Yeon Cheonguk was called for the judges’ special award. It was an expected result since his throat condition wasn’t good.
The director didn’t hide his disappointed expression. He must have thought he would definitely win the grand prize at this competition. Whether he was disappointed about the title or the prize money, he didn’t know.
The director pointed to the park parking lot with a look of holding back his words.
“Just wait here until I bring the car.”
It seemed he intended to give Yeon Cheonguk an earful once he got in the car about changing the entry song on his own and arriving late. It would be better to go back to his room alone and get a earful of curses over the phone later.
Yeon Cheonguk quickly turned around and opened his umbrella. He was looking around for the bus stop across from the one he’d come from earlier, crossing the crosswalk, when it happened.
He noticed someone standing in a pay phone booth one block away.
A silhouette filling the booth. Short hair with one or two bridge highlights.
Yeon Cheonguk headed in that direction. Hwang Jegu waved his hand toward the outside of the booth.
How long had he been waiting here? Had he maybe heard Yeon Cheonguk’s song earlier? Yeon Cheonguk, who gradually picked up speed in his steps, threw down his umbrella and violently pulled open the booth door.
“What happened?”
Inside the humid glass, the two men’s bodies pressed close together. Hwang Jegu frowned for a moment and raised both arms. It was a gesture showing he found the physical contact unpleasant.
This wasn’t the time to be hurt by something like that. Yeon Cheonguk left his uneasy feelings behind and continued his questioning.
“Why were you absent for a whole week? Why…”
“Fuck, hey. Are you my lover or something?”
“……”
“Haa… Don’t act like you’re something to me, it’s disgusting.”
Hwang Jegu kicked the door with his foot. As he pulled his raincoat hood back on, what he said was a farewell notice.
“I came to say this. We have no more business together. This neighborhood is fucking terrible, so I’m leaving.”
“What…? Wh… what…”
“And I think I should tell you this too. The one who wrote that post is my friend, and I’m the one who gave permission to upload it.”
Yeon Cheonguk lost his words. Like an idiot, unable to do anything about his wavering eyes, he just gaped his mouth. Hwang Jegu added a brief explanation.
“That way you can make a living performing at events for the rest of your life. Isn’t that better than gambling on whether you’ll make it or not…?”
Hwang Jegu, who had completely shut down Yeon Cheonguk’s words, left his final greeting as he went out into the rain.
“Don’t worry, I’ll come find you someday. After all the money I poured in.”
It was a voice that was even colder because it was light, without emotion or anything. Yeon Cheonguk instinctively felt it. That this was the last time.
“Wait.”
That short word was the end.
The other person who had occupied the largest part of Yeon Cheonguk disappeared from the world like that.
***
After that, Hwang Jegu vanished without a trace. The electronic dictionary and money envelope were the only traces of him. The money envelope that Hwang Jegu had shoved into his bag when they last fought at the abandoned warehouse before everything blew up. Because he had said he needed a lot of money that day, it contained a thick bundle of bills.
He was sorry. He had never once said thank you.
What was so difficult about saying that? When all he did was talk back every single day.
The butcher shop door was also firmly closed. At the comic book rental shop, Hwang Jegu’s membership information had disappeared. Donggu hyung had also quit his part-time job.
The cell phone number ending in 7918 also came up as a non-existent number.
After that, a post Hwang Jegu left on a close acquaintance’s mini-homepage guestbook became a hot topic. To summarize, it was a joke that he had tried to clip Yeon Cheonguk’s wings before he became successful to use him as a money source. This short post also briefly set the entire internet ablaze. Raw criticism poured down on Hwang Jegu. Thoughtless, conscienceless, trash.
Because of that post, Yeon Cheonguk instantly became Hwang Jegu’s one-sided victim. The dark history that could have hindered his debut completely disappeared.
The Hwang-je of Seolyun High had now disappeared into history. That seat remained empty forever.
<Expulsion Notice>
Class 1, 3rd Year, Hwang Jegu
Disciplinary Action: Forced Expulsion
Reason: Failure to Meet Minimum Attendance Days
Like that, Hwang Jegu completely disappeared from Yeon Cheonguk’s world.
In September, with just a few months left until graduation, at the end of summer…
***
Now Jeon Sangwon could walk without crutches. Running or vigorous exercise was still difficult, but he was recovering well. Jeon Sangwon, who had parked his motorcycle on the roadside, hurriedly walked into the intercity bus terminal.
He headed to the platform for Suwon. Hwang Jegu, wearing his cap pulled down low and with his jersey buttons fastened all the way up to his chin, was standing next to the ashtray trash can.
Hwang Jegu had declared he would disappear for a while. He said even he didn’t know how long it would take. After getting covered in blood and pulling his feet out of the back alleys, then wrapping up the butcher shop, he didn’t even tell Jeon Sangwon what he would do next.
Seeing him when he couldn’t read his insides made him feel so frustrated he could go crazy. Jeon Sangwon, who had been fiddling with his cigarette pack, finally couldn’t hold back his question.
“If you’d just delayed putting those bastards behind bars by a day or two, you wouldn’t have been expelled, right…?”
“Why would I delay it? Who knows what they might do again.”
“Still…!”
That wasn’t the only incomprehensible behavior. It was unexpectedly revealed that the distributor of the post that made a stir on the internet was the owner of Canmoa, but he didn’t report it. He even left a thoughtless post on a friend’s mini-homepage and received all the public criticism.
It was an incomprehensible mistake unless it was to protect Yeon Cheonguk.
But even so, it was equally incomprehensible.
“Still, you’re going to hole up somewhere alone…!”
“Don’t worry, the stars are most visible during the darkest new moon.”
“Huh…? What are you talking about, all of a sudden?”
What about secretly giving money to the record agency that signed a contract with Yeon Cheonguk? Saying it was because of him that he didn’t win an award at the singer selection competition, he sent Gakseori and the comic book rental part-timer to the agency instead and paid the investment fund of hundreds of millions needed for the debut.
Not because Yeon Cheonguk was unpleasant, but objectively speaking, it was an excessive sacrifice.
“Yeon Cheonguk’s life isn’t more important than Your Majesty’s life. Your Majesty, I’m asking really seriously, but why do you really do that for him?”
He carefully asked, reading the mood. Hwang Jegu, who had been silently not answering, opened his mouth while staring into the distance.
“Someone who’s nothing special can become fucking special. In life… there are such miraculous things.”
“…That Snorlax?”
“I’ve never seen anyone so happy before.”
“……”
“Every time he sings. I guess he’s that happy.”
Hwang Jegu, who let out a faint smile, continued speaking.
“It’s a beautiful realm I can never reach. What that bastard has. I just think something like that needs to exist in the world. Well, it’s a kind of sponsorship, right?”
Jeon Sangwon was at a loss for words. He only muttered to himself while watching the back of Hwang Jegu, who waved his hand and left.
Fuck, what a fan of sponsorship.
“No… there’s no fool and sucker like this…”
– PAUSE (2) End
