Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator : M.N 1391
Chapter: 14
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Seeing Kyung-wan, the two guys who still hadn't shaken off their thug-like demeanor asked,
"Do you know why we came here?"
"Judging by the look of it, probably for some stupid reason."
Kyung-wan answered while pointing with his chin at Jeonggo. A blond who looked like he belonged to a 'Three Blond Brothers' group. What, did they make some kind of Peach Garden Oath under a forsythia tree or something?
At Kyung-wan's calm demeanor, the two laughed as if entertained.
"Pwahahaha! Listen to this punk talk."
"He really is something else."
"Huh?"
Their laughter froze like they'd been smacked in the back of the head with a rock. That was because Kyung-wan suddenly turned and started running.
"Hey! You stop right there!"
You might find someone in the world foolish enough to stop just because someone told them to, but Kyung-wan was definitely not that person.
He could tell from Jeonggo's appearance that these two punks hadn't come with goodwill. Fortunately, their group had broken up and now he was alone—there was no way he was going to stand there like an idiot and get beaten.
It wasn't that he was afraid of being hit. And it wasn’t like he would obediently take a beating either. It was just that getting entangled with trash like this was annoying in itself.
As he ran with all his might, Kyung-wan’s breath rose to his throat, and his legs grew heavy. He regretted his laziness. If only he'd exercised regularly, he wouldn’t be this winded from just running…
He had the option of fighting back, but once you start grappling with some thug's errand boys, it's hard to stop until one side is completely done for.
So Kyung-wan ran. Two breaths in, one breath out. He consciously used the elasticity of his knees and ankles, and even his glute muscles, to push the ground behind him without losing the power of his thick thighs.
In his mind, a map of the nearby area unfolded. He calculated in a flash exactly which corner he needed to turn and how to shake off their line of sight.
Before long, Kyung-wan had successfully shaken off Jeonggo and the other two, making it back to the facility.
"You son of a bitch, where the hell did he go!"
Under a sky tinted violet, the half-assed thugs screamed in frustration after losing Kyung-wan for good.
= = = = =
They say crisis is another word for opportunity. Kyung-wan immediately reported what had happened to the director. Not because he expected the director to resolve the issue. That would be nice, sure—but Kyung-wan understood well that the director didn’t have that kind of power.
Then why did he bother telling the director at all?
"That's why I don’t think I should go to the academy for a while."
It was to say this.
Hearing Kyung-wan's words, the director rubbed his temples, clearly getting a headache.
"If you stay here, won't they come here instead?"
"If they were going to do that, they would’ve already come. Why else would they wait in the middle of the street?"
"Haa~. That’s true."
The director let out a sigh at Kyung-wan’s reasoning. Trash like that showing up at the facility was the director’s personal red line. Even those lowlifes didn’t want to stir up a big problem, so they respected that line.
Kyung-wan urged the director to make a decision.
"Let’s wait and see for a few days."
"..Alright. Let’s do that."
After a moment of thought, the director nodded in agreement. A comment from Sunmi, who attended the cooking academy with Kyung-wan, also influenced the decision—she had mentioned that Kyung-wan’s cooking skills were far from ordinary. If he was that skilled, a few missed classes wouldn’t be a big deal. Otherwise, he’d have had to think of something else.
Anyway, thanks to the director's decision, Kyung-wan got to enjoy three sweet days of rest.
Seeing him relaxed, Miyeon asked,
"Oppa. Aren’t you worried?"
"Worried about what?"
"About all this and that."
By “this and that,” she probably didn’t just mean the thug issue with Jeonggo and the others. It likely included her anxiety about the future as well.
To her, it was incomprehensible how Kyung-wan could waste such valuable time when he should be getting ready to step into society. What was he going to do later?
To her concerns, Kyung-wan preached a truth of life.
"Do you know what the most luxurious thing in the world is?"
"What?"
"Wasting time."
Miyeon narrowed her eyes at that answer.
Kyung-wan casually ignored the contempt in her gaze and continued.
"And the more tasks you have to do, the more luxurious that wasted time becomes."
What made humans human was their intelligence—their ability to predict and prepare for the future. The idea that enduring the present could bring greater rewards later meant that time itself was equivalent to future value—opportunity cost.
The infinite potential of an unknown future. To waste that potential—to squander time—was the greatest luxury a human could enjoy.
"So you're saying you're indulging in luxury right now?"
"Yup."
At his shameless reply, Miyeon shook her head and walked away, while Kyung-wan closed his eyes and basked in the warm midday sun, falling into meditation.
Meditation was a process of introspection—realizing who you were. And for Kyung-wan, it was something almost boringly familiar.
Yet he kept meditating because it was one of the best ways to kill time.
Once he let all the nagging thoughts drift away, time passed without him even realizing.
Most of the troubles that surfaced within him were resignation. He knew very well that he had no lingering attachment to life. He also knew he was too exhausted to live diligently.
Even so, the troubles remained. Because deep inside, there was still a sliver of hope he couldn’t let go of.
He let that hope drift far into his inner consciousness. Resignation followed behind. Hope and resignation were two sides of the same coin. If you didn’t hope, there would be no such thing as resignation either.
As that dual-faced lingering desire of hope and resignation faded, another surfaced—desire.
He melted each emerging desire into his calm mindscape. Just like melting the tip of an iceberg revealed what lay beneath, erasing one desire caused another to appear.
As he dissolved those desires one by one, his senses dulled.
Erasing lust took away his sense of taste.
Erasing the desire to sleep took away hearing.
Erasing hunger took away his sense of smell.
Erasing the instinct to live took away sight.
Erasing the desire for destruction even took away touch.
Once all five senses were gone, a strange sensation began to emerge.
It felt like a whisper, a tickle, a faint light, and a delicate, subtle taste and fragrance.
A seasoned monk, if placed in such a state, would surely believe they’d reached enlightenment.
But Kyung-wan even let that go.
And the more he let go, the more this sixth sense sharpened, almost seducing him. But Kyung-wan didn’t cling to it—he simply forgot himself.
A soft breeze blew.
Dried, yellowed leaves and dust, lifted from their roots, swirled slowly toward him on the breeze.
A bizarre scene by anyone's standards was suddenly interrupted by a boy’s urgent shout.
"Kyung-wan hyung! Kyung-wan hyung!"
In an instant, all the senses Kyung-wan had sunk into nothingness came rushing back.
He frowned and looked at the boy.
"What?"
"Jeonggo hyung! He told me to come get you!"
"Tell him no."
"But Sunmi noona…"
As the boy trailed off, Kyung-wan clicked his tongue inwardly. Of course he knew the boy. They were in the same cooking class at the academy, working toward a culinary license.
"What about Sunmi?"
"She’s being held hostage."
So it was an actual hostage situation.
Kyung-wan frowned. Being on the receiving end of a hostage threat was deeply unpleasant, but from the perpetrator's side, it was one of the most cost-effective forms of negotiation.
"Let’s go."
As Kyung-wan said this, the boy took the lead. But when Kyung-wan suddenly veered off to an unexpected direction, the boy shouted in surprise.
"Where are you going?!"
"I just need to stop somewhere first."
Kyung-wan made a brief detour, then followed the nervous boy—who was clearly worried Sunmi might get hurt—toward the hostage takers.
A little distance from the facility, in a deserted clearing, they found four people.
Three of them were the same Jeonggo and his “older bros” from earlier. The fourth was the captured Sunmi.
"You’re here, huh?"
As Kyung-wan arrived, the group greeted him like welcoming a friend. But their eyes said otherwise.
"You really made us run all over the place."
"You know how damn embarrassed we were because of you?"
"I wouldn’t know."
"You wouldn’t? Ha! Listen to this little shit."
One of the thugs stood up and strode toward Kyung-wan. Kyung-wan mirrored each of his steps with one of his own in retreat—keeping the exact same pace so the distance between them never changed.
"You bastard! You not gonna come over here?"
"Let go of the hostage first, would you?"
"You little punk! You think we’re idiots?"
They had no trust left for Kyung-wan.
He muttered under his breath.
"How’d you know?"
"...What did you just say?"
"I said, how did you know I’d try to run again?"
"Shit, that’s not even what I was talking about!"
Logically, considering the flow of the conversation, Kyung-wan’s “How’d you know?” made them look like fools. But Kyung-wan explained it was just a misunderstanding—he was referring to the next thing they were about to say, or some unspoken line in between.
Regardless, the thugs' moods didn't improve. In fact, it only left them more frustrated and feeling dirtier inside. So they snapped.
"You little bastard, still playing games?! Get over here!"
A sensible person, if they realize they’ve misunderstood something, might feel annoyed but would still try not to show it.
But thugs only act that way toward people stronger than them. If they think someone’s weaker, they scrunch up their faces from the start.
"I said let the hostage go first."
Kyung-wan maintained the distance, backing away in sync with their steps.
At his words, the thug advancing on Kyung-wan turned and gave a signal to one of his cronies.
"Oi."
He jerked his chin toward Sunmi, and the crony punched her in the stomach.
"Ugh! Huff!"
"Noona!"
Her mouth fell open, drool trickling out. After enough time passed to catch her breath, Sunmi began sobbing, tears streaming down her face.
The boy who had led Kyung-wan there screamed and charged in, only to be restrained by Jeonggo.
Kyung-wan clicked his tongue at the scene.
"Typical punks. Absolute thugs."
"You think we’re gonna treat the bastard who played us nice and gentle?"
"I expected a bit of face-saving at least, but I didn’t think you’d be this trashy."
Kyung-wan dropped all formal speech and ridiculed the thugs. Then he turned his scorn toward Jeonggo.
"Hey. Is this the badass, glory-drenched life you were dreaming of?"
Jeonggo averted his eyes. One of the thugs approached Kyung-wan again. This time, Kyung-wan didn’t back away.
"Because of you, I got totally humiliated in front of the hyungs—kuh!"
The moment the thug’s hand brushed his clothes, trying to grab his collar, Kyung-wan struck like lightning.
A bulging sock burst from his waistband and slammed into the thug’s jaw. The guy let out a groan and crumpled.
Inside the sock was a handful of dead batteries—wrapped in several layers of cloth. A crude blunt weapon that packed enough force to knock someone out in one shot, even when swung by someone smaller than the target.
But Kyung-wan had no intention of stopping at one blow.
He aimed again at the thug’s head and swung the battery blackjack repeatedly.
Thud! Thwack!
"Ugh! Ack!"