GC Ch 7

After dividing the money, excluding the fifty thousand won to be paid as the coffee cost, and properly distributing it inside both soles of my feet, I put the rest of my socks on. I had been stripped of my bank accounts and lacked a proper place to stay, so I had nowhere to store it away from Kim Jeongsuk’s sight, but no matter what happened, I intended not to let this money be taken. Even if I had to shove it up my ass and carry it around.

‘I’m thinking of seeing you often. What do you think?’

The cave-like, low voice echoed inside my head as if I had just heard it. A chill, as if I were actually inside a cave, ran down my spine. Did he give me such a large tip because he planned to call me again? Whatever the reason, when a face that didn’t look like it was smiling even when smiling threw a question with no options, I had no choice but to answer like this.

‘I also… want to see you often, Boss.’

‘Are you sure.’

‘I am sure.’

Recalling those eyes that scanned my face one last time, my body shivered. At my words that I was sure, Boss Chu just gestured without a word for me to leave. Up until I opened the door and walked out, my ankle throbbed severely, and I knew the reason without even turning around. It was because of Boss Chu’s gaze. How could something so formless make a person so terrified? Even now, as I recalled it, my bladder tingled with fear. It was a miracle I didn’t wet myself on the spot. I felt pity all over again for the men who must have been beaten half to death by a guy like that.

Cramming my feet containing the banknotes into my sneakers, I turned the ignition. All of a sudden, the image of Boss Chu severing an ankle flashed vividly before my eyes, making the hand turning the car key flinch. In an instant, a burning pain shot through my right ankle, which had been grabbed in Boss Chu’s hand.

“…Fuck.”

Slamming down on the accelerator, I sped away from Gimun as if running for my life, when a phone call came in from Kim Jeongsuk. Whether it rang or not, I ignored it to the end and didn’t answer. With the mindset of making her sweat a little, too.

∞ ∞ ∞

Kim Jeongsuk, who was sitting at the counter, scowled as she saw me walking in. By the looks of it, she had been waiting a long time.

“What were you doing to come just now? Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“I left it in the car, so I couldn’t answer.”

“Is it that you intentionally didn’t answer?”

“Why would I do that? When you called, Auntie, I was right in the middle of pouring coffee.”

Suppressing the urge to grab her by the collar, I walked straight past the counter and into the kitchen. Kim Jeongsuk pulled her chair, stood up, and chased after me.

“Did Boss Chu hold onto you like that?”

“Yeee-es.”

“What did he do? Did he mess with you?”

“Noooo.”

Whether she felt guilty about something, unlike other times, Kim Jeongsuk didn’t hold a long grudge and instead even snatched the coffee bundle from my hand. Handing those over to the kitchen auntie in my place, she began staring intently at my face. “Then what?” Her probing gaze was identical to a certain day in the past.

‘Don’t you want to pay off your mother’s debt all at once? Want to try taking tickets?’

The bad business owner who brought a green, young me into the coffee shop and made me work, not to mention trying to broker prostitution, was none other than this Kim Jeongsuk. Saying that quite a few customers found me cute, she began gently coaxing me to just go watch a movie with them. Fortunately, my temper back then was far more explosive than it is now. Hearing those words, my mind snapped and I went wild with a knife on the spot, so Kim Jeongsuk—who was tougher than a man—never uttered such words out loud again. But now, her gaze right in front of my eyes was just like back then. Don’t tell me this is a scheme to start assigning me delivery work in earnest, starting with Gimun?

“Even when the girls go, they come out in ten minutes. Did you do something else?”

I took a step closer to Kim Jeongsuk, who was pressing for an answer. Instead of getting angry, I met her eyes and offered a bright smile.

“Gosh, Auntie. I really just poured coffee like crazy. I don’t know what day it was today, but those gangster bastards were gathered in swarms. There were even two guys who looked like they were on the verge of dying. Pouring a glass for each of them was why it took so long. Here, the coffee money.”

Rummaging through my back pocket, I placed the fifty thousand won received from Boss Chu gently into Kim Jeongsuk’s hand. Then, I turned around and moved toward the hall.

Getting angry and talking back was nothing short of asking to be killed. Especially after seeing Gang Munsu—the self-proclaimed ‘our nephew’ whom Kim Jeongsuk dragged around day and night—coming out of the restroom, I had to exercise even more self-control. He was the human who had splashed pig blood on me by the river, and if I recklessly talked back to Kim Jeongsuk in front of that bastard, I almost got beaten to a bloody pulp.

Twenty-nine-year-old Gang Munsu, who fell on the well-built and handsome side, was a guy who frequently went in and out of the police station due to his hot-headed habit of using his fists. I heard he was a promising boxing prospect famous enough to be featured in national newspapers during his school days. That guy got drunk on his sixteenth birthday and beat a person to death, ruining his life completely. After being sent to a juvenile detention center for a long term, he came out into society and did all kinds of dirty work, and now seeing him act as a pimp for a woman old enough to be his mother, I thought he was a guy beyond any redemption. Still, he didn’t seem to beat his woman. Probably because she was his only source of money, though.

“Minjo, hi. I heard you went on a delivery.”

“Ah, yes.”

Gang Munsu waved his hand as he walked toward me. I tried to just pass by him, but because he initiated conversation, I had to offer an insincere greeting.

“So, was it doable?”

“Well, just…. I used to do it a lot in the past, too.”

“Ah, really? Then you must be skilled. Fuck, I hadn’t learned properly, so I stumbled like hell.”

“…Ah. It seems you’ve gone out on a delivery before, Mister.”

“Yeah. Just once. Me too, like you, to Gimun.”

Gimun?

Whether it was a joke or the truth, I couldn’t tell from Gang Munsu’s expression. Just then, Kim Jeongsuk threw out a meaningful remark from behind.

“Is this all he gave?”

“Pardon?”

When I turned around, Kim Jeongsuk’s eyes were glaring fiercely before I knew it. The gaze pinned on my face began to drift down slowly, soon locking onto my pants pockets.

“Is fifty thousand won all of it?”

“What are you talking about? That amount is plenty to receive. Even that money, I forcefully got it from him when he wasn’t going to give it. Do you know how much I cowed in front of Boss Chu?”

Fearing her gaze might drift down toward my feet where the money was hidden, I spoke with a hasty smile. Surely, these were just probing words without any certainty. So I must not stutter or act scared. Intentionally putting on an annoyed expression, I shoved my hands into both pockets and turned them inside out.

“What, did you think I pocketed something?”

“What are you saying. There must be a tip you received.”

“….”

…Fuck, they said her life in this industry spanned nearly 30 years, and indeed her intuition was remarkable. But I was also a guy who had grown up in this industry. Letting out a dry laugh as if it were absurd, I shook my head.

“A tip? Are you asking if I brought back a tip from Gimun right now?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you joking? Without even knowing that I almost got beaten up just for showing up with a dick.”

However, Kim Jeongsuk was no easy opponent. Signaling with her eyes to Gang Munsu behind her, she also stepped up in front of me. Kim Jeongsuk poked my lower abdomen with her left hand, which was wearing a thick gold ring.

“Bring it out while I’m speaking nicely.”

“Fuck, I said I don’t have it, seriously!”

Not cursing was actually the strange thing to do. To get out of this safely, the execution had to be flawless to the end. I immediately ripped off the t-shirt I was wearing and unbuckled my jeans.

“If you can’t believe me, search me then.”

Pulling my pants down to my ankles, I shouted at Kim Jeongsuk. “Should I strip off my underwear, too? Is that what it takes for you to believe me?”

Having exposed my naked body to Kim Jeongsuk multiple times already, there was nothing embarrassing about it. Even when I was drenched in pig blood, I was washed in the river and dragged back in the car completely naked. If there were delivery ladies inside the coffee shop, I couldn’t have gone this far, but fortunately, as if they had gone out on deliveries in another car, there were only the three of us. Ah, four including the auntie in the kitchen.

Kim Jeongsuk looked me down up and down in my underwear with a strange gaze. As if she was truly certain of something, there was no wavering in her eyes. It made me uneasy.

“Munsu-ya. You went on a delivery to Gimun before, right? How much of a tip did you come back with then?”

“Around a hundred thousand won, I think.”

“Who gave you that?”

“Some girl running a host bar handed it to me along with a business card. Telling me to sleep with her once.”

The moment my heart dropped, Kim Jeongsuk grabbed a fistful of my hair tightly. Bringing her heavily made-up face right up to mine, she whispered with her bad breath wafting over:

“You heard that, right?”

“S-So what. What does that have to do with me?”

In an instant, Kim Jeongsuk’s eyes grew even fiercer, and she raised her hand to my eye level. My cheek was tapped unpleasantly, over and over.

“Every time you act like this, I feel sorry for your mother. Giving birth to a child who’s so terribly lacking, huh?”

“….”