Honeymoon (4)
I stood there doing nothing but sweating, waiting for the bus.
I had shoved Gong Na-rin away when she tried to throw her arms around my neck and apologize… and I left without so much as a glance back.
I still could not scrub away the vicious echoes that had followed me—Lee Ga-rang and Cha Sang-hwi’s “just you wait,” Gong Na-rin’s frantic apologies turning into pure rage.
It felt as though I had burned through every last scrap of patience I had been hoarding. The reunion with those three had only clawed at my heart. This could not continue. The more twisted these meetings became, and with summer vacation starting next week… something was going to shatter. All I could feel was the cold certainty that our real reunion was still far away.
I boarded the bus, but concentration was impossible. Summer vacation began next week—how the hell was I supposed to handle them constantly trying to stay by my side? No matter how many times I turned the problem over, the answer stayed the same.
I was just about to pass through the school gate and head for the classroom when it happened.
“Hae-in.”
It was my homeroom teacher, the one with the glasses.
“Yes? What is it?”
“You should greet me first… Anyway, head to the chairman’s office for a moment.”
“Why the chairman’s office all of a sudden?”
“I’d rather you didn’t dig any further and just go now….”
With that, he asked me to go to the chairman’s office and promptly put distance between us.
Kim Do-hoon must have snitched to his father.
Thinking that, I made my way to the chairman’s office and opened the door.
“I was told you called for me…”
A woman I did not recognize was waiting, watching me. I had no idea who she was, yet I knew at once—she was Kim Do-hoon’s mother. It showed in her face. The nature of her heart was written all over her.
“Oh Hae-in. I’ll get straight to the point.”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
“Could you hand over every video of our Do-hoon causing trouble for Eun Na-rin?”
So she had summoned me to erase the filthy evidence of what Kim Do-hoon had done.
“That video… I’m not sure I know what you’re referring to.”
I tested the waters first. Kim Do-hoon’s mother let out a sigh, then pleaded with eyes heavy with exhaustion.
“I know… Do-hoon did something unforgivable. It was the result of me neglecting him because I was too busy. If you just hand them over… I can tell you a few things about the White Flame Cult. What do you say?”
I had already concluded, with finality, that Kim Do-hoon’s family had no connection to the White Flame Cult… What the hell had she just said?
“Here—my business card. If you don’t upload those videos, Oh Hae-in, I might be able to tell you everything I know… Think it over carefully.”
Park Mi-yeon
ESG Management Chairperson
Nobel Dairy
I took the card. Kim Do-hoon’s mother opened the door of the chairman’s office and left; after that, a long silence settled in. Alone in the room, I could only stare holes through her business card.
Park Mi-yeon. ESG Management Chairperson of Nobel Dairy. Was she doing this simply because she was afraid her son would be ruined… or was it a scheme of the White Flame Cult? I could not even crumple the card. I had no choice but to turn back toward the classroom.
After clearing the aquarium-fish magazines off my desk, I opened a notebook and began researching Kim Do-hoon’s mother’s company on my phone.
Nobel Dairy. A mid-sized dairy company run by her side of the family—and also the distributor that imported Golden Egg Chocolate. The image of that premium Italian-style chocolate, nicknamed Golden Egg Chocolate, had changed completely once its country of manufacture was switched. Consumers pushed back, but with the global surge in cocoa prices, supply shortages, labor costs, and worldwide cost-cutting, the headquarters claimed every factory on earth followed the same quality standards… Behind the scenes, though, people whispered that Nobel Dairy had deliberately driven the change in order to skim the difference. Everyone treated those rumors as nothing more than spiteful jokes.
Ordinarily I would have dismissed them as empty noise. But Kim Do-hoon’s mother had spoken the name of the White Flame Cult herself, and that changed everything. The consumer outrage, the manufacturing-country risk—none of it had been severe enough to justify the switch, according to the related testimony. I scribbled notes until I stopped cold.
So I would have to face Park Mi-yeon as well as the Shepherd Teacher. I reached that conclusion and closed the notebook.
“Looks like you’re done studying.”
Kim Do-hoon was staring down at me from above. How long had he been standing there?
“I already quit studying. What do you want?”
“Haa… My mom asked me not to do anything rash, so I came to deliver the sad news that I can’t retaliate against you for a while.”
“Sounds more like good news than sad news, but fine. Since it’s come to this, I’m curious—tell me what you were planning to do to me, Kim Do-hoon.”
His face twisted with dissatisfaction.
“Like I’d tell you. What’s in it for me?”
“Hmm… I hold your weakness, yet you still come at me like it doesn’t matter. You think a kid from a powerful family can just paper everything over, don’t you?”
“Choi Byung-su told me. You’re so busy you don’t want any loud trouble starting.”
Kim Do-hoon’s eyes said he had roughly figured out my situation. He pretended the revenge was over while still aiming a blade at me, killing intent rolling off him as he walked away.
“Great. Just great.”
Choi Byung-su must have dropped a quiet hint to Kim Do-hoon that I was locked in a fight with the White Flame Cult—that I could not afford to move aggressively. Before I settled things with the Shepherd Teacher this week, I would have no choice but to meet Park Mi-yeon and tie the final knot. She would insist on verifying every last video, combing through the backups as well… Aside from the fact that she was blood of the Nobel Dairy family, I had almost nothing on Park Mi-yeon. Responding would not be easy. But I would make it easy. I had to.
Lunchtime. On a school bench, Eun Na-rin clung to my arm, wearing nothing but a gloomy expression.
“What’s wrong? Did you bomb the academic assessment?”
“No… I had a rolling-admissions counseling session… They said with my grades I can’t even clear the cutoff for the universities I want….”
For once there was no playful tone—only the weight of real difficulty. So even Eun Na-rin had times that crushed her. I had always thought of her as nothing but whimsical… I could not toss out some empty “cheer up.” Instead of irresponsibly promising everything would be fine, I stroked her soft hair and offered quiet encouragement. She must have felt better; she purred and pressed even closer. She looked completely at ease.
“Feel good?”
“No. I’m just pretending it does.”
Playing hard to get. For a while I simply kept stroking her hair in silence. Then Eun Na-rin met my eyes and answered with sudden seriousness.
“Oh Hae-in. Have you really given up on studying?”
“Yeah. Even the universities anyone can get into would tell me not to bother applying.”
“Still… I just want you to do well…”
She could not finish the sentence and sank back into gloom. I wanted to give her some kind of certainty, but my status was “school-violence perpetrator.” Even mediocre universities would refuse my applications, and I had no idea when the false charge would be cleared. We came from a high-income professional family, yet Father had collapsed… There was no answer.
“Don’t worry. I’ll just parachute into my relatives’ law firm… They said the place is small enough that it’ll be fine….”
“Parachute? Everyone will think it’s unfair and look down on you….”
“They can curse me all they want… What else can I do? At least I have a way to make a living, so you don’t need to worry.”
It was the truth. …They would stick me in the administrative side……. My path had been decided the moment I was officially labeled the perpetrator. I answered as if it were nothing, and Eun Na-rin gently wrapped her arms around me.
“Couldn’t you just go study abroad?”
“Apparently what I did is bad enough that even a visa would be denied… They said study abroad is off the table, and they don’t want to pay for it either.”
“I see….”
She could only pat my back.
“I don’t know what to say. All I can do is stay by your side… even though you were the one who helped me….”
“It’s fine. As long as Noona’s here, nothing’s a problem.”
My words must have brightened her; she suddenly stole a kiss. It was incredibly sweet…
“Why are you so cute?”
Instead of answering, I gently pinched her cheek like soft mochi. Eun Na-rin glared at me, yet still looked pleased and flushed pink.
“You’re mine! Mine is mine and yours is mine too!!”
Playfulness reactivated, she asserted her exclusive claim over me—everything about me belonged to Eun Na-rin. I scooped her up and held her, treating her with affection… and for a little while I could forget the oppression raining down on me.
I said goodbye to Eun Na-rin, who was studying in the self-study room, and left school. Once again… I had to go back to them. It was my house, yet this morning she had come at me with a knife… All three of them were far from normal. Three girlfriends to begin with… no, now it was four. They still believed I was the culprit and yet claimed to love me, clinging to my side… This was not right. I needed to settle things cleanly. Once every misunderstanding about me was cleared away, I could be with them again…
— Ding.
A vibration-only text-message alert sounded. It was Kim Do-hoon’s number, and nothing but an image appeared. I tapped it…
Gong Na-rin was bound with rough rope… her mouth sealed with blue tape… even a blindfold… and the cloth of the blindfold was soaked through….
My phone trembled in my hand. Immediately another message arrived.