World Chapter 5.2

After eating the breakfast Hanse had prepared, I picked up the newspaper. There was an article about Heo Seok, the next presidential candidate, who had appeared at a National Assembly press conference. His answers from yesterday were neatly summarized. I flipped the paper over so I couldn’t see the part with Heo Seok. I didn’t want to see him.

Hanse was busy getting ready for work.

“This damn necktie.”

He muttered a low curse in front of the mirror as he struggled to tie his tie properly. After trying this way and that without success, he just tied it crookedly and turned to ask me.

“What do you want to do, stay here?”

“Do I have to go?”

“So you’re not going?”

“I’m scared.”

“No one knows this place. Don’t worry and just stay put. I’ll look into Ji Sungjoon and Lee Taewan like you wrote down for me.”

“……”

“Don’t go out and be good. Got it?”

“……”

“Answer me.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t act on your own from now on. Understand?”

“Okay, I said okay.”

Hanse warned me several more times before leaving for work.

There were two of us, but with just one gone, the place felt dreary.

I looked around the now-empty apartment. It felt like if I just sat still, I’d be consumed by fear and longing. I got up from my seat. It seemed I should at least clean. I rolled up my sleeves and started cleaning Hanse’s place with vigor.

Hanse’s home, a converted floor of an office building, wasn’t meant for living. Only basic flooring had been done, so both Hanse and I walked around in our shoes. Perhaps because of that, there was a lot of dust. Of course, Hanse’s personality of not cleaning at all probably contributed.

I swept the floor with a broom, washed and wiped it with a mop, and took the dust-covered blankets outside to beat them with a thwack-thwack. By the time I had finished wiping the windows and even cleaning the bathroom spotless, it was noon.

After a simple lunch, I read a book. I couldn’t even get through ten pages before I found myself constantly checking the clock.

As time passed, my whole body started to itch, and I couldn’t stand it. I just couldn’t stay still. I felt like my head would explode if I didn’t do something. After pacing back and forth inside the apartment, I finally left Hanse’s home.

I pictured Heo Seok in my mind. The murderous intent in his eyes, as if he wanted to chew me up and spit me out right then and there. No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand.

Was he that angry because I knew about his past?

He had been in love with a student activist. They were lovers who had a physical relationship. Heo Seok and Sungjoon might have even promised each other a vague future together.

Was that something to get so angry about, something that could harm him? I couldn’t quite understand why Heo Seok had been so aghast.

Lost in these thoughts, I took a bus to the university.

I went to the school library to try and find any trace of Taewan and Sungjoon.

For some reason, the library was closed today. It was a place that never closed except for its regular closing days, unless there was something special going on.

Other students who hadn’t been notified were also restlessly pacing, unable to get in, and there was no custodian in sight to control the crowd. The doors were just locked with a two-word sign that said “Closed.” A few people turned away, cursing, and I, too, without much thought, just assumed it was what it was and headed to the dormitory.

I planned to stay at Hanse’s place for the time being. I was going to pack a few things and move them to his apartment.

As I was about to go inside, someone tapped my shoulder with a thump. Startled, I turned around to see an unfamiliar face.

“You’re new here, right? Jung Hyunwoo, was it?”

“……Yes?”

As soon as I confirmed I was Jung Hyunwoo, his expression hardened in an instant. He opened his mouth, his voice tinged with annoyance, showing his blatant disapproval.

“Can’t you be a little quiet at night? Do you think you live here alone?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Did you know that because of you, the rooms next to and across from yours couldn’t sleep yesterday? You were so loud!”

“I wasn’t here yesterday.”

“What kind of bullshit is that. It sounded like you were moving furniture all night, thud-thud… without a break, and in the middle of the night, too. No manners at all. If you’re an intellectual, act like one!”

Before he could finish his rant, I flung my door open with a thump. I flinched at the sight before me and took a step back.

The inside of the dorm room was ransacked as if a thief had been there. I hesitated for a moment, then rushed inside. I didn’t have time to check what was missing. The only thing on my mind was Hyungjo’s notebook, which I had placed under my pillow.

I fumbled under the pillow, and thankfully, my hand found the notebook. I let out a sigh of relief, patting my chest. I folded the notebook in half and stuck it in my back pocket. The guy from the room next door was peeking into my room.

“Don’t just stand there gawking, report it!”

I shouted at the peeping guy. He nodded, saying he would, and ran to the management office.

What on earth is going on…

I stared at the wrecked room in bewilderment.

Who, and what on earth did they steal? My few belongings were scattered everywhere, so I couldn’t even tell what was missing. There was nothing of monetary value to begin with. It was unlikely that a poor student from the countryside would have any expensive items.

The only valuables I owned were my phone and my laptop, and the phone was safely in my pocket. The laptop was also still on the desk. Other than those two, the only things that could be considered valuable were my major textbooks and original texts. Those valuable books were splayed open and scattered on the floor.

“What the hell is going on…”

Why do only unlucky things keep happening to me. My head already hurts like hell.

Sighing, I started to clean up the room. But something was strange. As I was organizing the books, my heart sank with a thud.

Not a single one of the history books written by Hyungjo was there.

I frantically rummaged through my things.

Gone.

Even after turning over and digging through everything I had just organized, I couldn’t find Hyungjo’s three books. Just then, the custodian from the office and the guy from the room next door showed up.

He frowned at the state of the room and reported it to the police. He said it looked like a petty thief had broken in.

A petty thief only took Hyungjo’s books?

To mess up a room that clearly belonged to someone with few possessions like this. It was a sign that someone had been searching for something frantically.

“That, that was from the library…”

“The library? Where in the library? What did you see that made you say that?”

“I saw Ji Sungjoon’s drawing.”

“…Sungjoon’s drawing?”

“Don’t tell me…?!”

I pushed past the people loitering in front of my door and ran out.

“Hey! Where are you going!”

The guy from the next room called after me, but his voice didn’t register in my head. All I could think about was getting out of there as fast as possible.

The library being closed too…!

It wasn’t a coincidence. I didn’t go to the main gate; I ran down to the back gate. My heart was pounding like crazy. I had an indescribably bad feeling.

Running frantically, I hastily got into a taxi parked on the side of the road.

“What’s this?”

“Ple-please, hurry to the Central District Prosecutors’ Office!”

“Can’t you see I’m having a meal?”

The taxi driver held up a silver-foil-wrapped kimbap in front of my face. I urgently looked left and right, then urged him on with a tearful voice.

“Mister, please hurry! I’m in a real rush right now!”

“We do all this to make a living, so I should starve?”

“Mister! This is no time for jokes! Someone’s chasing me!”

“Who?”

“I don’t know! Please hurry! I have to go now!”

The driver, as if he had no choice, put the kimbap down on the passenger seat and started the car.

Soon after, as if it were a lie, someone really was running to catch the taxi. It was Heo Seok’s bodyguard from yesterday.

“Mister, faster! They’re chasing us now!”

“What the heck is going on.”

The taxi took off, picking up speed, and they seemed to give up chasing, stopping to catch their breath. Their figures grew smaller and smaller in the distance. I watched them anxiously, then turned to face forward. My heart was pounding with a thump-thump. I needed to call Hanse, but my hands were trembling uncontrollably.

The driver glanced at me through the rearview mirror and asked.

“Student, what’s all this about?”

“Big, big trouble.”

I took out my phone and tried to calm my heart as I called him. Waiting for Hanse’s voice to come on.

—What is it, why? Is something wrong?

“Hanse hyung……, hyung, hyuuung…….”

―What is it, what’s wrong?!

“Hyuung, someone’s chasing me, someone chased me……, hic.”

The moment I heard his voice, my startled heart was swept with a sense of relief so immense it felt like it was collapsing. In this anxious and dangerous situation, he was the only one who could protect me. I was so glad to hear him that tears welled up.

―Where are you?! Stop crying and speak clearly!

“Hic, a taxi……, from the library……, to the dorm…… Hyungjo’s book is, waaaah…….”

―Hey! Speak up, you punk!

“I’m on my way to the prosecutor’s office now……. Hic, but I’m so scared…….”

Hanse didn’t hang up the phone until I arrived at the district prosecutor’s office. Listening to him tell me to stay calm, I soothed my startled and frightened heart.

The taxi arrived at the prosecutor’s office. Hanse was standing out front, waiting for me. I got out of the taxi and faced him. The taxi passed us standing there motionless, looped around the way it came, and drove off into the distance.

“……Should I kill you or let you live.”

“……”

“Why did you go to the university?”

“I was trying to look for some of Taewan hyung’s materials……”

“You’re going to be the death of me. Why is a grown man crying?”

Hanse let out a deep sigh as he roughly wiped my tear-reddened cheeks with the cuff of his sleeve.

We went up to his office. I sat next to Hanse’s desk and slurped down the tea he handed me. The surreal reality of having been chased by someone made my body tremble every time I replayed it in my mind.

Hanse was staring at me when he noticed the focused gazes on us and suddenly yelled, “Don’t you people have work to do?!”

As if hot sparks had flown, the investigators moved in perfect unison, and Hanse asked in a much lower tone.

“What happened?”

“……”

As if someone might be eavesdropping, I looked around. The attention of others was bothering me, so I moved closer to him. As I put my lips to his ear, his shoulder flinched.

“I think Heo Seok searched my dorm room. Everything else is there, but only Hyungjo’s book is gone. It’s also strange that the library suddenly closed. I think they’re searching there too. I was scared so I just ran, but Heo Seok’s bodyguard from yesterday chased me.”

I spoke in a whisper and pulled away from him. Then I looked around again. Thankfully, no one seemed to be paying attention to us. However, because Hanse shouted, “What?!”, the people in the office turned to look at us again.

“Be quiet. Someone will hear.”

“Is that true?”

“I reported it to the police, so you can check.”

As if he couldn’t believe my words, Hanse actually called the police station in question. He requested a check on any reports filed from our university’s dormitory, and soon got a reply that a report of a break-in had indeed been received. He then called the university and also confirmed that the library was closed.

Only then did he look at me, dumbfounded, before suddenly clenching his teeth and glaring. I hunched my shoulders and met his eyes with a “what?” expression.

“Did I tell you not to act alone, or did I not.”

“……”

“Are you brainless? Huh? Do you have a mind? Do you even have a brain?”

His tone, a monotone, low-pitched voice suppressing his anger, was so similar to Hyungjo’s. But I didn’t feel that he was similar to Hyungjo in any new way.

At some point, Hanse had simply become Hanse to me.

Like a teacher scolding a student, Hanse poked my forehead repeatedly. As he poked, I let my head fall back and begged for forgiveness.

“I was wrong. I won’t do it again. I’ll make sure it never happens again.”

I begged for all I was worth, as if I were about to grab onto his pant legs. From somewhere, I could hear a low chuckle.

“If you pull something like this again, I really won’t let you off next time.”

“Okay. I got it. I won’t, I’ll never do it again.”

“Don’t just say it.”

“Yeah, yeah. I won’t do it again. Don’t worry.”

“Ugh, you frustrating punk.”

He shook his head, his brow furrowed rigidly. With a deeply troubled expression, he propped his chin on his hand and glared at his phone. His fingers tapped on the desk. After thinking about something for a long while, he looked at me and asked.

“There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”

“……No, there’s nothing like that.”

“Do you really want me to beat the dust out of you on a rainy day?”

“There’s nothing, really.”

“The relationship between Ji Sungjoon and Heo Seok. What is it?”

“……What relationship?”

“You punk, do you not realize how serious this is right now? If that man puts his mind to it, he could get rid of someone like you more easily than chewing a piece of gum.”

“……”

I stared at him, dumbfounded.

Heo Seok getting rid of me? Why?

As if I had heard an incomprehensible foreign language, I waited blankly for his next words.

Hanse sighed in frustration. Fortunately, the surroundings were noisy, and his words were quickly buried in the clamor.

“You have a weakness that Heo Seok fears. Something it would be better for you not to know.”

“……A weakness?”

“Yes, a fatal weakness. What’s the connection with Ji Sungjoon?”

“No way.”

“Still haven’t come to your senses? They’re searching your room and the library to find that evidence. They’re trying to find the evidence first, hide it, and then screw you over.”

“……Why?”

“This is so frustrating. Because you know that weakness!”

“And that’s why he’s trying to screw me over?”

“Yes!”

“But I don’t know anything.”

“You ran off yesterday while talking about Ji Sungjoon and Heo Seok’s relationship, right? Was there some kind of story between them? Something related to the student movement? Like corruption or whistleblowing.”

“……”

“Are you really not going to talk?!”

Hanse’s right hand shot up. I shrank back and looked up at him.

I repeatedly checked our surroundings, moved closer to him, and whispered in his ear. There was only one thing I knew for sure.

“Sungjoon hyung and Heo Seok were in love.”

“……What?”

“Sungjoon hyung was Heo Seok’s lover.”

As if he couldn’t believe it, Hanse’s mouth fell open.

“And you revealed that in front of Assemblyman Heo?”

“Heo Seok was talking as if he was disowning Sungjoon hyung.”

“I can see why Assemblyman Heo would lose his mind.”

“……Why? Is it that big of a deal?”

“Let’s just not talk about it.”

Hanse asked Section Chief Kim to investigate the whereabouts of Lee Taewan and Ji Sungjoon. He added a condition, however, that it had to be done without anyone knowing.

He replied dependably, telling him not to worry. With Hanse stepping in, my heart felt much lighter.

There was nothing more boring than just sitting around and killing time. I helped Lee Jaeho organize documents. It was the task of punching holes and binding them in files. He said that to catch one bad guy, you need more than ten of these binders. It seemed easy for a bad guy to do bad things, but catching that bad guy was incredibly difficult.

Hanse called me over while I was chatting with Lee Jaeho. It was a cramped, enclosed space where seized documents and items were piled up.

For me, who had a mild case of claustrophobia, it was pure torture. Conscious of the uncomfortable, stifling feeling, I waited for him to speak.

“Listen to me carefully. Section Chief Kim looked into it, and Lee Taewan and Ji Sungjoon are listed as long-term missing persons, so most of the investigation records have been discarded. They couldn’t find so much as a memento, let alone a body. They probably processed everyone who was arrested, tortured, and killed by the police as missing. They’re trying to single out people among the deceased whose movements were similar to Lee Taewan’s or Ji Sungjoon’s, but don’t get your hopes up. There were people pushed off of building rooftops, and others who were made to look like suicides, hanging with fake suicide notes. There are too many student activists who went missing or died that way. However, there is one suspicious point. They both went missing in the same year. It’s understandable that Lee Taewan’s life was threatened because his activism was relatively prominent, but Ji Sungjoon’s situation is a bit different. He has no record of being involved in subversive groups. He can’t be seen as a student activist. They disappeared on the same day, and the person who first reported them missing was listed as Heo Seok.”

“So you can’t find them?”

“We have to try. If we dig and shake things up, something is bound to come out. So please, stop acting on your own. If Assemblyman Heo finds out you and I are together……. We should be the ones to make contact or take action first. Let’s use our heads a bit.”

“Okay……”

I nodded and answered like a well-behaved child.

What I had struggled and agonized over for days to find out, Hanse had uncovered in just a few hours. And he did it by delegating with his fingertips from his seat. His information network and ability to take action were astounding. I was so happy and grateful that there was someone this reliable in my life. Like a lie, his son was unraveling the request Hyungjo had made of me.

Perhaps this was what Hyungjo had wanted.

A sense of déjà vu, as if we were connected by an invisible thread, made my heart ache. I couldn’t meet him or see him, but Hyungjo was helping me.

Unlike me, whose heart was swelling with pride, Hanse looked at my face worriedly, bearing all the troubles of the world. I spoke with sincerity.

“……Thank you.”

“Steel yourself. We’ve only just begun.”

“Okay, no matter what happens……, I will never give in.”

“Good, that’s the right attitude.”

Hanse let out a small laugh and patted my head.

Once, I had stood face-to-face with Hyungjo like this.

When the urgent footsteps of the police, of the phantoms they created, or perhaps of the dead, echoed as they rummaged through the house, Hyungjo had protected me. He was a kind person who chided my frozen self in a blunt tone and held me tight so I wouldn’t be seen by those dead men.

It really runs in the blood. He really is his son.

Just like Hyungjo, Hanse was also trying to protect me.

I looked at him, feeling distant. Hanse asks in a deliberately subdued voice.

“Were you scared earlier?”

A wistful smile appeared on my face at his words. It wasn’t Hyungjo standing before me now, but Hanse. I replied with a lonely smile.

“I thought I was going to faint.”

“You cry in a situation like that?”

“I was so shocked, I couldn’t think of anything to say……”

When I was being chased by Heo Seok’s bodyguard and heard Hanse’s voice, I was so insanely relieved that the tension broke, and tears started streaming down my face without me realizing it.

Because I can rely on you, hyung…….

The moment I heard your voice, I was so thankful and so happy to hear it…….

Unable to bring myself to say it, I lowered my gaze to his necktie.

“You threatened Heo Seok. One wrong word from you, and his political career is over. It’s even worse since the presidential election is next year. He’s probably trembling over public opinion even when killing a bug. Just imagine if even a small scandal breaks out. The other camps are dying to tear Assemblyman Heo apart, so it’s understandable he’d react that way.”

I couldn’t quite understand what Hanse was saying.

I felt a surge of hurt, as if Sungjoon was being disowned not just by Heo Seok, but by Hanse as well.