#130

It was the head of the youth association and the Village Chief. The two men, who used to come to church every week, had been keeping a low profile since being excluded from Mr. Lee’s funeral. I thought that was why they hadn’t been coming to church. But the two of them burst into the church together and announced that Kwon Yong-joon had disappeared.

“What are you talking about? Speak properly!”

An elderly man with a gruff voice questioned the Village Chief as if he were scolding him.

“Kwon Yong-joon has flown the coop, Elder. There’s no one at his house. He’s taken everything, leaving only the furniture behind.”

Choi Gi-cheol, the head of the youth association, shouted instead of the Village Chief.

It was known in the village that the two men had not invested in Kwon Il-taek, but in fact, they had recently leased farmland with Man. The Village Chief sat down on the floor and wailed, “Aigo, aigo.” A man about the same age as the Village Chief grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up.

“You son of a bitch, what’s with the acting! Where’s the Chairman? Where’s the Chairman?”

Even in the midst of all this, he called Kwon Il-taek “Chairman.”

Starting with that man, everyone rushed towards the Village Chief and Choi Gi-cheol, surrounding them.

“You son of a bitch, we should be the ones crying, why are you crying? Where’s the Chairman? You know, don’t you?”

“Why are you doing this! What did my Father do wrong!”

“What did he do wrong? You’re in cahoots with your Chairman.”

“We don’t know either!”

For once, Choi Gi-cheol fought for his Father.

“What about Yong-joon? Have you been to Yong-joon’s house?”

Then someone mentioned Kwon Yong-joon’s name. Choi Gi-cheol replied with a frustrated look.

“He’s not there. That house is empty too.”

“Yong-joon too?”

“Yes. That bastard ran away too!”

He persuaded the people that this was not the time to be doing this, and that they should go look for him quickly.

“Didn’t they say his wife is heavily pregnant?”

“It’s been a while since she’s been seen in this neighborhood.”

“Where did they say Yong-joon’s wife was from?”

“Is this the time to be asking that?”

“Oh dear, what should we do? Call the police quickly. Pastor! Please call the police!”

People were shouting from here and there.

The escape of the Kwon Il-taek family was unexpected. Just two days ago, they were walking alongside the bereaved family at Mr. Lee’s funeral. They were the ones who were treated better than the bereaved family throughout the funeral. Not to mention that they had lived comfortably in this village with the title of “Chairman” thanks to a piece of land inherited from their ancestors.

As Tae-heun had learned, they were even working with lawyers and tax accountants to plan for the future, so I thought they would go through the bankruptcy process properly. I thought they would act with class, as Kwon Yong-joon was in the habit of saying, but I never imagined they would run away in the middle of the night like other people do. A seventy-year-old man had not only sucked all the money out of the villagers but had also sold his conscience.

Huh!

Tae-heun let out a hollow laugh.

They’re all sons of bitches.

Tae-heun quickly turned to look at Man.

man always looked at Kwon Il-taek with loving eyes. the man believed in and relied on Kwon Il-taek so completely that it made Tae-heun jealous, even more than Kwon Yong-joon, who sucked Man’s cock. He didn’t even look at his own Father that way. So it was natural that he was surprised that Kwon Il-taek had run away in the middle of the night. It would have been a relief if he hadn’t fainted.

But the man was surprisingly calm. I thought he was stunned because he was so surprised, but it was different from that. At least, it wasn’t the face of a shocked person that Tae-heun knew. Rather, he seemed to know everything, which was confusing.

Could he have seen them running away?

Tae-heun tilted his head. The only time the man and I had been apart since the funeral was yesterday afternoon, for a very short time. 30 minutes at most. Tae-heun, who was originally supposed to go to the town, couldn’t leave the man to work alone, so he followed him and picked watermelons together in the watermelon field all day. After that, he took the child home, had dinner, and stayed in the same room all night. There was no way the man could have seen them running away.

“Honey! Wake up!!”

Tae-heun came back to reality at the Pastor’s cry.

Pastor’s wife had fainted.

The Pastor took care of his wife and at the same time called the police on his cell phone. There were cries everywhere. People were collapsing, sitting down, and shouting. It was utter chaos. If there was a hell, this was it.

People were talking about when they had last seen Kwon Yong-joon. Most of them said they hadn’t seen the Chairman since the funeral. So, on the day Tae-heun and the man went to Chungju, Kwon Il-taek and Jo Young-ae bought beef as a favor and fled with their youngest son, Kwon Yong-joon, with the villagers giving them a grand send-off.

The worst case scenario was that they would fly overseas, but if not, they would be in Seoul. The Chairman couple’s proud Eldest son and second son lived there.

Detective Oh Dae-Ho was the only one besides Tae-heun who knew their Seoul address. Tae-heun hurriedly called Detective Oh.

What’s going on at this hour?

Detective Oh asked in a very hoarse voice.

Detective Oh, who had visited Kkotmachha on Thursday evening, had only left the store around midnight on Friday. I didn’t see it myself, but there were circumstances that led me to believe that.

So, at midnight from Friday to Saturday, three Bongo vans stopped in front of the brothel. Then, as if they had been waiting, a group of men rushed out and got into the Bongos one by one. It all happened so quickly, and the Bongo vans were blocking the view, so I couldn’t tell who got into which car or when. After that, the lights that had been turned off were turned back on.

In a hurry, one of the men who had been lying in wait pretended to be a Husband looking for his runaway wife and stormed into the brothel. He pushed past the madam who was trying to stop him and opened every door. But inside, there were only Detective Oh and Detective Park, and not even the girls. There were clear signs that they had been drinking and having a good time everywhere. Therefore, it could only be interpreted that the two Detectives and the girls had stayed in the store together all along and had disappeared in those Bongos earlier.

A full day. It was a very suspicious and long time to spend in a bar that wasn’t a lodging facility. The Bongo license plates were damaged or covered, so they couldn’t be identified and tracked. The two Detectives, who had escaped the Helper’s radar, were finally seen in front of their respective homes yesterday at noon. There were no signs of beatings, and both of them seemed to be staggering as if they were drunk.

I laughed it off, saying, “At least they didn’t get beaten to death.”

“Kwon Il-taek has run away.”

Tae-heun said.

…Yes? What are you talking about?

Detective Oh didn’t seem to be speaking, but rather scratching his throat to barely make a sound.

“Kwon Il-taek has flown the coop.”

No, what is…. Just a moment.

I could hear the sound of blankets rustling from the other side of the receiver, as if he had been lying down.

Please tell me more.

Even his pronunciation was slurred. I wondered how much alcohol he had drunk to still be in this state.

“The Village Chief and the head of the youth association just announced that Kwon Il-taek’s house is empty.”

The house is empty?

“They said he left only the furniture and ran away.”

How many times do I have to say the same thing?

I grumbled inwardly.

No, that’s… that can’t be.

Detective Oh groaned. He said to himself, almost inaudibly, that there was no sign of that at all.

“Do you know where Kwon Yong-gi and Kwon Yong-jae live?”

Of course Tae-heun knew, but he pretended not to know because he couldn’t show that he knew.

Oh, of course. Ah, no, I mean, that’s not what I meant.

“Send someone right away. If those bastards run away, all the villagers will die.”

Just a moment. You can’t just go around looking into things like that.

He was sitting there making comfortable noises by himself in the midst of all this.

He’s on the same side as Kwon Il-taek.

It was not unexpected.

Whether he did or not, the immediate priority was to find the Kwon Il-taek family.

What about Yong-joon? Is he gone too?

“Yes. He’s gone.”

Oh, the Chairman wouldn’t do that. Are you sure you looked carefully?

The reaction of the Detective was no different from that of the elders in this neighborhood, which was frustrating. It seemed useless to hold on to the receiver for long.

“Detective Oh, we don’t have time to be doing this leisurely. Isn’t catching fleeing criminals your specialty, Detective Oh, more than me? Anyway, I’ve contacted you.”

Tae-heun said what he had to say and hung up. If it was urgent, he would go catch them, and if not, he would leave it alone.

“Don’t just stand here, let’s all go! Let’s go and see for ourselves!”

The Pastor took the lead. Everyone except the dazed old men and women followed the Pastor out of the chapel.

man still didn’t say a word. I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. At times like this, the man felt distant to Tae-heun. He seemed like a mirage, which made me uneasy.

the child, who was standing next to Man, was as frightened as the other children. He was trying not to cry.

“Ji-hye, Mister will be back in a little while.”

At Tae-heun’s words, the man seemed to decide that he should follow too. He flinched.

“Ki-beom, stay here. I’ll go and check it out.”

“No. Me too.”

the child, who was standing next to him, grabbed the man’s hand tightly and looked up at him.

“Father, stay with me. Don’t go.”

the child pleaded, tearfully. the man looked back and forth between the child and Tae-heun, then nodded to Tae-heun. As if he couldn’t help it, he sat back down on the chair with the child.

“I’ll just check the situation and come right back. Don’t go anywhere, stay here. Okay?”

“Yes. Come back soon.”

The man looked up at the cross instead of Tae-heun and said. As if there was an answer there, he didn’t take his eyes off it until Tae-heun disappeared.

“Ji-hye, stay with Father.”

I was worried about Man, not the child. the child nodded bravely. Tae-heun stroked the child’s head and followed the Pastor’s group.

The Village Chief and the head of the youth association were being dragged along, surrounded by the townspeople. The attitude of the neighbors was fierce, as if they had been caught running away in the middle of the night.

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