85.
“I don’t understand what you’re thinking.”
Haseo spoke resignedly as he took out what he had brought from the old man’s house. A small fruit knife wrapped in newspaper. When he held it in his hand, Choi Mujin laughed. Didn’t he consider this a threat? Well, he was someone who had likely experienced much worse things. Haseo’s actions might seem amusing to him.
“Are you going to stab me?”
Choi Mujin approached as much as Haseo retreated.
“Then stab me.”
He spread his arms, exposing his chest.
“Stab me as much as you want. I won’t resist.”
Haseo still couldn’t understand Choi Mujin.
“You seem to misunderstand something.”
The knife wasn’t originally brought to stab Choi Mujin. Even in this horrific situation, Haseo was curious about Choi Mujin’s true feelings. That’s why the knife was pointed not at Choi Mujin, but at his own throat. Whether the clumsy stab would take his life or not was unknown. But one thing became clear—Choi Mujin’s expression changed.
“Lee Haseo.”
A low, husky voice called his name reprovingly.
“Don’t come closer.”
“Don’t have strange thoughts. The person you should resent and hate is right in front of you. Why are you doing this?”
“I know. I know, but suddenly I had this thought.”
Grandmother had said the best revenge was to live happily and show them. But father’s idea of revenge was different from grandmother.
‘You take away what’s most precious to them. Only then can you say you’ve fully taken revenge.’
How do you know what’s precious? The questions continued endlessly, but he hadn’t asked his father in detail. They weren’t close enough for that anyway. Still, those words were helping him now.
Let’s say he stabbed Choi Mujin. Could someone who had overcome all sorts of harsh situations be hurt by someone like him who didn’t even know how to fight properly wielding a fruit knife? Even if he was wounded, it wouldn’t be a deep wound. It’s not easy for a person to seriously hurt another person.
So he decided to think differently. Get rid of what he values most. But did he have such a thing? Everything precious to Choi Mujin was beyond Haseo’s reach. That’s why he chose to target the most vulnerable thing.
Himself. The question was whether he was precious enough to Choi Mujin. Seeing his panicked expression, unlike his usual self, confirmed it. Even if he couldn’t be called the most precious, he was still someone significant to Choi Mujin.
“Put the knife down.”
“No.”
“I’ll tell you where your grandmother is.”
“She’s dead.”
“Her body is preserved intact.”
For a moment, his heart wavered. But he didn’t want to back down now. Seeing his grandmother would be good, but what then? Would he continue living as he had been?
‘I don’t want that.’
So he chose to follow the path he had selected. Haseo gritted his teeth and swung the knife.
Clang.
With the overwhelming, terrible pain, he dropped the fruit knife. Then Choi Mujin rushed over, pressing hard on Haseo’s neck, and shouted. When he called someone’s name, a person rushed in from outside. Haseo couldn’t clearly tell who it was. His body began to tremble as blood gushed from the wound. Whether it was from fear or from the wound, he couldn’t tell. But there was one thing he finally understood.
Choi Mujin was also someone who could feel fear. Someone who could be scared and afraid, just an ordinary person. And it seemed Haseo was quite precious to him. Although he had always called for his grandmother in such situations, for the first time, he called a different name.
“Mu-Mujin-ssi.”
Somehow understanding his barely audible voice, Choi Mujin replied.
“Don’t talk!”
“Do, do you like me?”
“I do, I do like you!”
Only in this situation could he acknowledge Choi Mujin’s feelings. They had just lived different lives and weren’t compatible, but they liked each other. Haseo smiled slightly and closed his eyes. I’m glad I found out, even now.
That’s what he thought.
He had made a mistake. Choi Mujin was too arrogant and stupid. He seemed to have had the delusion that he could control people as he wished. He looked down at his blood-soaked hands and then raised his head. Haseo had been taken by car to the nearest hospital. Though it was called the nearest hospital, the travel time was quite long. It was because the village was in such a remote location. Still, since the initial treatment was done by a doctor, they were able to make it here.
Choi Mujin, who had been receiving reports on Haseo’s every move, had recently stationed a doctor nearby just in case. That doctor rushed over and provided emergency treatment, somehow keeping him alive long enough to send him to the operating room. It didn’t seem like much time had passed, but every minute, every second felt like an eternity.
Click.
The operating room door opened, and someone came out.
“Guardian?”
“Yes.”
As he answered calmly and stood up, the person looked at Choi Mujin with shocked eyes. It was because he was covered in blood from his hands to various parts of his clothes.
“Fortunately, the surgery went well. But there was a lot of bleeding, and it would have been dangerous if we’d been even a little later.”
He explained Haseo’s condition in detail.
“You must have been very shocked.”
To this customary remark, Choi Mujin replied.
“Perhaps.”
Where did it go wrong? He had wanted a complete love that looked only at him. So he tried to eliminate all of Haseo’s options. His mother turned away from him because of her new family. His father betrayed his son, and his grandmother eventually died. His father’s relatives had long distanced themselves after what they’d been through with him. Haseo had become perfectly alone.
Although his mind wasn’t the same as before due to the drug, Choi Mujin was still satisfied. He felt fulfilled by the feeling that all of Haseo’s emotions were directed at him. Yet even amidst this, his greed grew endlessly.
If he could have both love and hatred completely. Love changes, but hatred rarely does. Knowing this, he let Haseo meet the pawnshop owner despite knowing about it.
It was obvious what the pawnshop owner would say. He cared for Haseo knowingly or unknowingly, so he would undoubtedly speak ill of Choi Mujin. By listening to that, Haseo would come to know who had contributed the most to things turning out this way.
‘He’ll come to hate me.’
He had also heard that Haseo had taken something from the old man’s house. If it was a weapon, he had been prepared to be stabbed or hit a few times. But instead of unleashing his hatred on Choi Mujin, Haseo chose another method.
Perhaps Haseo was even more ruthless than Choi Mujin. He looked down at Haseo, who had been moved to a hospital room. He brushed away the hair sticking to his forehead, wet with cold sweat. And he examined the arm with numerous IVs attached.
Since it was a knife wielded by a beginner without knowledge, it wasn’t a serious wound, so he would wake up before long. When he wakes up, with what kind of gaze will Haseo look at Choi Mujin? He wanted to know what emotion would be contained in that gaze. And after a while, Choi Mujin was able to find out.
Haseo woke up faster than expected. And as soon as he woke up, he tore at his wound again. The nurse who witnessed this screamed, and Choi Mujin firmly grabbed both of Haseo’s hands. Haseo seemed to smile faintly at Choi Mujin.
“It seems there’s a mental issue here.”
When such incidents repeated, the doctor said this with a tired face. And he suggested restraining Haseo’s body. Choi Mujin agreed. However, Haseo didn’t stop abusing his body whenever there was even a slight gap. He also refused to eat properly. As a result, his wound wouldn’t heal easily, and his body gradually wasted away.
Even Choi Mujin, who had been patient, couldn’t help but ask at that point.
“Lee Haseo. What do you want?”
Only then did Haseo open his mouth for the first time since the surgery.
“…Let me go.”
“If I let you go. Where will you go to die?”
“No. I won’t die.”
“How can I believe that?”
“If you don’t want to believe it, just live like this.”
Haseo glared at Choi Mujin with harsh eyes. It might be better to pretend to let Haseo go for a while. If they separated, he would probably reduce self-harm like this. Knowing this made him feel strange. With the thought that if he let Haseo go, he might never see him again, he couldn’t easily make a decision.
* * *
Even amidst all this, external affairs were rapidly progressing. Evidence of Chairman Jang’s corruption was discovered and made public by his wife.
“Crazy bitch!”
Chairman Jang jumped up and down in rage, spewing anger. It seemed he had trusted his wife quite a bit, as his distorted expression was filled with a sense of betrayal. He tried to meet her to persuade her somehow, but she avoided him and left the house to return to her family home. Since her family wasn’t such a pushover, Chairman Jang couldn’t force his way into their home.
“How could you do this to me! Fuck, and Director Choi. Where has that bastard gone?”
In the past, he would at least occasionally show his face at headquarters, but now he wasn’t seen at all. Even when asking the person he had planted on Choi Mujin’s side, the only answer was that he didn’t know. Despite having been planted there for quite some time, he was an incompetent fellow.
“This is driving me crazy.”
After rampaging and turning the chairman’s office upside down, Chairman Jang slumped down on the relatively intact sofa.
“I’m going crazy.”
If Baek Sira had betrayed him, what about Director Choi? Perhaps the reason Baek Sira betrayed him was because she had sided with Choi Mujin. Despite knowing that she had been working for the benefit of her family, the reason he hadn’t restrained her was because he knew her. No matter how much she tried to hide it, the human heart leaks out somehow. She liked Chairman Jang.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
