“Please believe me….”
I didn’t mean to do it. It wasn’t intentional. It just happened. I couldn’t help myself. I did hit him, but I didn’t do the rest. I don’t really know. I was drinking so I don’t remember properly.
These were common excuses from criminals. Obviously, they were ridiculous excuses. Of course, for 27 years, I also thought they were ridiculous excuses I didn’t even want to hear.
“I really didn’t mean to do it….”
But now, one of those excuses was what I was saying to a police officer, with a pretty shiny silver bracelet on my wrist.
“Are you seriously saying that?”
The police officer who heard the whole story from me spoke with exasperation, looking dumbfounded. Even I knew it didn’t sound believable. It was still a fact I couldn’t believe myself.
But in my defense, I really didn’t mean to do it.
About 3 hours ago, I was fucking pissed. What was I pissed about? The fact that Cheon Jaekyung was from a conglomerate family. I wanted to crack Cheon Jaekyung’s head open—no, at least his shins. But thinking about Cheon Jaekyung’s family that could definitely give me a prison ending if I did that, I couldn’t help but be angry. No matter how much I hired a lawyer and claimed self-defense, it was clear I would receive the maximum sentence.
Of course, I did get a promise from Lee Hyeonseok to get me out if something went wrong because I wanted to land at least one blow somehow, but that’s that and this is this. I felt sad about the recent string of unreasonable misfortunes.
I was craving alcohol. Alcohol was a cure-all for adults. Fortunately, my birthday had passed a few days ago, so I was now old enough to drink. However, I wanted to resist since it didn’t look good to reach for alcohol right after coming of age, but I already knew the effects alcohol gave. In the end, I took out a bottle of soju from the refrigerator in the early morning when all my parents were asleep.
I felt a bit guilty, but a few days ago, Dad had offered me a drink saying, “You should learn to drink now.” When I verbally refused once, Mom permitted it saying alcohol given by parents was okay. In the end, I had just one drink that day for the first time in a while. But my drinking manner was so natural that my parents even joked asking if I had already tried it before.
So even if I got caught secretly drinking today, they would probably assume I drank because of recent painful experiences. Since I was drinking secretly, my parents would definitely notice if I finished it all, so I decided to drink exactly half. I wasn’t bad at drinking to begin with. I could drink up to two bottles of soju.
Since it had been a while, my throat burned, but I quickly got used to it. One shot, two shots… What was supposed to be just half somehow became a whole bottle. I thought I was in trouble, but my appropriately drunk brain thought it would work out somehow. My brain, which had changed to an optimistic and positive mindset, began to paralyze normal thinking.
Somehow I felt like I smelled of alcohol and was getting hot, so I left the house to get some fresh air. The time I saw before leaving was 7:47 AM.
The air was cold and it felt good. Since I was already out, I decided to take a walk and set off wherever my feet led me. As I walked for quite a while, I heard some commotion somewhere. Wondering if something big had happened, I went to see the situation, and Cheon Jaekyung and Lee Juwon were fighting. The moment I saw Cheon Jaekyung, curses flew out of my mouth.
“I told you not to come, so why did you come!”
Lee Juwon was quite angry, raising his voice. Then, perhaps realizing it was early morning when everyone was asleep, he looked around. Cheon Jaekyung was making some excuse to Lee Juwon, but since it wasn’t loud, I couldn’t hear the content. After Lee Juwon had just shouted, his voice also became smaller, so I couldn’t hear what he was saying either.
Whatever, it was an interesting sight, but I turned around to go home. But this time Cheon Jaekyung raised his voice.
“Juwon-ah!”
Startled by the loud voice, I turned back and saw Lee Juwon entering the apartment. It seemed I had walked all the way to Lee Juwon’s neighborhood. Cheon Jaekyung tried to grab him, but when Lee Juwon said a few words with a fierce face, he couldn’t grab him and just stood there looking empty. Served him right.
Even though it served him right, I didn’t have a hobby of enjoying such love triangles, so I was about to go home again when I happened to make eye contact with Cheon Jaekyung who had turned around.
I’m fucked.
Where did my anger and sense of injustice go? All I could think was “I’m fucked.” Being powerless is this sad.
“What are you doing here.”
Did Cheon Jaekyung use teleportation? He approached in front of me in the blink of an eye. Asking in a low voice with anger, he seemed to want to take his frustration out on me. How pathetic. If this bastard hadn’t found me, he would obviously have been the type to harass his subordinates.
“…I’m taking a walk.”
“Ha!”
Cheon Jaekyung snorted refreshingly after hearing my answer. Even I thought it was a funny answer. To Cheon Jaekyung, I must have been a trivial insect level because he had no guard up at all. He was sensitive but his attitude was light.
“How can I believe that. Whether you’ll call Lee Hyeonseok again to slap Juwon or whatever.”
These people really have all their thoughts revolving around Lee Juwon. Yeah. When you’re crazy in love, your thinking doesn’t work properly. I understand. I don’t understand at all how they think to reach such conclusions, but is love something that can be explained theoretically anyway? These kids were even born to go crazy in love. So I decided to understand that their thinking made no fucking sense. But still, there was something I wanted to ask.
“How did you find out about this place and come here?”
“Why did you ruin my CSAT and early admission?”
I didn’t answer as told and answered a question with a question. Because I had also been drinking and normal thinking was difficult. Normally I would have dealt with him appropriately, escaped, and planned for another day, but the side effect of the cure-all had made my reason run away from home.
“Just answer.”
“Pathetic bastard.”
Cheon Jaekyung’s light attitude instantly sharpened at my mockery. He seemed like he would stab me like an ice pick.
“What did you just say.”
“You who can’t even say a word to Lee Hyeonseok, what did I even do.”
Cheon Jaekyung seemed stung by my words as his face flushed slightly. He seemed embarrassed. I felt anger from him who had been chillingly cold as if he would stab me. I knew I should shut up now, but due to the side effects of the cure-all, I couldn’t stop and kept being reckless.
Honestly speaking, I intended to get hit by Cheon Jaekyung. His build wasn’t as good as Lee Hyeonseok or Han Taeseok, so I thought I wouldn’t pass out even if I got hit once. While getting hit, I intended to hit him a few times too.
“Pathetic bastard.”
At my provocation, Cheon Jaekyung punched my cheek without a word. There was no warning. I had let my guard down because his body was thin compared to the other two, but it hurt like hell. It hurt more than expected, and as expected, I didn’t pass out. After being hit and falling to the ground, I quickly got up to counterattack, but Cheon Jaekyung kicked me first. I got hit right in the solar plexus.
“Who do you think you’re going against.”
Cheon Jaekyung threatened me in a low voice as I clutched my solar plexus and kept coughing. I got chills. The reason that had run away was slowly trying to return.
“I, generously, only messed with your university.”
Oh my, your heart is as wide as fucking Jesus himself. After coughing for a while and calming down, I raised my head to look up at Cheon Jaekyung. In his eyes was the contempt I had seen a few months ago. No, more contempt than then along with hatred. It seemed I had properly stepped on a landmine.
“Let me see if I should…?”
“Huh?”
They say accidents come at moments no one expects. It came at the moment when Cheon Jaekyung bent down to threaten me once more, and I, with my reason still not returned, thought “now’s my chance to hit him once” and tried to get up.
It was fine that I tried to get up from sitting on the ground, but I don’t know if it was because I got up suddenly, because I had been drinking, because I got hit once, or all of the above. I just suddenly lost strength in my body while getting up, and to avoid falling, I unconsciously grabbed something nearby.
I grabbed and twisted it tight. Something soft like a water balloon, I grabbed it tight. Since it was hardly enough to hold on to, my hand that lost its will couldn’t control itself and even twisted it. But at that moment, a very painful scream rang out.
“AAAAAAARGH!”
It was Cheon Jaekyung’s scream. It was such a painful scream that even I felt the pain. Still, I didn’t have the presence of mind to check on Cheon Jaekyung. As soon as I grabbed and twisted something tight, he started falling backward.
Ah…. Even thinking about it again, I still don’t know how things got so twisted. I don’t even know if this makes sense.
I fell forward once more using Cheon Jaekyung as a cushion. Cheon Jaekyung’s screams were still heard. I was still holding onto something until then. My runaway reason finally returned. To figure out what had happened, I pressed hard on something and quickly got up.
“LE, LET GOOOOOO!”
Cheon Jaekyung screamed in a voice filled with more agonizing pain and sorrow than before. It was enough to make even me feel tragic just hearing it. And Cheon Jaekyung ended up passing out. It was truly a brief moment.
Not understanding what was happening, I let go of the something I had grabbed and twisted tight to check Cheon Jaekyung’s condition.
“Huh?”
Oh no, fuck. What I had grabbed and twisted tight as if it were my lifeline was Cheon Jaekyung’s testicles. People in the apartment started opening windows or some came outside wondering what was happening. I couldn’t even run away.
“…Excuse me, person in the black padded jacket, could you please call an ambulance….”
The person in the black padded jacket must have had a strong sense of civic duty because they called the police too. And so Cheon Jaekyung went to the hospital, and I went to the police station.
