Chapter 73
Our family was well-off. How well-off? We had a yard and even a separate garage, a two-story family house.
You couldn't find cockroaches or anything like that.
Mom and Dad were so comfortable they went shopping at department stores every week, and I had everything I wanted from a young age and lived without wanting.
Until 6th grade, I was always the class president and student council president. That means I was in a position like Wang Ja-hyun is now.
Of course, Jung-seok didn't seem to understand.
"You did that?"
"I'm telling you I did. It's just that I'm keeping a low profile now, but I used to be popular too. The girls in class would beg the teacher to pair them with me..."
There was a bit of MSG in that. Anyway, that wasn't the important part.
"It was summer of 6th grade. Just before summer vacation. One day, my dad said. We had a shed behind our house where we kept old furniture and tools. He said it was dangerous, so never go near it. Never."
"Never?"
"Yeah. He said never even think about going near it or opening the shed door. I said I understood. Until then, I..."
I was a child who listened well to my parents when I was young. An obedient child. My parents' happiness.
But... one day, strange things started happening.
Every night, I'd hear someone sobbing, and the ice cream I'd left in the fridge to eat would just disappear. I started to feel really scared of the big house I lived in.
A ghost. A ghost lives in the house-
I felt that fear and gathered my courage to look around every corner of the house, and ended up discovering it in the shed my dad told me never to approach.
"...It was a girl. Dad had kidnapped a young girl... He was raising her secretly in the shed. After that day, our family completely fell apart. My dad, who was a pastor at Gwanje Church, fell to become a sex offender."
"Oh, shit..."
Jung-seok frowned and muttered like me. The story I revealed must have been quite shocking to Jung-seok too.
"After that, I lived with a scarlet letter for three years of middle school. Even the kids who used to be close to me all pointed fingers at me. And Wang Ja-hyun was at the center of it."
Wang Ja-hyun's family and ours actually visited each other often. Wang Ja-hyun's father was the associate pastor at the church where my father was.
I thought Wang Ja-hyun was my best friend too, like Jung-seok is to me now. No, in some ways, we were even closer than Jung-seok.
"Anyway, if Wang Ja-hyun decides to bully me again, he might start by luring you, Jung-seok. He'll definitely do that. I don't know why he transferred here, though."
Why did Wang Ja-hyun, who was living well in Seoul, come to this Gaeryong? For me, it was like facing a typhoon without a roof. Then Jung-seok asked,
"...So why did your dad do that? Kidnapping a child... Why?"
"...I don't know. It could be pedophilic sexual deviation targeting children, like they said on the news. Or..."
Honestly, I don't know either. I still think about it sometimes.
Why did Dad do that?
And if I hadn't opened the shed door in the end... would I still be living in that grand two-story house as if nothing had happened?
Whenever I think about that time, the summer heat I felt then, the cicada sounds, the sticky stench I smelled when I opened the shed door, all come back vividly.
In a way, I... was still not free from that day's nightmare.
Soon, Jung-seok said to me,
"I understand why you got the status window. You've inherited the blood of a villain. You have the qualities to become the world's worst villain. That's the kind of guy you are."
Is this comforting or insulting?
But even after hearing my story, Jung-seok's gaze towards me didn't change. No, it did change a little.
Instead of despising me, he seemed curious.
"Where is your father now?"
"In the slammer. He didn't even appeal. He just admitted to everything and went to prison. He was caught red-handed anyway, so..."
"Then what happened to her? The kidnapped girl."
Jung-seok asked me. I shook my head.
"I don't know. I didn't have the luxury to think about that."
Come to think of it, it wasn't just our family's life that was ruined. That girl might still be trapped in that day's nightmare too. She probably can't forget it for the rest of her life.
"Why is the matching taking so long?"
I looked at the matching waiting screen that had been going on for several minutes. When I was getting a bit annoyed, Jung-seok pressed the cancel button.
"...You said it was summer of 6th grade?"
"Yeah."
"Maybe... I think all these events are tied together in some big fence-like circle. That girl. The girl your dad kept locked up for a month. I know who she is."
He knows who? More importantly, did I mention she was locked up for a month?
"It's─"
Jung-seok was about to say something but closed his mouth. Soon, someone approached us.
"Here you are! Guys!"
It was a cheerful voice. The appearance of a beautiful girl who didn't fit the PC room at all made all the customers glance over.
It was Yoo Dahee.
And it hit me like lightning. The hot summer. The girl living like an animal behind the tightly locked shed door.
"Ugh!"
I couldn't hold back the urge to vomit and rushed to the bathroom.
***
"...Yoo Dahee, did you know?"
Jung-seok asked Yoo Dahee when his friend rushed to the bathroom and left his seat. Yoo Dahee tilted her head.
"You guys sent a message saying you were at the PC room. More importantly, this is my first time ever coming to a PC room! How do you turn on the computer? Can I play that League of Legends thing too?"
"Not that. I'm talking about what happened in 6th grade."
Jung-seok was elementary school classmates with Yoo Dahee. They hadn't really talked much or been close friends, but. It meant he remembered the incident from back then well.
Yoo Dahee went missing just before summer vacation in 6th grade, for about a month.
She had been kidnapped.
When the culprit was caught, it caused a huge stir, and after that day, Yoo Dahee couldn't go to and from school without riding in a car.
Jung-seok's friend Ha Young-won had just realized this fact and truth, and left his seat, unable to bear the urge to vomit.
'Then what about Yoo Dahee? Does Yoo Dahee know this fact? I know about the incident back then too. A pastor from a large Seoul church kidnapped and sexually assaulted a young girl... It was all over the news.'
Yoo Dahee was the victim of that incident. She might or might not know that Ha Young-won was the culprit's son.
'Young-won changed his name because of the stigma. From his father's surname to his mother's, becoming Ha Young-won! Yoo Dahee might not know that Young-won is the culprit's son!'
Jung-seok thought for a moment that he had brought up the topic carelessly. Had he unintentionally driven a wedge between Yoo Dahee and Ha Young-won?
As he squeezed his eyes shut, Yoo Dahee spoke.
"I know. I didn't at first, but after talking with him a few times, I figured it out. Of course, Young-won didn't seem to recognize me."
Yoo Dahee puffed her cheeks as if slightly upset. Seeing this, Jung-seok asked,
"Then... is it all true? What they said on the news..."
"The details... I don't remember well. Actually, the memories from then are hazy. They say it's because of the trauma..."
"Is that also around the time you suddenly couldn't remember while looking for Yang Juhee's sister, Yang Do-hee?"
"That's right. But there's one thing I do remember. The voice I heard through the wall... I... I owe a debt to that voice. It saved me, but in return, I ruined that kid's life."
Jung-seok could somewhat understand why Yoo Dahee was interested in Ha Young-won. And as he said earlier, he felt that many events were tightly connected by a single thread.
His friend Ha Young-won seemed to have gone home first.
Jung-seok left the PC room with Yoo Dahee and looked up at the sky.
***
The evening sky was increasingly resembling summer.
Buzz buzz buzz-
The cicadas started to cry.
Someone lingering near the foundation chairman's office heard it.
It was Kang Bada.
Kang Bada glanced at the time on his phone and then entered the chairman's office. Chairman Cheon Dae-gon was sitting in his seat, signing something, but stopped.
"Chairman. It's been a while."
"Cut the crap. I know you've been hanging around Dahee lately. I don't have time to waste on the likes of you, so I'll get straight to the point. Leave Korea."
"Whoa, and if I don't?"
Scratch scratch-
As Kang Bada stroked his beard, the chairman silently opened his narrow eyes. There was no need for further conversation.
Kang Bada could sense the fate approaching him.
'Chairman Cheon Dae-gon. This man can do whatever he wants if he desires. Getting rid of someone like me would be nothing to him. He's the type to actually do it. This old man doesn't fire warning shots.'
In the past, he would have backed down. Like when he left for Japan under the chairman's pressure. But Kang Bada had aged too, and now he had some guts.
"Chairman. You're still trying to push people into that nightmare, aren't you? You did it to your daughter In-na. You're probably forcing it on your granddaughter Dahee too."
"Get to the point."
"...I'll go. I'll go and bring back what you want. So please, leave Dahee out of this. I'm begging you."
Swish-
Kang Bada knelt down and pressed his forehead to the floor. Cheon Dae-gon didn't even look at this action. He just laughed.
"Not necessary. You don't even know how to get in there in the first place. Idiot. Besides, Mi-ri has been doing quite well recently. She's been in that nightmare twice. Quite impressive."
Swish-
At that moment, Kang Bada lifted his forehead and stood up.
"But Osung won't listen, will they? You haven't been able to contact Osung lately, right? You must know they're researching how to send people to that nightmarish place."
"Those guys aren't even competition. Just some punks selling stuff. Arrogant bastards who don't even know who raised them to that position."
Knock knock-
Just then, someone knocked on the door. The door opened with a click.
A tall, handsome male student bowed his head before Chairman Cheon Dae-gon.
"I'm Wang Ja-hyun from Gwanak First Presbyterian Church. I've brought a thank-you gift from my father and Pastor Cheon Ae-su for your help with my transfer."
It was a very luxuriously wrapped box. The chairman didn't even look at it.
"Just put it over there."
"Then, goodbye. Oh, and one more thing. Now that I'm here, everything will go back to normal. Don't worry too much, Chairman Cheon Dae-gon. I'll be going now."
Bow-
What a handsome boy─
That's what Kang Bada thought. But Cheon Dae-gon showed his discomfort for the first time today.
"Lowly bastards coveting what's not theirs. Rushing in as soon as there's something good, just like street dogs. They smile to your face but think only of biting your neck when you turn around."
"......"
"Fine. Kang Bada. I'll accept your proposal. I won't push Dahee anymore. But there's a condition. Instead of Yoo Dahee, I'll put that boy into that idea. Ha Chae-yeon's son."
"...Chae-yeon's son?"
"Yes. Hehehe. You teach that boy how to survive even in hell. If he falls in that hell, Dahee will have to step up inevitably."
Cheon Dae-gon's laughter filled the room softly. Kang Bada felt dizzy.
"Putting him in instead? You know well that place isn't somewhere you can go to at will, or avoid if you don't want to go, right? Young-won... he seemed like just an ordinary kid."
"There are ways. You know too. How Osung or those church guys create Observers. It's a bit eccentric method, but."
"Chairman. Are you saying you'll kill Ha Young-won?"
"He won't die. He'll just become neither alive nor dead. And he's not Ha Young-won. He's Cheon Young-won."
***
My physical condition suddenly worsened, and I fled from the PC room to home.
As I was recovering my strength inside the blanket, knock knock knock- someone knocked on our door.
Is it Jung-seok? Or...
"Who is it?"
─It's me. Ms. Hong Mi-ri.
Ms. Hong Mi-ri came to our house?