Whether it was the guy who took the kid in the throwaway car, or the guy who met him at the hospital, both were equally incomprehensible. Both the car and the man stood at the boundary between gangster and police, causing needless confusion. While his irritation was already building up considerably, making his head gradually hotter, the person on the other end of the phone gave him a hint.
[There are quite a few cases where police accompany gangsters as guardians when they’re hospitalized after fights. They’re police who cover for gangsters when problems arise from deep involvement with them. Every institution has a few rotten minds, don’t they?]
So in the end, this Kyung Jiho was likely a gangster. And the car that took Geun-yeong was a throwaway car that smelled of crime.
After hearing the hint, when he flipped over the slightly ambiguous puzzle piece and tried to fit it, everything became clear. The car that dropped Geun-yeong off at the back road behind the rear gate, and the car that picked up Geun-yeong in front of the medical supply store yesterday—the owner of that car was Kyung Jiho, whom Geun-yeong had met at the surgical hospital. A guy full of pretentiousness with dragons all over his body, a mindless guy who gets stabbed in the abdomen in gang fights in this day and age, a spineless guy who lives licking the boots of corrupt police and gets hospitalized under police surveillance, ultimately a criminal with much to hide, and thus has to drive a throwaway car—that’s the kind of guy who took Geun-yeong.
After piecing together the scattered puzzle and roughly grasping the outline of the picture, the man, feeling increasingly urgent, said:
“Please tail that car, and also look up Kyung Jiho’s property registry.”
[That… um… requires more effort. The risk is also high. If caught, I’ll go straight to jail.]
Garbage.
Ji Seokhun clenched his molars tightly to contain his anger. Speaking with a feigned calm tone to the person who now felt not just like a beggar but like trash, he said:
“I will pay additional costs for that. Please look into it.”
[Yes, I understand.]
The trash who had succeeded in bargaining hung up. Realizing he had been standing all this time, the man sat down on the sofa. He put his phone down on the table. Interlacing his fingers and rubbing his somehow itchy hands, he glared at the phone. He gritted his teeth thinking about the guy who had taken its owner.
Kyung Jiho…
Seokhun reflexively got irritated just hearing a name similar to his. Though he only knew the name, the guy was very annoying, like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, constantly nagging at his mind.
Seokhun glared at the phone as if it were “that guy” and recalled old memories.
Geun-yeong, who had created the perfect picture of a diabetes specialist adopting a child with juvenile diabetes, was a good, well-behaved, and even smart child. Above all, he was quick-witted and had an excellent understanding of how he should behave in this house. Geun-yeong had become such a son.
But occasionally, he would do things that threw pebbles into the calm water of that perfect picture. Though ripples forming and disappearing on calm water weren’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, even that greatly irritated Seokhun.
The annoying pebbles Geun-yeong threw weren’t the common complaints about food that other children make, nor was it neglect of studies. It was a “memory” of a person.
One day, the kid who had been living quietly while being mindful of others came with a request.
‘Since my room is spacious, could Jiho hyung come and live with us…?’
He said he would share his clothes and the food he ate. At that time, Seokhun thought it was just a light yearning and quietly soothed him. He said bringing a child home was difficult. He appeased him with the lie that the government doesn’t gift two children to one household at the same time.
The child, who had already noticed that adults disliked crying, was trying to hold back tears in his already wet eyes, exerting force in his large eyes that contrasted with his small face. At an age when it was normal to cry loudly regardless of whether one was at home or on the street, that little boy knew how to make such a face. That made Seokhun love him even more. Geun-yeong was truly a perfect child.
After that, the boy behaved well without causing any trouble for a while. Around his birthday, when asked if there was a gift he wanted or a place he wanted to go, he answered:
‘…Can’t I go see Jiho hyung…?’
Instead of an amusement park or aquarium, he said he wanted to see the hyung who had been good to him. From then on, Seokhun gradually began to find that name irritating. No matter how well a hyung from the orphanage had treated him, in the end, he was an orphan. Even if he had been adopted into a proper family, there was no need to keep him around and maintain a relationship. It was better to erase memories and traces of the orphanage.
Feeling that this wouldn’t do, Seokhun gave him a severe scolding. The child, who knew too well how to please the benefactor who had saved him, stopped mentioning that name.
However, when he checked the internet search history of the boy who had gone through even puberty, which makes parents throw up their hands in defeat, without showing any signs of it, he discovered that the boy was still searching for that name. Even after several years had passed.
That was the first time he tied his hands. After a beating so severe that the boy briefly lost consciousness, he had intercourse with him after he woke up.
From that point on, Seokhun began to think that this Kyung Jiho fellow wasn’t just annoying but might be something more. He asked a private investigator to find the “Kyung Jiho” who had grown up in the orphanage from which he had brought Geun-yeong. He felt he needed to check how he had grown up and what kind of person he had become. However, there was no record of a child who had been admitted to that orphanage under the name “Kyung Jiho.” They said there was no such child.
And now. The memory of that guy, whose roots he hadn’t completely pulled out back then, had finally hit him from behind.
While trying to calm his increasingly rough breathing and swallow his anger about past events all at once, another call came in. This time it was also to his phone. The caller was Professor Ha.
“Hello.”
[Professor Ji, it’s me.]
“Yes. What’s the matter?”
[What do you mean, what’s the matter? Geun-yeong submitted a leave of absence form. I was wondering what’s going on. Are you planning to take a sabbatical? Are you going on a research trip with Geun-yeong?]
Seokhun felt something snap in his mind for a moment. Not just a feeling, but there was an actual sharp pain near the occipital lobe.
[Hello? Professor Ji?]
“Oh. Yes. I know… Yes, I’m looking into it. But, the procedure got a bit tangled. I was actually about to call you, can the leave of absence be put on hold?”
[Of course. Certainly. I thought it was strange too, so I called you first before signing it off.]
“Yes. Thank you.”
The man’s hand was trembling as he put down the phone after ending the call. It was extreme anger.
Ji Geun-yeong. He thought he was a well-behaved and good child. He considered him a smart and quick-witted kid who was easy to tame. But now, the boy who was well past puberty was showing untimely rebellion. It seemed he was trying to cause all the trouble he hadn’t caused before all at once.
When told to act as a lover rather than a son, it seemed the boy had taken it to mean he could climb up. Or perhaps he wanted Seokhun to act like a parent soothing a troublemaking child.
Whatever the boy wanted, Seokhun intended to give it to him. If the boy now wanted him to play the role of a jealous lover, he would do so. If the boy now wanted him to play the role of a father severely disciplining a troublemaking son, he would do that too.
But finding the boy was the priority.
He didn’t know if the Kyung Jiho who had taken Geun-yeong was the same Kyung Jiho from back then. However, it didn’t matter whether it was him or not. After finding Geun-yeong, it seemed he would have to pull out the weed-like memory that irritably kept coming up no matter how much he stepped on it, right down to the roots, and trample it. So that this would never happen again. Even if Geun-yeong got a little hurt in the process, it couldn’t be helped.
He remembered a movie titled after a woman who crushed her beloved’s ankle to keep them by her side. Seokhun now fully understood her feelings.
* * *
The woman who came to the beauty team revealed the user of the syringe. Subsequently, the composition analysis results reported from the forensic team indicated methamphetamine, an ingredient of the Chinese drug “bingdu.”
A warrant was issued for the broker who not only arranged illegal employment but also used women to import Chinese drugs during the illegal entry process.
Since it was someone they had caught a few times before, his escape route was obvious. Moreover, they knew his affiliation, major trading partners, frequent acquaintances, and even the contact information of his hometown relatives. It was a problem that could be resolved at the level of Lee Dongjae and below.
Kyung Jiho, who had been working overnight since the previous evening, said he would stop by home to change clothes. It meant he would rest until an emergency call, and the team leader permitted it.
The man, who didn’t really feel the parking difficulties in the alleyways of the row house complex because he could park where others absolutely couldn’t, parked leaving just enough space for a sheet of paper between the rear bumper and the utility pole, then headed toward the building where he resided.
Looking up from the row house entrance, the living room light of the right-side house on the third floor was off. Both wanting to rest quickly and curious about what he had left in the house, Kyung Jiho, unlike usual, bounded up three steps at a time.
He reached into the emergency exit. The key wasn’t there. Either the guy who had put it there earlier was still inside, or he had taken the key and run away.
He was about to ring the doorbell but tried the doorknob first. It was unlocked. Either the guy lacked security awareness, or he had run away without even securing the door.
Kyung Jiho opened the front door and entered, then stood rooted to the spot, observing what he saw. A guy lacking security awareness was sleeping curled up in the middle of the living room. Hugging his bag.
Earlier, looking at that guy, he had thought he was persistent. But now, the kid he had thought was just persistent seemed to have a surprisingly weak side. He was deliberately evoking sympathy. The guy who had been sobbing at the bus stop, who would show his crown and fidget with his fingers whenever something was said to him, had been bothering him. And now, not satisfied with showing himself curled up sleeping in the living room. No.
Why is he clutching that bag anyway?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
