Lee Dongjae leaned his shoulder toward Kyung Jiho and spoke in what he thought was a hushed voice. Of course, it was loud enough for Ji Geun-yeong to hear. Kyung Jiho, who had been watching the young man still staring only at the pineapple with increasingly frightening eyes, said:
“Kid, look at me.”
Again with “kid.”
Geun-yeong raised his gaze from the pineapple to look at Kyung Jiho. His eyes traveled upward but, startled by the intensely blue, sharp gaze, his sight dropped and stopped at the Adam’s apple. Considering this as being looked at, Kyung Jiho snapped:
“Are you threatening me now? Is this some ‘say you’re that person or I’ll kill myself’ thing?”
“That’s it, that’s exactly it, hyungnim.”
Lee Dongjae agreed with Kyung Jiho’s words. And Geun-yeong turned his gaze away from the man’s Adam’s apple, lowering it. He couldn’t even look at the pineapple anymore, bowing his head deeper to look at his own hands resting on his thighs.
What the man said was right. He was threatening him to remember because it seemed so unfair that something that had been his hope and reason for living wasn’t even remembered by the other person.
But hearing those words from someone else’s mouth made it seem absurd. If he wasn’t that person from back then, this was truly rude, and even if he was that person from back then, it was nonsensical. There was no reason for that person to be responsible for someone else who had clung stubbornly to a memory and lived in such a foolish way.
“You, kid, don’t casually talk about dying. People who habitually say they want to die all beg for their lives when you actually try to kill them.”
Geun-yeong acknowledged that statement too. He was indeed begging this man to save him. He had come to beg this man, who might not even be Kyung Jiho—who now seemed definitely not to be—to recognize him because he wanted to live. All the man’s words were correct. Geun-yeong felt ashamed. Humiliated.
“Stop with the useless threats and tell me. Why do you want to die? Is it because of that disease?”
Geun-yeong didn’t answer. He had already been enough of a nuisance by making absurd threats to someone who might not even be that person. There was no need to share his filthy story about being sexually abused by his adoptive father since he was very young.
Mistaking Geun-yeong’s silence as agreement, Kyung Jiho snorted.
“Come on, I guess everyone with diabetes and high blood pressure should just go and die.”
“Ah, hyungnim, don’t say that. Diabetes is really hard. Remember that Park guy who was importing those toy Viagras? He said he wanted to die because his diabetes complications made his dick not work. Don’t you remember?”
“Shut up, you bastard. Why are you bringing that up now?”
“I’m saying it because you’re making light of diabetes, hyungnim. Someone young like Teacher Saetbyeol who’s been sick since childhood might feel like dying because of it. Hyungnim, you’re really being cruel.”
Even without Lee Dongjae going this far, Kyung Jiho himself felt he had made a mistake. He was inwardly sorry but tried not to show it, keeping his expression firm. All three—the person who felt sorry, the person angered by the thoughtless remark, and the person with nothing to say—remained silent.
After hesitating briefly, Geun-yeong took a breath before revealing what was on his mind. Despite how things had turned out, there was still something he absolutely wanted to ask.
“But why… do you call me ‘kid’?”
Actually, this is what he came to ask today. The man had called him “kid,” and that had confused him. That’s why he was convinced the man was that person from back then. But the man’s answer was simple:
“Because you’re smaller than me. What else should I call you?”
Unable to accept the man’s easy answer, Geun-yeong slightly raised his index finger to point at the man who was extending his arm to pierce a pineapple.
“That person is even smaller than me.”
Suddenly singled out, Lee Dongjae paused in his motion of trying to pierce the pineapple, and at that moment, his thigh-sized forearm twitched.
Geun-yeong lowered his finger that had slightly risen. No matter how short someone is, there are types you can call “kid” and types you absolutely cannot call “kid.” It was a question that didn’t need an answer, so no conversation followed.
After quite a long silence, Kyung Jiho said:
“Give me your phone.”
Geun-yeong looked up. He looked at the pineapple, turned his head to look at the man’s chest, and then past his prominently masculine Adam’s apple to his eyes. The man, whose face was much softer than before but still gruff, was extending his hand. Give me your phone, he said.
“Ah… I didn’t bring it.”
“Fuck. What kind of person are you? You come on strong but use a fake name and don’t want to give your phone number—”
“That’s not it! I do want to give it!”
Geun-yeong shouted loudly. Lee Dongjae, startled by the rabbit-like guy suddenly roaring like a tiger, clutched his chest saying, “Whoa, you scared me.”
“My name is Ji Geun-yeong! My phone number is 010! 3676—”
“Whoa, whoa, shouting it won’t help. Our hyungnim can’t memorize it. Don’t worry, I have the number you called from earlier.”
Lee Dongjae restrained the young man who seemed like he was reciting his military serial number while sitting at attention in a barracks. Then he said to Kyung Jiho:
“Hyungnim, I’ll give you the number, so don’t be too hard on him for forgetting his phone. He probably dropped it somewhere because he was so excited when you told him to come here.”
Kyung Jiho had been secretly irritated by Lee Dongjae, who had been making him look narrow-minded since earlier, but he held back. Having decided to first calm down and send home the sick young man who wanted to die, and then deal with Lee Dongjae afterward, Kyung Jiho checked his wristwatch.
Soon, low-quality men would be sprawling all over this area. The young man sitting here already didn’t fit in, but wandering around this neighborhood at this hour would be even more unsuitable for him. He’d either get robbed or get caught by club bouncers. Kyung Jiho stood up and said to the young man who was looking up at him with his head tilted sharply:
“Get up. I’ll take you home.”
“No, it’s fine—”
“Hyungnim, you were drinking heavily earlier. Are you planning to drive drunk?”
“What nonsense. You drive.”
“Yes, sir—”
Lee Dongjae stood up with a hearty response in his deep voice.
Ji Geun-yeong, who had also risen hurriedly, judged that trying to reassure the people who had already turned toward the door would only earn him harsh words, so he quietly followed along.
Gangsters these days are quite considerate.
As he made his way out through the tables and sofas with a crab-like walk, just as he had entered, Geun-yeong briefly had that thought.
While driving, Lee Dongjae asked where his home was, and Geun-yeong, sitting primly in the middle of the back seat, mentioned the Blue Frog karaoke place in the food alley behind the hospital’s back gate. Kyung Jiho, sitting in the passenger seat, grumbled.
“This kid, he hides his name, his phone number, and now even his home. I’m telling you, he’s a sly one.”
Startled, Geun-yeong leaned his upper body forward and hurriedly explained. He had just stepped out briefly from a dinner with his classmates! His classmate had his phone, so that’s why he was going there! As for where he lived, it was Green Village A Building, Unit 7 in Cheongdam-dong!
Lee Dongjae tried to calm him down, saying, “Easy now, easy,” and then spoke to Kyung Jiho.
“Hey, hyungnim. Don’t keep teasing the innocent kid. What if he gets so surprised that his young heart gets damaged?”
Then Lee Dongjae began talking about President Park, who had illegally imported counterfeit medicine for erectile dysfunction, followed by President Baek, who had died of cardiac arrest while having relations with a madam. He rambled on about how that gentleman also had diabetes.
“Shut up, kid. President Baek was a seventy-year-old man.”
At Kyung Jiho’s rebuke, Lee Dongjae was quiet for a very brief moment, then casually remarked:
“Isn’t Green Village in Cheongdam-dong where only celebrities or the super-rich live?”
Kyung Jiho, who was well aware of Green Village in Cheongdam-dong, simply sat with his arms crossed, silently staring ahead without saying anything more.
And Ji Geun-yeong was thinking that he had always assumed gangsters only drove large black sedans.
The worn SUV, personally owned by the detective who was being mistaken for a gangster, was now entering the food alley behind the hospital.
After dropping Geun-yeong off in front of Blue Frog karaoke, Kyung Jiho lowered the window and raised his index finger from the hand resting on the window frame, pointing as if to poke Geun-yeong’s nose bridge. Then he issued a warning.
“I’ll call you unexpectedly, so pick up. If you say one more time that you want to die, I’ll kill you myself, so if you don’t want to die, just shut up and study hard. Understand?”
“…Yes.”
“Well now, our hyungnim is speaking so nicely. With our hyungnim’s pretty words, even the frozen pollack lying in the fish market would all come back to life, I tell you.”
“Shut up, kid. Drive.”
“Yes, sir. Hey! Ji Geun-yeong! Take care! Stay safe!”
Geun-yeong bowed his head in greeting to Lee Dongjae, who had leaned his upper body far over and stuck his face out in front of Kyung Jiho’s chest, who had a fierce expression.
Watching the domestic diesel SUV, which was likely at least five to ten years old, gradually drive away, Geun-yeong stood in place for quite some time.
And, in a car parked in the alley next to the building across from Blue Frog karaoke, there was someone watching Geun-yeong as he stood absentmindedly staring after the car that had already driven far away.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
