and waited at the end of the hallway.

As things turned out, their work hours overlapped a bit, and he had gotten friendly with the big security guard who stood like a sculpture at the end of the hallway. The trigger was a day when it was less busy than usual and Geumseo had asked, ‘Are you a real security guard?’ He was so big he seemed like he could fill an entire train door, and his features were quite fierce, but his eyes were sparkling bright. Geumseo asked again. ‘So that’s why you wear sunglasses? Even indoors? Both the boss and you, Mister?’

The security guard, whom Geumseo had found both a bit dumbfounding and cute, ended up even exchanging names.

‘Mister, really. Call me hyung. It’s Haeju hyung.’

Haeju. The name didn’t suit him. So Geumseo ended up laughing. Haeju thought about punching Geumseo once but held back, afraid he might die if he did.

“Hyung. Is today a day when not many customers come?”

“No. It’s a busy day. This place is always doing well.”

The rich don’t have separate weekdays and holidays. Haeju figured he didn’t need to say that much and didn’t.

“But why did the boss pull two servers?”

“It’s the boss’s call. If you get curious about every little thing like that, you won’t last long in this business.”

Geumseo closed his mouth and decided not to get curious about every little thing like that. He wanted to last in this business as long as possible. The tips were lucrative. Even if he just stood there like a statue doing nothing, people stuffed things into his pockets. It seemed like they just had so much money that if they didn’t spend it, even in a way that felt like throwing away trash, the money piled underneath would rot, unable to even breathe. Geumseo didn’t get hurt even when he heard insulting words, and he let words that harassed him go in one ear and out the other. Those two years spent with the loan shark Misters were, perhaps, a practice period prepared for these days.

The rich people who came here all wore nice clothes and nice shoes, but their way of playing and the things they said weren’t much different from the loan shark Misters. When he saw them high on drugs, he sometimes thought the loan shark Misters might actually be better. At least those people knew what they were saying and what they were doing.

“Hey. Light’s on.”

Thanks to Haeju giving his back a pat, Geumseo was able to not think too long about how Unha hyung had come to know a place where people who did drugs and played dirtier than loan sharks gathered. Geumseo moved nimbly. Business had begun.