Chapter 41

Chapter 41

The noisy welcome party of the working-holiday people passed, and returned to daily life, I went to work at the company and pressed the number of an international prepaid phone card hard and called the family home in Korea.

Ring ring—

The tone hadn't rung a few times when a familiar, missed voice was heard.

"Hello?"

"Mom, it's me. Jeong-su."

Australia and Korea don't have a big longitude difference, Sydney only an hour ahead of Korea.

"Aigo, our son! Not hurt, and working well? Not skipping meals?"

In Mom's voice beyond the receiver, gladness and worry were soaked full.

I spoke in a voice lively with effort.

"A grown son, why would I skip meals. I'm eating meat side dishes until I'm sick of them, so don't worry. More than that, did you confirm the money I sent?"

The moment my words ended, Mom's voice rose a tone more.

"Aigu, of course I confirmed! I went to Nonghyup and organized the account book and Mom was startled. What money did you send that much? Five hundred dollars or something, you sent that twice. The bank clerk said it's over 800,000 won in Korean money! Money you earned hard in a foreign land, why did you not use it and send this much?"

A thousand Australian dollars was big money well over 800,000 won in Korean money.

Especially for our house's not-abundant situation, that money was never a small amount.

But I snorted as if it was nothing and boasted.

"Come on, Mom. What's 800,000 won, big money. I work hard only a week in Australia and I earn that much easy. So don't worry about your son's money, and book a comprehensive checkup for the two of you with that money first."

"A comprehensive checkup? Aigo, useless talk. Eat well and digest well and you're healthy, why go to a hospital paying expensive money?"

As expected, the reaction I had predicted.

The typical stubbornness of the parents' generation, devoted all their lives to backing children, trembling even at a hundred thousand won looking after their own bodies.

But this time I had no thought of stepping back either.

"Mom. From now I'll send that much to Korea every month punctual. Your son earning money covered in dust, bones breaking, in a foreign land, if I can't do that one thing for my parents I don't even have the taste to work here. Let me feel the worth of working."

"Even so, how do I spend all this precious money on a hospital..."

"If I were in Korea I would have taken the two of you to the hospital myself, and being in Australia I can't. If booking and going is really hard, call Jin-seong. I'll tell him to bring the car and take you comfortable."

When I persistently urged, in the end Mom too let out a sigh pretending she couldn't win.

"Got it, got it. The stubbornness, whose house's son... got it, so eat well, and be careful of cars."

"Yes yes, pass my regards to Dad too. I have to go to work, so I'll hang up here."

"Right. Go in."

Finishing the call with my parents, I pressed the number again right away and called my cousin Jin-seong.

A cousin who, later, each life getting tight and Father and Uncle passing, contact gradually cut even at holidays and became an awkward relation.

But now, 2004, our relation was a fairly close hyung-and-younger relation, joking without reserve.

"Oh, hyung! What's up? Didn't you say you went to Australia?"

Beyond the receiver Jin-seong's voice, young and agreeable peculiar to the early twenties, was heard.

I gave a short laugh and joked rough.

"Hey you bastard, hyung called from a foreign country and what's that voice? You still not awake and sleeping? Uncle and Aunt well and healthy?"

"I'm preparing to go to the library now! Parents are always the same. But international calls are expensive, what's up?"

"You're on school break, right? Hyung will shoot pocket money to the account, so do one errand."

"Oh! How much? What errand?"

At the word pocket money the guy's voice brightened at once.

"Take our Dad and Mom and go to the hospital a bit. I gave money saying get a comprehensive checkup, and it seems they won't go. Book a comprehensive checkup in Seoul and take our parents. Then I'll repay all this later."

At my request Jin-seong answered without a second of hesitation.

"Ah what, if it's that of course I should! What errand, between family. Taking Big Uncle and Big Aunt and going, even if you don't give money I'll do it myself."

"Shut up, kid. I'll send money, so take them careful, and if it remains make it pocket money. When the result comes tell me right away too."

"Hehe, got it hyung. Just trust me! Hyung, they say it's hot, look after the body and earn a lot of money and come!"

"It's winter here, kid."

"Huh? Australia is winter? Uwak, crazy."

"Heh heh. Right. Southern hemisphere, so winter."

"Hehe. Hyung watch the cold, and earn a lot of money and come."

"Hahaha! Right. You look after our parents well too."

The guy readily allowed my request and hung up pleasant.

Beep— beep—

Hearing the cut tone beyond the receiver, I stared blank at the air.

The fact that that good guy, answering laughing he'd take them of course even without money, ten-some years later would redden faces over a few coins and live like strangers, made the taste bitter anew.

'Now I have to not make it so.'

Still, in the previous life, working bones breaking and sending money to Australia, a empty feeling was full, and now rather a proud emotion was filling the chest.

* * *

I undid the half cast and clenched and opened the hand this way and that, checking the state.

Before, pain came sometimes, and now it seems almost all better.

'This much should be enough.'

Feeling it wasn't a strain on the hand, the first thing I did was contact Rosie.

"Rosie. Thinking of fixing the car, how shall we do it?"

"Really! Then this weekend will you come to our house?"

"No need to go until the weekend. Changing a lower arm doesn't take that much time."

"Then after work today is fine too?"

"Of course. Instead dinner, you prepare it, Rosie."

"Heh heh. Got it. I'll set dinner."

Like that I set a dinner promise with Rosie.

After work I packed my personal tool box and headed for the house address Rosie told me.

The neighborhood Rosie lives in was the Ermington area, between the office and Sydney.

"Wow. Good."

Getting out of the car and looking around, I muttered.

Certainly the mood was different from the city I live in, and from Fairfield West too.

The neighborhood itself wasn't a rich neighborhood, but river water was visible right in front, and considering city expansion, geographically the location was too good a place.

'A place like this, if redevelopment goes in, real-estate prices will shoot to the sky...'

Thinking that, I walked to Rosie's house.

Her house was set in a fairly straight, quiet two-story residential street, big jacaranda street trees lined pretty like a picture.

In the yard blue grass was cut neat, and on the boundary with the next house a low wooden fence stood tidy, a typical Australian middle-class house.

Hearing the car engine, Rosie ran out glad in comfortable shorts and a loose T-shirt.

Her blonde hair sparkled receiving the pleasant afternoon sun.

"Jeong-su! Come in!"

"You finished work early today?"

"Hehe. If I invited, I have to prepare a bit in advance. I came out early saying I'd shop."

"Haha. Then may I look forward to dinner?"

"Look forward. By the way, what will you do? Want to greet my friends inside first?"

I thought a moment, then said.

"For now I'll fix this and greet. It doesn't take that long."

"Then do that."

I took work clothes from the trunk and put them on over.

And looking into the underside of her old hatchback, I checked again.

As expected, because of the old year, the bushing on the lower-arm side worn was revealed whole.

'Nothing to see.'

I set the jack on the underbody frame without hesitation and lifted the car skilled.

"Wow... Jeong-su, you seem a complete pro mechanic right now."

"Heh heh. Thanks."

I took off the tire, crawled under, and went into the work of taking off the crushed, rusty lower arm proper.

Bolts and nuts stuck soaked a long time didn't come loose easy, so I sprayed lubricant WD-40 soaking and fitted a long socket and turned hard putting my weight.

With a metal sound, ppa-jik—, the bolt hardened firm came loose.

I worried what if it breaks, and the work came loose easier than I thought.

Using strength getting oil on after a long time, thick sweat drops flowed down the forehead and the bridge of the nose.

Still, matching the refreshing weather, the body was light as if it would fly.

I fitted the new lower arm sparkling silver in the spot the old, worn part came out.

And I tightened the bolts firm to the specified value with a torque wrench and finished.

Lowering the car to the ground again and tidying the tools, Rosie, who had been watching beside with eyes full of curiosity, handed a can of beer gone cold and a clean towel and laughed wide.

"Really amazing. I asked a quote at an Australian workshop and they said getting the part and fixing takes a few days, and you fixed this in a snap in less than an hour!"

"Haha. It really wasn't much. If the shock or another part had gone it would have taken long, and being a lower arm I replaced it quick. Now the creaking sound going over speed bumps or the wheel pulling should be gone. Still, slowly think about changing the car."

"Hm? Change the car?"

"Yeah. Every machine has a thing called lifespan. Especially a car, most are consumables. After a certain time the lifespan drops rapid. The reason old-year cars have high maintenance is because of that too. This car is that. Until before you rode it well, and from now parts will start breaking often. So selling before that and looking into a new car would be the wise choice."

"Got it. I'll think about it."

Rosie nodded making a long face.

"Good. The test drive later, for now let's wet the throat refreshing first."

I scrubbed the oil-stained hands hard with industrial soap at the tap in the yard and stepped inside.

Rosie introduced the roommates she lives with.

On one side of the wide, pleasant living room, Emma, a white female student of a lively impression who goes to university, and blonde Chloe, who works as a barista at a famous café in the city, were sitting.

"Girls, greet! This side is Jeong-su who fixed my car! I said, right? The master builder who transformed an old haunted house into a luxury house in less than a month."

Rosie introduced me, praising full in front of the roommates.

Emma and Chloe stood and smiled bright and asked me for a handshake.

"Good to meet you, Jeong-su! I heard a tremendous lot from Rosie. That old car's rolling sound was quite noisy, and you fixed it, so our insides are all refreshing."

"Good to meet you. I'm Chloe. A technician from Korea, she said, and really cool!"

As expected, in Australia a tradie, a skilled technical professional, seems treated in society, and popular too.

Well, labor is so expensive, so knowing a person like me would really help a lot.

"Good to meet everyone. I'm Han Jeong-su. Sorry, but can I wash a bit? I came after company and fixed the car too, so quite dirty."

"Ah, come this way."

I exchanged a simple greeting with the friends and went to the bathroom Rosie guided and showered.

You might think 'an outside man showering in a house only women live in?', but in Australia a request of giving a washing space to a worker who sweated was not rude at all.

Rather the rudeness was using hot water lavish while showering, that was the real rudeness.

Not a system where hot water keeps coming if you turn on the hot like Korea, but a hot-water tank system, so if the person before uses it all the next person has to use only cold.

Anyway, finishing the shower fast and coming out shaking my hair, a tasty smell was blowing from the kitchen.

'Pasta.'

"If Jeong-su finished washing, come this way. All ready."

Rosie called me.

Going to the kitchen, thick-grilled Australian beef steak and pasta with basil pesto generous, and wine, were set.

"Wine made from the Australian Shiraz variety. It goes well with steak, so I prepared it."

Rosie said, pouring wine in the glass.

A heavy wine with a heavy scent blowing.

Natural, the four of us sat around the table and had a harmonious dinner time.

At first, because of the fact of an Asian worker stuck among young Australian women, I wondered if the talk would slide on the surface or be awkward, but that was a needless worry my old experience made.

Rosie, just twenty-one, early twenties, and her friends held no prejudice or racial preconception toward me, an Asian.

"Jeong-su, Korea's construction sites, the work speed is tremendously fast, she said? Australian tradies eat lunch and have tea time and don't stack many bricks all day, and you fixed a house all in a month, how do you do that?"

Emma cut the steak and asked, eyes sparkling.

"Well, isn't that the difference between Korea and the West?"

"Hm? Why?"

"Hm, how to say. Coming to Australia and feeling, people's mind seemed a strong tendency of 'let's live the present.' Saying it a bit bad, the drive running toward a goal is a bit short, shall I say."

Deep English, so I stammered, but Rosie and the friends waited calm for my words.

So I could take out all the words I wanted to say too.

"Against that, Koreans have a culture called ppalli-ppalli."

"Ppalli-ppalli? What's that?"

"It's 'hurry up! hurry up!' Society developed matching that speed. A system like that, from Westerners' position, may look fierce, and like machines that only work. Right, competition is tremendous and stress and collision between people is a lot, that's fact. But the dynamism and speed war that comes from there is a nature the West can absolutely not follow. And this gap will start appearing as a meaningful economic difference more and more."

The women looked at me blank, whether it was a serious, insightful answer they hadn't expected at all.

"Wow."

"Cool. Jeong-su doesn't only work, he had philosophical thoughts like that too."

Even Chloe bumped the wine glass and was amazed.

"Someday I want to travel to Korea once for sure too. If Korea is a dynamic, busy city like Jeong-su says, it seems tremendously fun? No?"

I gave a short laugh and nodded.

"Now it's a developing country, but probably before long it'll develop to a world level at a tremendous speed. In fact Australia is the same, right?"

"Hm? What sound is that?"

"The reason a huge construction boom is blowing in Australia now is China's advance. China is sweeping Australia's main minerals and resources, and the vast surplus capital from that is spreading centered on real estate. Then the industrial country closest and most closely connected to that exploding China, where?"

"Korea?"

"Right. China and Korea are countries with the West Sea between them. Tremendous economic synergy between the two countries will burst explosive for a while."

Even eating, our talk didn't cut.

Whether their culture is originally like this, or these girls are particularly open, they naturally had me participate in the talk and continued a deep discussion.

I too took out clumsy future knowledge and went on with the story.

Independence from parents when adult, running a share house with friends the mind fits, a cool attitude respecting the other with an open mind regardless of nationality or skin color.

A feeling of glimpsing a cross-section of this country's bright, healthy young generation, only heard in stories, through Rosie and her friends.

Tasty food and wine going, the mood ripening full, and around when the meal was ending.

Emma and Chloe, who had been quietly watching Rosie and me laughing and talking, exchanged a glance, then naturally gathered the dishes and stood.

"Ah, I ate too much and my belly seems it'll burst. The cooking was really the best, Rosie. Jeong-su, really good to meet you today too. A really fun, useful talk."

"Right. We decided to go surfing at Manly Beach early at dawn tomorrow, so we'll pack a bit and go in to sleep first. You two drink more wine and rest comfortable."

"Right. Good night."

Each door closed, and under the faint orange living-room light, before I knew it only Rosie and I were left alone on the big table.

In the living room only the calm jazz music Rosie had on was flowing quiet.

The mood suddenly awkward, wondering if I should go now, I opened my mouth with difficulty.

"Your friends are quite pleasant, good people. Consideration deep too."

Filling the remaining red wine in Rosie's glass and tossing it, she gave a short laugh and propped her chin with both hands.

"Those kids' sense is incredible fast. They know exact the timing you shouldn't disturb."

Ah... going into the room now, was it avoiding the seat with sense?

And looking... Rosie was looking at me steady with eyes slightly loosened.

Whether from the force of the alcohol, or a strange tension of being left alone with me, her cheeks were dyed red like a well-ripened peach.

'Th... this. The angle? What should I do?'

Dating cells dried to the soul suddenly wake and startle and pound.

In the quiet living room where nationality and the language barrier had completely disappeared, only a sticky, melancholic air between two man and woman settled heavy.

"Jeong-su... seems a really strange, cool man."

"Strange?"

"Yeah. Clearly young and overflowing energy like my age, and looking at the eyes or the view of the world, the thought is deep like an adult who went through everything. A person much more sturdy than any men I've met, and I want to lean on."

Her provocative, unhidden honest liking.

Honestly, in this situation, this mood, if I run I'm stripping the qualification of a man.

At a time like this, even if I can't eat, go.

I too didn't avoid that straight, hot gaze.

Right now my body was a sturdy man in his twenties, blood boiling hot.

And before my eyes sat a dazzling attractive Australian woman wanting me wholly.

I wasn't a sage enough to pretend not to know and break this stifling tension.

"I'm not a guy that unconditionally kind and good, Rosie. Sometimes a guy rough and selfish a lot too."

At my low, heavy answer thick with warning, she leaned her upper body a little more toward me over the table.

Beyond her deep neckline a dizzying curve glanced.

"I know. That's why I'm drawn more, unable to hold it."

Her soft, thin fingertips slowly covered the back of my crude hand with calluses, set on the table.

Hot body temperature carried from the fingertips.

Words beyond that weren't needed.

Gazes tangled sticky in the air, and without who approached first, each other's lips met.

"Eup...!"

A sweet, bitter wine scent and her peculiar deep, bewitching body scent dizzied the nose.

A light kiss spread in an instant into a deep kiss seeking each other's breath.

When my rough, crude hand wrapped her thin waist and pulled, Rosie put both arms on my neck and reacted hotter.

Seeking each other's body temperature enough to lose breath, we moved the place past the living room with staggering steps to her room.

With the sound of the door closing, even the string of reason remaining snapped perfect.

Every time each other's skin bumped, a deep breath leaking filled the quiet room.

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