The Twin Bar
Kwon Hyun-jin had lost both parents in a traffic accident when he was still a newborn, leaving Chairman Kwon as his only immediate family. That was probably why he treated Chan-hee so familiarly. Sweet, gentle Chan-hee would just keep tagging after him, calling “Hyung-ah, Hyung-ah,” no matter how roughly Hyun-jin scolded him.
They hadn’t seen each other in so long; of course Chan-hee would have been happy. Just as happy as Chan-hee had been to see Kwon Hyun-jin again.
……But that watch.
Hyun-jin was the one who smashed it, yet I still felt uneasy. Who throws an expensive watch like that just because he lost his temper?
“Well, at least he installed that.”
An unfamiliar water purifier stood in one corner of the kitchen. Thank goodness.
The refrigerator was a little more organized, too. The raw noodles and soy milk in the freezer were gone. For all his talk of cement paste and whatever else, he had eaten them after all. What a ridiculous guy.
What Madam Jang had packed for me today was the spicy croaker stew the Chairman had praised so highly. I put the whole thing into the fridge without unwrapping it.
Unless someone put a gun to his head, Kwon Hyun-jin would never eat spicy fish stew. I still remembered the time a mackerel bone got stuck in his throat and he ended up in the emergency room. Ever since then, just the sight of fish on the table was enough to make him gag.
What if I run into him like this?
Sudden fear drove me out of Kwon Hyun-jin’s apartment at once.
“Good heavens, look how pale the sky is! It’s going to pour any minute. Let’s hurry.”
Autumn vegetables had come up from the Yesan farm. The people of Building B were all out in the front yard prepping them together. I helped Mom trim the young radish greens.
“Excuse me. Might there be something light to eat?”
It was Driver Kim. He had once been a personal driver for the main house, so everyone knew him.
“Oh my, the young master must be here.”
Mom was the first to dust off her apron and stand.
“Our Driver Kim, how do you end up skipping meals like this?”
“See? Even a house servant needs to meet the right master.”
The staff chuckled under their breath. With the Madam and the Vice President both out, everyone was relaxed enough to joke around.
“Don’t say things like that. Didn’t you see Lawyer Kang come and go? The Chairman dotes on his eldest grandson something fierce.”
“True enough. After Lawyer Kang left, the Madam was in a complete state. She even postponed her golf and didn’t eat a bite all day.”
“She’s sulking, in her own way. She never did that for Eun-seo or Seung-ju.”
Kwon Eun-seo and Kwon Seung-ju were the Madam’s children. They had lived under the same roof as Chairman Kwon until they came of age, rubbing shoulders every day.
But even after they became adults, the Chairman never settled the shares of Electronics—the very heart and core of Kwonjin—so the relationship between him and the Vice President’s couple remained strained.
The Madam never showed her feelings openly; instead she used independence as an excuse to send Eun-seo and Seung-ju out of the Hannam-dong house.
When his second daughter-in-law expressed her disappointment, Chairman Kwon scolded the Vice President’s couple for being impatient and shallow. The Madam had knelt all day under the pine tree in Building A as if performing the deepest apology. It had happened years ago, yet it was still one of the stories people kept retelling.
“Who knows how he’s changed the will this time? Our Chairman is something else, in every way.”
I finished the last of the radish greens and peeled off my sanitary gloves.
Whatever the ladies were gossiping about didn’t matter to me.
My heart was pounding at the mere thought of running into that boy. There was no reason for Kwon Hyun-jin to come all the way to Building B where the staff lived, but we were still inside the same compound.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
On impulse I stepped out through Building B’s gate. The simple calculation was that if I stayed outside this house that felt like a lion’s den, I wouldn’t run into Kwon Hyun-jin.
I had rushed out and was still catching my breath when Assistant Manager Choi came up the hill path. A black plastic bag dangled from his cheerful hand.
“Assistant Manager Choi, has the Madam gone out?”
“To a gathering. Couples only.”
“Ah.”
So she had left in the Vice President’s car. That was why Choi had stayed behind.
“The Chairman suddenly wanted ice cream. Want one too, Na-hee?”
I didn’t bother refusing and rummaged through the bag he held out.
“Not the Excellent or the Bibi Big.”
“Got it.”
Those were the Chairman’s. Of course I knew that.
Amatna, Melona, Babamba…… With so many older staff members, every ice cream was one of those. Among them I picked a Melton Bar. When Choi saw me peeling the wrapper, he paused.
“That’s my favorite too. Let’s eat just one before we go back in.”
The two of us, house servants of a sort, squeezed into the CCTV blind spot beside the gate and committed our little act of rebellion.
We were nearly finished with the ice cream when it happened.
“Hey.”
The voice from the road sliced through the quiet air.
“Cough.”
Choi was so startled he dropped even the stick he was holding and coughed dryly.
“You two dating?”
It was Kwon Hyun-jin. He had come out of Building A’s gate and was walking down toward us. The open-collar suit told me he had come to see the Chairman.
Choi gave an awkward laugh and waved both hands.
“Aigoo, Hyun-jin. What are you talking about? Na-hee’s standards are sky-high.”
“Who the hell asked you?”
Hyun-jin glared at Choi as if he meant to chew him up and spat the words out coldly.
“Who do you think you are, getting all buddy-buddy, you tofu-faced bastard.”
“Ahaha, tofu…… First time I’ve heard that one.”
Choi laughed even louder for no good reason.
I knew that awkward smile. Wanting to defuse the situation, I quickly opened my mouth.
“Kwon Hyun-jin, want me to give you an ice cream too?”
Why on earth did those words come out? It wasn’t as if the guy was an eight-year-old kid. I regretted it instantly, but the words were already out.
The gaze that had been boring into Choi slowly turned. He looked at me with an indifferent face.
Was there still some residual grudge from the day he threw the watch? I worried, but his eyes weren’t as threatening as they had been that day. At least he wasn’t the type to hold a grudge. That was a relief.
He looked away from me, fumbled with a cigarette pack, then shoved it back into his rear pocket.
“I don’t eat that.”
His tone was much softer. Gathering my courage, I rummaged through Choi’s black bag again.
“Come on, just try one.”
“You go ahead and stuff yourself.”
“Here.”
I quickly pulled out whichever ice cream my hand found. Before he could refuse again, I tore the wrapper open with a pop and held it out in front of his face.
“This one’s the best. You eat this.”
“…….”
Kwon Hyun-jin stared blankly at the hand offering him the ice cream. Then he roughly shoved Choi’s shoulder and walked past him.
“Out of the way, fuck.”
“Ugh.”
Choi, a full handspan shorter than Hyun-jin, staggered, then seized the chance and fled into Building B.
Before I knew it, Kwon Hyun-jin was standing right beside me. Casually he took the ice cream. But as he was pulling the wooden stick out of the wrapper, his large hand suddenly stopped.
“Hey. What the hell is this…….”
It was a Twin Bar. Why had I of all things grabbed that one? Flustered, I still pretended nothing was wrong.
“You don’t even know Twin Bar? It’s shaped like this so two people can share it.”
He just stared at me without answering, and my mouth went dry.
“You break it in half and each person takes one. See? There are two sticks.”
“…….”
Faced with the puzzle of the Twin Bar, Kwon Hyun-jin simply froze.
I tugged the left sleeve of his hand that was shoved into his pants pocket. Half of his own will, half of mine, he ended up holding one stick in each hand.
“Snap it like that.”
“…….”
“You just break it clean…….”
I tapped the back of his left hand with my index finger, but he still didn’t react.
In the end I hooked my finger around his left hand and gave a gentle pull.
Snap—the Twin Bar broke. I must have used too much force; the piece in his left hand was bigger, the right one smaller.
“There. That’s how you eat it. Enjoy.”
“Hey.”
I was about to head back into Building B when the voice behind me rooted my feet to the spot.