Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The way home, mind much lighter from being introduced to a sturdy police connection by Foreman Gary.

Now even if Park Ji-hun pops out, the certainty stood that I could handle it at ease.

Arriving at the Fairfield West site, I prepared the next step at once.

Before covering the plasterboard, to have the electrical wiring inspected and approved, I called the electrician Uncle Billy introduced.

"Dong-myeong, soon it's time the electrician old man comes. You go buy dinner generous. Pizza or a big kebab, like last time."

"Yes, hyung! I'll go and come quick."

Not long after Dong-myeong took the car and left the site plodding, an old dented van turned into the yard.

The person who got out was a white old man around his sixties, looking similar in age to Uncle Billy.

A man with mussed silver hair sticking every way and thick reading glasses on the tip of his nose, looks that recalled Einstein.

On his old vest, from a wire stripper to every kind of tester, hung in clusters.

What on earth does he do?

Just the looks, curiosity rose.

"You're the Korean boy Billy mentioned? I'm Arthur."

"Ah, hello! I'm Jeong-su. I'm counting on you."

Same name as the lawyer who notarized the partnership contract.

Old man Arthur received the greeting rough, as if and as if not, then turned on a headlamp and went straight into the house.

At a glance the temperament was hasty, and he looked strict.

He began examining the wires I had laid beyond the reading glasses, as if through a microscope.

"Hm······."

He checked the sheath state of the wire, the position of the holes passing the frame, and even the thickness of the main cable going to the main board, poking a tester this way and that.

On old man Arthur's wrinkled face that had been strict, a satisfied smile soon spread.

"Oho. That snake Billy wasn't bluffing. Very beautiful. Specs kept knife-sharp, and seeing the touch of leaving spare line so it's easy to work later, not a touch of pulling line a day or two."

"Thank you. Heh heh. This much is basic."

The moment I was cheering inside, receiving the eccentric old man's pass.

Old man Arthur, moving his steps looking up at the middle of the living room, suddenly stopped dead in place.

He tilted his head seeing dozens of wire bundles hanging at regular intervals between the ceiling frame.

"Hey, Jeong-su. But what are you going to use those for, pulling that many wires? Planning to hang a nightclub mirror ball or a chandelier in the living room?"

At his question I answered indifferent, without much thought.

"Ah, those? The living-room ceiling height is a bit low, so one big main light seemed stuffy. So I pulled them matched to the spacing, to recess LED lights clean as downlights."

"······What? Hang what?"

Hearing my answer, old man Arthur's face a moment dyed with absurdity of 'what on earth dog sound is this?'

He picked his ear and asked again.

"L··· E··· D? What light is that? I've rolled this floor for decades and I hear a light of that name for the first time since hair grew?"

"Yes? Come on, old man, what a joke. You don't know LED? Low power use and tremendously bright······."

Going on, I felt my tongue freeze a moment.

Old man Arthur's face was not joking.

Genuinely the face of a person who had heard an alien tongue.

In that moment, an ah thought came.

I had assumed LED would be widely spread in this era.

The source technology, I know it was developed in Japan long before.

When I was working hard on site there was no place not using LED lights, so it jumped out more unconscious.

'Don't tell me in 2004 it isn't commercialized for building yet?'

Cold sweat ran down the spine.

Setting excuses aside, it meant the line work I did was all useless.

If there's no LED, what can do downlights, recessed lights, would all be halogen lamps, power-eating hippos, or pale-white incandescent bulbs.

Rather than use that, don't do recessed lights at all.

"LED? You mean the diode that makes a red light on the end of a television remote? Brighten the living room with that?"

Old man Arthur burst a dry laugh as if dumbfounded.

"Jeong-su. If you're thinking of driving those hot halogen downlights into every one of those holes, the insulation all burns and the house catches fire! The power can't even bear it and the fuse box will drop every day. What thought did you pull lines this ignorant many with!"

Old man Arthur's roar echoed loud between the empty frame.

'Tsk. That's what I say.'

By 2004 common sense, the old man's roar was right a hundred times.

I, on the spot, had been rattling future building technology in front of a 2004 Australian electrician, and in an instant was being treated as a lunatic who nearly set the house on fire.

'Ah, damn. My experience catching my ankle, of all things.'

Absurd, a hollow laugh came.

I scratched the back of my neck and began spinning my head taut, how to talk around this eccentric old man.

"I made a mistake. When I was at university in Korea I heard they were testing LED lights for building use. I made it like that thinking I could get it here. Too much, as expected?"

"Of course too much! You think I'll permit with unverified material like that? Then if the house burns clean, what! Halogen lights too, drive that many in the ceiling and the power bill aside, the heat will burn the house!"

Old man Arthur roared spirited.

"Yes. I'll take them all out. Don't worry."

"Take them out right now!"

I awkwardly climbed the ladder and cut the spare wiring I had pulled useless in clumps with nippers, and finished with insulation tape.

And put it back to an extremely 2004 standard spec, where only one ordinary living-room main light could be hung.

Only then old man Arthur's strict face eased.

"Right, a young friend's nonsense, leave it at that. Now start the real test. My license is on this, so don't think of passing it rough."

Old man Arthur took out one heavy piece of equipment hanging on the vest.

Before formally connecting power, a megger, an insulation-resistance tester, that checks in numbers where the wire sheath is peeled or a short risk.

He clipped the equipment on the end of the main wiring and shot high-voltage electricity.

A moment later, checking the tester needle, old man Arthur hummed.

"Good. Insulation-resistance numbers very clean. Pulling line through a narrow hole and not peeling one sheath."

Next he connected the site's temporary power to the main board.

Confirming the ground was properly on the house metal and outlets, he deliberately overloaded the machine.

Tak!

0.03 seconds. With a light sound the earth-leakage breaker dropped knife-sharp.

Perfect proof the system works normal when a fire or shock risk occurs.

"Perfect. Beautiful."

Finishing every check, old man Arthur took from the inner pocket of the vest something like a thick receipt book with several carbons layered.

The alpha and omega of Australian remodel work, the CCEW, Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work.

Scratch, scratch—

He wrote careful in the form the megger numbers measured today and whether the earth-leakage breaker worked normal, and last scrawled his license number and a large signature.

"Right, take it. The white original is yours. A very expensive scrap of paper you have to shove at the buyer's lawyer when you sell this house later, so keep it well in a safe."

He handed me the white paper torn off and grinned.

"This blue copy I keep, and the pink copy at the very bottom I'll mail to the state Fair Trading bastards tomorrow. It means I, Arthur, legally inspected this house's electric strict and approved it putting my license on it."

"Thank you, old man. The handling is very clean."

I put 300 dollars in old man Arthur's hand.

Only a one-hour inspection, but ending thousands of dollars of work legally at a few hundred dollars, pure gain.

"LED or whatever, from next don't do useless things!"

Even leaving he roared, and the moment old man Arthur rode the dented van and disappeared raising dirt dust, timing good, Dong-myeong holding a pizza box ran in panting.

"Hyung! Already gone?"

"Yeah. You came late and he left without even the pizza."

I flapped the white CCEW certificate in my hand and gave a short laugh.

Now the legal preparation to really cover the walls and transform this haunted house into a new house was at the point of ending.

* * *

Eating dinner at the Fairfield West site and going on to insulation cutting, coming back to the city, it was already late night.

We parked the old Korando in an outdoor ground lot near the city, and got out.

"Hyung, tomorrow you said you'd stick the insulation?"

"Yeah. Cut it all today, so tomorrow only stick it with urethane foam. That will end quick."

Dragging a body limp with tiredness, coming out of the lot and turning the corner of the narrow alley toward the share house, it was that moment.

In the dark, something flashing from behind the wall jumped toward my head.

I unconsciously raised my left arm and blocked it.

Tak—!

"Keuk!"

With a dull crack a thick club struck the left arm and glanced off.

A sharp, stabbing pain as if the bone were breaking rode the forearm and struck the brain.

When I staggered letting out a groan close to a scream, Dong-myeong following behind freaked and shouted.

"Hyung—!"

Dong-myeong, with tremendous reflex, snatched the back of my neck as if grabbing and pulled, and stepped back sharp.

Whoosh— puk! Puk!

In the spot I had been standing until a moment ago, two or so clubs fell, seen cutting the air.

Dong-myeong led me and pulled the body quick, and stepped back toward the wide lot where the streetlight shone.

"Hyung, the arm! Is the arm all right?!"

He looked at my left arm and asked, gone pale.

A tingling pain to the fingertips was riding up unpleasant, but fortunately it did not seem the bone was broken.

But the spot properly hit by the blunt was felt swelling as if it would burst right then.

"Sseup······. It's fine. It didn't break."

I pressed the pain with effort and reassured Dong-myeong.

And I hurriedly raised my head and glared ahead.

Beyond the corner, with a giggling sneer, black shadows revealed themselves one by one.

"Keh keh keh. Han Jeong-su, the sense is fast as hell. You dodged that?"

Under the streetlight, Park Ji-hun standing with a crooked leg, stamping the club on the ground.

In the end the guy attacked.

"Hyung, those son of a bitches!"

Dong-myeong clenched his fist and growled as if he would jump out right then.

Looking, Dong-myeong's eyes had already fully turned too.

I quickly blocked Dong-myeong's chest and stopped him.

In my right pocket, Senior Sergeant David's number at the city-jurisdiction station that Foreman Gary had put in my hand was saved as speed dial 1.

Take out the phone and press the button right now, and within five minutes the police would barge in.

But I stopped the hand heading for the pocket.

'Clumsy thug bastards swinging weapons in a crowd in the middle of the city? This isn't simply an act done from being pissed.'

However I looked, there was something more I didn't know.

"Hey."

I called the guy.

"What, you mannerless bastard!"

I threw a question at the guy with an absurd face.

"I really don't understand, so. Just because you don't like me, you gather people and ambush like this? And not one or two, seven? Do you think this makes sense right now?"

I thought at best Park Ji-hun and Kim Tae-sik, the two, would rush.

And he brings five more fierce-looking Korean thugs?

At this level, it's planned mobilizing a backing, set on it.

Calling the police, not late even after pulling all the information from these bastards' paltry mouths.

I let the throbbing left arm hang, and calmly burst a dry laugh.

"A parasite bastard living off skimming petty money like you, what connection and money do you have that five follow you. Try thinking, hm? So it means someone who ordered this is behind? Anyway stupid bastards. You're just a small fry who moves for a few coins!"

Park Ji-hun's face twisted with anger, and my provocation landed.

To a thug packed with bluff and pride, the word small fry was a sure seizure button.

"This son of a bitch ranting to the end! Hey, you don't know your place and go around muddying the board everywhere, so it's saying pickle you one sure!"

As expected, the stupid guy is exposing the existence behind, smooth.

"Anyway you're out of this floor. Some hyung with money madness said if he makes you one crippled sure, he'll look after the fee not stingy. You just got on the wrong side of the upper line and luck stuck bad, understand?!"

Heard it all.

When the estimate of the situation came, I fiddled speed dial 1 of the phone in my pocket and took the guys in one by one with the eyes.

Park Ji-hun raised his chin holding the club.

"You fuck bastard. Look at the tongue frozen from fear. Hey, at least to hyung you use polite speech, mannerless bastard. That's why you're getting beaten today."

A thin sneer spread at the guy's mouth.

But the thumb in my pocket had already pressed the call button deep.

Now there was no more reason to mix mouths with the guys.

"Hello. Mr. David. I'm Jungsu. Please help!"

"You bastard! What are you doing right now!!"

Seeing me holding the phone to my ear and shouting as if to be seen, the guys swore and rushed in a crowd.

I shouted at Dong-myeong, clenching a fist and taking a stance.

"Dong-myeong! Run!!"

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