episode_0002

I worked part-time loading and unloading delivery trucks and my back started to hurt.

Is it because it’s been a long time since I’ve done something like this……..?

I was lying there with a patch on my waist, unable to move.

Fuck……. There was so much water and rice in the warehouse……. I thought I was knocking on the door of the underworld trying to load them onto the truck.

I turned over with difficulty and lay down, then picked up the remote control.

When I turned on the television, a documentary was on.

It was like some kind of human theater program… It was a stereotypical program that showed the daily life of a daycare center with a very warm gaze.

People watching that broadcast probably don’t know what an orphanage or daycare center is like.

The orphanage I grew up in was a place closer to hell.

A jungle-like place where the weak can become food.

I had to fight every single day to survive there. Perhaps it was because it was a poor orphanage in a rural area, so the supervision by the authorities was lax.

Now that I think about it, there was a girl I was close with at the time.

She was a girl the same age as me… She was unusually weak and had a gloomy personality.

Because of that, the child was always the target of bullying at the orphanage, and I ended up having to protect the child.

At the orphanage I lived in at the time, it was considered normal for weak children, whether male or female, to be beaten and bullied. When snacks like bread were given out, the weak children would all have them taken away by the other children.

It was truly a wild place.

But that child in particular caught my eye.

So, I took care of that child, protected him, fed him, and looked after him carefully.

That may be the greatest good deed I’ve ever done in my life.

Then one day, the girl was lucky enough to be adopted and was released from the orphanage… and we haven’t met or contacted each other since then.

That child probably didn’t want to remember his days at the orphanage again. I can understand that.

How did that girl grow up?

What was the name…….

Hye……..Yoon?

I think that was the name.

Hyeyoon. Bin Hyeyoon.

That’s why his nickname was Bindae. His last name was Bin, and he was nicknamed Bindae because he always stuck to me.

Well, I’m sure you’re eating well and living well wherever you are now.

***

The next morning.

Tall skyscrapers.

Hye-yoon, sitting alone in a spacious office, had her eyes fixed on her laptop monitor and was fiddling with decorative bullets with one hand.

-Knock. Knock. Knock.

A polite knock on the door.

“Come in.”

Then the door opened and Alex, who was on secretary and security duty, came in.

“What were you doing?”

“I was calculating the bribes to feed to the old politicians. What’s going on?”

Alex bowed his head slightly and handed over the file he was holding.

“The boss told me to investigate last time…….”

“Ah? That?”

Hye-yoon, who was now used to being called boss, quickly received the document file.

Hye-yoon, who had turned around, opened the file and started reading the documents.

I read it once and then read it again.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment.

Alex was staring at the back of his boss’s head with his hands clasped politely in front of him.

After a while, Hye-yoon opened her mouth.

“……Everything written here. Is it all true?”

“Yes, Boss. I have written down all the latest information about the person named Woo Sung-won.”

Hyeyoon put her hand on her forehead and sighed deeply.

“Why are we living like this? What the heck……..”

A lament-like soliloquy that flowed from Hye-yoon’s mouth.

Alex intervened without missing a beat.

“That guy Woo Sung-won seems to be having a hard time lately. He’s a few months behind on his rent for the studio he’s currently living in. He was dumped by his girlfriend and fired from his job… and of course, he doesn’t have any savings.”

Hye-yoon put the document file down on the table and touched her eyes with her fingers as if she was tired.

I sighed again.

“Who is that guy? Why did you order me to investigate?”

When Alex asked, Hye-yoon glared at him with bloodshot eyes.

Alex, whose mouth was swollen, quickly lowered his head and apologized.

“I’m sorry, boss. I’m sorry I let my guard down….”

“It’s personal. Don’t worry about it.”

The boss didn’t seem to be in a good mood, so Alex quickly changed the subject.

“Another organization has contacted us. They want to deliver cash to us?”

“Why?”

“He said let’s get along well. Hmm…. Maybe it’s a kind of test run?

Hyeyoon answered, letting go of her hair that was tied up in a ponytail.

“Oh my. I don’t need that. Tell me to choose one of the two. Either bow down and come under me. Or die.”

“…….Okay, I understand.”

Alex bowed his head and left Hye-yoon’s office.

Hye-yoon touched her shoulder as if she was tired and muttered contemptuously.

“What a bunch of worthless kids……..”

Hyeyoon was standing by the window, blankly thinking, when something occurred to her.

Hye-yoon took out her phone and called Alex.

“Alex, I have something to ask you. We have some good guys in our organization, right?”

***

A few days later.

I worked at a moving company.

It was better than loading and unloading packages, but it was still incredibly difficult.

But I still have to put food in my mouth… What can I do?

As I was carrying a large box, I suddenly felt a pain in my lower back and couldn’t stand it, so I put the box down with a thud.

Then, the man who was carrying a box next to me with a towel around his neck gave me a piece of paper.

“Oh my. Everything inside is broken. Handle the box carefully. Why is the young man like this?”

“Sorry, sorry. My back hurts…….”

“What are you going to do with your bad back, young man? What are you going to do with the night shift later?”

The old man, who seemed to be very experienced, laughed heartily while joking and leisurely carried the box out.

I took a deep breath, picked up the box again, and walked out of the apartment.

Ugh……. This is no joke. Seriously.

After the work was somewhat finished, I sat down with the moving company staff and took a short break.

Smokers smoked cigarettes and non-smokers drank canned coffee.

“Newbie. You look a bit shabby. Are you okay?”

When a staff member asked me, I just drank some water and nodded. I had no energy at all.

“Isn’t it the same for everyone to have a hard time making a living? What can I do when my young friend is so frail?”

Most of the moving company employees were older than me.

They giggled and laughed, as if they were making fun of me.

It was about three minutes later that gunshots were heard.

-Bang! Ta-bang! Bang!

Everyone’s eyes were focused on where the gunshots were coming from.

“What is this? ”

As I asked, listening to the sound of gunfire in the distance, the man standing next to me answered.

“The mafia kids are shooting again. What the heck? The mafia is really arrogant these days and causing a ruckus. I don’t know what the people of this country are doing.”

“Hasn’t it been a long time since the mafia started running around? Now they’re shooting openly on the streets?”

“They’re crazy. The mafia. You should never get involved with them. If you do something wrong, you won’t even find the body.”

The moving company employees chatted like that while smoking cigarettes.

Mafia……. Yes. Since some time ago, the mafia has increased tremendously.

They were not gangsters or thugs. They were mafias who poured enormous amounts of money into politics and were armed with guns and various weapons.

At some point, it seemed like the police had given up on catching the mafia. Maybe it was because the mafia had been shoving money into the heads of the police officers… But the mafia was now reaching a level that even public power could not handle.

One of the employees who had been smoking a cigarette opened his mouth.

“I heard it through the grapevine. You know, the Mafia Black Emily guys. I heard their boss changed recently. I heard a woman with a fresh head of hair became their boss?”

“Black Emily? Isn’t she the hottest mafia right now?”

“That’s right. But after the old boss died, the boss’s daughter started a coup. There’s a story that she killed all the old guys and became the boss herself.”

“Hey. What the hell. This is ridiculous. That big mafia got eaten up so easily?”

“I heard it through the grapevine, too. My nephew is a journalist who works for a media company. I heard it from him.”

“You’re kidding.”

……It’s like listening to a movie story.

In the mafia organization, there’s this and that successor, this and that coup d’etat…….

It’s a story from a completely different world from mine.

Even though I grew up without any, there was one principle I never broke throughout my life.

Not committing a crime.

A friend from the same orphanage went to prison not long ago on charges of theft. He was a close friend of mine…. Anyway, seeing kids around me having their lives ruined like that, I made a huge promise to myself that I would never get involved in a crime.

What about the mafia… It’s a world I really hate to even imagine.

As I thought that, I crushed the coffee can I was holding.

***

As I sat blankly at home, Yeonlim’s words kept ringing in my ears.

-Are you rich? Are you handsome? Are you talented? You’re nothing.

Fuck… You didn’t have to say that.

It feels like one side of my chest has been stabbed with a knife.

In that situation, I was speechless and couldn’t answer, so I felt like an idiot.

I couldn’t stand it anymore so I took out the soju I had bought and put in the fridge and drank it.

Ugh… I think I’ve been drinking too much lately.

If this continues, my health will really suffer.

I poured the canned soju I was drinking into the sink without any side dishes and stood up.

I want to get some fresh air.

frustrated.

I opened the door and went outside.

I went up to the roof of the building.

The place I live is a five-story one-room building. The building is relatively tall for a five-story building.

Fortunately, perhaps because it was spring, the night air was refreshing.

I climbed up to the roof of the building and glanced down.

Phew… It’s tall.

I want to smoke one.

It’s been three years since I quit smoking… but these days, my smoking cessation record is about to be broken.

A miserable life. But even so… I have no intention of dying.

Even if I die here and am reborn in another world like in some web novel, I have no intention of taking my life. That’s because I still have high self-esteem about my life.

Thinking so, I leaned against the rooftop railing and looked up at the night sky.

The moon was not even visible because it was covered by dark clouds.

The night sky is like my life.

As I was laughing and laughing to myself like that, the door to the stairwell leading to the rooftop suddenly opened with a bang.

what?

Are they the police?

A man in a police uniform shined a flashlight at me and shouted loudly.

“Are you Woo Sung-won?”

“Huh? Oh, that’s right.”

Three police officers rushed over and threw me down to the rooftop with a thud.

What the fuck? What the heck is this?

“We responded to a report that Mr. Woo Sung-won was attempting suicide. You shouldn’t do this.”

“Huh? Suicide? No, who reported it……”

“Anyway, we got a report. You were trying to commit suicide, right?”

“Oh, no. No! Who commits suicide?”

“Please go home first. Shall I assign a psychologist to you?”

“No. Wait. Wait.”

I stood up from my seat, pushing away the police officers, and shouted loudly.

“I don’t plan on committing suicide. I was feeling suffocated in my room so I came out to get some air……. Who reported it-”

For a moment, I got goosebumps.

That’s weird.

I didn’t run into anyone on my way up to the rooftop.

I was alone in the room the whole time.

The window curtains were closed, so no one from the building across the street saw me.

I was always alone.

Who reported me? How did they report me?

Is there a CCTV in the building’s hallways?

No. This is a place where people who live in the building often come to smoke. Even if they saw me on CCTV, there is absolutely no reason to report me as attempting suicide.

I tried to calm down and asked the police officers.

“Who reported it?”

Then the tall young policeman answered clumsily.

“The reporter’s identity is kept confidential as a basic principle. You did not attempt suicide, right?”

“Yes. No. I said no. I just came out to get some fresh air.”

The police officers looked relieved, but also annoyed that they had come all the way here for nothing.

“……… Anyway, the report has been received. That’s good. Don’t hang around here anymore. Got it?”

***

A large mansion.

Hye-yoon, who was lying in the long and wide emerald bathtub, received a phone call.

“Boss. It wasn’t a suicide attempt.”

Secretary Alex’s report.

Hyeyoon, who was holding her forehead with a tired expression, answered in a low, gloomy voice.

“Thank goodness. I thought that kid was being harsh because the situation was hopeless.”

“Should I keep watching? I installed about ten tiny hidden cameras in Woo Sung-won’s room…….”

“No. Stop monitoring for now. But leave the installed cameras alone for now. I might use them later.”

“Yes, I will do that.”

Hye-yoon hung up the phone, threw the phone aside, and dove deep into the warm water.

She sat up again and muttered while wiping the water off her face with both hands.

“Should I go and meet them in person soon…….”