Chapter 20

It was a weekend evening and the restaurant's tables were only half full. Because this store was located so far inside the downtown area, most of the people who came were regulars. I was also one of the regulars. The reason is that the snacks were delicious, but one of the ingredients was very fresh and good. Pepper.

“President Kwon. It’s been a while.”

I was greeted by a grateful regular customer who had been buying from me since I first opened the store. After all, life is all about mutual help. If you're a regular, it's natural for me to be a regular too. Moreover, just by looking at the pepper alone, it was clear that the food was made with ingredients that you can trust and eat. After placing his order, Woo Min-jae looked around the store and asked.

“Are you your guest?”

“Yes. When I first opened my store, he came to me on the first day and bought things for me. In the beginning, when I had very little sales and was having a hard time finding a business, this person became my first regular customer. I can’t tell you how grateful I was to the point of tears.”

“I guess you must have had a favorite restaurant that you used to go to before?”

“There was none. The owner here also opened the store for the first time at that time.”

When the two met, they shared their anxieties, expectations, and worries about their first business venture. So I hope this place continues to be in business. Fortunately, after struggling with fluctuating sales for a year, it is said that sales have been evening out every month recently.

“The boss is very smart. He has studied abroad and lectured at universities. He said he never dreamed he would cook after 40. He always liked it, but it was just a hobby and he never thought it would become a full-time job. ."

“Why did you quit what you were doing?”

“He said he was betrayed by becoming a full professor and felt disillusioned with people. I guess there are a lot of problems there too.”

Woo Min-jae listened to me while looking at the owner cooking behind the bar table.

“You really don’t know what happens to people. My mom said that when she got married to my dad, everyone around her envied her and said she would live a good life. But then her husband cheated on her and left home, and her son only got into accidents outside, and there was no money, so from morning to night. Until then, she worked at a supermarket. Everyone pitied the pretty girl who used to work at a bank and did well, asking why she ended up like this. But now, no one is laughing at her. On the contrary, everyone is jealous. She found a new husband who only cares for her. My son came to his senses and started making money. "Let's make some money. Mom says the only thing to worry about is where we're going on our next trip."

As if I was already drunk from the one glass of liquor, my story came out slowly. Now that I'm talking about it, I'm so jealous of that woman.

She said, “Her mother will be comfortable because you are a dutiful son.”

Be a dutiful child. It was an uncomfortable word. I deliberately avoided eye contact and changed the subject.

“Your life will change too.”

I guess I was really drunk. Woo Min-jae is much better than me in terms of money and social status, so you can say this. Still, I wanted to tell you.

“It may be painful now, but 10 or 20 years from now, you will be someone that everyone else envies.”

“I never said I was in pain right now.”

“You’re not smiling.”

Grilled skewers and two bottles of soju were served. It looks like the altang is still being boiled. There is nothing better than drinking a cold drink and eating a spoonful of hot soup.

“What’s the use of all the money when your heart is in pain? Hey, don’t worry, I’ll make sure you smile.”

Woo Min-jae answered while drinking the drink I poured for him.

“Take care of yourself. You’re the one who can’t smile right now. I’m scared that Taekin will never wake up.”

This bastard is trying to kill someone else... I put down the glass I was about to drink.

“That’s right, I’m scared.”

Of course, I admit it. scary. What if that damn high school kid doesn't wake up? What should I do next? I vaguely knew that the class president was a bad guy, but what should I do next? There was one plan that came to mind.

“If the hours are drastically shortened tomorrow, I’m going to catch the class president, beat him up, and ask him what happened.”

“That’s okay too.”

Woo Min-jae, who I thought would oppose, joined my cause.

“If he did something to Taek-in, it would be right to punish him by law. However, since he has already avoided the law once, there is nothing preventing the same thing from happening again. If it cannot be resolved through law, it is not a bad idea to lock him up and beat him. However. "

He lowered his voice and placed conditions.

"That's only after his mistakes are fully revealed. It's the stupidest thing in the world to catch a man and ask him what he did based on speculation."

“I do that because I’m frustrated.”

I grumbled and rummaged through the snacks.

“Now everything seems suspicious and strange. Here and there, strange things are spreading around, one by one, and they all seem to have something to do with the class president. I wonder if Taek-in is just reacting to the class president and making a mistake. “I’m confused.”

“I guess you feel right.”

He took my side again this time. Why are you acting like that, unlike Woo Min-jae? While I had doubts, I felt good. He raised his drink to hide the fact that the corners of his mouth were about to turn up.

"If it's not just one but several suspicions, it's something to think about seriously. When scattered suspicions pile up one by one, I wonder if I'm crazy. But there really is a human sixth sense. Think about it carefully. At some point, if you find just one tiny link, it all goes away. “It will look like one picture.”

“You speak from experience?”

“It’s an experience. A fucking experience.”

It was rare for swear words to come out of his mouth, so even when the soup I was waiting for came out, I wasn't happy about it. I had a vague feeling that this guy had an experience worth swearing at. He was curious, even though he knew he shouldn't ask because it was a wound.

“What experience?”

When I scooped up a spoonful of the soup and put it in my mouth, the spicy and spicy aroma spread through me. Wow, it's really spicy. After all, it’s my pepper.

“What can you say? It’s like a dramatic experience that hits you the moment your lover sleeps with someone else.”

also. I picked a small cut pepper from the stew and ladle it onto the plate in front of him. I asked, watching with eagle eyes to see if there was any pepper on his spoon.

"how is it?"

“It’s delicious.”

“Of course. It contains the peppers I sold, so there’s no way it wouldn’t taste good.”

Feeling proud, I filled his empty glass with soju.

“So you got into a big fight right then and there and hurt his shoulder?”

“It’s more complicated.”

“Try to solve it easily. I’m curious.”

The guy who was just finishing his glass of soju looked at me.

"curious?"

"huh."

I answered right away, but strangely it was difficult to make eye contact with him, so I pretended to eat my snack eagerly. If you say you don't like something, you can change the subject...

“My co-worker, who was having an affair with Andy, broke his shoulder trying to save him from hanging on the railing because he was about to commit suicide.”

...what? What do you do, what do you do? I hoped for an explanation, but he seemed to have finished speaking and drank soju and quietly ate his snack.

“You are the victim, so why are you making such a fuss about your colleague committing suicide?”

"because of this."

He held up a glass filled with soju and poured it back into his mouth. The alcohol ran out quickly.

“Andy, you said you drink too much? How much did you drink?”

"He wasn't drunk. That's probably why he was with this guy who was drinking and crying and pleading. The reason his co-worker made a scene on the railing was to prove his love to Andy. Even though it was just a drunk guy's fucking drunkenness. ."

Perhaps because I only ate spicy snacks, I was glad to see sweet corn cheese. Yellow corn kernels sizzling on a low steak pan gave off a delicious smell. I stirred it around with a spoon and added my opinion.

“Andy is the biggest fucking bastard.”

I couldn't hear a word of agreement. You're not taking sides, are you? I was a little upset.

“That’s right, Andy accepted it anyway, so your co-worker was there with him. If he came to you after drinking and talked nonsense, you should have beaten him up and kicked him out.”

“I guess you didn’t love me that much.”

“Hey, I guess that’s not it?”

“Then you either loved my colleague enough not to kick him out.”

"..."

“Seeing as how angry I am about his injured shoulder rather than their betrayal, maybe I didn’t love Andy as much as I did.”

When the new soju I ordered came out, I filled his empty glass and filled mine too. As we were toasting in silence, he suddenly burst into laughter.

“Can I tell you something interesting? I’ve been noticing for a long time that her co-worker likes Andy. I knew it and ended up dating Andy on purpose.”

"on purpose?"

“When I was resting after my first shoulder surgery, a colleague who was a candidate competed instead of me. He did very well. I was jealous of that, so I asked Andy, who he liked, to date him.”

I remembered what he said before. What she shows on the outside is only half of herself. I guess this was his hidden half.

"Even though I knew how petty and petty what I had done was, I ignored the guilt at the time. I thought that since Andy liked me, I should like him too. My co-worker shamelessly thought that he had nothing to be sorry about because he didn't confess. However, "I had the feeling from the beginning that I was on the wrong path. When the incident happened and my career fell apart, the first thing that came to mind was my past self. Damn me, I was on the wrong path."

He drank one drink after another. I couldn't stop it. I just filled the empty glass with alcohol without saying a word.

“Yeah, you’re a fucking bastard too. It’s all teacher, so forget it.”

“He may be the most damned guy. He pretends to be 100% the victim and still can’t let go of his anger.”

I felt like I vaguely knew what he was feeling. I poured soju into my glass and emptied about half the bottle by myself. After drinking this much, I felt like I could finally bring out the other half of me that I had hidden away. Come to think of it, I always drink when I meet my friends, but I met Woo Min-jae so often, but this was my first time drinking. However, the first time felt familiar, like a friend I had met decades ago. Intoxicated by the alcohol and atmosphere, I opened my mouth.

“I’m not a dutiful son. I’m only doing good things out of guilt because I did something wrong to my mom.”

“Did you hit your mother?”

“Hey! I’m not that kind of opener!!”

I slammed the soju glass down on the table. People around me looked at my loud voice, but I couldn't afford to be conscious of other people's gaze.

“What on earth are you looking at me for? Do you think I would commit violence without seeing anything?”

“I feel like I can’t see half of it.”

Haha, I'm so amazed...

“You can’t see half of it.”

I coolly acknowledged it and carefully picked up the soju glass I had put down and drank it.

“Well, considering what I did to my mother, it could have been worse than physical assault. When I was in high school, I was really mean and treated like a bad person. I knew that my father did something wrong by leaving us and left home, so if I was angry, I should take my anger out on my father. "I did it to my mom."

I think she thought that her mother was an easy person and that it was okay to get hurt.

“She blamed her mom for her dad leaving. Almost every day, she got angry and said that the reason her dad left was because she was ugly, ugly, uninteresting, and unattractive. She also cursed me to get out every time.”

It wasn't because of my father that I kept quiet throughout high school and didn't make new friends. Because of myself. I know I'm hurting her mom, but I'm the victim and I can't help it. I came up with a reason, but I think this is what bothered me the most. So I think I pretended to be 100% the victim. I'm going astray because my family is like this, so don't worry about anyone. He pitched his tent with an unsmiling face and refused to talk. If it weren't for my uncle who couldn't help but step forward, I probably would have ended up in the police station or as a gangster.

The rain that had been falling since the evening had almost stopped around 2 o'clock when we left the bar. We each parted ways and walked slowly to sober up, but as I got lost in my thoughts, a few stops had already passed. Before you know it, you’re in front of the house. It started drizzling again. The timing is amazing, I thought to myself as I walked quickly towards the entrance of the dark apartment, but suddenly something came into view and I stopped. There was a house with lights on along the line of the apartment where I lived. I counted the layers from the bottom. 1,2,3,4. Room 406. The light was on in Taekin's room. Why is it on? For a moment, my eyes opened wide. Could it be that Taek-in has woken up?!

Before I knew it, I was about to run away but stopped. Oh, your mother is here. But my mother didn't understand why Taek-in was in the room at dawn. It's bedtime, right? Since you rested on weekdays, you must have fallen asleep because you were tired from working on the weekend. Has Taekin really woke up? I was itching to check. I knew the password to that house. Shall we go in quietly and not make a sound? What if you are mistaken for a thief? If they tell you that they are from the upper house and didn't come in because they thought it was our house... they will immediately take you to the police. It's strange that someone living next door knows your password.

I stood there for a long time, unable to take my eyes off the fire in room 405. I probably would have stayed like that until the sun came up if the window had been opened and someone hadn't looked out. Taek-in was the mother. Even though she looked as small as a paper doll, she was instantly recognizable. Are you checking that it's raining outside? But it wasn't like reaching out. Rather, the hand moved somewhere else. I don't know how the actions of the person on the fourth floor above caught my eye so clearly on a dark night. Taek-in's mother wiped something from her face. And then she disappeared right inside. It soon blew and went out.

What Minjae Woo said was correct. A small link made everything appear as one. This is a connection I really hadn't thought of. On Sunday night, the store was busy as shipments increased because it was a day off. After organizing the items to be sent to important clients, putting them in boxes and packaging them, the work that started at 10 o'clock went by in just a few hours. It must have been around 1 am. The auction had just ended and I was still in a daze when someone came to the store to visit me.

“That’s right! Here it is!”

I was checking my slip while on the phone with a business partner when I suddenly heard a noise and turned my head. And then I recognized two guys standing at the entrance of the store, smiling happily.

“Huh? You are Jo-sam and Mo-sam.”

The happy expressions on their faces immediately stopped. What three, what three? He looked at me like I was doing something and then smiled again.

“Haha, I thought it was fun. Anyway, you remember us.”

Of course I remember. Aren’t they the grateful people who beat up the class president? But how did you find out about this place?

“I heard at the police station that my brother wholesales peppers here, so I asked people just in case. Where was the store run by the most handsome person here? And when I asked him, he said 100 out of 100, it was all here? Haha~”

"..."

“...Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Do you think it would make you happy to laugh and say that you found me with words that are obviously lies to anyone?”

“Yes? It’s not a lie. Really…”

“The most handsome man in the market is Mr. Choi, a Danone employee.”

The two just blinked at my words. Every time I see Mr. Choi's beaky eyes and masculine square jaw, I reflect on how arrogant I was to think he was handsome.

“Anyway, welcome back.”

When I tapped their shoulders and welcomed them, their faces softened again.

“I was scared for a moment. I got hit by my brother... Anyway, you really do business.”

“I’m serious. Why did you come?”

“While playing nearby, I remembered that my brother works here, so I came.”

Mo-sami added to Jo-sam's explanation next to him.

“This guy finally broke up with his lover. She was suffering every day wondering what’s good about a high school student cheating on her girlfriend, and she only ended it yesterday. Because of this guy, I’m going after high school students…”

Jo Sam was angry at his friend’s words.

“Who knew he was a high school student? He was good at driving and had a really nice car.”

“That’s right. The car was nice. It was an SUV from company XX that I wanted to drive, but the color wasn’t the usual blue.”

If these people want to chat, they will go out and do it.

“Hey, if you guys are going to fight, get out now...”

uh? At that moment, something struck my head. I stopped talking and looked at Mo Sam.

“What did you say earlier?”

“I liked the car the high school student drove. It was a blue SUV from company XX…”

"Fuck, dog bastard!"

I could see them both being taken aback by my sudden swearing, but I didn't have time to pay attention to them. Because I found a connection. A clue that will make all the doubts appear as one. Damn it, why didn't I know that? Why didn't I think of it? He said the unusual blue SUV the class leader drove was his brother's car. And that car was in the lane right next to us on the day of the accident. Taek-in did not commit suicide. He jumped in front of that car. Did you say your name was Hong Han-young? Fuck, dog chew.

“You mean it couldn’t have been a coincidence that Taek-in’s bag showed up late after the accident and all the information on his phone was erased?”

I nodded to Chungyeon’s question.

“It’s clear that that bastard took the bag. The contents of the phone were erased, which is probably what he did when the accident happened.”

It was a little over 4:30 in the morning. After the busy work was almost over, I talked to Chungyeon about it. Even after hearing it again, he was so shocked that he muttered 'Oh my god...' and then asked.

“It’s not clear yet. Even if that car is not a common car, there are definitely people driving the same car, but unless you check, you can’t be suspicious...”

“It’s definitely him!”

Suddenly I heard a loud noise and looked up to see Jiyong coming in, panting. He had left after receiving a call about 10 minutes ago, but his expression was very urgent, as if he had returned to the battlefield. What are you talking about out of nowhere?

“It’s that kid. Class president, it’s definitely him.”

“So tell me exactly what you mean.”

“My friend sent me this... Wow, I thought I was going crazy. My friend was asking me what on earth this was...”

“Hey. Speak properly.”

When I said the same thing a second time, Jiyong swallowed his saliva as if he was frustrated.

“My friend, you know my friend, the laptop, Taekin is my friend who entrusted the laptop to me.”

“Why did he open the file?”

"yes!"

Jiyong held out the cell phone in his hand to us and spoke quickly, like a rap.

“Wow, fuck. My friend opened this and was so surprised that he called me in the early morning. It was all a video and he sent it to me so I only watched it briefly...”

Jiyong stopped opening the video on his phone and we looked at it.

“Prepare your heart.”

If it's nothing, you're dead. What I was trying to say was stopped when I saw the video playing. A thin, small man was lying naked, crawling like a dog. A studded dog leash was tied around his neck, and someone was holding the string connected to his leash. The captor's face could not be seen because it was covered by a mosaic, but his voice was heard.

‘Bark. 'You're a dog, so bark.'

When the person holding the line gave the command, the man on his stomach lowered his head and made a hoarse sound like a dog. But soon the whip came flying.

'You should also raise your tail!'

The man seemed to buck his ass at those words. Then the stick with a tassel stuck in the anus moved a little.

“What on earth is this? Is it really a pornographic video?”

Mr. Chungyeon frowned and asked, and Jiyong nodded his head.

“My friend looked it up just to see if it was true, and it turned out to be a pornographic video that has been going viral since the beginning of this year. It’s already famous on SM sites.”

“Then is this your preference?”

I had the same question, but Jiyong firmly denied it.

“Absolutely not. My friend said that it is true that Taek-in downloaded this video, but that the next one was not. I guess the reason Taek-in had this video was because of this.”

Jiyong played the next video. It was the same scene I saw a while ago. But the picture quality was better. And there was no mosaic. I could see the face of the man whipping me.

“My friend said this wasn’t downloaded. They say it looks like the original, but the video was first saved to the computer and then the pornographic video was downloaded. If Taek-in knew the man in the video...”

"know."

I gritted my teeth as I answered.

“That bastard is the class president.”

While I was glaring at the paused video, the two people fell silent. After a while, Jiyong spoke.

“That’s true as expected.”

“You don’t even know the class president’s face, so how did you think it was him?”

Jiyong opened the third video without saying a word. 1/3 of the screen was covered by something. It was a hidden camera, as if it had been placed in a bag. The camera captured what appeared to be a hotel room, with a man sitting on a bed stomping on a man lying on his back with his arms and legs tied to the floor. The man lying face down was naked.

‘Are you crying? Are you crying already? 'We haven't even started yet?'

He was also the class president. Jiyong paused at one point on the screen. The man on the ground turned his head and showed a little of his face.

“Look, it’s Taek-in, right?”

While I was silent, Mr. Chungyeon looked at me and nodded his head.

“That’s right.”

"The date pictured here is later than the day Taekin downloaded the video. I don't know exactly what happened, but I wonder if Taekin knew what the class president was doing and tried to stop him, but ended up getting hit... Huh? Boss, where are you going? Are you going to do it?"

“Close the store door yourself.”

I sighed calmly and turned around, but Chung-yeon held my arm tightly.

“No. President Kwon, no.”

He must have sensed my thoughts and shook his head with sunken eyes.

“Are you trying to do something right now? No, don’t do it. First, understand the situation better, and then report it to the police…”

“That bastard has been released before. Don’t you think he won’t do it this time? And if we say that this video was all done because they liked it, then that’s the end, right?”

“But President Kwon...”

“Let go. Before I hit you.”

I grabbed his wrist with my hand to pull him away. But before I could pull it away, he lunged at me.

“Oh fuck, let go of this!!”

I struggled and screamed, but he held my torso with both his arms and cried out to Jiyong.

“Jiyong! Call him quickly!!! Quickly!!!”

“Let go before I kill everyone!!!”

I opened the lid in such a useless place.