Midday Guest Chapter 23

“Exactly. He’s the kind of guy I wouldn’t even feel satisfied with if I sliced him up like sashimi, that bastard. How many years have you given him loans at low interest and looked after him so sincerely, hyung-nim? And yet he stabs you in the back like this. To put it bluntly, he’s a guy who doesn’t even know gratitude.”

A green, young punk dares to make me like this?

His aimless anger turned toward an unexpected place.

“Haeundang or whatever, let’s get our hands on that place first. Seeing the state of your hand makes my heart ache; I can’t stand it. I won’t be satisfied until I do.”

“Thank you. Thank you, hyung-nim. I was truly so wronged that I couldn’t even sleep.”

“Get the boys ready. Let’s end this in one go and leave Yonggung-ri.”

“Pardon? You’re going to fold the Yonggung-ri project?”

“Yeah.”

“What about the deal with Taesan?”

“Seeing as Kang Changsik sent Cha Seokjoo down, it looks like Taesan and Cheongun are going to have a real clash. Is there any reason for a shrimp’s back to get broken in a fight between whales? It’s better to take as much of the remaining money as possible, stay hidden, and look for the next location. Fuck, we have to at least secure an office and a house to stay in with the boys before we go out, right?”

“Understood, hyung-nim.”

A smile finally hung on the face of Jang Munyeol, who tilted his head crookedly.

☼

It felt as though a vacation had begun.

Cha Seokjoo, who had paid the room rent in advance, was nowhere to be seen, and Yiwon’s days—with no guests to attend to—flowed by slowly.

He worked leisurely today as well. He repaired the hillside path that had been carved out by long-lasting rain and scraped out the leaves and stones gathered in the rain gutter holes.

He didn’t forget to dust the spare room and run the vacuum. He even wiped the floorboards with a steam cleaner. Because the weather was muggy, he gathered the blankets and ran the dryer once.

By evening, the entire spare room became crisp and dry. Regardless, it seemed the guest for the spare room would not be coming today either.

Yiwon, who returned to his room after a shower, turned on the TV first. Dinner consisted of spicy cold noodles and boiled eggs. He pulled over the small dining table leaning against the wall and ate. He watched one variety show he enjoyed as a meal companion and watched a movie as well.

After brushing his teeth and returning to lie down on the floor, it was already time for bed. Drowsiness rushed in instantly.

Instead of staying like this, I should lie down properly.

He spread the blanket roughly and wriggled his way onto it. Not long after his slowly blinking eyelids closed, rain began to pour.

Swooooosh, it fell refreshingly.

The pouring rain seemed to wash away the heat that had been stagnating stuffily. Yiwon hugged a pillow and closed his eyes pleasantly.

It was a day when the fan breeze tickling his calves helped with a deep sleep.

Yiwon was the type to sleep well. Usually, if he closed his eyes at midnight, he would sleep straight through until morning without waking up once during the night, and he mostly opened his eyes around six o’clock.

But today was different. It wasn’t even a tropical night yet, but he was in a state where his ears were wide open, repeatedly falling in and out of a shallow sleep.

Creaaaaak, the sound of the Haeundang main gate opening pierced his ears. It was a very small sound, but it was a noise easily captured in the quiet of the night when everyone was asleep.

Someone entered Haeundang. He could even clearly hear the sound of the person approaching the wooden porch, taking off their shoes, and stepping up. Yiwon tried opening his eyes while lying in place. A human shadow was reflected through the sliding door.

Is it the guest from the next room?

With that thought, he turned over and tried to sleep again.

It was when another presence was felt near the gate that he felt something was strange. Turning over in his spot again, Yiwon looked outside the door through his sleepiness and was startled out of his wits.

The shadow had increased to three.

His sleep-addled brain worked slowly.

Why are there three?

Did the employees come along too?

Blink, he blinked his eyes. Then, the door opened as if it were being ripped away. Along with the scent of a Yonggung-ri summer night rushing into the room, someone burst in.

“Living the life of luxury, aren’t we?”

The room was dark, and his vision was blurry. Since it wasn’t easy to distinguish the other’s face in a state of having suddenly woken up, he narrowed his eyes. The being that broke through the darkness stood tall, like a person who had returned to their rightful place.

A toe kicked Yiwon’s body repeatedly.

“This motherfucker even had time to sleep. Hey, Munyeol. Isn’t this a case where things have turned completely upside down?”

the moment he heard the swearing, he realized it wasn’t Cha Seokjoo. Then who is it? He snapped his eyes open and pushed his upper body up, bracing his elbows on the topper.

“You finally open your eyes.”

“… .”

“Are you going to keep acting like a guy with a loose screw?”

He became wide awake. Yiwon sat up with a start. In front of him, Kim Sunwoo, who had sat down with folded knees at some point, was smiling.

“Are you a bit awake now?”

“…What brings you here?”

“What brings me?”

“It’s troublesome if you enter like this without a word.”

“Boys, our customer says he’s troubled, fuck.”

Kim Sunwoo looked back and giggled. Yiwon was the one who wondered what was wrong with him, laughing like a madman when no funny story had been told. The clock on the desk he glanced at was pointing to three in the morning.

“What business did you come for?”

“Why else would a creditor come to a debtor’s house? To take what’s to be taken, to pack what’s to be packed. To do things like that, obviously.”

“…At this hour?”

“What about this hour? Because of you, our business is about to go down the drain, fuck, so we’re running around until our feet sweat, regardless of day or night.”

It was an incomprehensible outrage. At first, he wondered if this man was drunk, but there was no smell of alcohol. Yiwon tried his best to convey his words in the calmest voice possible toward the uninvited guest who had burst in suddenly.

“The deposit date hasn’t come yet. I sent this month’s portion a few days ago.”

“Use your head. Do you think someone like me would make such a fuss and act crazy at this dawn just to get a little bit of pocket change?”

“… .”

“Ha, this kid’s eyes, acting like he doesn’t know anything, are amazing. If I had come without knowing, I would have been fooled.”

Kim Sunwoo took a white envelope from his pocket. Staring intently at Yiwon, he continued speaking while tapping Yiwon’s cheek with the envelope.

“What to do, Jung Yiwon? This isn’t something that can be moved past by feigning ignorance.”

Kim Sunwoo shifted his body to sit. Yiwon’s eyes widened as he discovered the person standing behind him.

“…!”

It felt as if his breath stopped the moment he saw the other’s face. The assailant who burst into Yiwon’s house that night—the very same assailant Cha Seokjoo had dragged away like a dog—was poking his head out toward Yiwon.

He could guess from the expression that they hadn’t visited for a good reason. The assailant, whose face was full of yellow and blue bruises, raised a hand and greeted him brightly.

“We meet again. You remember me, right?”

“… .”

“Looking at your face, it seems you remembered exactly, huh.”

When he realized the shape of the hand wrapped in bandages was not whole, his breath hitched. Outside, the rain was pouring down. It was a day when all noise was buried by the sound of heavy rain falling on the eaves, the roof, the ground, and the stone walls alike.

“You’re dead now, you motherfucker.”

The assailant who approached, Jang Munyeol, reached out, grabbed Yiwon’s hair, and struck his cheek repeatedly. His head, losing the power struggle, fell helplessly, revealing his smooth, white neckline. Kim Sunwoo licked his lips with his tongue and then grabbed Yiwon’s neck firmly.

“Munyeol, wait a moment.”

“Why is that, hyung-nim?”

“Even if we’re going to skin him, we have to do what needs to be done first.”

“What do you mean, hyung-nim? First, let’s wreck this kid and—”

“The smell of a corpse hasn’t even left the mill yet. If accidents break out one after another, it’ll be hard to stop. What are you and I going to do if we go in wearing handcuffs side-by-side?”

The moment he heard the story about the mill, Yiwon’s complexion turned pale. Could it be… was it also Kim Sunwoo’s gang who made Mr. Park like that?

Thinking about it quietly, it seemed like there had been a heavy rain like this when he was having a meal with Shin Heeyoung at the restaurant. And at that time, the mill owner… the moment he thought that far, his vision blurred into white. It felt as if the blood was draining from his body.

“I’ll hand Jung Yiwon over after the work is finished, so wait patiently.”

Jang Munyeol, exhaling a huffing breath, stepped back, saying, “You must keep that promise, hyung-nim.”

“Now then, let’s talk for a bit.”

Kim Sunwoo tilted his head toward Yiwon. His face was submerged in darkness, but his twisted glint was clear.

“What are you staring at like that?”

“… .”

“You were the one who acted without manners first. Poking around here and there.”

“…That is.”

It was a disaster. If he had known the assailant was someone related to Kim Sunwoo, he would have tried to evade the situation by using some other method. The testimony was the same. Yiwon had not grown up to be so upright and kind that he would go around revealing the truth out of a sense of justice.

Of all things. Of all things, one of Kim Sunwoo’s people…

If someone were told to choose between Cha Seokjoo, who would disappear in a moment, and Kim Sunwoo, who would torment him for a long time, wouldn’t anyone choose Kim Sunwoo?

“…Ugh.”

Kim Sunwoo grabbed his hair and slammed Yiwon’s head onto the floor as he muttered.

“You’re the first to stab me in the back after I showed you a favor. I got hit so properly that my head is stinging.”