Chapter 23

Chapter 23

"Hey, Dong-myeong. Come here."

Before starting the demolition proper, standing in the middle of the living room, I took out the thick carpenter's pencil stuck in the work-uniform pocket.

And I called Dong-myeong, a complete beginner who knew nothing.

I began a detailed explanation, drawing lines on the wall.

"When you tear a house, it isn't smashing it all with ignorant strength. You have to read the structure of the building frame first."

I drew a thick, dark vertical line from ceiling to floor.

"The frame stood along this line is the load-bearing wall holding the roof's weight whole. Touch this wrong and the roof load shifts and the house collapses. Both of us become ghosts of this house."

Of course we won't die, but the invested money flies, so no different from dying.

"Here, tear only the finish stuck on the outside, and don't touch the frame. Got it?"

"Heok! Yes! Load-bearing wall! I absolutely won't touch it!"

Dong-myeong nodded, spirit full in.

"And this wall touching the outside, we call the external. You know what that means?"

"Yes! Understood."

Does this kid know?

That site knowledge like this is real know-how you can barely get only after a few years as a helper.

The world of workers, each skill is all money, so they try never to tell someone something easy.

This is a remnant of the Japanese apprentice way, and because of this, in the future a situation of skilled workers far short even happens.

This one thing alone is a passage you can know how closed a site is.

But I, regardless of that, will pour what I know freely.

I moved my steps toward the thin partition wall stuffily blocking kitchen and living room.

And I struck a big X outright on that whole wall.

"On the other hand, this one has no load on the upper part at all, right? A useless non-load-bearing wall that only divided the space. I don't know if it's Australian style, but old Australian houses split space small with non-load-bearing walls like this and give a tremendously stuffy feeling."

I added, drawing diagonal lines fresh across the wall.

"I'll open this wide and take the view broad. So the work you do today is, with your ignorant build and strength, to strip that non-load-bearing wall between living room and kitchen clean. Take the sledgehammer and knock down all those walls I X'd. Got it?"

"A, understood!"

"If you don't know, ask no question, and wear the mask for sure. In an old house like this there can be asbestos materials. Breathe that dust and it's straight to lung cancer."

"Hup! Yes! I'll wear the mask for sure!"

"The answer is good."

I laughed, patting the shoulder at the ringing answer.

Dong-myeong put mask and gloves on tight, two layers, and gripped the big sledgehammer hard.

And lightly loosening the shoulders, he began swinging the hammer without hesitation at the non-load-bearing wall I had X'd.

"Yaaaaat!"

Bang—! Puk! Kwaaang—!

"Oh~!"

"Yaaaaap!"

Bang! Bang!

"Wow······!"

In the middle of the living room where dust rose thick, I held the pry bar and burst admiration again and again.

Because a demolition show destroying ordinary common sense was happening in front of the eyes.

Every time Dong-myeong brought the sledgehammer down with a shout, the non-load-bearing wall that had been holding firm collapsed like paper, literally.

Every hit, it smashed puk puk, a level where one wall flew whole.

The form of swinging the sledgehammer lively, covered in dust, how the energy overflowed.

'Crazy. Look at that monster strength? At this speed the work will end tremendously fast, more than I thought?'

I calculated four days for demolition alone, but with this firepower it seems it will end enough in two or three days.

Stimulated by Dong-myeong's ignorant but overwhelming demolition speed, I could not only watch quiet either.

While the guy smashed the non-load-bearing wall and opened a path, I began taking the plasterboard off the load-bearing wall with the pry bar.

"Dong-myeong!"

"Yes! Hyung!!"

"What hyungnim? A gangster? Just call me hyung easy."

Dong-myeong scratched his head, dust settled white, and nodded shy.

"For now come this way."

Dong-myeong approaching thud thud, holding the sledgehammer.

Aigu, look at that imposing build.

If that guy had been born in the Joseon era he would surely have been a great general in armor sweeping the enemy line.

Or not? A big-build butcher?

"Why did you call, Hyung Jeong-su?"

"Hey. From the start don't spend strength that ignorant, match the beat with rhythm. Or you get bone-sick. I said in work like this the body is the asset. Hit soft to a 4/4 trot. Not techno beat like you, bang! bang! stamping."

"Haha. Yes."

I tapped the awkwardly laughing Dong-myeong and pointed at the wall.

"Watch well. I'll show you how to take plasterboard without smashing ignorant. See the line the nailer shot here?"

I drew vertical lines in a row on the plasterboard at 450-millimeter intervals.

"A timber post frame called a stud passes along this line. Bond and screws are driven only in this frame spot. When you remove plasterboard you have to remove the side the screws are driven. Hit the middle ignorant and it breaks into a mess. Along the line I drew, tap only around the screws with the hammer to open a gap, and shove the pry bar in like this and lever it."

I showed as a demonstration, hitting only near the nail heads on the lined spot with the hammer, bang, bang, to open a gap.

And shoved the pry bar in and levered it on the lever principle.

Anyway the nailer isn't driven deep, so if you only watch the board breaking, it comes out easy.

Screws fell one by one, and in the end a large plasterboard dropped whole, ttuk.

"Ooh! Hyung, the best!"

"Heh heh. Kid, stop the empty praise."

"Come on. Not empty praise, I say it because it's really tremendous!"

"Enough. Take this fast."

Dong-myeong came quick and took the plasterboard I had been holding precarious, and set it on the floor.

And looking at the inside of the revealed load-bearing wall, he nodded.

"As expected."

"Yes? Why."

"No. Hammering, an empty sound, and looking, there's no insulation."

"Is it not allowed if that isn't there?"

"Not that it isn't allowed... still, it won't be."

"Yes?"

"Australia isn't as cold as Korea in winter, so you could live. But the daily range here is no joke either. No insulation and it'll be tremendously cold at dawn. Australians live well in empty houses like this."

At my words Dong-myeong nodded.

"Anyway, removing plasterboard is done like this. And don't spend strength, do it slow."

"Yes! Understood! Hyung!!"

Dong-myeong shouldered the sledgehammer again, walked toward the non-load-bearing wall, and began hammering.

Bang! Bang!

"Kid, I said do it slow."

The overflowing energy doesn't seem under control.

Well, do it ignorant like that a few times and he'll find his own rhythm.

I too began taking the plasterboard off the load-bearing wall, focused like that.

How much time passed.

Easily doing the plasterboard work, suddenly a ringing thunder, 'kkoreureureuk!', was heard.

Startled, I turned my head, and Dong-myeong was seen clutching his belly, face gone bright red, flustered.

'As expected, even a super hypercar had a fatal flaw.'

The fuel-consumption speed seems no joke.

Giving a short laugh and checking the time, it was 7:50 in the evening.

The time worked proper was barely a little over three hours.

'Did more than I thought.'

Looking around, the work situation is fast.

The plasterboard on the living-room outer is all off, and taking the inner load-bearing and the ceiling, it's the end.

No foam insulation inside, so rather the demolition ended tremendously easy.

Doing a bit more is fine, but I had no thought of working that glutton kid hungry, not even having brought dinner.

"Dong-myeong, let's stop here today. Tidy around and let's go eat."

"Yes? Already? I, I still have strength overflowing!"

"Enough, you bad-mileage kid. Have to feed the belly solid first to use you again tomorrow."

At my words, only then a bright smile frosted on Dong-myeong's face.

The guy, like a large dog wagging its tail, began gathering the waste sprawled around into a corner with movements noticeably faster.

As I had told him, concrete as concrete, plasterboard as plasterboard, gathering and stepping tight, reducing the volume.

I helped beside him too.

Then soon the tidying ended and only the dirty timber frame was revealed gaunt.

"Well. Smash it all and it's really wide and nice."

"I know. From outside it didn't look that big, and opening the walls the house got tremendously wide."

"That's what I mean. I don't know why they did the interior stuffy like this."

"Enough, I'm hungry. Let's go fast."

Australia is all good, but ordinary shops closing too early is the problem.

Neighborhood cafés end business at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and large marts and restaurants too, sun down and the shutter comes down without mercy.

On one side their work-life life is enviable, and on the other, from an owner's side, can they eat and live, a question rose too.

Well, anyway.

To eat at a late hour like this, you had to go out to the flashy Sydney entertainment quarter, or the old-city area behind the Opera House.

Two men covered thick in plasterboard powder and sawdust dust got into the white New Korando.

I ran with both windows down all the way so the dust would come out of the car a bit.

From Fairfield West to the city center, about forty minutes.

Sydney's night wind, cool to the point of chilly, rushed fierce through the window gap and shook the dust on hair and work uniform without mercy.

Shooting out of the dark western outer road with sparse streetlights, the scenery around the road gradually began to change dramatic.

From a quiet, still residential street to a forest of high-rises, and soon into the center of Sydney city, dazzling flashy.

A strong visual contrast, as if teleporting out of the stale dust pit of a labor board into a completely different world where flashy lights and neon signs flashed.

The moment the Korando took the elevated road on the city outskirts, the blocked view opened wide and the spectacle of Sydney Harbour poured in at a glance.

The grand Harbour Bridge crossing the deep-blue sea, and the Opera House like a huge white shell, glittered clear under flashy golden light.

Dong-myeong, sitting in the passenger seat staring blank out the window, suddenly stirred his body and stuck his upper body out the window.

"Uwaaaaaak—!!!"

At the guy howling like a beast I startled and nearly turned the wheel.

"Hey, crazy bastard! You startled me! Not coming in, dangerous?"

But Dong-myeong, not caring about my shout, met the rough night wind head-on and yelled like mad.

"Hyung Jeong-su!! That's the Opera House I saw on television, right!!? That shining bridge is the Harbour Bridge, right!!? Uwaaaa!! I see that for the first time since coming to Australia!!!!"

In the guy's voice, joy and excitement, sorrow, and an unknown sense of release were mixed.

Thinking of it, it was so.

The guy was dragged to a dust-pit site at dawn every day, only running gombang, and when the sun set he went into the chicken-coop share house quiet as a dead mouse and was busy collapsing to sleep.

Coming to Australia on a working holiday, today was the first he had seen Australia's beautiful landmark scenery with his own two eyes.

Looking at the guy's wide back, head half out the window, cheering again and again, I burst a short laugh, absurd and yet.

"Right, country boy! Fill your eyes to the full today! From here I'll make you see it sick of it!"

I too raised my voice along and pressed the accelerator deeper.

The New Korando's 3.2-liter petrol engine poured a light roar, and we slid refreshing into Sydney's night street shining flashy.

* * *

The place we headed was the 24-hour restaurant Pancakes on the Rocks, in The Rocks, the old-city area behind the Opera House.

A restaurant I had come to with Rosie before too.

"Waa······."

The moment he stepped into the shop, Dong-myeong kept looking around at the dazzling lights and the bustling foreign customers.

He found the mood of a flashy, busy family restaurant strange and amazing.

Slap!

"Ayat."

"Stop showing the country-boy look, go sit fast."

As it is the look is a beggar look.

Open the mouth and add country air, and even if we're chased out there's nothing to say.

We shook the dust with wind in the car and came, but still sweat-mixed dust was on the clothes.

Even, the sweat all dried in the middle, and hair and cloth are stiff.

In a word, a mess.

I pushed Dong-myeong, mouth open country-style, and sat him in a corner seat.

And I ordered the house signature, beef ribs, and pancakes, very generous.

A moment later, the server set a plate of tremendous size in the center of our table.

A huge beef-rib bomb piled like a mountain, giving off a sweet and salty barbecue-sauce smell, and pancakes with syrup poured thick.

"Oooh!"

"Right, eat fast before it cools. You worked hard today."

The moment my words fell, Dong-myeong picked up the huge bones one by one with both hands and began tearing like a beast.

"Eup······ heok, heueong······."

I, lifting a knife, flinched and stopped.

Because Dong-myeong, beef rib stuffed full in the mouth, was streaming chicken-dropping tears from the eyes.

The look of sniffling and chewing meat, mouth a mess of brown sauce, was quite a sight.

"Too······ too good, hyung. Heuk, since coming to Australia this is the first time I eat meat this soft and good. Really honey taste······."

No! Why is this one salty again!

A huge man over 190 centimeters gripping beef ribs in both hands, sobbing and tearing meat.

Feeling the foreigners at the next table glancing our way as if amazing, my face heated slightly.

"Hey you crazy bastard, why cry in a restaurant, embarrassing. The taste is just good."

I scolded with the mouth, but the feeling ahead of that was a lump of satisfaction.

How little treated as a person, how hungry he had rolled the site, to be moved like that at one piece of meat, a corner of the heart salty, and seeing the guy eat blessed, even I felt full along.

"Before you eat it all, let me eat a bit too!"

Feeling a crisis at the guy's tremendous appetite, I joined the food fight proper, not to lose.

No face to keep, gripping the rib bones with both hands and tearing the meat like a crab hiding its eyes.

"Euheong, really the best! Chew chew, mumble······."

"Don't cry, chew! Don't chew well and you'll get sick!"

We moved our jaws busy, no gap to speak.

In the end that evening, tearing tear-wet beef ribs, Dong-myeong and I perfectly smashed a huge beef-rib bomb that could easily be five servings, and two plates of pancakes, between the two of us.

The way out of the restaurant, patting the bulged belly.

The face of the foreign server who had been startled seeing us empty the mountain-like plates clean is still vivid before the eyes.

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