Instantly a damp sensation was felt on the soles of his feet. When he looked down at the floor, something had been sprayed. The floor was slick enough to make the soles of his feet slip.
A chilling sensation spread from the nape of his neck throughout his entire back. Seonwoo instinctively followed with his eyes where the traces continued. The slick traces continued to the stairs. The entire staircase was also sprayed with liquid of unknown identity. It was the moment he was stepping on that and going up that he heard some sound.
Tick, tick, it was the sound of something colliding. The moment he arrived on the second floor, one corner of the living room brightened. It was light spreading from the fireplace.
In front of the fireplace, where shadows swayed precariously, was Taejeong.
The brace having gone who knows where, he was letting his injured arm hang down awkwardly. The face looking at the flames gradually growing in size contained nothing. It was a hollow gaze with not even lingering attachment remaining.
With one hand, Taejeong picked up an object placed on the floor. It was a large plastic container. When he tilted it, transparent liquid poured out.
Only then did Seonwoo notice that the Vice Director was also there. His large body was face-down on the floor without movement. Taejeong was spraying liquid of unknown identity over the Vice Director’s body.
“What are you doing?”
The plastic container fell to the floor. With a thud and a dull sound, remaining liquid poured out from the opening.
Taejeong was so startled that he froze in the position of having dropped the container. The appearance of spraying liquid over the Vice Director’s body with a dry face without hesitation had disappeared completely.
Seonwoo took a big step forward. The transparent liquid slipped slickly past the soles of his feet. Seonwoo, who staggered across the floor slippery as thin ice, grabbed Taejeong’s arm.
“I’m asking you. Won’t you answer?”
“…”
“Hey, I told you. You’re going somewhere else now, right?”
The emotion contained in the eyes looking at Taejeong, in the voice raised higher than usual, was clear.
Seonwoo genuinely didn’t understand Taejeong. When all that remained was becoming free, why he was trying to ruin his own life—he absolutely couldn’t understand.
“So what.”
At that moment, Taejeong struck away Seonwoo’s hand. With a choked-up face, barely suppressing the emotions surging up from his chest, he said.
“So what changes? What about going to my mom? What about living there! What about you? You—can you make it all like it never happened? Can you live as if nothing happened!”
“…”
As if I could. Having learned all of what the Vice Director had done, he couldn’t live on without knowing anything. When Seonwoo didn’t answer, Taejeong let out a sneer.
“See. You can’t do it either. But why are you telling me to do that?”
“…”
“As long as my father is alive, I’m the same. I’m tied to this shitty house for life.”
Taejeong tore at his collar as if vomiting resentment. Still unable to relieve his anger, he couldn’t do this or that with his hands, then gripped Seonwoo’s collar.
“You too, said you’d kill him. You said it with your own mouth.”
The moment Taejeong spat out those words, more than shock, Seonwoo first thought ‘I knew it’.
As expected, it wasn’t a dream. Seonwoo had let out the impulse that had surged at that moment, and Taejeong had ended up hearing it. That had completely provoked Taejeong, who had been barely holding on.
However, even so, Seonwoo had no intention of backing down obediently.
“So you’re going to kill this bastard and even set a fire? You’ll spend the rest of your life only in prison?”
“…”
Taejeong closed his mouth. Only his bloodshot pupils shook, unable to say anything.
“Hey.”
“…”
Even when urged with a sharp voice, it was the same. That silence itself was Taejeong’s answer.
Seonwoo naturally noticed the thoughts Taejeong harbored. He was going to end the Vice Director, the house, and himself all here.
The moment he understood that, his head cooled down. The hatred boiling toward the Vice Director hadn’t disappeared. However, as if covering all of that, another emotion rushed in over it.
“I… wish my father and this damned house would all disappear…”
Taejeong no longer cared what happened to the rest of his life. When the present he was already living was no different from hell, the future couldn’t be considered important.
“…”
“…”
No words passed between the two. In the heavy silence, only the sound of the fireplace logs burning could be heard. Taejeong was avoiding eye contact with his head lowered. Seonwoo was looking straight at such a Taejeong.
“Then let’s do it together.”
A calm voice split the silence. Taejeong raised his head as if possessed.
“What?”
“If you’re going to do it, let’s do it together.”
“What’s that…”
The face that had been blankly looking at Seonwoo instantly distorted. The moment he understood the meaning of doing it together, the emotion draped over Taejeong’s face was despair.
“Why are you butting in? Stop talking bullshit and get out right now! Crazy bastard!”
Taejeong shook him by the collar then outright pushed his shoulders. However, Seonwoo corrected his posture, then tried to pick up the plastic container fallen on the floor nonchalantly.
“Don’t do it!!”
Taejeong shouted and struck away the container before Seonwoo’s hand could even reach it. Though his collar was grabbed by rough hands enough to make his body sway, Seonwoo looked straight at Taejeong and said.
“See. You snap to your senses too, right?”
“…”
“Me too. I wanted to kill that bastard, but seeing you acting like this now, I’m snapping to my senses.”
“…”
“So you choose.”
Seonwoo grabbed Taejeong’s arm.
“Either do it together. Or stop.”
Taejeong couldn’t say anything. Only the sound of logs burning reached his ears.
“…”
Taejeong looked at Seonwoo with a despairing face. What was contained in his gaze at first was resentment, then soon changed to anger, but all of that became entangled so it could no longer be defined by just one emotion.
His wide-open eyes gradually became bloodshot. It was the moment Seonwoo tilted his head, ambiguous whether Taejeong’s eyes looking exceptionally red was because of the fireplace’s light.
Taejeong suddenly lifted his head and looked at the ceiling. His protruding Adam’s apple rolled several times. His chest rose and fell rapidly.
How long had he been like that? Eventually, Taejeong weakly dropped his head.
“……”
His clenched jaw trembled. His shoulders sank heavily. His breathing sounded rough. The hand gripping Seonwoo’s collar trembled endlessly.
“……You really, you’re no help to my life at all…… You fucking bastard……”
The emotion mixed with resentment and anger eventually led to resignation. Seonwoo kept holding onto the endlessly trembling arm without releasing any strength.
“What do we do now?”
“I don’t know. It’ll work out somehow. He’s not dead.”
Taejeong asked in a slightly hoarse voice, and Seonwoo answered bluntly.
The two were sitting side by side on the sofa. In front of them was a scene of carnage. The Vice Director was still collapsed without movement, and the liquid spilled on the floor showed no signs of drying.
They had stopped before it became irreversible, but the evidence was too clear. Seonwoo knew that clumsily destroying evidence would only add to the crime. So he chose to leave it alone.
“Where did that come from?”
What Seonwoo gestured at with his eyes was the liquid that had wetted the floor. There wouldn’t have been time, so he suddenly became curious about where such a thing came from and asked.
Actually, the conversation they should have first was what they would do from now on, he knew, but Seonwoo didn’t ask. He just, right now, wanted to have a casual conversation with Taejeong.
“It was in the basement.”
“Did you prepare it in advance?”
“No. It’s always been in that spot.”
“Since when?”
“I don’t know. It’s been there since long ago.”
It was an ambiguous answer. But if Taejeong’s words were true, it wasn’t something impulsively prepared suddenly yesterday or today.
How old a time was the “long ago” Taejeong spoke of? Since when had he lived in this house? Unless Taejeong told him, Seonwoo couldn’t know.
But he could guess what thoughts he’d had while looking at the plastic container that had always been in the same place for a long time.
“You kept imagining it while looking at that, didn’t you?”
“……”
The reason Taejeong, who had dropped the container in surprise at just a single word, could pour the liquid over the Vice Director’s body with a detached face was because he had imagined that moment countless times beyond counting.
It might have been what Taejeong desperately wished for over a long time. But Seonwoo had stopped it purely out of the selfish desire not to turn Taejeong into an irreversible criminal.
That thought was unchanged even now. Seonwoo only confirmed that the Vice Director was breathing fine and didn’t touch him after that. He just brought his feet up onto the sofa and sat by Taejeong’s side.
