“Dad, thank you!”

“What’s there to thank me for. You help people, that’s how you live.”

I’d called my father in.

It’s the height of the apple harvest.

When I explained the situation, Dad came right over.

He’d loaded up every one of the organic apples he’d just picked and brought them.

In this season of plenty, the children couldn’t even eat fruit as they pleased.

They were organic apples, so you could just wipe one and eat it.

Twenty boxes of them, in yellow crates.

He’d taken Mom’s call and promised gladly to help.

Not only the apples—he’d brought two drum-barrel grill plates for cooking meat.

They’re the big grill plates Dad made so the brothers could grill meat when they gathered at Chuseok.

“Mister, can I eat this?”

A little girl who looked to be in the first years of elementary school came up and asked.

Her bright round eyes were like a kitten’s.

“Of course~ princess. They’re organic apples, so you can just give it a wipe like this and eat it.”

Dad wiped an apple on his pants and ate it just like that.

“You have one too.”

He wiped an apple and handed it to the little girl.

A smile bloomed on his face.

“Me too, please!”

“Mister! Me too!”

The children crowded around, as though they’d been waiting for it, and put their hands out.

They’d all been holding back and watching, and now they swarmed in like bees.

“Mister only has one hand. Everybody take an apple and enjoy it~.”

“Waaaaaaaah!”

The little ones let out a cheer.

They’d eaten jjajang rice until they were fit to burst and still had room for a snack—frightening creatures.

They rushed in and took apples.

But to my surprise, each of them picked only one apple.

I thought I could see how these children had been raised.

“You can eat one and then have another.”

“We can’t. We have to save this and eat it tomorrow too, and share with the big sisters and brothers. Mom says that’s what brothers and sisters do.”

My nose stung without warning. (TL Note: 코끝이 찡하다 — for the tip of your nose to sting; the Korean sign of tears about to arrive, used where English would say something caught in your throat.)

The way these children worked together and looked after each other was out of the ordinary.

“You big brothers over there, come here a minute~.”

The older students, around adolescence, didn’t come over; they just watched.

I called them with my hand.

“…”

A few of the boys came over hesitantly.

Wariness was smeared thick across their pimpled faces.

The little punks were cute.

“I’m Hyeong-seok’s friend.”

“You’re Hyeong-seok hyung‘s friend?”

“That’s right. Hyeong-seok’s friend—my name’s Jang Tae-san.”

“Whoa! You’re Jang Tae-san hyung?”

The children seemed to know me.

Their faces opened right up when they heard my name.

“You know me?”

“Yes! We’ve heard a lot about you from Hyeong-seok hyung. The hero who saved the school!”

“Thanks to you, hyungnim, all the punks in town are gone. Thank you, really!”

Hyeong-seok seemed to have bragged about me plenty.

Respect was showing plain in the kids’ eyes.

“Get all these fruit boxes down and take them to the kitchen.”

“Yep!”

“And we’re having a pork belly party today, so get those grill plates down too.”

“Pork belly?”

“That’s right, pork belly~.”

“Waaaaaaaah! Are we really eating pork belly???”

To children shooting up like weeds, meat is a blessing handed down by a god.

The cheer spread through every part of the children’s home.

Vroom vroom.

Just then an enormous truck came into Sarangwon.

“Jangju Supermarket?”

“What is it?”

A box truck, so you couldn’t see inside.

The children looked like they’d never seen a big supermarket delivery truck before.

They all watched it come in with curiosity on their faces.

“Is Mr. Jang here?”

The truck stopped, and the driver who got out asked for me.

The kids looked at me.

“Dad~. He’s asking for you.”

I flicked a wink at my father.

I’d placed the order under the name Mr. Jang.

“That would be me.”

Dad stepped forward.

“Ah, sir! Thank you for such a large order. I’m Kim Dong-cheol—I run Jangju Supermarket.”

A man in his mid-forties bent at the waist and put his hand out to shake.

“Thank you for your trouble. I hope we’ll do business again.”

Dad’s acting is first-rate too.

He was quick on the uptake.

“Saying it twice would be nagging! I’ll take particular care over anything that goes to Sarangwon!” (TL Note: 두말하면 잔소리 — “say it twice and it’s nagging”; Korean for a thing so obvious that agreeing out loud is already too much talk.)

An order of close to ten million won had gone in at once.

If he didn’t take care over it, he wouldn’t know how to do business.

“These are things for the children to eat. Please look after it.”

Dad asked him again.

“Don’t you worry! When it comes to credit, I’m second to no man in this city. And I’ve brought a few extra boxes of snacks for the children as a service. I hope we’ll do business again, Mr. Jang.”

There’s a reason Jangju Supermarket does well in this city.

With an owner that friendly and that sharp, it couldn’t go under.

“Where’s the food storeroom?”

“Kids, where’s the storeroom?”

I didn’t know myself, so I asked the children where the food storeroom was.

“Over there, beside the dining hall.”

The kids pointed with their hands.

“The kitchen auntie will be in the dining hall, sir. Just do as she tells you.”

“Understood. I’ll get right on it!”

The supermarket owner drove his truck around to the kitchen.

And then…

“Good heavens! What is all this? All of it food for the children???”

“Yes~ Mr. Jang over there placed the order.”

The auntie looked over this way.

“Father, give them a wave.”

“Hm? Ah~ right.”

Dad raised a hand, embarrassed.

The kitchen auntie’s head bowed toward the ground.

Food for your babies piling up in the storeroom is a good feeling—that’s a parent’s heart.

The social workers who lived here at Sarangwon and the kitchen auntie were overflowing with love too.

“Nngh… ngh.”

Jo Hyeong-seok, who had taken a late bus and got off in front of Sarangwon, winced at the ache boring into his joints.

The muscle pain was beyond anything he’d imagined.

He’d been out since dawn and had been doing day labor right up to now.

With no skill to speak of, he was given nothing but odd-job work.

After this and that came off, he had sixty thousand won in his hand.

For the price of missing several days of school, he’d earned a few hundred thousand won at best.

He’d wanted to be some help to a Sarangwon that would have to move soon, but it was nowhere near enough.

He’d have to leave once he finished high school; it was his younger brothers and sisters he worried about.

With the director mom’s love and attention, all of them had grown up without turning crooked or getting hurt.

Hyeong-seok wanted desperately to repay that kindness, even a little.

He wanted to help the director mom, who had never married in her life and looked after nothing but the children.

She thought he was going to school.

A bag hung from Hyeong-seok’s shoulder.

As he reached the Sarangwon gate, Hyeong-seok straightened his shoulders.

His whole body ached, but he practiced putting a smile on his face.

He was the eldest big brother, with a whole crowd of younger brothers and sisters under him.

A big brother can’t be in pain, and can’t cry.

“Su-ryeon’s out of paints. When I get paid tomorrow I should buy her some.”

He was saving every won, and even so his siblings’ school supplies were never far from his mind.

Sarangwon might disappear, but until then he wanted to give them whatever they wanted.

At the end he dreamed of putting something toward the moving costs, and of a meat party.

Hyeong-seok’s wish was to feed the children real fresh pork belly, the kind they might eat once a year if they were lucky.

That fresh pork belly his classmate Tae-san had treated them to.

Just thinking about it made his mouth water.

“Wow! This is really good!”

“Can I have more?”

“Of course, eat and eat again~.”

“Tae-san oppa is the best! When I grow up I’m going to marry oppa!”

“Hmm, then eat more first and grow some more.”

“Yes~. Hehe.”

“Huh!”

As he came through the Sarangwon gate, the savory smell of meat reached Hyeong-seok’s nose.

A powerful smell of meat, one he had never once caught at Sarangwon.

And he heard the bright voices of his younger brothers and sisters.

“J-Jang Tae-san?”

A feast had broken out in front of the Sarangwon kitchen.

Red charcoal glowed on top of a huge drum-barrel grill plate.

Beside it, the children’s hands moved busily over a folding table.

And there was the familiar face—Jang Tae-san.

His friend Jang Tae-san was hard at work grilling pork belly on the grill plate.

Hyeong-seok stopped where he stood, astonished.

“Oh? Hyeong-seok hyung!!!”

Just then one of the little ones spotted Hyeong-seok and waved.

“Hyung! Come on! We’re eating pork belly!”

“Oppaaaaa~.”

The delighted children beckoned to Hyeong-seok.

Every one of them looked happy.

“…”

Hyeong-seok came over in astonishment.

“You’re here.”

Tae-san greeted Hyeong-seok as if nothing at all had happened.

He looked as natural as if Sarangwon were his own house.

“Uh? Uh.”

“Don’t just stand there, come and help. How come your brothers and sisters have bigger appetites than the kids in our class? Get over here and grill~.”

“Right!”

Jang Tae-san knew he’d been missing school, and without saying anything about it he asked for help.

Pork belly fat was running over the corners of the children’s mouths.

“Dad, Mom, this is my friend Hyeong-seok.”

“Hello, Hyeong-seok~.”

Tae-san’s parents smiled brightly.

“Father. Mother. Hello.”

Hyeong-seok bowed his head before he knew what he was doing.

“Dad~ I keep telling you it’ll burn if you grill it like that! When the flames come up, move it somewhere else. The outside burns and the inside doesn’t cook.”

“Son. This is harder than it looks.”

“Watch closely. Meat, you see, is all about timing.”

Looking at Tae-san, one side of Hyeong-seok’s chest went warm.

He was seeing all over again what Jang Tae-san, the hero who drove the violence out of their school, was really made of.

His house had become rich, and still he never looked down on his friends.

He’s the kind of friend who always looks out for people and gives them something to laugh about.

Thank you… my friend.

Hyeong-seok had figured it out.

Jang Tae-san, who had gladly spent his precious third-year time for his sake.

He was a friend Hyeong-seok was proud of.

(End of Chapter 67)