Chapter 39

Chapter 39

"OH MY FXXKING GOD!"

A familiar woman's voice was heard from the entrance.

Dong-myeong grilling meat in the yard startled and turned, and I grinned and crossed the living room toward the entrance.

"The house will break. Anyone hearing would think a robber entered our house."

The person frozen like stone in that spot, the front door flung open, was of course Daisy.

Holding a high-end champagne bottle chilled cold and a bright bouquet in both hands, she had her eyes wide and couldn't close her mouth.

A force of nearly dropping the bottle in her hand on the floor.

"Jeong-su... th, this is really... the house I know?"

Daisy had already seen the house even when she came holding coffee last week.

But her reaction now was a different dimension from when she saw the house then.

Of course.

When real-estate people decorate a model house, why do they bother decorating it like a home a person lives in and bake bread right before receiving guests.

Even if the hardware of a house is complete, if a person's warmth isn't filled inside, it isn't real completion.

The house Daisy had looked at was when dust remained a bit on the floor and tools were sprawled everywhere, a 99-percent construction-site feel remaining.

But in architecture and interior, the difference between 99 percent and 100 percent was heaven and earth, literally.

The perfect contrast of walls white dazzling to the eyes and refined black doors, oak-tone floor sparkling without a speck, and the sun and people's life pouring in beyond the kitchen's folding door opened wide, could only be a shock of a different dimension from a few days ago.

"You saw it once a few days ago, what's new."

"No, it's completely different from then! Then it felt only the frame got pretty, and now it's a luxury house that could be on an interior-magazine cover right now!"

Daisy took off her shoes as if possessed and came in and spun in the middle of the living room.

Sweeping the smooth kitchen marble top, stroking the new door handle that opened and closed soft, she let out a groan.

"Ah... I can't!"

"Hm?"

"Let's cancel renting this house, us."

"Suddenly what's that again?"

Dong-myeong and I have to move in here and live from tomorrow?

At Daisy's sudden words I showed a question as if absurd.

"A house this pretty, too precious to rent to someone else."

Excuse me. That 'someone else' is me.

Including Dong-myeong, two or three more will come in, but anyway this was a house we made to live in.

"Jeong-su, let's put this house on the market as a listing right now. I guarantee, at this condition a premium will stick fat no question and it'll sell soon!"

At her voice full of certainty I scanned the house once more.

In fact I agreed 100 percent with her words too.

Belonging near an industrial complex, but this place's location wasn't quite bad.

Ride the main road right above and you can arrive in Sydney city in forty to fifty minutes, and this road, whatever the reason, showed a quieter density than the surroundings.

That we could do the work easy was also because the neighbor house was far and there was no complaint from noise.

This house's only flaw is the location problem.

The rest were all advantages.

"Jeong-su, the place you stay I'll find somewhere else and I'll bear the moving cost all. Let's sell this house right away. Among my friends there's a kid who deals specializing in real estate? I'll call her Monday right away. How about it?"

At her urgent proposal I stroked my chin a moment and thought.

Originally living here was because the company was close.

And finishing the three-month work period I meant to get a job nearby again, and before Daisy had presented a new path.

So I wasn't insisting only on here either.

I nodded after a short thought.

"Good. Instead there's a condition."

"What, what?"

"Sell expensive. Very expensive."

"Yes! Of course! Just trust me!"

Daisy got excited and jumped.

A capitalist who smelled money, a face that clear.

'I fixed the house bones breaking, and now I have to find a room again.'

Swallowing a hollow laugh inside, I pushed Daisy's back toward the yard.

"Right right, business talk slow later, for now let's go out to the yard. The party host is about to burn the meat."

Leading Daisy, I headed for the back yard beyond the kitchen's folding door.

On the lawn the smell of grilling meat and the bitter smell of beer were already mixing pleasant.

"Everyone attention! This side is Miss Daisy, the real owner of this luxury house who provided today's place!"

When I introduced loud, Foreman Gary, holding a beer bottle in one hand and pleasantly tipsy, approached staggering.

Whether excited full that his parents' house had changed like this, today he was drinking more than I thought.

"Oh! Daisy! Welcome! First time seeing you since the contract."

"Yes, good to see you after a long time."

Seeing Daisy greet polite to Foreman Gary, an adult, the foreman smiled good-natured and raised his glass.

"I'm more thankful. You made this old, gloomy house our parents lived their whole lives into a space this fine. Really thank you! This is sincere."

"Aigu, what are you saying. That, Jeong-su did it all. I only invested a little funds."

When Daisy joined, the party's heat got hotter.

The site workers including Peter exchanged greetings with her, then flocked to my side one by one and poured eyes full of envy.

"But Jeong-su, what magic did you really cast? In barely a month, and that with a cast arm, tearing and fixing a house like this? Get the fxxk out of here! This is a miracle. I have to tear our house's old bathroom too, come when you rest and give a quote!"

"Shut up. That talk separate later on site. Today let's focus only on the party."

"Ah. Sorry."

A few workers were already even commissioning remodels to me.

But today was a day to enjoy the party wholly.

No professional DJ, and only music ringing from a big boombox radio, but the people who came here, not one was bored.

Each freely enjoyed the food and asked after each other.

Above all, the hottest topic at today's party was by far the Korean food I had prepared.

These unfamiliar dishes were drawing endless conversation between people.

On a wide table on one side of the yard, the Korean catering boxes ordered from Daega were spread like a buffet.

The menu was bulgogi that cannot be missing from a feast table, and salty braised ribs, japchae with gloss flowing, and gimbap and inari sushi piled like a mountain.

The Aussie people who had paused at the unfamiliar food they saw for the first time soon tasted one or two from curiosity, then opened their eyes wide and rushed holding plates.

"Jesus! Jeong-su, this meat on the bone isn't really crazy?! The moment it goes in the mouth it just melts like cotton candy?!"

Peter held braised-rib bones in both hands, sucked them, and cheered.

"Hey hey, this transparent pasta is more a jackpot! Sweet-salty and chewy, I can't stop the fork!"

Foreman Gary and Uncle Mick scooped japchae and bulgogi on plates like a mountain and kept shouting "awesome!"

Now the Australian sausages and barbecue Dong-myeong was grilling hard were about to become leftover rice.

Meanwhile, while the adults were absorbed in the meat, Foreman Gary's teenage daughter and the kids the colleagues brought were completely sunk in the gimbap and inari sushi set on one side of the table.

"This seems a sushi roll and there's no raw fish and it's so tasty!"

"Sweet and sour!"

The kids, sesame oil shiny on their mouths, moved their mouths and kept picking gimbap and inari sushi.

An explosive reaction regardless of men, women, old, young, literally.

I held a beer bottle in one hand and shrugged and kept the front of the table.

Later, knowing the future that this Korean food becomes global K-food the whole world lines up to eat and goes crazy for, this situation could only be more pleasing.

"This is Korean barbecue, called bulgogi. And that transparent pasta Gary and Mick are eating is japchae made from sweet-potato starch. In Korea, precious food you eat no question at a feast or party."

When I explained proud the meaning and ingredients in the food one by one, people admired and nodded.

Now 2004 Australia. Korean food still regarded as food of a small country in Asia, but seeing it captured the locals' taste in one go, even a strange pride as if I had pulled forward the future's national prestige came.

"Tasty? Eat a lot and fill the stomach sturdy. From tomorrow you have to go to the yard and run to death again!"

"Hahaha! Shut up, Jeong-su! On the weekend we don't talk work!"

The colleagues' pleasant scolding poured.

But it didn't matter.

Strange, today the shoulders felt they would fly to the sky.

This place, the value of the sweat I shed recognized, and sincere congratulations received.

A feeling of my suppressed self-esteem shooting to the sky.

'Damn. The mood kills it.'

A chest-filling emotion I had never felt once on the tight Korean labor board of the previous life.

* * *

The morning of Sunday, the day after the noisy house party.

Dong-myeong and I, about to pack right away and enter the new house, had no choice but to stay a while more at the agency share house we originally stayed in.

Staying wasn't a hard thing.

Just notify the agency manager and pay the room, and it would do.

And now Park Ji-hun's gang had all been caught by the police and gone out, so staying wide only the two of us, Dong-myeong and me, should I say rather honey.

Anyway, sitting on the share-house veranda where warm morning sun shone, drinking instant coffee with Dong-myeong, we were talking low.

"Hyung, then for a while we keep living in this share house?"

"We can keep living here, or find a house separate on rent. Either side doesn't matter, right? Daisy got that excited yesterday and said sell the house, there seems a reason. Australia's sale method is a bit different from Korean real-estate deals, she said."

Dong-myeong tilted his head and asked.

"How?"

"I don't know in detail either, but here buyers stick a price competition in an auction form, she said. So you can raise the house price full."

"An auction? Wow, amazing."

"Right. It is amazing. Anyway, finding a house we live in isn't a big problem. Let's not worry that too much."

"Understood."

"Rather you prepare for an interview. I told Michael in advance, so write the resume well and take it and you can work right away at the Bunnings warehouse."

"Hyung! Overwhelming thanks!"

"Uwak! This bastard, disgusting, don't go over there!"

Dong-myeong, glad, hugged me and jumped.

I hated it and pushed Dong-myeong's big head firm.

Enjoying the leisure of a noisy weekend like that.

Squeak— click!

The sound of the share-house front door opening.

Hearing that and going out to the living room, in front of the door people dragging big immigration bags and carriers straining were flocking into the house.

New working-holiday newcomers just arrived on Australian soil by plane from Korea.

"Wow... this seems the house we'll live in."

"The sky was really blue! Hey, we're real Australian working-holiday people now too!"

Eight men and women newcomers just dropped on Australian soil in the agency pickup van.

Letting out exclamations at the flashy Sydney city scenery seen out the window, and unable to hide an uneasy look at the unfamiliar scenery of the share house, narrower and stuffier than thought, like a chicken coop.

Watching their eyes frozen full, excitement about a strange foreign country and a blank fear of how to live ahead mixed half and half, I formed a bitter smile at my mouth without knowing.

"Why, hyung?"

"No. Just the feeling a bit strange. The thought of when we first came to Australia comes too."

Seeing those eight fresh newcomers, the working-holiday cohort Dong-myeong and I belonged to when we first dropped on Australian soil rose.

Those guys who came holding swollen dreams, where are they all and what are they doing now?

People who flailed to survive and scattered to farms and factories, several regions.

People who disappeared without a sound at some moment, and even guys who fell into bad acts, got caught by the police, and go in and out of court.

The reality of Australia hidden behind the romantic name tag of working holiday was cold wild itself, perfect for grinding inexperienced, clumsy youth.

Thinking how many of those eight could return to Korea laughing a year later, one corner of the heart went bitter.

"Dong-myeong. From the kitchen fridge, bring cool orange juice and cups all on a tray."

"Yes? Why us?"

"No talk, bring it."

I turned from the window and moved my steps toward the people pouring sweat moving bags in the narrow corridor and living room.

When I approached, skin blackened in the sun, and a cast on one arm, the clumsy working-holiday people startled and stepped back.

Already uneasy, and I seemed to look like a neighborhood thug or a scary long-term guest throwing turf.

But I threw off the loose attitude, stood in front of them, and bowed polite and greeted.

"Everyone, you worked hard coming a long way. Welcome to Australia."

"Ah... yes, hello!"

At a greeting more polite than thought, whether the tension let go then, the guys awkwardly greeted back.

Timing good, Dong-myeong came out holding cool orange juice poured full on a tray.

"Moving bags, you'll be thirsty, for now drink a glass of juice each refreshing."

Handing a glass each, people kept shouting "thank you!" and downed the juice.

I stood in the middle of the living room and decided to share boned information that would help survival even a very little with the youth thrown on this strange land.

"I haven't done Australian life tremendously long, but still, as a person who came a little before you and rolled and got hurt, I'll advise just a few things."

At my serious voice the eight gazes concentrated.

"First, never leave your passport to someone else rash. If brokers say they'll get you a farm or factory job and take the passport first, that spot is a scam no question, so run right away. A passport is your lifeline in a foreign country."

"Ah... yes, I'll keep it in mind."

"Second, when you do a cash job under a Korean owner, if even one week's pay is late, don't hesitate and quit right away. Kids who believe the excuse 'I'll give it next week, things are hard these days' and hold out, and get a lump of two or three months' pay skinned and chased out, are thick. And now ahead of Australia's year-end season, local work overflows. So think of Korean jobs as the very last last resort and look. In Australia you have to look after your own rights poison-hard."

On the working-holiday people's faces the fantasy gradually lifted and realistic tension began to circle.

"Last, don't go near a casino hanging with strange people because you're lonely. Korean working-holiday people who ruin their lives gambling here, a truckload. If you came to earn money, earn honest sweating, and if you're going to play, rather go to a club or go to the sea and learn surfing."

After my words ended, a heavy stillness flowed in the living room a moment.

Around when I wondered if my realistic advice had sounded too spicy and cold to them who had come expecting only beautiful romance, a young man in horn-rimmed glasses bowed his head.

"Thank you, senior. The agency only said everything is good no question, so honestly inside I was a bit scared... you said words that become blood and flesh for real, and the heart sets sure."

"Right. Really thank you!"

What settled in the people's eyes was not wariness but sincere thanks.

Only then a comfortable smile spread at my mouth too.

"What senior. Korean people earning money sweating in a foreign land together, helping and living. If there's something you don't know or you suffer something wrong, say anytime. I don't know other things, but beating gangster bastards I do incredible well."

At my mischievous joke Dong-myeong beside hit his chest and added.

"Right! Our hyung is the best tough guy who fought the thugs who lived here before and skinned people and sent them all to the police station. Everyone listen well only to hyung's words and rice cakes will form even sleeping in Australia!"

At Dong-myeong's thick skin, on the faces of the eight newcomers frozen with excitement and unease, a bright smile flower finally bloomed.

Though I can't take responsibility for all their lives, a senior's sincerity hoping at least they experience less of breaking and snapping empty on this rough Australian land.

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