A Scorching Day Chapter 51

The train cut through the night air, speeding along swiftly. The compartment where Gawon and Ki Joon sat was sunk in deep silence.

The clattering vibrations somberly jostled their entire bodies. The excitement and elation they had felt when they departed by train that morning had already evaporated and vanished without a trace.

Two hours earlier. They had been just about to head back to their lodging after watching the sunset on the beach until the sun had fully set.

―Joon-ah! You need to come to the hospital right now. The President… he’s critical.

Ki Joon’s face twisted upon receiving Manager Hwang’s call. Gawon, who had been listening to the conversation beside him, quickly pulled out his phone and booked the remaining train tickets. He also canceled all the accommodations they had reserved for tonight and tomorrow, and they were now urgently heading back to Seoul.

Ki Joon’s face was completely rigid. Even the lips that always wore a playful smile, and the eyes that were perpetually relaxed—his expression, one never seen from him in any situation, pained Gawon deeply. Gawon squeezed the hand intertwined with his.

“Joon-ah, it’ll be okay. Your father will be alright.”

He said that to him over and over again. Like a whisper, yet with firm conviction. And each time, Ki Joon would nod quietly.

“…Yeah. Gawon-ah, thank you.”

Ki Joon’s hands, always warm, felt cold for the first time. Gawon steeled his resolve and clasped their fingers together more tightly. When Ki Joon’s hands were cold, all he had to do was share his own warmth with him.

The dark scribble remaining on Ki Joon’s thick wrist was visible. It was what he himself had drawn on Ki Joon a few hours ago, when Ki Joon had given him a rosary bracelet.

‘But still, it’s so precious… what if you give it to me like this?’

‘Then we’ll just match. Let’s make it a couple bracelet.’

Still, he hadn’t wanted to just buy any rosary bracelet sold in stores. Ki Joon felt the same. Half-jokingly, half-seriously, he’d said, ‘Then should I draw one for you?’, and unexpectedly, Ki Joon’s eyes had sparkled with delight.

They’d borrowed markers from the restaurant where they’d eaten. The two boys had squatted down on the darkening white sand beach like children, holding each other’s wrists and drawing.

Gawon had carefully traced around Ki Joon’s wrist, drawing it to look as much like his own rosary bracelet as possible. He’d put so much effort into it that by the time he finished, he felt a slight dizziness.

‘It looks exactly the same.’

‘It does.’

It was drawn so similarly, like a real couple bracelet, that he felt quite proud. For some reason, it was hilarious to them, and they kept giggling while looking down at their wrists. After chuckling for a while, Ki Joon said in a joking tone.

‘Should we just get this as a tattoo?’

‘A tattoo…?’

‘Yeah. I’ve always sworn I’d never get a tattoo until I die, looking at my uncles, but this one I kind of want.’

Ki Joon raised his wrist several times, looking at it with a pleased smile.

‘You drew it for me. And I’ll never lose the one I drew for you… so then we’ll be wearing couple bracelets forever.’

What’s that supposed to mean…. Gawon, despite being dumbfounded, let out a small laugh following Ki Joon’s lead. Truthfully, he absolutely loathed tattoos himself; just looking at them made him feel a visceral repulsion. Yet, what Ki Joon said somehow sounded enticing.

It felt like a dream—the time they’d spent smiling so brightly just the day before. The train was already nearing Seoul Station. Gawon prepared to get off with Ki Joon, shouldering his thick backpack.

Leaving the platform, the two caught a taxi in front of Seoul Station. Ki Joon naturally blocked Gawon, who was about to get into the taxi with him.

“Gawon-ah, your taxi will arrive in a minute. Sorry I can’t take you home today.”

Gawon immediately shook his head.

“I won’t go in. Just to the front of the hospital. Let me at least go that far with you.”

“No. Let’s part ways here today.”

“Joon-ah.”

“Right now… there are probably a bunch of my uncles stationed in front of the hospital. I don’t want to show you that side of things.”

Ki Joon was unusually firm. He had always been extremely cautious about revealing his environment to Gawon. In the two years they’d been together, Gawon had never even learned the name of Ki Joon’s father’s company or organization.

“…Alright.”

Gawon knew well that Ki Joon couldn’t be swayed when he was like this. Unable to help it, he gripped Ki Joon’s hand tightly and urged him.

“I know you might not be able to contact me right away because you’ll be busy. But just in case… if you get even a moment, contact me.”

“Yeah. I’ll definitely contact you. Don’t worry too much.”

Ki Joon nodded firmly, then got into the car and waved toward Gawon.

“Get home safely, Gawon-ah. You must be tired, so don’t wait up, just go to sleep first. Okay?”

Even at this moment, Ki Joon was worrying about him. Watching the taillights of the taxi receding, Gawon’s heart ached with a dull pain.

The taxi Ki Joon had called for him arrived shortly after. Gawon climbed into the back seat and closed his eyes.

He placed his clasped hands on his knees. And then he prayed to a god he had never once prayed to before. That nothing would happen. That please, Ki Joon wouldn’t get hurt.

∞ ∞ ∞

Feet clad in white sneakers ran as fast as a cheetah.

Arriving at the main entrance of the hospital, Ki Joon dashed inside the main building and repeatedly pressed the elevator button. In front of the elevator that showed no sign of coming down, he cursed under his breath a couple of times. Then he kicked open the emergency stairwell door and began ascending, higher and higher.

The VIP ward was on the very top floor. He ran up the 25 floors without even a moment to catch his breath. Ki Joon, who had charged up like a tank, gasped for air as he went through identity verification. Running to the hospital room and flinging the door open, he saw the organization members filling the large room.

Their gazes converged on Ki Joon all at once. Why did his father’s teaching from the distant past—that one could judge a person by their eyes—come to mind in that moment?

Concern for the safety of the boss they served, and the desire that had finally begun to stir slyly, eyeing the crisis. Ki Joon pushed through the starkly divided gazes. His face seemed composed at a glance, but was pale as a sheet.

The medical staff surrounded his father’s bed. The attending physician shouting instructions at the top of his lungs, the residents operating the defibrillator on his father’s chest, the nurses busily administering medication… Their white gowns fluttered before Ki Joon’s eyes, dizzyingly.

“Joon-ah! We’ve been performing CPR for the past hour. But…”

Manager Hwang approached, his eyes red with bloodshot. Ki Joon clenched his teeth. His wrists trembled, and his tightly balled fists clenched with force. At that moment.

BEEP— An ominous mechanical sound scraped at his ears.

“Father!”

“President!”

Seeing the flatlined graph, the men including Ki Joon cried out as if in agony. Sharp shouts and commands flew back and forth. Various machine sounds filled the space erratically.

Watching the medical team administer medication and perform CPR with even greater urgency, Ki Joon once again clenched his sweat-drenched palms.

About twenty minutes passed that way. Eventually, the attending physician, as if having made a decision, slowly shook his head. The mass of people, black as a swarm of ants, soon moved away from the patient.

The attending physician approached and spoke heavily.

“…I’m sorry.”

He bowed his head and officially pronounced the death. Patient Ki Cheong-hyeon, pronounced dead at 11:53 PM. Cause of death: unspecified brain damage and pneumonia…

Ki Joon listened to the physician’s words expressionlessly. The doctor’s pronouncement burrowed into Ki Joon like wriggling worms. It became a catalyst that brought back to mind the red desires he had seen in the men moments ago. A massive explosion went off in his chest.

“No.”

Ki Joon muttered. His eyes, slowly raised, no longer held any glint of life.

“Don’t give me that bullshit. You said he was fine until yesterday, didn’t you?”

“Joon-ah.”

Manager Hwang’s hand touched his shoulder, but Ki Joon roughly brushed it away. His eyes, dry as glass marbles, instantly turned red with bloodshot. A single tear fell from one eye, tracing down his cheek.

“Pneumonia? Brain damage? When, exactly? Since when?”

“…”

“Until yesterday… until before I left for my trip, you said everything was normal. His breathing, temperature, blood pressure, everything…”

Ki Joon slowly turned around. His blazing eyes fixed on Ki Woohyun, who stood beside the doctor. The moment he stared at that detestable man, who was putting on a solemn expression.

AAAAARGH! A roar filled the hospital room. The tall body, springing like a coiled spring, lunged at Ki Woohyun in an instant. At the same time, his subordinates approached and laid hands on Ki Joon. No matter how large the men were, subduing Ki Joon, who was thrashing like a wild beast, was no easy task.

“Ki Joon!”

“Joon-ah! Get off!”

Unable to withstand the violent force, a heap of men tumbled to the floor. Ki Joon roared and raised his fist towards Ki Woohyun, who lay pinned beneath him.

But just before his fist could connect with his face, Manager Hwang barely managed to throw himself in the way. The mercilessly swung fist landed not on Ki Woohyun’s face, but on Manager Hwang’s back.

“Stop it! Do you think the President would have wanted this!”

Manager Hwang snarled as if in anguish. As Ki Joon faltered for a moment, over a dozen of Ki Woohyun’s men seized the opening and rushed in.

Their hands, now dragging Ki Joon away, held no hesitation, unlike before. To them, the fallen giant tree and its immature, sprouting branches no longer held any value.

Ki Joon writhed and howled painfully like an animal caught in a trap. Manager Hwang and the men under his command threw themselves in the way of Ki Joon’s reckless, desperate attacks, time and again.

Ki Woohyun, rising from the floor, appeared unnaturally composed. As he calmly brushed off his clothes with an expressionless face, his subordinates approached and bowed their heads.

“Executive Director, are you alright?”

“Leave him be. He lost his father; it’s a natural reaction.”

Ki Woohyun said so with a faint smile.

“Unless he’s an ungrateful bastard. Right?”

Muttering that as he left the room, his attitude seemed to suggest he had nothing whatsoever to do with this chaos. Watching Ki Woohyun’s back as he walked away leisurely, Ki Joon screamed with a heart-wrenching feeling of spitting blood. For the first time, a vividly felt murderous intent writhed in his chest like a snake with its tail cut off.