Phase 2. Hui-gyeong (4)
In truth, the relationship between the two—mother and daughter—was much like the worn-out sofa they sat side by side on: full of spots that needed patching up all over.
Gyeong-ae still carried the weight of responsibility for Hui-gyeong running around outside and waited for her to come back, yet she had no idea how to handle her daughter and felt utterly stuck. Hui-gyeong, for her part, had never given her mother a second thought and lived exactly as she pleased—until this confinement forced her to spend more time with her family than ever before. Whether she liked it or not, they kept running into each other, and now they even had time to talk like this.
For some reason, Hui-gyeong felt herself shrinking a little in front of Gyeong-ae.
Her mother was smiling with easy composure, yet that smile felt like it was pressing Hui-gyeong down.
She had always looked down on her mother the same way her father had, but lately—especially right now—the woman sitting in front of her felt like someone she could no longer handle.
“Lately my friend’s…”
“Hm? I thought this was about your love troubles, Hui-gyeong?”
“Uh… my friend’s problems are my problems.”
“But Hui-gyeong.”
“What?”
“Do you even have friends~?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
“Well, you’ve always been more focused on dating guys… oh, wait—maybe a guy friend?”
“No! A girl friend! I have friends too! Same-sex friends!”
“Okay, okay. Mom’s sorry~.”
Was this really something a mother should say out loud? Or was it something only a mother could say to her daughter without holding back?
This was Hui-gyeong’s first real conversation with her mother, and she couldn’t get her bearings.
“Tch!”
“Don’t pout~. It’s hard to just sit and talk, so Mom’ll bring out some snacks.”
Gyeong-ae went to the kitchen, clattered around for a bit, and soon returned with green tea and soft, chewy raw chocolate. She set them on the table and urged Hui-gyeong to dig in.
“I haven’t even eaten breakfast.”
“You’ve been home this whole time, and even when Mom nagged you to eat, you never once did~.”
She’d tried to pick a fight and gotten called out instead.
With a sour face, Hui-gyeong stabbed a piece of raw chocolate with a fork and brought it to her mouth.
She chewed.
“Mmm~! It’s so good! It just melts in your mouth!”
“Right? It’s really delicious.”
“Where’d you get it?”
“Gyeong-hun bought it last time. He told me to eat it all myself, but now Hui-gyeong’s here too~.”
“…Oppa didn’t buy any for me?”
“That was before your dad dragged you back here~.”
A big black cross mark practically appeared on Hui-gyeong’s forehead with a crack.
She forced herself to calm down and took a sip of the green tea.
“Ah—hot!”
It was scalding green tea steeped in boiling water.
Hui-gyeong managed not to drop the cup, set it back on the table, and bolted to the kitchen for cold water.
“Who drinks hot green tea in the middle of summer?!”
“Oh, you~.”
Gyeong-ae took her daughter’s outburst without batting an eye and patted the sofa cushion beside her.
“Hot green tea is perfect for a long talk. When it cools down, that’s when you know it’s time to wrap up~.”
“Hoo… hoo… hoo…”
“Grrk…”
The three subdued Yeonrancheok members were hauled straight to the interrogation room by Tae-sik hyung’s men.
What came out of that room—and exactly what methods Gyeong-jun used—is better left undescribed.
Just know that “interrogation methods” are an extremely delicate craft; keeping someone alive while painting the whole place with blood takes a mountain of real-world practice.
The two men still had blood seeping little by little from the ice-pick holes I had punched earlier.
The girl was swollen far worse than I had been a few weeks ago. Both eyes were squeezed shut, hot tears streaming down as she could only breathe through careful, shallow gasps.
Gyeong-jun crouched in front of the guy with the hole in his ribs this time.
“So the guy’s name is Jun-hyeok? Choi Jun-hyeok?”
“Y-yes… yes…”
“What? I can’t hear you.”
Gyeong-jun flicked a glance my way, and I held up the ice pick again.
Gyeong-jun asked the questions; I extracted the answers.
That was our duo’s division of labor.
At the sight of the ice pick, the bastard dug up every last ounce of strength he had left to answer.
“Yes, yes! Choi Jun-hyeok! That’s right!”
“I heard Jun-hyeok’s a real piece of shit?”
“Yes! That crazy bastard does every fucked-up thing you can think of, but his sexual hang-ups are the absolute worst.”
“Huh?”
“That son of a bitch! He says he needs the thrill of conquest, so he goes after girls who already have boyfriends or husbands! If they fall for him too easy he gets bored, so he drugs them and sells them off! If they don’t fall for him, he drugs them, fucks them, then sells them! Complete psycho!”
That… wasn’t even what we had asked.
Still. Jun-hyeok, you absolute fucking dog.
So the bastard only targets women who already belong to someone, drugs them, and ends up selling them. Human garbage, pure and simple.
And he was doing it in my neighborhood.
I wanted him gone from our turf as soon as possible.
Even if we lived in different worlds, if things ever went south between me and Hui-gyeong and she started running around with other guys again, that crazy netorare fuck could try to approach her any day.
Which meant we needed to find whatever Tae-sik hyung wanted and hand it over fast.
Judging by what this guy was saying, it probably wouldn’t take long.
Gyeong-jun pressed on.
“I heard he even fucked over his own brother?”
“Yes! That bastard! He got greedy for the girl who was gonna be his sister-in-law, got the shit beaten out of him by his brother, lost his mind, then turned around and cleaned his brother out, tied him up, and right in front of him—drugged the girl, came inside her five times in a row, then sold her! His brother’s completely broken now, living like a wreck looking for her!”
Both Gyeong-jun and I frowned.
So the stuff we’d heard at the kids’ café had been pretty much true?
Gyeong-jun elbowed me in the side.
I followed his gaze and saw the guy’s crotch slowly swelling.
“Hey. Why the hell are you hard?”
“I-it’s not… I didn’t mean to get hard…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. You know what they say? Normally sleep’s the strongest basic urge, but when you’re about to die your body forces the reproductive drive into gear so you can leave your genes behind.”
I picked up the scissors, walked over, and sliced straight through his jeans and underwear from the front.
His stiff cock sprang free through the cut.
Gyeong-jun resumed the interrogation.
“Look at that. Rock hard. Your body’s already halfway down the road to hell. Leave you like this and you’ll be dead soon, won’t you?”
“P-please… please spare me!”
“Hey, hey, ease up on the screaming. You’re still bleeding. Let’s see… your name… from now on your name’s Chun-sik, got it? Chun-sik. You know an awful lot of details about Jun-hyeok’s business. Screwing over his brother might be top secret, but five creampies? How the fuck did you know that?”
“…I… I was there. I’m the one who tied the brother up and watched.”
“There it is! Look at this guy—he’s an inner-circle man! A real talent!”
“Hoo… hoo…”
“Listen. Honestly, we’re not doctors, so we can’t save you. You’re already on your way to the other side. Jesus, look at that dick standing up. Reproductive drive’s overflowing, huh? But if you give us the info we want, we’ll let you die from sexual excess.”
“W-what…?”
Despair clouded the guy’s eyes, but Gyeong-jun jerked his chin toward the girl.
“Give us what we want, and we’ll let you fuck that bitch while you die. You’re a man, Chun-sik~. Even if you’re gonna die, you should go out fucking like a man—make it a spectacular finale, right?”
“…….”
“What, you don’t want to?”
“…….”
“Why so quiet, you bastard? Hey, Chun-sik? You dead already?”
I couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed Gyeong-jun’s shoulder.
He looked up at me, puzzled, until he followed my finger and finally understood.
Chun-sik’s gaze was locked on the other guy—the one with the hole in his throat.
That one was staring at the girl while making wet, whistling breaths, but the terror of blood pouring from his neck kept him from getting a single proper word out.
Our Chun-sik couldn’t even turn his head; he just kept the other man in his eyes. Every time the guy’s body spasmed, Chun-sik’s cock twitched and swelled right along with it.
“Ah. Not the girl—that guy?”
“…Yes.”
“You like him?”
“…Yes—khh!”
Oh shit. He’s crying.
“Hey, hey, we’re short on time. Spit out the info already. Then you can die fucking the one you like.”
“Y-yes! What should I start with?”
“Aww~. You already know.”
At Gyeong-jun’s signal I stripped the other man’s pants, dragged him in front of Chun-sik, and bared his ass.
All the guy could manage was a few feeble twitches of his arms and legs.
What a pitiful, disgusting bastard.
Fuck. Just being stuck in the middle of this situation felt like shit.
Chun-sik’s cock grew even harder, and Gyeong-jun casually asked him,
“Where do you guys keep the drugs stashed?”
“My friend’s got this thing going with a guy…”
“Mm-hm.”
“They’re kind of seeing each other, but she’s suddenly picky about guys… no, she used to be easy, but now she says she’s trying to look at different things…”
For some reason Hui-gyeong felt nervous in front of her mother.
She wanted advice that would actually help with her own situation without giving away that the story was about her.
But the moment she opened her mouth she just babbled, and she felt like an idiot.
Gyeong-ae finally clapped her hands and soothed her.
“Okay, okay~. Take a deep breath and try again?”
“Okay.”
Hui-gyeong breathed together with her mother, then let out the full chestful of air before she could finally say what she meant.
“Somewhere along the way she started liking this one guy, but she doesn’t know if he’s really the prince of her life.”
“Hmm~. Does she absolutely need a prince?”
At her mother’s question Hui-gyeong gave a self-deprecating little smile.
“My friend… she’s been pretty free with guys up until now.”
Only after the words left her mouth did Hui-gyeong feel ashamed of the past she had always treated so lightly—the past she had walked through just to meet a man so magnetic she couldn’t help but fall for him.
She didn’t know why.
Whether she was ashamed of the girl who used to throw herself at anyone who seemed cool, or ashamed of the girl who was only now trying to look at something more—she couldn’t tell.
“She wants to meet a man who treats her carefully and loves her.”
Without meaning to, Hui-gyeong had revealed the story was her own, but Gyeong-ae, as a mother, pretended not to notice and let it pass.