PHUW 60

***

Even after moving to neighborhood near the cafe, Haeri and Gom-i’s life was much the same as before.
They woke at dawn, close to early morning, ate breakfast, tidied up briefly, then left together for a round of walking.

As always, it was Gom-i, showing off his brute strength, who led the way. With a dog leash thick enough to haul up a well bucket, Haeri was dragged along, looking more like the dog was exercising the human than the human was walking the dog. And indeed, the giant dog enjoyed the morning walk so much that he kept stopping and going, stopping and going, as if he was being considerate of his human companion.

It had already been close to forty minutes since they left home. It was still manageable, except they had walked straight along the two-lane road without turning back, which meant another forty minutes would be needed to return. About an hour and a half in total.

“Can’t we go home now?”

Haeri asked Gom-i. But Gom-i barked, as if saying what nonsense was that. He still had to check the utility pole ahead.

“Fine, fine. We’ll go. My ears are ringing.”

Muttering, Haeri followed along as Gom-i pulled him forward.

It would have been better to circle around the neighborhood. That way, without needing to turn Gom-i back, they would eventually end up at home just by going forward. But there was a reason he had taken the road with only the occasional passing car instead.

Some people were afraid of Gom-i. Understandably so. Honestly, Haeri had nearly fainted the first time he saw him, mistaking the massive black shape for a boar. So even with a leash and owner beside him, some people froze or detoured the moment they saw Gom-i from afar. Even when the other side avoided them, Haeri still felt awkward, and if someone screamed in fright and made a fuss, even Gom-i flinched.

In the dog-training videos Haeri had been watching recently, they said that when walking a large dog, if you encounter a passerby, you should stop the dog at the side of the road, stand in front like a barrier, and wait quietly until the person passed. At first, he tried to do that. If someone looked especially scared, he even told them he would take another way and turned aside.

People who were afraid of dogs were manageable. The real problem was the people who half-liked dogs. Asking politely for Haeri’s permission to greet Gom-i was fine. But because Gom-i was such an unusually mixed breed, some people grew too curious and suddenly rushed at him before Haeri could even stop them.

If Gom-i had a gentle nature, it would have been all right. But Gom-i was not gentle at all. He was only patient because he was in a good mood walking with Haeri. When bothered, he showed his displeasure openly, and above all, if a man bigger than Haeri came charging, Gom-i bared his teeth and growled. Likely, during his stray days, he had had a bad experience with a big man. In that way, he was similar to Haeri.

Anyway, when Jeong Mok had been bitten by Gom-i, it had taken sixteen stitches. And that was a burly man who had over ten years of raising aggressive a large dog and had managed to subdue Gom-i in an instant. If someone unfamiliar with dogs had a run-in with him, it would be over. The person would be seriously injured, but Gom-i too would be doomed to euthanasia. Even if the accident started because the person ran at Gom-i first.

Looking back, Jeong Mok had been a good person. He had not reported Gom-i, only told them to leave.

The day after moving, when Haeri went to the mart for necessities, he worried slightly that his bank account or card might have been frozen. But nothing like that had happened even now. The balance was almost the same, the phone worked fine, and a few days ago, five million won had even been deposited as severance pay.

The only lottery in his cursed life had been Jeong Mok. There would never be anyone who treated him better. A single message could not contain all his gratitude.

‘I should let him know I got the severance pay.’

Haeri kept fiddling with his phone. What was so hard about saying he was really grateful, that thanks to him, he was doing well now. But whenever he thought of Jeong Mok, the corners of his eyes stung, and his nose ran.

‘Someday I’ll be able to. I will. As long as I don’t forget.’

At the same time, the thought of Jeong Mok forgetting him came.

Gom-i, who had been sniffing the utility pole, suddenly froze. Then he stared at the low hill connected to the roadside field.

“What is it? What’s there?”

Haeri also stared into the trees. Between the thick trunks and dense leaves, something moved. It was not a person.

“Ha. Don’t tell me, a boar?”

Everywhere in the neighborhood hung banners warning to beware of wild animals, boars.

‘I thought they were nocturnal. Why the hell are they roaming in the daytime.’

Frightened, Haeri urged Gom-i to move quickly. But Gom-i braced firmly on all fours, then barked loudly. The roar of the giant dog echoed across the hill. Dogs from faraway houses started barking too. Startled, the animal dashed into the mountain.

“Damn. That scared me half to death.”

Even from a distance, a boar was frightening. But Gom-i, bravely, tried to chase after it. Haeri panicked and pulled on the leash.

“Hey! Hey! No! You can’t!”

Digging his heels into the ground, Haeri held firm until Gom-i whimpered and finally gave up. But the dog kept glancing back at the hill throughout the walk. Haeri felt anew how reassuring Gom-i was.

“You’re really brave.”

Trying to charge at a boar, no less. Come to think of it, he had also charged when Jeong Mok got angry. Hurting someone had been wrong, but at the same time, Haeri envied that courage.

“I wish I had courage like yours.”

If he had, he would not have hesitated to call.

As if he understood Haeri’s inner thoughts, Gom-i wagged his tail lazily and walked at an easy pace.

A breeze ruffled his black fur and Haeri’s brown hair. Carrying the scent of sunlight and grass, it swept away the bitterness and gloom that had settled like roadside dust. During the walk, Gom-i was busy the whole time. He inspected every utility pole and streetlight, stopped to watch passing cars, and occasionally barked toward the hill. There was truly no chance to be bored. Maybe that was why Haeri unconsciously smiled.

As expected, a dog walk was best when it was long.

***

It had already been a month since Jeong Mok was alone again.

Last week, he processed Haeri’s resignation and deposited the severance pay. He had hoped, just in case, that some kind of contact would come. As expected, there was none. Instead, the only calls were from Choi Jieon.

–When are you coming? Yesterday at dinner, the chairwoman mentioned you. If you don’t come today, I’ll send someone…

“I’ll go today.”

–Really?

“Yes.”

–All right. I’ll believe you until today. And why have you suddenly stopped going to the site…

He cut the call before listening further. When the phone buzzed again, he threw it. The device crashed noisily against the floor and broke. Only then did Jeong Mok open one eye. He was lying not on the bed but on the living room sofa. The phone he had tossed lightly had landed far from the carpet.

He did not feel particularly regretful about it. If anything, it felt refreshing. If it broke completely and cut him off from contact altogether, maybe he would feel more at ease.

He wrapped his torso with the arm that had only a faint red scar left and turned toward the sofa backrest. Just as he tried to drift back to sleep, he suddenly sat up.

‘What if a message came while it was broken.’

He stood from the sofa like a spring and reached for the phone. Empty beer cans and whiskey bottles scattered across the floor were kicked aside by his feet.

When he pressed the phone button, it turned on. Only the screen was cracked. He sighed with relief, and at that moment, the phone rang again. The crack in the glass lined up in such a way that only the first character of the caller’s name, “Choi,” showed clearly.

“I said I’m coming.”

He snapped as soon as he answered.

–Where are you going?

The voice that returned was not Choi Jieon’s. It was a low, male voice.

“Hyung.”

It was Choi Sangeon, Choi Jieon’s older brother and Jeong Mok’s cousin.

–Tonight, the family is gathering at the main house for dinner. Do you have other plans?

“No. I was saying I’d go too. Noona called just now.”

–I see. Good. I had something I wanted to tell you face to face anyway.

“What is it?”

–Let’s talk over dinner. Don’t be late.

With his business finished, Choi Sangeon ended the call first. Jeong Mok could not guess what the reason was.

And no wonder. Choi Sangeon had pressed ahead with a marriage the chairwoman strongly opposed, earning her wrath. The only reason she had not disowned him outright was because the executives and major shareholders valued his outstanding management ability. To avoid losing ground to the chairwoman, Choi Sangeon had thrown himself completely into work.

For such a man to say he had business to discuss with his cousin, who had been half set aside from the family because of his psychiatric history and had nothing to do with management? One thing was certain: if he had gone so far as to confirm by phone, it would not be a trivial matter.

What bothered him more was that the chairwoman had specifically brought up his name. Choi Sangeon, who had inherited Noh Seongjae’s charisma, was the only one who could stand against him head-on.

‘Could it be that he fought with the chairwoman again.’

How many things had happened over the past few years because of the clash between the chairwoman of Hyeonsan Group and the heir. The professor and Choi Jieon had suffered plenty because of it. The only one untouched by that struggle had been Jeong Mok, who, due to his unusual family circumstances, had never shown any interest in management rights from the start.