“But why did you do that to me?”
The child’s form melted flabbily like ice cream melting under the midsummer blazing sun. A lump resembling the child’s eye color crawled squirmingly toward his feet following Taesung’s shadow.
Taesung clenched his empty hand tightly. A voice belonging to who knows who pounded inside his narrow ear canal like a pendulum.
Run away, run away, run away.
He turned around. He ran blindly. He was clearly in the middle of the city center, but before he knew it, the scenery had changed to mountains soaked with damp moisture.
It was a road he’d run on like this before at some point.
His gasping breath rose up to his chin. Taesung squeezed his eyes shut and spat out resentment toward he knew not whom.
There’s a truckload of people wishing I’d die, so what great wrong did I commit?
Why on earth…!
“Fuck, why are you only throwing a fit at me!”
CRASH—at the sound of something being smashed, Taesung’s eyes flew open. Empty beer cans he’d been chugging until just before sleeping the previous night flew limply from a kick aimed outside the bed.
His heart pounded. Taesung calmed himself by thumping the middle of his chest with the fist he’d been clenching since the dream.
Was it a dream?
…Fuck, of course it was a dream. A person melted like jelly.
Taesung abruptly lost his temper at himself and got up from bed. He roughly swept back his disheveled hair and headed to the bathroom. Empty beer cans kept hitting his feet. Irritation surged up and he kicked one away. The beer can that flew to the entrance clanged loudly against the inner door.
Fucking thing, why are you rolling around there throwing a fit?
Taesung grumbled and splashed cold water on his face. Bloodshot eyes reflected in the mirror. Did everything from getting beaten by Jang Hyeokjin rise up? I don’t know why even my eyeballs are in this state.
…Was there ice in the fridge?
As soon as he left the bathroom, he encountered the pathetically crumpled beer can again. Only after regaining his reason did Taesung finally realize the truth that if he made a mess unable to control his temper, he’d have to clean it all up himself anyway. Like breadcrumbs Hansel scattered, he picked up the cans rolling around in a line one by one, tucked them under his arm, and headed to the kitchen. A black plastic bag he hadn’t seen before was placed on the dining table.
What was that again?
Taesung casually opened the bag. It was filled with unusually large and fresh green grapes. Only then did he recall the previous day’s events. The image of Hyun Jaeha forcibly stuffing the green grapes from the display into a plastic bag and shoving it into his hand.
Something about it.
Seemed mocking.
As if asking whether he was still running around as Jang Hyeokjin’s lackey.
“Making me feel like shit from the morning.”
Taesung shoved the green grapes, bag and all, into the trash can.
“Ah shit, annoying…”
Of course, if it rotted in there and became a fruit fly den, this too would be something Taesung had to clean up, so he had to take it out again.
Taesung’s mood sank from the moment he pressed the button for the third basement floor where the parking lot was.
The old officetel on the main street near the subway station looked quite flashy on the outside, but its liver was rotting away as much as its age. The above-ground floors with shops were somewhat managed, but the deeper you went underground, the mustier mold smell stung your nose.
As expected, as soon as the elevator door opened, damp air rushed into his lungs. It felt like mold spores were being sprayed into his throat, so Taesung irritably fanned his hand in front of his nose.
If only I hadn’t been obsessed with that damn view.
This time too, Taesung’s vanity was the problem. Because of his longing for a high-rise officetel overlooking the city’s night view, he’d moved into this shitty place without even properly examining it.
Of course, the view was good. For the first few days after moving, he did ridiculous things like pouring wine while looking out the window at night. But soon, some evil spirit must have possessed the upstairs neighbors because they constantly stomped around in the middle of the night, and the next-door apartment was apparently rented out short-term because all kinds of couples came in every other day to set off fireworks and make a ruckus before getting it on repeatedly. It was hard to tell whether this was living in a house or staying in a motel room.
Should he be thankful that at least once they started getting it on, they’d huff and puff three or four times and be done? After that, a scary silence always flowed, so Taesung could also sleep soundly with peace of mind.
Anyway, that aside, the damp underground parking lot was the problem.
The management office charged exorbitant management fees and even did parking permit business, so all kinds of cars were always double-parked—he was planning to move somewhere else when the contract period ended just because he hated the sight of this parking lot. This time, he’d have to check whether it was livable for people first, view or whatever be damned. Manager Kim was actually pretty good at seeing such things.
“President, good morning!”
As soon as he kicked the stupid automatic door that couldn’t distinguish people, Manager Kim, who had parked his car right in front of the door, quickly got out of the driver’s seat and bent at a right angle. If only there were no people around—if anyone had seen, it would look exactly like gangsters. Right, advertising ‘gangsters live here’ in front of the house. Sometimes he wondered if this bastard did that on purpose to screw with Taesung.
“What’s so good that you’re grinning?”
Even though he got cursed at for no fault of his own, Manager Kim opened the car door with a familiar grin. Taesung plopped into the car reeking of air freshener and leaned his head against the backrest.
“Now now, put on your seatbelt.”
“Drive so I don’t have to, you bastard.”
“Ah, President, I drive amazingly well. But doesn’t the world make me feel wronged? Yesterday too, I was going to just rip out the dashcam footage and upload it, but I held back because it was a business car and I felt sorry for them.”
Fucking Hyun Jaeha—because of that bastard, the previous day’s memories he’d briefly forgotten came back. Taesung smacked the back of Manager Kim’s head with the black plastic bag. Manager Kim opened his ping-pong ball eyes wide and received the bag.
“Wow, what’s this?”
Should I bother answering that it’s fresh grapes that briefly went into the trash?
“Eat a lot.”
Everything became bothersome, so Taesung responded curtly and closed his eyes tightly.
“It smells like Mango? You bought it thinking of our Mango?”
“You bastard, can’t you tell just by looking? They’re grapes.”
“Right. Why would grapes smell like mango? Wow, is this that thing? Shine Muscat? President, I’ve never eaten this before. It’s really expensive, you know.”
I don’t know why this Manager Kim bastard acts so poor when I haven’t not paid him salary and he doesn’t go around gambling. Taesung kicked the driver’s seat as if telling him to just start the car.
“So Shine Muscat also smells like mango.”
Even while spinning around the narrow parking lot exit, Manager Kim chattered incessantly.
“Then what I saw in my dream might not have been a mango. What if it’s Shine Muscat? Should I change our Mango’s name to Shine?”
“You said it was a mango the size of a head.”
“I think I just thought that because of the smell. You know, in dreams things appear the way I think. I thought ‘it’s a mango,’ so a mango appeared—if I’d eaten Shine Muscat before, I would’ve named it that. It even has ‘cat’ in the name.”
What a stretch.
Neither Mango nor Shine really suited a black cat’s name, but if he had to choose, Shine would be just a tiny bit better.
Whether they’d left the parking lot, cold light seeped between his closed eyelids. Taesung muttered while rubbing his eyes.
“Don’t change a kid’s name carelessly.”
“What?”
“Once you’ve decided to raise it with that name, take responsibility to the end. Don’t make them feel like shit by slapping on this name and that name.”
“Ah President, what do you take me for?”
Right now it’s just cute. They say even orangutans are cute when they’re babies, so how much more a kitten? But cuteness in anything is temporary, and babies are bound to grow. It was just a moment before what you’d been coaxing and soothing like a doll came to look like a shaggy beast.
When it doesn’t move sharply even when ordered and starts causing trouble with a dissatisfied expression, you’d gradually think ‘why did I pick this up’ and want to throw it away. Once abandoned like that, who should you blame?
Is it your own fault for not pleasing your owner to the end, or is it the owner’s fault for bringing you saying they’d raise you to the end but then changing their mind?
Woof woof, woof woof woof!
“Ah, fuck, really!”
The dog barking sound rang out from his phone again. Taesung shouted, pouring out the anger rising from his stomach. Manager Kim changed lanes without showing any sign of surprise, as if accustomed. The car that had been crawling slowly began to gradually pick up speed. Along with the dog barking.
Woof woof, woof woof woof!
Why is that bastard Jang Hyeokjin calling from the morning throwing a fit? Taesung glared at ‘Dog Dick’ on the screen and fiddled around the call button. He’d definitely ask about going to Baekjin Shopping Complex yesterday. Should he say he saw Hyun Jaeha? Now that the Wonin Construction succession was all finished, there was no way Hyun Jaeha appearing now would cause problems for Jang Hyeokjin. Rather, he might be glad to be cleared of the false accusation of killing Hyun Jaeha and dumping him in the Incheon sea.
But was Jang Hyeokjin such a soft person? Since Hyun Jaeha had been nibbling away at Baekjin Shopping Complex and interfering with his plans, Jang Hyeokjin would designate this brat who wasn’t even dry behind the ears as an ‘elimination target,’ and then nine times out of ten, he’d leave the troublesome cleanup to Taesung.
