Closed Door

Although they say that society has stabilized to some extent after the Great Changes, the world was still one where gate breakthroughs occurred, monsters could appear at any time and place, and the house you live in could collapse in an instant. It was a world where it wouldn’t be surprising at all to die tomorrow if you’re particularly unlucky, and so most people lived with the goal of just surviving day by day.

It became a natural phenomenon that elderly people without children, children without parents, and the weak with physical and mental disabilities were isolated and cast aside. Religious figures calling for altruism became rare, and social warmth faded. Orphanages and nursing homes managed at the state level were purely formal, and volunteering or donations from religious or private individuals were rare.

And yet, like our grandmother and that monk, they still existed. People who thought of others and helped them.

“It’s such a good thing. But I don’t like that I think about the meaninglessness of their actions.”

“What’s good, and what’s meaningless?”

“Nothing. Just talking to myself.”

I put the seolleongtang and a bowl of rice on a tray and brought it to Charles.

“You came again without having breakfast, right? Since customers have come, you sit down too and eat.”

“No, I’ll eat a little later.”

Sa Gongwoo refused as soon as I finished speaking.

“What nonsense. Customers will start coming soon. Eat quickly before it gets crowded.”

“No. I’ll eat a bit later.”

“Then go out and sit. Why are you standing here and interfering?”

“No, I’m very good here. I like it. Even though I see Choron’s face now, I still miss it.”

He’s talking nonsense, really.

I looked askance at Sa Gongwoo, who was talking nonsense, and tried to drive him out to the hall, but at that moment the restaurant door opened and several people entered.

“Cholsoo! I told you to go ahead and order, why are you eating here alone?”

“Welco… me?”

The person who entered the restaurant and addressed Charles was Cha Yeseung, whom I had once seen in the hospital. Behind her entered Ma Changgun – the kimchi villain, and the monk who was Charles’s guardian.

I tilted my head, looking at this group of seemingly completely unrelated people, and went out to the hall.

“Hello, little brother.”

“Hello.”

“Give us food. We’re hungry.”

“Are you all together?”

“Yes. These are our team members that we’re ashamed to show. You saw Changgun last time in the hospital. This is Monk Jayeon, and this guy is Cholsoo.”

“…”

“Nice to see you again. Amitabha.”

“Ah, yes. Amitabha.”

I reflexively folded my hands and bowed in response to the monk’s greeting.

“So… the monk is also a hunter?”

“Though unworthy, I strive for the good of the world.”

“Ah, yes.”

A Buddhist monk, who is forbidden to kill, hunts monsters. Is this some kind of radical part-time job?

“Do you two know each other? What’s with the exchange of glances, as if you know each other?”

“We met once.”

“What? What? Everyone except me has already eaten seolleongtang here? Am I the only one who came here for the first time?”

Although our first meeting was not at the seolleongtang restaurant, but at the police station, it seems other team members didn’t know about this yet. When I looked at the monk, he kindly smiled and laughed.

“By the way, why can’t I see our team leader? Didn’t he come here? I thought since he disappeared first, he’s already here. Where did this person run off to?”

Your team leader is over there.

Instead of answering, I turned my head and looked towards the kitchen, and Sa Gongwoo, who was hiding behind the kitchen wall, appeared with an expression that’s hard to describe in words.

“Why did you come out from there?”

“How noisy you are. Don’t make such noise in someone else’s establishment, just eat and leave.”

“It’s strange to hear this from a person who freely walks around the kitchen of someone else’s establishment.”

That’s what I wanted to say myself.

I gathered Sa Gongwoo and the noisy company, or rather, the company including the noisy Cha Yeseung, at one table and took their order.

“Is everyone eating? Should I bring for the number of people?”

“Yes, that would be good. Changgun, despite his appearance, is very picky about food, but he praised this place so much, saying it’s very delicious here. I really wanted to come here.”

“For such a glowing review, you never came here again.”

“…Sca…”

Ma Changgun, meeting my gaze, barely parted his lips and uttered only the syllable “sca”.

Sca? Does he want scallops?

Indeed, a statement worthy of the kimchi villain.

“Scary, he says. He wanted to come eat again, but Sa Gongwoo always quickly disappeared, so he was scared to come alone. He’s shy and embarrassed around strangers. He does everything that absolutely doesn’t suit his size.”

“Scary?”

“They say you called him a thug and scolded him for eating only kimchi. Said this was a restaurant with a scolding grandmother?”

“That’s because he ate too… Wait, when did I scold?”

I sharply asked Ma Changgun, not believing my ears, and the large man shrank, diligently avoiding my gaze.

Indeed, as Cha Yeseung said, he did everything that absolutely didn’t suit his physique.

“Monk.”

I glanced at Ma Changgun, who was inconspicuously keeping his distance from me, getting water and kkakdugi (kimchi), and then approached the monk and quietly called him.

“Should I remove the meat?”

I didn’t know if a monk could eat seolleongtang, but since he came, I was going to serve him too. I thought a little about what to do with the meat that’s put in seolleongtang, and decided to ask anyway.

To my question, the monk answered with his usual warm smile, so quietly that only I could hear.

“Please put it on the bottom.”

“…Ah, on the bottom… We don’t do toryeom. Then I’ll put it with rice in a clay pot.”

I nodded, trying to hide my trembling pupils.

I went to the kitchen, prepared seolleongtang and bowls of rice for the number of people, and specially for the monk, put a few pieces of meat on the bottom, pressing it down with rice on top.

“This is heavy, let me.”

Sa Gongwoo, who had followed me at some unknown time, stood at the kitchen entrance and took the tray from my hands.

“Tell me honestly.”

“…What?”

“When Charles came. You purposely didn’t come out to the hall? Because you didn’t want to say he’s a member of your team.”

“…”

“If other team members hadn’t come, you wouldn’t have said anything until the end, right?”

“…Ahem.”

“Is it true that the team leader pretended not to know a member of his team?”

“I didn’t pretend… There just wasn’t an opportunity to say.”

“There were many opportunities to say? Anyone would understand that you just pretended not to know him?”

“…Eh, the seolleongtang will get cold. Let’s go quickly.”

It seems the opinion of “team members they’re ashamed to show” is shared not only by Cha Yeseung, but by all team members. Indeed, everyone has something shameful to show in public. The funny thing is that each excluded themselves and considered only other team members shameful. In my view, they’re all birds of a feather.

I went out to the hall, took the tray from Sa Gongwoo and placed stone bowls of seolleongtang in front of each person.

“Wow, looks delicious.”

“The famous seolleongtang…”

“The broth looks amazing!”

In response to Cha Yeseung’s noisy admiration, Ma Changgun quietly raised his thumb in agreement. The monk checked under the rice with a spoon and smiled softly, and Sa Gongwoo looked at his team members, made an expression as if he had a headache, and focused on eating.

“So you’re all on the same team?”

“Yes, that’s right. Did you make this kkakdugi, little brother? It’s really delicious, as Changgun said.”

“Do you have more team members? Or is this all?”

“These five are all. Little brother, don’t you sell kkakdugi separately? If you did, I’d like to buy some.”

“No, we don’t sell it.”

“Oh, what a pity.”

Cha Yeseung muttered that a business selling kkakdugi (kimchi) instead of seolleongtang could also be successful, but after Sa Gongwoo’s remark to just eat quietly, she pouted and concentrated on the seolleongtang.

I looked over the people who had quieted down, busy eating, and looked at Charles, who had neatly emptied his bowl of seolleongtang and was now sitting, huddled in the corner, with earphones in his ears.

Charles.

I think his surname was Park?

“By the way, that person…”

The people who were eating with appetite simultaneously raised their heads at my words. I wasn’t addressing anyone in particular, but I didn’t expect everyone to pay attention to me at once, and I was a bit taken aback.

“Who?”

“The one who came first. Is he also a team member… ?”

Both Charles Park’s manner of speech and his behavior. In general, he had many aspects that slightly went beyond the norm. Can such people be hunters, or do they hunt in a team with such people? This was a question that felt like concern about the future of this team.

“Ah, Cholsoo?”

“Not Charles, but Cholsoo?”

“What Charles. Cholsoo.”

“Charles something Million? William? He said Park.”

“Eh, this guy. He behaves like this in this area too… I always say I’m so ashamed I can’t go anywhere with him.”

Cha Yeseung sighed, chewing kkakdugi.

“Park Cholsoo.”

“Charles Park. Then what’s Million? Millian? What is it?”

“Milyan Park Cholsoo. Try pronouncing it rolling your tongue.”

“Milyan Park Cholsoo.”

(t/n: the joke is that this name was changed to sound more “prestigious” or “foreign”, but resulted in a ridiculous and funny combination. The pronunciation of this phrase, especially with an exaggerated “tongue roll”, creates a comic effect as it sounds unnatural and absurd to Korean ears.)

I quietly tried to pronounce it rolling my tongue, and when my face twisted, Cha Yeseung giggled.

I admit it.

Up to this point, I admitted partially, but now I admit one hundred percent.

Indeed, these are people one would be ashamed to show anywhere.