Rubbing his gritty eyes, he called his homeroom teacher to explain the situation.
“Teacher, I don’t think I can go to school today.”
—Hm? It’s the closing ceremony? What’s wrong?
“Well… my father left the house with just a letter. The house is in chaos… Actually, our family… all our assets were auctioned off and we went bankrupt.”
He earnestly begged the teacher to tell the class he was absent due to illness. Despite being busy with closing ceremony preparations, the homeroom teacher worriedly looked into the situation. Saying that finding his father’s whereabouts was the top priority, the teacher gave him one helpful tip.
With the police’s help, they could check the search history at nearby PC cafes to get hints about his movements.
Yeon Cheonguk went to the police station grasping at straws. After hearing the situation, he went around four PC cafes near his home with one accompanying police officer. Fortunately, at the last place they visited, they said they’d had a customer in his late forties during the afternoon two days ago.
When the owner saw his father’s photo and nodded saying it was him, he couldn’t express how relieved he felt. After going through two full days’ worth of search history in front of the monitor, the police found one clue.
“Wait a minute. Kangwon Land?”
It seemed like a place he’d heard about on the news. Wasn’t that the casino that had been all the buzz about opening two years ago? Anxiety bloomed slyly again.
The search terms that followed were getting worse and worse. Kangwon Land lodging. Kangwon Land entry order. Kangwon Land cash. Kangwon Land machine types. Kangwon Land jackpot. Kangwon Land betting amount. Kangwon Land job listings…
“It looks like he got a job near Kangwon Land with room and board provided, thinking he’d win money…?”
Yeon Cheonguk thought the same.
“What kind of jobs are there at a casino…? Is it construction or cleaning?”
“Construction’s all finished… Unless he has skills like electrical work, he probably went under a pawn shop or a loan shark.”
“What? What’s that?”
The police officer, judging it inappropriate to explain to a minor about those who lend private loans to addicts and collect interest, shut his mouth.
The police officer noted down several offices located at the top of the portal site screen that had been searched for ‘Kangwon Land job listings’ and several offices near the neighborhood. That was as far as their work went.
Taking the note, Yeon Cheonguk entered a nearby phone booth. Without telling his mother or noona, he started calling the employment offices one by one.
When he’d spent about 650 won in coins, he was able to find his father’s trail at an employment office near home.
—Ah, Yeon-ssi. There was one ahjussi with the unusual surname Yeon! He went to Jeongseon the night before last. Why?
His father had gone to the casino holding onto a hope thinner than a thread. That was the place where hope became most dangerous.
Yeon Cheonguk stamped his feet inside the narrow booth.
Anyway, summer vacation had started and Yeon Cheonguk had quite a bit of time. He said he’d go to the employment office now, thinking he’d chase after his father and bring him back himself. However, the answer came back that no one would be at the office in the afternoon, so he should come early tomorrow morning.
“Yes, I’ll come early tomorrow.”
Yeon Cheonguk put down the heavy phone, slowly sank down, and took a deep breath.
“Thank goodness… thank goodness…”
Still, as hope rose that he could find his father tomorrow, he even had the leisure to call his girlfriend.
He put in coins again and called Kim Yuyoung. He had to spend quite a while soothing his sulking girlfriend.
Wasn’t yesterday the closing ceremony? Am I your girlfriend or not? The home phone is dead and how can there be no contact for over a day? If you have circumstances, you should at least contact me to say so.
There was nothing wrong with her sharp words, so he had no choice but to apologize profusely. He didn’t want to tell her the inside story, what was wrong was wrong, and he wanted to resolve this situation well. With that feeling, Yeon Cheonguk spent a long time soothing her, mixing sincere apologies with snake-like aegyo.
Even when he said he was truly sorry but had circumstances and asked her to wait just a few days, Kim Yuyoung exploded.
Am I only worth that much to you? Should I be a woman who knows nothing about her boyfriend?
Yeon Cheonguk also couldn’t know the exact reason, but not yet. He didn’t want to tell her about these various dirty aspects of life yet. He couldn’t force his heart to open.
Probably because he didn’t want to be embarrassed. Because he wanted to remain only as the cool guy who showed off wonderful singing ability on stage.
Having suddenly become exhausted, Yeon Cheonguk evaded the nagging by saying they’d meet tomorrow and talk.
“I’ll tell you when we meet tomorrow.”
—Okay. I’ll come to the store around when your part-time job ends. Do you want to go to the street cheering tomorrow too?
“Sounds good. See you tomorrow.”
First he’d soothe her anger with an appropriate lie, then planned to go to Jeongseon alone late in the evening.
The next day, Yeon Cheonguk woke up at 7 AM and went to the employment office. He received a business card from the company his father had newly gotten a job at, but his premonition wasn’t very good. Daeseong Financial… what kind of company is this?
To Yeon Cheonguk tilting his head, the manager said something positive. Vague words like it would be fine, they don’t make you do hard work.
I probably can’t go to the street cheering… he was thinking as he walked toward the bus stop.
Yeon Cheonguk turned around at a suspicious intuition. It felt like someone’s presence had been following him from behind ever since he left the employment office.
“…?”
Someone was standing far down the alley. A man in a black suit and black shoes was on the phone behind a utility pole. No matter how he looked, it seemed like someone he didn’t know.
Until he walked a few more steps, the man was still hovering in place. Yeon Cheonguk turned around with a suspicious expression.
Nah, must be my imagination. A tail?
Tilting his head, he put the business card in his wallet and hurried along. When he reached the main road and looked back, there was no one in the alley.
Kim Yuyoung came to Canmoa with her friends. Yeon Cheonguk guided them to the swing seats he’d emptied in advance by telling the boss.
“Wow, your boyfriend is awesome!”
Yeon Cheonguk smiled brightly at them. He was worried whether his father might be going through rough things in Gangwon-do, but it was a situation where he had to smile.
The female students giggled with parfaits and juice in front of them. Their topic of conversation was obviously today’s semifinal against Brazil.
“My friend, even though we may hit rough walls!”
“Hey, don’t sing that song! That’s the song for when we lose!”
“We’ll definitely win, I’m telling you we’ll win!”
“Today is June 25th. Let’s honor the spirits of the patriotic martyrs.”
“Ugh! Are you our history teacher!”
Yeon Cheonguk exchanged jokes while giving them complimentary snacks. Coming back, he was clearing empty tables and didn’t notice the customers opening the door and entering.
When he returned to the kitchen, the boss hyung pointed outside with a serious expression.
“What’s with those people? Shouldn’t we kick them out?”
“The customers who just came in? Why?”
Yeon Cheonguk craned his neck long to see the outside hall and frowned.
Black suits and black shoes. Every one of them with closely shaved buzz cuts. Thugs of poor quality at a glance.
“……”
At first he thought they’d entered by mistake. He thought they’d leave after seeing the menu full of colorful fruit pictures and the sight of teenage girls clustered together.
However, soon Yeon Cheonguk came to remember where he’d seen one of them.
When he left the employment office, it was the black suit that had been hovering in the distance.
His blood flow started pumping rapidly at once. As three men with menacing faces entered the unsuitable space, the customers became quiet. The buzz cut who flopped onto the sofa spun the menu around and shouted loudly.
“Do you not take orders here?”
Even in the midst of extreme confusion, Yeon Cheonguk made the judgment that if he went himself, there would be no rumors. He quickly grabbed the order pad and walked through the hall.
As Yeon Cheonguk approached the table, they brought up the main point as if they’d been waiting.
“Yeon Taeho. That’s your father’s name, right?”
“…Yes?”
“He said he’d win money the next day and give it right back, but there’s been no word.”
It felt like he’d been hit hard on the back of the head. From his spine to his toes, frost fell and his whole body became cold in an instant.
They continued talking to Yeon Cheonguk who had frozen white.
“If you call the police, know that nothing will happen. We’ll make it so you can’t hold your head up in this neighborhood.”
“……”
“Where’s your father?”
The man threatening Yeon Cheonguk representing the thugs was a typical kkakdugi style. When he shook his head briefly, the kkakdugi sighed as if he’d expected as much.
“Right, right. For now go and bring us something to drink. One kiwi, one cherry, two shaved ice.”
He didn’t even know what he wrote on the order pad. Yeon Cheonguk moistened his parched throat and turned around.
There had been a time when a small business owner who couldn’t get paid back money owed by his father’s company knocked on the front door causing a disturbance, but this was the first time for a situation like this.
Without exaggeration, it felt like the world had ended. He was scared. It felt like darkness was devouring all of his life.
“Ugh, I’m scared!”
Even while putting on a show of acting cute in front of the boss hyung, his lips were parched dry.
What he feared most was this incident becoming known to the people in the store. Not only was Kim Yuyoung there, but it was a place full of regular students who knew Yeon Cheonguk well.
“Boss, here’s an order. I’ll just use the phone real quick!”
“Okay, got it!”
Barely maintaining composure and hiding behind the kitchen, Yeon Cheonguk leaned against the wall and sank down. The strength had left his knees.
