Trust Me and Go Wild (1)
Suhyeon stepped out through the door of the shabby house.
For all the time she had spent looking forward to this, the scene inside had been nothing like anything she had imagined, and her expression twisted with complicated emotion.
With listless steps she slowly made her way out of the alley. At its mouth a black sedan waited, and a chauffeur in a suit stood ready for her.
She had deliberately slipped out the school’s rear gate after classes with Sihyun, hoping to shake them—yet somehow they had found her and were waiting with uncanny precision.
“Please get in.”
The driver never met her eyes as he opened the rear door in silence.
And so—
“…….”
Once inside, Suhyeon only stared blankly out the window, her face sullen, watching Sihyun’s neighborhood recede at speed.
When they arrived home the driver did not spare her so much as a glance; he went straight to her mother and whispered something that sounded like a report.
Having heard it, her mother called out the moment Suhyeon entered the living room, her face already fierce.
“Lee Suhyeon!”
“You—how many times have I told you not to hang around with that boy!?”
“Mom, that’s……”
Suhyeon faltered, trailing off.
“Are you out of your mind? Walking into a neighborhood that far beneath you—on your own two feet?”
Her mother kept lashing at her without mercy.
“And the son of an unwed mother with no father, at that?”
“How do you even……?”
Suhyeon was left speechless.
Had the driver run a background check while she was still inside the house?
While the thought was still forming—
“You little slut! Snap out of it!!!”
her mother roared, beside herself.
“Do you want to end up just like that beggar bastard’s mother—some knocked-up girl with a kid already!?”
At the venom in her mother’s shout, Suhyeon suddenly remembered Sihyun’s mother.
The first time she saw her—
That’s your sister…… no, your mom?
It had been an easy mistake. Far from looking like anyone’s mother, the woman was so young and lovely she could have passed for a senior in high school.
At Suhyeon’s reaction—
……Yeah. That’s my mom.
Sihyun had nodded with a vaguely awkward look. His mother had greeted Suhyeon with a shy little smile.
Oh my, look at you~ You’re Sihyun’s friend? Come in, come in~
She had been so kind, so genuinely warm.
Unlike the woman screaming at her now.
“Lee Suhyeon! Unless you want to be thrown out of this house this second, never let me catch you so much as looking that beggar bastard in the face again!”
“Well? Answer me!”
“…….”
When Suhyeon stayed silent, her mother was left gaping in disbelief.
“Do you think life is some movie or drama!? You saw that household with your own eyes! Didn’t you!?”
At her mother’s rising fury Suhyeon remembered it all: the single dingy room smaller than her own bedroom, the pitiful furnishings that might as well have been a storage closet, and the young mother’s face forcing a smile in the middle of it.
She worked not only days but evenings and nights as well. She had set out a simple snack for Sihyun and Suhyeon and then gone straight back out again.
Whatever she and Sihyun talked about after that, Suhyeon could no longer recall clearly. The poverty of his life had left her uncomfortable, true—but she had no desire to turn her back on him the way her mother demanded.
“No.”
“What?”
“I said no. Throw me out if you want.”
“Have you completely lost your mind!? Hey, Lee Suhyeon, where do you think you’re going! Stop right there!”
Suhyeon bolted out of the house.
Even if she really were cast out, she had believed it would be all right as long as she was with Sihyun.
Without a second’s hesitation she headed straight for his place.
But when she arrived, the same chauffeur was waiting in front of Sihyun’s house—and Sihyun himself had come out with him.
The words that left his mouth were—
“……Lee Suhyeon. Go back with this man.”
A single cold, merciless sentence.
It was betrayal.
I was ready to do anything just to stay with you……!
Suhyeon called up the delinquent crowd she had run with in high school.
Their ringleader, Baek Taesu, swaggered up with a lazy grin.
“Yo~ Lee Suhyeon. Figured you’d ghosted us for good once you hit college—only call when you need us, huh?”
Suhyeon answered as if she were long used to that attitude.
“Shut it and give me the account number.”
“Heh heh heh…… Don’t tell me it’s Kim Sihyun again?”
At Taesu’s oily question she scowled and glared.
“Zip it. You in or not?”
“Fine, fine~ Just work the guy over, right? And the pay and cleanup are solid?”
“Yeah. Even if you get your asses handed to you, I’ll cover the hospital bills—so don’t worry and make it count.”
Suhyeon knew Sihyun’s skill better than anyone. If he fought back, these thugs would be the ones getting stomped. That was why they fretted about medical fees.
But Taesu’s next words were unexpected.
“Nah, nah—I mean the cops and all that. No problem there, right? Your old man’s still a construction-company president, so he can bury it if he has to?”
“What?”
When she asked again, Taesu rolled up his sleeve with open pride and tapped the tiger tattoo inked on his left arm.
“Unlike that punk, we actually joined an organization and lived a little. We ain’t getting beaten like last time—heh heh.”
Faced with his cocky confidence, Suhyeon hesitated for a beat, then spoke as though she had made up her mind.
“……Do whatever you want. Don’t worry about any of that.”
Remembering the humiliation she had suffered at the café that day left not a shred of pity. The thought of him being protected by bitches like Yuri and Seonye only stoked her rage higher.
So she swept the surrounding alley with a frigid gaze and asked,
“And this is definitely the route to that bastard’s place?”
“Course~ Figured you’d come looking for him again someday, so I’ve been watching. Plus it’s deserted—no chance some random will show up, heh heh.”
Right in the middle of the exchange, Suhyeon saw him.
Sihyun, rounding the far corner of the alley and walking toward them.
And stuck to his side like a burr—Yuri.
“Ha……!”
Suhyeon’s face contorted with pure ugliness.
Sihyun’s expression hardened further—not only at Suhyeon, but at the sight of Taesu waving as if greeting an old friend.
“Yo~ Kim Sihyun!”
Yuri, who had been clinging tightly to his sleeve the whole way, took one look at Taesu and spat a curse of pure contempt.
“Who the hell is that trash?”
Taesu only shrugged.
“Ohhh~ So our Sihyun really did switch careers to host-bar work? Lucky the customer’s a pretty noona at least! Puhahaha!!”
He mocked Sihyun to his face. The lackeys behind him roared with laughter too.
“Puhehehe!!”
“Kikikikik!!”
At the spectacle Yuri scowled and snapped at Sihyun,
“Hey, you actually know these retards?”
Before Sihyun could answer, Taesu let out a lecherous whistle and looked Yuri up and down.
“Whoa, check out this noona.”
Then he turned to Suhyeon.
“Lee Suhyeon—okay if we wreck this noona too?”
“Yeah. Wreck that bitch even harder. I’ll pay extra.”
Suhyeon answered in a voice of ice, eyes full of hatred locked on Yuri.
In that moment—
“Baek Taesu.”
Sihyun spoke the name in a low, freezing tone.
Taesu shrugged with a greasy grin.
“Yeah~ Our Kim Sihyun~ What’s up?”
“I told you clearly.”
Sihyun’s voice sank lower, colder, more murderous with every word.
Yet—
“Huh? What’re you on about?”
Taesu still drawled as if nothing were wrong.
“If you ever bother me again—”
Sihyun’s eyes flashed with something terrifying.
“I will kill you for real.”
“……!”
Taesu flinched despite himself under that killing gaze.
KWA-AAANG!!
Baek Taesu, don’t you ever show your face in front of me again. One more time and I’ll actually kill you.
The memory of Sihyun stomping the ground right beside his fallen face, the warning delivered with a presence so overwhelming that his feminine looks became utterly irrelevant—that was what rose unbidden.
But Taesu quickly smoothed his expression, trying to bury the old fear.
“Aigoo~ Scary! Really!”
He cried in an exaggerated, playful voice, then sneered,
“But can you actually do it? Put us in the hospital and the settlement money’s gonna skyrocket.
Then it’ll take even longer to scrape together your mom’s surgery fund, won’t it? Puhaha!!!”
“……!”
Seeing Sihyun’s eyes waver, Taesu finally smirked as though he had seized the upper hand.
“Drop the tough-guy act and just take the beating quiet. We’ll leave you breathing, heh heh heh!”
Taesu and his lackeys began closing in.
Sihyun’s mind went blank.
Last time he had lost his temper and half-killed them; his mother had overworked herself paying the settlement and collapsed. Everyday life was still possible, but if the surgery was delayed any longer she could end up paralyzed from the waist down—a nightmare of a disease. So Sihyun had dropped out of school and worked every single day without rest, racing to gather the money even one day sooner.
If he lost control and beat them again here, he might miss the window for her operation. Yet if he simply let them thrash him, he would become a cripple who could no longer earn a single won—and that was just as disastrous.
While he stood frozen in that dilemma, an irritated voice cut into his ear.
“Hey, what are you doing? Hurry up and deal with them.”
As if asking why he was hesitating at all.
He glanced sideways. Yuri had already let go of his sleeve and stood with her arms folded, watching him in calm silence.
“…….”
When he still said nothing she let out a soft sigh.
“Trust me.”
As though promising she would handle whatever came after.
“Go wild as much as you want.”
She grinned.
Sihyun hesitated a moment longer, yet he already knew Yuri was not the type to speak empty words—even if he had only known her a short while. Her smile never wavered by so much as a fraction.
So he let out a short, dry laugh and turned his gaze back to Taesu’s pack.
Then he launched himself forward.
THWAAACK—!!!
“Gueeeeh—!”
One of them flew like a cannonball and smashed into the wall.
At the sudden explosion of violence—
“Wh-what the fuck!?”
Taesu and the rest froze in panic.
Then a murderous voice reached their ears.
“I told you.”
They spun around. What filled their sight was Sihyun, already resetting his stance, staring them down with eyes like winter steel.
“I will kill you for real.”