Honeymoon (5)
She regretted it.
That morning, as she gripped the knife and faced Oh Hae-in… alongside her uncle’s cold indifference and the way the entire world saw her as the child who had harmed her own parents… she had always felt sorry.
At her grandparents’ house, while they were out pulling weeds, the little girl had come upon a bottle of drink she should never have seen.
I’ll bring Mom and Dad some refreshing juice!
With the kindest of intentions she poured it out, yet the smell was foul beyond belief. She was only three years old, and she simply thought it was juice that happened to stink. Her parents, exhausted by the heat and careless, only thought their daughter was being thoughtful. They drank it down in a single gulp…
From that day on she lived at her uncle’s house. Her parents never returned. Under cold indifference she was sent to a children’s center for psychological treatment. As she grew older she came to understand exactly what she had done, and she lived in despair.
Even so, three friends had always remained by her side. Because of them she overcame it and learned to smile brightly again, just like before.
Oh Hae-in, Lee Ga-rang, and Cha Sang-hwi.
Let’s stay together forever. As long as I have you three, it’s enough. For the sake of my parents who are gone, I shouldn’t drown in sorrow—I should live cheerfully…
Unfortunately that wish nearly faded away.
One day, the painful story Gong Na-rin had wanted to keep hidden, along with her friends’ own painful secrets, spread throughout the world. The fact that Lee Ga-rang’s parents were blood relatives shocked both Gong Na-rin and Cha Sang-hwi, yet neither of them showed it; they simply held each other for the other’s sake.
The world was busy tearing them apart with gossip, but for the girls there was only one person who mattered: Oh Hae-in.
To the boys who snickered and asked whether the rumors were true, Oh Hae-in said,
“You know what my family is like, right? I could even ask them to invent a crime that doesn’t exist.”
In an instant the smirking faces turned craven and they hurried away…
But you? You betrayed us…
The truths that came to light later were all the unbelievable fact that Oh Hae-in himself had orchestrated everything.
“Hae-in… you didn’t really do it, did you?”
“Believe me. I never did anything like that.”
To Oh Hae-in, who spat out lies without the slightest hesitation, the girls were left devastated. The gulf between him and them was so vast they had no choice but to pretend they hated him.
A long time later they ran into Oh Hae-in again—only to find an unknown woman smiling as she nestled in his arms.
This can’t be…
They had wanted him to sincerely repent and come back. They had never meant for him to form a new bond. Growing impatient, they eventually repaid him with exactly the result he had wanted.
Even so, he said he was exhausted and left them behind.
It was what you wanted, after all…
This morning Oh Hae-in had shoved Gong Na-rin away and fled.
Why? I gave you everything you asked for… Was it too much once you actually had to face it?
After pouring out her resentment toward the Oh Hae-in who had left, she gradually calmed down—and saw the knife stuck in the floor. Only then did the three girls realize the wrong they had committed. When he returned they would tell him they were sorry… even though he had never offered them an apology of his own.
Before long it was the walk home from school again. Gong Na-rin sent her two friends off first and stopped by a mart to buy chocolate.
Golden Egg Chocolate.
The same kind Oh Hae-in had once given her when she was little and could do nothing but cry, the chocolate he had used to soothe her. She carefully wrapped it, intending to apologize that morning… but it never came to pass.
A van on the roadside stopped in front of her. Unfamiliar hands seized her in an instant. On the pavement, only the chocolates she had not yet managed to wrap lay abandoned.
Fading…
“Ms. Park Mi-yeon. It’s me.”
Unfortunately Kim Do-hoon’s mother could not take the call. Only the automated message that she was unavailable played from the speaker.
Busy when I need her…
“Damn it…”
That bastard Kim Do-hoon…
Sang-hwi and Ga-rang were thankfully unharmed. Both of them had called to say things had gotten heated that morning, and that Na-rin had gone to buy me a gift on the way back. That was how I learned what had happened. To them I could only say we would talk later when we met, and ask them to stay home and wait.
Na-rin was…
Ding.
Another text arrived.
“Crazy bastard.”
My chest trembled. Asking for outside help would have been the right thing to do, but Kim Do-hoon had truly crossed the line. If he was serious about doing something brutal to Na-rin… I could not allow that. There were people who would help if I asked, yet Lee Hyuk—Lee Ga-rang’s father—had mentioned that people he knew lived even in my own apartment building. I could not trust them unconditionally.
I had no choice but to walk to the place Kim Do-hoon had told me. Toward the abandoned construction site left to rot after work was halted, I set my feet.
“You’re here? I thought you wouldn’t come.”
Deep inside the ruined structure Kim Do-hoon had taken his place and greeted Oh Hae-in—together with thugs who looked like hired goons. Gong Na-rin had cried herself into exhaustion and collapsed; thankfully she was only bound. Oh Hae-in hid his rage and walked slowly forward into the darkness.
“The old man’s son can’t even speak? How disappointing.”
Bolstered by the presence of the big men, Kim Do-hoon merely sneered with arrogant eyes at the Oh Hae-in who kept approaching. Then he stood, pointed at Gong Na-rin, and drove the provocation harder.
“Besides Eun Na-rin you’ve got another ‘Na-rin’ named Gong Na-rin? That’s unfair, isn’t it? I only wanted Eun Na-rin alone… yet you have two of them. It’s completely unreasonable! You told me to get lost from Eun Na-rin, but on top of her you also have a girl named Gong Na-rin! Don’t you feel the least bit sorry toward me?”
Kim Do-hoon grew more and more excited as he poured out his twisted logic. The hired thugs, paid well enough, made the atmosphere menacing—yet Oh Hae-in showed not a flicker of emotion and simply stared at them in silence.
“Kim Do-hoon. Are you finished talking?”
“Acting all relaxed. Hurry up and apologize to me on your knees. Right now!”
Kim Do-hoon only pointed at Gong Na-rin, demanding submission. Oh Hae-in looked thoroughly sick of him and refused.
“If I don’t kneel… what exactly do you plan to do to Gong Na-rin?”
“What? Something really bad will happen. But it won’t be me beating you up. These uncles here… they might do things that are hard to even say out loud. I’m being merciful. Just kneel and it’ll be fine, okay?”
Oh Hae-in did not yield to the threat. Instead he carefully studied the men Do-hoon had hired. No matter how he looked at them, they were not bodyguards in disguise. Even for money, to so readily become a shield for a risk this unmanageable… As his eyes adjusted to the dark, their features became clear.
“Kim Do-hoon. These people here—they’re all illegal immigrants, aren’t they?”
Kim Do-hoon did not even blink.
“That’s right. So what? The ones in danger here are you and that brown-haired girl. I specially just kidnapped her and didn’t let them touch her… yet you keep ignoring the mercy I’m showing. At this rate these teachers here might decide to punish you… still going to refuse?”
“So for a job this dangerous, the only ones who would help you were illegal-immigrant thugs?”
“That doesn’t matter. If you don’t bow your head to me… that girl will take the punishment in your place. Yeah. She’ll have to.”
The moment Kim Do-hoon changed his mind and gestured, the unsavory men took blunt weapons into their hands. Oh Hae-in also reached into his pocket and drew something out.
Kim Do-hoon had obtained information that Oh Hae-in normally carried a collapsible baton for self-defense; he fully expected the baton to appear and thought he was about to enjoy a very entertaining spectacle. Instead Oh Hae-in showed them the smartphone he had cleverly kept hidden.
“You thought I’d pull out a weapon? Wrong.”
Inside the dark abandoned building, Oh Hae-in’s phone screen shone with piercing brightness. Because it was so bright, the real-time comments were clearly visible to Kim Do-hoon and his unsavory crew.
“Your mother isn’t answering the phone, and I don’t know your father’s or grandfather’s numbers… so it turned out like this. I uploaded all the school-violence videos you committed as well. It was short, but… let’s end it here.”
Oh Hae-in kept the phone raised as he walked over to Gong Na-rin and pulled her into his arms. The men Kim Do-hoon had hired clearly realized there was no going back and froze in place. Kim Do-hoon only then understood the depth of his own stupidity—yet it was already far too late to undo anything.
Wee-woo, wee-woo, wee-woo, wee-woo.
Police sirens blared, flooding between the abandoned buildings. They needed to run, but there was nowhere to run. There was only one exit.
Oh Hae-in paid them no mind. After checking that the exhausted, unconscious Gong Na-rin was unharmed, he walked over to Kim Do-hoon to deliver his final farewell.
“I told you that if you stayed quiet nothing would happen to you… even if you hurt me it would still be fine, but…”
Looking down at Kim Do-hoon, Oh Hae-in left the sentence unfinished. Kim Do-hoon could only lower his eyes now, too wretched even to beg.
“What are you all doing…? You should stop him!”
The illegal-immigrant thugs Kim Do-hoon had hired with money… was their relationship nothing but money? They did not even pretend to listen; they only lamented that they were finished.
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
Only the sound of police closing in to subdue them filled the air. Oh Hae-in finally gave Kim Do-hoon the answer he had left unfinished.
“Don’t clench your jaw!”
“……?”
Crunch!
He went flying—canines and all, still red with blood. One punch and Kim Do-hoon crumpled to the ground. After looking down on the disgusting bastard, Oh Hae-in returned to Gong Na-rin, slipped one arm beneath her back and the other beneath her knees, and lifted her carefully so she would not be uncomfortable.
Moments later the police swarmed in.
The case was resolved.
No.
There was still more left.