Kill Your X Chapter 73

“Ah, yes. Please talk and then come out. I will wait outside.”

I pressed myself against the partition before the sound of the door closing behind me even registered. How long has it been since I last saw his face? My eyes grew hot again.

“This is annoying. Why are you so thin?”

“Your father hit you, didn’t he, Sunbae?”

Our words overlapped at the same moment.

“Really, don’t worry about it. His son is trying to send his life to hell; at this point, I got off easy.”

“Still, because he’s your family, I wanted to treat him with a minimum level of human decency, but even that isn’t easy, it seems.”

I took in every detail of his face as he muttered those unintelligible words. His slightly disheveled hair, the uniquely dry gaze beneath his dark eyebrows, his lips with chapped spots here and there, even the small movements of his facial muscles were precious.

“There’s something I really want to say to you.”

I tried to hold it back, but my voice inevitably became choked with tears. I struggled to regain my composure.

“What is it?”

“I’m sorry.”

He fell silent at my sudden apology. The sight of him in that god-awful khaki prison uniform sent a wave of sorrow crashing over me.

“What was so important about a damn phone call? If I hadn’t been so needlessly stubborn, you wouldn’t have been arrested like this. Then you would have successfully made the deal with the overseas organization as planned, and more importantly, it was your last chance to definitively cut the Kumto gang out of your life…”

Once they started, the tears wouldn’t stop flowing. I could clearly feel his troubled state of mind through the transparent partition. This will just make him worry more, I’m truly hopeless. Is there really anything I can do right?

“In the end, it’s all just ‘what ifs.’ No one knows what kind of variables might have come up in between.”

“I don’t know. I hate to imagine it, but what if, just what if, I can’t get you out of here?”

At that, Seo Seunghan suddenly placed his palm on the partition. As if mesmerized, I matched my hand to his. It was impossible, but it felt as if I could feel his vivid warmth through the plastic panel.

“Look. You’ve already saved me, Sunbae.”

“Look at what?”

“The fact that I’m alive and breathing in front of you right now is the proof. Otherwise, I would have been a being that belongs outside this world long ago. And I would have endured an endless wait, having lost my memories once again.”

“I’m not sure what you mean. Is this about hell?”

As I wiped my tears with my forearm and asked, Seo Seunghan just gave a light smile. He removed his hand from the partition, and I, too, awkwardly lowered my hand to my lap. I was so disappointed that my toes curled.

“And the one who should be apologizing is me. Not you, Sunbae.”

“Sniffle, what did you do wrong?”

“I couldn’t keep my promise to you, Sunbae. I said I shouldn’t go to prison.”

‘You can’t go to prison. And you definitely can’t be executed there. I don’t know the details, but if you die one more time, I die too, right? I don’t want to die yet.’

He was referring to what I had said before.

“It’s fine. It’s not your fault either. To be honest, what I was really afraid of was the sentence after that… but I’m just not going to think about it. Because I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen, no matter what.”

When I spoke with determination, Seo Seunghan smiled faintly. He moved his lips, uncharacteristically, and then let out some incomprehensible words.

“Sunbae… it’s okay if you don’t try so hard.”

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. To my eyes, it already looks like your stress has passed its limit. Your father remembered the past, didn’t he?”

“It seems so. I guess shock therapy is the best way to awaken memories sunken in the subconscious.”

“Are you okay, Sunbae?”

I couldn’t answer right away. Because if he asked if I was okay, I was in a state where I couldn’t even say I was, not even as an empty platitude.

I had been firmly resolved, but that didn’t mean the reality that had befallen me wasn’t overwhelming.

The random spread of my personal information was a relatively minor problem. While there were people who supported me in this case, the majority opinion was that if I knew the truth and kept silent for ten years, I should be considered an accomplice to my father. There were more years in between when I had no memory, but in my own judgment, their criticism was justified. Not knowing is not an excuse.

“I’m less okay with you being in a detention center. I thought you looked good in any clothes, but that outfit is really not it. I can’t stand to look at it.”

“Aren’t you turned on?”

“Turned…! Stop saying weird things when there are people watching. Really, what is wrong with you.”

I hastily lowered my voice and whispered. As luck would have it, my eyes met with the staff member sitting behind us at that moment. After looking back and forth between me and Seo Seunghan, he raised his hand and pointed to the wall clock. It meant our time was really up.

“Then I’ll get going now. Eat well, sleep well. I’ll get you out of there as soon as I can.”

“Okay. Don’t just brush off what I said earlier.”

He spoke as I was about to leave the visitation room.

“Huh?”

“I won’t let you get hurt any more than this, Sunbae. And… I’m more sorry.”

While he was being held as a prime suspect in a violent crime case, who was worrying about whom? Even if it was baseless confidence, I truly liked his sentiment of looking out for me.

“Okay. See you again, Seunghan.”

I exchanged a final farewell with him, forcing the corners of my mouth into a smile.

After the short meeting with Seo Seunghan, the time spent waiting for the evidence analysis results from the National Forensic Service felt like an eternity.

As I was gradually becoming desensitized to the public’s criticism, my father, who had disappeared for a while, made an official appearance a few days later. Dressed in a crisp police uniform, my father opened his mouth. His posture was as upright as when he had chosen to face Detective Nam’s internal whistleblowing head-on.

[My fellow citizens. As a result of the National Forensic Service’s analysis, it has been determined that among the seven bodies found on Ujeong Mountain, two match the DNA of Inspector Kang Jun-seop and Inspector Choi Se-hun, who went missing eleven years ago.]

“As expected.”

“It’s over.”

Watching the broadcast in real-time with Detective Nam, I felt a sense of relief. Fortunately, it seemed the NFS test results had not been tampered with.

[Two bodies have been identified as unknown foreigners, and the remaining three as Korean nationals. The police are investigating the exact causal relationships based on the separate missing persons reports filed for each.]

“Foreigners? What’s that about? You said you didn’t know anything about the other victims, right, Mr. Gyujin?”

“No, I don’t. I’m curious too. Seeing as there’s no separate mention, it seems the five victims weren’t police officers.”

“Did he go as far as to harm civilians? This is really unsettling.”

While we were chatting briefly, my father on the TV remained silent. His gaze, which had been fixed on the floor, slowly lifted to face forward. Seeing his hardened expression, I wondered if he was finally going to confess his crimes.

[And I would like to state one more important fact. The DNA of a specific individual was detected on multiple bodies. As the modus operandi appears to be the same, our police force presumes this individual to be the culprit of the Ujeong Mountain serial murder case, and….]

Something was strange as I listened to the briefing. With a numb face, my father reported the situation as if the true culprit was a third party, not himself.

Detective Nam picked up the remote and turned up the TV volume. The noise of the reporters stirring in the hall became more vivid. My father lowered his head several times before delivering his words with difficulty. The content was nothing short of shocking.

[From the bloodstains left on the victims’ clothing, the DNA of my son, Song Gyujin, was detected.]

I froze, unable to even blink. Beside me, Detective Nam jumped to his feet.

“That, that crazy bastard! Is he now trying to frame his own son for the crimes he committed?”

After finishing the case briefing, my father bowed 90 degrees in front of the press. He held that position for a long time, like a sinner, as if he would gladly accept the punishment for raising his child wrong.

As if it were a pre-planned procedure, the police stormed Detective Nam’s house just a few minutes after the briefing ended. Until the handcuffs were fastened on my wrists, I couldn’t accept reality.

As I was being taken away, I could hear Detective Nam causing a commotion behind me. He cried out that the evidence must have been tampered with, that it couldn’t be true.

But it was only natural that my bloodstain was found at that scene.

Because, for a brief moment, I had been buried there too. If Seo Seunghan hadn’t rescued me right away, the number of bodies found at that site wouldn’t have been seven, but a total of eight.

“Mr. Song Gyujin. You have the right to remain silent, you have the right to an attorney…”

Facing the police officer reciting the Miranda warning, I couldn’t say anything. Even if I knew the truth, I couldn’t reveal it. Because unless I exposed Seo Seunghan’s identity to the whole world, no matter how I tried to explain it, it would be obvious that the story didn’t add up.

✽✽✽

Unlike before, every word and action of my father now felt suspicious. Pretending not to, I would eavesdrop on his phone calls whenever I had the chance, or secretly rummage through materials in his private study. Of course, I didn’t really understand what I was looking at.

One day, while suffering from a groundless anxiety, an unexpected opportunity to confirm the facts arose. It was not long after Detective Kang, who had worked with my father in the violent crimes unit, had gone missing.

“I’m sure of it. I found evidence of their involvement in Detective Kang’s disappearance. I’ve taken a quick look, and the scale is unusual. There’s a high chance that a string of unreported cases will come out with it.”

The late-night phone call I eavesdropped on followed a similar pattern to the one from a few weeks ago. At first, it was persuasion, and later, it was about meeting separately because he had discovered some evidence.