LM 1

He shouldn’t have gotten involved in this.

There are a few things people should never do in life. One is undoubtedly gambling, another is co-signing loans, and the last is drugs. There are many others, but these three are the express train to rock bottom in life.

Unfortunately, Siyul got involved with one of those—drugs. He didn’t actually do them, he just lent a tiny hand in their distribution.

Siyul was generally a timid person. He didn’t even smoke, not understanding why people do things that are bad for their health. So why did such a Siyul get involved with drugs? To find the reason, we need to rewind quite a bit from this moment where he’s kneeling now.

How far back should we go? Searching for the cause leads to the fundamental regret that the sperm shouldn’t have settled in the egg in the first place. Siyul tried to gather his thoughts, biting his lips. The first culprit was himself for making a stupid choice, and the second was Kwon Yuwon, who grew up with him in the orphanage.

Siyul was from an orphanage. The kind-hearted director hid who Siyul’s mother was, but he found out thanks to the harmless gossip of the orphanage staff. His mother was a teenage single mom.

When he was still a snot-nosed kid, he dreamed that his mother would come back and hug him someday, but as he grew older, he abandoned that vain hope. His mother didn’t exist anywhere in the world. Even if he died and crossed the river to the afterlife, he probably wouldn’t be able to find her. How could he find someone whose face he doesn’t know?

In any case, while the start of his life was tragic, fortunately, the orphanage was a good place. The director and staff were kind, the food was good, and there was little discrimination. On Children’s Day, various volunteer groups brought gifts, and there were delicious special meals. Compared to another orphanage in the area that embezzled donations and fed rotten potatoes to the children, this place was heaven.

That’s where he met Kwon Yuwon. The director gave her surname to children without names and named them. So unless they already had a name, everyone’s surname was Kwon.

Among them, Kwon Yuwon was particularly close to Siyul. They were the same age and both abandoned at the orphanage right after birth, so they had a special bond. Although Siyul had no blood relatives, he knew what brotherly love was because of Kwon Yuwon.

Unlike Siyul, who was a bit slow and often spaced out, Kwon Yuwon was quick-witted. He did well in school without studying and made good pocket money doing part-time jobs like selling cigarettes to students or neatly applying screen protectors on phones.

Although they were the same age, Kwon Yuwon was like an older brother to Siyul. When someone picked on Siyul or fights broke out at the orphanage, Kwon Yuwon would rush over and throw punches.

In a capitalist society, most problems arise because of money. If you think about it, Kwon Yuwon might also be a pitiful victim caught up in the grand game of money.

It was after they reached the age of forced independence from the orphanage. There was settlement support money, but in this era of skyrocketing prices, it was a mere pittance. Even with barely any sleep and working themselves to the bone, it wasn’t easy to keep themselves fed. And the world was even harsher on young people without guardians.

After military service, they scraped together money like ants gathering crumbs and got a small room, but the landlord ran off with their deposit, claiming tax arrears or something. The real estate agent seemed to be in on it too, as the phone number was disconnected when they called. They were swindled in broad daylight, and now they had no choice but to sleep on the streets.

Kwon Yuwon did his best, swearing he’d rip off that landlord’s head. He filed reports and even scraped together money to hire a private investigator. But it was all for nothing.

The scammers had long fled overseas, and the police made no effort to hide their annoyance. They just parroted that there was nothing they could do.  It’s not like the authorities, who remained indifferent even when massive lease scams were happening, would lift a finger for two orphans who lost a measly rental deposit.

They hurriedly packed their things and moved into a shabby inn. Kwon Yuwon, his eyes gleaming with madness, called an acquaintance. Siyul should have recognized the madness in his eyes then.

“I’ll do that job.”

Siyul didn’t understand the meaning of those words. As he was just tilting his head stupidly, Kwon Yuwon declared he would provide for Siyul and stormed out of the house. When he returned a few hours later, his bag contained several small salt packets like those given at chicken restaurants.

“You don’t mean…”

There was no way Kwon Yuwon would bring a pile of salt to do part-time work in this situation where they’d been scammed. Even Siyul, oblivious as he was to the ways of the world, knew what this was.

Kwon Yuwon had once hinted about it before. He mentioned that one of the guys from the orphanage had made a lot of money. It wasn’t legal, but there were ways to make easy money.

“I’ll only do it until we earn back the deposit. Don’t worry.”

“Hey! This isn’t right. Take this back. No matter how shitty our situation is, let’s not cross the line. Okay?”

“Don’t you trust me? Fvck, if we get kicked out of here, we have nowhere to go. We need at least a place to sleep. I can’t handle being homeless.”

It wasn’t because Kwon Yuwon was a neat freak. It was because he was an Omega. Due to his nature, he could suffer something terrible sleeping among the homeless. Kwon Yuwon often said that being an Omega was far worse than being abandoned by parents. “Being an omega sucks, my life sucks,” he would say.

“What if we go to jail?”

To Siyul, who was shaking with fear—

“We won’t. And there’s no other way besides this.”

Kwon Yuwon’s eyes gleamed as he pushed the salt packet in front of Siyul’s face like a knife. Even though Yuwon hadn’t uttered the threat, Siyul could hear it in his mind: If you don’t follow, I’ll use your head for home decor instead of the landlord’s.

“But still…”

“Either do it, or we go our separate ways from here. One of the two.”

Kwon Yuwon was smart and cunning. He knew Siyul would never let him go. Even if he got angry and turned away, Siyul would melt at a single apology. How could he abandon the only person in this world who was like family, even if not blood-related?

Fortunately, they weren’t deeply involved. When contacted, they just had to drop off the salt at designated places and that was it. The spots were usually places no one paid attention to, like inside a communication junction box, a toilet tank in a public restroom, or a gap in a building’s address plaque.

Sometimes they did deliveries too. This was a service used by regulars who could hardly wait an hour. He’d knock five times on the door, say it was a delivery, and hollow-eyed zombies would come out to collect the salt.

The work was easy and the money poured in. Even though it was just a commission, it was an enormous sum for young people thrown into society with nothing to their name. At this rate, it seemed like they could easily save not just for a rental deposit but even for a full lease.

“Are we going to become rich at this rate?”

Kwon Yuwon’s thoughts weren’t much different from Siyul’s. Doesn’t money naturally breed greed the more you handle it? The desire for a monthly rent deposit transformed into a desire for lease money, which then morphed into a grand ambition of owning a house in Seoul.

The salt packs noticeably increased in the damp, corner of the inn room. Inversely proportional to this, the frequency of Kwon Yuwon coming home decreased. He seemed to be busy running around non-stop. Recently, it seemed he was even opening up new avenues for business.

While his proactive attitude in business was commendable, the line of work Kwon Yuwon was pushing wasn’t appreciated by everyone. The owner of the new club Kwon Yuwon had just tapped into was one such person.

Clubs are meant to run on alcohol, cigarettes, dancing, and the government-sanctioned drug called music. Thinking that one drug was the same as another, Kwon Yuwon had started seeing some success there.

But unfortunately, jreally unfortunately…

On the very night Yuwon handed the job to Siyul because he had something to deal with, the club owner himself showed up to catch a rat.

And so, back to the present.

Siyul clenched and unclenched his trembling, numb hands. His kneeling knees had long since lost feeling from lack of blood flow. Still, he couldn’t change his posture. If he showed even a hint of defiance, he might receive another blow from those brutal fists.

His stomach, which had been kicked earlier when he was caught trying to escape, still throbbed. It hadn’t even been a hard kick, more of a light push with a raised leg, but Siyul had tumbled backward before being grabbed by the thugs and returned to his position.

The man sat comfortably in the chair with his legs spread. Siyul stared intently at those polished shoes. He was afraid to make eye contact, fearing another blow.  Even though the man wasn’t one of the thugs who had dragged him into this messy office, the glossy shoes and sharp creases in his pants gave off a dangerous, oppressive aura.

And his feet were enormous. Broad and long, Siyul had never seen such big feet in his life. Even the biggest guy in the orphanage didn’t have feet like that.

If he kicks me again, I’m going to die from internal bleeding, Siyul thought. As the pain flared up again in the spot he’d been hit, Siyul hunched his body as much as possible.