Chapter 7: The Cherry Farm in Brentwood (1) TL: Hanguk

Christina’s birthday party was held in a well-decorated two-story house in the suburbs. The bright lights, lively music, and laughter spreading everywhere helped us forget the stress from school for a moment.

When I arrived at the party, I spotted Armando waiting for me at the entrance of the house with a visibly tense expression.

“Brian! You’re late!”

Armando, who kept pressing on his wristwatch, looked extremely nervous. Since I already had the experience of having been a married man, I was certain that today would not end well for Armando.

“Sorry, I was looking over some materials. But what’s with your expression? Anyone would think you’re heading into a war.”

Unable to hide his excitement, Armando kept turning his head to scan the party.

“Christina already came... but there’s no timing to talk to her. Look over there, she’s always surrounded by people!”

At the end of Armando’s gaze was Christina, at the center of the party with her blonde hair and bright smile. Students swarmed around her like bees around a queen bee.

She wasn’t quite on the level of Chloe, who was called the queen of the school, but she was definitely beautiful.

“So you still haven’t talked to her?”

“It just doesn’t feel natural!”

“Alright, alright. Don’t rush it. I’ll think of something, so calm down.”

I slowly looked around the noisy party hall. Then I noticed someone. Chloe Harris. She was wearing a stylish black one-piece dress and chatting quietly with her friends while smiling. I carefully approached her and spoke.

“Hey, Chloe.”

“Huh? Brian? You actually came?”

Chloe briefly looked me up and down and then smiled. I had just dressed neatly because it was a party, but I couldn’t tell what that smile meant.

“What? Did you think I wouldn’t come?”

“Mm, it wasn’t that.”

“Anyway, remember I told you I had a favor to ask?”

Saying that, I stepped a little closer to Chloe and whispered.

“You know my friend Armando over there? He really wants to talk to Christina, but he hasn’t had a chance. Could you maybe bring Christina over to us naturally?”

Chloe looked at me with that same odd gaze, pondered for a moment, then nodded.

“Well, that won’t be hard. But you’ll owe me a favor later.”

“Of course. Just say the word any time.”

Chloe soon approached Christina and said something to her. A moment later, Christina followed Chloe and began walking toward us. When Armando saw that, he grabbed and shook me as if he was running out of breath.

“She’s coming! Christina’s coming! Ahh, I think my heart's going to explode!”

“Get a hold of yourself. Smile naturally. Ah, close your mouth. And stop shaking your leg!”

When Chloe brought Christina over to us, I naturally greeted her.

“Happy birthday, Christina.”

“Oh my, thank you, Brian. Thanks for coming.”

Chloe smoothly led the conversation and introduced Armando, and though he was awkward at first, he slowly melted into the atmosphere and managed to speak a few words.

“Hi Christina. Happy birthday. You look pretty today.”

“Thank you. You look good today too.”

“Hahahahaha... Do I?”

The mood was gradually improving. But at that moment, a huge, handsome man nearly 190 centimeters tall approached Chloe and gently wrapped his arm around her waist. It was her boyfriend and the captain of the football team, Evan Creed.

“Chloe, they’re looking for you over there. Let’s go.”

“Okay, got it. Sorry, I’ll head out first. Have fun!”

As soon as Chloe left, Christina returned to the friends who were calling her from nearby, and Armando just stared blankly at Christina’s back.

“How could you just let her go like that?”

When I pushed him, Armando turned to me with a dazed expression.

“If I didn’t let her go, then what?”

“You idiot! You should’ve held onto her with any topic you could think of!”

“Then you should’ve told me!”

"How could I tell you that so openly!"

“Damn it! Christina……”

Armando’s faint, longing gaze was so pathetic that I could hardly bear to look at it.

“Ugh!”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“Forget it. Let’s call it a day and head out.”

“Head out? Already?”

“It’s already over. If you stay here and get drunk? I guarantee you’ll lose your chance forever. If you end things cleanly here, another opportunity will come someday.”

“You’re telling me to leave Christina behind with alcohol and guys?”

"... Stop talking nonsense and let's go. Another opportunity will come."

So I took the sulking Armando and left the party. Since I had borrowed my dad’s car today, I drove him and casually asked,

“Nothing special happened at Silver Oak Farm?”

“Huh? Ah... it was kind of absurd when I got there.”

“Absurd? What was absurd?”

“They kept drilling into us from the moment they called us that they were ‘using organic farming’. And then they had some workers spread what looked like organic fertilizer.”

“And then?”

He tilted his head and continued.

“But when the farm work was done and I was about to leave, I felt like... is it really okay to just go home like this? Don’t you think so? We just worked hard and left!”

“Well... that’s true?”

“That’s what I’m saying! So I pretended to leave but then slowly wandered around and headed toward the warehouse, and there were a lot of workers who hadn’t gone home yet. The same guys who were spreading that so-called organic fertilizer. And you know I can’t hold back when I’m curious. I wanted to see what kind of organic farming they were doing, so I went into the warehouse, and guess what kind of containers I saw?”

“What?”

Armando spoke like he was some archaeologist who had made a grand discovery.

“Pesticides.”

“What?”

Even I was shocked this time. To shamelessly spray pesticides while advertising organic farming...

“That bastard! He’s trying to pull a trick so he can advertise wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon grown organically!”

“That’s what I’m saying!”

“Greaaat!”

Excited, I high-fived Armando while driving.

“If only I had gotten Christina today, it would’ve been a perfect day.”

“Another chance will come. You saw it earlier, right? Christina greeted you really brightly.”

Armando tilted his head.

“So what? Does that mean she likes me?”

“You idiot! It means at the very least, she doesn’t find you disgusting.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Just that?”

“That’s how it always starts with girls. From now on, it’s important how you build your image. Anyway, it was good.”

“Since you helped me this much, if I have nowhere to go after graduation, I can work at your farm, right?”

“...... Uh, yeah. Sure... of course.”

'What? Is their family situation that difficult?'

It was a bit awkward, but since the farm was always short on workers, I had no reason to refuse. After dropping Armando off in front of his house and returning home, it was already past 9 p.m.

"You came back early?"

“It’s already past 9, you know?”

"Good job. Your mom worries so much about you getting influenced by strange kids in America. They do drugs at parties and stuff, right?"

“...... Don’t ever worry about that. Where’s Dad?”

“Your dad’s studying right now. He’s been like that every day lately.”

Back in Korea, Dad had run a business, and until the day he died in my previous life, I’d never seen him study anything other than language learning. Maybe it was because I had no interest in him. Or maybe he just never needed to study.

“Is he studying about grapes?”

“Yeah. I think he borrowed books from the library. He’s struggling with an English dictionary, so don’t go and interrupt him.”

Even if he knew basic conversation, a book for learning specialized knowledge would naturally be full of unfamiliar vocabulary.

“Tell me which book he’s reading later.”

“Why?”

“So I can recommend him a more suitable one.”

“Ah~ that makes sense. Alright. I’ll take a peek later.”

“Okay.”

I entered my room, washed up, and lay down on my bed, and all sorts of thoughts rushed in. Especially the memories of resenting Dad after he decided we would immigrate to America.

I remembered how I projected all my despair onto him when I was torn from my familiar environment and friends, and when I had to endure the hateful stares directed at me.

‘I won’t be like that anymore.’

With that resolution, I closed my eyes.

*

Three days later, we were finally able to use the long-awaited wine facility.

“After cleaning everything thoroughly, it actually looks pretty decent, doesn’t it?”

The building with the wine-making equipment already looked good originally, but after repairing and cleaning it, it looked even better.

Next to the facility, the three families had moved a large amount of grapes from the storage.

“Do you really think this will work?”

Mom was worried,

“And how do we start now?”

and Dad, who was staring with fierce determination to learn, made me smile gently.

I first walked toward the large tank of the equipment and placed my hand on it.

“This is the crusher. First, we put the harvested grapes in here to extract the juice. You shouldn’t press too hard; gently pressing will give you cleaner juice with less bitterness.”

“But can we really make vinegar with these... kind of low-quality grapes?”

The grapes in the box beside us were definitely lacking the firm, premium feel, and some were even rotten.

Mom put one into her mouth and made a face.

“Ugh... it tastes awful.”

“Why did you eat it when you knew it wouldn’t taste good?”

“I just wanted to try one. But yeah, the condition isn’t great.”

Unlike Campbell or mountain grapes commonly eaten in Korea, Cabernet Sauvignon isn’t eaten raw. The skin is thick and tough, the tannins are strong, and the seeds are big and sour.

In short, Cabernet Sauvignon is not a grape meant to be eaten raw.

“Even if the grapes are low in quality, it’s fine for vinegar. It doesn’t affect quality as much as wine does, so don’t worry. After the crushing, we move it straight into the fermentation tank. This here is the fermentation tank.”

I moved beside the equipment and pointed at the tall, round stainless-steel tank. Mom and Dad followed behind and peeked inside.

“After putting in the grape juice, we add a little yeast and maintain a certain temperature. Then the yeast eats the sugar inside the juice and converts it into alcohol. This is the first alcohol fermentation process.”

“So it becomes alcohol? If you drink it, will you get drunk?”

I burst out laughing at Mom’s cute question.

“Yes, it becomes alcohol. But we’re not trying to make alcohol, we’re making vinegar, right? So we ferment that alcohol again into acetic acid to make vinegar.”

“Oh~ my son’s a doctor.”

‘I really was a doctor...’

At that moment, my phone suddenly vibrated violently in my back pocket.

Bzzzz...

I pulled out the phone, which had just shaken against my hip, and saw a message. The content surprised me.

- Help me out. Can you come to our farm this weekend? from Chloe

“Huh? How did she get my number?”

“Who is it?”

My mom asked.

I immediately replied with “Okay, I got it” and put my phone back into my pocket. Mom might get weird ideas if she saw it.

“It’s nothing.”

But then, I suddenly grew curious about Chloe’s intention in calling me to her farm.

'She said they run a cherry farm? What is this about?'