Damn Hunter Life 77

Damn Hunter Life Chapter 77

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Hyeong-woo waited all day for just this moment.

Around 3 PM when Gang-hyeon would come rushing out hurriedly after kindergarten near his house ended, running da-da-da-da toward Hyeong-woo who stood looking only at the end of the alley.

Gang-hyeon, whose pale face had turned red from running, gasped for breath.

However, young Gang-hyeon at this time would get tired and nod off drowsily, but would quickly become alert again, and would play with Hyeong-woo until the evening glow settled.

“Playing on the mountain again today?”

“Yeah…”

Hyeong-woo nodded shyly and rubbed the toe of his worn sneakers against the ground.

Gang-hyeon crossed his arms and glared at Hyeong-woo with dissatisfaction.

“When are we going to the playground? Let’s go to the playground. The playground is more fun, playground! My friends are there too—”

“I don’t want to. Can’t go…”

Hyeong-woo squeezed his eyes shut and refused.

It wasn’t that he had never thought about the kids his age who would be playing at the playground. But whenever he did, the words passing children had said to him came back vividly.

“Why does that boy have long hair?”

“Isn’t that kid a hyung? He’s really big.”

“He looks scary. Weird.”

“Mom said not to play near that red house. Scary men and women live there.”

Among the clean children who went to kindergarten, Gang-hyeon was the only one who hadn’t said such things.

He recalled the first words Gang-hyeon had said when they first met a few weeks ago.

“Want to eat this?”

Gang-hyeon wasn’t afraid of the scenery here that was quite different from the apartment complex where he lived. With a bored-looking face, he wandered around here and there and discovered Hyeong-woo. He offered him a caramel.

“How old are you?”

Hyeong-woo answered in confusion that he was barely 7 years old. Gang-hyeon was delighted to meet someone the same age.

“Can’t you play with me? The kids have su… sujo-kku? They can’t play because they’re sick with sujo-kku disease.”

Hyeong-woo couldn’t believe his words and looked up at Gang-hyeon for a long time. With me, you want to play?

Perhaps misunderstanding that gaze differently, Gang-hyeon suddenly shook his head vigorously.

“I’m not sick! Really! The doctor said I’m not sick! It doesn’t spread!”

At those words, Hyeong-woo recalled going outside the neighborhood once and what a woman dressed like a queen had said to her son when she saw Hyeong-woo. You’ll catch a disease playing with a kid like that. Come here—

At that time, his chest ached and he was sad. Hyeong-woo slowly raised his head.

But right before his eyes was a child showing both palms saying he wasn’t sick and giggling.

Even if, even if he got hurt again.

Hyeong-woo gathered courage.

“What are we going to play…?”

“Let’s go to the playground.”

“…I don’t want to go there. I want to go to the mountain.”

The only kind of play Hyeong-woo knew was wandering alone on the hiking trail behind the neighborhood.

“Mountain? I know it.”

Then suddenly, Hyeong-woo looked Gang-hyeon up and down.

His new friend was so pretty and pale like a princess.

“You’re a girl, can you play on the mountain?”

Then Gang-hyeon frowned deeply and said.

“I’m a boy though?”

As if to prove it, on that first day they talked, Gang-hyeon hung from trees in the back mountain doing King Kong play and played digging in the dirt with him.

When he found a cool tree branch, he’d hold it and climb right up on rocks shouting “I’m a super strong general!” at the top of his lungs.

One day became two days, two days became a week. Hyeong-woo learned that his new friend’s name was Cheon Gang-hyeon.

The back mountain he saw every day became new with Gang-hyeon’s presence.

The two put their heads together and counted the types of insects living on this mountain.

“This is a praying mantis!”

“Be careful. Praying mantises bite.”

When squirrels appeared, they called out “Squirrel!” loudly. They competed to see who could find more interestingly shaped leaves.

Gang-hyeon had a flip phone, but there were no games installed on it. In the end, the only entertainment was outside. The two never got tired and created different games every day.

“I’ll be the leader! You be the subordinate!”

“Okay, good.”

Gang-hyeon chattered endlessly and created role-playing scenarios. Because it all sounded good, Hyeong-woo earnestly just nodded his head saying yes yes.

Gang-hyeon’s laughter was prettier than bird songs.

Gang-hyeon was smart and good at everything. If there was one weakness, it was his body. Gang-hyeon often fell on the mountain. As if he was used to falling too, he always carried a water bottle and bandages to wash wounds.

When Gang-hyeon pouted while looking at his scraped knee, Hyeong-woo felt his heart sting.

Seeing Gang-hyeon’s injured knee hurt more than when he burned himself boiling cup noodles alone at home.

Since Gang-hyeon got hurt so easily yet tried to climb high rocks, Hyeong-woo turned pale and stopped him.

“I’m going to get that branch!”

“You’ll fall!”

“Then will you go get it?”

Gang-hyeon turned to look at Hyeong-woo and pointed to the top of the rock.

Hyeong-woo nodded. Unlike Gang-hyeon, with his sturdy legs and build that was robust for his age, he easily climbed the rock and brought the branch Gang-hyeon had pointed to.

Gang-hyeon shouted “Wow!” with sparkling eyes.

“You’re the best!”

Thump. Hyeong-woo’s heart beat loudly.

To him, Gang-hyeon was the coolest person, and that Gang-hyeon had told him he was cool. Hyeong-woo was completely captivated by the pride he felt for the first time.

Uncharacteristically, he showed off climbing big trees skillfully in front of Gang-hyeon, and climbed side slopes rather than hiking trails, boasting of his strength.

“I climbed all the way up here. Look at me.”

The moment he waited for Gang-hyeon’s lips below to open—

The ground under his feet collapsed.

“…!”

His heart sank. He fell toward the cliff behind.

Fortunately the cliff wasn’t high, and he didn’t hit his head on anything. But he was so startled that his stomach churned.

His consciousness was hazy. He could hear Gang-hyeon calling him. He felt intense pain in his left leg and fainted.

When he woke up, he was in the emergency room. Someone was sitting in a chair beside him, and when Hyeong-woo opened his eyes, she spoke with a worried face.

“You’re Hyeong-woo, right? I’m Gang-hyeon’s mom. Gang-hyeon called saying Hyeong-woo was hurt.”

The woman with a face resembling Gang-hyeon was so beautiful and smelled so good that Hyeong-woo somehow felt like hiding.

“Do you know your parents’ phone number?”

He shook his head. Gang-hyeon’s mom showed a slightly troubled expression.

“Um… then your home address? Can you find your way home?”

“…”

When Gang-hyeon’s mom was thinking of other methods, the silent Hyeong-woo began pouring out words.

“I can find my way home. I know the address too. But I don’t have my parents’ phone number. My mom doesn’t tell me things like that.”

Besides that, Hyeong-woo rambled on and on. Even Hyeong-woo didn’t know why he kept spilling the words that had been inside him. Was it because Gang-hyeon wasn’t beside him?

Gang-hyeon’s mom caught information from the child’s scattered story.

That Hyeong-woo had lived alone with his mother. That they had struggled with poverty, moving from motel to motel, and had come here to borrow living expenses from relatives.

And that his mom had no interest in Hyeong-woo. That sometimes mom would cry and sometimes laugh, making it difficult for Hyeong-woo to even approach her. That he couldn’t even think about going to kindergarten, and would often eat snacks or ramen alone then carefully slip into mom’s bedding to sleep…

Gang-hyeon’s mom, who had been quietly listening to Hyeong-woo’s words, gently diverted his attention.

“You must have had fun playing with Gang-hyeon. You didn’t even cry despite being hurt, how brave. Fortunately your leg isn’t broken or cracked, just sprained.”

Looking at the pitiful face that quietly nodded, Gang-hyeon’s mom chose her words again and again.

She had learned of her son’s lie only today.

Because Gang-hyeon had always said the dirt on his clothes was playground dirt, she hadn’t known until now that Gang-hyeon had been playing on the back mountain.

“I heard from Gang-hyeon that Hyeong-woo is a very very kind and good child. Um… but it seems dangerous for children to go to the mountains by themselves. From now on, the mountain is off-limits. How about playing at the playground?”

Hyeong-woo bit his lips firmly.

Soon Gang-hyeon’s mom heard unexpected words from the child.

“No, ma’am. I’m bad.”

The child spoke with eyes squeezed shut as if confessing a sin.

“Actually I can go to the playground. I’m not really scared anymore. But if we go to the playground, I think Hyeon will leave me and play with other kids…”

Hyeong-woo was mature for his age, but.

He was very young.

Gang-hyeon’s mom took Hyeong-woo’s hand that was outside the blanket.

“That’s not true, Hyeong-woo. Even if you go to the playground, Gang-hyeon will play with Hyeong-woo. Because the kids at the playground can also be seen at kindergarten, but Hyeong-woo can only be seen at this time. So Hyeong-woo is a special friend. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Special friend… Hyeong-woo repeated those words with his mouth as if enchanted.

Though he couldn’t fully grasp the magnitude of those words, he nodded. Gang-hyeon’s mom smiled brightly at Hyeong-woo.

She recalled her son from dozens of minutes ago, who had stubbornly grabbed her arm even when told to stay home with dad.

“Mom, don’t scold Hyeong-woo. Hyeong-woo is the kindest of all my friends! I don’t fight with Hyeong-woo! Mom will like Hyeong-woo too!”

Gang-hyeon’s mom met with Hyeong-woo’s mother while taking him home.

The two had a long conversation for a while.

Young Hyeong-woo never learned what that conversation was about. But he could perceive what happened afterward.

Hyeong-woo’s mother left him completely with the relatives she had been borrowing living expenses from, and she herself no longer wore worn clothes and got a haircut, becoming neat.

The relative who newly became Hyeong-woo’s guardian provided for the child’s food, clothing, and shelter without shortage, but didn’t do two things.

One, he didn’t form an attachment relationship with Hyeong-woo and made no effort whatsoever to develop Hyeong-woo’s social skills.

And two, he absolutely prevented Gang-hyeon from coming to play at Hyeong-woo’s new house. Actually, it would have been the same for anyone, not just Gang-hyeon.

Nevertheless, Hyeong-woo continued to play with Gang-hyeon unchanged, sometimes at the playground, sometimes at the entrance to the back mountain. In winter, he was invited to Gang-hyeon’s house.

Before they knew it, the year had changed.

Both Hyeong-woo and Gang-hyeon were going to elementary school.

For Hyeong-woo, who wasn’t ready to mix with peer groups, one big and only stroke of luck occurred.

He was in the same class as Gang-hyeon.

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