episode_0166

– Tap!

“Taehyun, snap out of it!”

I lightly slapped Taehyun’s cheek to bring him back to his senses after he seemed to have lost his mind.

After a few minutes passed.

“Ugh! Cough, cough!”

Suddenly, light returned to his dilated pupils, and he gasped for breath as if he had been through a major ordeal.

“Captain Cha?”

“Oh, right. Are you back to your senses?”

“Oh, yes. But what happened? I remember seeing a man bothering you and going to help, but then my memory is fuzzy…”

“Oh… nothing happened.”

“Really…?”

“You’ve been tired lately, huh? You should rest… but I dragged you out since morning. Anyway, here.”

I showed him the cash card and said, “I’ve recharged it, so let’s start cleaning in earnest now.”

“What? Oh… okay.”

I helped him up and asked how far he had progressed with the indoor cleaning. After checking for myself, I saw that most of the big trash had been taken care of, so I could start using the vacuum cleaner right away.

“Alright, go throw away the trash in the bin.”

After giving him instructions, I immediately started the vacuum cleaner with the card in hand.

– Vroom!

I grabbed the noisy vacuum cleaner hose and started sucking up the dust and debris in every nook and cranny of the car. Starting with the dust and crumbs stuck in the crevices of the back seat, I swept around, then removed the floor mats from the front and back seats and handed them to Taehyun, who had just returned from throwing away the trash.

“There’s a machine over there for putting the mats back in, so just stack them one by one without overlapping as quickly as possible. Once you get the hang of it, you might finish within the time you paid for, but it’s difficult to expect that, so don’t rush and split it into two rounds.”

“Oh, okay.”

After sending him off again, I resumed cleaning. It had been a while since I cleaned, but just like riding a bike, I hadn’t forgotten how to clean, so I could sweep most of the areas before the time I paid for was up. The rest could be done later when I foamed and used the small vacuum cleaner. Of course, it would be Taehyun doing it, not me.

“Captain, I finished putting the mats back and hung them on the laundry drying rack.”

Oh, I didn’t even teach him that, but luckily he did it well on his own.

“Good job. Next, I’ll handle some chemicals, so can you step back a bit?”

“Sure.”

After taking a few steps back, Taehyun asked again, “Is this enough?”

“No, a bit further. Yes, that should be good.”

Immediately after, I paid for a pressure washer and sprayed water evenly all over the car.

– Shoo!

The strong water pressure caused the water droplets to splash everywhere, and my clothes gradually got wet as if in a light rain.

“The pressure is stronger than I thought.”

Is it the pressure of this car wash or my weakened strength? It’s probably the latter, but in moments like this, I realize once again that my body has changed.

Anyway, in a short time, I diligently sprayed water all over the car, from the hood to the grill, roof, wheels, and every nook and cranny, until the pressure washer turned off after the time was up.

“Alright, now that I’ve sprayed everything, let’s wait for about 5 minutes.”

We needed some time before rinsing, so in the meantime, we decided to grab a drink.

“I saw a vending machine in the customer lounge earlier.”

After having a drink, we came back after 5 minutes and immediately paid for the foam gun to spray every corner of the car.

After finishing the foam cleaning, I wiped only the windows, excluding the door and bonnet.

“Wow….”

Kim Taehyun exclaimed with an inexplicable admiration, and I just couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction.

“Haha, is it that fascinating? Learn well now because when you have your own car, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to do this.”

“Oh… okay!”

After wiping all the windows, it was time to wait again. It would be ideal to start washing right away, but wiping off dirt with the foam still on could leave scratches on the paint. So, I waited for a while, thinking of just blowing off the dust.

After 5 minutes passed, I sprayed water on all sides of the car as if wiping off the foam.

Then, using the manual foam sprayer again, I applied foam and wiped all sides directly with a mitt in my hand, as much as I had dusted off earlier.

Meanwhile, I handed a small vacuum cleaner to Kim Taehyun and instructed him to vacuum every nook and cranny of the car.

– Squeaky clean

Ah, seeing the car getting cleaner made me feel good. Indeed, cleaning is a good thing, isn’t it?

But moving around made me feel a bit hot. I immediately took off the shirt I was wearing and continued to focus on cleaning.

**

Kim Taehyun seemed like he was going crazy.

It was because something overwhelmingly captivating kept diverting his attention right in front of him.

“Ugh, is this really not intentional?”

He seemed to understand why his daughter, Jung Dayoung, would nag at her mother and pat her forehead whenever she got a chance.

She seemed oblivious, too much so.

No, she could be sufficiently so. How could she, who had lived her whole life as a man, now perceive her female body socially? Especially when only six months had passed since the transition.

But this was too much.

It felt like a newbie in level 999 gear swinging a weapon in a beginner zone. She might not have that perception, but people around her were dying inside.

It felt like violence was imminent at this point. Showing restraint while being told to endure, what kind of torture was this?

But he had no choice but to endure it desperately. This might sound a bit off, but that’s how love is. The one who loves more always ends up losing. Moreover, she seemed to view herself only as a younger sibling, so there was nothing more he could say.

And now that he thought about it, he had discussed this issue with Dabin before.

“Mom really lacks self-awareness.”

“That’s true.”

“Huh? But how does Taehyun know that?”

“What?”

He had crossed into interrogation territory.

“Oh, I saw Dayoung nagging at her.”

“Yeah, she does. Anyway, I hope you’re careful. I’m still in my teens, so if I see that… ”

What did he see? Kim Taehyun was curious, but he didn’t ask without realizing.

“Anyway, both you and Dayoung need to be careful. That part.”

“Help me out too, hyung.”

“Me? I… ”

“But among us, you spend the most time with Mom, right?”

“Oh, that’s true.”

“So, please help.”

“Uh, okay.”

They had this conversation not long ago, and now seeing this scene before his eyes…

‘Thank you.’

He found himself uttering words of gratitude without even realizing it. It was inevitable.

‘I’m just a helpless man….’

In the face of overwhelming natural forces (after all, it was natural), he was just a powerless human.

“Ah, Mahavairocana Sutra, Bodhisattva Vajrasattva, Hyeongsim Banya….”

He realized his own limitations and soon decided to overcome this obstacle by seeking the power of religion.

**

It took about 30 minutes to finish cleaning the outside foam and the wheel. Now, all that was left was to move the car and give it a final polish to complete the basic car wash.

“Taehyun, you can come out now… Huh? Wait, why are you like that? Why did the car shrink so much in just a short time?”

“Ah… it’s nothing.”

I had sent him inside for a moment to clean the car, but he looked exhausted with sweat dripping down his forehead. Was interior cleaning that difficult?

But… no matter how much I thought about it, it should be me who was more tired, right?

Surprisingly, I felt more energetic than when I was a man, probably because I had been exercising and building up my stamina. But seeing Kim Taehyun exhausted just from this made it clear that he was lacking in exercise.

“No, we can’t have this. After the holiday, you and I are going straight to the fitness center. What kind of man has such weak stamina…”

Of course, not long ago, when I was a man, I also had poor stamina, but it wasn’t this bad. It seemed like his health was questionable, and I felt the need to improve his stamina soon.

“Haha, hahaha….”

How difficult must it have been for him to burst into a senseless laughter like that, it somehow felt a bit unpleasant…

“Captain, you are really….”

“Really…?”

“You are a good person.”

“Of course. What boss would drag around a subordinate with such weak stamina and even make them exercise? It’s for your own good. I’m just worried, that’s all.”

“Hahaha, hahaha… Yes….”

It seemed like he had lost his mind not because of his weak stamina, but because of the heat. Well, it was late summer, but it would have been strange not to feel hot after moving around in a cramped car for nearly 30 minutes.

“Sigh, maybe looking weak is a sign that I should make some herbal medicine for you to eat?”

As I said that, the middle-aged man in the next compartment looked at me, then at Kim Taehyun, and immediately turned his head with a frightened expression.

That expression somehow resembled the one I used to make in front of the disciplinary officer, and I could only chuckle at the thought.