The detective explained in excessively detailed fashion. Seeing that he came looking for me like this without being able to ask the Vice Director directly, he could roughly understand the situation. He had no desire to stir up trouble with those in high places, but he could at least play the role of a loose-lipped detective.
“Then that person isn’t my relative?”
“Well. There wasn’t anything proving blood relationship among the submitted documents.”
After hearing the story, Seonwoo just blinked his eyes quietly. Below that was covered by the mask, so it was impossible to know whether he was shocked or had already anticipated it. The detective closed his mouth for a moment and gave him time to organize his thoughts.
“Did that answer all your questions? You can say if there’s more.”
About 2 minutes. For someone with on-time leaving just around the corner, that was being generous. Seonwoo, who shook his head, stood up from his seat first. And along with words of gratitude, he bowed his head.
“Student. Let’s take that mask down for a moment.”
It was an out-of-the-blue statement. Seonwoo, who raised his head, stared up at the detective who was taller than him. Because of his downturned eyes, he looked like a really innocent boy who knew nothing.
“Why?”
“Just, well. Originally detectives ask a lot of these useless questions.”
Seonwoo hesitated for a moment, then removed the string hooked on his left ear and showed his face. The detective’s gaze stayed in one place for a long time. It was where the bruise was. But he didn’t ask about the circumstances of how it happened. Instead, he took out his wallet from his back pocket.
“There, from now on don’t come all this way, call instead. Not for pointless talk, only when you have business. I’m extremely busy these days.”
He handed over a business card with the police station logo drawn on it. Seonwoo accepted it without refusing.
“Do you have bus fare?”
“I came by taxi. I’m planning to do that when I go back too.”
“Oh my, kids these days are really capable. The taxi fare back and forth will be quite a lot, won’t it?”
Seonwoo took out an envelope from his coat’s inner pocket. The Taewoong Hospital logo drawn large could be seen. He showed the 50,000 won bills filled inside.
“He gave it to me saying it was allowance.”
“Hmm…… Well, okay then. Go carefully.”
This time too, the detective just shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t ask about the detailed circumstances. However, he took note of the patient slippers Seonwoo wore as he walked away turning his back.
c̤̮2̤̮
After leaving the police station and walking out to the roadside, Seonwoo didn’t call a taxi. He had already passed the bus stop right in front of the police station building too.
Without even looking for the way home, he walked wherever his feet took him. As if not wanting to stop at any one place, he kept walking. He didn’t know whether this direction was getting farther from home or closer.
After a long while, what stopped Seonwoo was his phone’s vibration. The vibration wasn’t brief but lasted a long time. When he took out his phone, it was a call from Junyeong. He was about to ignore it as is, but suddenly pressing the call button was a simple impulse.
“Hello.”
— Ah, Seonwoo-ya! I called because I have a favor to ask, are you busy right now?
“No. What is it?”
— It’s nothing big, but when you meet Taejeong at home, could you tell him to call me?
The moment he heard Taejeong’s name, Seonwoo stopped his feet abruptly. The gaze that had been blankly staring ahead returned to being human-like.
“Why?”
— He won’t answer my calls. He doesn’t reply to texts either…… I was really worried you wouldn’t answer too.
“Either way, he’s coming for class on Saturday. Resolve it then.”
— Mm…… I don’t think we can meet this week either.
“Then tell him next week.”
— That seems difficult too……?
Just as he was about to ask if it was such an urgent matter, Junyeong explained on his own.
— Actually, the last time I saw his face was last year…….
Saying last year made it seem like a long time, but it was February now. However, it was strange for a tutor and student not to meet for two months.
— Why. I told you Taejeong applied to schools on his own and ended up getting accepted, right? At that time, the Vice Director said he would conduct interviews himself, and that period was quite long. Still, I received the tutoring fee, but at this rate I’ll just receive money this month too without a single lesson.
“Isn’t that good?”
— No, that’s…… Mm. There are circumstances that make it hard to just be happy about it.
“……”
— Hm? Why aren’t you asking why? You were really curious about Taejeong.
“Because I’m not curious.”
— You seem a bit similar in personality to Taejeong…….
Hearing those words, the encounters with Taejeong flowed through Seonwoo’s mind like a panorama. Taking off his clothes at their first meeting, then punching him and making him faint. And yet unable to run away…… Taejeong was a hopeless hothead who did things roughly, but when it came down to it, he was quite cowardly. Did he appear that way to Junyeong too?
— Anyway, I’ll ask you a favor. You live in the same house, so you’ll run into each other at least once, won’t you?
“I don’t meet him often either. Don’t get your hopes up.”
— Mm, then can’t you wait in Taejeong’s room? If the door is locked, there’s a side table next to the sofa on the second floor, right? Use the key inside there. That’s the second floor master key, so it opens everything.
“How do you know that, teacher?”
— The ahjumma told me? That I should use the key there. I guess Taejeong often locks his door.
Isn’t he locking it because he doesn’t like people opening it carelessly? Not only the people living in this house but everyone who comes and goes seems to have no common sense.
— Ah, the professor is calling me so I’ll get going now. Thanks Seonwoo-ya. See you this weekend!
Seonwoo didn’t say he would do that. But the call had already ended and Junyeong would be harboring expectations on his own. There was no need to think deeply, it was no big deal.
But an unpleasant feeling crept up from his stomach.
Things that grated on his nerves kept happening one after another. He didn’t like that visits to his mother were being controlled arbitrarily, and he didn’t even know his father’s belongings had passed into someone else’s hands.
Even if he asked about it now, he’d be notified after the fact just like when Taejeong’s existence was revealed. Seonwoo’s daily life was rolling around arbitrarily in the Vice Director’s palm.
What else was there that he didn’t know about? Thinking of himself sitting obediently in the Vice Director’s palm, he didn’t feel like easily returning to that house.
Does that kid also wander outside the house because he feels this suffocated? He should just run away. Does he have something held hostage like me, unable to leave his mother behind?
Lost in thought, he walked for a long while. Then, as people around him were stopped, he looked ahead and it was a red light. Only then did Seonwoo look around. Where is this?
ლ
He walked to the house without any plan. Because he took a different route instead of following what the map app told him in the middle, it took 3 hours. Even though he was tired enough to take a bus or taxi, Seonwoo stubbornly just walked.
When he arrived home, it was already dark night. He thought there would be no one since it was time for the housekeeper to have left work too. But when he opened the front door, there were familiar sneakers in the shoe cabinet.
Perhaps because they were thrown off so hastily, the shoes were placed in a V-shape and the heel part was folded over. Just from that, the personality was revealed. Seonwoo gently pushed them into the corner of the shoe cabinet with his foot.
The first-floor corridor had indirect lighting on, making it easy to perceive the surroundings. Seonwoo, who felt slight thirst, headed to the kitchen. Something was placed on the dining table with rounded corners.
It was a table setting with appetizing dishes from neat side dishes to soup. All of it was placed on a tray to be easily moved to the microwave at once. An embroidered table cover was draped over it.
Seonwoo read the memo right next to him. It said that since he didn’t return even when it was time to leave work, she’d prepared dinner and was leaving. Only Seonwoo’s name was mentioned in the housekeeper’s memo, and the food was also for one person.
