The Taste of Lies Chapter 24

Youngmin wiped away the dried blood with a towel dampened in warm water. Beneath it, hideous marks remained, as if a dozen earthworms had crawled over his shoulder blades. From behind him, Sangtae could hear the sound of Youngmin grinding his teeth, and he hung his head in guilt.

He had expected to be scolded severely for taking on a dangerous part-time job, but he never imagined something like this would happen.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you…?”

“Well, that…”

“For bringing back scars on a perfectly fine back?”

“Huh?”

“It’s going to sting.”

“Hurrk!”

A different pain came than when the belt had lashed his back. His eyes flew wide open. Youngmin carefully wiped the wound with gauze soaked in antiseptic.

Since the wounds were torn open, they couldn’t be stitched. Even if he applied a thick layer of ointment and wrapped the wounds with bandages as carefully as possible, scars would remain. His trembling hands tickled Sangtae’s sides and armpits.

“Don’t squirm.”

“What am I supposed to do when you’re touching me, Mister?”

“Oh, dear…”

“Mister.”

“What?”

“What are we going to do now?”

The hands carefully winding the bandages stopped. A look of perplexity flickered across Youngmin’s face, but it soon returned to normal.

“We have to turn ourselves in.”

“…”

“Don’t worry about where you’ll live. You stay in this house until the lease ends. I’ll deposit the monthly rent in advance. You keep the deposit too. Graduate from high school safely, forget about people like me, and live your life.”

Youngmin spoke like someone who would never return to Mukhyeon again. The minimum sentence for murder was four to six years. Moreover, he had killed his own father. Whether he had raised him or not, he was still his biological father. That made it patricide. A life sentence was possible. That’s what it said in the criminal law book he’d read at the library.

Perhaps the rumors about him being an illegitimate child would resurface. The people of Mukhyeon would scrape together everything that had happened and hadn’t happened and turn Youngmin into a devil who shouldn’t exist in this world.

“This isn’t right!”

Sangtae refuted fiercely and sat down facing Youngmin.

“This isn’t right! How can that be? Did you kill that bastard because you wanted to?”

“Sangtae.”

“You promised we’d live together for a year. What about my birthday present? I’ll tell you what I want right now. Don’t turn yourself in. That’s my wish. Those guys at the nightclub won’t report it because they’d be admitting they caused the trouble while entertaining. Don’t turn yourself in, don’t turn yourself in! Just stay here with me, Mister!”

What began as a plea gradually turned into a desperate cry. Sangtae couldn’t let Youngmin go. He had killed a man to save him. He couldn’t send him away and live comfortably in his house.

“Don’t turn yourself in…”

Smack!

His head snapped to the side. A metallic taste spread through his mouth. Youngmin had slapped Sangtae across the face.

“Kim Sangtae.”

“…”

“Murder is a crime. And people must take responsibility for their own sins.”

“…”

“Go to sleep. You must be very tired.”

Gazing at the pale face with tears rolling down, Youngmin wore an expression of genuine exhaustion. Sangtae couldn’t say anything more.

Youngmin rose from his seat. Leaving Sangtae, who was dazed and crying silently, he began to lay out the bedding. Then he lifted Sangtae, made him lie face down on the mattress, covered him up to his waist with the blanket, and went out of the room.

The sound of water came. Youngmin seemed to be washing his body, soiled with blood and dust.

Sangtae quickly sat up. Like a startled cat, he dashed into the kitchen and frantically rummaged through the cupboards. He opened all the drawers, and on the second shelf he opened, he found what he was looking for.

Stilnox 10mg. A sleeping pill Youngmin occasionally took.

Glancing toward the bathroom, Sangtae crushed the pills against the bottom of a mug. One pill didn’t seem like enough, so he crushed two, swept the powder into a cup, and filled it with bottled water. Youngmin always downed a glass of cold water after showering. Sangtae hoped today would be no exception.

Placing the cup as naturally as possible, Sangtae returned to the bedding and lay face down. Not long after, Youngmin came out. The sound of him gulping down the water was heard.

Sangtae smiled and closed his eyes.

∞ ∞ ∞

His phone vibrated with a low hum. Youngmin flinched inside the blanket.

His eyelids felt as heavy as if they were weighed down. Unlike ordinary morning grogginess, there was a forced quality to the heaviness.

He absolutely had to answer that call. He didn’t know who it was or what the call was about. But his instinct commanded it.

Gritting his teeth and contorting every muscle in his face, Youngmin reached out his arm. Just as the phone’s vibration reached the thirty-third ring, he flipped open the phone.

“This is Ma Youngmin.”

―Why weren’t you answering?

Senior Sergeant Kim shouted angrily. Youngmin used every ounce of strength to sit himself upright, fighting off the drowsiness.

―Where are you right now?

“At home.”

His voice was hoarse. With his eyes half-closed, Youngmin twisted his neck left and right. Even when he had the flu, his body had never felt this heavy. It was as if he’d become a cotton blanket soaked in water.

―There’s been an order for all personnel to assemble at the military police station right now. The chief arrived five minutes ago. You need to get here within thirty minutes too.

Sergeant Kim said. It wasn’t the Mukhyeon police box, but the military police station.

What was coming had finally come.

Youngmin recalled the police chief he had strangled to death with his own hands the night before. He had made up his mind to turn himself in, but with a hint of doubt, he opened his mouth as if he didn’t know.

“What happened?”

―…Don’t be shocked.

Sergeant Kim paused for a moment, then let out a sigh as if he’d made a decision, and continued.

―The chief is dead. Strangled, murdered horribly. At that nightclub that was in our patrol sector last night.

Up to that point, Youngmin knew the facts well. Should he pretend to be shocked? Or should he act calm? As he deliberated, Sergeant Kim spoke.

―Do you know who the killer is?

Youngmin’s body stiffened abruptly. Sergeant Kim’s question was strange. The tone suggested he knew the identity of the killer, and there was an unmistakable urgency, as if he couldn’t bear not to spill the secret.

The killer was none other than Ma Youngmin himself. There was no one else. Yet why was Sergeant Kim saying such a thing to the actual killer?

“Who is it?”

In his imagination, anxiety began to smolder like smoke. Staring into the void, Youngmin reached his hand toward the spot beside him. He was afraid of seeing an unwanted sight, so he couldn’t even bring himself to roll his eyes.

“Was he caught?”

―He turned himself in. Just a little while ago.

His groping hand beside him quickened.

The bedding was cold.

―It’s a kid you know.

The person who should have been there wasn’t there. Youngmin’s heart raced wildly.

―That kid. The one who got into that brawl at the reservoir lot. The one you took home—that kid. Kim Sangtae.

Beeee—

Tinnitus rang in his ears.

Time seemed to stop; he couldn’t hear anything. His vision went black.

A sleep like being sucked in. A body as heavy as if stuck in mud. A strange dizziness.

The timeline of events that had transpired outside his field of vision after he’d declared his intention to turn himself in the night before played out before his eyes.

‘Don’t turn yourself in! Just stay here with me, Mister!’

Even though he’d slapped him and tried to stop him, the boy had gone ahead and fulfilled his own birthday wish. Sangtae had gotten his hands on the sleeping pills Youngmin took occasionally. He’d put him to sleep with the drugs, and in the meantime, he’d gone to the police and turned himself in as the killer.

It was a terrifyingly frightening ability to execute.

―He came in with the nightclub owner and confessed. Said it was an accidental killing after a dispute while serving drinks.

“Did he… say that?”

―Yeah. …You feel bitter about it too, right? No matter how reckless he was, I never saw him as the type to commit murder. Just get here quickly. They’re taking statements from the members who went on patrol yesterday. Besides that, there’s evidence collection and other stuff—there’s a lot to mobilize for.

“Yes, understood.”

The call ended. The phone slipped from his sweat-slicked hand.

Youngmin didn’t know what to do with himself, overwhelmed with dismay. This wasn’t the plan. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

It was too late to reverse the plan.

∞ ∞ ∞

“I told you, I killed him, didn’t I?”

Sangtae glared at the crown of Detective Kang’s head, sitting in front of him. The roots of the hair around his crown were stark white, as if he’d forgotten to dye it. Detective Kang made a groaning sound and hunched his head even lower.

“Are you sure you really killed him? No one told you to say that?”