“So you’re saying they might have lied about the escapee to create that unsettling atmosphere!”

“We’re already stressed enough with the emergency order and all, and now you guys…! If you have time for this, go stand guard! We’re already short on police officers!”

Facing bulging muscles honed by a lifetime of farm work or gleaming eyes flashing as he yells, one would normally cower, unable to talk back or even mutter a reply. Of course, there are exceptions.

“Oh, now the village chief wants to play cop too. It’s tyranny, tyranny. Our chief sure has a thirst for power.”

“Han Seo Jung, you’re always trailing after Tae Rin, yet you have so much to say!”

“Ah, chief! Is love a sin?”

“You little rat! You told Choi Yoon to come here, didn’t you? You guided him here!”

“He would’ve found his way even without my help. As you said, chief, it’s a tiny village like rat droppings, right? Just a few laps around and, hey, he’d know where everything is.”

Han Seo Jung grumbled as he brought out a faded box of drinks from inside the village hall. He set the box down on the wooden porch with a thud and took out the bottled drinks.

He placed one in front of Chief Jang Yong Sik, one in front of Kim Tae Rin, and reluctantly one in front of Choi Yoon, then gestured to call the neighbors.

“Everyone come in and sit down. Have a drink each. It’s hot out.”

The villagers who had been huddled around the yard and walls, watching, hesitantly approached.

Jang Yong Sik yelled, chasing them away.

“Is this a show? Choi Yoon or whoever will be leaving soon, so all of you go back home!”

Han Seo Jung sighed deeply, then personally took the box and went around the yard, handing out drinks to the neighbors.

Kim Tae Rin tried to resume the conversation.

“Chief, please just listen to what I have to say…”

“You rascal Kim Tae Rin, you took money, didn’t you!”

Jang Yong Sik shouted.

Choi Yoon, who had been silently kneeling next to Kim Tae Rin, suddenly straightened his back. Before Kim Tae Rin could stop him, Choi Yoon chimed in.

“Chief, money is just a small part of it. It’s merely a due compensation for your efforts. My ultimate goal is…”

“I didn’t ask you!”

Jang Yong Sik bellowed. Looking ready to overturn anything within reach, Kim Tae Rin quickly pushed the drink in front of Jang Yong Sik far away.

Someone among the neighbors clicked their tongue. A sigh was heard, saying who could change the chief’s stubborn mind.

“It’s suspicious no matter how I look at it! I can’t stand by and watch you pretend to help us anymore.”

At this point, Kim Tae Rin was exasperated.

“Chief, I’m not pretending to help, I’m actually helping. Thanks to Choi Yoon, our story was published. The filming is an extension of that.”

He glanced at Choi Yoon at the end. It seemed like an appropriate moment for him to add something.

However, Choi Yoon wasn’t looking at Jang Yong Sik.

He was staring intently at something with a calm expression. It was the gap of an open door leading inside the village hall.

Kim Tae Rin leaned slightly to follow Choi Yoon’s gaze.

Through the open door, a photo hanging on the wall was barely visible. It showed the villagers happily smiling together against the backdrop of a peach orchard. Some had their arms around each other’s shoulders, while others held up ripe peaches.

It was a photo taken by the city to promote Sosul’s specialty peaches, but it soon took on a different meaning.

It became the last photo taken before the gumiho incident. In subsequent village photos, the number of residents had drastically decreased.

“As a village elder! I don’t know what you’re up to, but if you’re thinking of using us, just leave! If not, bring proper evidence! Evidence that what you’re saying is true!”

Jang Yong Sik struck the floor with his back scratcher, then resorted to pointing accusingly. Choi Yoon carefully reached out and moved the drink Kim Tae Rin had pushed aside even further away.

Kim Tae Rin took the back scratcher from Jang Yong Sik’s hand and retorted.

“Money? Of course I received it. You know better than anyone how much I need money. And it’s not just me, everyone will receive it. It’s an appearance fee.”

At the mention of money, the neighbors behind them started murmuring.

That commotion seemed to grate on Jang Yong Sik’s nerves. He appeared to view this confrontation as a threat to his hard-earned position as village chief.

“Blinded by that measly money…!”

“It’s not just about the money, I told you there’s a more important purpose. The emergency order has already been issued, and although we can still come and go by showing our IDs, even that could be blocked at any time.”

The neighbors’ murmuring grew louder. It was quite different from when money was mentioned. The eyes watching them became much more serious.

“I don’t like that guy! I just don’t like him!”

Jang Yong Sik had finally abandoned even the effort to speak logically. Kim Tae Rin also felt he was reaching the limits of his patience. He shouted back.

“You think I’m doing this because I like it?”

He sensed Choi Yoon turning his head to look at him.

Kim Tae Rin cleared his throat, avoiding Choi Yoon’s gaze. Ignoring Choi Yoon, he resolutely shouted.

“Chief, set aside your personal feelings and think! If you only consider our village, the answer is clear.”

“It’s because I’m thinking of the village that I’m acting like this! I feel like another accident will happen! Like we’ll repeat the past!”

The villagers suddenly fell silent.

“Even if it’s superstition, we can’t help it!”

Kim Tae Rin turned his upper body while sitting to look at Han Seo Jung standing behind him. He shrugged slightly and shook his head. It meant there was no hope. Then he pointed at the gate as if to break it down. It meant to stop wasting time and go home.

However, Kim Tae Rin couldn’t easily get up from his seat.

He had to settle this here and now.

Right now, Choi Yoon wasn’t just dealing with the village chief. The villagers were watching.

But for some reason, Choi Yoon was silent. He was stiff as if something was wrong. It got worse after he saw the village photo. Now he wasn’t even looking at Jang Yong Sik, but had his gaze fixed downward.

Well, Choi Yoon seemed reluctant to come here from the start. To be precise, Kim Tae Rin and Han Seo Jung had brought him along, insisting they should confront the situation, while Choi Yoon looked like he’d sell his soul if he could just start filming smoothly without facing the chief.

Throughout facing Jang Yong Sik who was pushing him away, Choi Yoon showed signs of both understanding completely and at the same time being utterly unable to comprehend.

Kim Tae Rin suppressed a sigh.

Damn it, what to do.

It seemed pointless to further explain the purpose of filming to Jang Yong Sik. He had already expressed a negative stance on that issue.

The possibility of Jang Yong Sik changing his mind while the villagers watched silently was slim. Reason couldn’t be argued here. It was a matter of pride.

To make Jang Yong Sik accept Choi Yoon while saving his face so he wouldn’t feel like he lost to Choi Yoon…

Jang Yong Sik dislikes Choi Yoon.

In the past when the village was devastated by the gumiho, when death sharply cut through the village, Jang Yong Sik unintentionally became a survivor by a hair’s breadth.

He clearly remembered how the elder who was the village chief at the time was practically driven out of the village, taking responsibility for ignoring the government’s recommendation to not put up a fence around the village boundary. He had expressed several times that he didn’t want to follow the same path.

While grumbling that he was sick and tired of this damn village chief position, he still did so.

The reason Jang Yong Sik is so wary of Choi Yoon is because he loves the village that much.

Even if it’s superstition, he doesn’t want to give even the slightest chance. To misfortune.

So to change Jang Yong Sik’s mind, he needs to be reassured. He needs to be made aware that accepting Choi Yoon can make the village better.

But how?

Kim Tae Rin looked at Jang Yong Sik. He was still turning his head away, half turned around. He was visibly trying to contain his anger.

Kim Tae Rin looked back. The neighbors were silently staring at them.

Han Seo Jung downed his drink with a face that said he was dying of frustration, then threw the empty bottle into the box. Jangcheon peach juice.

Ah.

Kim Tae Rin hurriedly tapped Choi Yoon’s knee with his fingertips. Choi Yoon flinched and looked up.

Kim Tae Rin picked up the drink in front of him and pointed to the text printed on it. Jangcheon peach juice.

Then he turned the bottle over and ran his fingertip over the large ‘Special Product’ written on the back. Then he pointed at Choi Yoon, then quickly tapped the bottle again.

Choi Yoon stared at Kim Tae Rin for a moment, then blinked his eyes wide. Right after, he nodded very slightly.

Choi Yoon looked at Jang Yong Sik. He spoke politely.

“I understand.”

Jang Yong Sik raised one eyebrow. His expression said, what sudden trick is this.

“If you insist, I don’t want to force things either. I’ll return to Seoul. I’ll just drink this before I leave. After all, I’ve received your hospitality.”

Choi Yoon twisted open the bottle cap. He adjusted his posture from kneeling. Sitting comfortably cross-legged, Choi Yoon gulped down the drink.

It was a familiar scene. From behind, someone seemed to say it looked like a commercial.

Choi Yoon put down the half-empty bottle and suddenly muttered as if he just realized something.

“Come to think of it, the specialty product here was peaches, right?”

Jang Yong Sik didn’t respond at all. But Kim Tae Rin instinctively knew he was definitely listening to Choi Yoon. Jang Yong Sik had been growing peaches his whole life. He was the type to jump up even from sleep if it was about peaches.

Choi Yoon tilted his head slightly as if recalling something. His eyes were innocent.

“Now that I think about it, peach farmers had a really hard time last year, didn’t they? I heard the price plummeted due to a sudden increase in harvest combined with the economic recession.”

Jang Yong Sik’s expression asked how he knew that. His attitude of not wanting to exchange a single word with Choi Yoon had already softened, and he opened his mouth weakly.

“That’s right. We couldn’t even cover labor costs.”

The villagers’ faces darkened in an instant. Last summer, everyone had worn such expressions in front of the lusciously ripe peach orchards.

“If we have another dry monsoon like last year, prices will crash the same way. The peaches will ripen quickly and the supply will flood the market all at once nationwide.”

Choi Yoon asked with a concerned face.

“What do you do with the less marketable ones? The ones with blemishes or small sizes?”

“That’s a headache too. If low-quality products enter the market, it brings down the price of perfectly good peaches too. As if it’s not bad enough that they slash prices because it’s a local product.”

Choi Yoon lightly held the peach juice bottle.

“Is processing not active?”

“There are canned peaches and juice, but promotion is not easy. We’re not the only ones producing peaches.”

“If all the low-quality ones were sent to processing plants, wouldn’t that reduce the market supply and help stabilize prices?”

“It’s not that simple. The plants have a set purchase amount. They won’t suddenly buy large quantities of our peaches without prior planning.”

“What if consumption increased?”

“As if that would happen…”

Jang Yong Sik stopped mid-sentence. He stared at Choi Yoon as if wondering when he had gotten so close.

Choi Yoon smiled brightly. Kim Tae Rin finally realized what it looked like when he smiled with purpose. The smiles he had shown until now didn’t even qualify as smiles.

“Do you have a promotional ambassador for the peaches here? If not, I was thinking I could give it a try.”

Kim Tae Rin saw it clearly.

The spark that flashed in Jang Yong Sik’s eyes.