‘Haejeong’s mother!’
The homeroom teacher, who had been watching, raised his voice in alarm, and Madam Chu Yeonan’s venomous gaze snapped toward him.
‘No matter how childish kids can be, how dare they treat my son that way.’
Munyeong stared at her, completely dumbfounded.
‘Ma’am, Munyeong is the child who helped Haejeong.’
‘Teacher Choi! Stay out of this!’
‘But still—!’
When the homeroom teacher cried out as though he couldn’t make sense of the situation, the principal, who had until then only been watching, rebuked him sharply. The homeroom teacher tried again to appeal on Munyeong’s behalf, but a harsh voice cut him off.
‘Helped? This child — he and the other kids from that orphanage conspired to harass my Haejeong.’
It was something he had never heard before. It never happened. He hadn’t done that, and he wasn’t even worthy of harassing Yeon Haejeong.
‘Not too long ago, they stole from our son, too.’
The light went out of Munyeong’s dazed eyes as they wavered. He had thought that matter was over and done with — he never expected it to be brought up now.
‘Do you have any idea how much the item those delinquent children stole was worth?’
‘……I’m sorry, ma’am. We’ll make sure to discipline them thoroughly so nothing like this ever happens again.’
‘No. The fact that nothing like this happened before is exactly why we’re in this mess now.’
‘……Then what would you have us do……’
‘Expel them.’
‘……Pardon?’
‘If you just let this go, how much will they look down on us. Our son nearly came to serious harm.’
Munyeong still remembered, vivid and clear, what the person standing before him had been saying on the phone that day at the hospital. And even that moment when Yeon Haejeong had nearly been kidnapped was sharp in his memory — yet here he was, cast as the perpetrator. He had become the perpetrator. He had become a thief.
‘…No matter how desperate the circumstances, I should never have sent him to a school like this.’
Madam Chu Yeonan contorted her face with open irritation and let out a sigh.
‘S-still, expulsion seems a bit… Graduation isn’t that far off now. Could you not find it in yourself to show just a little more mercy……’
‘You should be grateful it ends with that.’
‘……’
‘…Well, I’m aware that these children come from difficult circumstances.’
Adding that last remark, Madam Chu Yeonan opened the shoulder bag she was carrying and let a thick white envelope drop onto the table with a thud. No formality, no courtesy — nothing but indifferent dismissal.
‘Make sure the facility side stays quiet. Settle it appropriately. I’d like this resolved as discreetly as possible.’
‘……’
‘Really — imagine the victim having to pay the settlement money herself.’
It was called a settlement, but what it meant was: take the money and go away. It was a command to pocket this handful of coins and play along with this absurd farce.
‘And you.’
‘……’
The way she called to him was thorned through and through. On the surface it looked like a word to the child who had tormented her son, but in reality it was a warning to the one who had dismantled her plan. The killing edge in that gaze alone was enough to make it unmistakable.
‘…Consider yourself lucky.’
Madam Chu Yeonan brought her lips close to Munyeong’s ear and whispered quietly. Munyeong stood with all the spirit drained out of him, head bowed low. It was frightening on a level that made the bullying from classmates seem laughable. He was frightened, he was afraid. With a handful of words and a few actions, an entirely different story had been constructed — and even the perpetrator had been swapped out. The helplessness he felt because of it cut him to the bone.
After that incident, Yeon Haejeong stopped coming to school. After his mother’s visit, the perpetrators of the incident had been recast as Munyeong and the children who had stolen from Yeon Haejeong before. In the end, to resolve the matter quickly and keep the investigation from going anywhere, Munyeong and the orphanage children had been put forward as scapegoats.
The school buried the incident under the story that the orphanage children, who had harbored resentment over the theft case, had attempted to harm Yeon Haejeong. The children who had stolen, and Munyeong who had simply been there, were expelled on that pretext. The children at the facility didn’t understand and pushed back, of course, but the modest compensation Madam Chu Yeonan had tossed down was handed over to them in place of explanation. The expelled children were offered a settlement allowing them to receive a higher independence subsidy than the others, and those who were desperately in need of money accepted their own expulsion without further resistance.
The orphanage director, who had been told all the details by the school, was the only one who showed any concern for Munyeong — the only one who had refused the compensation. The director had heard everything from Munyeong firsthand, but unable to stand against the pressure of those in power, she had ultimately had no choice but to accept the bare minimum settlement they had offered. But Munyeong, the one who had suffered most, refused even that. When the very person who most deserved it refused to accept it, the orphanage director let out a deep, heavy sigh.
He had helped a child who was about to be kidnapped, only to be branded the perpetrator. It was truly no way for an adult to behave — yet they had been powerless against the wealth and influence those people wielded. People said this kind of thing was common in the world, but Munyeong had learned it younger than most.
The law of the jungle. The strong win, and the weak have no choice but to lose — the orphanage director expressed regret that the children had experienced this in real life. Most of all, for Munyeong, who had been the most diligent of them all, and who had in fact helped during that very incident.
On top of everything, it wasn’t until much later that she learned his hand had been permanently damaged because he had missed the window to receive proper treatment for the injuries he’d sustained.
But Munyeong handled it with quiet composure. He didn’t push back against the school for the expulsion, and he didn’t turn against the director for accepting the settlement. When the time came to leave, he simply walked out of the facility without a word. Taking only what he was entitled to by principle.
‘Thank you. For everything.’
Munyeong bowed a full ninety degrees to the orphanage director, who had been powerless to help him in any of it. Of all the children who had ever left, she couldn’t help but have him on her mind the most — and she found she couldn’t bring herself to offer even the hollow comfort of an apology.
‘…Are you really all right?’
‘……Yes. I’m all right.’
‘Even so, the share that belongs to you should properly be—’
‘It isn’t mine to take.’
Munyeong refused stubbornly, firmly. It was compensation in name only — no different from a reward for keeping his mouth shut. In one sense it was payment for the false accusation laid against him, and accepting that payment would be the same as proof that he had truly harmed Yeon Haejeong. He couldn’t take it. Munyeong bowed his head low, his expression saying he was sorry to keep refusing like this.
‘I’m sorry. I can’t accept it.’
‘……What do you have to be sorry for.’
The orphanage director couldn’t conceal either the worry or the bitterness, and swallowed a bitter breath.
‘…Go out there and take care of yourself.’
‘…Yes.’
‘……Still, if things ever get truly hard out there, come and find me. Your share… no, whatever money is left, I’ll set it aside for you.’
‘……Thank you.’
‘Take care of yourself…. Don’t get sick.’
Those were the only words she could offer him. The bare minimum of encouragement.
‘Yes. Stay well, Director.’
Even that bare minimum of encouragement carried comfort for Munyeong, and he offered his final farewell with a heartfelt wish, then walked out of the facility. Greeted by a cold wind and a strange sense of release, Munyeong clasped his damaged hand and gazed blankly at the place where he had spent his childhood.
It was the end, and a new beginning. He was twenty years old.
And it had already been several months since he had last seen Yeon Haejeong.
He found himself wondering, now and then, whether he was doing all right.
Please be okay. Leaving behind that small, quiet wish, Munyeong moved his feet. A sense settled over him that there would be no more seeing him, no more being tangled up with him. And yet something remained. Munyeong quietly took hold of his hand as it trembled faintly. The trace of it stung — but he accepted it without resistance. Regret felt like a denial of every moment he had spent caring for him, and he didn’t want that. There was only one thing left for him to do.
Endure everything, and keep living quietly forward.
As the long memory neared its end, the spasms began to ease. His fingertips twitched. Munyeong watched the movement with hollow, expressionless eyes, then let out a heavier, more complicated sigh than before. He had been in pain for over ten years — and he still couldn’t understand why he hadn’t grown numb to it. Why did it hurt the same way every single time. He was even tired of hurting the same way every time, at this point. As the pain that had crashed over him like a rushing current gradually subsided, Munyeong clasped his hand tightly again with a weary face.
