Gutter Chapter 16.1

A strong smell of something burning wafted from somewhere. It was similar to the smell that would rise from a pot whenever food burned in the orphanage kitchen.

What completely woke the boy, who had been half asleep until then, was the sound of something collapsing.

Thump! Crash. Sizzle!

A loud noise roared from the ceiling, so loud that the ground seemed to shake. The boy, startled, opened his eyes and lifted his head.

Hot.

That was his first thought upon waking. The room’s temperature was too hot. It was even stuffier than when the room had been heated by the sun all day long on a midsummer day. With every breath, hot air densely filled his chest.

“Everyone get out! Get out! It’s a fire!”

“What are you doing? Just jump!”

“Kyaaaaaaah!”

People’s screams shook the surroundings. Only then did the boy pull himself together and look around.

The small window was already stained black, as if the sun had set while he was asleep. On the ground floor, people in their pajamas had come out and were scurrying around, carrying buckets full of water to put out the fire.

The boy, still wrapped in his blanket, approached the door. Black smoke was creeping into the one-room apartment from outside.

“Cough, cough!”

Fire.

As the people’s screams continued without pause, the boy was belatedly seized with a sudden fear.

“Hy, hyung-ah… Ye, Yeonjo hyung-ah.”

He looked around to see if Yeonjo had returned while he was asleep, but there was no one in the room. He was left all alone.

The boy did not know exactly what a fire was, but he instinctively recognized that it was a dangerous situation.

“Everyone out! Come on out! Wake up anyone who’s sleeping and get them outside!”

Hearing the shouts from outside, the boy wondered if he too should leave the room.

‘If you wait for hyung here, I’ll take you with me tomorrow. Okay?’

‘You have to stay put quietly until hyung comes.’

‘Get out of here. Your hyung left too.’

“Isn’t there anyone else inside? Ah, now is not the time to be packing your things. There’s a fire, a fire! Come out!”

The shouts of Yeonjo, the landlord, and a resident all rushed in at once, making his head spin.

“N-no… I-I’m not going out.”

The boy covered his ears, cowered in a corner, and shook his head.

Soon, all the voices swirling in his head were erased, and only Yeonjo’s gentle voice remained.

‘You have to stay put quietly until hyung comes.’

He shouldn’t listen to what other people said. As always, the boy decided to listen only to Yeonjo’s words.

“Hy, hyung-ah… Hu, hurry up and come…”

Where could Yeonjo hyung be? The sky was dark now, so it was time for him to return home. He had said he would take him out tomorrow, so if he waited just a little longer, Yeonjo might come back and praise him for waiting so well. Just a little longer…

“Cough, cough, cough!”

The black smoke had already seeped all the way into the room, making his throat sting. As he let out a cough he could no longer hold back, someone outside pounded violently on the door.

Bang bang bang bang!

The boy shot his head up.

“Is anyone in there? Is there a person in here?”

“Hy, hyung-ah?”

The voice was unclear. Normally, he would have recognized that it was not Yeonjo’s, but with breathing already difficult and the outside being so noisy, the boy mistook it for Yeonjo.

As if he had been waiting, he quickly ran and opened the door, only to find a strange man standing there, covering his nose with a cloth.

“Wh, wh, what about hyung-ah?”

The boy suppressed his disappointment and looked up at the man.

“Who’s that! Just get outside first!”

“Ye, Yeonjo hyung-ah is…”

“What? There’s no time to whine! No wonder this door was locked the whole time. You have to run away quickly when there’s a fire!”

The resident, who lived in the same building, ignored the child’s mumble, grabbed his arm, and led him outside. However, perhaps judging it cumbersome to drag him up like this, he simply lifted the boy’s skinny body before he had a chance to resist. The room’s temperature was already scorching to the point that his skin tingled, so there was no leisure for a relaxed conversation.

The boy resisted, saying he wouldn’t go, but it was impossible for a child, smaller and skinnier than his peers, to shake off an adult man by himself.

“N-no! Hyung-ah! Ye, Yeonjo hyung-ah told me to, to, to wait…!”

Trying not to lose his grip on the blanket at least, the boy exerted all his strength, clenching his small fists. The resident picked the boy up in his arms and quickly ran up the stairs to the ground level.

As soon as they were outside, the area around the building was a chaotic mess, crowded with people. Unaware that someone had just come out, people were busy carrying buckets filled with water. The resident who had brought the boy out seemed to have his legs give way, as he collapsed onto the ground, coughing.

The boy slipped out of the crowd and searched the surroundings thoroughly.

“Ye, Yeonjo… hyung-ah…”

Even after carefully checking the faces of the numerous people gathered one by one, the Yeonjo he was desperately looking for was nowhere to be seen.

Soon realizing that Yeonjo was not here, the boy wrapped his body even more tightly with the blanket, the only thing he had brought from the room. But it did not make him feel at ease at all. Yeonjo’s embrace was warmer and softer than this.

As he blankly watched the building engulfed in red flames, burning fiercely, he recalled the landlord who used to glare at him like he was an insect. And the words he had said to him.

‘Get out of here. Your hyung left too.’

No. Yeonjo hyung didn’t leave. He promised, so he will come back.

The boy desperately denied the landlord’s words. And to prove that he was right, he started looking for Yeonjo again. It was the time when Yeonjo would usually have returned from work, but perhaps today he was mixed in the crowd and hadn’t found him yet.

As he wandered like that for a few more minutes, the piercing siren of a police car spreading from afar stabbed deep into his hearing. As if it were some kind of signal, the moment he heard that sharp horn, the boy remembered the object that Yeonjo had carefully placed in the wardrobe.

“A, a photo.”

Yeonjo’s family photo, which he had treasured since their time at the orphanage. Even after moving into the one-room apartment, Yeonjo had taken care of the family photo first, storing it in the wardrobe drawer.

It was, by far, the thing Yeonjo cherished most in the world. And this morning, Yeonjo had not taken the family photo with him. It was still inside the wardrobe.

That’s right. Hyung didn’t go far. Hyung’s favorite photo is still in that room.

Yeonjo might be able to abandon him and leave, but he would never be able to abandon just the photo.

So I have to go find the photo.

As soon as this sad conviction set in, the boy took advantage of a moment when people’s attention was scattered and ran into the building where the flames were spreading severely. Getting down to the basement and into the room was easy. Since the resident had left the door open when he had escaped while carrying the boy, there were no obstacles.

“Uuugh…!”

The boy huddled his body against the heat spewing from close by, but he did not stop walking.

Although the internal temperature was hot, the basement was in relatively good condition. The boy quickly went to the front of the wardrobe.

A part of the wardrobe’s wood was burning away, as if it had just caught fire. Seeing the red light flickering right in front of him, the boy instinctively felt a sense of crisis that he had to get out of this place. His legs trembled on their own at the sight of the blazing mass of fire that was growing in size by indiscriminately spreading to objects.

But the boy needed the photo. Perhaps, if by any chance the landlord’s words were true and Yeonjo had left home, if he had the family photo, Yeonjo might come looking for him again. He might even get praised for a job well done.

In the end, desperation overcame fear.

After a moment’s hesitation, the boy grabbed the handle of the wardrobe door on the side that hadn’t burned yet and pulled. Then he bent down to open the drawer containing the photo.

But the fire had already spread to the inside to some extent. The air was so hot it was suffocating. Watching the drawer slowly start to burn away, the boy swallowed dryly.

It felt like it would all burn up in an instant if he delayed even a little. Being nervous, his body did not follow his commands properly, much like his tongue which was usually stiff and frozen. The boy fiddled with his fingers and bit his lower lip.

But this time too, desperation overwhelmed everything. Even the fear of death.

Soon, as if he had made up his mind, the boy squeezed his eyes shut and then opened them, before recklessly reaching his hand toward the burning drawer.

“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”

It felt as if the back of his hand was completely melting. It was a pain that was difficult for a child to bear.

Although he had been exposed to violence countless times, this was the first time it had been this painful. Even if he added up all the pain he had received before, it would not be even half of half of what he was feeling now.

Touching the flames was more horrific than he could have imagined.

Tears dripped from the boy’s eyes due to the excruciating pain.

Still. I can’t be without this. Hyung might never see me again.

His small head was filled with the obsession that he had to have this in order to see Yeonjo.

As he rummaged inside the drawer, he felt the photo. The moment he faintly felt the texture similar to thin paper, the boy somehow curled his melting skin and grabbed the photo.

“Aaaah!”

Thump.

At that moment, one of the plywood boards supporting the wardrobe burned and collapsed. As fate would have it, it fell on the small, fragile child’s back.

A hot sensation spread across his entire back, as if boiling water had been poured on it. The boy did not let go of the photo he held in his hand until the very end and tucked it safely in his arms. And somehow, he forced his tattered body to stand up.

“Heeik, uwaaaaaah!”

But even after getting out from under the plywood, the fire was spreading wider. The boy belatedly realized that he was covered in a blanket. As he quickly took off the cloth wrapped around his body, the fire on his back thankfully disappeared. Nevertheless, the skin on the back of his hand and his back, which had already melted, was so sore that groans escaped him on their own.

“Cough, the, the photo. Cough, cough!”

With his hand, its skin peeled back and red, the boy took out the photo from his arms. The corners were slightly burned, but it was still intact.

Relieved, the boy carefully took the photo and hurried out of the one-room apartment.

Once he was out of the building, the siren sound was now audible from very close. The police must have arrived first, as residents were gathered around them explaining the situation.

The boy avoided the people and hid in an alley away from the building. The police had always been on Director Park’s side, so they might send him back to the orphanage before he could even find Yeonjo. Even if he approached them and asked them to find Yeonjo, they probably would not listen.

The boy crouched in a corner of the alley and shivered.

He had to get up and check if Yeonjo was in that crowd, but his whole body was in so much pain that he couldn’t do anything. He was so exhausted that he couldn’t even remember how he had run all the way here from inside the building.

The back of his hand, visible to him, was swollen red as if it weren’t his own, with fluid oozing out.

Yeonjo hyung-ah. Hyung. Hyung-ah. Come quickly.

It was when the boy was muttering the same words over and over inside his head.

“You fucking, idiotic bastard! So. You left all the cash in there?”

A strange voice rang out from behind the boy, who was trembling like a chick that had lost its mother.

“By the time I went back in, it had already burned…”

“Do you know how much that all was! You fucking son of a bitch, so you’re empty-handed. You expect me to believe you couldn’t grab a single thing out of all that?”

“…I have no excuse, Hyung-nim.”

“You damn, son of a bitch.”

Thwack! Thump! Thud.

As the sounds of friction and groans mixed together, the boy cautiously turned around. At the dark entrance of the alley right next to him, three large men were gathered.

Even in his pain, the boy recognized who they were at a glance. The men who lived on the second floor of the same building. They were the faces Yeonjo had warned him to be especially careful of, calling them dangerous people.

“That was all money to bribe the cops, what are we going to do now.”

“I’m, I’m sorry. It’s just that…”

“What are you going to do with the corpse rotting in the room right now, you fuuuck!”

“Hyung-nim, we’re outside. What if someone is listening?”

“That’s right. Please calm down for now.”

“So what if they hear. At this point, if we can’t meet the amount the cops are demanding, we’re all going to jail, you and me both. When that happens, you better believe I’ll stab a knife in your gut and kill you, you fucking piece of shit.”

The man with a long scar on his brow growled, berating his subordinates. The boy, half dazed with pain, was unable to even think that it was dangerous and just stared up at them blankly.

“Hyung-nim… F-for now, if we ask the cops for some time, somehow…”

“They can’t give us time, it’s their lifeline. Do you think they’d give us time when they’ll be the ones fucked if they get caught while fumbling around with the investigation?”

“Then where are we supposed to get that much money all of a sudden. If you give us even a few days, we can collect the payments and…”

“Hey, shut up. What’s that over there.”

The conversation was abruptly cut off, and the men’s gazes turned to the boy all at once. When their eyes met, the pupils of the boy, who was squatting in the corner of the alley, trembled.

“Who are you. How long have you been here.”

The man with the scar on his face approached menacingly. The subordinates next to him began to make a fuss.

“Don’t you think this brat heard everything we said?”

“But he’s still young, I don’t think he would have understood.”

“Hey, little kid. Who are you.”

As the three men, much larger than him, surrounded him and asked, the boy, forgetting even his pain, moved his stiff lips.

“I, I, I, Nu, Rags…”

“What’s he saying?”

“Lo, looking for Yeonjo hyung-ah.”

“The fuck is he saying.”

The man’s brow furrowed tightly. The thin, long scar between his eyes twisted along with it, creating a more intimidating impression.

The boy, trembling with the pain from his burns and the fear of the strangers in front of him, spoke incoherently.

“I, I’m Nu, Rags… Ye, Yeonjo hyung-ah told me to… wa, wa, wait here…”

Watching the boy, who couldn’t speak smoothly and kept stuttering, the three men exchanged glances.

“You… where are your parents?”

Soon, the man with the scar cleared his throat and asked in a deliberately gentle tone. But the boy shook his head back and forth as if he didn’t understand.

“Ye, Yeonjo hyung-ah…”

“When an adult asks you a question, you should answer properly. Where are your parents?”

“Pa, parents… n-n-no have.”

Having barely managed to answer that much, the boy began to sob sorrowfully. As sobs tried to leak through his clenched teeth, he bit his lips until they bled, trying to stop the sound.

“Huuu… Mmph… Huuk.”

“What the hell are you crying for, I didn’t do anything.”

“Ye, Yeonjo, sob… Ye, Yeonjo hyung-ah, p-please find him.”

“Hyung-nim, isn’t this the kid who lived in the basement? There were two kids there, weren’t there?”

“Were they orphans.”

“If they don’t have a mom or dad, they’re orphans, aren’t they?”

“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen them with an adult. The landlord grandpa also said they were orphans.”

“But isn’t this kid burned? His back is, fuck, a complete roast… oof, and what’s with that hand.”

The man frowned as he scanned the boy’s appearance, his red, cooked flesh all exposed. Even at a glance, his condition was serious enough to require being taken to a hospital immediately.

The three men fell silent for a moment, standing around the boy who was crying under his breath.

“Hyung-nim, this kid really seems like an orphan… how about we use him as a temporary solution?”

A subordinate, who had been quietly racking his brain, moved closer to the man with the scar and whispered in his ear.

“Where would we use a little kid who can’t even speak properly.”

“That’s why it’s even better. Think about it, Hyung-nim. If we put a kid next to the dead guy, it’s guaranteed to delay the investigation.”

The subordinate paused for a moment, watching the man’s expression.

“…Keep explaining.”

“The dead guy is lying in his room, so it’s easy to identify him, but this kid doesn’t even know his own name and has no parents. When the cops find him, they’ll try to connect him to the dead guy somehow… then even the cops will naturally waste a week spinning their wheels, won’t they?”

Listening to his subordinate, the man carefully considered the situation.

“With a young child right there next to the corpse, I don’t think they’ll be able to come poking around our side right away without even being able to identify the kid.”

“Can you get the money in that time?”

“Of course. Just collecting what’s due this week will be enough to put out the urgent fire. Though we’ll have to bust our asses for a few months to make up for it.”

The adults’ mental calculators worked quickly.

“What if the kid remembers the conversation we had?”

“That bastard can’t speak properly. I ran into him a few times, and he doesn’t seem to go to school either… Anyway, he’s not normal.”

“Hmm.”

“Looking at his injuries, he feels like he’s going to die soon anyway unless he goes to the hospital right now. Since he’s going to die anyway, wouldn’t it be good for us to make good use of him?”

They continued to exchange words in low voices that the boy could not understand. If he had listened more closely, he might have heard the exact content of their conversation, but his back and the back of his hand, which had been inside the inferno, hurt too much. The boy had no room to pay attention to anything else other than trying not to lose consciousness right away.

“Injured people, come this way! They say an ambulance is entering the alley!”

At that moment, the shouts of residents and a loud siren wailed from afar. As the flames grew fiercer, more and more people were gathering.

In the meantime, perhaps having made up his mind, the man who had been whispering approached the boy and crouched down.

“Hey, little kid. You said you were looking for your hyung, right? This ahjussi will find him for you.”

The boy, who had been crying silently, lifted his face, which had been hung low, with tears dangling from his eyes.

“R-really?”

“Yeah. You want to know where your hyung is, right?”

The boy was too choked up to answer right away and just nodded his head vigorously.

“I know a person who knows where your hyung went, you see?”

“Ye, Yeonjo. Cha, Cha Yeonjo hyung-ah.”

“Right, that Cha… Yeong-jo or whatever. But the person who knows where your hyung is, is very sick right now.”

The man continued his explanation slowly with a very serious face. The boy’s eyes widened as he concentrated, trying not to miss a single word.

“Ho, how… s-sick is he?”

“I don’t know about that, but anyway, he’s in a fuck-ton of pain. He says he’s dying from the pain. He’ll probably be sleeping if you go see him now. If you take good care of him so he doesn’t hurt, he’ll wake up soon, so when he does, ask him where your hyung went.”

“Ye, Yeonjo hyung-ah. M-my hyung-ah’s name… is Cha, …Yeonjo.”

The boy, fearing the man might misunderstand Yeonjo’s name due to his slurred pronunciation, put strength into his stiff tongue and forced the sound out, trying to enunciate as clearly as possible.

“Right. So your hyung’s name is Cha Yeonjo. If you nurse the person lying there, he’ll wake up later and tell you where Yeonjo is. You can do it, right?”

When the man grinned, the scar on his brow twitched. The boy nodded without a shred of hesitation or doubt.

🚬

The house the man took him to had a musty smell. The orphanage, where many children lived together, also had the smell of sweat and grime here and there, but this felt different. It was more murky and unpleasant.

After confirming the boy had gone inside, the man left without even a goodbye, closing the door behind him. Click. Even though he heard the sound of the door being locked from the outside, the boy paid it no mind.

He looked around the unfamiliar space and entered the main bedroom, where a man was lying on a bedding set. The boy instantly realized this was the patient the man with the scar had mentioned. It was because his face was ashen, unlike that of a normal person. Anyone could see he was not in a normal state. The patient lay as stiff as a wooden doll, not moving an inch.

‘You want to know where your hyung is, right?’

‘I know a person who knows where your hyung went, you see?’

‘He’ll probably be sleeping if you go see him now. If you take good care of him so he doesn’t hurt, he’ll wake up soon, so when he does, ask him where your hyung went.’

The boy chewed over the man’s words several times so as not to forget them, and approached the patient. The blackened face was hard and uneven, like a turtle’s shell.

He must be in a lot of pain. After quietly observing the patient, the boy came to that conclusion.

The child, who did not know the concept of a person being dead, resolved to take care of the corpse with all his heart until it woke up.

“Ah, ahjussi.”

To first find out what he needed, the boy cautiously shook the corpse to wake it. But there was no way a person already dead would regain consciousness. The corpse had long since hardened like a stone.

He considered waking him more, but the boy withdrew his hand. For one, he thought he should let the patient sleep more, and the biggest problem was that the boy’s burned skin was peeling and oozing fluid, so he was in no condition to care for someone else.

“I-it hurts. A-ah, it hurts.”

At the words that they would find Yeonjo for him, the boy, who had been barely enduring the pain until now, collapsed in a corner of the room and began to cry. The back of his hand was sore, of course, but his entire back felt like it was being torn apart.

He had never been in this much agony before, and not knowing what to do, the boy simply swallowed the pain, biting his lips and gums until they bled.

However, as time passed, instead of getting better, it felt as if his whole body was fiercely burning.

“Uuugh… Hu… Uuuugh.”

It was a pain difficult to endure with a clear mind. The boy writhed in agony and sobbed as if he were still in the middle of a giant flame.

Even after tossing and turning for several hours like that, his condition did not improve at all. The skin that had touched the fire could not regenerate and lost its elasticity, becoming limp. There was no limit to the adversities the boy had to endure.

With nowhere to lean on, the boy, who had been groaning intermittently, eventually could not withstand the pain and fainted, collapsed on the floor.

He did not know how long he had slept, but when he opened his eyes, dozens of transparent blisters had risen on the back of his small, fern-like hand.

“Heeik!”

Swollen all red like a monster from a cartoon, it did not look like human skin at all.

Startled by his own grotesque burn, the boy gasped and reached out his hand. Then, this time, his entire back began to ache. Even if he were to be beaten all day long by the orphanage teachers who used to punish him with thick wooden sticks, it would be less painful than this.

But he couldn’t just cry and struggle forever. The boy clearly remembered his purpose for coming here. He barely managed to get his body up and looked around the room. The man was still lying down with his eyes closed.

For some reason, his complexion seemed even darker than before. The boy thought it was his fault. If he hadn’t fainted and had taken proper care of him, the ahjussi might have woken up by now.

Swallowing a groan, the boy barely got up from his spot and left the room, heading for the kitchen. In the small kitchen, dishes and other kitchen utensils were scattered about messily.

When he opened the refrigerator door, the smell of old side dishes wafted out. It seemed the only thing he could take out and eat right away was eggs.

Having no other choice, the boy decided to cook ramen. It was the most familiar food to him, and it was all he could make by himself.

The kitchen was high for an 11-year-old child, so he stood on his tiptoes and filled a nickel-silver pot with water. Then he turned on the gas stove. Since he had often watched over Yeonjo’s shoulder as he did it, cooking ramen was not difficult.

However, since he had eaten so little, his body staggered with just a little bit of force, and most of all, every time he used his hands, it stimulated the burns and was painful. His body had long been worn out, and only his mental strength was supporting him.

The boy gritted his teeth and cooked the ramen. After adding an egg at the end, he carefully carried the pot and a plate and went into the room.

Steam rose from the pot placed on the floor. Seeing it made him hungry, and his stomach rumbled. Stomach acid rose, and his mouth tasted bitter.

Still, the boy did not touch the ramen and approached the man.

“Ah, ah, ahjussi. Pl, please wake u…p.”

The boy carefully placed his hand on the man’s solar plexus and shook him. The man, lying with his eyes closed and a dark complexion, was so hard it was hard to believe he was a person.

“Ah, ahjussi… I, I cooked some ramen. Pl, please try a li, little bit. Okay?”

The boy shook the man a little harder. Of course, it was the same this time, he did not budge.

Judging that it was because he was in a lot of pain, the boy dished the hot ramen onto a plate, blew on it with his breath to cool it down, and then brought it to the man’s lips. The noodles brushed against his lips and jaw area, but the man remained silent to the end, as if it didn’t even tickle.

Having no choice, the boy decided to wait until the man woke up. After tucking him in tightly with the blanket, he went into the bathroom and wet a towel with water. He wanted to squeeze it tight with his hands, but he couldn’t put any strength into them because of his wounds, so it was dripping with remaining water.

He folded it neatly, went into the room, and placed it on the man’s forehead. Then he squatted down in front of him.

‘Right. So your hyung’s name is Cha Yeonjo. If you nurse the person lying there, he’ll wake up later and tell you where Yeonjo is. You can do it, right?’

Hanging all his hopes on that one phrase from the strange ahjussi, the boy prayed fervently for the man to open his eyes soon.

He wanted to see him open his eyes and eat the ramen himself, but at some point a high fever began to rage, and his vision started to spin. His back and hands still hurt, and the sound of his pained moans would not stop.

No matter how many times he resolved to pull himself together, the weak boy could not overcome the pain and lost consciousness again while sitting up.

A short while later, the boy, who had barely regained consciousness, lifted his heavy eyelids. His eyes were full of crust, as if he had been crying the entire time he was unconscious.

The pain was also still there. Now, no matter what position he took, it was equally agonizing. It was to the point where he would rather not open his eyes. A weak feeling washed over him, a wish to fall into a deep sleep and never wake up again.

His chest tightened with sorrow. The events of yesterday and today all felt as unreal as a dream. Too much had changed in just one day. He wished Yeonjo would come to him right now, take his hand, and pull him up, saying let’s go home.

Where on earth could Yeonjo hyung be?

The boy clenched his teeth, endured the pain, and crawled forward like an animal. He had hoped that the man might have woken up and eaten the ramen in the meantime, but in vain, the pot was as it was. The ramen was soggy and had grown cold.

The boy let out a small sigh, picked up the chopsticks, and began to eat the ramen himself.

With an unbearable hunger, he now had to use all his strength just to get his body up.

“I-it hurts…”

The boy muttered painfully. The skin on the back of his hand was all peeled off, so he couldn’t hold the chopsticks properly. He was tormented by extreme pain, as if his skin was being pierced by a needle, every time he applied a little bit of force or the chopsticks touched his wounds.

Having no choice, the boy stuck his head in the pot and began to eat the ramen like a dog. The cold, soggy noodles had no taste. But he had to soothe his hunger even like this. Otherwise, it felt like his breath would soon stop and he would never be able to get up again.

After finishing the meal messily, his stomach, which had received food after such a long time, was surprised and rumbled. His stomach ached for a long time. The boy held back his tears, took the pot, and went into the kitchen. Then he cooked a new pot of ramen and brought it to the man.

He tried to wake the unmoving man, then touched his forehead and wiped his face with a wet towel, just as Yeonjo often used to do.

He thought the man’s face was black because it was dirty, but even after carefully wiping his face while enduring the pain in the back of his hand, no dirt came off on the towel. Moreover, his skin, far from being soft, was as hard as a concrete wall.

Could this also be a symptom of being sick? Not knowing what was what, the boy only felt frustrated.

It was as if the fire that had engulfed the building had moved to his own chest; his insides felt hot and searing, as if they were burning away.

Still, the boy did not complain. With the hope that the man would tell him where Yeonjo was as soon as he woke up, he nursed him with all his heart. Every day, he brought him fresh water, and made ramen or egg porridge and placed it in front of his bedding. Just doing that drained all the energy from his body, and he could no longer move from where he sat. The burns, instead of getting better with time, only became more infected, and the boy had to fight against extreme pain every moment he was awake.

Contrary to the boy’s desperate wishes, the man’s skin grew darker, and a rotten smell began to emanate from him.

This person was supposed to know where Yeonjo was, but as he only worsened with no sign of waking up, a deep despair penetrated deep into the boy’s bones and crushed his soul.

His back hurt so much he couldn’t lie down, making it impossible to stay sane. It was to the point where fainting would be better.

Thinking he couldn’t go on like this, he tried to go outside to ask for help, but for some reason, the front door would not open.

“I-is anyone ou-outside? The, the door won’t… o-open.”

He was about to knock on the door with his fist out of habit, but the boy soon remembered how severe his burns were and banged his forehead against the door instead.

“He-help me…! He-help me. Please?”

As if that wasn’t enough, he kicked the door dozens of times with his uninjured foot, asking for help from outside, but no one responded.

At a loss for what to do, the boy stood still for a long time, lost in thought. But there was nothing that the child’s immature mind and shabby body could solve.

Dragging his tattered body, the boy went to the kitchen, filled a pot with tap water, heated it up, and poured it into a cup. He took it to the room, placed it in front of the man, and shook the stiff body with an urgent gesture.

“Ah, ahjussi. H-have some water.”

Even though the pain from his festering wounds worsened every time he pushed the man with force, the boy did not stop. He spoke earnestly to the corpse that had long since stopped breathing and was emitting a foul smell.

“P-please wake up now. P-please…”

There was no answer.

No matter how much he begged,

“Te-tell me where… m-my hyung-ah is. Pl-please, I, I, I’m begging… huuu… I’m begging you.”

and pleaded,

“I, I really want to see Yeonjo hyung-ah.”

and implored.

“I, I really want to see him. H-he said… if I wait… qu-quietly, sob, he, he would c-come… Uwaaaaaaah!”

The boy finally burst into the tears he had been holding back for a long time. He had rarely cried his heart out like this since infancy, so he was confused by the unfamiliarity of his own voice. It was an unbearable sadness, even though he knew that crying would not solve anything.

Cha Yeonjo was a person who had existed from the very first moment the boy began to recognize objects and people. For the boy to follow, like, and crave affection from Yeonjo was as natural and proper as breathing.

The boy had not learned how to accept a state without Yeonjo. This separation, which he had faced without any warning, was not simply a parting from someone he liked, but was the same as losing everything.

No matter how painful the burning sensation spreading from the blisters densely formed on his skin was, it could not be more agonizing than the reality of not being able to see Yeonjo.

The boy begged and begged the unresponsive corpse, repeating the same words, asking to be able to see Yeonjo. But even after a long time, the corpse did not open its eyes.

In the end, exhausted from dehydration, the boy could not even lie down and collapsed on his stomach, gasping for breath and crying silently.

How long had he wailed like that?

After a long while, the boy, who had barely pulled himself together, went to the kitchen again and boiled warm water one more time. Without wiping his tears, he held the cup of water to the corpse’s blackish lips and let it flow. The water did not enter the mouth at all and all of it overflowed onto the jaw and cheek.

Even so, the boy did not give up. Letting go of hope here was never an option for him in the first place. In the room filled with a rotten smell, he placed water and food in front of the corpse and tried to feed it.

Again and again.

Until the police burst into the house a few days later.

🚬

“The little kid is alive?”

The man, who was sitting on his office desk counting money, heard his subordinate’s words and his eyes widened. The subordinate, who had just rushed over after hearing the news, nodded his head.

“Yes. They say he was alive when the police broke down the door and went in.”

“Wasn’t he on the verge of death back then?”

“Seeing as he survived after getting burns like that, he must be a tougher bastard than he looks.”

The subordinate clicked his tongue, recalling the melted skin of the small boy he had seen in the alley.

“I put him in there thinking he’d die soon since he was so frail.”

The man, who was sitting askew on the desk, narrowed his eyes. The scar on his brow twitched along with them. He tapped the nameplate on the desk and tilted his head.

What to do. Contrary to his expectations, the police had discovered the corpse after a long time, and thanks to that, he had been able to finish collecting his money and prepare cash to offer as a bribe. The news that the little kid he had put next to the corpse as a temporary measure was alive was unsettling.

If the kid was alive, he couldn’t predict what nonsense he might say to the police later. If he even mentioned what he had heard in the alley, the matter he had barely managed to smooth over could become complicated.

“Is he okay now?”

“They say his condition is serious. I heard the cops sent him straight to the hospital before any word even reached our side.”

“Then there’s no chance he’ll just die on his own now.”

“…I guess so. It’s become a headache.”

“…”

“What should we do, Hyung-nim?”

The moment he had first seen the boy in the smelly back alley flashed through the man’s mind.

His condition was so serious that it wouldn’t have been strange if he had died right away. Looking like he hadn’t had a single drop of rice porridge, how could that little kid, who was on the verge of his last breath, have survived?

‘P-please find… Ye, Yeonjo, sob… Ye, Yeonjo hyung-ah.’

Right. Although his body was on the verge of death, his gaze was clear, not tangled at all.

“Have you found out what happened to the hyung the little kid was looking for?”

“Ah, about that. They say someone saw him leaving the building in the early morning. They said he was a pretty-looking boy around high school age, so it must be the guy the brat called Rags or whatever was looking for.”

“And they don’t know where he went?”

“They probably won’t be able to find that out. Unless a trace of him comes in through documents later. But that hyung guy, it seems like he ran away.”

The subordinate briefly explained what he had investigated about Yeonjo’s situation. He had escaped from the orphanage and moved into the one-room apartment with the little kid, but the landlord had abruptly notified him to leave the room on the day of the fire.

Since his part-time job was said to usually start in the afternoon, the fact that Yeonjo left alone early in the morning and did not return could only be interpreted as him having abandoned the little kid.

“What a heartless hyung. Not even knowing his younger brother is a wreck and looking for him desperately.”

The man chuckled as if the situation was amusing. And as he put the cash into an envelope, he commanded his subordinate.

“Let’s treat him and bring him over.”

“Sir? You mean that brat, Rags or whatever?”

The subordinate, caught off guard by the unexpected words, asked back in confusion.

“Yeah. Those kinds of tenacious bastards are always useful somewhere.”

🚬

The door to the crowded hospital room burst open. As several burly men in crumpled shirts swaggered in, the noisy multi-person room instantly fell silent.

The man at the front walked to the far end of the hospital room and stood in front of a small child lying on the bed.

“Hey, little kid. How’s your body?”

At that, the boy, who had his eyes closed, woke up with a bewildered expression. The child’s thin upper body and the backs of his hands were thickly wrapped in bandages.

“Ah, ahjussi. Y-you didn’t tell me… wh-where Yeonjo hyung-ah went.”

The boy managed to recognize the man. He said it as soon as he saw the man, in a rough voice as his throat was hoarse.

Desperation overflowed pitifully from his expression, gestures, gaze, and even his voice.

The man smiled.

“Listen carefully, little kid. This ahjussi looked very hard for Yeonjo, you see?”

“D-did you find Y-Yeonjo hyung-ah?”

“Yeah. I tried. But what to do? Your hyung said he didn’t want to take you with him because you’re a stuttering idiot, so he abandoned you and left.”

The boy did not immediately accept the man’s words and blinked his eyes for a few seconds.

“Your hyung left early in the morning, didn’t he. Think about it. What business would a young kid have leaving so early in the morning like that.”

“…”

“He ran away in the dead of night because he planned to abandon you. Isn’t that right?”

“T-that’s a lie. H-hyung-ah didn’t go a-away, he said he was going to w-work…”

“If he went to work, why hasn’t he come back? Huh?”

“…”

“Did Yeonjo come while you were hospitalized here?”

Although he didn’t raise his voice or intimidate him, tears quickly welled up in the boy’s eyes. It was because the man had said the words the boy was most afraid of hearing.

A few seconds later, tears streamed down the boy’s cheeks. It was a heart-wrenching despair, without even a faint sob.

Tenacious bastard. The man muttered to himself. Laughter kept escaping through his teeth.

He hammered the final nail into the coffin for the child who still disbelieved his words.

“What a shame, little kid. Cha Yeonjo abandoned you and left. He said he doesn’t need you.”

“…”

“But look at this ahjussi. I’m treating you at the hospital because you’re sick, and I even came to see if you were alive like this.”

He coaxed the boy in a deliberately gentle voice.

“You probably have nowhere to go now, so do you want to come with ahjussi? If you do the work ahjussi tells you to do well, you might get to meet Yeonjo hyung once.”

“…”

“How about it, little kid. Won’t you try learning to work under ahjussi?”

🚬

3 years later.

Two men, who looked to be in their early 20s, entered the Yongho gang’s office. As they were about to sit on the worn-out leather sofa, which was torn in familiar places, they spotted a boy sitting on a wooden chair in a corner of the gloomy office.

“Who’s that?”

“Who.”

“The bastard sitting at the end over there.”

“Ah, that stuttering kid? The one Section Chief Hong Kihyuk brought in a few years ago.”

One of the men recognized the boy and let out a sneer.

“Section Chief Hong Kihyuk, you mean the hyung-nim with the scar on his face? Don’t tell me that’s the kid who can’t speak properly?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow, I’m fucking floored.”

No matter how spacious the office was, it was a single indoor space without a single partition. Even though they were aware that the boy could hear everything, the men continued to badmouth him without reservation in front of him.

“I’m floored too. This isn’t some volunteer organization, why would they bring a kid like that here.”

“Maybe he’s Section Chief Hong’s hidden son? If not for that.”

“You crazy bastard. What son.”

“A male brat, skinny as a girl and stutters. What use is something like that? What’s he even been doing all this time?”

“They say he was in the delivery and clean-up teams just to fill a spot. He apparently took the fall 5 times as soon as he came.”

“Took the fall for what?”

The man, who didn’t immediately understand the meaningful words, tilted his head.

“When a fight breaks out at a shop because of drugs, one person always unluckily dies, right? They release him into scenes like that as a decoy. Apparently, when there’s an unidentified minor in a case where an adult has died, it makes the work a real bitch for the police.”

“He still looks like a fucking kid…?”

“That’s why he didn’t go to jail, isn’t it. A kid who’s not in his right mind confesses, would you believe him if you were a cop? Being young is a privilege, fuck.”

“Kyah, hyung-nim is a genius. The cops must have been pretty pissed off, huh?”

“Right.”

“But is the kid fearless? A kid that young, already getting involved in adult affairs.”

“They say hyung-nim takes him around even though the kid is dimwitted because when he’s told to, he just insists he did it during investigations.”

“The organization is running so well.”

Even though he must have noticed that the two men were talking about him right now, the boy did not turn his head once and remained seated in his initial posture.

The man, who was needlessly annoyed by the boy’s unflustered attitude, approached him.

“Hey, hey. Get up, you bastard. You, fuck. Are your ears blocked?”

At the provocative words, as he poked his shoulder with his index finger, the boy finally lifted his head and looked at the man.

“What’s this. Don’t look at me like that, you son of a bitch.”

“…”

“Why did you crawl in here?”

At the sharp question, the boy, who had been expressionless the whole time, lowered his gaze and answered.

“Se, Section Chief Hong told me to le, learn the co, collections work here…”

“What? …Bwahahaha! The, the collections, what about it? Speak properly, you bastard.”

“Co… collections… work. He to, told me to le, learn…”

“Ebebebe. Wh-wh-what’s this thing saying.”

The man brought his face right up to the boy’s and mocked him by imitating his way of speaking.

“Hey. Stop bugging him. It’s almost time, we have to go.”

When his colleague next to him stopped him, the mocking man finally backed away. He checked his watch, and it really was time to go. He sighed and looked down at the boy with a displeased gaze.

“Dammit, I’m not a teacher, but I have to teach all sorts of things.”

“The Section Chief ordered it. You have to do what you’re told.”

“Hey, follow me out.”

The man said, tapping the boy’s cheek with his thick palm, putting some force into it. At that, the boy, who had been sitting as if frozen, shot up from his seat.