By Zephyria 
A gentle breeze blew, and only the sound of wind chimes swaying echoed in the tranquil temple. Just then, the door of a guest room on one side of the temple opened, and a man walked out. The man wearing a purple Modernized Hanbok was Choi Won-joon.
Won-joon swept back his disheveled hair, furrowed his brow deeply, slipped on his slippers haphazardly, and walked toward the temple entrance. A black sedan was parked outside the temple, and before he could even get close, the driver’s side door opened, and a man wearing glasses quickly got out and bowed.
As he took out a cigarette, the man who had gotten out of the driver’s seat came closer and lit it for him. Won-joon’s features flickered in the light. He had dark, sharp eyes, was very tall, and had a broad chest.
“Where is he?”
At Won-joon’s question, Director Lee pressed a button, and the trunk door opened. As his gaze lowered, there was a middle-aged man, bound hand and foot and covered in blood. The man was a director of Sehwa Construction and, until recently, had been working under Won-joon’s instructions.
The man, upon discovering Won-joon, made sounds as if he had something to say, wriggling his body. Won-joon bent down and removed the blue tape from the man’s mouth. The tape, stained with blood clots, dangled from his cheek, and the man looked up at Won-joon with trembling eyes.
“C-CEO Choi, no, Won-joon! I, I was wrong! I didn’t do it on purpose, it’s just that,”
“Shh—lower your voice.”
Won-joon wore a gentle smile, and the man barely squeezed out his voice to survive.
“I’m really, really sorry! It was a mistake! You remember, right? I used to go to your house often when you were little. I even played Go with Grandfather!”
“I know. You used to give me piggyback rides. It was so much fun.”
“Right! You remember. How much I adored you. Like my own child, no, even more than my own children. How could I have had other intentions? You misunderstood. No matter what anyone says, I, I would never. It’s Director Kim, that bastard, ugh!”
The man’s mouth was sealed with tape, and his gaze followed Won-joon’s movements. Won-joon, with a cigarette in his mouth, squatted down and met the man’s eyes, his eyes sparkling as if a child were observing passing ants. Won-joon blew cigarette smoke into the man’s face.
“Our Director Park has aged a lot. His hair has turned completely white.”
“……”
“Relax your face. I’m going to untie you.”
Was it the relief of being alive? The man sobbed and smiled with his whole face.
“Then, take care.”
Choi Won-joon smiled sweetly, stubbed out the cigarette he was holding on the bumper, threw it into the trunk, and stood up. Director Lee, who was next to him, closed the lid as if he had been waiting for it, and Won-joon, with a blank face, leaned against the trunk and stared at the forest.
“Damn, I feel sorry for him because he’s so happy. I didn’t mean to say I’d let him live.”
However, no hint of apology or guilt could be found on his face. While Won-joon took out another cigarette, Director Lee went to the back seat and returned with something.
“The Madam asked me to give this to you.”
Won-joon narrowed his eyes at the navy blue wrapping cloth.
“What is it?”
“She said you might get tired of eating only temple food, so she packed you something to eat.”
Won-joon didn’t take his hand out of his pocket with an unwilling expression.
“Do you want to eat it?”
Director Lee would never say he would eat it, even if he died, nor did he take his hand away. He probably knew it too. How terrible Won-joon’s mother’s cooking skills were. This wasn’t a matter of being too salty or bland. He just wondered what on earth she put in it to make the food taste like this. Won-joon reluctantly accepted the side dishes.
“Are you getting any sleep?”
“It’s the same. I thought I’d get better if I came here.”
“If it’s too hard, I’ll send a doctor here tomorrow.”
“I’m going on the weekend, so what’s the point? Go in. It’s late.”
“Take care of yourself.”
Won-joon chuckled at the worried words. How bland. You take care of yourself. He turned around, waved his hand roughly, and headed toward the temple. He sat on the veranda, put the side dishes that Director Lee had brought next to him, and admired the blackened forest. Spring had come, but the night in the forest was still chilly.
At that moment, a light flickered in the forest and flew through the air. He used to come here often with Grandfather when he was young, and he remembered seeing fireflies. Won-joon put his hands in his pockets and got up and walked towards the forest.
The closer he got, the farther the light moved away. His steps moved as if possessed, following the light. Won-joon turned on his cell phone and used the light to illuminate below. Seeing a small stream flowing under his feet, he recalled that there was a valley nearby.
And the memory of swimming naked in that valley. When he was submerged in water so cold that it made his head spin, even his young mind felt like his worries disappeared. Should he go there for the first time in a while?
Won-joon pushed through the bushes and went up. It must have been around here. But where the valley should have been, there was only a small puddle. Could it be that it dried up because of the prolonged drought?
Disappointed, he turned around, but sensed someone on the opposite side. The face of him, who was shining a cell phone light, slowly distorted.
“Ah…”
Two glints of light flashed in the darkness, and then a wild boar appeared, menacingly showing off its fangs as it stared at Won-joon. It seemed to be wary of the intruder who had appeared in its territory. Watching the wild boar sniffing and approaching, Won-joon raised both arms to shoulder height and smiled.
“Sorry. I didn’t know it was your territory.”
The wild boar narrowed the distance, and Won-joon glanced to the side. Going back the way he came would be too risky. He belatedly regretted not wearing sneakers instead of slippers. If it were small, he would try to subdue it with force, but it was not easy to face a fully grown wild boar without weapons.
“Hey. Don’t come any closer. It’s not good for either of us.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than the bushes shook and a small wild boar poked its face out. Was it a cub? Before he could even grasp the situation, the wild boar charged at Won-joon with terrifying force. Damn it. Won-joon threw the cell phone he was holding at the wild boar with all his might. There was a thud, but the wild boar didn’t care and rushed in headlong.
Won-joon turned and started running in the opposite direction. The ground shook from the heavy sound of it running with a snort, its size was so big. Running through the darkness where he couldn’t see an inch ahead, Won-joon miraculously laughed.
Buddha. Are you going to punish me like this?
He was looking for a place to hide when he spotted dense bushes in a place where the moonlight was shining. Ha, so I’m not meant to die after all. Won-joon threw himself with all his might. It was by no means a good choice. Because a bottomless cliff was waiting below.
❖ ❖ ❖
“Oh, Nam-soo. No, there’s about 30 minutes left. What about Man-sik’s mother? Really? Okay. I’ll be there soon.”
After finishing the call, Lee-eum slowed down. As he went around the mountain road, it was dark all around without a single street lamp. Others would be afraid that ghosts would appear at times like this, but Kim Yi-eum, a two-year veteran of the violent crimes unit, was more afraid of people than ghosts.
As he tried to concentrate, he turned down the radio volume, but suddenly something popped out in front of him. Lee-eum slammed on the brakes and stopped abruptly, frowning and glaring ahead. A roe deer stood still and stared at him. Even when he honked the horn, the roe deer didn’t budge, and Lee-eum reluctantly got out of the car.
“Hey, you. Go away. Shoo! Shoo!”
As he waved his hand and approached, it seemed to have come to its senses and ran to the opposite side. Lee-eum sighed in relief and turned around, but stopped when he discovered something. A black mass was lying on the ground at a distance far away, where the car’s lights barely reached.
What is it? An animal? Lee-eum approached cautiously and realized it was a person only when he got close. He hurriedly checked the man’s pulse and confirmed his breathing. The upper part of his forehead was slightly torn and bleeding, but other injuries were difficult to identify with the naked eye.
“Hey. Wake up! Hey!”
Since he was unconscious, he immediately took out his cell phone. After calling an ambulance and explaining the location, he tried to examine the patient’s condition in more detail, but the man slowly opened his eyes.
“Are you awake? Can you see this?”
Fortunately, his gaze followed as he moved his finger.
“Just hold on a little longer. The ambulance will be here soon, so don’t worry.”
The man blinked a few times and lost consciousness. Was he hit by a car? Or did he fall from somewhere? Lee-eum looked around and searched the man’s pockets to see if there were any family members he could contact, but no clues were found that could reveal his identity.