A Musty Old Story
Fists are closer than the law.
And in a situation like this, that was truer than ever.
"Has that crazy bastard lost his mind…?!"
"Hey, buddy. You done living? Looking to die today?"
"……"
But there was something more terrifying than the law — and more terrifying than fists.
Money.
"Minions, step off. The grown-ups are talking. Who the hell do you think you are, butting in?"
"Minions…? You little shit—!!!"
"You're dead today…!!"
"Whoa, whoa~ settle down~ Hey, you gonna rein these guys in or what?"
"Why should I? Oh, and since I'm such a son of a bitch, I guess I just can't understand human speech."
"That so? Then I guess you won't be getting your money either."
That was the moment.
Just as the thugs' rough hands reached for me, the head bastard barked out a command.
"Stop!!!!"
"Boss!!"
"Boss!"
"Should've done that from the start. If you want your money."
Whew… I lived.
As expected, the scariest thing in the world was money.
"You really gonna pay those bitches' debt? If you're screwing with us, you're dead."
"Skip the empty threats. Just give me the amount and the account number."
I spat it out without hesitation.
I'd already confirmed that money was the most frightening thing of all.
"You got no fear, do you?"
"No fear. Plenty of money, though."
"Crazy bastard… Fine. Money talks. Five hundred million, interest included."
"Not gonna give me the account? Don't want the money that badly?"
"No account. Cash only."
"And the IOU?"
"You bring the money, you get the paper. Naturally."
"By the time I pull that much cash, it'll be lunch. You buying me jjajangmyeon at least?"
"I'll spring for gan-jjajang."
The thug who so generously offered dry black bean noodles held out a business card pinched between his fingers.
"Don't be late. Jjajangmyeon goes cold and loses its taste."
"……"
He gave my shoulder a few unpleasant pats, then left with his underlings in tow. I looked down at the woman of the man who called himself my father, still crumpled on the floor.
"Why would you do that… Those people are really dangerous… I was so scared something would happen to you too, Eunho…"
"I have no interest in that man."
"Eunho…"
"Take him inside. You can manage that much, right?"
"Yes… Thank you for helping us…"
"E-Eunho! You need to get back to Seoul right away! Before those bastards come looking for you!! You understand?!!"
I ignored the voice calling after me and climbed into the car I'd left parked nearby.
Then I drove to the nearest bank, withdrew the cash, and headed for the address on the card.
"Look at the state of this office. Clean the place up once in a while. How is anyone supposed to eat in a dump like this?"
"Oh my~ Look who it is, boss~ Hahaha."
"Since when am I the boss?"
"Anyone who pays off a debt is the boss. Especially when you're paying someone else's. So that bag of yours…"
"IOU first. And the gan-jjang."
"Order two large gan-jjajang."
"Boss, what about us…"
"Go get the money! The money!! You just gonna sit around stuffing your faces without doing any work?! Ugh…! These freeloading bastards…!! Hahaha~ Boss, why don't you have a seat over there for a bit."
I sat on the shabby sofa and waited. The two thugs who'd supposedly placed the order headed out to work.
Then the head thug — no, the loan shark — set the IOU down on the table.
But why was this person's name written on it?
Not the man who was supposedly my father, Yoo Yeonghun — but the other one. The one who'd abandoned me and left.
Han Jiseon.
The name of the woman who was supposedly my mother.
"Han Jiseon… This is the person who borrowed money from you?"
"One vicious bitch, that one."
"What…?"
"Been about seventeen years now? I'd just washed my hands of the gang life, come down to Busan, and started this business. She was my very first customer. Borrowed a full hundred million back then, and I was happy to lend it. Nearly ruined the whole operation because of her, if you can believe it."
"……"
A woman who'd fallen for another man and walked out on a four-year-old kid, abandoning everything.
And she'd done it just to live on loan shark money?
No — why was that woman paying off his debt in the first place?
"Why go after some random person instead of collecting from the actual debtor?"
"The actual debtor can't pay, so you've got to squeeze the family somehow, don't you?"
"Family? How is that woman her family? Demanding she pay back money borrowed by her remarried husband's ex-wife — that's pure thug shit!!"
"What are you talking about? The woman you just saved. Han Jihyun. Han Jiseon's little sister."
"W-Wait a second…!! What did you just say?!"
"That woman's little sister is the one from earlier, boss."
"You crazy bastard…!!"
"Whoa there~ Young boss. Let's not cross any lines."
I wasn't cursing the loan shark.
I was cursing that insane human being.
His wife… no — he'd married the younger sister of the ex-wife who'd cheated on him?
"Ha… Fuck….. So I was the protagonist of a trashy soap opera this whole time…"
"You wouldn't happen to be Yoo Yeonghun's son?"
"……"
"Oh my~ And here I was wondering who you were. Father and son, cut from the exact same cloth."
"…What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing bad, nothing bad… Or is it bad? A sucker for generations. Something like that."
"Hey. You not interested in getting paid?"
"Hahahaha~ Of course I am. Just talking to myself. Well, you've got the IOU, so how about that money now."
"……"
I set the bag of cash on the table, and the loan shark clamped both hands onto it.
Then a pointless tug-of-war began.
"……"
"Let go of this, boss…! Don't make me beat it out of your hands…!!"
"Before that, let's hear the story. What really happened."
"Ah, for real!! What story?!!"
"Everything connected to this IOU."
At my words, the loan shark released the bag he'd been yanking on and leaned back against the sofa with an easy air.
"My mouth runs a little expensive, boss."
"One million."
"Add another zero. Then I might remember the details a bit better."
"Fine."
"Now that's what I like to hear! Alright then… where should I start…."
He clapped once, then rubbed his pressed-together hands like a fly, and began to dredge up a thoroughly musty old story.
Sixteen years ago.
Yoo Yeonghun went looking for his mother, and his mother flew into a rage.
"Why the hell would you go looking for that woman again — the one who ran off with some man and abandoned her own child?!!"
"They say she's very sick."
"So what?!"
"She's Eunho's mother. She was my wife."
"She was his mother! She was your wife! But she isn't anymore, you fool!!!"
"I'm just going to see her face. I'm not trying to get back together."
Yoo Yeonghun went to see his ex-wife, Han Jiseon, who had contacted him for the first time in six years.
Han Jiseon had been given a terminal diagnosis — one year left to live.
"Eunho…? You didn't bring him…?"
"No."
"Why…? I want to see him… Our Eunho… He must have grown so much…."
"…Don't."
"Huh…?"
"Don't you dare put our Eunho's name in your mouth…!"
"I just wanted to see Eunho…."
"What kind of shameless nerve do you have, saying his name?!!!!"
"Then why did you come?"
"What…?"
"If you weren't going to let me see the kid, why the hell did you come?!!!!"
"……"
Yoo Yeonghun felt as though his chest were being torn open.
Because he thought of the son who still longed for a mother like this.
Because he was so desperately sorry for the boy who'd been wounded so young.
That was when a strange man walked into the hospital room.
"Oh my~ Nice private room you've got here~"
"H-Honey…!"
Trembling with fear, Han Jiseon grabbed Yoo Yeonghun's hand.
It was the hand of the woman who'd abandoned him and their son — but Yoo Yeonghun couldn't bring himself to shake it off cruelly.
"Who are you?"
"She calls you honey, so I guess she's got another husband besides the one who ran off?"
"Hey! Who the hell are you?!!"
"Me? Debt collector."
"What…?"
Yoo Yeonghun was stunned, and Han Jiseon brazenly asked him to pay off her debt for her.
"I was tricked too!! That bastard told me to scrape up money for his business, so I had no choice!!!"
"So? Why should I pay that money back?"
"I'm dying and you don't even feel sorry for me?! Just pay it!!! Or else he's going after my little sister!!"
"Hey, Han Jiseon. Do you have zero shame?"
"None! Zero!! What does shame matter when you're dying!!!"
"I need to live too!!! I finally forgot about you and started living well…!!"
"Then what about my sister?!!"
"Hey… Why are you dumping your sister on me?!!!"
"I don't care!! Pay it! Just ask your mother for the money!! If she sells the house, that'll cover a hundred million!!"
"Ha…."
He bitterly resented himself for not having shaken off her hand moments earlier.
So he decided to cut the knot clean, here and now.
"Don't ever contact me again."
"Hey!!!"
Yoo Yeonghun stumbled out of the hospital room and collapsed in the hallway, clutching at his hair.
How had it come to this?
How had she become like that?
No — he didn't even want to think about it.
He just wanted it erased from his memory.
"Um… Brother-in-law…."
"……"
"Please don't listen to my sister! I can pay off that debt soon myself! So just think about Eunho, brother-in-law. And…. I'm sorry… for everything…."
"You don't have anything to apologize to me for."
"Even so, I'm sorry…."
"……"
Seeing Han Jihyun bow so low her forehead nearly touched the floor, his heart almost softened — but Yoo Yeonghun rose coldly and walked down the corridor.
That was when he heard it: the wailing of a two-year-old infant, Yoo Serin.
"Waaaaah!! Waaaaah!!"
"Se-Serin, don't cry…! Mommy's right here! Don't cry… please…."
"Waaaaah!!! Waaaaah!!!"
"……"
Watching Han Jihyun cradle and soothe a two-year-old baby, Yoo Yeonghun's clenched fist trembled violently.
It looked exactly like himself — holding his son and weeping after his wife had left.
In the end, he made a foolish choice.
He went home and liquidated everything one by one.
The car still under installment payments, the lease deposit, even the savings accounts.
"Oh my~ This much only covers the interest."
"What the hell does that mean?! You said it was a hundred million!"
"That was the principal. Interest accrued over a year… let's see… comes to about a hundred forty million."
"That's absurd! What kind of interest…"
"Then you should've borrowed from a bank, pal. Ah! You weren't the one who borrowed it, were you? Well, either way, from now on you can think of yourself as the one paying it back, right?"
"What…?"
"I wasn't trying to overhear, but it just reached my ears."
"W-What are you talking about…?"
"You've got a son and a mother, don't you? Nice — more people I can collect from~ Hahaha."
"……"
Yoo Yeonghun realized it then.
That the bond he'd clung to so foolishly had shackled his own ankles.
So he had no choice.
He quit his job in Seoul and moved down to Busan.
One wrong move, and his son and mother would be shackled too.
"Please look after Eunho for me."
"You idiot! After handing over all that money, what are you going to raise Eunho with?!"
"I'm still young. I can start over."
"Then just give them the money and be done with it! Why do you have to go down there?!"
"…It won't take long. Just look after him until then, Mother."
"Aigoo, Eunho… How did you end up with parents like this, suffering so cruelly at such a young age…!! I'm the sinner! I'm the one to blame!! Aigoo, my baby…."
He couldn't tell his mother the truth.
That not long ago, a loan shark from Busan had shown up at his company in Seoul.
And so Yoo Yeonghun left Yoo Eunho — who'd just had a fight with a friend — in his mother's care and went down to Busan.
The promise that it wouldn't take long was one he never kept.
He spent the rest of his life paying off his ex-wife's debt as it snowballed, and then he died.
THWACK!!!
I smashed my fist across the loan shark's face.
I grabbed him by the collar as he toppled over the back of the sofa and roared.
"Are you even human?! You son of a bitch!!!!"
"Ha… Fuck… What's the crime in collecting money I lent? Ow… Getting beat up at my age hurts even worse… Throw in some compensation money on your way out, boss~"
"Sure. I'll make sure you get every bit of compensation you deserve."
"Thank you~ Heh heh.."
"Don't thank me. You've got to pay the full price for that money."
"What…? Guhk!!!!"
I hit him, and hit him again.
I beat the loan shark's face until it was a bloody pulp.
And still, this loan shark was smiling.
"Kh…! Khkh…!! You think you'll sleep easy after doing this to me?"
"That's something you should be worrying about."
"What?"
"You must've seen it on the news. Those school-violence bastards who ended up vegetables — still in comas."
"……"
Only then did the smile vanish from his face. I leaned in close and whispered.
"Police, prosecutors, judges — whatever. You'd better beg with everything you've got. Beg them to let you rot in prison for the rest of your life."
"What the hell does that…"
"Prison will be the safest place for you. Those people don't do 'moderation' once the money's paid."
"……"
A short while later, the police arrived.
I'd turned myself in for the assault, after all.
So I got taken in too.
No — only I got taken in.
The loan shark I'd beaten came along as the victim.
"So this side committed assault, and this side claims he wasn't hit?"
"I never said I wasn't hit! I did!!"
"Then why does your face look like that?"
"I fell down! Happy?!!"
"So there was no assault?"
"Yes, Detective!"
"Hoo…. The party involved says there was no assault. What would you like to do? Keep insisting there was an assault? Or head on home?"
"……"
I turned my head and looked at the loan shark.
The moment our eyes met, he dropped his gaze to the floor.
It wasn't because he was scared of getting hit by me.
He'd done the gang life — he knew the power of money.
He knew there were people out there who would kill a man for the right price.
"Then let's wrap it up here. Let's never…! see each other again."
"Yes… Understood…"
"Am I free to go, then?"
"Ah, yes. You're free to leave."
I'd beaten a man half to death, and I walked out of the police station without a single charge.
But it didn't feel satisfying.
I still couldn't understand why the man who was supposedly my father had made that choice.
If I wanted the truth, it seemed I'd have to go find her.
Han Jiseon's little sister — Han Jihyun.
Of course, I fully intended to make her suffer for it first.
"Counselor, it's me. Do you happen to know any prosecutors in Busan?"
"I have a Judicial Research and Training Institute classmate at the Busan District Prosecutors' Office. Why do you ask?"
"I want to report an illegal lending operation. There was assault during illegal collection, death threats, and the interest rates are completely absurd."
"Ah, yes. Understood. I'll make some calls."
Trash belongs in the trash can.