#170

The moment the clear tape was ripped from Kim Young-ja’s mouth, she gasped for breath. Black mascara, smeared by tears, dripped onto the floor along with her snot.

“Ugh, that’s… I didn’t steal it…. Really. I really didn’t steal it, it was all agreed upon and I was just managing it. It’s all a misunderstanding.”

Kim Young-ja sobbed.

“Please, please tell Sung-hwan oppa. It’s not that I deliberately didn’t answer oppa’s calls, it’s not that I didn’t answer because of the money. It’s because he’s so scary.”

Her excuse was flimsy. It seemed she had been avoiding Kim Sung-hwan’s calls because of the money.

“You can tell Kim Sung-hwan that yourself when you meet him. Let’s settle the debt first.”

Tae-heun decided to play along with her imagination.

“Debt? What debt are you talking about?”

Kim Young-ja acted aggrieved.

“If you didn’t steal it, you borrowed it. Right? Those things.”

Tae-heun gestured towards the wreckage of expensive items scattered on the floor. Kim Young-ja nodded.

“Yes. That’s right. I borrowed it. I borrowed it! Is it easy carrying all that stuff around? Of course, there has to be compensation. So I spent exactly 30 million. The director said I could use it! Really!”

The director was dead, so how could anyone verify it?

Kim Young-ja knew it too.

“Ah. You spent 30 million? A single TV costs almost 10 million, and you only spent 30 million?”

Tae-heun sneered, and Kim Young-ja immediately corrected herself, “Fifty million.”

“Really! I only spent fifty million!”

Even with her life on the line, Kim Young-ja continued to lie.

“The director told me to use it as a bonus!”

She was definitely not a woman who would confess easily.

“Disappointing. Our Kim Young-ja.”

Tae-heun approached the woman to tape her mouth shut again.

“Telling me won’t do any good. Kim Sung-hwan will be here soon, so tell him yourself.”

“Huh? Oppa is coming here?”

Kim Young-ja was completely alarmed.

“Please, please save me! Mister, please save me. I’ll give you ten million won. No, I’ll give you twenty million. Please? Please let me go. That bastard will kill me as soon as he sees me. He won’t even listen to me, he’ll just kill me.”

The woman began to sob in terror. She feared Kim Sung-hwan, who might arrive at any moment, more than Tae-heun, who was threatening her right in front of her.

“Then why did you do it so recklessly? There’s something else besides the money. Where is it?”

Judging by “all that stuff,” there was definitely something else besides money.

“Mister, please save me.”

“Where’s the other stuff? Are you going to tell Kim Sung-hwan that too?”

“No. No. I’ll tell you everything. Please save me. Please? Mister, please help me. Thirty million, no, forty million. Okay, fifty million, I’ll give you fifty million.”

Son of a bitch. How high is she going to go?

Tae-heun frowned.

Kim Young-ja, who had already admitted to spending fifty million won, was now offering Tae-heun fifty million won. That meant she had at least 100 million won in cash. But there was no way she would spend the remaining 50 million, her entire fortune, on a complete stranger. There was more money she wasn’t talking about. A large sum that would allow her to maintain her own kingdom even after giving 50 million to a stranger.

The dead director had a Husband and three the child who had just become adults. Of course, they had divorced before the trial even began, but it was nothing more than a sham divorce.

Before the trial began, the director transferred all the assets she could to her Husband and the child. Even excluding real estate, the cash alone was close to thirty billion won. And yet, there was still more money left over.

Just how many newborns did she sell, what kind of illegal activities did she engage in, that she still had money left over after handing over all those assets? He was curious.

But right now, something else was more important to Tae-heun than money.

“Where’s the data?”

“You’ll take the fifty million, right?”

“Sixty.”

“Yes. I’ll give you sixty million.”

“Seventy.”

“…That’s a bit much.”

“Then you can just die. What good is seventy million or a hundred million if you’re dead, right?”

As Tae-heun moved to tape her mouth shut, Kim Young-ja shouted, “Seventy!”

“Seventy. Okay. I’ll give you seventy million.”

“Okay. The data?”

“I really kept it safe. Please tell oppa that. I really cherished it. I didn’t tell anyone. I really kept it a secret. You have no idea how hard it was for me to move it all by myself. It was so heavy.”

Kim Young-ja spoke incoherently.

“Where is it?”

“It’s in the safe. The safe in the living room.”

“Password?”

Kim Young-ja immediately recited a four-digit number.

Tae-heun taped Kim Young-ja’s mouth shut and walked out to the living room. The safe opened with the numbers Kim Young-ja had given him. The safe was filled with all sorts of documents and ledgers.

In addition to the list of numerous orphanage residents who had passed through Galilla Orphanage, which Prosecutor Jeong had been unable to find, there were also those under the names of other childcare facilities that Kim Young-ja and Kim Sung-hwan had operated before Galilla.

He picked up the donation ledger and opened it. It contained the names and account numbers of the companies and individuals who had donated, as well as details of the donations. It was too neat. It was written to be shown to someone, in a way that Tae-heun knew all too well. It was a trick. The real one was somewhere else.

Kim Young-ja was a woman who needed ‘caution,’ as Prosecutor Jeong had said.

Tae-heun returned to the main room. In the meantime, Kim Young-ja had pushed herself to the front of the door using her belly. Tae-heun kicked the woman back with his foot. Kim Young-ja cried out, “Ouch,” as she was pushed back.

“Kim Young-ja, can’t you tell the difference between shit and soybean paste right now?”

He squatted down in front of Kim Young-ja and spoke softly.

Kim Young-ja widened her eyes as if asking what he was talking about.

“If I give what’s in the safe to Kim Sung-hwan, he’d be very happy. Right?”

Even at Tae-heun’s words, Kim Young-ja still widened her eyes and acted. She forced a smile, as if to say, ‘Of course he would be happy.’

“Okay. Then try to survive well here, tied up.”

Tae-heun said this and stood up.

As he turned to leave, he heard Kim Young-ja struggling. Tae-heun turned back and looked down at her.

“As it happens, there’s an oil tank in the boiler room. I’ll burn the ledgers for you. If my client sees something like that, I’ll be the only one getting blamed. It’s better to show them Kim Young-ja’s burnt corpse.”

Only then did Kim Young-ja understand Tae-heun’s words and shout loudly. Even though her mouth was taped shut, she was shouting for help with all her might, so much so that the sound leaked out.

“Goodbye, Young-ja.”

He spat it out as if throwing it away and went to the boiler room to get the oil tank.

They were unnecessary ledgers anyway. They were lists containing the personal information and physical secrets of the child without parents. It was a hundred times better for them to disappear in flames than to be seen by others. Tae-heun sincerely resolved to burn them.

But that resolution was shaken by the thought of Man. If there was a truly wronged victim among them, if there was a real ‘Man’ among them, it wouldn’t be too late to burn them after confirming.

Kim Young-ja, who had already arrived at the front of the door, was using her entire body to knock on the door. At that posture, she must have been hitting the door with her head.

It was said that magpies struck a bell with their heads to repay a favor, but Kim Young-ja was hitting the door with her head to save her own life.

Thump. Thump, thump.

Soundless screams could be heard in the living room.

Tae-heun poured oil on the main room door, intending to scare Kim Young-ja. The oil that flowed down the door seeped through the cracks. The pungent smell of oil, strong enough for Kim Young-ja to smell, filled the air.

The sound of knocking became more desperate.

Thump, thump, thump, thump. Kim Young-ja was thrashing with her whole body as if the door would fall off.

Tae-heun waited until she was exhausted and the sound subsided before quietly opening the door. Kim Young-ja was pleading with eyes swollen from crying. Begging to be saved. Begging desperately with her eyes.

“You won’t lie, right?”

Tae-heun asked quietly. Kim Young-ja shook her head violently.

“This is your last chance.”

Kim Young-ja shook her head again. She cried bitterly.

As soon as the clear tape was removed, Kim Young-ja choked. She gasped for breath, then cried. After crying and stopping for several minutes, she finally calmed down and said, “Chandelier.”

Tae-heun’s gaze turned to the ceiling where the chandelier had been hanging.

“There?”

“…Yes. Yes. Hngh. It’s there, it’s there. Ahh. Augh.”

Kim Young-ja was so surprised that she even had hiccups.

“How much better it would have been if you had told the truth from the beginning.”

Tae-heun looked down at Kim Young-ja with a falsely pitiful expression and slowly stood up.

Then he went out to the living room and pulled on the hook installed to hang the chandelier with the blade of the pickaxe. Then, very slowly, the ceiling opened and a ladder came down.

Tae-heun put a flashlight in his mouth and climbed the ladder. He pushed only his upper body into the ceiling and looked inside. The attic was filled with moving boxes with numbers written on them. She had cherished it, just as Kim Young-ja had said. It was clean without a speck of dust, and even had an incandescent light.

Without having to use his hands, he pulled one of the boxes with the blade of the pickaxe. Then he dropped it straight down the ladder. Video tapes poured out of the box, which had not been properly packaged. Each of the tapes had the year and date of filming and a serial number written on it. Tae-heun went up a little higher and pulled another box. There were as many as three boxes containing video tapes.

The rest contained paper, so he couldn’t budge them with the pickaxe. Unable to help it, Tae-heun climbed directly into the ceiling. He turned off the flashlight and turned on the incandescent light.

Among the many boxes, the apple box was the first to catch his eye. Four 20kg apple boxes were mixed in with the moving boxes. As soon as he saw them, he thought of slush funds. If they were full of 10,000 won bills, each apple box would contain 260 million won.

Just in case, he opened a box and, as expected, it contained cash. Kim Young-ja had cleverly covered the top of the box with newspaper and ledgers to disguise it as containing documents rather than money. When he removed it, bundles of cash, well wrapped in plastic, were revealed.

In the same way, all four boxes contained cash. Three boxes were filled with new bills only, and one box contained 80 bundles of 100 dollar bills. So, there was 500 million won in Korean currency and 800,000 US dollars, roughly over 1.5 billion won, hidden above this ceiling.

The 70 million won that Tae-heun had offered Kim Young-ja was peanuts compared to this money. He couldn’t even laugh.

The rest, excluding the apple boxes, contained old bankbooks, as well as the real journals and employee rosters used by the orphanage, real ledgers, albums of the residents, and various bundles of documents, as well as additional lists. They were less well-managed compared to the boxes containing money. In particular, the list of orphanage residents was discolored and shriveled, as if it had been wet with rainwater and then dried.

Without thinking, Tae-heun picked up an album and opened it. He smiled as he looked at the boys and girls in the black and white photos, but soon frowned. As he turned the pages, photos that should not have been included appeared.

Son of a bitch. A curse burst out of him.

If the album was like this, he didn’t even want to imagine what was on the video tapes.

Tae-heun moved back to the ceiling entrance. In the meantime, Kim Young-ja, using the slippery oil, had moved to the living room and was trying to pick up a crystal shard with her bound hands. Blood was flowing from the flesh cut by the glass shard, but the woman didn’t care.

“Kim Young-ja.”

He quietly called her name from above.

The woman was startled, but she didn’t stop moving. Rather, she groped more desperately for a piece that could cut the rope binding her hands and feet.

Even if that woman wasn’t an accomplice with the orphanage director, she was at least a bystander. A bystander who turned a blind eye to what the boys and girls in the album had gone through. The odds were more in favor of her being an accomplice, but it was too early to jump to conclusions. Whatever the case, the place for that woman was right here on this ceiling, not down below.

Tae-heun leaped down and lifted the woman up. Kim Young-ja, drained of all her strength, struggled one last time but soon went limp. Easily moving Kim Young-ja, Tae-heun tied her to the innermost pillar, farthest from the entrance, and then lowered the boxes one by one.

Kim Young-ja, who had been silently watching Tae-heun’s work, burst into tears as she saw the apple boxes being lowered.

None of the materials could be discarded, so he moved them to the car first. The stuff in the safe didn’t seem useful, but he took it all just in case. Even after stuffing it into the trunk, there wasn’t enough space, so he forcibly crammed things into every nook and cranny inside the vehicle.

Having finished everything, Tae-heun climbed back up to the ceiling. Kim Young-ja, with her hands and feet tied behind her back and bound to the pillar, had regained her strength in the meantime. She was still burning with the will to live. She even brazenly demanded that he release her, saying that the money he had taken was more than what she had promised.

“Mister. Untie this and go, huh? With that money, Mister wouldn’t have to live doing things like this. Don’t you think?”

She even showed a melting smile with a flirtatious tone.

Seeing how much she wanted to live, it seemed she had more money stashed away besides the apple boxes. She must have amassed a great deal of money by selling the child. He wanted to find it all and make sure she couldn’t spend a single penny, but he didn’t have enough time to find that money. Regrettably, he had to end it here.

“Kim Young-ja, do you happen to remember Yoon Ki-beom?”

Tae-heun asked one last question before leaving this place.

Even if Kim Young-ja knew about Yoon Ki-beom, it would be difficult to get a proper answer from her, but there was also the possibility that she didn’t know at all, so he asked just in case.

But an unexpected reaction came back. The moment Tae-heun uttered the name Yoon Ki-beom, Kim Young-ja frowned as if she had heard something she shouldn’t have. A cold expression flickered across her face, which had been forcing a smile.

“Why that son of a bitch? …Wait, are you Jin-soo? You’re Na Jin-soo, aren’t you?”

Kim Young-ja twisted her head up and carefully examined Tae-heun’s face, which was revealed under the hat.

He was curious as to who Na Jin-soo was that his name came up as soon as he asked about Yoon Ki-beom. Could Rocky be Na Jin-soo?

“No, that bastard’s jawline isn’t like that.”

Kim Young-ja tilted her head.

“Who are you? What’s your relationship with that son of a bitch, Yoon Ki-beom?”

Her voice and tone became harsh.

The woman seemed more curious about the relationship between Tae-heun and Yoon Ki-beom than about her current situation.

“I know Yoon Ki-beom.”

She knows. This woman, Nurse Kim Young-ja, knew very well who Yoon Ki-beom was.

Tae-heun grinned.

Kim Young-ja became agitated like a fit whenever she heard the name Yoon Ki-beom. “Ah, damn it. That fucking bastard,” she said, expressing her annoyance with her whole body.

Tae-heun approached Kim Young-ja again and crouched down. Kim Young-ja’s face lit up.

“If you tell me about Yoon Ki-beom, I’ll untie you and leave.”

He offered a sweet condition.

Kim Young-ja looked bewildered but soon agreed. She had no other choice anyway.

“What do you want to hear?”

She asked in a resentful tone.

“Everything. Everything you know about Yoon Ki-beom.”

“Then help me up. I can’t talk in this position.”

Kim Young-ja, realizing that she had the upper hand, promptly demanded.

He had been planning to at least untie her hands anyway, but Tae-heun reluctantly cut the rope tied to the pillar. Then, he untied Kim Young-ja’s two legs and two arms, which were tied behind her back, and re-tied them in front, making her sit up straight.

She could have attacked Tae-heun in the meantime, but Kim Young-ja didn’t even try. It was because she had exhausted all her energy down below earlier. The woman seemed to regret that fact very much.

But she shouldn’t be underestimated. This woman would wait for the right moment while telling Tae-heun what he wanted to hear until she had gathered enough strength. She was a woman who could quickly assess the situation to a terrifying degree, so she was more than capable of doing that.

“I was born in a remote village in Gyeongsang Province. My dream was to become a movie star like Kim Ji-mee.”

Kim Young-ja slowly opened her mouth.

Surprisingly, Kim Young-ja liked to talk. No, she was eager to talk. Not because she wanted to look good to Tae-heun, but because she genuinely wanted to talk about her life. All sorts of stories poured out as if she had been holding back until now.

After talking to her heart’s content about the human Kim Young-ja, she began to talk about the days of Galilla Orphanage, which she herself called ‘The Golden Age of Young-ja’. Facts that could never be known unless it was Kim Young-ja, facts that could never be found out through documents, popped out one after another. Some were boring, some were interesting, and some were funny enough to make him laugh.

But as time went on, the stories became more and more intense, and eventually led to shock. Even though Kim Young-ja had embellished them enough, even Tae-heun, who had seen and experienced most things, felt that it was terrible. Kim Young-ja talked about such events without any hesitation. She acted like a victim while being the perpetrator.

Tae-heun thought that she was a woman who would make even the devil cry.

171 – Chapter Title Without Number