Crazy bastard. Was he really going to make him a slave and work him to death…!
His mind snapped awake. To think he’d face the danger of becoming a victim of violence in the news he’d only heard about. Was this how people became sacrificial lambs, being played by trash one after another? Somehow getting on the wrong side after becoming acquainted, becoming an errand boy, and from errand boy becoming a slave…!
Thinking he needed to run away quickly, never mind gratitude or anything, he pushed Hwang Jegu with his whole body. It was when he threw open the booth door and came outside. Something dripped down onto his sneakers.
The moment he discovered the blood drops that had fallen on his white sneakers, his philtrum became hot and damp. Yeon Cheonguk staggered and wiped his nose. Bright red blood came out soaked all over his fingers. Because he hadn’t slept properly for days and overexerted himself, his nose had started bleeding.
Since blood was dripping all over his clothes, he first blocked his nose and tilted his head back. Unable to even wipe the chin where blood was dripping, he waddled along. Running away from Hwang Jegu was more urgent than buying tissues at a nearby corner store.
Behind him, Hwang Jegu pushed open the booth door and walked out sluggishly. Perhaps having seen the blood that fell on the asphalt, suddenly the sound of footsteps running over quickly could be heard.
“Look.”
“Don’t come! Go away!”
He tried to shake off Hwang Jegu who was trying to turn his body to make him look, but ended up firmly caught by both arms. It became a posture where Hwang Jegu was unilaterally grabbing and seemingly threatening Yeon Cheonguk.
A middle-aged couple passing by came running with their eyes wide.
“Oh my! What’s going on! Should we help?”
“What?”
“Should we call the police, the police? Are you okay, student?”
The couple pulled Yeon Cheonguk toward them while severely being wary of Hwang Jegu.
“If someone’s bothering you, say so. Ahjussi will report it for you!”
They must have thought the blood from Yeon Cheonguk’s nose burst from getting beaten by a thug. Hwang Jegu’s clothes, who’d just had a scuffle with Kkakdugi, happened to be disheveled, and his build and the burly arms with scars revealed outside his sleeveless shirt were visuals of a delinquent fighter no matter who looked. In a word, it was the perfect state to invite misunderstanding.
“How can you hit your friend, man!”
The ahjussi’s eyes blazed as he shouted. Hwang Jegu bent his waist backward and looked up at the sky while voicing his grievance.
“I don’t hit kids!”
The couple was puzzled by the word “kids.” He could have chimed in to clear up the misunderstanding, but Yeon Cheonguk’s antipathy toward the guy had reached its peak because of what he’d just heard. Yeon Cheonguk stuffed the handkerchief the ajumma handed him into his nostrils and backed away.
“Not friends. Absolutely not. I absolutely don’t want to be friends with that bastard.”
He’s a terrifying guy! It was when he swallowed the words that were about to burst out next. A car horn honked from afar.
Looking back, it was the car of the plain-clothes police they’d seen below the shop earlier. The violent crimes unit chief who stuck his head out the driver’s window shouted at them.
“Jung Woosung, Lee Jungjae! Get over here! Do you think you’re filming <Beat> right now!”
Ugh… when you get caught, this is how you get caught. Yeon Cheonguk glanced at Hwang Jegu resentfully. The guy who was almost closing his eyes in the stinging summer sunlight seemed to be winking at Yeon Cheonguk, which made him irritated.
***
Yeon Cheonguk stuffed imitation crab salad into his mouth with tissue paper shoved in his nose. He’d cleared out the pizza place’s salad bar to fill his stomach quickly and leave.
He piled his plate high with salad and crackers and ate ravenously, getting dipping sauce on the corners of his mouth. Hwang Jegu’s face watching such Yeon Cheonguk was full of contempt.
Whatever. The more he loathed, the better. Hate me. Hate me. Turn off your interest and erase me from your memory!
“You poor kid, you’ve been through a lot, huh?”
The detective ahjussi poured a drink into Yeon Cheonguk’s empty glass. He’d confessed everything about the truth behind today’s chaos at Canmoa, from his father running away to being tailed while searching alone. Not taking the two to the police station and feeding them pizza in the first place showed the detective ahjussi’s depth. It made him open up and confess everything in detail from beginning to end.
“I warned them that if something like this happens one more time, it’ll be aggravated punishment. Especially toward minors.”
“Thank you.”
“It seems certain your father was in Jeongseon until two days ago. We’ll coordinate with the police station there to search well for where he went after that, so don’t worry.”
The detective returned the business card Yeon Cheonguk had received in the morning. Seeing the business card, his appetite completely dropped. When his chewing speed slowed, Hwang Jegu pushed a yogurt bowl across the table. When had he gotten it. It seemed like he was offering it as dessert, but he ignored it.
The detective ahjussi threw a rebuke at Hwang Jegu.
“Why did you pick a fight there and get into a brawl, man! You’re going to end up paying for all the broken glasses and lost business!”
“If I didn’t cause a scene, they would’ve caused one, right? They came to sit next to him and bully him, may they be ruined everywhere.”
“……”
Yeon Cheonguk quietly gulped down his cola. The detective seemed to have already raised the white flag to Hwang Jegu’s informal speech. He didn’t point out the informal language and continued with other nagging.
“If you caught the guy causing a scene, wouldn’t you be a perfect citizen hero? Your problem is you don’t know how to back down one beat, because you strike first!”
“That’s the law of the wild. The bastard who strikes first bites everything to death before they can make a peep.”
“This isn’t the wild, it’s a nation of law.”
“Winners and losers exist even in a nation of law.”
The detective ahjussi, cornered in the verbal fight, turned his body toward Yeon Cheonguk.
“Was it Cheonguk? Right, Cheonguk-ah. Look at our Jegu. Just looking at his appearance, he’s a sculpted handsome citizen hero material, right?”
“Quaek.”
After making a strange sound and coughing for a while, Yeon Cheonguk peeled a lychee without answering. He didn’t want to talk more with the ahjussi who was trying to elevate Hwang Jegu to recruit him into violent crimes.
“I, you see, will dismantle the violent crime organizations in our district and retire peacefully.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Opening a used bookstore somewhere quiet is my dream.”
“Puek.”
What used bookstore? How unfitting? Yeon Cheonguk made another strange sound and choked.
“I’ll rehabilitate all the guys about to flow into the path of crime and help them find their place, and catch the ones who’ve already gone astray and lock them up. I’ll retire with peace of mind and run a used bookstore. For that, I need capable subordinates and a successor. Hehe, someone like this guy!”
If it was to eliminate a headache-inducing existence in advance, it would be a good plan killing two birds with one stone, but the opponent was Hwang Jegu. There was no way he’d be easy.
“All the manga I’ve read would go in that bookstore.”
After all, Hwang Jegu was playing on top of the violent crimes chief’s head.
Now Yeon Cheonguk had to visit the company written on the business card directly. Before that, he also had to call his girlfriend, and call the cafe boss to ask about the situation and say it would be hard to come to work tomorrow.
“If we’re done talking, I’ll get up first.”
“Already finished eating? Take your time…!”
“No, with Jegu in front of me, my stomach’s all blocked up. Well then, I’m off.”
He left the pizza place and walked to the intersection. The main road where the sun was setting slowly was steaming with heat. He entered a payphone booth next to the crosswalk. To his girlfriend, he made an excuse that his parents were worried so he should rest at home. The Canmoa boss told him to rest well since he wasn’t planning to tell him to come to work tomorrow anyway.
His feelings became complicated when he heard they’d decided to get some compensation from Hwang Jegu and end it there. It seemed they’d compromised to receive only about half from Hwang Jegu and let it go since it would be complicated to file a lawsuit for damages against those punks.
If that guy bore the damage costs, he might use it as leverage to inflict more harm on Yeon Cheonguk.
Though he was grateful for getting through the crisis thanks to him, he felt indebted and wasn’t in a very good mood.
And what he’d expected happened. Hwang Jegu, who walked out leisurely from behind the traffic light, blocked his way.
“Stop following me around.”
“I’m grateful for today, but I’m a bit busy. I have to go to Gangwon-do right away, and after I come back I have to distribute flyers, so I’m busy.”
“Busy.”
He repeated mockingly, catching the end of his words. Then without any thought of moving aside, he stood firm and seemed to fall into thought for a moment.
“No… what’s the problem? Why do you keep bothering me?”
An answer came back that completely ignored the question.
“The problem now is that bastard of a father of yours screwed up his business and ran away thinking he’d make a fortune, going to Kangwon Land.”
“……”
“Less than 3 days after going, he lost money and disappeared, so the loan sharks came all the way here.”
Yeon Cheonguk, who sighed in irritation, spoke the method he’d inwardly thought was a dead end.
“I’m going to drop out. Drop out and enter a factory to make money.”
Hwang Jegu sneered expressionlessly.
“You’ve become dirt poor but you’re still trying to fuck your girlfriend, so it costs a fucking lot of money, doesn’t it?”
