Forced Transfer (4)
I finally managed to cut off my mother’s persistent nagging. I set my phone down on the cafe table and secretly turned on the recording function. Then I watched the guy slowly approach, carrying two matcha lattes.
I still couldn’t remember his name. I greeted him with a friendly smile, hiding my discomfort, but the way he trembled when he looked at me made it obvious he was failing at keeping his expression under control.
Damn it.
“Why are you so scared? It’s fine. Just say everything you want to say.”
I spoke gently. He had come to me first, but I barely remembered that his heart was like a reed—capable of flipping at any moment. I needed to make this fish that had swum to me on its own spit out every word by pretending I had forgotten any old grudges.
I didn’t want to act affectionate, but I had to endure it. So he would take the bait.
As he gripped the matcha latte cup, his stiff face gradually relaxed. Please take the bait and tell me everything you know.
“Hae-in, back then I really…”
“Yeah, you don’t have to rush. Just be clear and keep it short—only the main points.”
His voice was still shaking, so I had to keep pretending to be kind. Sigh…
Only then did his eyes finally steady as he spoke.
“Last year… on Instagram to Ga-rang, Sang-hui, and Na-rin… I didn’t want to do it, but the money…”
“The politician’s son lured you all with cash to commit cyber violence? That’s what you’re saying?”
“It’s true it was because of the money, but we thought the one who gave it to us was Choi Byung-su… He claims he never once orchestrated anything sinister, though…”
I thought he had calmed down, but he was speaking too slowly. Besides, a glance at the clock showed curfew was already breathing down my neck. There was no time for a leisurely chat, and the chance that he might suddenly change his mind was… high. He had a cheap tongue, the type that was difficult to trust completely. On top of that, he lowered his head while speaking and sank into gloom.
“Don’t lower your head. Weren’t you going to talk?”
The old friend I hadn’t seen in a long time was still making this difficult.
“So what exactly are you telling me? I’m past frustrated at this point.”
I applied a little pressure. He raised his head again but avoided my eyes as he barely answered.
“I thought the rumor that Ga-rang’s parents were actually biological siblings was absurd slander. I never took it seriously… But when it turned out to be true…”
“Wait! Don’t bring that up!!”
I instantly clapped a hand over the idiot’s mouth before he could blurt it out. Even though it was just the two of us nearby, if anyone else heard… it was the painful truth Lee Ga-rang would have to carry for the rest of her life.
After signaling with my eyes for him to shut up, I closed mine and took a long sip of the matcha latte.
Lee Ga-rang’s parents had loved each other. They probably still did. They wanted each other so desperately… secretly manipulating identities and documents so the same bloodline could continue. The fruit of that love was Ga-rang…
The year before last. It was the final year of middle school. Worried because Ga-rang had skipped school, I went to check on her. Sang-hui and Na-rin were busy preparing for a competition, so they had asked me to pass on their regards instead.
The moment I reached out to ring the doorbell at her house… Ga-rang burst out the door. Inside, her parents were sobbing.
I ran after her without even bothering to put on shoes. Ga-rang sat on a nearby bench, gasping for breath. I approached carefully and stayed beside her in silence.
Hae-in. Actually… my mom and dad are siblings… The story that they were both orphans was a lie….
Those words left me speechless, as if my brain had shut down. She shared the secret with me while holding back tears.
Looking back now, I never should have followed her…
I’m sorry. For telling you such a horrible truth. What do I do… I’ve made you carry this burden….
Even then, I held her without a word, gently patting her back. I had simply offered a shoulder for the fragile, trembling Ga-rang to lean on… never imagining it would become the setup for someone’s scheme to drag me down.
When I opened my eyes, his mother was standing beside him. The guy stayed quiet, clearly terrified of her.
“Oh Hae-in. What are you doing here? I told you not to be late.”
“How…? I never told you where I was…? It’s nothing. I was just catching up with an old friend before heading home…”
“Absolutely not! You have no right to do that. And seeing you meet with this child… You’re plotting something again, aren’t you?”
Mother stared at me with wide eyes. She refused to drop her suspicions and kept pressuring her own son.
Goosebumps crawled across my skin. Then, unexpectedly, the guy spoke up.
“Hae-in’s mother, we were just… meeting after a long time to talk…”
“Shut your mouth! You’re trying to tempt Hae-in with wicked thoughts again!! Get out right now!”
At her shout, he gave me a look that said we’d talk later and fled.
No gains at all.
I stood, picking up the phone I had left on the table. I deleted the recording and sent it to the trash.
The only new facts I had learned were that the politician’s son was named Choi Byung-su and that Choi Byung-su himself insisted he had never been the mastermind behind the cyber violence.
I left the cafe in silence and followed my mother. The sharp click of her heels seemed to pierce my ears. A sleek sedan came into view. I climbed into the passenger seat and fastened my seatbelt.
“Son, what do you look like? Did you get drenched on purpose just to break your mother’s heart?”
“It’s not that. The umbrella broke on the way.”
I lied instead of saying I had returned it to Ga-rang.
Mother shot me a nervous glare, then started the engine and gripped the wheel.
She drove while I simply stared out the dark window. Because of the darkness, the fish were nowhere to be seen. Of course they wouldn’t be.
“By the way, you said ‘shut your trap’ to your homeroom teacher and acted like an uneducated thug? Why on earth would you do that!!”
Mother’s shout was filled with rage. I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Because he didn’t respect me. From the first moment we met…”
“Of course he wouldn’t! Why would any teacher speak nicely to a perpetrator who was forcibly transferred?!”
“No—do you still believe I actually orchestrated this ridiculous mess?”
“Yes! Every piece of evidence points to you planning it!! Your father had to bow his head… all because of you…”
Before I knew it, the conversation had become an argument. Mother was trying to hold back her tears. Her trembling wrists looked painfully fragile. She focused on driving while suppressing the shakes, refusing to look at me. Finally the trembling stopped and she spoke again.
“Son. Your father has always walked the righteous path throughout his public service. That path—your grandfather, my father-in-law, also guided those around him toward justice while serving as a prosecutor.”
“I know. I’ve had it drilled into my head since childhood how great our family is.”
“Knowing that, you still tried to turn your friends into your own cult followers?! What you did is no different from a cult leader! If you truly loved those children, you never would have done something unforgivable. You never once felt genuine toward them, did you?”
“Sigh… Let’s drop it.”
“Drop it? You want to drop it? Did you never love us—your own parents—from the beginning? Living righteously was too boring, so you played cult leader and even disgraced your late grandfather. Come to your senses.”
She was growing more agitated, so I should have stayed obedient, but—
“What you did is practically a heinous crime, you know that? Instead of being grateful we didn’t abandon you, what is this filthy habit of telling your teacher to ‘shut his trap’?!”
“Mom! Just stop!! I get it already…!”
“Telling your own mother to shut up? I suppose I gave birth to a beast, not a human being.”
The continuous barrage of harsh words. Was it menopause?
Fortunately we had reached our apartment parking lot. The moment the car stopped I opened the door and got out. Leaving her behind, I stood at the elevator and pressed the button. I pressed it, but the wait felt endless.
Before long mother was standing beside me… What now…?
“Even though your mother is trying to advise you, you said you didn’t want to listen and just walked away. After behaving like that, are you really the child I suffered to bring into this world?”
“……”
Mother sighed. The elevator seemed slower than usual today.
“Hae-in, look at me.”
At her command I tried to pretend I hadn’t heard. But when her hand gently gripped my throat, I had no choice but to obey. It hadn’t been like this before… Ever since I was framed as the school violence perpetrator, Mother had…
“Son. We only have you… I don’t want to give up on you… Hae-in is our family’s precious child, isn’t he?”
The melancholy in her expression was clear. I silently and carefully embraced her. Mother burst into tears.
Ding-dong.
The elevator finally opened. Still holding her, I pressed our floor and comforted her. My school uniform, which had already been soaked by rain that morning, became wet once more with her tears. The dampness was spreading again… but more urgent was wrapping both arms around the pain of her devoted love for me.
Soon the door opened. I gently laid the exhausted woman in her bedroom and stroked her hair for a long time. Only after watching her fall into peaceful sleep did I finally take my late bath.
The warm water welcomed me. Today had been an unusually long day.
I finished quickly, changed clothes, and headed to my own room. I flopped down and picked up my phone. I had no desire to contact the old friend I had run into again on the way home from school. Instead… Eun Na-rin. Was it all right to do this?
I wanted to call her, but since we had only met once, my fingers hesitated.
I set the phone aside and closed my eyes. Sleep refused to visit. With no other choice, I took a water bottle and sleeping pills from the desk drawer. It wasn’t full insomnia, but I took them occasionally. I swallowed two pills, drank the water, and lay down again.
Sleep seemed to arrive, and as a bonus it appeared to cleanly erase the irritating memories. The memories of my old friends, too. Probably.