Siblings Working in Business (234)
The person who got off the bus…
…had long, light brown hair neatly tied back in a ponytail, the ends swaying like an animal’s tail.
Jikki, with her unique blend of Eastern and Western features, had a captivating aura.
“Ooh.”
Eun-ji and Aeseul both let out a gasp of admiration upon seeing Jikki’s striking green eyes.
“Don’t.”
Eun-ho gave Eun-ji a subtle warning.
“Hello.”
Although her pronunciation was a bit awkward, thanks to her Korean mother and her own efforts, Jikki’s Korean was fluent enough for conversation.
Eun-ho felt a strange sense of dissonance.
The Jikki he knew before the regression spoke Korean perfectly.
Was it because he had met her years earlier, not after Eun-ji’s passing?
The Jikki from back then, a veteran musician with a confident aura, was completely different from the fresh-faced Jikki before him now.
Whoosh!
‘Whoa, you scared me.’
Just then…
Eun-ji suddenly raised both her arms.
Just as Eun-ho flinched visibly, Eun-ji shouted,
“Waaaaah!!! I got it right!!!”
The other members, momentarily confused, then realized she had correctly guessed the eighth member.
And the prize: the tower of canned ham.
Everyone except Eun-ho and Tae-hyun cheered, “Waaaaah!”, letting out cries of delight.
Jikki, who had just arrived, although she might have been flustered, had been briefed beforehand and was clapping along with them.
With the final member, Jikki, joining them, the group walked down a countryside road surrounded by nothing but fields.
The crunching sound of their footsteps on the unpaved dirt road felt strangely comforting.
There were eight members…
…plus a personal cameraman for each, and two additional cameramen, one in front and one behind, for a total of ten cameras.
The path between the fields wasn’t narrow.
But it felt crowded with so many people walking together.
“It’s a shame we can’t visit the nun while we’re here.”
Eun-ho, turning around at Eun-ji’s casual remark, said, surprised,
“Our pumpkin’s all ripened.”
“Jerk—”
“Jjom.”
“…”
Eun-ji’s lips parted, ready to retort with her usual “Jerk,”
But Eun-ho’s warning was faster.
Thanks to their consistent practice, Eun-ji’s mouth snapped shut the moment she heard the warning.
Although she couldn’t hide her annoyance, it was a huge improvement from her previous outbursts.
“How did you know?”
“About Lee Eun-ji?”
Just then…
Jikki asked a question out of the blue.
Because of the timing, Eun-ho thought she was asking how he knew Eun-ji was about to curse, so he answered accordingly.
Jikki, realizing her mistake, nervously licked her dry lips.
Tae-hyun, who had been watching, clarified the situation,
“Eun-ho, you were the one who mentioned Jikki first.”
“Yes, I did.”
“She was asking about that.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Iced Americano, I see.”
Just then, as Eun-ho nodded in understanding…
Eun-ji muttered under her breath.
“…”
Eun-ho, slightly annoyed by her lame joke, glared at her.
“What? You chuckled, didn’t you?”
It wasn’t wrong.
He had been more annoyed because he had chuckled.
Eun-ji, giggling at his frustrated reaction, then smiled playfully at Jikki, who looked genuinely confused.
Eun-ho shook his head, ignoring Eun-ji, and replied to Jikki,
“I was just thinking, and you came to mind.”
“Really?”
When Jikki’s eyes crinkled with a smile, Eun-ho smiled back, happy to see her again after so long.
They walked for a while.
“Is that it?”
Seung-yeon shouted.
Everyone’s gaze followed Seung-yeon’s.
A traditional tiled-roof house, seemingly frozen in time, was visible beyond a faded brown iron gate.
It was the house where the eight members would be staying for the next two days.
“It’s really… a tiled-roof house.”
Eun-ji muttered.
Eun-ho, hearing her, asked,
“What were you expecting?”
“What was I expecting? Something more like, you know, a hanok village.”
“Modernized?”
“Yeah, something like that. But… if the abandoned house we lived in was well-maintained, it would probably look like this.”
“I guess so.”
Eun-ho, looking at the scenery along with Eun-ji, replied.
“Yeah, it does.”
Ryu Seok-hyun, representing the members, knocked on the gate.
Knock, knock, knock.
Although he knocked gently, the thin metal gate echoed loudly.
But no one answered.
They were supposed to meet the caretaker and then continue filming, so as they were wondering what to do…
“Oh? There’s a doorbell here, Sunbae-nim.”
“Ah.”
Seung-yeon pointed to the wall next to the iron gate.
As he said, there was a doorbell.
Relieved, Seok-hyun pressed it.
Caw—!
“Pfft.”
The moment Ryu Seok-hyun pressed the doorbell…
A strange, cawing sound, unlike any doorbell they had ever heard, startled them all.
“Ahahahaha!”
Eun-ji’s face turned bright red as she burst into laughter.
Her laughter was contagious, and soon everyone was laughing, their stomachs hurting.
Just then, as they were laughing, they heard footsteps from behind the gate, and an elderly man came out and asked,
“Who’s there?”
“Ah, hello. We’re here for the filming we called about…”
“Oh, oh dear, I’m sorry. My ears, my ears aren’t so good these days.”
He was the caretaker who looked after Chang-seok’s house twice a month, a local resident.
Since CEO Park owned several properties and was too busy to manage them himself, he would offer them to locals in exchange for maintenance and a small fee.
‘Maintenance,’ he called it, but…
It was mostly just asking them to clean the place every few weeks.
But he was lucky with people, and most of them were meticulous.
This house was no exception.
Thanks to that, the interior was surprisingly clean, considering Chang-seok hadn’t visited in a long time.
“I even had the windows replaced recently so you’d look good on TV…”
The eight members followed the elderly man, exploring the house.
“This here is the field where the village women grow their crops, with the owner’s permission. Uh, those are peppers, those are perilla leaves, and… those pumpkins have sturdy leaves, good for steaming and eating with ssamjang (fermented soybean paste).”
“You can eat pumpkin leaves with ssamjang?”
Aeseul, her eyes wide, looked at Ryu Seok-hyun.
“Why are you asking me? I’ve only heard about it.”
Ryu Seok-hyun, also unfamiliar with it, shrugged.
“Despite your old age, Uncle.”
“Hey, what’s with the sudden age attack?”
Ryu Seok-hyun retorted when Aeseul grumbled playfully.
While the two bickered, Eun-ji, looking at the plump pumpkin leaves, smacked her lips.
“Pumpkin ssam is good, isn’t it?”
“Personally, I don’t like it.”
“It’s delicious. You have a child’s palate.”
“Jjom.”
“Hmph.”
Aeseul turned towards Eun-ho and Eun-ji at their bickering.
She looked at Eun-ji, her eyes asking, ‘Have you tried it?’
“I don’t like it because it’s rough.”
“What’s so rough about it? Ah, Lee Eun-ho, you don’t know how to appreciate food. You don’t know what’s good. Put some strong doenjang (fermented soybean paste) on it, and bam! It’s so good!”
“Haha.”
“Hahaha, Eun-ji knows her food.”
Seung-yeon and Tae-hyun chuckled when Eun-ji mimed eating ssam.
The elderly man also chuckled, then continued explaining the garden.
“I planted chives over there, good for jeon (Korean pancake)…”
Just then…
“Ch- chives? Jeon? What, what is that?”
Aeseul looked around, confused.
‘Ah…’
Eun-ho, trying to ignore her, then, unable to resist her pleading eyes, replied curtly,
“Jeong-gu-ji is chives. He’s saying chives are good for buchu-jeon (chive pancake).”
“Ah, I see! Thank you, Sunbae-nim.”
Aeseul bowed deeply to Eun-ho.
‘I never thought I would hear her call me Sunbae-nim and thank me…’
Eun-ho still couldn’t quite get used to this Aeseul, but he hid his discomfort.
Aeseul’s confidence seemed to have grown after learning a new word, ‘jeong-gu-ji,’ but…
“When you’re cooking dae-pa, the microwave is over there…”
“D-d-dae-pa (green onions)? Why would you use a microwave for green on—…”
Aeseul’s newfound confidence crumbled at the elderly man’s thick dialect.
“Ah, since you’re here, I went to the market and bought some tangerines. They’re greenhouse-grown, so they’re a bit sour. I don’t know if you’ll like them.”
“S-sour…?”
Every time the elderly man spoke, Aeseul’s head spun.
But she didn’t want to offend him by admitting she couldn’t understand, so she kept whispering to Eun-ho, her ‘jeong-gu-ji’ savior, for help.
「“Don’t tell her. It’s cute. Haha.”」
Eun-ho, not wanting to get caught in Eun-ji’s playful trap, pretended not to notice Aeseul’s pleading gaze.
‘Does he mean… the taste is strong?’
With no one to explain, Aeseul tried to interpret it herself.
Aeseul continued to struggle, trying to follow the elderly man’s explanation.
The problem was, not only his dialect but also his speed; he spoke incredibly fast.
As a result…
“What do I do? I’m the only one who doesn’t understand… Oppa, did you understand…?”
Aeseul, forgetting her makeup, buried her face in her hands, dejected.
“It’s okay. I understood even less.”
The only person who approached Aeseul with comforting words was Jikki.
The elderly man, far from being offended, seemed to be enjoying himself, speaking even faster, as if teasing her.
After the explanation, as the elderly man was about to leave, Eun-ho stepped forward and bowed.
“Thank you for your help.”
“Go on in!”
“Thank you.”
“Yeah. Have fun.”
The others followed Eun-ho and thanked the elderly man.
The elderly man, after his explanation, waved and left the house.
“I should have studied the dialect. I’m the only one who doesn’t understand. Oppa, did you understand…?”
“I understood from context. You’re just especially slow.”
Aeseul glared at Si-woo’s teasing.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. I’ll explain everything to you.”
Eun-ji said to Aeseul.
Aeseul’s eyes sparkled, looking at Eun-ji.
It was a heartwarming moment.
“Seriously, you’re even slower than her, and you’re offering to teach…”
Just before Eun-ho could finish his sarcastic remark, directed at Eun-ji, whose ego seemed to have inflated…
“Ah, Lee Eun-ho, you’re so annoying!”