– He has a younger sibling. Find them for me, the money……
Eunchan hung up the phone without even listening to the rest of Jang Heewoo’s words. His violently beating heart was overwhelming, and his stomach hurt as if being stabbed with needles. There’s no younger sibling. If there was, if that were true, he would have told me. Miro had nothing to hide from him.
The lover who was always affectionate, the man who was sincere in caring for Eunchan. A person who was weak and tender, someone who needed protection. Did he always tell… the truth?
Eunchan immediately went into the house and took off his pajamas. Jang Miro and Jang Heewoo, Myeongjin and Han Inju. There was nowhere left to run. Even if it was to believe in Miro, he had to find out now.
He didn’t remember with what state of mind he had come to the hospital. Inside the taxi, Eunchan kept believing in Miro, then denying him, then feeling compassion, then suspecting, repeatedly. Jang Heewoo’s words might not be true. However, the timing wasn’t good. As if completing a puzzle, only the last remaining piece seemed to be waiting for Eunchan.
As soon as he got out of the taxi, Eunchan ran to Jang Heewoo’s hospital room and knocked on the door while exhaling rough breaths.
“It’s me, Kim Eunchan.”
He didn’t hear a voice telling him to come in, but he didn’t have time to wait. When Eunchan opened the door, Jang Heewoo was leaning against the hospital bed with surprised eyes looking at Eunchan.
“What, I thought you weren’t coming.”
“Tell me about the younger sibling.”
Eunchan, who skipped greetings, brought over a chair and sat close to Jang Heewoo. At Eunchan’s urgent attitude, Jang Heewoo frowned.
“What’s wrong with you? Like someone’s chasing you…… You didn’t tell hyung before coming, did you?”
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
“But what’s your relationship with Jang Miro that you’re stuck together for so long? Aren’t you scared? I get goosebumps when I’m with him, I hate it. You can’t even communicate with him.”
Mentioning Miro with his unfocused eyes and sometimes jumping over context, Jang Heewoo looked at Eunchan suspiciously.
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m trying to find out now. Fuck, just tell me about the younger sibling.”
Unable to stand watching the leisurely Jang Heewoo who didn’t know his urgency, Eunchan finally cursed.
“Look at your manners. Instead, find the younger sibling within a week. Got it?”
“Within a week?”
Eunchan asked back in confusion at the somewhat tight schedule.
“I have to live too!”
Jang Heewoo was just as urgent. Because the surgery was scheduled for a week later, he was going crazy with anxiety day by day. Jang Miro who suddenly changed his mind was also suspicious. This time he might really be trying to kill me, he could have arranged a doctor in advance to eliminate him pretending it was a medical accident.
“I think Jang Miro is going to kill me. Using the surgery as an excuse,”
“Calm down.”
“So please find him for sure, okay? I’ll give you as much money as you want.”
Jang Heewoo didn’t let go of Eunchan’s hand as if grabbing a lifeline. To stay alive, he had to do anything.
“……Do you really think Miro-ssi is trying to kill you?”
“He’s killed everyone until now. My parents, my aunt, everyone. He’s really crazy, you know?”
No lies could be found in Jang Heewoo’s desperate eyes. The sudden accidents and inheritance that followed as if waiting were sufficiently suspicious. However, Eunchan, who found it too much to think that far, swept his hair back and let out a suffocating breath.
“Why are you looking for the younger sibling? What does that have to do with your life?”
“I think they knew each other when they were at the orphanage, and when he was young, he lived clinging only to that.”
Like an imaginary friend he created, Miro had grown up clinging to one existence. Because he was stuck in a corner alone muttering a name, at first he just thought he had finally gone crazy. However, around the time he became an adult, he became certain that it was a real person because he was making plans with that person.
“Like a crazy person, he kept muttering only that name all along. That person could be Jang Miro’s real family. Anyway, I need him, I have to catch at least a weakness.”
It was the only weakness that the inhuman Jang Miro had. He just hoped it wasn’t really an imaginary friend. Jang Heewoo gestured at Eunchan who was sitting blankly with a pale face.
“……What’s that name?”
“Noeul.”
* * *
Eunchan, who rushed out of the hospital room, hurriedly picked up his phone. In the meantime, there were several missed calls from Miro. Ignoring Jang Heewoo who was calling his name loudly from inside the hospital room, Eunchan pressed Miro’s number. Without even hearing a ringtone, the connected call was filled only with Miro’s breathing.
“Miro-ssi.”
– I, I told you to stay at home.
“How did you know where I am?”
– I re-received a call from Heewoo’s hospital.
At Miro’s natural answer, his mind was somehow confused. As if he naturally received reports everywhere he went…… How did Miro know my location all this time? Miro who always appeared when needed, the stalker who appeared whenever he was alone.
“……Do you know Han Inju?”
However, it wasn’t too late to find out after confirming this first. Eunchan bit his fingernail with his teeth. The reason for asking Miro even after hearing Jang Heewoo’s words was clear. He wanted to believe in Miro who promised not to hurt him. He wasn’t ready yet to lose the lover who offered his side and comforted him.
– Why?
He wanted an answer, but what came back was a reason. Miro’s beaming smile was vivid before his eyes. Eunchan sat down and tried to grasp Miro’s heart. What kind of person are you? Miro, who seemed graspable, appears hidden beyond the shadows.
“You know him.”
– What did you talk about with Heewoo?
“Then do you know Kim Noeul?”
– ……Eunchan.
“You know this person too? Kim Haengbok? Myeongjin? Do you know about the request I took on? Why did you,”
Han Inju always took photos every time they met, but if Miro was Kim Haengbok, there was no way he wouldn’t know Eunchan. Perhaps because of stress, his stomach began to hurt more. Eunchan ignored the cold sweat flowing and waited for Miro’s explanation.
– Eunchan, co-come home. I’ll ex-explain everything.
“……”
Eunchan ended the call as it was. His vision blurred as if drunk. In the circularly connected relationship, only he had lost his way.
Are you saying Kim Haengbok is Miro? What about the stalker, why did you give me the request?
Han Inju came first, Miro came next. The two singled out Eunchan as if they had made a promise and acted as if they wouldn’t entrust it to anyone but him.
Why did it have to be me? In his life, he had never created grudges or caused trouble. There were no special ties he had formed either. In the first place, Eunchan’s human relationships themselves were narrow.
Then the answer is Muan. Eunchan’s hometown, the place where the mansion and land are. They found out that my hometown is Muan. Eunchan turned off the continuously ringing phone and stood up. The place where all his senses were directed, the warehouse that he wanted to open but Miro had blocked. There was still one door left to open.
Returning home, Eunchan didn’t go inside but picked up a hard, large stone from the garden. Walking along the side path leading behind the mansion, Eunchan kept looking back. The sound of leaves fluttering in the wind was as noisy as his heart.
In front of the firmly closed door, Eunchan hesitated for a moment. He had to open it, but he didn’t want to know. He also hoped Miro would come and stop him like last time. You’ve put it off too long for that. These were problems he had ignored while embracing Miro.
Eunchan raised the stone high and struck down the lock. Metal and stone collided, ringing loudly in all directions. It seemed like judging himself for hesitating, or scolding the sin of doubting Miro. He wanted to cover his ears but regretted that he couldn’t because his hands were insufficient. By the time his back was completely soaked with sweat, the old lock fell with a thud onto the dirt ground. Eunchan put down the stone and let out a long sigh. He desperately wanted a cigarette. Although the loud sound should have been enough for Miro to come, no sign of presence was felt as if he hadn’t arrived yet.
Taking one step was as heavy as lifting the earth. Eunchan looked back once more. The sunlight visible beyond the side path looked as distant as if unreachable by hand.
“……It’s now.”
Now was the time Miro should come. If he held him back, if he told him he was misunderstanding everything, he could stop here. Seeing himself still unable to let go of Miro, Eunchan’s hands trembled. Thanks to forcefully gripping and striking down the stone, the inside of his palm was mottled with scratches.
Eunchan turned his head to face the door. Unlike the neat and beautiful mansion, the old and shabby container box didn’t match this space at all. As he slowly raised his hand and pushed the door, dust rose with a creaking sound.
Inside was dark. In the pitch-black interior where not a single object was visible, Eunchan took out his phone from his pocket. He tried to touch the screen to brighten the light, but remembered that he had turned off the power to avoid Miro’s calls.
“Ah, fuck.”
His heart was dying with urgency, but nothing was going as intended. Eunchan checked the interior by shining around even the slowly turning-on power screen.
He thought it was a warehouse, but there were no piled-up items. Rather, as if it were someone’s room, there was a bed and a wardrobe. The bedding seemed quite old, worn and tattered, and the wardrobe had one broken leg wrapped round and round with tape. There wasn’t a single window inside, so the air was stale. Eunchan turned his body, thinking to open the door wider.
And at that moment, the phone light illuminated not the floor but the opposite wall.
“What is this, what.”
Eunchan stuttered, unable to believe what he saw. The photos and memos that filled the wall densely were shocking. The protagonists of all the photos were Eunchan, himself. Unable to control his trembling body, the light in his hand also shook.
There were many photos taken by someone that he was seeing for the first time. When he stayed at church with the pastor, when he just set foot in the company, after being discharged…….
As if watched over a long period of time, the time periods were also diverse. Among them were photos that seemed to have been taken by Han Inju.
‘May I take a photo?’
‘The company is curious about who the person in charge is.’
Was the person in charge referring to Miro? Eunchan stepped back, moving away from the wall.
