GBH 20

During the last session of the March mock exam, the classroom was filled with tension. The desks had been arranged in a single line with gaps between them, and the students were hurriedly marking their answer sheets while glancing between their exam papers and the clock. When the bell rang, the teacher clapped their hands.

“Put down your pens and the student in the back, collect the answer sheets.”

The student seated at the back fetched the answer sheets, and Kim Deuk-pal slumped onto his desk. Having focused intensely throughout the exam, pouring out what he had studied during winter vacation, he felt completely drained.

“Hey kids, the homeroom teacher mentioned there won’t be a closing ceremony, so fix the desks properly before you leave. I’ll collect the mock exam scores. Also, we need to order additional English supplementary materials after the midterm exams, so each of you needs to contribute ten thousand won to the class leader.”

By this point, Se-kyung had approached the teacher’s desk and gently relayed the information. With no after-school activities scheduled after the mock exams, the children became lively preparing to leave. Kim Deuk-pal pushed the desks back into place like an old man with a bent back. Upon reaching the front row, Se-kyung, who had been near the teacher’s desk, casually took Kim Deuk-pal’s exam paper and asked.

“Did you do well on the test?”

“How would I know? I have to see the results to know.”

Although Kim Deuk-pal grumbled, he didn’t stop Se-kyung from looking at the exam paper. In fact, he was secretly hopeful. It wasn’t just day and night study, it was more like continuous day and night study. Even without participating in extracurricular activities, he studied day and night, so he should score higher than a 7.

Se-kyung covered the exam paper but didn’t return it. He consciously traced his fingertips over the name ‘Song Yi-heon’ written on the cover of the exam paper and asked.

“Wanna study together? I’ll explain what you got wrong.”

This kid didn’t offer to study together out of the goodness of his heart, and Kim Deuk-pal narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“I don’t mind… but are you okay with that?”

“Yeah, let’s study at your place.”

“My place?”

Maybe it was because this guy was always so hard to read, whenever Kim Deuk-pal saw his cunning side, he almost found Se-kyung cute. However, cuteness and scheming were two separate things, so he didn’t tolerate it.

He must be planning to come over to confirm whether he was really Song Yi-heon. It wasn’t like he couldn’t bring him over, but whenever Kim Deuk-pal came home after evening study, Song Yi-heon’s biological mother was usually sprawled out drunk on the living room sofa, which made him hesitate. Given what he’d witnessed of her behavior since she’d been discharged from the hospital, he doubted she’d be sober just because it was daytime.

Recalling how he had gritted his teeth and bowed his head to avoid seeing Song Yi-heon’s mother sleeping on the sofa in revealing attire while going to school this morning, he suggested another place.

“Let’s go to the studyhall.”

“I don’t want to go there.”

Se-kyung firmly expressed his rare refusal. Although the study room was open late for students who wanted to study, without a supervising teacher on mock exam days, it would be as chaotic as a marketplace. Se-kyung was so resolute that Kim Deuk-pal didn’t propose a second time.

“Then study by yourself. What’s with you chasing me all the way to my house?”

However, he didn’t comply with Se-kyung’s request either. While he was grateful for the help with studying, Kim Deuk-pal was confident in this mock exam. He probably hadn’t made many mistakes, and he could review the explanations himself, so he wasn’t too disappointed without Choi Se-kyung.

“Yi-heon-ah.”

Having heard Kim Deuk-pal call out to Hong Jae-min several times, Se-kyung repeated it exactly. Realizing how unpleasant this was, Kim Deuk-pal felt the sincere intention behind it.

“You got a lot wrong.”

“…A lot?”

“A ton.”

From here to there. Se-kyung unfolded the mock exam math section and ran his finger along one page. Even without words, he could tell. Kim Deuk-pal felt his mind go blank. He got everything wrong.

Song Yi-heon’s house wasn’t far from Choi Se-kyung’s. It was close enough that Se-kyung’s previous worry about not finding Song Yi-heon seemed almost laughable. Riding together in the sedan to pick up Song Yi-heon, Se-kyung retraced the familiar streets outside the window, recalling the rainy day when Song Yi-heon had run barefoot in his pajamas.

Getting out of the sedan and crossing the neatly maintained small garden, they reached the front door. Kim Deuk-pal quickly took off his sneakers first and blocked Se-kyung from entering.

“Just wait here for a moment.”

Then, without changing into indoor shoes, he hurried inside. His secretive attitude was suspicious, but for now, Se-kyung waited. Soon, a faint call came from inside.

“Come in.”

As they reached the spacious living room at the end of the hallway, Kim Deuk-pal covered someone lying on the sofa with a blanket and clicked his tongue.

“Ah, tsk. A young woman, like this…”

The person lying on the sofa backrest wasn’t visible. Only the brown hair flowing out from the sofa looked identical to Song Yi-heon’s. As soon as Se-kyung realized this, he impulsively walked out.

Approaching the sofa, the stench of alcohol was overpowering, and even from afar, the woman lying on the sofa seemed so drunk that Se-kyung could tell.

“…Who is she?”

“My mother.”

The woman, despite seeming too young to be called a mother and visibly intoxicated since midday, bore a resemblance to Song Yi-heon in certain features. Se-kyung scrutinized her face closely, noticing a faint similarity to Song Yi-heon, who had visited on a rainy day. Hmm, the woman stirred in her sleep. As the blanket slipped down, revealing a slender, bony shoulder barely covered by a slip strap, Se-kyung hurriedly turned his head away.

“Let’s go upstairs.”

Kim Deuk-pal nudged his shoulder, gesturing towards the stairs leading to the second floor.

“Oh, Yi-heon’s friend is here?”

Upon hearing footsteps, Mrs. Seosan emerged from the kitchen to greet the guest. She warmly welcomed him, and Kim Deuk-pal, with a casual nod, smoothly issued a request.

“Please bring up some snacks for the kid.”

Snacks for the kid? Shouldn’t he ask for something like fruit or refreshments? No, more importantly, why did Kim Deuk-pal refer to him as “the kid”? Se-kyung was irritated by the brash tone that seemed to come from the mouth of the impudent Song Yi-heon. Wondering if the housekeeper would find this strange, Se-kyung glanced at Mrs. Seosan.

“Yes, of course. I’ll bring some fruits and drinks.”

However, Mrs. Seosan, already accustomed, simply accepted it with ease and brushed it off. Following Kim Deuk-pal, who had already gone upstairs, Se-kyung couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that he was the only one reacting sensitively to the changed Song Yi-heon.

As they approached the second-floor corridor, noises alternated between crashing sounds and high-pitched cries from downstairs, prompting Se-kyung to reflexively duck to avoid the commotion. From the ceiling of the first floor, a slender figure in a red slip dashed out of the living room, only partially visible.

“Ma’am! Ma’am! The chairman, the chairman…!”

“Please calm down, madam. The chairman already sent word that he couldn’t make it today.”

“Where’s the housekeeper? I need to speak with the housekeeper… Let go of me…!”

The woman was clearly unstable, unable to stay still for even a moment. Though Mrs. Seosan was much larger and more robust, the woman clung to her, shaking her while screaming about needing to meet the chairman. She flailed like a flag in the wind before collapsing, exhausted, onto the floor, still clutching the housekeeper’s clothes.

Even after causing such a commotion, the woman’s fragile body crumpled, panting heavily as if she couldn’t handle her own breath. Despite her weakened state, she refused to let go of Mrs. Seosan’s clothes, gripping them tightly. As her hands began to slip, she desperately clung on, raising her head with a trembling voice.

“Tell the chairman… I feel like I’m going to die… I’m dying… Please, tell him to save Min-seo…”

Her long hair fell away from her face, revealing her profile. A high forehead, a graceful nose, trembling lips suppressing sobs, and waxen pale cheeks. She had a beautiful face, but what stirred Se-kyung were the eyes—those eyes, framed by thick lashes, reminded him of the night Song Yi-heon had come to him, pleading for help. They were the same desperate eyes.

Se-kyung’s forearm gripping the railing swelled. When he tried to go downstairs, Kim Deuk-pal grabbed his shoulder from behind to stop him. Handing his bag to Se-kyung to hold,

“It’s the first room on the corridor. Go in.”

Kim Deuk-pal descended the stairs. He removed Mrs. Seosan’s clothes from the woman’s hand, draped his school uniform over her shoulders. She followed him, not realizing she was leaning against his son and crying.

Kim Deuk-pal embraced her shoulder and supported her. Mrs. Seosan, staggering, hurried ahead and opened the bedroom door where the woman was crying. Somewhere, a voice explaining the situation was heard on the phone.

“Phew.”

Letting out a sigh, not for the first time, Kim Deuk-pal looked weary. The woman, who had been pleading to call the chairman, abruptly ceased her crying. In an instant, her eyes sharpened as she glared at Kim Deuk-pal. Her cold demeanor turned suddenly fierce, like an angry cat, as she raised her red fingernails and pushed Kim Deuk-pal away.

“Why did I even give birth to you!”

Her legs trembling, he couldn’t stand properly and swung his arms. Whether intentional or not, his left-hand ring struck Kim Deuk-pal’s right cheek with a loud smack. The ring on his left ring finger left a red mark on his cheek. When hitting him didn’t relieve his anger, he turned to blame his son.

“You can’t even receive kindness from the chairman, instead you do these shameful acts…!”

Reading Song Yi-heon’s diary on the tablet, he had anticipated that the mother of the original Song Yi-heon, a high school student, wasn’t normal. But the reality exceeded what ‘the original Song Yi-heon’ could handle.

In her youth, at the peak of her popularity as an actress, she met the chairman and ended up with Song Yi-heon. The chairman had promised that if she gave birth to a son, he would divorce his wife and marry her, so she didn’t terminate the pregnancy. When she could no longer hide her growing belly, she was forced into a break from acting, though she hadn’t expected it to become an early retirement. She hadn’t foreseen the isolation that would come from the chairman’s wife, who had only given birth to daughters, forcing her to live a reclusive life.

By giving birth to Song Yi-heon, she had to give up the life she had dreamed of. Her once-shining world shrank down to a single man, the chairman, whom she had to call “sir.” Because her abandoned dreams had been so grand, she clung desperately to the chairman, who she believed was all she had left.

The woman, Song Min-seo, who was still sometimes remembered as a former star, had lost herself to this obsession. Trapped in a small house, unable to face reality without alcohol, she convinced herself that the chairman was her only escape and slowly destroyed herself.

“……”

Kim Deuk-pal rubbed his sore jaw, straightening his head. His eyes, dark and filled with something unreadable, fixed quietly on Song Min-seo. Song Min-seo, who had been heaving with anger moments before, faltered, stepping back. For nearly twenty years, she had lived on turbulent emotions like anger, so the sudden calm that settled over her now was something she couldn’t handle.

Kim Deuk-pal raised his hand. Having been slapped by the chairman countless times during her drunken rants, Song Min-seo’s face turned pale with fear. Failing to recognize her own son, she hunched over like a small, frightened animal, trying to hide. Her gaunt hands clutched at her silk slip, trembling.

However, Kim Deuk-pal’s raised hand did not hit Song Min-seo. He wrapped his arms around her head, pulling her shoulder against his chest, and roughly stroked her while whispering in a gravelly voice,

“You’re already beautiful enough. What do you gain by trying to please the chairman?”

The Seosan woman mentioned that Song Min-seo had given birth to Song Yi-heon when she was in her twenties, which meant she was only around forty now. But her youthful appearance made her seem even younger, reminding Kim Deuk-pal of his little sister back in Mokpo. His sister was about the same age as Song Min-seo now, and he regretted not saying a proper goodbye when he ran away to Seoul to rebel against their parents, who wouldn’t let her attend school.

“Pour it all out to me. Don’t seek the chairman, come to me. I’ll handle everything.”

Even for poor Song Yi-heon.

As his rough hand continued to offer this comfort, at some point, he felt his shoulder dampen. Song Min-seo’s frail body trembled as the sobs she had been forcing back turned into full, unrestrained weeping, like that of a child. And throughout it all, Kim Deuk-pal quietly stroked her hair, soothing her.