# Chapter 37
What he handed over was a photo printed on paper. Seowoo’s eyes naturally fixed on it. The image wasn’t very clear, but it was distinct enough to make out the figure. Seowoo’s eyes, which had been gazing casually, suddenly grew round.
“Wait a moment. This person here…”
Seowoo pointed at the subject of the photo. With a relatively youthful face, only the profile was visible, but how could Seowoo not recognize Seo Dohyun’s face?
Some things were similar, and some things were completely different. The slicked-back hair and casual attire were hard to find in the current Dohyun, but that distinctive smile remained even in Dohyun from that era. Seowoo frowned and looked at Hyungil.
“I couldn’t find anything like this even when searching.”
“Of course not. If he was stupid enough to leave this on some portal site, I would have sent him to prison to eat rice with beans long ago.”
Seowoo completely agreed. If he had been that soft and thoughtless, Seowoo probably wouldn’t be here either.
Seowoo held the paper and examined Dohyun’s face closely. It was quite fascinating, regardless of like or dislike, to see this past moment of a roommate he had to see every day.
“How old was he in this?”
“He’s thirty-six now, so… let’s see. I first approached him about 7 years ago, and this is from even before that. When he was working as Jeonggu’s underling, so about twenty-four.”
“Twenty-four?”
That’s not even old enough to have graduated from university. No wonder his face looked youthful despite the poor image quality. As Seowoo couldn’t hide his surprised expression, Hyungil laughed briefly with a whistling sound.
“Really, twenty-four. At this point, he was completely a kid, a kid.”
It was true to his words. The Dohyun in the photo had facial structure, a smile, and an overall image roughly similar to the current thirty-six-year-old version, but his overall aura had a childlike quality. It felt strange to be looking at Seo Dohyun’s childhood photo in a place like this, when Seowoo had never properly looked through even his friends’ graduation pictures. Clearly, Seo Dohyun had done all the bad things, but somehow Seowoo felt a twinge of guilt.
“Well, he wasn’t that much of a kid either. There are plenty of bastards who start gangster activities even before finishing high school.”
“…As a minor? Did Seo Dohyun also engage in this… organizational life from that time?”
“Of course. To grow to that level among gangsters, you really have to be steeped in darkness from a very young age.”
It had been quite some time since Seowoo had graduated from school. It wasn’t that he had good memories of school. However, precisely because they weren’t good, his eyes and heart went out to young children who were drifting away from where they should be, dressed in school uniforms.
Seowoo understood to some extent what kind of impact even small cracks and frictions could have on a child’s inner world that hadn’t yet expanded.
It was impossible not to notice the subtle undercurrent in his voice. Hyungil slightly narrowed his brow and stared at Seowoo.
“It’s a completely different issue.”
“What?”
Before Seowoo could properly ask what he meant, Hyungil clicked his tongue lightly and tapped Dohyun’s face in the photo a couple of times.
“When I call him a gangster bastard, I don’t mean he’s just some neighborhood thug. He’s not the kind who extorts money in alleys, picks fights everywhere, ruins his own life, and gets lectured at the police station.”
“…”
“A gang, fundamentally, is a group that cannot exist without ruining others’ lives. They’re people who eat by tearing off others’ flesh, you know? And Han Seowoo-ssi came to me after being torn to shreds by this bastard.”
Yes, that was right. Dohyun suppressed others without hesitation and took what was theirs. He dominated and took through force and power, and it looked natural to him. Unlike teenagers, he had grown too old for any kind of guidance to work easily, and his actions affected too many places.
And ultimately, hadn’t he almost killed Seowoo? No, this assumption would still be valid now. He could kill Seowoo at any time.
“…You’re right.”
Seowoo closed his eyes tightly, then opened them and shook his head. There was nothing good about thinking about Dohyun’s school days. His current behavior wouldn’t change anyway. Seowoo would just be haunted and emotionally hurt.
Hyungil clicked his tongue lightly inside his mouth, then patted Seowoo’s shoulder.
“I’m telling you not to worry about it.”
“I’m not bothered at all. I just don’t know much about it, that’s all. What’s that photo about?”
Seowoo naturally changed the subject. Hyungil didn’t insist on returning to the previous topic and showed Seowoo the paper in his hand.
“This is also a photo of Seo Dohyun. …Who are these people beside him?”
Besides Dohyun, there were several unfamiliar faces lined up. The man standing in the center appeared quite older than the others, seemingly well into his 40s at first glance. Hyungil tapped the middle-aged man’s face with the end of his pen.
“This is Joo Jeonggu. He was basically like an older brother figure to Seo Dohyun.”
“Jeonggu…”
Where had I heard the name Jeonggu before? It wasn’t a familiar name. As he traced his memory, a comment that Hyungil had casually dropped earlier suddenly came to mind.
‘When he was working as Jeonggu’s underling…’
So, he must have been the boss of the organization Seo Dohyun belonged to. Naming an organization after himself—what naming sense. As if being in a gang was something good. Seowoo’s expression soured for various reasons.
“At first, they were similar in size to other organizations, but at some point, they must have completely reorganized the hierarchy because they properly absorbed the gangsters around them. At that time, Seo Dohyun was there as the right-hand man, with this guy at the helm.”
Hyungil took his pen and without hesitation drew an X over Joo Jeonggu’s face.
“When Joo Jeonggu suddenly died, the Jeonggu faction fell apart, and that’s when the current President Park of T&C persuaded Seo Dohyun to come under him.”
“…He died suddenly?”
“President Park’s side probably killed him. I have a good guess about who did it, but no concrete evidence.”
Is it okay to talk so casually about someone’s death? As Seowoo looked on with a stunned expression, Hyungil lightly scratched under his eye.
“You’ve witnessed Seo Dohyun trying to bury an innocent person, so why are you so surprised at the mention of gangsters killing gangsters?”
“But… isn’t it still a murder case?”
“Ah, that’s right. If Joo Jeonggu hadn’t died, President Park would have, so it’s slightly different in nature from an ordinary murder case. It’s an issue where we might need to investigate not only the perpetrator but also everyone around the victim.”
His matter-of-fact explanation was so ordinary that it was rather uncomfortable to hear. Seowoo quickly closed his mouth. He seemed to vaguely understand what Hyungil was trying to say.
It probably wasn’t a situation that couldn’t have been anticipated, nor was it one-sided. Gang members who were always after each other’s lives bit each other until someone’s head fell off. It meant this wasn’t a situation worthy of Seowoo’s sympathy or concern.
When Seowoo didn’t say anything, Hyungil, while keeping his eyes fixed on the file and flipping through the sheets, added a comment.
“You shouldn’t waste emotions in unnecessary places.”
“Excuse me?”
A feeling of guilt and bewilderment rose together. As Seowoo inadvertently raised his voice and asked again, Hyungil pulled out a sheet of paper and responded leisurely.
“You’re using emotions that could be spent worrying about friends and family to worry about gangsters’ lives and well-being. I wonder if such kindness is even deserved.”
“I’m not worried… it’s just that when someone dies, the expression is, you know, a bit…”
“Are you close with Seo Dohyun?”
“What?”
This time his voice rose twice as high. What nonsense was this now? Startled as if burned, Seowoo shook his head without hesitation.
“If we were close, why would I be sitting here?”
“I’m not trying to criticize you. If you’ve lived in the same house for three months without major conflicts, you must have gotten along better than expected. Since you probably had no expectations to begin with, even a little humane behavior would have seemed fresh to you.”
“…”
It was nothing but naked facts, to the point where Seowoo suspected that it was Hyungil, not Dohyun, who had installed CCTVs in the house. Since Dohyun’s first impression had been so terrible, Seowoo had often thought it unexpected whenever Dohyun did something nice or behaved normally. Feeling preemptively guilty, Seowoo couldn’t respond, and Hyungil propped his chin and stared at him.
“Aren’t you reacting and empathizing with every story about Seo Dohyun because you’ve grown emotionally close to him?”
“That’s not particularly the case.”
“Why do you keep denying it? Getting closer is good. I’d rather encourage it, actually.”
“Getting closer?”
Hyungil nodded clearly. Just a moment ago, he was frowning and scolding about gang members, and now he’s saying to get close?
“None of what I’ve said is without purpose. You should get close, but you shouldn’t waste emotions.”
“…Can you get close to someone without using emotions?”
“Of course. It’s a simple matter if you don’t trust Seo Dohyun, but make him trust you.”
Make him trust me? Trust, faith, reliance. A few abstract yet beautiful words vaguely came to mind, but the moment Dohyun’s face overlapped with them, they shattered without delay. These were probably the words that least matched Seo Dohyun in the world.
Don’t trust, but make him trust you. This would have been a high-difficulty problem for Seowoo with anyone, but with Dohyun as the counterpart, the level instantly becomes so difficult that it’s nearly unsolvable.
“I can’t do it.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
