TIN 117

It felt suffocating. The scorching sun beating down on my head, the sweltering heat rising from the ground, the air shimmering like heat haze, and the sticky, clinging humidity.

As soon as I entered the deserted alley, after confirming no one was around, I irritably took off my hat. With my other hand, I ran my fingers through my flattened hair, feeling the heat from my scalp. The trapped heat had collected inside the hat.

“Damn…”

The heat made me feel like I was dying.

I stretched out fully, straightening my back that had been hunched over, loosening my neck and shoulders. Crack, pop, refreshing sounds came from my stiffened joints. When I reached inside my T-shirt to unwrap the bandages around my chest, I could finally breathe a bit easier.

“Phew.”

I carefully tucked the socks that had been inside the bandages into my pocket. Never thought I’d end up doing something like this. Though irritation washed over me, now wasn’t the time to complain. I should just be grateful I managed to get tickets somehow.

“Stupid bastard.”

I muttered quietly while looking down at the items in my hand. One ID, two train tickets, and an envelope full of money.

‘And there’s one problem…the ticket is one-way.’

What nonsense about it being one-way. Looking at the ticket I’d stolen from the man’s pocket along with the money earlier, I saw “Seoul (Arrival)” written on it. He had round-trip tickets right in his pocket while brazenly demanding extra payment.

Like they say, all merchants are scammers. Theo would protest that he was different, but even he couldn’t deny it seeing the current situation. After all, the man I just met was the textbook definition of a scammer.

‘If you need a round-trip ticket, you’ll need to pay extra.’

The man who spoke with that sleazy smile was a newcomer to the scalping market. Though I knew the risks were high, he was the best alternative I could find after careful consideration. Given his age, he probably came from another business, but his handling of things was quite inadequate.

For instance, things like this: Being so blinded by the deposit that he didn’t properly check who I was, or selling what was probably a counterfeit ticket while pretending it was real without providing any proof of authenticity. And putting the money right in his pocket as soon as he received it.

With large amounts, you should either keep it inside your clothes or hold it tight. Carelessly stuffing it in your pocket was practically begging someone to steal it.

You’ll end up a beggar doing business like that.

And his greed was something else. Especially when he looked me over with those dirty eyes. I wanted to tell him he’d get stabbed living like that, but since I couldn’t use my voice, I decided to simply endure it.

Well, it worked out better for me anyway.

I offered silent condolences to the man who was probably throwing a fit right now as I carefully put the tickets and ID in the envelope. The letter ‘K’ written on the envelope’s surface was so worn with handling that it was barely legible. But most of the money remained intact inside.

I folded the envelope neatly and tucked it inside my T-shirt, holding it close. By now, I was almost glad I hadn’t bought tickets from Theo. If I’d spent all my money just getting a scalped ticket, the journey to catch the train would have been quite difficult.

I didn’t lose anything. No, if anything, I came out ahead. All that was left now for me to do was to get ready to board the train.

“…If only the weather wasn’t so hot.”

It was maddening enough just being out in this heat, let alone covering my face and wearing a hat. Though I experienced summer every year, this one felt particularly hard to endure. Last year I worked at Oceans, and early this summer I stayed in a cool mansion.

They say summers weren’t this long and hot long ago, but now the city’s summers were unbearably harsh. I heard this was the result of a massive green belt release sometime in the past. The seasons that used to stretch just a day or two longer now showed no signs of ending, and the evolution of the warming phenomenon culminated in terrible heat waves.

During the early stages of this process, they say glaciers melting caused sea levels to rise, but that only lasted until a certain point. After that, the seas began drying up instead, leading to the current predicament.

Not being a scientist, I didn’t know the detailed causes of these events. What I knew now was just what I vaguely remembered learning from the child when I was young. Thanks to the child playing teacher with me several times, I still recalled bits and pieces of such information.

‘Hyung, let’s do this together.’

At that time, the child was six years old but had already learned everything that could be considered common knowledge. This was because of the live-in tutor who taught daily lessons at the villa, though it was problematic that I was used for the child’s review. The child, who rattled off content I had no interest in like Korean history, seemed proud just to share the same information.

Back then, he was so…innocent.

“…”

My throat felt parched for no reason and I swallowed hard. The sudden drop in my mood wasn’t just because of the heat. I checked the flyers scattered on the ground and pulled my briefly removed hat back down low.

The hair extending from the hat fell long past my shoulders. While neatly arranging this hair that wasn’t mine, I firmly stomped on the paper on the ground. The photo, taken who knows when, showed my face blankly looking at a picture.

Annoyed by it, I deliberately ground the face portion of the flyer with my shoe sole. The rough texture of the asphalt showed through the paper’s surface. Applying a bit more pressure, the thin paper tore helplessly with a grinding sound. The once-clear photo quickly became unrecognizably mangled.

“…Should I grind it away?”

If only I could erase my face like this too.

It had been about ten days since the wanted notice came out. The gloomy streets were already covered with flyers bearing my face. At first, I collected and tore up every one of them that I saw, but they were being plastered up far faster than I could destroy them.

So every time I saw flyers on the walls, I wondered. Ah, should I just destroy my face? It wouldn’t be hard to crush it by smashing it a few times, changing my appearance might be much easier.

Actually, if it were winter, I would have tried it. Hadn’t I resolved to break my nose when I decided to leave Oceans?

But of all seasons, it had to be summer. With the high temperature, the chances of infection were greater, and if germs got in, it wouldn’t stop at just changing my appearance. Besides, I worried about what if that person couldn’t recognize me.

So the first thing I did was grab a passing person to get a hat. I tore spare cloth to cover my face and even changed out of the clothes I borrowed from Theo, just in case.

Fortunately, covering my face didn’t look too suspicious. Many people dressed similarly to hide unsightly scars or messy beards. The problem was that people desperate to find the person in the flyers increasingly started grabbing passing men to check their faces.

So the method I chose was clumsily changing my gender presentation. At least to avoid being a primary target for inspection.

I bought hair and attached it to the hat, and made breasts with bandages from my ankle and spare socks. The hair messily glued with dry bond was quite dirty, but that made it look more real. Since changing my body type was impossible, I deliberately maintained a hunched posture and never spoke to avoid revealing I was male.

Prejudice was truly frightening, many fools assumed I was a woman just because of the long hair. The more observant ones would glance at my chest again, but as long as something was protruding, it worked as adequate deception. Though it might look strange under close inspection, it wouldn’t raise suspicion from passersby.

Of course, I couldn’t board the train looking like this.

“…”

I tried my best not to limp as I walked slowly. The wound on my knee had healed without a trace, but my sprained ankle still stung. It couldn’t heal when I’d been walking around recklessly after removing the bandage.

Perhaps that was why, even though everything was going well, I grew more anxious as days passed. The reason was simple, someone had seen my face right as I arrived in the alley.

‘Long time no see?’

I should have killed that Can then.

People living in this neighborhood wouldn’t miss a chance for easy money. It wouldn’t be strange if the Can had already gone to Joo Do-hwa to report everything. Then Joo Do-hwa would know I was here and that my leg was injured.

So it was only a matter of time before they came searching here. Even if I could avoid others’ eyes somehow, I didn’t think I could escape Joo Do-hwa’s. Why did I have to injure my leg while on the run like this?

Still, it should be fine as long as Joo Do-hwa didn’t come personally. Surely he wouldn’t bother with something so troublesome. I just needed to leave to catch the train before then.