Chapter 457

Mr. Kang put his hand inside the vending machine. He watched as coffee filled the cup before pulling it out of the exit. The weather was quite cold so the warmth from the 200-won coffee was very appreciated.

“We’ll be done after we clean up that side so let’s go quickly.”

“Fine fine, I’m going.”

He followed Mr. Lee, who urged him to get going. Mr. Kang’s job was quite simple. It was the so-called administrative service. His job was to warn illegal street stands. The forced takedown was for the thugs that would come afterwards. His job, along with Mr. Lee’s, was to just give them a warning.

“There is one again,” Mr. Lee said as he pointed at a tent on the street. The tent, which took a whole half of the street, had the words 'fortune telling’ written on it.

“Looks like this is a good spot. These illegal stalls pop up every single day.”

“Yeah.”

Mr. Kang buttoned up his orange vest and went inside the tent. Inside, a boy around high school age and a rather decent-looking woman were sitting face-to-face.

“Excuse me, you can’t install something like this on the side of the road,” said Mr. Kang.

After watching the boy leave, the woman turned around and apologized to him once again.

“No need to apologize to us.”

A pretty lady who had nice manners to boot. From how the fortune telling was free and there was even a box for charity, it seemed that she opened the stall for good purposes. There shouldn’t be a need to be picky against people like this.

“Mr. Kang. I’m going to make rounds over there, so please take care of the other side.”

“Alright, please do.”

Mr. Kang sniffed and took a sip from the coffee in his hands. Meanwhile, the woman stood in front of the tent, blankly staring at the road to the train station.

Was she not planning to take down the tent?

“Uhm, lady. If you don’t take this down, you’ll be in big trouble. Some thugs will come and make a mess of everything. Take it down before you see a horrible sight.”

“Yes, I should do that.”

“Looks like he managed to go. He should’ve been very dizzy.”

“You aren’t saying that to me, are you?” Mr. Kang asked.

The woman smiled and stared at him before nodding.

“Would you like to know your fortune as well?”

“My fortune?”

“I’m going to leave soon. The strict man doesn’t allow me a lot of time here after all.”

The woman hummed before mixing the palm-sized tarot cards in her hands in an awkward fashion. Mr. Kang crumpled the paper cup in his hands as he watched her. For some reason, he became energetic when he looked at her.

“Well then, try pulling out a card.”

The woman offered him three choices. Mr. Kang didn’t believe in stuff like fortune telling, but he decided to have a go for fun since it was free. He pulled out a card that had straight patterns on it before flipping it around. The card had the ill.u.s.tration of a lion and a woman.

“Is it bad?”

“No, it’s not like that at all. Just that, you might run into monetary problems today, and since it’s quite trivial, I’ll tell you something for free.”

Mr. Kang perked up his ears when he heard that it was monetary problems. Although he didn’t believe it, it wouldn’t do him bad to just listening to it.

“30 thousand won in the pocket,” said the woman before starting to take down the tent.

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’ll find out soon.”

Mr. Kang looked at the woman in a sour manner. What the heck did that mean? 30 thousand won in the pocket? When he saw the woman struggling to take down the tent, a white truck appeared. The truck was extremely white for some reason, but the headlights were strangely red.

‘Looks like this person washes the truck quite often.’

Mr. Kang got going after watching the woman take down the tent for a while. This was Daehak-ro on a weekend. There were so many illegal stalls on the streets.

Mr. Kang warned a lady who was selling fruits right outside the entrance to the train station before walking towards the building where he promised to meet up with Mr. Lee. Maybe because it wasn’t long until midnight, but he started shivering. So October was nearing its end as well.

“Yo, you done?”

Mr. Lee, who had arrived first, said as he flicked the cigarette he was holding. Mr. Kang nodded shortly.

“It sure is cold. Mr. Kang. Let’s eat some warm gukbap before going home. What do you think?”

“Sounds good.”

“Ah!”

Mr. Lee put his hand inside his shirt pocket before making a panicked expression.

“What do I do? It seems like I left my wallet at the office.”

Seeing Mr. Lee scratching his head, Mr. Kang sighed. Mr. Lee was a good guy. He started this job thanks to him, and he would always come to Mr. Kang’s celebratory family events. People around liked him as well. It was just that, he always acted cheap when it came to eating. How could he not have his wallet with him every single time? If he usually acted like a cheapskate, Mr. Kang would’ve gotten fed up with him already, but Mr. Lee would spend a lot when it came down to it, so he didn’t want to nitpick this time.

At that moment, Mr. Kang remembered back to what the woman said back at the tarot tent. Thirty thousand won in the pocket. Wasn’t this the perfect situation for that?

Maybe…

“Isn’t there 30 thousand won in your pocket?”

When he said that, Mr. Lee widened his eyes before bursting out laughing.

“What? Mr. Kang, how did you know that?”

“What the, you really had money?”

“I do. I guess I do. But I’m really curious now. How did you guess the correct amount?”

Mr. Lee’s oblivious smile made Mr. Kang unable to become angry. This Mr. Lee was as nonchalant as always. He had the urge to nitpick, but Mr. Lee’s smile blew away any intentions he had.

“You’re buying the gukbap then.”

“Do you take me for a thief? I don’t go through other people’s pockets.”

“Then how?”

Mr. Kang smiled and explained to Mr. Lee what happened.

Mr. Lee exclaimed when he heard the story.

“So that woman told you about it? Whoa, she’s godly.”

“She must have been lucky. Thirty thousand won is just the suitable amount to be carrying with you. It must be beginner’s luck or something.”

“But she still got it right. And then there’s the thing about monetary problems. Are you sure she’s not possessed?”

“No way.”

“Looks like I should make a visit as well.”

“She’s not there anymore. She took down the tent and left.”

“Who knows? She might have pretended to leave and stuck around after you left. Moreover, from what I heard from you, she doesn’t sound ordinary. You know? I had a good piece of land I was eyeing recently. I should ask her about it. Maybe she will tell me something good.”

Mr. Lee’s words made sense. The precise amount of 30 thousand won, as well as the ‘trivial monetary problem’. It was rather accurate for a lucky guess.

“It’s right next to the gukbap restaurant, so let’s make a visit.”

“Well, alright.”

There weren’t any big problems since it was on their way.

Mr. Kang started walking towards where the tent was before. The two walked along the street lights before turning around at the end of the road.

“She isn’t here.”

Only empty space greeted them.

“What a pity. She must have been possessed by some divine spirit. Mr. Kang, you were lucky.”

“You’re right about that. Thanks to her, I get to be treated to gukbap.”

They walked by the spot where the tent was when Mr. Kang caught sight of a wall painting. The wall painting was covered by the tent before, so he couldn’t see it last time.

“What is this rabbit? It’s wearing a tuxedo and is holding a pocket watch?”

“Geez, Mr. Kang. Even a stupid country bumpkin like me knows what that is.”

“I’m not that knowledgeable when it comes to pictures.”

“That’s not any ordinary picture. It’s a children’s tale.”

“A children’s tale?”

“You don’t know? It’s Alice in Wonderland.”

Mr. Lee pointed at the wall painting. There were pictures along the wall, and after hearing that it was a children’s tale, he seemed to have found the relevance.

“Ah, I did hear about it. So this rabbit is from that story?”

“It is. When my daughter was young, she really liked that story. She would crawl into closets after reading it and look for holes in the ground.”

“That sounds cute.”

“Let’s not go there.”

“But why would a rabbit carry a pocket watch?”

“How would I know? All I remember is that that rabbit is what triggers the story. The little girl follows that rabbit into a strange fantasy land.”

Mr. Kang nodded his head. He knew that it was a famous story, but he didn’t know what it was about. It wasn’t like it would change his life even if he knew about it, so there was no need for him to find out either.

“It’s cold. Let’s get going. I want free food.”

“But it’s not free for me though?”

Mr. Kang grabbed Mr. Lee and dragged him to the gukbap restaurant.