A black shadow fell over Hui-myeong as he lay face down fuming. Looking up from below, Geum-gang’s frame seemed especially large. He calmly put a cigarette in his mouth and turned the gold lighter to light it. The orange glow of the cigarette against the black night sky looked like it was holding a star.
“Don’t go around borrowing money, just live quietly. Don’t come looking for me again.”
After finishing his words, he disappeared back inside with his hands in his pockets. The subordinates who’d thrown Hui-myeong out followed Geum-gang inside, chattering among themselves.
“Damn it!”
After waiting so long for this situation, he couldn’t end it like this. Feeling defiant, Hui-myeong dusted himself off and stood up, looking around. Just as he’d seen on the portal site map, there were one or two pawn shops in each building in the neighborhood.
‘Let’s see if you can still ignore me.’
Hui-myeong headed straight for the pawn shop in the next building. If he was lucky, he’d meet Geum-gang again, and if not, he could borrow money, so there was nothing to lose. After all, Hui-myeong’s current top priority was to secure escape funds.
When he opened the barred entrance door and went in, he saw a man beyond the solid partition giggling while looking at his phone. The man was on the younger side and had a dirty look about him, so he wasn’t much different from Geum-gang’s subordinates.
“How much can you give me?”
When Hui-myeong suddenly held up his wrist with the watch over the transparent partition, the man glanced at him suspiciously.
“Let me see it.”
The man turned off his phone and pushed out a small tray through a hole below the partition. Fortunately, he wasn’t as rude as Geum-gang’s subordinates.
Hui-myeong took off the watch and handed it over. The man, putting a magnifying loupe to his eye, examined the item with a fairly serious face. With an original price of forty-one million won and a current resale value of eighty-two million won, unlike yesterday’s Geum-gang, he wouldn’t offer a ridiculously low amount.
“Just a moment.”
Finally taking off the loupe, the man kept alternating between looking at the watch and Hui-myeong, then quietly disappeared into the back of the office.
‘They’re not going to take it to authenticate and return it as a fake, are they?’
Hui-myeong nervously picked at his nails the whole time he waited. He was anxious that he’d carelessly handed over that expensive watch out of spite. The worst-case scenario would be not meeting Geum-gang, not borrowing money, and getting the watch returned as a fake. Moreover, Hui-myeong didn’t even have the eye to distinguish between genuine and fake. If he received a fake and Do-ha found out, it wouldn’t end with just strangulation.
After a long wait, someone suddenly kicked open the pawn shop door. As expected, it was Geum-gang.
“Fuck, didn’t I tell you not to go around borrowing money in this neighborhood?”
Before he even finished speaking, he grabbed Hui-myeong by the scruff of his neck and dragged him out. Since he used the term ‘this neighborhood,’ Hui-myeong figured that all the pawn shops in this neighborhood were connected to Geum-gang, and sure enough.
“The watch, I need to get the watch!”
When Hui-myeong cried out urgently, Geum-gang reluctantly released his neck with a smack and headed back to the pawn shop. Soon Geum-gang came out with the watch and returned it to Hui-myeong without even making eye contact.
“Here, your fucking watch.”
Even while putting on the watch, Hui-myeong pretended to check its condition thoroughly. It was his own way of showing he wasn’t that stupid. Watching him, Geum-gang made an expression like he couldn’t believe it.
“Even if it’s fake, I don’t know. You went in there on your own feet.”
“What does it matter? You said you don’t know me.”
Even then, Hui-myeong tested Geum-gang. He wasn’t scared. No matter how rough he acted, to Hui-myeong’s eyes he was no different from the Geum-gang of ten years ago.
“Take a taxi and go home. Where’s your house?”
Geum-gang said, brushing his hair back as if annoyed. The more he did that, the more defiant Hui-myeong became.
“Talk to me for a bit.”
“Ha, fuck, you’re so damn clingy.”
“If you don’t talk to me, I won’t leave. I’ll go to another pawn shop. I looked up all seven pawn shops in this neighborhood. Or I could just go to another neighborhood.”
Hui-myeong stood his ground firmly. He wanted to show that he wasn’t as naive as before. If it was really Geum-gang, he wouldn’t be able to just watch Hui-myeong go to another neighborhood’s pawn shop. No matter how much he’d changed, Geum-gang was still Geum-gang.
“Where did this little shit come from to cause trouble.”
Eventually Geum-gang cursed to himself alone and entered Daemul Pawn Shop. Hui-myeong followed him inside, his lips twitching for no reason.
Inside the pawn shop office, the same members from earlier were sitting around a table looking at dinner menus. Come to think of it, it was right around dinner time.
“Hyungnim, will you have jajangmyeon?”
“Order it. This bastard will leave soon.”
When he entered the room labeled ‘President’s Office,’ Hui-myeong followed him, reading the mood. The president’s office wasn’t anything grand. A seven-person sofa set occupied the center, and various documents were neatly organized in locked storage cabinets. It seemed that being gangsters didn’t mean they worked carelessly.
The nameplate on the large desk read ‘President Sa Geum-gang.’
‘He definitely didn’t have a surname when we were in school.’
Hui-myeong tilted his head as he looked at the name on the nameplate. He’d said that as a baby he was abandoned at a temple and a monk gave him the Buddhist name and name ‘Geum-gang.’ But in ten years, the surname ‘Sa’ had appeared.
‘What happened?’
As if to wake him up, Geum-gang put his booted feet on the desk with an audible thud and lit a cigarette. If Hui-myeong had been brought in as a debtor rather than an old connection, it would have been an overwhelmingly intimidating atmosphere enough to make him piss himself.
Watching him, Hui-myeong unknowingly felt sad.
Ten years. It was enough time for a person to change. It was time for a filthy high school student who freeloaded at the back-alley bar Suseolhwa to transform into the perfect lover of a chaebol family’s second son, and time for a low-level gang member to have his own subordinates and gain a new surname.
As much as he himself had changed, thinking that Geum-gang must have changed too, he couldn’t shake off the bitterness.
“Why do you need money when you’re walking around in clothes like that?”
He blew out cigarette smoke and jerked his chin toward Hui-myeong. Geum-gang’s gaze was pointing at Hui-myeong’s shirt that he’d bought at the department store today and started wearing right away. To anyone’s eyes, with his well-maintained looks, luxury shirt, watch, shoes—his outfit alone was worth tens of millions of won. So Geum-gang couldn’t help but have such doubts.
“I need cash.”
“So why?”
There was undisguised curiosity in Geum-gang’s voice that had softened somewhat. All he’d gained during his time with Do-ha was the ability to read situations. Hui-myeong didn’t miss the opportunity and smiled softly with his eyes, pulling up the corners of his mouth. Actually, he hadn’t come to get money today but to see Geum-gang, so he should stay true to his purpose.
“Hyung, have you been well?”
“I’m asking you to answer, what’s with the nonsense?”
Geum-gang let out a scoff as if he couldn’t believe it.
“I thought about you a lot, hyung.”
“Stop the bullshit when you’re living so well with that nice complexion. You running houses?”
“Huh?”
“I’m asking if you go around gambling.”
Hui-myeong shook his head. Gambling? When he went to Las Vegas with Do-ha, they didn’t even step one foot outside the hotel and just had sex the whole time. Casinos and big shows weren’t important to the two of them. Do-ha’s dopamine was only Jung Hui-myeong.
“It’s not like you have a mom freaking out telling you to give her money.”
“I don’t even know where she lives. We don’t contact each other.”
Hui-myeong said in a much more subdued voice.
“Good. It’s stupid to still be in contact with a mom like that.”
Hui-myeong didn’t miss the flash of past regret that passed through Geum-gang’s eyes.
“Hyung, you remember everything.”
“……”
Unable to deny it, Geum-gang just kept puffing on his cigarette.
Hui-myeong raised his head to look at Geum-gang. He pretended to be indifferent, blowing out cigarette smoke and turning his gaze toward the window covered with black tinting film so nothing could be seen. Then as now, he had absolutely no talent for deceiving others.
Come to think of it, Geum-gang and Do-ha were perfectly opposite in every way. Do-ha, who not only tormented him mercilessly but also gave money to his low-life mother and bought Hui-myeong’s body, and Geum-gang who tried to save Hui-myeong from both Do-ha and his mother.
So it was impossible for Jung Hui-myeong to forget Geum-gang.
“Aren’t you even curious about how I’ve been living, hyung?”
“Why would I be?”
