Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Ha Hyunsu watched Heejae walk away, then turned to look through the glass. He met Sewon’s eyes and smirked. He’d done it on purpose, making sure Sewon saw. Just to twist the knife.

Sewon knew exactly what the childish bastard was doing, but the back of his neck still burned. He glared at the Go Parlor’s door, its frosted film peeling and tattered. Grinding his teeth, he loosened his tie. His head tilted to the side.

“Fucking hell.”

A harsh laugh escaped him, making the thick cords of his neck twitch.

Bang! He shoved the door open, taking his temper out on the hinges. Inside, a middle-aged man looked up.

“Just break the damn thing, why don’t you.”

The man squinting at him through heavily lined eyes was Oh Junhwan, the union leader for the Geumnakri redevelopment district. He wore a shabby factory jacket he must have owned for decades, and his leg was in a cast. He looked less like a man with a fancy title and more like a permanent fixture of this crumbling Go Parlor.

“You’re looking pretty relaxed for a guy about to get the axe.”

Sewon dragged a metal chair out with his wet shoes and dropped into it. A wooden bowl full of black Go stones was immediately shoved across the table toward him.

“The hell are you talking about? Not gonna happen.”

Not gonna happen, my ass.

“Ignorance is bliss, old man.”

“I heard that, you little punk!”

“I said it out loud. Of course you heard it.”

Sewon picked up a black stone and eyed the yellowed, faded board.

He found a spot and set it down. Junhwan clicked his tongue in disapproval. The older man narrowed his dim eyes, seemingly pondering his next move, but instead dropped a name out of nowhere.

“Heard you ran into Heejae.”

Ah. Bongsoon, of course. The two of them were married, after all. He’d been so distracted by Kang Heejae that he’d forgotten to tell that woman to keep her mouth shut.

Sewon just frowned. Junhwan placed a white stone on the board and kept talking.

“Leave her alone. Don’t go poking the bear.”

“Do you even know why she’s here? Is that why you’re taking her side?”

Sewon had finally figured out the answer to that question today.

Earlier, right in the middle of the drinking party, Hakju had slipped into the private room. Seeing the urgency on his face, Sewon had dismissed the woman sitting next to him. Hakju had handed over his phone.

The screen showed the union members’ group chat.

<I heard the union leader took 40 million won.>

<Supposedly he got it when signing the lease for his son’s new marital home.>

<And he acted so clean, too…>

Watching the messages scroll by in real time, Sewon knew exactly who was behind it. The specific amount, the exact timeline, the impeccable timing… it all pointed to one person. Ha Hyunsu. And Lawyer Kang Heejae was probably playing his attack dog.

“Hey, I’ve got ears. You think I don’t know?”

Junhwan clearly had some idea of what was going on. He knew she was here for his head, and he still wanted Sewon to leave her alone?

Sewon let out a dry, disbelieving laugh.

“You’ve always had a soft spot for that girl.”

“I’m saying this for your own good, you punk.”

Sewon had been rattling the stones in the wooden bowl. He froze.

“It’s forty million, not four hundred. What kind of bribe is that? I’ve got plenty of proof to clear my name.”

Junhwan tapped a spot on the board with his index finger, as if showing the unresponsive Sewon his next move.

“I’ll handle it myself. Don’t you dare get involved. You hear me?”

He sounded casual, but Sewon knew it was genuine advice. Genuine concern. He didn’t argue. He just set his stone down.

Clack. The black stone landed nowhere near where Junhwan had pointed. The older man’s eyes went wide. He snapped his head up.

“Hey, you little shit! Why would you put it there? I literally just showed you the move, you blockhead!”

“It looks like the right spot to me. What do you want?”

“This is why you’re hopeless. Damn thug.”

The mood thoroughly ruined, Junhwan started sweeping the stones back into their bowls by color.

Thug. It had been a long time since that word meant anything to him, even spat right in his face. It was the truth, anyway.

“Do I look like one?”

So why was he suddenly asking?

Sewon picked up a stray stone from the board. He rolled it between his fingers.

“Do I look like a thug?”

“Bullshit. Why are you even asking? I could spot you from a mile away and know you’re a thug, you punk.”

It was a brutally objective answer. Sewon let out a dry scoff.

“I swear, nobody in this town has any fear. You all throw the word ‘thug’ around like it’s the name of the neighbor’s dog.”

“I’m warning you. Leave Heejae alone.”

“And if I do? Then what?”

Sewon flicked the stone away and looked up.

“It doesn’t matter if you actually took a bribe or not. They just need the suspicion.”

“…”

“They’re going to call a general assembly. Lawyer Kang Heejae will make sure of it. How are you going to handle that?”

Junhwan clamped his mouth shut, a heavy groan rumbling in his chest. He tried to hide his unease.

“A general assembly isn’t going to push me out. You think a little gossip is enough to break me? Hell no. I even tracked down that runaway dog for the family over there and got their firm backing.”

The old man had broken his leg trying to find some runaway mutt, and now he actually thought they’d repay the favor out of gratitude. He had no idea that loyalty meant nothing in the face of money.

Sewon let out an irritated sigh.

“This isn’t some village head election from ten years ago, old man.”

“Don’t argue with me. Just do as you’re told.”

“My livelihood is tied to your neck. How the fuck am I supposed to just sit back?”

Sewon shoved his chair back and stood up. There was no point in arguing anymore.

“Don’t call me for a while. If you see me on the street, pretend you don’t know me.”

“Don’t do anything stupid! You hear me?”

Junhwan kept shouting warnings at his back all the way out the door.

Sewon pulled out a cigarette and clamped it between his teeth. He took the steep stairs down in silence and got into the waiting car.

“Shall I take you home?”

Sewon gave a vague nod, too exhausted to speak. Hakju took the wheel. The car glided over the wet roads. Sewon rested his elbow on the window frame, taking a deep drag of his cigarette. He stared out at the familiar streets rolling past.

A suffocating weight pressed down on his chest. He chewed on the filter. From the front seat, Hakju spoke up.

“Who exactly is Lawyer Kang Heejae, anyway? The whole neighborhood is in an uproar over her.”

Sewon pulled the cigarette from his lips. He stared at it for a moment. So familiar in his hand, unlike the one Heejae had held, and finally answered.

“Just some crazy bitch.”

It wasn’t an insult. There was a time when that was exactly what people called her.

White smoke drifted from his lips, and through the haze, old memories began to crawl to the surface.

…

“What’s the occasion? Kim Sewon skipping basketball?”

Sewon was sitting alone in the empty classroom, fully dressed in his gym uniform and sneakers, having completely blown off P.E.

Hyunsu wandered over and hopped up onto the desk next to him, propping one foot on the chair.

“Just ’cause. It’s cold.”

Sewon stared down at Hyunsu’s dirt-caked shoes.

Nineteen years old. A month into the new semester, and Sewon couldn’t care less. Every day was the same. Boring. Tedious.

His desk partner, the owner of the chair Hyunsu was currently getting mud all over, was exactly the same. Kang Heejae.

She studied all day without saying a word. She treated him like he didn’t exist, only speaking to him when they were assigned a group project that counted toward their final grades. And even then, all she’d said was, “I’ll do the work. If the teacher asks, just say we did it together.”

“Kang Heejae really is pretty. Out of all those kids, she’s the only one you notice.”

Everything about her was boring, but she was pretty enough to catch the eye.

Sewon glanced out the window. Sure enough, the first thing he saw was Kang Heejae, standing all by herself on the edge of the field, holding a ball.

She didn’t have anyone to pass to, but she looked perfectly unfazed.

He’d only seen that calm mask slip once. He was just thinking about it. That day not too long ago, the pouring rain, Kang Heejae about to throw herself off the bridge—when Hyunsu’s voice broke his train of thought.

“Her dad’s a total psycho, though. Remember freshman year? Some guys messed with her, and he showed up with a propane tank.”

“…”

“The dad just wanted to scare them, but I heard she was the one who opened the valve. Like father, like daughter. She’s a total crazy bitch.”

Kang Heejae had transferred right before finals in their freshman year. She’d instantly taken first place in the entire school, making her famous overnight. It didn’t take long for the rumors to start swirling around the smart, pretty new girl.

Someone saw her walking into a luxury apartment complex. Her dad was a bank president. She had a chauffeur.

The reality was that she was the daughter of an alcoholic, squatting in the village hall. But people still held her accountable for lies she had never even told.

It had eventually escalated to a group assault.

It had been bad enough that the police and an ambulance had to be called. But the incident was far more famous for what Hyunsu had just mentioned. The insane stunt Kang Heejae and her father had pulled.

That was when it started. When people started calling her a crazy bitch, and when everyone finally stopped messing with her.

“If we’re skipping anyway, let’s go grab a smoke.”

Hyunsu kicked the chair away. It scraped loudly against the floor. Sewon frowned. A clear, muddy footprint was stamped right in the middle of the seat.

Suddenly, he remembered what Kang Heejae had said on the bridge, completely soaked in the rain.

“It’s ruined. My uniform… This is the only one I have.”

Sewon stood up.

“Wipe the chair before you leave.”

“What? Hey, hey. Where are you going?”

“Class.”

He left Hyunsu shouting in disbelief and walked out of the classroom. He took the steep stairs two at a time and shoved the glass doors open. Out on the field, Kang Heejae turned to look at him.

…

“Haa…”

He exhaled another cloud of smoke, and the face in his memory faded into the haze.

Sewon stared at the raindrops on the window, leaning his head back against the headrest.

There was a reason nobody messed with her. And I had to go and poke the damn bear.

Junhwan’s warning finally sank in. He’d already been through this. He already knew how messy it got when she was involved.

Ha Hyunsu wasn’t going to give up just because they swapped out a lawyer. It would be easier to persuade the union members than to deal with Kang Heejae.

If the general assembly voted it down, what could she do? She’d have no choice but to go back to Seoul.

He put the shortened cigarette to his lips for one last drag. Outside the window, a red umbrella passed by.

“Pull over.”

The car rolled to a stop. Sewon narrowed his eyes, watching the red umbrella sway unsteadily as it moved away under the broken streetlights.

That road led to the village hall.

There was only one person who would wander out there in the dead of night without an ounce of fear.