Chapter 101
- She Cried a Lot
2023.08.09.
"She disappeared. I arranged a temporary residence in New York, but she didn't go there."
That was the answer Kim Tae-joon got after kneeling and pleading with his grandfather. Tae-joon immediately checked the flight records as Jaepil had instructed.
Han So-eun had accepted the plane ticket Jaepil gave her and left Incheon for Tokyo, and then Tokyo for New York. There was definitely a record of her boarding the plane. But she didn't go to the temporary residence in New York that Jaepil had provided. She didn't even show up at the New York airport, they said.
There were two possibilities. Either she transferred to another flight at the New York airport, or she slipped out of the New York airport, avoiding the eyes of the watcher Jaepil had sent.
Either way, it wouldn't be easy to track her down.
Clutching at straws, Tae-joon flew to the New York airport. And he dug through all the other flight records that had taken off after the time So-eun's plane had arrived.
But he couldn't find the name 'Han So-eun'.
Thinking he couldn't just give up, Tae-joon was introduced to a detective in New York and asked him to look for So-eun's whereabouts before returning to Korea.
He had always thought that the world was a small place, and that people who were meant to be together would meet again, but once a person decided to hide, there was nothing he could do.
Am I going to lose you again? So helplessly.
Dragging his tired body, he left the house, thinking he should return to work for now.
He hadn't paid any attention to work for a week, so he must have a lot of work piled up. Even if he quit, he had to finish what he had started. Tae-joon, feeling dizzy and lightheaded, reached for his cell phone to call a driver, but before he could even enter the phone number, he was met by a guest.
An uninvited guest. It was Yang Hee-wook.
"Kim Tae-joon. You look great, really."
Childishly, he had come to make fun of Tae-joon, who had fallen apart after Han So-eun left.
"You were trying so hard to get me disbarred."
"......"
"But what a pity. There's no precedent in Korea for revoking the license of a clean lawyer like me. You really barked up the wrong tree."
After Han So-eun left, Tae-joon tracked Yang Hee-wook's movements and strongly pushed for the revocation of Yang Hee-wook's license. He was told that it was almost impossible to revoke a lawyer's license before a verdict was reached in Korea unless it was murder or rape, so Tae-joon presented a dozen cases in which Yang Hee-wook had damaged the reputation of a lawyer. If all of these were brought to light, even ordinary lawyers would be criticized.
He heard that the disciplinary committee was meeting tomorrow, so he must have come to do something before that.
"I thought I'd mess with my girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, but it didn't work. The girlfriend ran away. You must be very tired."
Even if the guy's license was revoked, Tae-joon's anger wouldn't be relieved, but Tae-joon didn't have the energy to respond to it today. He didn't want to create anything that would make him even more angry because he was no longer in his mind.
If he could kill him, it would be perfect to kill him right here.
Tae-joon didn't show any reaction and just passed Hee-wook.
Hee-wook was dumbfounded by Tae-joon's lack of reaction, and his arm moved first. Hee-wook grabbed Tae-joon by the collar, his eyebrows raised high.
This bastard's eyes are glazed over?
Seeing Kim Tae-joon's crazy expression, adrenaline surged. Hee-wook decided to change his plan.
Slap.
"Hey, wake up. Hey."
Smack.
"Did you drink? Or drugs?"
Smack.
He grabbed him by the collar and slapped him repeatedly, but he couldn't come to his senses and just blinked his eyes, which made him laugh. He didn't smell alcohol, so it wasn't alcohol, he must have taken some drugs somewhere, and he had to take advantage of this opportunity to mess him up. You're dead now.
Get beaten up by me, and then go to the police station and get buried nationwide.
I'll be a righteous hero who caught a drug-addicted chaebol.
A thrilling scenario unfolded in Hee-wook's mind as he seized a good opportunity.
"When did you start living like this? Huh? You piece of human garbage."
It was fun to see Kim Tae-joon take a half step back when he tapped him on the shoulder. He was convinced that he couldn't report him even if he harassed him, so the desire to beat him half to death crept up.
Thud.
Hee-wook clenched his fist and punched Tae-joon in the stomach. Tae-joon just took a step back, not wincing or collapsing appropriately.
"You don't know how much I wanted to beat you."
Thud. Hee-wook punched Tae-joon repeatedly, who didn't even fall down. He wanted to beat him until he fell to the ground and rolled around.
"No. How many people must have wanted to beat you. I'm, like, the representative of the powerless common people. You need to be beaten more. You crazy bastard."
Thud, thud, thud, thud, giving strength to each word, carefully. He engraved the taste of his fist. The big guy was so tough that he didn't fall down, so Hee-wook eventually took a few steps back, ran like a bull, and pushed Tae-joon.
Thump. Only when Hee-wook's weight was fully on him did Tae-joon fall to the ground.
"Get up, you bastard."
Hee-wook, who got up first, kicked Tae-joon's legs. Tae-joon got up from his seat with a cold look.
Hee-wook smirked and sneered.
"Han So-eun ran away because she knew you were like this, right?"
At that moment, Tae-joon's expression changed.
His eyes had been hazy, as if he had drunk poison, while he was being hit repeatedly, but at the name 'Han So-eun', they instantly became clear and sharp.
No, they were still crazy eyes.
The eyes of a beast that had escaped from its cage. A murderous look as if warning that if he ever put him in that hell again, he would tear him to pieces.
Hee-wook twisted his lips and rushed in again.
Thwack!
Before Hee-wook's hand could reach him, a huge fist suddenly struck Hee-wook's chin. His chin was pushed back and his body seemed to float in the air for a moment.
He lost consciousness for a few seconds when his head hit the ground. When he came to, Tae-joon was standing close enough to him to match the distance Hee-wook had fallen. Hee-wook convulsed and pulled his butt back, feeling a vague fear that he might die.
Something caught in Hee-wook's hand, which had been pushed all the way back. When he touched it with his fingertips, he heard a metallic sound.
"Why don't you pick something up."
Tae-joon provoked, recognizing Hee-wook's hesitation.
"Pick it up and hit me. That way I'll have a reason to kill you."
"This, this, this bastard is crazy."
"Who made me like this?"
"......"
"I know."
"......"
"This won't end unless you disappear."
The terrifying voice made the air in the underground parking lot turbid.
Hee-wook rushed in again. Tae-joon took a step back and dodged flexibly as Hee-wook charged at him, making a gorilla-like sound, "Ughhhhh." Tae-joon regretted it a little when Hee-wook collapsed on his own. He should have just taken the hit.
Chief Song told him to hit him only once, but he wanted to hit him one more time.
"Get up, you X bastard."
"Ughhhhh!"
Once again, Hee-wook rushed in with his eyes turned upside down. Picking up what he had touched with his fingertips a little while ago.
It was a rusty iron pipe that had fallen from a construction site somewhere. The iron pipe shook back and forth as Yang Hee-wook swung it, raising dust. Tae-joon's eyes became hazy again. A hazy dust rose to the top of his mind, where he thought he would kill him.
He remembered the woman who had been sitting quietly on the bed, staring blankly, and had replied that she was looking at the dust when he teased her. A woman who had disappeared like dust and was embedded in his heart like gold dust.
He wondered what that woman was looking at now, and how that woman, who was not even in good health, was holding on, and all this commotion seemed futile.
No matter how much he struggled here, the woman would not return, and even this struggle would not reach her.
Yang Hee-wook's shouts sounded distant.
Tae-joon fearlessly approached and punched him as he saw him.
His eyes were spinning too.
He even had the bold thought that if an obituary was published somewhere, she might find it. He even wondered if he should just die. Should he kill that bastard and just die too?
Han So-eun, you underestimated yourself too much.
There's someone here who would turn the world upside down without you.
"Tae-joon."
At Seok-hwa's voice, Tae-joon struggled to lift his eyelids. Faint light was coming down from the white ceiling. Below it, the IV fluid in the IV stand was dangling.
Not an apartment, not his parents' house, not the company, but a hospital.
"You're not hurt, you're just sleep-deprived. Rest a little more."
Seok-hwa pulled the disheveled blanket up to Tae-joon's chin again.
"Yang Hee-wook was making such a fuss about having you tested for drugs that I drew some blood. It's just anemia, which is embarrassing. He's as big as a house, but he can't even take care of himself."
Seok-hwa sighed a few times as if she was upset. Her sighs were like a net that a fisherman throws into the sea. It was a nagging that held him back from leaving.
While Seok-hwa was thinking of him, he was thinking of So-eun.
I was throwing a net at you too.
I should have been sick. I should have appealed to your weak heart.
Then you wouldn't have been able to leave me.
20 years ago and now, I missed you because I couldn't even cast a net properly.
"Was it like that back then too, Aunt?"
"Huh?"
"20 years ago too."
"......"
"Did she just leave so nonchalantly?"
Tae-joon asked with an emotionless face.
Seok-hwa was surprised. She was surprised that her nephew already knew the fact that she had been hiding for 20 years, the fact that she had separated her nephew and Han So-eun.
"Tae-joon."
"Well, I was seven years old, so I wouldn't have known anything. She might have left happily."
Tae-joon, who had made his own judgment, turned his head away from Seok-hwa.
"......No. It wasn't like that."
"......"
"She cried a lot back then."
Seok-hwa confessed the truth in a trembling voice. Tae-joon's head, which had been stubbornly facing the other side, turned to Seok-hwa.
"......She grabbed me and cried back then. She said she was moving and told me to be sure to tell you, and she gave me a few candies and a toy."
"......"
"I couldn't deliver it to you. I did that, Tae-joon."
He resented his aunt, who had finally confessed everything, for the first time.
Tae-joon squeezed his eyes shut, as if tears were about to fall. His eyes stung as much as he held back.
"Find her. Then I'll forgive everything."
