THM Ch 9

Like that, Nando climbed into the back seat of the vehicle with Taegyuk holding the steering wheel and Sanggoo sitting in the passenger seat. Calling out an address to Taegyuk, he instructed him to enter it into the navigation system.

“Memorize the way we’re going right now well. Since it’s a place you’ll be frequenting from now on.”

Whether it wasn’t a boast, the fellow possessed skillful driving ability. To the extent that even compared with Sanggoo, it didn’t fall behind at all. Occasionally when Sanggoo was busy, it seemed like it would be fine to order him around as a driver instead.

Nando leisurely appreciated through the rearview mirror the eye lines of the driver watching the front. Whether because he knew there was an appreciating gaze, he didn’t meet his eyes even once. That again hit Nando’s liking.

The place arrived at was a certain property set apart from the city area. Like a construction site where a large-scale apartment complex would enter or a wasteland appearing regularly in Western movies, a dreary land mass of mere dry dirt spread out endlessly. In a certain place there, a long 2-story detached house existed as if dropped out of nowhere from the sky, and that right there was Nando’s house.

Taegyuk, who had been watching only the front all along, met his eyes through the rearview mirror only then. When Nando recited, “My house,” the fellow bowed his head slightly, saying, Yes.

Though the land itself was dreary, landscaping was on the neat side near the property where the house was built. A natural lawn laid out in the shape of a pond in the middle of the yard and a single huge pine tree planted next to it were actually all of what was decorated, though. To prevent soil dust, all other places were constructed with concrete, and perhaps because of that, it looked even more dreary. The fact that the number of windows was extremely small like a house built for the purpose of confinement and hiding, and the building’s outer wall finished with dark volcanic stone, would also contribute to the gloomy atmosphere.

Although he had a single apartment prepared separately close to the office, he liked living here rather than there. As for the reason, it was because there were zero factors to disturb even if he committed any kind of act. Father, Mother, younger brothers who made his heart crumble, neighbors who looked at himself recklessly mingling with men and women entering in droves periodically with dirty gazes, this and that, that and this, and so forth.

At any rate, the only one who settled down in this place like a discarded land mass was Nando alone, so neither walls nor a main gate were needed. Since it was scheduled to be reclaimed only several years later, until then he intended to continue living like this here as it was.

“Go continuously inside so Director can get off. Up to the front of the garage.”

In front, Kang Sanggoo spoke quietly to Goo Taegyuk. Even to Sanggoo’s informal instruction, Taegyuk complied submissively. He was a fellow who grasped his position and place very well too.

The car was brought to a stop. Sanggoo said he would open the door for him, but Nando ignored it and got off on his own feet. Soon both fellows stepped out of the car.

“Taegyuk, come over here.”

When calling Goo Taegyuk by crooking his index finger upward, he immediately ran around the car and stood in front of Nando. Pointing with his chin at the front door visible beyond the fellow’s shoulder, Nando spoke.

“When I tell you to come home, come straight here, punch in the passcode, and enter. The passcode is 4975.”

Without even checking behind, the fellow answered. As if answering was the priority, saying, “Yes, I understand.”

“It’s the same when I tell you to wait at home. Whether I am inside the house or not.”

“I will do so.”

“There’s no need to take off your clothes in advance. Since it won’t be late even if you do that after seeing my face.”

“…Yes.”

He scanned up and down in turn the two guys standing side by side. Both possessed non-trivial height and bulk, but one side looked like looking at a finished product processed according to specifications, and one side looked like looking at a defective product that hadn’t gone through even a bit of inspection. The former was Kang Sanggoo, and the latter was Goo Taegyuk, so it seemed to be because of the clothes they were wearing, not a matter of appearance. Strictly by appearance alone, Kang Sanggoo—carrying a blade-like gaze and a hideous knife scar on his forehead—was closer to a defective product, after all.

Nando approached Sanggoo first and intentionally readjusted his tie, which was tied impeccably well. Next, crossing over to Taegyuk, instead of a non-existent tie, he grabbed the loosely fastened zipper of his jumper and pulled it straight up to the end of his neck.

“Starting tomorrow, don’t appear in front of me in this kind of attire. If you come like today, you’ll be hit with a stick.”

Smoothly lifting his eyes and looking up at Taegyuk, the fellow was staring into mid-air. Scraping down under the fellow’s jaw, he spoke.

“Team Leader Kang will buy your work clothes on the way. Once you receive those and go home, today is over.”

On his way to the front door, he stopped and looked back at Taegyuk. Quick-wittedly, the fellow was bowing his waist following Kang Sanggoo.

The inside of the house where curtains were drawn layer upon layer was dark even though it was daytime. Without turning on a light, he went to the kitchen and poured and drank a glass of liquor first.

His stomach filled up hot, and the sound of the car departing was heard.

Lying long as he pleased on the sofa, he looked up at the ceiling with a high floor height. The strange feeling where the height of the ceiling thudded lower every time he blinked his eyes didn’t go anywhere. Still, perhaps because his mood was better than usual due to the big catch, it took a long time until he felt like he was trapped inside a narrow coffin.

∞ ∞ ∞

7:00 AM. Opening his eyes to a noisy ringing sound near his head, he saw it was a ringtone coming from his cell phone. Right at the three letters ‘Father’ visible on the screen, Nando’s sleepiness cleared away annoyedly. The moment he picked up saying, “Yes, Father,” an order was heard straight away. They say your maternal uncle is coming in on the 5 o’clock flight today, so you go out to the airport.

‘—He says the one he wants to see most is you, you child.’

Meet him, eat meals and drink alcohol, and serve your uncle with sincere devotion through dirty nightlife; he was saying those words. While also enduring the love his maternal uncle poured out harshly.

It was an event held periodically once every 6 months, or if short, once every 3 months. He answered concisely, just like when he picked up the phone.

“Yes, Father.”

Before even properly putting a period, the signal connected to the other side cut off abruptly. Father’s voice vanished in an instant, and the silence filling that blank space. However, Nando’s nasty heart covered them like a shadow.

“Fucking maternal uncle. Son of a bitch. Dirty fucking bastard.”

His maternal uncle Ok Myeongchan, who had emigrated to the Philippines long ago, was Father’s old friend and business partner, and as a person whose main work was money laundering and hitman work, he was the person in charge of overseas branches. He was also a person who cherished Mother terribly, even more than her husband, calling her his only younger sibling. Even though he wasn’t married, he had a desire for heirs, so the children he had from this woman and that woman alone reached five. Because such a person’s heart thinking of his nephew grew big, he had been making sudden entries into the country to visit Nando two or three times every year.

Today was right that day.

Meeting with his maternal uncle always aroused anger. What was just displeasing at first now aroused a urge to murder just by seeing his maternal uncle’s shadow. He couldn’t live without seeing him. As family, his maternal uncle was a key member of Junan. A person who knew Junan well, a person who looked into the things happening in Junan inside and out, a person clear on the inside story, a person deeply entangled there, a participant, a bystander, a conspirator, a fucking bastard. In other words, it meant that until degenerating into the current helpless plight, his maternal uncle’s faction was not to be underestimated either.

A point that could be considered fortunate was that he did not stay long. As if this place had never been his home country, he had never exceeded more than four days at any time. It would likely be the same this time as well.

Thinking of what would happen in the afternoon right away, his head throbbed. He reached his hand out to the nightstand and searched for the pill bottle. In a fit of anger he swallowed them at once, but even so, only two pills had remained. Grinding and swallowing the medicine starting to melt stuck to his tongue, suddenly someone popped up in his mind. It was Goo Taegyuk.

His jaw moved quietly up and down. Right, there was that fellow.

Rubbing every corner inside his mouth with his tongue to remove the bitter taste of the medicine, he gradually expanded Goo Taegyuk’s volume inside his head. On the principle that once he shot a load, for a while he didn’t feel like dick-ing around, how about calling the fellow and resolving his anger in advance? Since until now it hadn’t had much effect, but if it was Goo Taegyuk, it might be different.

Call him, or not. Tell him to rush over right now and take off his clothes, or not. Words embracing the same purpose though the expressions were different were alphabetized, repeatedly scattering around Goo Taegyuk, gathering, and scattering back again.