PHUW 66

He immediately plugged it into his laptop and opened it. Inside were two files titled [Ahn Haeri Basic Report_23XXXX] and [Lee Sangjin Basic Report_23XXXX], along with three or four more investigation reports that appeared to be company names. The creation dates were one or two days apart, but most were from about a month ago. Only the company report of unknown origin had been written last week.

He clicked on [Ahn Haeri Basic Report] first.

There was a copy of the ID he and Jeong Mok had made together, and a family relation certificate. How had they gotten hold of documents that had never even been submitted to a bank? It could not have been through legal channels.

The family relation certificate was very simple. Under his grandmother Ahn Juri, there was only his mother Ahn Mari, with no other relatives at all. It was a family of unmarried mothers spanning two generations. From inquiries into the surroundings, it was revealed that Ahn Juri had been involved with a U.S. soldier stationed nearby. She had believed with complete certainty that she would go to America with him as his common-law partner, but he later returned home alone, and Ahn Juri raised Ahn Mari by herself while running a bar. Perhaps because she was mixed, Ahn Mari, with her outstanding beauty, was never left alone by those around her. In the end, she became a “delinquent,” and right before graduating high school, she gave birth to Ahn Haeri, ran away from home, and had been out of contact ever since.

It explained why his eyes and hair seemed unusually light. His fair and delicate face also made sense now, knowing he was a quarter mixed.

When Ahn Juri, growing older, found it harder and harder to keep the bar running, she cast off Ahn Haeri, the mouth to feed, into an orphanage.

Children abandoned because of difficult livelihoods were not uncommon. But when it was someone he knew, the taste in his mouth turned very bitter.

‘It must have been hard.’

It was an environment far too harsh for a child to endure.

Jeong Mok himself had grown up in extraordinary circumstances emotionally, but at least materially, he had been well provided for. Surrounded by the best medical staff and educational specialists in the country, he had received proper psychological treatment, and even beyond that, there had been relatives who, in their own way, looked after the child without parents.

But for Ahn Haeri, there had been no one. His only blood relative had thrown him away.

Even while wrapped in the finest bedding, under warm lighting, with a child psychiatrist dropping by constantly to check on him, Jeong Mok had not been able to fall asleep easily. And when he did doze off for moments, he had been chased by terrible nightmares, trembling all over.

If even he had been like that, what must it have been like for an abandoned child. Falling asleep in a strange institution, had he not been lonely and afraid?

Jeong Mok leaned his head back and rubbed his face with both hands. Otherwise, he felt tears would fall.

The world was full of lives that seemed born under a star of misfortune. Nearby, there were those who lost family in tragic accidents. Far away, there were those continuing lives like hell in the middle of war. And even Jeong Mok’s own family history was heavy, if not heavier than most.

But none of those made his chest ache the way this did. The affairs of others were, in the end, still others’ affairs. His own family history was not something that brought sorrow, but rather a detestable shackle.

Ahn Haeri was different. For some reason, his story struck harder than Jeong Mok’s own. Even though it was all in the past, it shook him as if it had happened yesterday. Even being apart from him, maybe because he was apart from him, it hit harder.

But he had abandoned Ahn Haeri. Startled by his own emotions, he had thrown him out without a word of explanation, while he begged, without even proper shoes on, running out after him asking not to be left. Already, self-loathing pressed down on him like iron across his entire body.

***

It was late at night. Since he had skipped breakfast out of laziness, and skipped lunch because he had fallen asleep after a long walk, by early evening he was so hungry that he boiled two packs of ramen and devoured them without even chewing properly. Because of that, his stomach rebelled. Indigestion made his head spin.

Haeri rushed to the convenience store at the entrance of the cafe street.

He couldn’t even catch his breath before buying two bottles of digestive drink and downing them all at once. Afterward, he sank into a plastic chair in front of the store to steady his breathing.

Gom-i, who had followed after, sniffed at the drink bottles, so he set one down on the ground. Gom-i caught it with his front paws and played with it.

Looking up at the pitch-black sky, he breathed in the cold night air and felt a little better. Thanks to the drink, his knotted stomach also began to ease little by little. Once the dizziness passed, Haeri got up slowly, went into the store, and bought a dog chew for Gom-i. Gom-i abandoned the drink bottle and started gnawing on the large chew. Meanwhile, Haeri sat there blankly watching his surroundings.

Like the one in the last neighborhood, the convenience store was right by the highway. But here, the road connected the cafe district, the camping grounds, and the nearby town, so even at night, traffic was fairly heavy. Amid the Korean cars, foreign cars passed by too, most of them visitors to the campgrounds. Some even parked at the store to buy coffee and snacks. He hadn’t expected a store in such a remote place to do so well even at night.

Just then, a paper notice was posted on the store door: “Night shift help wanted.” He wasn’t worried about living expenses right now, but he also didn’t like the idea of doing nothing at all. His body felt too sluggish, and being alone left him with gloomy thoughts. Even when walking Gom-i, it was the same. Always going around avoiding people, just the two of them, it made him feel isolated.

He thought he needed to force himself into some kind of social life. But he couldn’t commute far, not when he had only just adopted Gom-i.

He even briefly considered starting a rural lifestyle vlog, which was trendy these days. But there were too many things to prepare, from equipment to editing, so he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He had made an account but kept putting it off.

‘Here, I could probably bring Gom-i along.’

Convenience stores in places like this mostly served transient customers, so there would be almost no complaints. And with the nature of the area, no one would think twice about a big dog. In fact, some nearby businesses even deliberately kept large dogs for safety. The only thing that gave him pause was that Gom-i wasn’t simply “a big dog.”

‘Should I ask?’

He was hesitating when the convenience store owner came out with a pack of cigarettes.

“Whoa. Handsome.”

“Sorry?”

At Haeri’s reply, the owner jerked his chin toward Gom-i. Gom-i stopped chewing his dog treat, stood up, and stared intently at the owner.

“How old is he?”

“I’m not sure, but the vet said he’s probably over three.”

“Why don’t you know?”

The owner, middle-aged like Haeri’s father would be, spoke casually without needing any prompting.

“I only adopted him recently.”

“Where did you find such a fine dog?”

The owner seemed to love dogs. He looked very taken with Gom-i. He put the cigarette he had pulled out back into his pocket and stretched his hand toward him. Gom-i carefully sniffed the owner’s hand.

“Is he aggressive?”

…That was quick.

“A little. But he’s fine when he’s with me.”

“A dog should be a bit aggressive. If they love people too much, it’s no good. Some mutts will even wag their tails at a thief.”

Apparently Gom-i didn’t dislike the owner too much either, because he let him touch his head without complaint. After sniffing over the crouching man’s body here and there, he lay back down and chewed on his treat again. Even when the owner started patting his back openly, Gom-i ignored it. That meant he was fine with it.

“You moved here recently, right? I saw you out walking him a couple of times.”

“Yes.”

“I live in town. We have a little mutt at home. He’s tiny as a bean but cute. I used to bring him to work, but now that he’s old I leave him at home.”

The owner talked freely without being asked. From the way he held out his hand, it was obvious he raised dogs. That was a good sign.

“By the way, are you hiring a night shift here?”

“Oh, are you interested?”

His face lit up even more than when he saw Gom-i.

Things moved quickly. Haeri had thought night shift meant staying up all night, but it turned out to be from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. That was even better.

When he said he had never worked in a convenience store before, the owner said he would start teaching him from the next day. Bringing Gom-i along was, of course, perfectly fine. Naturally there were conditions: Gom-i couldn’t go near the prepared foods section, and if he damaged anything, Haeri would be fully responsible. Otherwise, it was all standard.

The hourly wage was low compared to typical night work in remote areas. But since it was walking distance, he could bring Gom-i, and he wasn’t desperate for money, it wasn’t a big problem.

The next evening he started work. On the first day he stayed with the owner and learned the ropes. From the day after, he worked alone. For things he forgot or didn’t know, he solved them with a phone call. After two or three days, there was nothing left to ask.

If he had to walk home alone at 2 a.m. with no car, he would never have done it. But it was close by, and with Gom-i there was nothing to fear. There were orange streetlamps on every utility pole, but it was still dark, so he bought a strong flashlight. The highway shoulder was narrow and worried him, but with the light on, drivers spotted him quickly and steered slightly away. Sometimes not a single car passed during the ten minutes it took to get home.

The deserted road at dawn wasn’t as quiet as he imagined. Gravel crunched under Haeri’s and Gom-i’s feet. In time with the damp mountain wind, some bird, an owl or something else, called “hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo,” or made a sound like an old cuckoo clock. The owner later told him it was a scops owl.

And the things crying out from the nearby hill weren’t only birds.

“Raaaargh!”

From the middle of the hill, someone screamed. The raw anguish in it made every hair on his body stand on end.