Detective Lee called Hwang Jegu out to the hospital rooftop. Because no one yet knew the fact that Hwang Jegu couldn’t return to high school, the detective was gentle.
“About that internet post distributor.”
It seemed the detective had looked into something while Hwang Jegu was fighting this short war. Detective Lee continued in a tone that said it was pathetic.
“I don’t know what kind of good-for-nothing that Canmoa manager is.”
“……”
“The other day when Cheonguk ran away from home, he came to me asking if I’d said anything to that manager. Is that place also related to you?”
The original post was uploaded to some internet bulletin board and was written with the prefix [Repost] from the start. When they traced the IP, it was Kim Hyuntae’s home, he said. It was a familiar name, so when he looked it up, it turned out to be the owner of the juice shop where Hwang Jegu had gotten into a fistfight with punks from Gangwon-do last year and damaged property.
It wasn’t even surprising. He’d known all along that bastard looked at Yeon Cheonguk with snake-like eyes drooling with saliva. However, if there was something impressive, it was that he wondered if his mind was strange somewhere to tear Hwang Jegu and Yeon Cheonguk apart in such a destructive way. How backed into a corner must he have been?
Rather than interfering with Yeon Cheonguk’s debut, tearing the two apart was more important.
There was no crazier bastard than this.
He was a crazy bastard too, but this guy seemed crazy in a different direction.
Why was that bastard being so wary of Hwang Jegu? Did he sense something that Hwang Jegu and Yeon Cheonguk didn’t know, something invisible to their eyes? What on earth was it? They weren’t in a terribly loving relationship or couldn’t live without each other.
It was just one mistake. They just mixed tongues a bit by mistake, it’s not a big deal between them.
What the two didn’t know at all but Manager Kim sensed. What could its identity be….
“Come to think of it, it’s strange. Why is he so interested in someone else’s son? That manager was also the one who tipped me off that Cheonguk was close enough with you to go to a birthday party! So I told Cheonguk’s parents the truth.”
Hwang Jegu gave Detective Lee a cold side-eye. The detective shook his head firmly while reading the mood.
“Wrong is wrong. Until a few days ago, you were a ticking time bomb who could go to jail at any time and the ringleader of scoundrels.”
“……”
“So, the complaint. Are you going to file one?”
Even if he filed a complaint, it would be difficult to be recognized for defamation charges. Civil settlement would be more beneficial instead.
…If it went to a legal dispute, it would become acknowledging that the content of the post was true. Using it in another way seemed like a direction that could clear Yeon Cheonguk of the not-quite-false-accusation. Hwang Jegu, who had been lost in thought, shook his head.
“No, it’s fine.”
Detective Lee finally subtly tested Hwang Jegu one last time.
“So. It seems like you’ve decided to wash your hands this time. Can I trust you?”
It was a path already decided. Hwang Jegu pulled his feet out of the dark back alleys where he’d always been immersed like breathing. He crossed a river of no return.
The deed was already done and there was only one path. Two pitch-black pupils shot a look at Seoul’s night sky.
***
Yeon Cheonguk calmly accepted the situation. Even if the post spread throughout the cafe, there would be a way for Yeon Cheonguk to live. He could live singing without fame, or live quietly and ordinarily.
He’d tried hard to organize his feelings, but he felt he needed to talk to Hwang Jegu about this.
Especially because he came to have strong suspicions about Manager Kim from the aside added at the end of the post. They needed to discuss reporting whether the distributor might be Manager Kim. Yeon Cheonguk left early by an hour under the excuse of being sick.
Unusually today, police cars were coming and going outside the school and it was unsettling. But since there was no big commotion, he passed it off as nothing serious.
Hwang Jegu was absent again today and didn’t answer the phone either. A pretty big incident had erupted, but it was strangely quiet. A call asking if he’d read that fucking post should have come already. If it was this quiet, it seemed like one of two possibilities.
Either the calm before the storm,
Or inside the eye of the storm.
Just in case, when he went to the manga cafe, it wasn’t Donggu hyung but an elderly lady sitting at the counter. The lady was holding the phone and having a noisy conversation with somewhere. Right! Ugh, those punks! So that’s why they came here! Should we install CCTV!
Perhaps there was a theft incident. He shamelessly spoke to the busy-looking lady.
“Excuse me, the part-timer hyung didn’t come today?”
The lady answered in a worried voice.
“Oh my, he went to the hospital! His younger brother was badly hurt and is in the emergency room.”
“Hospital?”
“Yes, he called saying he was sending all the customers away, locking up and going, so I came out. He seems badly hurt, I hope nothing serious happens.”
It was uneasy. Was it the calm before the storm or inside the eye of the storm? He learned the answer quite late the next morning.
It was when he barely made it in time for school and went to Hwang Jegu’s classroom.
He was frowning deeply at Hwang Jegu’s seat, absent again today, when the friend guys sitting in nearby seats approached Yeon Cheonguk and asked.
“Did you happen to hear anything?”
“What?”
“You, shit. You’re close with His Majesty. How did it go, didn’t you get contacted?”
“Making a fuss over some internet post.”
“No! I mean about them getting stabbed.”
“……What?”
The storm that had swept through the past two days wasn’t just some popular post spread on the internet…!
Redevelopment committee. Gang fight. Blood. Hwang Jegu’s eyes turned demonic. Dozens of visions flashed through his mind in an instant.
Yeon Cheonguk rushed out of the classroom. He ran across the schoolyard against the late students sprinting at full speed. He crossed the playground burning in the sunlight and left through the school gate. A teacher standing at the school gate shouted loudly, but he couldn’t hear.
He was running toward the bus stop when he heard someone chasing from behind. Before he could look back, the back of his school uniform collar was grabbed.
The owner of the hand was Hwang Jegu, who shouldn’t be here.
“Where are you wandering around, this slacker bastard is really hopeless.”
He was on his way to find him anyway… but what? Had he been monitoring Yeon Cheonguk’s route to school?
He was bewildered about why he was here at this time. But fear and worry were far greater than that. Yeon Cheonguk yelled.
“What do you mean got stabbed? What…!”
Hwang Jegu, who frowned faintly, shook his head. As if it was no big deal, or as if he had no intention of telling him.
“Don’t wander around and stay quietly holed up at home and school. Study for the college entrance exam. Don’t wander around.”
“……”
“And if anyone knocks, don’t open the door.”
As expected, Hwang Jegu shut his mouth. He didn’t tell him anything. Did he end up taking on dirty work from the redevelopment committee after all? Was he going to become not just a scoundrel but a scoundrel that would set the news ablaze?
Yeon Cheonguk was this ignorant about Hwang Jegu’s world. He knew almost nothing about his world. He knew nothing about what happened in Gangwon-do last year either.
The story about being afraid of fire, the story about getting a scar on his arm stopping a robber, the fact that he had a grandfather with dementia, these were only a part.
Yeon Cheonguk knew nothing about Hwang Jegu. About what was really important!
He felt somewhat wronged and even miserable.
“Am I a guy who doesn’t even have the right to know what you’re doing and wandering around where I’m not?”
“Of course. Who are you to me?”
“……”
“You said it with your own mouth. That you and I aren’t friends. That we can never be.”
“……”
Having nothing to say in response, Yeon Cheonguk shut his mouth. Hwang Jegu instructed quietly.
“What’s important to you is the singer king selection competition. Go to the hospital and get medicine before your cold gets worse and win the grand prize. See what happens if you don’t win the prize.”
“No. In this state of total darkness, I can’t even concentrate. I need to know what happened….”
“Yeon Cheonguk. Listen carefully.”
Hwang Jegu gripped Yeon Cheonguk’s cheek with one hand. His eyes, which had come close enough to feel his breath, were hot like the summer sun.
“Didn’t you say you live because of singing? Then go and earn 20 million won. While quietly going to school and taking the college entrance exam.”
When Yeon Cheonguk still couldn’t calm his huffing breath, Hwang Jegu brought out a second persuasive statement. And in front of those words, Yeon Cheonguk couldn’t help but become powerless.
“You said before. That you wished I wouldn’t be sadder.”
“……”
“You singing properly is what keeps me from being sad. Do you understand?”
It was like magic was cast on the clear sentence without fussing. He had no choice but to follow those words. Declaratively, Hwang Jegu was a merciless bastard. A bastard who wouldn’t bleed a drop even if stabbed. A gangster bastard who manipulates people like this.
“Go and win the grand prize.”
Yeon Cheonguk had no choice but to follow the bastard’s words.
