My adopted daughter’s mukbang chapter 1

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When Lee Bada’s mother passed away from cancer when he was young, she left him with her final words:

– I’m sorry, my dear. But Bada and Sani, make sure you never end up alone. Support and encourage each other to live strongly.

At that time, Bada was merely in the second year of middle school, while his older brother, Lee Sani, was in his second year of high school.

With their father absent from the start and now their mother gone, Bada’s only remaining family in the world was his brother.

Naturally, as a second-year middle schooler, Bada interpreted his mother’s will as simply living well with his brother.

Thrown into the world with just the two of them, he thought they should live well by supporting each other.

But after their mother’s funeral, his brother and only remaining family, Lee Sani, began to change.

While never particularly affectionate, Sani could still somewhat be called “family.”

They lived in the same semi-basement single-room, ate from the same pot, and shared the same blanket to sleep.

Sani sternly scolded his young brother whenever he acted spoiled or whined. He reminded him that this harsh world was even scarier for them and that they had to stay alert and live strong.

While Bada studied, Sani worked.

After dropping out of high school, he left home early in the morning and returned late at night, insisting that Bada should at least study.

As Bada entered high school, Sani began to stay away from home for longer periods.

It started with a day or two. Then, as time passed, he would be gone for a week at a time, without any contact.

When Bada was in his second year of high school, Sani left a cash envelope with about two million won beside his sleeping brother’s head and left home for good.

– I’m sorry, Bada.

Rumors among adults spread unfavorably.

They said his brother Sani had gambled, taken on huge debts, and ran away, abandoning his younger brother. These whispers painfully seeped into Bada’s ears.

Initially, he naturally denied it.

Though not affectionate, his brother had worked tirelessly from dawn, urging him to study.

He couldn’t believe that his brother, who had urged him to study, had fallen into gambling and abandoned his only remaining family so easily.

But within a month of his brother’s departure, when a phone bill of over five million won arrived for a phone he had never activated, the brother, who had been Bada’s sole sanctuary, became the enemy who had dealt the final blow to his life.

“Damn you.”

Bada had many things he wanted to say to his brother and countless questions more numerous than the stars.

However, all he could do was resent his brother.

Yet, he was a strong person.

He worked part-time jobs and studied while cutting back on sleep, eventually paying off the massive installment payments. After enduring many sleepless nights, he managed to graduate from a fairly decent university in Seoul.

Though he was still struggling with student loans and unable to properly prepare for a job, Bada gritted his teeth and fought against poverty.

He even had a clear dream.

To become a chef.

Driven by his chronic poverty, eating instant noodles or convenience store triangle kimbap while watching delicious food on TV and YouTube, imagining ramen noodles were beef, he developed a strong passion for food.

With a single-minded desire to eat delicious food to his heart’s content, he scraped together money to self-study cooking, earning certifications in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and Western cuisines.

Along the way, he won numerous awards related to cooking. After graduating with a degree in Food and Nutrition, he joined a renowned restaurant as a junior chef.

Although the salary for a junior chef wasn’t high, he was happy enough doing what he loved.

After staying late to clean the restaurant and organize the refrigerator, he returned home like a zombie at 3 a.m., clutching his dizzy head, trying to grab a quick nap until he received that call.

– Is this Lee Bada? The younger brother of Lee Sani?

“…Yes, that’s correct. Who is this?”

Hearing his brother’s name for the first time in years, Bada answered, hiding his surprise, and the voice on the other end spoke calmly.

“Lee Sani has passed away. You are the only contact in his phone. We need to arrange the funeral; can you come now?”

My enemy, my brother, is dead.

The last remaining family member in the world has died.

That’s what they said.

***

Frankly, Bada initially had no intention of going to the hospital where his brother’s body was.

He had no desire to drop everything—work and study—to spend his already scarce money on his funeral for someone he so deeply resented.

Sensing this, the man on the other end of the line said that if Bada didn’t come, they would handle Lee Sani’s remains as an unclaimed body. However, he would still need to sign some documents relinquishing the remains.

“Handle him as… an unclaimed body?”

“I understand your feelings, but that’s the procedure. If you don’t want that, come now and proceed with the funeral.”

Bada remembered a brief documentary he had watched about the funerals of unclaimed bodies.

It was a ten-minute clip on YouTube, and his feeling after watching it was one of loneliness.

No one cries for them, no one mourns their death. They are just mechanically cremated according to procedure, turning to ashes.

After a long internal debate, Bada hailed a taxi in the early morning and headed to a hospital on the outskirts of Seoul.

The funeral director from the university hospital, who had called him earlier, formally offered his condolences and explained the details of his brother’s death.

“He passed away from cancer. He came to the hospital about six months ago, and it was already terminal. He refused surgery and life-prolonging treatment, just holding on… and then.”

“So you’re saying my brother died from cancer.”

Knowing it was wrong,

Bada couldn’t help but let out a slight laugh in disbelief.

Cancer? The man who disappeared after gambling ended up dying of the same disease as their mother.

After handling the surprisingly complex funeral procedures, Bada sat in the modestly arranged funeral hall, pouring a shot of soju in front of his brother’s portrait.

The brother in the portrait looked much older.

Having suffered greatly, his brother, now 30 years old, should have been in his prime, yet he looked like he was in his 40s.

Time passed, but no one came to the funeral hall. With a heavy heart, Bada drank a few shots of soju without any side dishes when the funeral director approached cautiously.

“Um, Mr. Lee Bada?”

“Oh, yes, yes.”

“We have some personal belongings of the deceased Mr. Lee Sani to give you. Here.”

A man in black mourning clothes handed over a small box.

The contents inside were truly meager.

An old-fashioned cellphone, a worn-out cheap leather wallet, a small notebook, and a pristine white envelope.

‘An envelope?’

While the other items seemed typical, the sudden appearance of an envelope was troubling.

After the funeral director had left, Lee Bada carefully took out the letter from the envelope after a moment of hesitation.

A few short sentences, written in a serious and firm handwriting, came into view.

[Bada, I’m sorry. I’m very, very sorry.]

[Go to 1XX Susaek-ro, Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, and look for ‘Lee Choa.’]

[The password is 1004.]

[I’m sorry I couldn’t keep mother’s last wish. I’ll tell her everything when I see her. Take your time coming.]

“Huh.”

A will… it must be.

I read it several times, thinking I might have misunderstood, but it seemed to be just that.

A will from my older brother, addressed to me, his younger sibling.

But what on earth is this supposed to mean? Eunpyeong-gu Susaek-ro? It looks like an address, but why go there to find ‘Lee Choa’?

And what’s with this password, 1004?

Although I hadn’t drunk much, a sudden rush of alcohol made my face hot.

Clinging desperately to my dizzy head, I thought.

‘Even in death, you’re doing this, brother.’

Muttering that I had no reason to heed such a half-hearted will.

But Bada knew. Like the saying “curiosity killed the cat,” maybe this was something I had to do.

Even though I knew it was playing into my brother’s hands, and despite having cut ties completely from the moment he left me without a word.

Adding various reasons and making excuses to myself.

The next morning, Bada was following the address written in the will, with the map open on her phone.

“I think I’m almost there. Hm.”

Eunpyeong-gu, Susaek-ro, Seoul.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it wasn’t far from the hospital where my brother had died.

With a mix of curiosity and apprehension, I raised my head to look at the place the map pointed to, and for a moment, my face showed astonishment.

“What is this?”

A building I had never imagined appeared before my eyes.

[True Love Orphanage]

An orphanage.

A place that raises abandoned and homeless children.

The address in my brother’s will pointed to an orphanage.

As if driven by some unseen force, Bada, with a mind blank from shock, forcefully opened the front gate of True Love Orphanage.

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