Water of the Womb Ch30

If I could get the job from Jung Hana, that would solve two of my problems. I wasn't sure how much of a referral fee she would take, but I could probably expect a couple million won from the job if it was as bad as Jung Hana said it was. If I could get paid by the end of the week, I should be able to just barely make my interest payment.

Han Jungho might not be happy with my light payment this week, but if I paid the interest he had no reason to pay me any visit. Next week we'd have the last race, and if we made it into the top three, I would be able to give him a decent payment.

And, a contractor job was basically a day job, right? It would have to do for Taejun's commandment for now. As soon as I finished working on my car (and hopefully Jung Hana's client's car), I'd go back to the job hunt.

The next day, I returned to Jung Hana's shop. I was pleased to see that the primer had dried evenly all over, and it was ready for painting. I gave it one last wet-sand and started.

Jung Hana was busy today and had barely acknowledged me when I arrived. I didn't see the promised wrecked car, but she was working on another one and didn't have time to hover over my shoulder to watch me.

Even taking my time with it, it didn't take me long to finish the first coat of paint. Since I'd be putting on a lot of coats, it didn't need to be as smooth as the primer, and I made sure to only put on light coats so it would stay smooth and not runny.

And… now I had to wait 20 minutes.

It felt wrong to idly wait around while Jung Hana looked so busy. I withstood a minute of awkwardness before I cautiously made my way over. I didn't know if she was the type to chat while working, or if she would think it was an irritating distraction.

Luckily for me, as I approached she commented, "Got an engine replacement today."

"Oof." That was a pretty hefty task. There was a lot to disconnect and reconnect, and some of the connecting parts needed to be checked to see if they needed replacement too. "Need a hand?"

She looked at me and I quickly added, "I'd just like to help a little, since you've been letting me borrow your tools." I didn't expect to be paid.

Jung Hana smiled. "Sure."

It was nice working with Jung Hana. She turned out to be quite chatty, and didn't mind me excusing myself every once in a while to return to my main task of painting. There were a ton of things to disconnect, but I always made sure to finish what I was doing before going back so it wouldn't be forgotten.

At last came the time to take the engine out of the hood. We'd checked it twice to make sure nothing else was connected. It was a rule. Something was always still connected when you thought you were done. But between the two of us, we couldn't find any missed parts.

Hana had me crank the crane while she wiggled the engine free. As hard as working the crane was, it also required considerable strength to nudge the couple hundred kilogram engine around, and I was pretty impressed that diminutive Hana was able to do so.

By the time we had the engine safely sitting down on an engine rack, both of us were out of breath and a little sore.

"I don't know how you run an auto shop all by yourself," I said. I took off my hat and wiped my hand across my forehead (and probably leaving a smear in the process).

"It's not like I have to take an engine out every day," she wheezed. "But if I do have to, I usually call in a friend to help."

I needed to do another coat, but first I wanted a little break. Thankfully Hana rewarded us for a job well done and handed me a cold soda from a little fridge. It was incredibly refreshing.

She took her own drink over to my car. It was just about done and probably only needed one or two more coats. Already it was back to the same deep blue-black as the rest of the panels. The paint had been a little expensive but color matching it was definitely worth it. After the polishing compound went on it would look just as good as new.

"You did a great job," Jung Hana said appreciatively. "Can hardly tell it was so busted up just yesterday."

I was pretty proud of myself. At Do Hoon's shop I'd done a lot of repairs but this was probably my best work yet, and I'd done it all by myself. I thanked her.

As I did, a tow truck pulled up. There wasn't enough room on the lot for the truck and its hanger-on, so it parked streetside. Aha. So that was the car Hana had told me about.

A man stepped down from the passenger seat of the truck. "Jung Hana-ssi! Sorry I'm so late, the first tow-truck I scheduled never showed up, so I had to call another one. What a headache!"

"Not a problem Kim Taeyeong-ssi. I'm sorry you had such trouble getting your car here." She shook his hand.

I wanted to go see the car, but I hadn't actually gotten the job from Hana yet. Not wanting to look opportunistically eager, I pulled on my dust mask and returned to the task of painting my own car. My mind filled with nervous thoughts. I really needed and wanted the contractor job from Hana. If I didn't get it, I would really be in trouble with Han Jungho. The thought of possibly needing to ask Eunsoo for money also sat uncomfortably in my gut.

Absorbed in my task and my thoughts, I didn't notice Jung Hana had brought her client over to watch me work. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw them there behind me.

"Baek Jaehyun-hubae, I'd like to introduce you to Kim Taeyeon-ssi."

I pulled off my mask and greeted him politely with the standard bow. Was this it? I felt hopeful.

"Baek Jaehyun does good body work, as you can see." She pulled out her phone and showed him a picture of my car yesterday as I was setting up for the glue pull. I hadn't even noticed her taking a picture then. "He fixed this car just yesterday."

"Just yesterday?" Mr Kim seemed surprised. "Is this the same car?"

"Yes, he works fast, doesn't he? If it's ok with you, I'd like to refer you to him to work on your car. It'll be the same rate we discussed just now." Jung Hana winked at me. My heart leapt for joy.

"It's fine with me. I trust your recommendation. How long do you reckon it'll take to be fixed?"

Yes! I did it! It was hard to resist the urge to celebrate right then and there.

Jung Hana walked us back to the car. "Let's have Baek-hubae take a look and give you his estimate."

The car had been quite banged up. Both ends of it had been damaged. Its frame was definitely warped and would need to be straightened, then I'd have to check the alignment. There was a couple of nasty dents and many panels had scratches and paint transfer. But at least none of the scratches were deep. I could probably get away with just putting filler and sanding it smooth instead of having to strip it bare like my car.

It was Wednesday afternoon. I could probably get most of the dents out by today if Hana was willing to let me stay a little late at her shop, then the rest of the work would be smoothing and paint work. "As long as nothing needs to be replaced, I could probably finish it by Friday," I said. "Saturday at the latest."

Mr Kim looked at Hana. "Is he being serious?"

Hana laughed. "He'll be focusing exclusively on your car. Even if his estimation is a little optimistic, I promise it'll be done by next week. Your car is a common model, so getting replacement parts if it is needed won't take long."

"Let's hope for the best. Alright, I leave it in your hands."

Hana wrapped up the deal with Mr Kim. When he left, I thanked Jung Hana.

She grinned at me. "Just don't mess it up."

I definitely wouldn't.

—--------------------

The next few days I spent working on the car. My own car had a glorious homecoming, and I felt smug to see Eunsoo and Ryu's reaction to my "home-made" repair job.

"Great, you can do all the body work on our cars now," Sungmin had commented.

I'm not sure if I wanted the pressure of maintaining Sungmin's presumably extremely expensive custom wrap.

Mr Kim's car needed a lot of work, and despite Hana passing the job over to me, she helped me straighten the frame and often checked in on me, offering tips or pointing out spots I needed to attend to. I was always grateful for her help, since she was already allowing me to use her bigger tools.

"You know a lot," I said one time, after she had given me a good pointer on how to work out a particularly warped spot.

"I learned from the best," she said. "Well, he wasn't a good teacher, but he sure as hell knew what he was doing."

That reminded me of Mr Do. Those memories were bittersweet now. "My mentor was the same," I said wistfully.

Friday came around before I knew it, but I didn't have much else to do except give the car one last buff. Fortunately nothing had needed to be replaced and I had been able to straighten and reshape everything out just fine. Maybe I should open a body shop, I thought to myself in satisfaction.

Jung Hana gave one last once over before approving it. Getting the approval of Hana, who I admired, felt good.

"I'll let Mr. Kim know his car is ready for pick up," she said. Hana pulled out her phone and took a picture of it. She nodded towards me. "One last tip for you. If you're planning on doing a lot of body work, always take before and after photos."

I hastily pulled out my own phone.

Mr Kim was pleased as well by the work. He shook my hand and praised me for a job well done. When Hana and Mr Kim went off to settle the bill, I pretended to busy myself, but Mr Kim called me over as they were wrapping up.

He pressed a 50,000 won bill into my hand. "Thank you for getting it done in a timely manner," Mr Kim said to me.

I protested politely but he insisted. It wasn't common to tip a mechanic, and I appreciated the gesture. I bowed deeply to him as he left.

The payment shocked me. It was nearly six million won. Jung Hana grinned at me. "I've already taken off a 15% referral fee for myself," she said.

"This is after the referral fee?" I said weakly. "Does Mr Kim know you're completely ripping him off?"

She burst into amused laughter. "Welcome to Inner Seoul," she said.

—----------

Han Jungho was not as impressed as me. "What happened, Jaehyun-a? Last week you brought over twice this."

I held my ground. I had paid him six million. "It's well over the interest this week," I said shortly. Every week I cut into the principal was a victory already.

He rumbled a low growl like a big cat. "You can do better," he said warningly. Clearly he was growing less tolerant of my resistant attitude. "3.1 million next week."

—-------

The stress of meeting with Han Jungho that afternoon followed me into the evening. At least I could look forward to the meet. With three teams dropped out, one of them might be willing to race now.

With everything else I had to worry about this week, I had forgotten about Lee Seolhee. Unfortunately she was the first to arrive at the hangout that night (apart from me, but I don't think Sungmin had figured out yet that I was basically living there now).

The moment she caught sight of me, she seethed with anger. I thought she would pull her petty silent treatment, but she stormed right up to me.

"I haven't heard from you in over a week," Seolhee hissed at me.

I had no idea I was supposed to be contacting her.

"I didn't realize I was supposed to be reaching out," I said. My irritation with her had been fading, but with her in my face again, I found it quickly returning.

She looked as though I had slapped her. "Not even to say sorry!?"

Last I remembered, she was the one who had pissed me off by running her mouth. Shouldn't she be the one apologizing? "Seolhee, you were the one going around telling everyone about my personal life," I said tiredly.

"You never told me to keep it a secret," she seethed.

I looked at her in disbelief. Even if I hadn't, those were extremely sensitive and private issues that I had had trouble sharing even with the Tigers. "I thought you'd have more tact," I said.

I didn't want to deal with her superficial drama right now with everything else going on in my life. This is why I had so little experience in dating. I didn't have the mental energy or time to deal with femininely curated dramas like this.

I moved away from her to flop onto the couch. Unfortunately for me, she followed.

"How could you say that?! I thought you wanted me to go steady with you. How can you care so little about my feelings?!" She raised her voice.

What kind of mind games was she trying to play here?! "Seolhee, you don't date people," I said, a little snappier than I would have liked. I turned on the TV to shut her out.

Immediately I knew I had struck a nerve. She fumed at me some more, fixing me with a hot glare. Her anger didn't frighten me after all the times I had stood my brother down. After a few moments she moved off to the other end of the couch.

"I might have made an exception for you," she said haughtily.

Even though I knew she was only saying that, I hated the panicked hope and regret her words had inspired.

The awkward silence between us hung heavily until the others arrived. When it came time to leave she usurped Ryu's (he was iffy of challenges and rarely brought his Tsunami out) usual spot in Eunsoo's passenger seat, causing everyone to exchange glances.

Ryu looked at me. "Guess I'm riding with you?"

Seolhee disappeared the moment we arrived, which was fine by me. I wanted to find a race. LC hadn't been at the last meet, and I didn't see him today either. Even though Sungmin had said that he wouldnt be organizing races during the tournament, it was mildly disappointing to see how true it was. I thought he might at least be there to talk about cars.

Well, it didn't take long for me to figure out what LC was doing, because not long after the meet started, Taejun called.

"Jaehyun! Are you alright?!" his voice was panicked.

"Mwo?" What now?!

"I just watched you crash into a guardrail trying to drift a car! Do you even know how dangerous that is? Do you think you're in Tokyo Drift or something?" It took me a moment to realize that LC must be streaming the races he had recorded and that Taejun must have just watched it "live". Even though I'm sure he was concerned, his scolding still felt a little harsh.

"Ah. But I got it in the end, didn't I? And I wasn't hurt." I flashed back briefly to the scene with San Minso and his sister. If only Taejun was a sister, so his punches wouldn't hurt. Not that he ever punched me. At least, not before today. Maybe I should get him into racing. "A small drift like that isn't even dangerous.

He groaned. "You were on a mountain road, Jae-ya. Watching that gave me a damn heart attack. You know even professional drift drivers have roll cages and helmets right? Could you please not do stuff like that?"

If he thought that was bad, I can't even imagine what he'd think of Cat and Mouse. I'd be packed off to Beijing before I could say 'chopsticks'.

"I'm already at my wit's end knowing you're driving around a car that you won in a shady racing gamble. Even if you didn't pay for it, please don't just callously crash it like that. You could get hurt!"

Taejun went on and on for some more time aad I just let him. I knew I was on incredibly thin ice with him already, and tensions were still high between us despite our last meeting. Finally he ran out of steam.

"Thank god there was no one else on that road," he said weakly. I think he was trying to soothe himself with that sentiment.

"Maybe you should, uh, not watch these races," I said tentatively.

Taejun mulled it over, then finally sighed. "I don't know if not knowing would be worse. But maybe ignorance is bliss."

He abruptly changed the subject. "But what are you going to do about that car? Is that your car? It looks expensive."

Before I could figure out how to break it to him that the race had happened a while ago and that I had already fixed it, he cut in again. "Where are you? Let's meet up. I want to see you and the car. I want to see how bad it is."

"Right now?! What? Why?" It seemed most everyone had already forgotten that I'd been working as a mechanic for years. I doubted Taejun, who had never even owned a car, would be able to assess the damage any better than I could (not that there was anything left to look at). "Hyung, you've never even had a car."

"Then can I say I want to see my little brother to make sure he's ok?" He sounded exasperated.

"Hyung, I'm fine! That race was a few days ago."

"Eh?!" Taejun was taken aback for a moment at the revelation. But he quickly regained his stance. "That doesn't change anything. We're still meeting up. Right now." He gave me an address.

"If you don't show up in half an hour, I'll turn Seoul upside down and shake it until you fall out of whatever hole you're hiding in," he said snappily. Was this guy really concerned about my wellbeing?

I grumpily went over Eunsoo and Ryu, who had seen me pick up the phone, to let them know what was happening and that I had to leave the meet early.

"Er, should we go with you?" Ryusuke asked.

"What for?"

"To make sure he doesn't try to cuff you and pack you off to Beijing?" Eunsoo made a show of cracking his knuckles. "We'll be your bodyguards," he said with a grin.

I let out a snort of laughter. Not even Park Hoojin had stood a chance against him. "You? Protect me?"

"He can't take all three of us on at the same time, surely." I couldn't tell if Eunsoo was joking or not, but Ryu standing off to the side with a horrified expression was amusing enough for me.

"Okay, we're not fighting Taejun," Ryusuke cut in. "But maybe we can follow behind subtly in case things go south."

I had a feeling Ryu would convince Eunsoo to tail me even if I told them no, so I just relented. We went to find Sungmin to let him know we were leaving. He was talking with a group of tournament participants. Despite trying to convince myself that she was too much trouble for me, I was a little dismayed to see Seolhee cozying up to Comet.

Our eyes met and she smirked at me knowingly. I looked away, trying to quell the feelings of hurt and jealousy that I didn't want.

"Should I come along too?" Sungmin asked.

"This isn't an open invitation hangout," I sputtered exasperatedly. "I'm just going to show him I'm ok and everything's fine." I wasn't about to have Sungmin, a legitimate drug dealer, meet with my brother, a legitimate federal officer.

Maybe Sungmin felt the same way, because he didn't argue with me and just let us go.

"Bye Jae," Seolhee purred at me as we left. I ignored her smug dismissal and stormed off.

"Boy, you two are a hot mess," Eunsoo said as we got into our cars.

—-----------------

Despite Eunsoo keeping well behind me, the moment I pulled up, Taejun said, "Do you know you were followed here?"

How in the hell did he know? I guess his job probably involved a lot of tailing people, or avoiding being tailed. Maybe he had some sort of secret camera system.

"Hello to you too, Taejun," I huffed. "It's just my friends. The programmers?"

I don't know if they thought they were being sneaky or whatever, but they had sidled up to a position close enough to eavesdrop in an extremely furtive and suspicious manner.

"They're really bad at that," Taejun commented. I had nothing to say to that, so Taejun began his examination of me. "You look fine to me," he concluded. I thought he was done with that, but then he said, "Take your hat off."

I sighed and took it off. Before I could react, he reached over and plucked a couple of hairs off my head.

"Aish! What was that for?" I rubbed my head and stared at him in disbelief.

"Drug test," he said simply as he put the hairs he had so ruthlessly abducted into a little vial he produced from a pocket.

"You're going to drug test me?!"

"Staying away from drugs was one of our agreements," Taejun reminded me.

Uh oh. I didn't know how it would work or if my one time use would read on it. I hoped not. I put on an apathetic face. "Sure, whatever. Wait, are you going to pluck out a hair off my head every time I see you?"

"Yes," he said.

"I might run out of hair," I complained. At least now I had an excuse to not ever use drugs ever again. Both of my experiences so far hadn't left me with the best impression of them.

He chuckled. "Doubt it. Let's see the car now."

Now this was the part I was looking forward to. I couldn't wait to see the expression on Taejun's face when he saw my car, whole and perfect. He walked around it once. Then twice. The look of total and utter confusion he gave me was worth the drive over (and the sting of my stolen hairs).

"Is this the same car?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yes," I gloated. So worth it. "I fixed it already."

"Just how long ago was this race?" Taejun ran a hand along the side of the car as though he thought the scratches would magically reappear.

"Monday."

"And you've already fixed it?"

"I was a mechanic for three years," I reminded him. "And I found work at a new shop, so I used some tools there." I added, remembering his third commandment.

"So you didn't have to pay to repair it?" Taejun said in disbelief.

"Just the cost of the paint," I replied.

He looked thoughtful. "Hm. That's good news. At least you can fix your car if you wreck it. That said, don't use that as an excuse to wreck it every other week."

"I'm in the car too. I don't want to wreck it either," I complained. "Plus, I love this car."

"What's the make?"

"Nissan Z." I wondered how much Taejun knew of cars.

"It's a good looking car," he admitted.

"If you're nice to me, I'll let you drive it sometime," I teased.

He swatted me. "Brat, you have no idea how nice I am to you. You better make good on that promise."

Taejun looked over to where Eunsoo and Ryu were doing their best to look casual and unassuming. "You want to call your friends over so I can meet them?"

"Why do you want to meet them?" I asked suspiciously.

"I'm doing my best to get to know you again. That includes knowing the people you call friends," he said. Taejun's ernest answer and expression caught me off guard. I felt a pang of guilt. After the experience with San Minso, I could understand just how he must be feeling watching me race. Even though I was sure he didn't approve of what I was doing, he was allowing me to do so to keep me close by. I swallowed any sharp reply I might have said and went to fetch my errant friends.

"Why'd you follow him?" Taejun jumped straight into interrogation mode after the introductions.

"Er, we just wanted to make sure things went smoothly between you two," Ryusuke stammered.

"And to stop you if you tried to cuff him and drag him off to Beijing again," Eunsoo added toughly. I bit back another snort of laughter.

Taejun didn't even try. He chuckled. "You asked these runts to be your bodyguards?" he said to me.

"Hey! Ryu is very sensitive about his height!" Eunsoo snapped.

"I'm really not… that's you…"

Taejun moved onto the next item in his agenda. "Would you give me a couple of hairs each?" he asked, as casually as if he was talking about the weather.

Eunsoo flinched back extremely suspiciously. "Er, no thanks. Don't touch the hair." Even though I knew Eunsoo would most likely spectacularly fail a drug test, I glared at him and frantically tried to send him a mental message to stop giving himself away.

"You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide," Taejun said stoically, as though he was in some sort of cop movie.

"As an NIS agent, shouldn't you be giving us a drug test consent form first?" Ryusuke asked diplomatically.

"I've got some in the car I drove over. Want me to get them?" Taejun replied coolly.

I was this close to tearing out (more) of my hair. Could these two be any less obvious?!

"The only time I want a guy yanking my hair is when-"

"Eunsoo, please don't try to flirt with the scary NIS agent," Ryu said palely.

For some reason that made Taejun laugh instead of flying into a rage. "I didn't come here to arrest anyone," he said placatingly to Ryusuke. "If you two really are programmers, I'll bet you've taken amphetamines at some point in your life."

They looked sheepish. If only Taejun knew.

"But if Jae's test doesn't come out clean…" He fixed them with one of his signature glares. My friends wilted immediately. "I'll start with you two. Don't ever give anything to my dongsaeng."

All three of us nodded frantically. If only he knew.

Please, little hairs, don't betray us now.

To my surprise the rest of our talk went well. Taejun was genuinely curious about Eunsoo and Ryusuke. Eunsoo relaxed significantly after the initial tension and immediately reverted to his usual friendly, chatty self. Even I ended up learning a little bit more about Eunsoo and Ryu today. Apparently they had met when Eunsoo did an exchange program in Tokyo in university, and they'd just been friends since then.

I hadn't seen this side of Taejun in a long time. It was easy to see why he was popular wherever he went. His charm and charisma easily lulled even jumpy Ryusuke into the conversation. When Taejun talked with others, he didn't dominate the conversation but made sure to include everyone. He seemed to genuinely care about what you had to say and offered just enough about himself, which made you want to lay bare your soul to him.

Like San Minso, he exuded a friendly warmth that just made you want to reciprocate. But having met Minso, I wondered how much of this side of Taejun was real, or if it was all just a very clever act. Thinking this way about my brother made me feel unsettled.

My friends were completely taken in by him. "You're pretty chill for a narc," Eunsoo commented.

"I don't work in the Narcotics division. I'm working towards International Crime," Taejun replied. That definitely cheered Eunsoo up a lot.

It was already pretty late when we had met up, so after talking for a while, we decided to cut it short.

"Even though it's incredibly obvious you two have partaken in illicit drugs before, I appreciate you two sticking by him. He doesn't make friends easily, so I'm not sure how you two have managed to become so close in such a short time," Taejun said.

"Awww." Eunsoo grinned toothily at me. I grumbled in embarrassment. Even though Taejun was not that much older than either of them, he was speaking as though he was my dad.

"Keep him out of trouble for me, will you?"

I don't know what impression Taejun had gotten of Eunsoo, but it was clearly wrong.

"For sure. I'll make sure he eats his veggies and brushes his teeth after every meal," said the troublemaker himself. As usual, he dodged my kick with his surprisingly cat-like reflexes.

Eunsoo and Ryu left first.

I felt pretty certain Taejun was going to run background checks on them both the moment he went home.

Before Taejun and I split, he stopped me. "I forgot to mention something."

I waited to see what he wanted to say to me now.

"It's about the guy I had to arrest at the meet. How well did you know Park Hoojin?"

"Not well," I said. I wondered why he was bringing that up now. Even though Park Hoojin was my teammate, I'd never really interacted with him in any significant exchange that didn't end with us trying to beat the other's face in.

"Did you know he's Park Bonghwan's brother?"