Vol 3 Ch 10

My father’s shouting rang out again.

‘…What a stubborn woman!’

He soon emerged from the storage room, shoving something into his chest pocket. Then he froze when he saw me standing at the top of the stairs, staring down at him.

‘…Yeowon.’

I quietly uttered, ‘Father.’ 

The sound of it sent a chill down my spine, even to my own ears. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve been slapped for speaking to him like that. But strangely, Father avoided my gaze as I stared intently at him, as though he’d been caught stealing.

‘…What are you doing here? Where have you been all this time?’

 I took a step toward him. He took a step back. I took another step forward, my eyes glancing at the bundle in his arms.

 ‘What’s that?’

 Father scrunched up his face and twisted one side of his lips into a sneer.

 ‘It’s a bankbook your mother had hidden away.’

I clamped my mouth shut. Father adjusted the bundle in his arms and brushed past me.

 ‘That wretched woman. If she had this kind of money, she should’ve handed it over sooner. Instead, she hoarded it away like a rat behind her husband’s back, only to get caught—serves her right!’

As he headed down the stairs, I finally forced my stiff lips to move.

 ‘…Father, Mother’s in the hospital right now. She’s sick.’

 Father froze in place. For a brief moment, I felt a flicker of relief. It was pitiful, but I was relieved that he was shaken, that he cared even a little about Mother’s condition.

‘They said she hit her head on something hard, and blood poured out. Outside and inside.’

Father said nothing. From my angle, all I could see was the back of his head. I couldn’t see his expression, but I continued, hoping—praying—that the dreadful, disgusting assumption in my mind wasn’t true.

‘You know Mrs. Kyunghee, right? She said that on the day Mother collapsed and was taken to the hospital, she heard the two of you fighting. She was trembling in fear, but then she heard Mother scream and thought someone might actually die, so she came over.’

 ‘…….’

 ‘Mother was lying at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding, and you… you were nowhere to be found.’

My faint voice broke through the heavy air.

 ‘Mrs. Kyunghee said she couldn’t bring herself to say more than that.’

 ‘…….’

 ‘But the way she looked at me….’

Oh, you poor child. Your mother’s lying there with her head cracked open, and your father… your father is… I called out to Father again.

 ‘Father.’

 Say something. I added that as I grabbed his arm. Through my blurry vision, I saw his face. He spoke coldly, without the slightest hint of hesitation.

 ‘She was destined to die young anyway.’

 ‘…….’

 ‘A wife and a son who don’t know their place—no wonder the family’s in ruins.’

Then, with a loud hock, he spat on the floor, as if to rid himself of something filthy.

I blinked, and the drops of spit fell to the ground. In a voice that was low and terrifying, Father warned,

 ‘She’s going to die soon anyway, so don’t get any ideas. Just go and say your last goodbye.’

He descended the stairs. I turned my tear-streaked face to watch his cold, unfeeling back as it retreated.

Once again, Mrs. Kyunghee’s pitying expression flashed through my mind. Oh, you poor child. Your mother’s lying there with her head cracked open, and your father… your father’s the one who killed her.

I dropped my head. Through my blurry vision, I noticed the brick propping open the storage room door. Picking it up was an impulsive act. Chasing him down the stairs and smashing it into the back of his head was driven by the fury boiling inside me.

‘…Urgh!’

Father’s eyes flew wide open as the impact landed on his head. His bulky body lost balance and tumbled down the stairs. He rolled down the steps, crashing into the wall at the bottom, and collapsed.

Blood spurted from his broken head like a whale’s blowhole. The thick fingers that had dealt countless blows to me and Mother trembled on the floor.

As I explained that day, my voice grew quieter. My words trailed off, but the man said nothing, simply listening in silence.

“And that’s when I started running.”

I finally finished. I let out a deep sigh of relief. My palms were damp with sweat, but with both hands held by the man in front of me, I could only wiggle my fingertips. My bandaged fingers swayed in the air like jellyfish tentacles.

“My uncle scraped my fingerprints off with sandpaper, so they were all mangled. But since they’re skin, they eventually regenerated… and so….”

His sharp gaze bore into me.

“So you sanded your fingerprints with a piece of sandpaper stolen from a construction site?”

At his question, I swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat. I’d checked my surroundings repeatedly before stuffing the sandpaper into my pocket, afraid of being caught. But even then, I was under his watchful eyes. The man in front of me sighed silently, narrowing his eyes as if struggling to comprehend.

“Doing that wouldn’t erase them. Your uncle might not know better, but you’re not that stupid, are you?”

 “…No.”

My pale hands curled inward.
 

“These scars are from the memories that haunt me every time I recall that moment.” 

“…I see.”

The man holding my wrists hummed quietly. I lowered my gaze to the floor, away from the wall I’d been staring at. My toes curled inward as well. I wanted to disappear into the ground. If not that, I at least wanted to crawl under the table.

“So?”

When he nudged my shoulder with the question, I asked back,

 “What?” 

“Keep talking.”

He urged me to continue. I widened my eyes in surprise, hesitating as I stammered,

“…That’s it.”

Only then did I realize my story had reached its end. CEO Jang frowned slightly.

“No.”

 He stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray and shook his head. No, that’s not it.

 “You’re missing the important parts.”

 Feeling somewhat flustered, I asked him,

 “…What parts?”

 “You need to say what kind of face you made, how you felt, what you were thinking when you dealt with your father, and how you handled it.”

 “……”

 “If you leave out such crucial details, there’s no reason for me to be hearing this story from you, Mr. Seo.”

 At his calm urging, I reached into the depths of my memory.

 “…It took quite some time for me to grasp the situation. Even though my father was lying at the bottom of the stairs, his head cracked open, bleeding profusely, I couldn’t think of anything to do. I was frozen with fear….”

 “Were you crying then too?”

 I nodded slowly.

 “…Yes.”

 “Figures.”

 Contrary to the sigh that escaped his lips, his eyes gleamed with interest as they focused on me

 “Tell me more. In detail.”

 I closed my eyes tightly and spoke as if vomiting out what was inside me.

 “…It felt like a knife had slid between my ribs. My heart felt as though it was being split in two by a chilling sensation.” 

I hoped he wouldn’t ask anything more, that he would stop. But he didn’t.

 “And then what happened?”

 “…My phone hadn’t been charged for days, and my uncle’s phone broke when we tumbled down the stairs together. The lady next door was at the hospital, taking care of my mother….”

 He gestured with his chin, signaling me to continue.

 “In the end, I carried my father on my back. My back was soaked with his blood. The ground beneath my feet was slick with the red liquid. I rushed out of the house in a panic and ran into my uncle, who was just coming back.”

At the mention of a new character, CEO Jang raised his eyebrows slightly before letting them fall. While catching my breath at the doorway, something fell from my father. My uncle picked it up and flipped through it. Already consumed by fear, I had no presence of mind to discern what it was and instead urgently asked him for help.

 “I told him we had to get to the hospital immediately. My uncle slapped me hard across the face, telling me to snap out of it.”

 ‘You crazy fool! What are you planning to do at the hospital? With your mother already bedridden, who’ll take care of her if you end up getting caught?’

 While I stood trembling, my uncle went inside the house and came back with a blanket and some rope. He told me to lay my father’s limp body down in the yard. He wrapped my father in the blanket and tied it tightly with the rope.

 My uncle grabbed my father’s legs, and I held his upper body. Even through the blanket, I could tell immediately that it was my father. We loaded his limp body onto the truck bed and covered it with a cloth. My uncle’s truck sped off toward the mountain with my father in the back. Watching the truck grow smaller in the distance, I looked down at my hands. My trembling hands were smeared with my father’s blood.

I paused after speaking this much.

 CEO Jang seemed lost in thought, silent and saying nothing. The grip of his hands, which held my wrists, grew tighter and tighter. A pained groan escaped my lips, and only then did his submerged consciousness resurface. In a detached tone, he said,

 “So, it wasn’t that you had no one to rely on, was it?”

 …Someone to rely on. That didn’t seem like the right term for my uncle.

Afraid that our location might be discovered, I couldn’t even send my mother’s hospital fees or repay my father’s debt directly. Everything had to go through my uncle. Looking back now, I wondered if that was exactly what my uncle wanted. If I became a helpless fool who couldn’t do anything without him, it would give him complete control over me.

So, referring to my uncle as someone to rely on didn’t seem appropriate. But I didn’t feel like voicing my objection to the man’s words. Instead, I gave a small nod. His cheek hollowed as though he were biting the inside of it with his molars. He seemed displeased, and while I was gauging his mood, CEO Jang prompted me to continue.

 “But I haven’t heard from my uncle for several months now.”

 “…Ah.”

 A toneless sigh escaped CEO Jang’s lips. It was a bone-dry exclamation.

 “He disappeared along with my mother. The hospital doesn’t seem to know where they went either.”

 “…Hmm.”

 He made a sound deep in his throat. An inexplicable smile briefly flickered across his face, but I dismissed it and spoke softly.

 “Please find my mother.”

I felt his fingertips tap the back of my hand lightly, like a piano key. Tilting his head slightly, he asked,

 “Is that all?”

 Confused, I asked back,

 “…What?”

 “Are you really satisfied with just that?”

 It was a question asking if there wasn’t more I wanted. Wasn’t that enough? There wasn’t anything more important to me at the moment. Staring at CEO Jang, who dismissed it as “just that,” I couldn’t discern his true intentions as always. Wouldn’t it be better for him if I wanted nothing more? I nodded carefully.

 “…Yes.”

Our gazes tangled in the air for a fleeting moment. Then the grip of CEO Jang’s hands on my wrists loosened as he picked up his phone. He made a call, speaking in a monotone voice to the person on the other end.

 “I need someone found.”

 A low, humming voice responded from the other side. After listening briefly, CEO Jang spoke again.

 “Mr. Seo’s mother. Im Seonhwa.”

My mother’s name, something I had never uttered aloud, spilled from his lips. Feeling as though the ground beneath me had vanished, I looked at him in shock. He glanced at me and smiled deeply. It was a domineering smile that graced his lips as if to prove a point. As if to say, “I see everything about you.”

CEO Jang hung up and casually tossed the phone onto the table.

 “You’ll hear back soon.”

 I stared at the phone, taken aback by how easily the call ended. Noticing my reaction, he added,

 “They’re very competent.”

 “…Ah.”

 Embarrassed that my thoughts had been so easily read, I lowered my gaze to avoid revealing anything further.

 “You should go rest now. Unless you plan to climb onto my lap.”

It was a dismissal.

 Considering the aftermath of what we did back at my place, my backside still felt like it was splitting in two. If he had pulled me into his arms right then, I wouldn’t have been able to resist for even a moment.

 At his words, I lowered my head lightly in a bow. He paid me no mind, pouring another drink for himself.

I left the room, my footsteps echoing softly down the narrow hallway. Immersed in my thoughts as I walked, I suddenly turned back.

 CEO Jang was staring at me. I don’t know for how long. I called out to him.

 “CEO.”

 His lips formed the word. What is it?

 “Is this part of the investment you mentioned?”

He was silent for a moment. Then, even as I turned my back on him, his gaze remained fixed on me. He cast his eyes momentarily into the void.

 “Ah.”

A peculiar silence fell, uncomfortable and uneasy. Fortunately, CEO Jang broke it.

 “Isn’t it obvious? If it weren’t, there’s no reason for me to bother with such a tiresome matter.”

 As he said, he had no reason to go this far. It was solely because of his curiosity that he took on such a troublesome request. It wasn’t an entirely convincing reason, but it worked in my favor nonetheless. It meant I still had his interest.

I watched him quietly before turning away again. I could feel his gaze on the back of my neck, but I didn’t turn around once. I felt as though I’d be pulled right back to him if I did.

“……”

 Returning to my room, I closed the door behind me and lay down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. The soft mattress cradled my shoulders and back.

 Through the window, I saw the moon hanging in the dark sky. Perhaps because of the altitude, its shape and size were much like the moon I used to see from the shack. Why was he so fixated on living in penthouses? A man with such a relentless attachment to position, I thought, as I slowly closed my eyes.

Turning onto my side, the pain flared from the walls he’d torn apart within me. To bear the discomfort, I clenched my fists tightly, the long sleeve of my shirt covering the back of my hand. The fabric of his shirt crumpled into my grasp.

Tonight, too, the night would be long.