#164

He hurriedly grabbed the steering wheel and drove to a place where a hospital might be located. The the man grumbled that he was going around in circles, but since Tae-heun was the one holding the wheel, he couldn’t do anything about it. After receiving a simple examination at an orthopedic clinic they found, taking the prescribed painkillers, and even applying a pain patch, he finally got back in the car.

“See? Doesn’t it feel a little better after taking the medicine?”

“Yes.”

The the man smiled awkwardly.

“But how did your leg get like that? I know it’s rude to ask, but I’m curious. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

He asked point-blank.

Tae-heun had never really been that curious about why the man limped. At first, he thought it was polio, and if not, then an accident. He probably wouldn’t have asked so directly if it hadn’t been for the orphanage. Because Tae-heun loved the Man, and the Man’s disability wasn’t a problem at all.

He wondered if the man would be bothered by it, but he was surprisingly calm.

“It was an accident.”

“A car accident?”

“Something like that.”

“You must have been badly hurt.”

When Tae-heun guessed, the man shook his head and chuckled.

“I didn’t know at all. That I was badly hurt, I mean. I got up right away.”

“And they just let you go like that?”

“No. I got 100,000 won as a settlement. I thought it was a windfall. But the next day, my leg started hurting, and in less than a month, it became completely useless. I went to the hospital late, but they said it was too late. It’s only this much because I got treatment even then; otherwise, I would have had to have it amputated.”

He answered nonchalantly.

100,000 won.

The same amount came out of the Man’s mouth, following Park Mal-ja.

Would anyone have paid that much money as a traffic accident settlement back then? Especially to a boy who wasn’t badly hurt and got up right away. They should have taken him to the hospital and processed it through insurance, or even just given him a few tens of thousands of won.

Besides, if the perpetrator could just cough up 100,000 won in cash, he must have been someone with money. Even if you reported it to the police, you could get away with it by giving them a little bribe. It’s like that now, so how much more so in the 80s?

Somehow, it was full of questions.

“How old were you then?”

Tae-heun asked as carefully as possible.

“Eighteen.”

“Didn’t you have any adults around you?”

“I did, but I hid it. I was in the orphanage then. It was an accident that happened when I sneaked out with my friends on the weekend, and I didn’t want to have 100,000 won taken away, so I deliberately didn’t say anything.”

It seemed that Yoon Ki-beom didn’t leave the orphanage at seventeen. Maybe he just told his aunt that and continued to live there, or he might have left and then returned. Anyway, it matched Park Mal-ja’s words perfectly. However, unlike Park Mal-ja’s belief, the accident didn’t happen inside the orphanage.

What if it wasn’t a traffic accident but another kind of accident?

The the man didn’t say for sure that it was a traffic accident either.

Maybe that accident was a key clue to uncovering the Man’s secrets?

Hoo. I don’t know.

He shook his head.

The more he pieced things together, the more complicated his head became.

Tae-heun now began to suspect that he was turning the Man’s misfortune into a drama because he was spreading unnecessary misunderstandings and conspiracy theories.

Was it his delusion that he thought the information Detective Oh had might be a direct threat to you?

If you really are Yoon Ki-beom, is this whole journey meaningful?

Maybe the truth was surprisingly simple.

“I was foolish,” the man said self-deprecatingly.

“Because you were young,” Tae-heun comforted.

Yoon Ki-beom wasn’t the only boy who grew up without proper adults.

Tae-heun was one of them too. His parents were alive, but far from being protected by them, he was neglected. They were worse than Lee Seok-doo, unworthy of the name of parents. That’s why Tae-heun was glad that Uncle had recovered all the property from them as soon as Lee Seon-jae died. It was poetic justice.

A vicious cycle.

Lee Seok-doo probably wanted this when he adopted Tae-heun. In the end, Tae-heun and his parents became worse than strangers, just as he wanted, so Uncle was the winner.

What a clever old man.

Tae-heun quickly shook off the random thoughts that came to his mind.

He didn’t want to hear the news of Kwon Il-taek’s death again, so he didn’t even think about turning on the radio. The same popular song that he had heard so many times that he could almost memorize it was playing on the audio. The Man, who had even sung along to a few bars, had fallen asleep before he knew it.

A lot had happened in half a day. He wanted to go to any motel and get some sleep, forgetting about Gimje and everything else. He felt sorry for the Man, who was taking a nap uncomfortably in the car, and Tae-heun was also exhausted.

After confirming that he had left Asan, Tae-heun couldn’t stand the drowsiness any longer and pulled off the road. There were many empty lots around the national highway, so he could park anywhere. Still, he looked for a place with dense woods if possible.

In case of emergency, he put half of the car cover on, including the front windshield, and left the car windows open just enough for a finger to fit through. Finally, after crawling into the driver’s seat, he lowered the driver’s seat cover through the car window. It wasn’t quite cold enough to turn off the air conditioner, so he left the engine running and locked the doors.

He reclined the Man’s seat and the driver’s seat as far back as possible, and Tae-heun closed his eyes as well. The car was just like that main room in Dongjam-ri. The Man’s cozy house where the three of them, the Man, the the child, ate, slept, and worked.

He never thought he would miss it, but unexpectedly, he did. He wanted to go back there quickly. If he felt this way, how much more would the Man? Tae-heun reached out and took the Man’s hand. He felt the Man’s warmth, which was almost like heat, and fell asleep.

Lee Seon-jae, dressed in a suit, was standing in the yard of a detached house.

‘Chief, what are you doing, not coming in?’

A huge guy shouted.

He blinked, and he was in the living room. A couple and a boy and girl, tied to chairs in all directions, were crying and begging for their lives.

He blinked again, and the huge guys were eating Chinese food and watching porn, and when he blinked for the last time, four legs were dangling in front of him.

He raised his head along the legs and made eye contact with two corpses sticking out their purple tongues and looking down. It was the couple from the two-story house.

‘Long time no see,’ Lee Seon-jae greeted.

The two corpses, swaying back and forth in time with the music as if dancing, sang in unison.

‘You’ll end up like us soon. Just you wait. It’ll definitely happen.’

They grinned gleefully.

Lee Seon-jae laughed along as if he liked it too.

Tae-heun groaned. But the nightmare didn’t end easily. The more he tried to escape, the more the dream began to strangle Tae-heun like reality.

This time, his aunt appeared. It was the encoffining ceremony. His tiny aunt looked at Tae-heun with a pale face.

‘It’s comfortable to die, Tae-heun.’

His aunt called him ‘Tae-heun’ instead of ‘Seon-jae.’

Was the name his aunt called her dead younger brother, or Lee Seon-jae?

Even in his dream, Tae-heun wondered about such things.

‘It’s comfortable to die,’ his aunt said again.

‘Let’s go together, Tae-heun. Come here. Take my hand.’

His aunt smiled, revealing her black gums. She stretched out her skeletal fingers.

The woman, who had been so beautiful, was terrifyingly scary.

Tae-heun trembled and got out of there as quickly as he could.

When he came to his senses, he was standing in front of the apartment door with the mail in his hand. It was a registered letter addressed to Lee Seon-jae. He signed and received the mail from the postman. It was quite heavy, and the place of origin was unfamiliar.

Pandora’s box.

He shouldn’t have opened it.

No, he had to open it.

However, the timing was late. All the information that Lee Seon-jae should have known a little earlier was there.

Lee Seon-jae was experiencing confusion for the first time in his life.

He had to admit that his life was a castle built on sand, a tragedy riddled with lies.

He was resentful. Of his aunt, who had given it to him only now, of the Helper, of Prosecutor Jeong Jae-jin.

Still unable to open his eyes, he wandered through his dream, a nightmare at that.

* * *

Tae-heun opened his eyes with a start.

His whole body was drenched in sweat. The reason Tae-heun, who couldn’t wake up from the nightmare no matter what he did, opened his eyes was because of the empty feeling. It was terrifyingly empty.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he turned to the right. The right hand that had been holding the Man’s hand was empty. The passenger seat was the same. His cell phone and pager were gone too.

The the man was gone.

He immediately opened the car door but was blocked by the cover. Cursing, he rolled up the car window and pushed the cover almost halfway up to the ceiling. Then, a space was created for Tae-heun to get out through the driver’s seat door.

Tae-heun, who had gotten out of the car, was flustered.

Where did the man go?

It was an empty lot, but except for the space where he had parked the car, it was surrounded by bushes on all sides.

He might have gone down because he had to go to the bathroom. It was possible enough. Let’s wait for a while. He decided to wait for only 10 minutes.

Tae-heun leaned against the car body and put a cigarette in his mouth. He sucked on the cigarette with his brow furrowed. His cheeks were constantly sunken, and before he knew it, the surroundings were filled with the smoke Tae-heun had exhaled. Even after smoking two cigarettes in a row, the man didn’t return.

Something was wrong.

“Ki-beom! Ki-beom, where are you?”

He wandered around, calling the Man’s name. He called him ‘Ki-beom’, and playfully called him ‘Honey’. From ‘Dear’ to ‘Ji-hye’s Mom’, he hoped that the man would appear, saying, ‘Why are you doing this, really?’

But that didn’t happen, and he became more and more anxious as time went on. Eventually, he got angry and called him ‘Yoon Ki-beom’.

“Yoon Ki-beom! Where the hell are you?”

He called out until his throat was sore, but all he could hear was the sound of cicadas. They cried out disgustingly.

He searched for the man until his shirt was all wet, but he couldn’t find him.

“Shit. I’m going crazy.”

Tae-heun gave up searching the area and returned to the car.

He completely removed the cover and moved the car. It had been a generous 30 or 40 minutes since the man disappeared. It was enough time to go anywhere if he had a ride, but the other person was a person with a bad leg. A man who couldn’t even walk without painkillers. So he couldn’t have gone far. Unless he got a ride from someone along the way.

He was in a hurry. The surroundings had also become dark in the meantime. He didn’t think he would have gone back to Asan. If he was a the man who cared about Kwon Yong-joon, he would have definitely moved in the direction of Gimje.

He quickly opened a map book. So, after finishing his business at Hyeonchungsa, he went back to near Onyang Hot Spring. He stopped by a nearby orthopedic clinic for treatment, then took National Route 39, passed Songak-myeon, and exited the national highway at the entrance to Yugu-eup in Gongju-si.

The the man couldn’t have climbed the mountain with that leg, and he wouldn’t have bothered to go into the village. There were no roads around except for National Route 39, so he would have moved along National Route 39 anyway. Then it was in the direction of Gongju-si. Or he would have gone back.

Without hesitation, Tae-heun took National Route 39. He drove with the car window open, checking to see if anyone was walking on the left and right sides of the road.

Rain began to fall from the sky, which was full of dark clouds. When he imagined the man walking somewhere in the rain, he felt like he was going to die of burning inside.

He had forgiven him. He had definitely forgiven him and been forgiven. How happy the man had been when he talked to the the child on the phone? After that, even at Hyeonchungsa, the man acted as usual. No, he seemed happier than ever thanks to the the child.

Shit. He couldn’t think of any reason why he had left him at all.

Then it occurred to him that the man had taken his cell phone and pager with him.

There must have been a call while he was sleeping. If it was a spam text message sent by the Helper, the man would never have been able to interpret it, so it must have been a voice message. A voice that could move the Man.

Kwon Yong-joon.

If he hadn’t deleted the voice message, it would definitely still be there.

165 – Chapter Title Without Number