#169

Rain pattered against the slate roof, creating a charming sound.

Had the man arrived at the reservoir by now?

Was he using an umbrella?

Until midnight, or rather, until Tae-heun arrived, the man would be waiting for Kwon Yong-joon, who wouldn’t come and wouldn’t budge. The longer Kwon Yong-joon failed to appear, the more Man’s anxiety would grow. He might even get teary-eyed with worry.

When Tae-heun showed up at 5 a.m., he would be both glad and disappointed.

‘Yong-joon didn’t come.’

Tae-heun could picture the expression on Man’s face as he said those words.

Before moving from Gimje to the Safe house, Tae-heun had to tell the man everything, including the matter of Kwon Yong-joon. If Prosecutor Jeong had heard the recording Tae-heun left, they would also storm in at 5 a.m. to get Tae-heun. They needed time and space to talk, just the two of them, but they certainly wouldn’t be given that time or space.

Then the man would have to wait endlessly for Tae-heun again, without knowing anything. Prosecutor Jeong or Helper, or anyone, would protect Man, but the man wouldn’t understand why he and his the child were being protected by people he’d never met before.

man would be counting the days until he could return to his hometown. the man wouldn’t know why he couldn’t go home. With even Tae-heun gone, there would be no one to ask. the man might even think he had been abandoned by Tae-heun.

It was a tragedy.

For Man, and for Tae-heun.

He had to go to the reservoir not at 5 a.m., but at 4 a.m., or even a little earlier. To buy enough time to confess all his secrets and say goodbye to Man.

Beep-

The cheap digital watch on his wrist signaled midnight.

A moment later, the sound of car tires crunching through mud grew closer.

Finally, the homeowner had arrived.

The car pulling into the parking area was a red LeMans that looked at least ten years old. Soon, the driver’s side door opened, and a woman got out, clutching a purse. She seemed to be alone.

The woman, of average build and height, was wearing baggy work pants and a gaudy floral short-sleeved shirt that country women might wear. But she was wearing high heels that didn’t match her clothes. She must have changed her clothes somewhere before coming home, but she had forgotten to change her shoes.

The reason was immediately apparent: alcohol. The smell of alcohol wafted from the woman with every step she took.

The woman staggered drunkenly, but she skillfully put a cover on her car. It was clear she had done it more than once or twice. Then, without realizing Tae-heun was there, she went behind the car and removed a plank.

Brushing off the dirt on her hands, she said,

“Ugh, how tiresome.”

Then, she unlocked the padlock and slipped inside the side door. Just as Tae-heun had done, she reached out to move the plank before closing the door.

Tae-heun grabbed her hand. As the woman screamed, Tae-heun pushed his way in. The woman, already wearing high heels and drunk, was pushed back by the sudden force and fell on her backside, then toppled over to the side. Thanks to that, Tae-heun passed through the side door very easily.

The space between the side door and the outer wall was narrow, but enough for him to manage.

“Who is it?”

The woman asked in a shrill, unpleasant voice.

The woman didn’t seem surprised at all to see the huge man who had suddenly appeared. She just seemed angry.

How dare you come in here!

She glared at Tae-heun with that look.

“Who are you, you son of a bitch!”

She really wasn’t afraid.

“Ugh, how much is this worth? Really.”

In the midst of all that, she didn’t forget to grab the clutch bag that had fallen on the floor.

Tae-heun shone the flashlight on the woman’s face. When the light suddenly hit her, the woman raised her arm to shield her eyes.

“You son of a bitch, what are you doing! Get that out of my face!”

The woman’s mouth was foul.

“Get that out of my face??”

The woman huffed and removed the arm that had been covering her eyes. Even though she couldn’t see Tae-heun’s face properly because of the flashlight and the deeply pulled-down hat, she glared at him with anger-filled eyes, as if to say she would remember him clearly.

The woman was Kim Young-ja. At 52 years old, she either always liked to dress up, or she had just come back from a date. Even though it was past midnight, she was wearing perfect makeup, and her long nails were painted red, just like her lips. Her stiletto heels, as thin as chopsticks, were also red. The car she had driven was also red. If it weren’t for the work pants and the floral short-sleeved shirt, she would have had a rather sophisticated appearance.

“How much do you need?”

Kim Young-ja opened her clutch without even checking who he was. She took out her wallet from inside, looking annoyed.

It seemed that there had been a few people who had come looking for money while she lived here. Considering the palace-like interior, it was perhaps natural that someone who had been inside would have other thoughts.

But whatever, Tae-heun didn’t care.

Tae-heun turned off the flashlight and asked slowly, “Ms. Kim Young-ja?”

The woman, who had been looking for cash in her wallet, snapped her head up at the mention of Kim Young-ja’s name.

“You are Ms. Kim Young-ja, right?”

He asked again very politely.

“No. I’m Kim Eun-sook? You’ve come to the wrong person.”

Kim Young-ja, who had been speaking informally the whole time, was suddenly using polite language.

“Oh, I was wondering who it was. You’re looking for Ms. Kim Young-ja.”

Her voice was much softer as she feigned ignorance.

“It seems a woman named Kim Young-ja used to live here, but I don’t know where she moved to.”

She said things he hadn’t even asked about, and then finally got up from her seat.

Staggering, she walked forward. The smell of alcohol around her was strong.

Before they knew it, they had arrived in the yard.

“Ugh, what is this? My clothes are all wet.”

She brushed off her wet backside and seemed to get angry, complaining again, “Is the Mister going to pay for the laundry?”

Kim Young-ja seemed to have forgotten that Tae-heun had come through the side door with her.

“Just go away. There’s no Kim Young-ja here!”

She shouted, looking down at the mud on her hands.

“Some damn beggar is bothering people.”

“You are Kim Young-ja, right? Galilla Orphanage.”

He asked directly.

Kim Young-ja turned around quickly at that moment. Her eyes and expression were excessively fierce, but that was just a superficial impression; she was more terrified than ever.

“That person is dead! She doesn’t live here!”

Kim Young-ja screamed and rushed at Tae-heun. Then, she pushed him roughly toward the gate.

But Tae-heun didn’t budge. How could this small woman push him away when he wouldn’t even be pushed by a strong man?

“You’re being annoying.”

He couldn’t leave the woman alone any longer, so he grabbed Kim Young-ja’s arm and dragged her under the roof.

Then Kim Young-ja started screaming at the top of her lungs.

“Help, I’m dying! Neighbors!! Kim Eun-sook is dying! Neighbors!! Kim Eun-sook is dying!!”

Tae-heun frowned and lifted her up in one go. Then, he opened the front door and practically threw her inside, and immediately followed her in and locked the door. Then Kim Young-ja, who had been screaming continuously, fell silent. She had finished acting and returned to her true self.

“Hey, you son of a bitch. Who are you? Where did you come from? Are you a gangster, a detective? You’ve got the wrong person.”

Kim Young-ja spoke in a terribly harsh tone. She was trembling, but she pretended to be tough.

“Ha. Really. Ms. Kim Young-ja, let’s just stop it.”

Tae-heun growled in a low voice, but it had no effect at all.

Threatened by the director and vice-director, my ass.

Kim Young-ja was clearly in cahoots with them, and perhaps even worse than them. He could tell just by looking at her. The court had been easily fooled by this woman’s acting and trickery.

Tae-heun, who had dealt with people like her more than once or twice, knew how to handle that type.

Look at this place. This house, decorated like a palace, was Kim Young-ja’s kingdom and sanctuary. Kim Young-ja was a person with many attachments to this world, a person with so much to lose.

Without waiting or hesitating, he immediately took action. Kim Young-ja, who had been glaring at Tae-heun with her arms crossed, shouted when she saw Tae-heun stepping into the living room with his shoes on.

“Hey, you son of a bitch! You have to take your shoes off before you go in, right? Are you going to clean the house?”

She still didn’t seem to understand the situation.

“Why take off your shoes in a pigsty?”

“What is that bastard saying?”

Kim Young-ja was understandably dumbfounded that he had called her spotless house a pigsty.

The woman belatedly discovered the fallen frame and hurriedly jumped into the living room, but she couldn’t stop Tae-heun from picking up the pickaxe.

Tae-heun first struck the television screen.

“Aah!”

Kim Young-ja’s scream was louder than the sound of the TV screen breaking.

“Aah, how much did that cost? You son of a bitch! Can’t you stop??”

Kim Young-ja stamped her feet and tried to rush at Tae-heun, but she twisted her ankle on her high heels. In the meantime, Tae-heun struck the screen a few more times, shattering it to pieces, then tore apart the expensive leather sofa, and finally cut down the chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

The chandelier, decorated with crystals, fell to the living room floor with a loud crash. Broken crystal fragments scattered not only in the living room but also in the kitchen.

In an instant, the house became a pigsty. Kim Young-ja, watching her expensive possessions being destroyed one by one, was on the verge of fainting. She gasped for breath and stretched out her hands into the air.

“Oh, my TV. How much did that cost? Oh, my chandelier. How did I even get that?”

She murmured as if crying.

Kim Young-ja’s desperate eyes, looking around in disbelief, turned toward the master bedroom. Tae-heun’s head also turned in the same direction.

Tae-heun smiled at Kim Young-ja and strode into the master bedroom.

“Oh, no. No! Please, hey! Mister!!”

Kim Young-ja pleaded loudly and chased after him, but the master bedroom was already a mess.

Her expensive clothes and cosmetics, shoes and jewelry, were scattered on the floor. Kim Young-ja staggered.

“Oh, what am I going to do?”

Kim Young-ja sighed.

“What do you mean, what are you going to do?”

While she was out of her mind, Tae-heun wrapped a string made from torn lace curtains around his hand and approached the woman. He thought it would be easier to tie her up.

Kim Young-ja, who had been spacing out, was thrown to the floor without even screaming. Tae-heun tied Kim Young-ja’s arms and legs behind her back, then tied the bound arms and legs together again. Kim Young-ja started screaming that she was going to die.

“Oh, so noisy.”

Tae-heun gagged Kim Young-ja’s mouth with duct tape.

Kim Young-ja was so angry that she gasped and almost passed out. But Tae-heun wasn’t going to let her go. He was tired of seeing that kind of acting so many times, and even if it was real, he wasn’t worried at all. If she fainted, he could wake her up again, and if she was about to die, he could just peel off the tape a little.

People didn’t die that easily. At least, that was the case as far as Tae-heun knew. And Kim Young-ja was a woman who didn’t deviate from Tae-heun’s experience in the slightest.

Kim Young-ja struggled to break free from her restraints for nearly 10 minutes. She trembled with anger. She asked with her eyes and even with her blocked mouth what he was doing this for, but Tae-heun didn’t say anything. He just stared down at her.

He didn’t need any sharp threatening tools. Just staring at them silently with emotionless eyes was enough to scare those who had committed sins.

Kim Young-ja was the same. Soon, she began to mistake Tae-heun for someone, a hitman sent by the very person she feared the most. Suddenly, she trembled and began to spew out unintelligible words from her blocked mouth.

Finally, the moment had come when they could have a proper conversation.

Tae-heun put his index finger to his lips and went, “Shhh.” Kim Young-ja nodded her head emphatically.

Now was the time to unlock her blocked mouth.

170 – Chapter Title Without Number