#09

Is the food not to your taste?

“That’s not it, it’s because of the stench.”

Ah.

Detective Oh sighed.

Still, you need to eat. What if you get sick?

“I really can’t eat. If you spend just one night here, you’ll understand what I mean.”

I’ll come by for dinner. Let’s have some soju and a plate of sashimi together.

With a final greeting of “See you later,” the call ended.

Who knew waiting could be this enjoyable?

Time flew by.

At exactly 7 o’clock, the phone rang. It was a couple of hours earlier than usual. After waiting for it to ring once, twice, and then a third time, I picked up the phone after it rang five times. Just as I finished the last roll call, Detective Oh knocked on the door.

There wasn’t much to say. We just ate and drank. After a long time, Tae-heun felt his appetite return and busily moved his chopsticks. The sashimi wasn’t particularly fresh, but it was quite edible when paired with soju.

“What about over there?”

After a long pause, Tae-heun finally spoke.

“It’s quiet. The funeral hasn’t happened yet.”

“They haven’t held the funeral?”

Tae-heun raised an eyebrow.

“It’s been three days since he died, right? No, today makes it the fourth day, doesn’t it?”

“They said they want to confirm the DNA.”

Detective Oh sighed.

“Damn it. They’re going too far.”

He couldn’t believe that someone had died in an accident right in front of him. It was his uncle by marriage, but still, shouldn’t they at least hold a funeral?

“They said it was all burned. Is it even possible to examine it?”

“Yes. There’s nothing left, but they said they can still do the examination, something about the nucleus. It just takes a bit longer.”

“There’s no problem, right?”

“Of course not. Don’t worry.”

Detective Oh answered confidently.

“What about the parents?”

“They’re very sad.”

Tae-heun bitterly smiled at Detective Oh’s misunderstanding of his question.

“That’s not what I meant. Did the parents agree? About delaying the funeral.”

“Oh.”

Detective Oh scratched his short hair awkwardly.

“Well, it seems they’re leaving it entirely to Lee Seok-du.”

It was a question that should have been obvious. On paper, Tae-heun was Lee Seok-du’s son. The parents had no place to step in. Still, hearing it from Detective Oh made him curious.

“Are they really sad?”

“Of course they would be.”

“Please be honest. Are they really sad?”

Tae-heun asked again. Detective Oh seemed unable to lie, neither confirming nor denying. Instead, he took a drink.

Of course.

They were the kind of people who would worry about money before mourning their son’s death. When they sent him for adoption to Lee Seok-du, they had given up all rights to their son in exchange for an apartment and living expenses. Now that the son they adopted out of necessity had died, there was no reason for the uncle to continue paying living expenses. If they were to take back the apartment, they might have to give it up. Thinking of the parents who were probably anxiously watching their uncle’s every move made him feel sick. He emptied his soju glass.

The atmosphere grew heavy. Even the alcohol ran out. As if prepared for such a moment, Detective Oh rummaged through the pockets of his summer jacket and pulled out a folded white envelope.

“What is this?”

He asked as he took the envelope.

“This is where the director will be living from now on. I mentioned it before; do you remember?”

“Ah.”

Once he left the safe house, Tae-heun would have to stay in a rural village where Gyeonggi-do and Chungcheong-do meet. It was a necessary period to get a new ID and passport, and above all, it was an unavoidable choice to finish the remaining tasks.

He had been everywhere with his uncle, who was obsessed with real estate and land speculation. Back then, his impression of the countryside was that it was a boring and uncomfortable place. It was a blessing if there was even a cement road, let alone asphalt. There were still plenty of houses that burned coal or firewood, and villages without even a supermarket, let alone a café. So when Detective Oh brought up that neighborhood, he had been indifferent.

“It’ll be at most three months.”

Detective Oh added.

He unfolded the envelope and took out a photo.

They say the environment shapes a person. In the past, he would have sighed at the sight of boring rice paddies and slate roofs, but now he just felt envious. It looked a hundred or a thousand times better than here. At least the air would be clean, and there wouldn’t be any stench. Thinking that way, he felt a strong desire to go outside. He focused on each photo, wondering if this green plant was a bean, recalling all the names of crops he barely knew.

As he flipped through the photos, Tae-heun’s hand stopped. As if waiting for this moment, Detective Oh explained.

“This is a younger brother I know well. His name is Yoon Ki-beom, he’s thirty-three this year. He has a young daughter. It’s just the two of them living together. I can’t say they’re well-off, but they’ll take good care of you while you’re staying there. The kid is more capable than she looks.”

Tae-heun stared at the man in the photo, who was smiling brightly with his shirt off. This man and his young daughter would become his new family. Thinking that made him feel strange. After looking at the photo a little longer, he put it back in the envelope with the others.

The two finished the remaining sashimi and chatted about trivial things.

It was well past midnight when Detective Oh finally stood up.

“Detective Oh, let’s go out for a bit. It doesn’t matter where.”

Tae-heun shook the envelope with the photos.

“Since they’re going to be living with me, shouldn’t we at least introduce ourselves over a drink?”

Detective Oh laughed at Tae-heun’s words.

“Let’s see.”

Saying this, Detective Oh picked up his summer jacket. He turned his back to Tae-heun and put on his sneakers. With his closely cropped sports haircut and slightly larger head compared to his height, and despite his slightly protruding belly, he had the typical physique of a detective. He hadn’t been that intimidating ten years ago, and now he looked so reassuring.

“I’m not joking. Please make some arrangements.”

He spoke to his back. It was almost a plea.

“I’ll at least put in a word.”

With that, Detective Oh left the safe house.

Tae-heun was left alone again, thrown into silence.

Was I really someone who got lonely this easily?

For that brief moment of being with someone, being alone felt burdensome.

I want to go out.

It was all because of that damn photo.

The man had a good build. His body, honed by farm work, had muscles that varied in size depending on usage, but he looked far more impressive than the muscles he had built in the gym. His skin was nicely tanned from working outside, and his old jeans and faded red rubber boots somehow looked fashionable.

Tae-heun flipped through the photos Detective Oh had brought until he memorized them. He always stopped at the man’s photo and clicked his tongue each time. It seemed pathetic that a man with that height and appearance was living in the countryside, helping out on someone else’s farm.

Boys, be ambitious. Even if it wasn’t as grand as his uncle’s constant exhortation to “have ambition,” he thought that at the very least, he could earn two or three times more working in the city at a construction site or a logistics center. He was startled to find himself becoming just like his uncle, a nagging old man, and tossed the photo aside. Then he picked it up again and stared at it for a long time.

So, I have to live with this man from now on.

Tae-heun scratched his eyebrow with a cigarette pinched between his index and middle fingers.

The cramped room had gained a few items. A radio, a newspaper, and cigarettes. With these three additions, it felt a bit more bearable.

Tae-heun listened to the radio while unfolding the newspaper. It had been delivered every day since the day Lee Seon-jae died, right up to today’s morning edition. Naturally, he opened the newspaper from the day after the accident. The article reported in a few lines that a man named Mr. Mo (30) had died. A car had skidded on a rainy road and plunged 20 meters down to a bridge, exploding. The driver died on the spot.

Detective Oh had said that retrieving the body of a man who resembled Lee Seon-jae was more difficult than expected. After much deliberation, they had made sure to render the body unrecognizable, which was the crux of the traffic accident, and they had done it well. On the day he drank strong liquor with Detective Oh while enjoying Chinese food, he wondered if they had also held a celebration party. He flipped to the economics section, lost in thought.

It struck him as amusing that he was checking stock trends even while confined in the yard. Well, they say a ghost that has eaten well looks good. As he read down the numbers, his mind began to calm.

After reading the entire newspaper, he found himself with nothing to do and instinctively reached for the photos again. This time, he stopped at the man’s photo. Given that he lived only with his daughter, it was likely that the mother had either died or run away. While it was commendable for a father to take care of his child instead of abandoning him, not all who gave birth were parents. Just look at Tae-heun’s own parents. They had three children and hadn’t properly fed or clothed them until his uncle extended a helping hand.

As this thought crossed his mind, he couldn’t help but light a cigarette. Sweat trickled down his temple and hung at the tip of his chin. Tae-heun lit it with a disposable lighter engraved with the name of a room salon. He took a deep drag, filling his mouth with smoke until his cheeks hollowed out. A pleasant dizziness washed over him.

He pulled the ashtray closer. He was no longer satisfied with just sitting in the corner of the room looking at photos. He began to burn them one by one. In less than thirty seconds, the fields were ablaze, and finally, the man turned to ash and disappeared.

“Let’s go out!”

He shouted into the void.