GBH 36
by EmerlynKim Deuk-pal came downstairs and tiptoed to avoid waking Song Min-seo sleeping on the living room sofa. He slipped on his slippers and stepped outside, inhaling the smoky night air while gazing at the night sky. Strangely, the Seoul sky was dotted densely with stars.
His feet in slippers were pricked by the tall grass. Absentmindedly thinking he should call someone soon to take care of the overgrown lawn, Kim Deuk-pal pushed the front door open. The wide alley, devoid of illegal parking, spread before him, and he looked around for the person who had called him. The orange street lights illuminated the weeds growing through cracks in the broken concrete of the outskirts.
“He said he was in front of the house…”
Kim Deuk-pal scratched the back of his head and took out his phone. As he pressed the call button and put it to his ear, he heard a vibration nearby. He raised an eyebrow slightly and turned his head towards the sound, but saw no one. Looking down, he finally spotted a boy sitting with his long legs stretched out on the ground.
The boy, who had been looking at the sky with his chin tilted back and head resting against the wall, didn’t flinch even when their eyes met. Still in his school uniform from when they parted ways in front of the study room, the boy’s drooping hand held a vibrating phone with its screen lit up.
“Hi.”
Choi Se-kyung gave a weary half-smile, the habitual gesture seeming burdensome even for him.
After showering, Choi Se-kyung entered the room pressing a towel on his wet hair. The sweatshirt and shorts fit Choi Se-kyung perfectly. Kim Deuk-pal swallowed his displeasure at seeing clothes he had to roll up the sleeves for fit Se-kyung so well.
“Sleep on the bed. I’ll study a bit more before sleeping.”
The desk had a tablet with a paused internet lecture and open textbooks, suggesting he had been studying before Choi Se-kyung contacted him. Kim Deuk-pal turned off the ceiling light so Se-kyung could sleep and turned on the desk lamp as he sat down. He bent over to rummage through the drawer for his headset.
Se-kyung kicked the blanket spread on the floor.
“I’ll sleep on the floor.”
While Se-kyung was washing up, Deuk-pal had laid out extra bedding on the floor. Even though the bed was fairly wide, it seemed a bit cramped for two men to sleep in.
“It’s fine. Sleep on the bed. Kids these days probably haven’t slept on the floor.”
His tone suggested he had grown up rolling around roughly on the floor, as if he’d come from some poor thatched house in a mountain village. It seemed like it should lead to a lecture starting with “Back in my day…”, but Kim Deuk-pal just put on his headset.
“You’ve showered, so get some rest.”
It felt silly to insist on sleeping on the floor, and Se-kyung wasn’t in the mood to sleep comfortably on the bed either, so he just sat on the edge of the bed. Kim Deuk-pal, with the headset around his neck, was absorbed in his online lecture. Se-kyung had expected him not to make a fuss when he called, but when he didn’t ask anything, Choi Se-kyung called out to him instead.
“…Aren’t you going to ask?”
However, Kim Deuk-pal only checked the remaining lecture time on the tablet.
“People run away from home sometimes. It happens.”
It was obvious Choi Se-kyung had stormed out after a fight with his parents, so there was no need to ask. It wasn’t like he’d only seen a runaway teenager once or twice while working for gangsters, and Kim Deuk-pal himself had a history of running away.
“Stay until you feel like going back home. Just let your parents know you’re safe.”
Se-kyung chuckled at the mature response from someone his age. Then, he remembered that the fake Song Yi-heon could handle any problem with a mere wave of his finger, so this reaction was nothing new.
Perhaps he had been staring too intently because Kim Deuk-pal, uncomfortable with the gaze, swiveled his chair around.
“What? Do you need something? Want pocket money? Did someone steal your wallet?”
But there was no need to share his personal thoughts. Se-kyung finally smiled his usual mischievous smile.
“There was no hair dryer in the bathroom.”
He pointed to his own hair, still dripping wet. Deuk-pal usually just towel-dried his hair and didn’t use a hair dryer.
“Just towel dry it.”
Se-kyung silently protested that he absolutely couldn’t do that. Eventually, Deuk-pal grumbled as he got up to find a hair dryer.
“Sometimes, you’re pickier than a girl, you know that?”
But instead of taking the hairdryer, Se-kyung grabbed Deuk-pal’s wrist. Gently shaking his wrist and looking up with moist eyes, he pleaded for Kim Deuk-pal to sit beside him. Kim Deuk-pal realized he had fallen for the little fox’s tricks again. He ended up postponing his online lecture and flopping down on the bed.
“So, why did you fight? Let’s hear why such a well-behaved kid ran away from home.”
“…It was suffocating.”
Se-kyung took a deep breath that made his chest heave, but the choking sensation didn’t disappear. Deuk-pal frowned.
“Sometimes, it’s hard to breathe. It feels so suffocating.”
Feeling too frustrated, Se-kyung tightened his grip on Deuk-pal’s wrist, unable to let go as if holding onto a lifeline.
“Hey, wake up.”
Se-kyung woke up to someone shaking his body. He had no trouble waking up and opened his eyes immediately, but his dark pupils remained hazy until he fully awoke.
“Are you up? Are you sleeping with your eyes open?”
Only when Deuk-pal waved his palm in front of Se-kyung’s eyes did he remember the events of the previous night. Along with that, he realized the unfamiliar texture and scent of the sheets were the same as Song Yi-heon. As the scent from the sheets connected to Song Yi-heon, Se-kyung unconsciously took a deep breath.
“…Are you crazy?”
Choi Se-kyung fully woke up, startled by what he had done while half-asleep.
“Not fully awake yet?”
When Kim Deuk-pal earnestly asked as he squatted down, Se-kyung ruffled his messy hair and pulled the blanket.
“You woke up early.”
“You should wake up too. We’re going out.”
He was wearing those oversized clothes again and seemed to have packed everything, with a duffel bag strap crossing his chest.
“Where to?”
“You said you felt suffocated. It’s the weekend, and it’d be a waste to stay home.”
Kim Deuk-pal smiled meaningfully. The emotion expressed on Song Yi-heon’s face was an unmistakable mischievous boy.
They still have paper tickets, huh.
Choi Se-kyung was fascinated by the bus ticket printed from a ticketing machine rather than an app, and kept fiddling with the crisp paper edges. The sky was turning blue as dawn approached, but the bus terminal was bustling with people catching the first bus. New to the bus terminal, Se-kyung looked around curiously before following Kim Deuk-pal to show their tickets to the bus driver and board.
Kim Deuk-pal placed his duffel bag in the luggage compartment and sat by the window. Ignoring Se-kyung’s discomfort as he crammed his legs into the narrow space between seats, Deuk-pal crossed his arms, ready to sleep.
“Wake me up when we arrive.”
The bus soon departed. Kim Deuk-pal quickly fell asleep, his head tilting to rest on Se-kyung’s shoulder.
Crammed into the narrow seat and serving as a pillow on his first express bus adventure, Se-kyung tried to calm his fluttering heart. Choi Se-kyung’s first runaway experience, gradually colored by Deuk-pal’s influence, was heading to Gangneung.
Ah, the worst motion sickness.
This was the rich young master’s first impression of an express bus. Se-kyung got off the bus, clutching his queasy stomach. Breathing in the fresh air made him feel alive again. With no time to appreciate the unfamiliar scenery of the bus terminal, he grabbed a pillar and bent over.
“A guy shouldn’t be so weak.”
Kim Deuk-pal scoffed, unaffected by motion sickness, and was in perfect condition after a sound sleep on the bus. In contrast, Se-kyung massaged his stiff shoulder, which he couldn’t move while serving as a pillow for the deeply asleep Deuk-pal.
“Where are we going?”
“Let’s grab something to eat.”
When Se-kyung asked, Song Yi-heon’s thin ankles moved confidently towards the sea, as if he’d been here often.
They had breakfast at a Korean restaurant. Fitting for a seaside area, the grilled fish in the set meal was excellent, and Se-kyung cleaned his plate. They then took a taxi to the beach.
Choi Se-kyung had traveled frequently, both domestically and internationally. However, it was always under his parents’ protection, or with a guardian ensuring convenience when his parents couldn’t accompany him. He had never experienced hardship in travel, but with his parents, Choi Myung-hyun was the watchdog, and otherwise, a paid guardian monitored him in Myung-hyun’s stead.
Walking along the beach, Se-kyung checked if anyone was following them. Among the faces he’d seen since getting off the express bus and taxi, none appeared more than twice. Even Choi Myung-hyun couldn’t have anticipated Se-kyung’s first runaway to Gangneung on the first express bus.
It was his first time venturing far without Choi Myung-hyun’s surveillance. Although the express bus made him sick and the meal was rough, he had escaped the monitoring network. Realizing this fact made him feel liberated, even if this freedom would last at most a day. The salty sea breeze, though stuffy, made him endlessly cheerful.
Se-kyung turned off his phone. The face reflected in the blackened screen showed little expression but was relaxed.
“Want some?”
Kim Deuk-pal extended a bag of walnut cookies at the rest stop. Though he would normally refuse after a filling meal, the excited Se-kyung reached into the bag and teased:
“Why do you always eat so much?”
“I’m trying to grow taller, you idiot.”
Though it wasn’t peak vacation season, there were quite a few people around the beach due to the weekend. Tourists giggled as they dipped their feet in the sea, and around Gangneung port, Deuk-pal’s eyes grew distant with reminiscence.
“Hah, when I was young, this was all countryside. It’s developed a lot.”
“When exactly was ‘your younger time’?”
It was the heyday when he was most active as an action squad member. Though there was nothing to be proud of in gang activities, the past tends to be beautified. Lost in memories and about to boast about his prime youth, Deuk-pal caught himself and stuffed his mouth with walnut pastries. His cheeks bulged like a chipmunk with a full mouth. He raised his chin defiantly as if to say “What are you going to do about it?” making for a bewildering afternoon for Choi Se-kyung.
Since they hadn’t planned this spontaneous trip, there wasn’t much to do after strolling along the beach. They took a taxi to Jumunjin, toured the fishy-smelling fish market, and had sashimi at a restaurant for dinner. If there was an incident, it was Se-kyung covering Song Yi-heon’s eyes as he longingly gazed at soju bottles on other tables.
The day quickly turned to dusk. Expecting Kim Deuk-pal to suggest heading back to study, he guided them without further ado. Their aimless wandering led them to a quiet place, and before they knew it, they were walking along a deserted beach.
Boats were moored at the dock. The auction houses built along the waterfront had their shutters down, looking as desolate as abandoned factories. This place was usually quiet except when fishing boats arrived at dawn for auctions, with only the sound of waves clearly audible.
Choi Se-kyung gazed at the calm, dark sea. It was perfectly peaceful. No luxurious tourist spot could match the perfection of this shabby place.
“…When I was six.”
Choi Se-kyung brought up a memory Myung-hyun had ordered him to erase, because here, he was wholly himself.
“I went to a gathering with my parents. It was like a social meeting. Mostly for families.”
Such gatherings were frequent from a young age due to his mother’s prestigious family background.
“Did something happen there?”
Looking at Song Yi-heon with his cheeks puffed out from sucking on a lollipop, Se-kyung slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
“Someone died.”
A crack was heard from the candy. Song Yi-heon frowned and pulled out the lollipop stick, perhaps biting it in surprise. He rolled the broken candy in his mouth before spitting it out. The sharp edges of the broken candy had cut his mouth, releasing a faint smell of blood.
Kim Deuk-pal pressed the bleeding area with his tongue before asking:
“Did you kill them?”
“Yes.”