PHUW 120

Chief Ahn had said that Lee Sangjin’s girlfriend was under protection. Even if that was a lie, it did not matter. It was not that he was indifferent to her life or death, but that even if something had happened, there was nothing he himself could do. He only hoped that Chief Ahn was truly protecting her well so at least his mind could rest easier.

He knew nothing about the manicure box the killers were after. If even Sangjin’s girlfriend, a nail artist, did not know, then who would? And Sangjin was smart. He would not touch anything dangerous. At most, he had pilfered spare condiments or toilet paper rolls from the store.

If Sangjin really had, for some reason, taken that manicure box without knowing what it was, and if it was not in his own home and his girlfriend did not know about it, then most likely it would be at Haeri’s place. When he wanted to hide things from her or had gotten hold of some difficult gift for a surprise event, he often had them delivered to Haeri’s home instead.

His home was a half-basement in a shabby house, five minutes uphill by village bus from Sangjin’s villa. There was no hot water in the shared bathroom. In the cold of winter he would walk down to Sangjin’s place to shower. At the time, right after the incident at the pub, he had been broke, and there had been no other way. Sangjin had lent him the deposit.

As long as he did not fall behind on rent, no one would bother him. Even if he did, the landlord would not come until the deposit was used up, since it was easier to keep the money and clear out the tenant’s things later. Naturally, there was no lease contract. The fact that renting out such places and taking money for them was not illegal was what made him curse. Ironically, because it was illegal, the rent was cheaper than market price, and a beggar like him had been able to crawl in there at all.

He had nearly three months of back rent. By next month the deposit would be gone. Then the landlord would show up and clear out the room.

Should he just leave it at that? Or should he try to find the thing and report it?

Anxious, he opened the portal site.

The neighborhood he had lived in was a high-crime area where violent crimes happened often, so there were many surveillance cameras around the house. Searching, he found a site with live feeds. He entered his address into the satellite map and connected to the nearest camera, watching for a long time.

Almost no one passed by. The few who did were just drunks with bottles or old neighborhood regulars. There were no suspicious thugs with a gang background.

The simplest way would be to give Chief Ahn the address. Whatever it was, they would take care of it. But something felt uneasy.

‘What if this is all bullshit?’

Who knew when Jeong Mok might suddenly pull off his magician’s hat.

Ta-da~ I’m actually the real owner of the thing. Of course the goons who killed Sangjin are my underlings. Chief Ahn is a twelve-time ex-con enforcer, Attorney Shin Chaehee is the brains of the organization. The girlfriend is already being well protected at Sangjin’s side. So the only one who knows where it is is you. Hurry and spit out the location. Otherwise, we’ll carve off your flesh piece by piece, as much as the bulgogi you stuffed yourself with.

He might not act exactly like the lunatic in his imagination. But who could guarantee it would not turn out like that?

“Why would a chaebol heir lower himself to cling to me.”

The truth was, he wanted to relax and trust Jeong Mok. But had baseless goodwill ever once led to a good outcome? Not once. Never.

“It’d be better if he really were just a pervert.”

So he could not shake his suspicion.

He wanted to believe, but could not bring himself to. He found himself pathetic for that, and bitter at the circumstances that had led him here.

Lately he sighed more often. Frustrated, even looking at his phone was tiresome. He put it in the pocket of his hospital gown and leaned his head back.

It was Gyeonggi Province, but the area was still underdeveloped, so the sky was clear. White clouds drifted leisurely. It was the same sky he had seen in the orphanage yard as a child. Back then, Sangjin had always been by his side.

Hey. What’s for dinner tonight?

Pork cutlet.

Yes! I’m eating two.

The meat was paper-thin, barely there, the soggy thick batter reeked of oil, and without drowning it in ketchup or cheap sauce, the frozen pork cutlet was barely edible. But Sangjin really loved it. Whatever Haeri could not finish, Sangjin always cleaned up.

After starting work, they had eaten pork cutlets to their fill. Pho, sushi too. They even went to family restaurants where kids with parents went all the time, and ate steak together. Not spaghetti, but pasta, and he had bought himself new sneakers and a training set from a sports brand. After rent, he had to survive on ramen, but he had been happy.

Whining was what he hated most. Who in life ever went through without once being fucked over. Losing a limb was another matter, but exposing everything in detail online was pathetic, and the crowd urging each other to report and sue over some so-called “big incident” was just as pathetic.

And if you broke up, then you broke up. But posting crying selfies, fighting pathetically, then writing cringe lines like “I was actually happy” made him sick.

That was the kind of thing you did only when life was easy enough. When it was truly wretched and miserable, you could not do anything at all. That thought of his had never changed.

“Hey, the bulgogi was good.”

He suddenly spoke toward the sky. It seemed he really was living well enough.

“Like you said, I ended up catching a rich pervert bastard. Ever heard of Hyeonsan? Sounds like a lie, right? But it’s real. He’s the Vice Chairman of Hyeonsan. And he’s seriously handsome too. Isn’t this what they call turning your life around?”

The blue sky was so sharp that his eyes and the bridge of his nose stung.

“I won the lottery and you die like that. You unlucky bastard. Some people will never make it no matter what they do, and yet a guy like you goes first.”

Hot liquid slid down from the corners of his eyes. His lips trembled. He sniffled and stared crying.

“Sangjin-ah. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I should’ve saved you. I’m really, really sorry.”

He could not even lift his head to look at the sky. With his body bent forward, hot tears dripped steadily down between his knees. His hands trembled. Overcome with guilt for a friend who had not even had a proper funeral, Ahn Haeri cried and cried in the garden until the nurse came looking for him.

***

The inflammation in his foot had gone down completely, and the doctors put him in a cast. With crutches he could move anywhere without trouble. That was when talk of discharge came up. Haeri agreed, bored of the hospital, and that very evening Jeong Mok appeared.

He had brought clothes from a currently popular young designer brand and luxury sneakers. The logo on the shopping bag alone made Haeri’s heart skip, and every item was perfectly to his taste, even though he had never seen the designs before. The sizes fit exactly.

“Let’s go home.”

They drove toward Seoul in the car Jeong Mok was steering. It was the first time Haeri had ridden in such an expensive car, and he could not stop glancing around.

“Do you have a driver’s license?”

“Not yet. But I do have a scooter license.”

“No motorcycles. They’re dangerous.”

His tone was gentle, but left no room for refusal.

“Not that I could ride anyway with a cast.”

“I had your motorcycle brought home, but I’d rather you didn’t ride it. Anywhere you want to go, I’ll take you. If I can’t, the security team will.”

A private security team? He almost blurted out, what is this, a celebrity? But he shut his mouth. He was the (probably) hidden partner of a chaebol vice chairman, with a history of being kidnapped in a dangerous case. If the resources were available, of course anyone would assign security.

“It might feel suffocating, being watched, but bear with it for a while.”

“It doesn’t really feel suffocating.”

“That’s good then.”

Jeong Mok gave him a small smile. He really was good-looking. Rich and handsome. Why did he have to be gay of all things? But it was thanks to that he was being treated so well.

“I’m checking each person involved and taking care of it. We’re still tracking down some of them. The others made too much trouble, so they won’t be resolved right away.”

There were no violent words or crude expressions, yet it was frightening enough to make Haeri’s spine go cold. Jeong Mok was someone who could create such an atmosphere without a single curse. If he had not been a chaebol heir whose name and face were public, people would easily have mistaken him for the young boss of a new gang.

The home was a high-rise apartment complex next to a massive park nicknamed a forest. Past the door was a large entry hall. Inside was an automatic wheelchair, scratched in places as if it had once toppled over.

“You used that during the kidnapping.”

“Ah.”

He had even used a wheelchair? His foot was injured, but not that badly. He slowly followed Jeong Mok’s gesture toward the inner door.

Just as he bent down to remove the cast cover in front of the inner door,

Woof woof!

“Ugh!”

A thunderous bark startled him so badly he fell backward. He did not crash onto the floor, though. The back of his head and his back met something solid. Jeong Mok’s strong arms had caught him neatly under both armpits.

Woof woof!

The giant dog he had only seen in photos was going wild on the other side of the door. Held in Jeong Mok’s arms, Haeri stared blankly at the massive size and strength of the beast.

Its name wasn’t just for show.

Who the hell raises a black bear in the middle of Seoul?