[Episode 1] Nuri Recycling
3rd year Theater and Film Department, Siwoo Lee.
Not wanting to inherit his father’s junk dealer, he ran out and went straight to college.
5 years have passed now.
– Don’t go at 3pm.
I was cleaning in a hurry at the sudden notice of my father.
No matter how close the two of them were, they couldn’t bring his father into such a messy room.
In the first place, the reason the father and son relationship went wrong was not because he didn’t like the junk dealer or his father.
Director Jang Seong-woo, who I was working with, was the problem.
If it wasn’t for him, he might have been studying hard work from his father by now.
‘Well, that’s a thing of the past. By the way, he’s a strict man on time… … .’
That’s when I checked the time on my phone.
Wei Ying-
I got a call from an unknown number.
I thought it was an advertisement call, but when I remembered my father who kept time like a sword, I felt a strange sense of incongruity.
“hello.”
[hello. How is your relationship with Lee Do-woon?]
“It’s my son. But who are you?”
As soon as I heard the answer, the woman’s voice from over the phone became somber.
[This is Hansung Hospital. At 3:12, Lee Do-woon died. It seems that the police have not yet been contacted.]
“… yes?”
It was my father who said he would come to me with a mature voice until this morning.
Siwoo Lee stopped moving and stood blankly in his seat, not moving.
[It is said that there was an accident at the site where my father worked. For more details, come to the hospital and hear the details… … .]
Siwoo Lee hung up the phone and roughly put on his coat.
Then, like a madman, he hurriedly left the room.
* * *
it was an accident
Si-woo Lee’s father, Do-woon Lee, was the owner of a junk shop.
It is said that while he was disembarking the scrap metal, he got angry while standing around looking at it.
It was such a sudden situation that he could not avoid it and fell by being hit in the head by a sharp piece of scrap metal.
He was rushed to the hospital, but he could not be revived in the end.
After three days of Lee Do-woon’s funeral, Si-woo Lee, standing in front of the junkyard, muttered to himself the words written on the wall.
‘Nuri Recycling. We purchase scrap iron, non-ferrous metal, and scrap paper at the highest price.’
The letters were poorly drawn with paint.
When Lee Do-woon first started the junk dealer business, these were the letters he wrote with Si-woo Lee with sincerity.
Siwoo Lee, who was blankly looking up at the letters, bit his lip.
During the three-day award ceremony, Siwoo Lee never cried.
Because I couldn’t tell if this was a dream or reality.
And it was still the same today.
As I walked past the junkyard entrance, it seemed like my father would kick his tongue and nagging me, as he always did.
When Si-Woo Lee entered the junk yard with blank eyes, Jang Seong-Woo, who was the director of the junk yard, not his father, was standing with a cigarette in his mouth.
“Are you here?”
“… yes.”
White smoke rising from Jang Seong-woo’s mouth.
The foul smell of cigarettes pierced the tip of Siwoo’s nose.
My father always warned Jang Seong-woo, who likes cigarettes.
He said that he would not be involved in smoking while working, but he would not tolerate even smoking in front of Siwoo Lee.
As he said, Jang Seong-woo never smoked in front of Lee Si-woo.
“What are you going to do now?”
“I don’t know.”
Jang Seong-woo, who looked at the office with his left leg crossed, smirked.
Father and Jang Seong-woo.
Their relationship was so deep that it had to go back 10 years.
His father extended his hand to Jang Seong-woo, who collapsed while making a large scrap metal shop.
For 10 years, Jang Seong-woo was able to pay off most of the debts he owed while doing business with his father.
In a little while, he would be completely free from debt.
“Director Jang, what should I do with the junk dealer?”
“After all, you don’t have any regrets at the junkyard either. Get a reasonable price and hand it over. Severance pay… Considering the circumstances, I would like you to take care of some, if not all, of them.”
Lee Si-woo didn’t like Jang Seong-woo.
Before Jang Seong-woo set foot here, Lee Si-woo had been a junk dealer with his father since childhood.
He had an excavator license, a first-class license, a large-scale license, as well as a forklift license.
Until he bought this land with the hard-earned money and built a junk shop, Siwoo Lee obeyed his father’s instructions.
However, the problem is that the relationship between Jang Seong-woo and Lee Si-woo has deteriorated rapidly.
The problem between the two began when Si-woo Lee began to suspect Jang Seong-woo.
‘It was strange. The amount of scrap metal coming in was accurately recorded, because the amount of scrap metal going out each time was less than that.’
Lee Si-woo had no choice but to doubt Jang Seong-woo.
A company called a middleman who takes goods was also a place connected with Jang Seong-woo’s personal network.
Considering the various possibilities, there was no answer except that Jang Seong-woo had partnered with a company and intentionally reduced the amount of scrap metal.
So Si-woo Lee told his father many times that he should throw out Jang Seong-woo.
However, the father rather rebuked Lee Si-woo.
– The 10-year relationship was not created for nothing.
My father, who complained about not being suspicious of people so easily.
Siwoo Lee was upset.
If I had listened to what I was saying and looked at it even a little and said something like that, I don’t think I would have felt unfair.
Maybe that’s why, when I watched Jang Seong-woo go wild with his father’s trust, I got excited.
Since then, Si-Woo Lee has not helped with the junk dealer and has focused only on college life.
He didn’t come to the junkyard unless it was a holiday or an important day, because he was afraid he would get angry with Jang Seong-woo for nothing.
“I heard the junk dealer’s finances are not very good right now.”
“Fortunately, I don’t have any debt, but I forgot most of the funds I had.”
“Did you miss the time? I heard that my father deliberately didn’t sell it and kept it up until now because the director said he could make a bigger profit.”
“Ha, so? Is it my fault that my financial situation got to this point?”
Jang Seong-woo frowned and threw the cigarette in his hand on the floor.
Then he put out the cigarette with his foot and looked at Siwoo Lee.
Si-woo Lee replied with a calm expression.
“Is it possible? The decision was made by my father. It’s just that.”
“I know it’s heartbreaking, and I understand that it’s a difficult situation, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do this to me, Siwoo. What do you think I’ve been working with for 10 years with Dowoon hyung?”
“sorry.”
He had a lot to say, but Siwoo didn’t say any more.
There is only a heart attack, because there is no exact physical evidence that Jang Seong-woo committed corruption.
“Don’t think about it for nothing, and clean up the junkyard. Maybe it was because my brother passed away, and all the employees applied for resignation. These are people who have worked for two to three years, so it would be better to dispose of the junk dealer in order to pay severance pay.”
It was 3 days.
After only three days, the employees decided to leave the company.
There were a total of three people who worked as employees in an antique shop of less than 1,000 pyeong.
Two people managing the yard and one driver driving a forklift.
And including Jang Seong-woo, he had to pay severance pay for a total of four employees.
“I can provide severance pay for other employees, but I think the director’s severance pay would be difficult.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“My father gave me a salary in cash without deducting taxes because of the circumstances of the director. Because of that, there are no records left, so we cannot tax the severance pay to be paid to the director.”
Jang Seong-woo, who was listening to Lee Si-woo with an absurd expression, laughed.
“You don’t need to pay taxes anyway. It’s not like you’re going to inherit the junkyard, but if you’re going to hand it over to someone else… … .”
Si-woo Lee, who was quietly listening to Seong-woo Jang, seemed to fill his head with anger.
Originally, Jang Seong-woo should have stayed and was responsible for unloading the scrap metal.
However, on the day his father had an accident, Jang Seong-woo was absent without permission.
‘It’s also the reason why my father, who should have come to finish work earlier, stayed in the yard.’
wow.
It was as if a thousand fires were rising from his eyes.
I even heard from my father that he had asked Jang Seong-woo to be a new believer in advance that he was going to visit his son two days ago.
Maybe that’s why it felt like Jang Seong-woo’s fault that his father died like this.
“I have no intention of handing over this junkyard that my father built up to someone else, Director Jang.”
“What?”
“I’m going to take over the junkyard.”
Of course, Jang Seong-woo, who assumed that Si-woo Lee would sell the junkyard, was shocked to hear something unexpected.
‘Eat some shit. He believed in you to the end, but I never believed him.’
“What kind of junk shop would an inexperienced person say? Don’t… … .”
When Jang Seong-woo said that he had no experience, Lee Si-woo snorted.
‘What is inexperienced.’
Siwoo Lee has been helping his father since middle school, seeing and experiencing various objects such as scrap metal, scrap paper, and non-ferrous metal.
There were memories and experiences of those years.
It could even drive an excavator, and even a forklift.
He couldn’t say he was confident, but it didn’t seem like he had any trouble running the junkyard.
Above all, Si-woo Lee did not want the situation to go according to Seong-woo Jang’s will.
“I will give you my severance pay. I would never pay it as it was originally, but I am giving it in consideration of the relationship between my father and the director.”
Even if I had to do this by myself, I never wanted to get involved with Jang Seong-woo again.
At Si-woo Lee’s resolute words, Seong-woo Jang pulled out a cigarette with trembling hands and put it in his mouth.
“Uh-huh, do whatever you want. How long can a young man survive alone? Tug, as an uncle who has been watching you for a long time, I can’t help but worry.”
“it’s okay. I’m going to make it up somehow.”
“Oh, and know that too. They said that The K Besteel no longer takes things here. Ugh, I don’t know if you’ll ever be able to find a new business partner on this floor with no connections.”
The K Besteel.
He was a middleman who was currently carrying the items of Nuri Recycling.
There were four types of junk dealers that usually dealt with scrap metal.
Walker, floor junker, middleman, caravan.
Those who personally moved 1 ton vehicles were called ‘walkers’.
And it was the floor scraper that collected the items brought by the pedestrians and passed them over.
A middleman is paying a fee by borrowing a code that can directly enter the steelworks.
Finally, there was a target who could get a code that could be delivered by signing a direct contract with the steel mill.
The K Besteel was the middle man.
The price of scrap metal going to The K Besteel was about 20 won lower than going to the steel mill.
But my father did not stop doing business with The K Besteel.
It was to keep the ‘trust’ that he usually valued.
‘If The K abandoned us first, it’s enough to find a new place. However… Something is strange. It’s not a target, it’s a middleman, but it’s about hitting a customer that comes out about 30 tons every month… … .’
“I will take care of my future. You’ve worked hard all this time, sir.”
Whoops.
Jang Seong-woo grinded his teeth for a while, then turned around with a smile.
After all, the place where the new job would be located had already been decided.
Coincidentally, Jang Seong-woo was scheduled to go to work as The K Besteel from tomorrow.
“Yeah, I got it. good luck Oh, and it turns out that complaints have been pouring in for several years now, so we will have to deal with that too.”
“I will try to solve it on my own line. Thank you for that.”
Si-woo Lee wanted to get Jang Seong-woo away from here as soon as possible.
I was worried that he would stay here for nothing.
However, as if to prove that he was worried about nothing, Jang Seong-woo left the junkyard without looking back.
Si-woo Lee, who was left alone, looked around the junk store for a while.
‘If you don’t get it right… You can think about it then. The scrap metal is piled up like that. how much is that I can’t pass it up to that whole thing.’
Scrap metal piled up in the yard.
If handled properly, you could have made a profit of at least 20 to 30 won.
But his father trusted Jang Seong-woo and waited.
‘I must have started getting negative after being greedy. Whoa, because I entrusted everything in the junkyard to a person who didn’t have the ability with just trust.’
Si-woo Lee looked at the antique shop with a complicated gaze.
His anger toward his father, his longing for him, and even his worries about the future.
Now, the only traces of his father were this junk dealer and scrap metal.
When I thought of that, I felt like I was about to burst into tears, so Siwoo shook his head quickly.
However, despite such efforts, in the end, tears flowed from the crevices of my eyes.
For a while, something like the cry of a young beast resounded through the wide junkyard.
* * *
Lee Si-woo was worried as he wiped the water around his eyes.
‘There is a chance. Without an employee, I just have to manage it by myself and survive. The price of scrap metal will rise someday.’
If there was a problem, it was the severance pay of the employees.
It was supposed to be done with the amount remaining in the corporate account after deducting tax, but the succession part had to be finalized.
‘If you were Woo-cheol’s uncle, he would help me. clearly.’
The face I saw at my father’s funeral.
He was the only old friend of his father to become a lawyer.
And I’ve known Lee Si-woo since childhood.
Siwoo Lee took out his cell phone to make a call.
– Woo-cheol’s uncle.
I remembered him crying as he hugged Si-woo Lee at the funeral home, asking him to call him anytime if he needed help.
After feeling the tip of his nose getting cold again, Si-woo Lee hurriedly shook his head to shake off his thoughts and made a phone call.
After a while, the call stopped, and a familiar voice was heard.
[Siou?]
“Uncle Woo-cheol, can you give me a moment?”
[You can give me whatever you want. I was just about to say something, but that’s good. Ummm, is it okay around 4 o’clock? Where can I go?]
“You can come to the junkyard at 4 o’clock. Do you know the way?”
[Sure. I’ll be back soon, so wait a little bit.]
“Thank you, Uncle.”
[do not say that. When I hear thank you for something like this, I get scolded by Dowoon.]
