IFBS 04

Chapter : 04

Je-eon stood in front of the full-length mirror in his office and tightened his neatly arranged tie one more time.

He went down to the parking lot, got into the driver’s seat, and silently headed for his destination.

After driving for a while, he arrived at a memorial park on the outskirts of Seoul.

“Welcome, Director.”

The dedicated manager, who had been notified in advance, came out to greet him with a respectful bow.

The memorial park had already closed for the day.

But Je-eon always deliberately visited at this hour. It was so he could be free from the eyes of others.

“I’ll go pay my respects.”

“Yes, sir. Take your time.”

After exchanging a brief greeting with the manager, he passed rows of memorial graves arranged at regular intervals and climbed the stone steps.

A gravestone engraved with the face of a young boy immediately caught his eye. The sunset was descending behind it.

Je-eon took a few more steps and stopped in front of it.

The area was several times larger than an ordinary grave, and it was filled with flowers left in remembrance.

He placed the white chrysanthemums he had been carrying at the foot of the gravestone. Then he slipped that hand into his pocket and moved his gaze along the inscription.

[Ryu Yeong-hyeon (20XX–20XX)]

The place where our beloved son, Yeong-hyeon, whom we miss so dearly, sleeps.

Mom and Dad will always love you!

It was a life that had ended far too soon, before it had even had the chance to bloom.

Even when he left this world, the boy must have remained as innocent and pure as the face in the photograph, untouched by the stains of life.

“Yeong-hyeon. How is it over there? Is it more peaceful than here?”

Je-eon gazed at the dead boy’s name with pity in his eyes.

“It’s already been fifteen years since you left. Time really does fly.”

His voice scattered sadly through the air. A faint smile briefly touched the corners of his lips, but it soon disappeared.

“Did you meet your parents yesterday? Were they doing well?”

As though answering him, a breeze blew past. Je-eon narrowed his eyes slightly and brushed his hair back.

“Your father misses you too, but your mother especially misses you. I suppose the grief of losing a child before yourself must be suffocating.”

Je-eon tilted his head to one side, his brow furrowing once again.

A brief silence passed.

Soon, his gaze wavered coldly.

“…Or maybe not. Maybe she’s resentful because it wasn’t me who died. Maybe she thinks it’s unfair.”

Crack.

He clenched his teeth.

The boy’s mother was exactly the sort of person who could think that way.

“I tried to figure out why you died so young. But the only explanation I could come up with was that the karma of a mother who abandoned her child had somehow been passed on to you.”

His tone was calm, but the anger he had suppressed for so long was faintly visible beneath his words.

Je-eon had been abandoned by his biological mother when he was young.

The child she had later given birth to after starting a new family was Yeong-hyeon, the owner of this grave.

“I wonder what I look like to you. I must seem pretty pathetic. Don’t you think?”

A self-deprecating smile appeared on Je-eon’s lips.

Even to himself, it was disgustingly childish to feel inferior to a child who had died after barely living ten years.

It was a child whose face he had never once seen in his lifetime. He had not even known whether the boy existed. He had been separated from his biological mother for exactly that long.

Je-eon had been transferred to a childcare facility against his will, but he had never resented the world for it.

Then, at some point, as unfair things continued to happen to him, his hatred toward his biological mother grew.

<Have you been well?>

After nine years, that was all she had to say? Have you been well?

He had found her loathsome for saying such a thing even after seeing what a wreck he had become.

<If you just do what the chairman tells you, I can erase your past without leaving a trace. You can do that, right?>

Je-eon had made a vow.

Even if I have to sell my soul, I’ll bring you down.

“Yeong-hyeon. Your brother knows that none of this was your fault.”

Still, if someday you want to blame me because I couldn’t bring myself to pity you… blame your mother.

You were happy, weren’t you? Unlike me, whose every moment alive was hell.

Whether you were alive or dead, you got to enjoy heaven.

If you have to resent your mother, then maybe the child I used to be will feel a little less pitiful, don’t you think, little brother?

“I’ll come again, Yeong-hyeon.”

Je-eon, who had been standing there surrounded by the chilly air, slightly lifted the corners of his mouth.

Carrying the complicated emotions of inferiority and anger within him, he slowly turned around.

The place where the sunset had disappeared was already engulfed in darkness.

After Je-eon left, only the lonely sound of the wind lingered around the grave.

The company dinner was being held at a high-end Korean beef restaurant that the employees normally wouldn’t even dare consider.

The exhausted employees were already at the peak of their excitement.

“Since we’ve got the Director’s treat, let’s really go all out tonight.”

The employee sitting at the same table as Se-a alternated between beer and soju as he filled everyone’s glasses. Then he stopped when he reached Se-a’s glass.

“Se-a, want some somaek?”

“Ah, I’ll just have beer.”

“Beer, got it.”

Se-a took a refreshing gulp of the beer the employee had poured for her.

She wasn’t particularly fond of drinking, but when stress built up, alcohol was moderately helpful.

“Straight to a shot? You must’ve really been craving a drink.”

Se-a only gave an awkward smile.

She hadn’t intended to keep accepting drinks one after another, but she had been swept up in the atmosphere and had already emptied several glasses in succession.

Once the alcohol began to burn her throat, she spent the rest of the evening getting by on carbonated drinks.

“All right! I’m not usually the type to do this, but let’s have a wave to celebrate working hard again in the second half of the year.”

Team Leader Park encouraged everyone to pick up the glasses in front of them.

The drinking wave started with Team Leader Park and quickly made its way around the table to Se-a.

Se-a held up her glass of soda instead.

“Ah… Se-a. What are you doing? You think I can’t tell that’s a soft drink? At least try to match the mood when we’re doing this.”

Team Leader Park scolded her.

The employee sitting across from Se-a quickly poured half a glass of beer for her.

“Se-a, just pretend to drink it.”

She tried to do as the employee suggested, but Team Leader Park kept staring at her until she finished the entire glass, leaving her no choice but to pour it all down.

Se-a slipped away for a while, intending to walk off some of the alcohol, and wandered aimlessly through the streets.

Whenever she got drunk, she had a habit of walking without a destination. If she walked long enough, the frustration that had been weighing on her chest would somehow disappear.

There were quite a few side effects, though.

By the time she came to her senses, she would find herself somewhere she had no idea how to get to.

And her legs would hurt.

That was the case now, too.

When she lifted her head, she found herself in a deserted alley.

Thud.

“Ah!”

Se-a’s body was suddenly shoved backward.

She grabbed the arm of the passerby who had struck her.

The man, who had walked past as though he hadn’t hit anyone, staggered back toward her.

The large middle-aged man reeked strongly of alcohol.

Even though he was drunk, his eyes clearly took in Se-a’s smooth legs and pretty face as he looked her up and down.

The corners of his lips curled unpleasantly.

“Miss, did you just hit me?”

“…?”

“You hit me just now, didn’t you? Why are you pretending you didn’t?”

In an instant, a nightmarish memory from the childcare center overlapped with the present.

Her legs stiffened, and it felt as though the blood in her body had turned cold.

“You think I’m not talking to you?”

P-please, move aside…

Her voice came out as a muffled murmur, as though someone were strangling her.

“Either pay for my medical expenses or come have a drink with me. Then I won’t ask you for the medical costs.”

She wanted to get away, but her body simply wouldn’t obey her.

Struggling with all her strength, she somehow managed to move her toes.

She tried to step around him, but the man quickly blocked her path.

“You hit someone and you don’t even have the manners to apologize? Huh?”

“…”

The color drained from Se-a’s face.

She looked around, but there was no one nearby whom she could ask for help.

At that moment, her bag began to vibrate.

Bzzzz.

Bzzzz.

For some reason, she felt that if she missed this timing, things would become even more dangerous.

Se-a hurriedly pulled out her phone and brought it to her ear.

“Hello?”

“Are you making someone stand there while you talk on the phone?”

“Don’t come! If you come any closer…”

She deliberately raised her voice as she backed away.

Then a voice she felt she had heard somewhere before flowed into her ear.

—Ms. Han Se-a?

“……!”

That voice…

It was definitely Je-eon’s voice, the one she had heard over the phone before.

—Where are you?

“Excuse me?”

—Tell me anything you can see.

“I’m at…”

“What, you think I’m going to get scared just because you’re pretending to make a phone call?”

Maintaining a certain distance from the man, Se-a began listing everything she could see.

“Che… Chelli Motel, Pop Motel, Hue Motel, Vivian…”

The problem was that every single one of them was a motel.

“Hey! I’ve been letting you get away with this, but… Don’t ignore me like that! Are you trying to pick a fight with me?!”

The man finally reached out and yanked Se-a’s arm toward him while she was still on the phone.

“Ah!”

Her phone fell to the ground.

With the man gripping her arm, she couldn’t even bend down to pick it up.

“Let go of me!”

When struggling to free herself proved useless, she sank her teeth hard into the man’s wrist.

“Argh! Are you crazy?!”

The man shoved Se-a violently.

Staggering to the ground, Se-a didn’t even have time to pick up her phone. She turned around and ran.

But before she could get far, she collided with some kind of obstacle and bounced backward.

She thought she was going to fall again, helplessly, but strangely, she didn’t feel any pain at all.