PAX 44

It was almost midnight by the time I arrived at Pachulso. Dad came out to the yard.

“You’re late, Seongshin. Are you alright?”

“Yes. I was just wandering around here and there.”

“Nothing happened?”

“No.”

I took off my helmet.

“Oh, what’s wrong with your lip?”

“Ah, I cut it while I was cutting an apple with a knife.”

“With your own knife?”

Dad’s eyes widened, and he pointed toward my feet. I gave him a smile, pretending to be embarrassed.

“Yes. I was just trying to look tough for no reason.”

Dad laughed heartily.

“I see. There are times like that. Being full of bravado and getting into little accidents.”

I walked toward the entryway with Dad.

“Did you eat dinner?”

“Yes.”

“You must be tired.”

“I’m okay. How was the picnic?”

Mom, Dad, and most of the family had gone on an outing to the beach today.

“It was fun. We ate, played in the water, took naps, and then stayed until sunset, so we got back a bit late, too.”

“The kids must have fallen asleep early.”

Dad chuckled.

“Yeah. They were all so tired they fell fast asleep.”

As I walked inside, I ran into Mom coming out of the kitchen.

“It’s been a while, Seongshin.”

Mom hugged me with a bright smile.

“I’m sorry I was out for so long.”

“What is there to be sorry for? We all need our own free time. But your lip….”

“He said he cut it while eating an apple with a knife.”

Dad quickly interjected.

“Eh?”

“You know how boys get, trying to act all cool and doing reckless things. Like that game where you spread your fingers wide and stab a knife between them quickly.”

“That’s cute.”

Mom’s laughing gaze drifted toward my neck, and she seemed to flinch. Looking to the side, I saw Dad staring at my neck as well. At that moment, Ahn Yutan came to mind, and I reflexively covered my neck.

Mom and Dad looked at each other and then back at me.

“Are you dating someone?”

Dad asked with an awkward laugh.

“Ah-ah, did you come home late because you were dating?”

Now he asked with a joyful laugh.

I felt heat rising from the neck I was covering all the way to my face. I imagined my face was probably as red as the hickey on my neck.

“It might not be dating, maybe it was just sex. Like a one-night stand.”

Mom said nonchalantly.

“That’s right. True. You don’t necessarily have to be dating to have sex.”

“You’re an adult, so whichever it is, there’s no need to worry about what we think.”

“Seongshin, but you have to be careful about STDs. Definitely use a condom. If you need any, tell Dad.”

“Yes. And if you ever need to go to a urologist or an OB-GYN, don’t worry about it alone; definitely tell us. We will help you. We can solve it together.”

This is driving me crazy.

“I’m going upstairs….”

I squeezed between Mom and Dad and headed for the stairs.

“Oh, wait, Seongshin.”

Mom called me, and I turned back. I held my neck firmly and looked somewhere near Mom’s feet.

“I talked to Gayoung during the day, but how about working with Gayoung starting tomorrow?”

I looked at Mom’s face.

“The work in the Nageon District?”

“Yes. I think it would be good to take her along and teach Gayoung about the Pigeon work.”

For a moment, my mind went blank, but I quickly pulled myself together. I didn’t know how my expression had changed, so I rubbed my lips to cover them, even though it was meaningless.

“You mean a handover?”

“Not exactly that, but I was thinking it would be good if you two split the work after you teach Gayoung. It’s too much work for you to do alone.”

Is that the truth? I had never once thought the work was too much. It was work that started in the morning and ended around lunch, from Monday to Saturday. And unlike the other Pachulso workers, I didn’t even have to do any manual labor.

Lost in my thoughts, I studied Mom’s face for a moment before forcing myself to focus.

“Oh, yes.”

“Gayoung said she’d be ready at the time you leave tomorrow, so you can just go out together.”

“But I’m fine doing it alone like I am now.”

“It’s good to reduce work as much as possible. It’s more important to work only as much as really needed and spend your time freely. Doing what you like and meeting the people you like. Isn’t that so?”

I don’t disagree with that sentiment.

I reluctantly nodded.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Good. I’d like you to try going together just for this week. Gayoung is as smart as you are, so she’ll learn quickly. After that, from the following week, I think you can just alternate days with Gayoung.”

“Yes.”

“Good. Thank you. Go on and get some rest.”

“Goodnight.”

“Sleep well, Seongshin.”

I bowed and went up the stairs.

While walking up to the third floor, only one thought crossed my mind. That I am going to die in a week.

It was clear that they wanted Gayoung to take over before they got rid of me. Since the Pigeon work is different from the one-off tasks of the other workers, they need someone to teach her how to establish a system, the way Dad had first done with me.

Of course, Dad could teach Gayoung directly even without me, but well, why? Anyway, to use me as much as possible while I’m still alive?

I entered my room and sat quietly on the chair.

“…I was thinking it would be good if you two split the work after you teach Gayoung.”

Maybe it’s the truth.

They must have said it because it’s the truth.

Not to get rid of me the week after training Gayoung for a week, but truly to have the two of them split the Pigeon work.

So, this means I’m not suddenly disappearing in a week after leaving a note for Mom and Dad saying I’m becoming independent, nor am I going to be involved in some sudden accident and be carted off in Mom and Dad’s car.

It means the me of one week from now will be alternating the Pigeon work with Gayoung.

There is no way Mom and Dad would do something strange to me. There is no reason for them to do such things to me, and there is no reason they would have done so to all the family members who have disappeared and died until now.

I sat there like that for a long time.

Though they had thrown those words at me as a way to appease me out of habit, in the end, my thoughts settled on the conclusion that Mom and Dad were planning to eliminate me after a week.

For nearly two years, I had been constantly wavering between two starkly different paths. Since a deadline of ‘one week’ had been set, regardless of what lay behind it, it was time to choose one side and push forward with certainty. Since Mom and Dad were preparing to kill me in a week, I had to choose the path of preparing not to die.

Before going to sleep, I placed a glass cup in front of the door, then moved it away. If Mom and Dad were planning to clear me out in a week, I would at least be safe during that one week of training Gayoung.

I didn’t know if I should be relieved by that fact.

🎈🤍

I collected the warm eggs, looked over the well-divided fields, and picked some basil leaves. Deeply inhaling the scent of the leaves helped clear my head, which had been foggy from a lack of sleep.

Ahn Yutan.

While tossing and turning all night, I often thought of Ahn Yutan.

What kind of reaction would he have? If I suddenly disappeared after a week. If he found out I had suddenly died.

If it were him, he might be able to figure out who did it and how. And then, what next?

Would he approach Gayoung? Would he make the same proposal to Gayoung, who has become the new Pigeon and the ‘number two of the Pachul-fam’? Would he beat up the family member who seems closest to Gayoung and drop them in the yard again?

Regardless, Ahn Yutan needs the workers for the grand event on the day of the physical fitness test, so he will continue to carry out his plan regardless of my death. What he needs is not Lee Seongshin, but the ‘number two of the Pachul-fam.’ So, it doesn’t matter to him who did it to me. He might be a bit annoyed that the work has become slightly cumbersome, though.

I felt a bit bewildered thinking that far.

What is this, was I hoping Ahn Yutan would feel sorry about my death?

Why would I need his mourning?

I chewed on the basil leaves for no reason. As an intense aroma spread through my mouth, my head felt refreshed again.