< This is a service (1) >
‘I was just asking you about my father!’
It seems like he has enough sense to sense a serious atmosphere.
Mr. Cheolgu coughed in vain and glanced at me and my mother.
“Ahem, I, well, since the treatment is going well, I don’t think I need to worry about aftereffects. They said I can be discharged now. Ahem!”
“Discharged? I haven’t paid the hospital bill yet.”
“How much is that? Hey, kid. Let’s go home.”
The rumor was that the old man had paid the hospital bill.
Mother quickly opened her bag.
“How much was it?”
“Okay.”
“Take it. It must have been a lump sum. I don’t have health insurance either······.”
My mother, a single mother, raised me by selling vegetables at the market.
So we didn’t have any health insurance.
This was a time when health insurance was only available to a select few people.
“Oh, that’s right. The treatment was just providing a generous amount of oxygen, so what about the money?”
Mr. Cheolgu smiled brightly.
“If you think about it, that kid ended up paying the hospital bills.”
“yes?”
“There is something like that.”
Mr. Cheolgu winked at me with one eye.
As the man spoke, the mother’s head tilted to the side.
“What does that mean······.”
“Kid, this is a service.”
Mr. Cheolgu took a pair of children’s sneakers out of his bosom and placed them on the floor.
“I still have money left over after paying the hospital bills. And this is a bonus.”
They were children’s socks.
“They threw it in as a service.”
Whether or not my mother, who doesn’t know English, has question marks all over her face.
The man smiled and slipped something into my pants pocket.
I glanced at it and saw that it was a 500 won bill.
“Just leave it at that. Even if it’s a gesture of gratitude, it’s not my style to take advantage of someone’s money.”
“······.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
I guess she was worried that I would get in trouble for using her money for charity.
This guy, although he’s the size of a bear, is quite meticulous.
“let’s go.”
“yes.”
I jumped out of bed.
I really liked the sneakers that had a soft feel to the floor.
I ran after Mr. Cheolgu, who was walking alone with brisk strides.
“Let’s go together, mister! Mom, come quickly too!”
“Jeonghyeok!”
My mother, who was surprised, also followed me, packing her bag and coat.
* * *
Vroom.
My mother stubbornly refused, saying that she could take the bus, but she could not break Mr. Cheol-gu’s stubbornness.
My mother said she was going to get the documents I left at home and urged me to hurry up and get in because there was no time. She said, “Oh, oh,” and got into the jeep.
‘hmm?’
I noticed a bundle of papers rolling around on the floor of the jeep.
‘Dazzling gold!’
Why is this thing so shiny?
It’s just a black cover tied tightly with a rope.
It was a document typed directly on rough gang paper.
It was a type that was hard to find in the 21st century, when people typed things on a computer and printed them out.
I picked up the folder as if possessed.
‘Ugh!’
As soon as I picked up the file, my eyes suddenly changed.
A cinematic scene, thinly veiled in shimmering blue, was sucked into me.
* * *
Chomp!
Mr. Cheol-gu was tied up in a dark basement and hit by a torrent of water.
Traces of torture were evident all over his body.
-Hey, Park Cheol-gu. Speak correctly. Who told you to do this?
The man in the suit clicked his tongue as he shook the folder.
You could tell at a glance that he was a Central Intelligence Agency agent.
-Are you saying that a young agent of the Central Intelligence Agency should be loyal to an individual and not the country?
-That’s not it… Cool, no.
-Then why did you do such things?
-I’m sorry, senior. I just······.
-Why did you, a kid who should be digging up spies, dig up Wookwang Construction for no reason?
Wookwang Construction?
Wookwang Group is a large conglomerate that will eventually be ranked among the top three conglomerates in South Korea.
-Park Cheol-gu asked who was behind it now.
-doesn’t exist.
-Don’t joke around.
match!
Mr. Cheolgu’s head suddenly turned.
Mr. Cheol-gu spat out blood-tinged phlegm.
-Senior, do you know how many people those Wookwang Construction guys hurt while trying to tear down the shantytown?
-So? Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me right now?
match!
-What? You’re making this big deal just because of some shantytown kids?
match!
-Hey kid, you’ll really die if you do that. Hurry up and blow the whistle. Taesung Construction, right?
-No, there’s nothing like that.
-That’s Taesung Construction.
-That’s not it… Oops!
with a splash!
He grabbed Mr. Cheol-gu’s hair and put it in a bucket of water and pressed it down.
-You clueless brat. That’s what I mean when I say Taesung Construction.
Mr. Cheol-gu, whose whole body was tied up, struggled with all his might, but soon collapsed.
* * *
‘uh······?’
As I took my hands off the file, the blue image that had been flashing before my eyes disappeared.
‘What the hell was that just now?’
It was so vivid.
As if I was there.
As if Mr. Cheol-gu was really being tortured like that.
I could feel every breath, every cold breath.
It was something I had never experienced before.
I tapped the black document cover again with trembling hands.
“······.”
Nothing happened.
I couldn’t see anything.
It was quiet.
‘Did I hallucinate for a moment?’
[no.]
Surprise!
The answer came from elsewhere.
[That’s strange. It seems like you’ve seen what I saw.]
The grim reaper appeared like smoke from the passenger seat and spoke.
[This guy will be going to the underworld in a week.]
I remembered.
Not long after my mother passed away, the shantytown in Kuro-dong was forcibly demolished.
The landlady also lost her home and was forced out onto the streets, but by that time, Mr. Cheol-gu had already died.
‘Mr. Cheol-gu died a week later? After being tortured?’
The grim reaper didn’t answer.
Instead, I just glanced at Mr. Cheolgu.
“Ugh!”
Suddenly, Mr. Cheol-gu stopped driving and started shivering.
[What a nice guy.]
Swish.
The grim reaper disappeared like cotton candy dissolving in water.
Mr. Cheol-gu rubbed his arms and kept glancing in the direction of the passenger seat.
“What, what is it? I just had a really scary moment.”
“Sir, what is this?”
I picked up the papers.
Mr. Cheolgu looked in the rearview mirror and became serious.
“Kid, put that down because it’s important. If you look at it carelessly, you’ll be in big trouble.”
“Sir, are you digging around behind Wookwang Construction?”
To be precise, it is an investigation into the slush funds of Wookwang Construction.
Squeak!
Mr. Cheolgu immediately stopped the jeep on the side of the road and snatched the documents from my hands.
“You didn’t see it. Forget it. Got it?”
This guy really has no backing.
Are you being brave or stupid? If you do that, you’ll really die.
Wookwang was a representative conglomerate that grew through collusion between politics and business during the military dictatorship era.
My mother also spoke with a serious expression.
“If it’s Wookwang Construction, then it’s the people who go from house to house and cause trouble, saying they’re building apartments while pushing out shantytowns, right?”
Mr. Cheolgu stared straight ahead with his mouth tightly shut.
He just presses his temples with a long sigh.
But I turned around quickly at my mother’s next words.
“The day before yesterday, he came to my house and told me to move out immediately, and he threatened me by saying that he wouldn’t back out nicely next time.”
“Did they misbehave again? Were there any injuries?”
A sigh escaped me.
‘The forced eviction will begin soon.’
I glanced at the folder the old man had taken away.
It bothered me that the man who tortured the old man was trying to blame Taesung Construction.
“mister.”
“That’s the adults’ problem. The little ones don’t have to know.”
When Mr. Cheolgu pressed the audio button, 70s trot music started to play.
-I came with a dream. I came~♬ All sorrow and pain, get out of the way~♬
It was a legendary pop song released in 1975 that catapulted Song Dae-kwon to stardom.
Mr. Cheolgu started singing along loudly.
“There is nothing that is impossible. If you work hard~♬ The day will come when the sun will rise brightly~♬”
Vroom.
The jeep ran powerfully.
I looked out the window with my arms crossed.
The streets of Seoul were so different from those of the 2020s.
Instead of the high-rise buildings that used to line the streets, there are now small buildings here and there.
The number of people walking on the road and the number of vehicles coming and going are clearly different from the past.
‘This is a big deal. There’s no way we’ll get compensation for our rented house. I can see it when I look at my bank account. Given our circumstances, there’s no place we can move to right away.’
My eyebrows furrowed involuntarily.
‘Either sell your father’s watch, or contact your father’s house and ask for help. I don’t know what the circumstances are like for adults, but I can’t live on the streets in the middle of winter… Right?’
I just saw something flashing gold at a stand near the bus stop.
The light burst out like a firecracker.
“Sir, stop! Stop the car! Stop the car! Hurry up!”
Squeak!
Mr. Cheolgu had to make a second sudden stop.
“Why? What? Why? What’s going on?”
“I’ll get off for a bit! I’ll be right back!”
“What? Why? Why are you suddenly doing that?”
Leaving behind the adults who had question marks floating above their heads.
I jumped out of the jeep and ran as fast as I could.
I really wanted to see the extraordinary golden color I had seen earlier.
Somehow I felt like it had to be that way.
‘The golden light that burst like fireworks over there earlier······ I found it!’
Housing lottery tickets sold at a stand near the bus stop!
I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand.
Looking again, the gold from the lottery ticket burst out brilliantly.
‘Wow, I have to buy this!’
I swallowed dry saliva without realizing it.
In my pocket, there is 500 won that Mr. Cheolgu gave me earlier as a service.
‘Because one lottery ticket costs 100 won.’
I decided to just close my eyes and scream.
“Housing lottery! Please give me this!”
The lottery draw is today.
My heart is already pounding.
< This is the end of service (1) >
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