Chapter 05
Men Who Deserve to Die
“You’re Going to Get Scolded”
Even though we had worked hard, the cleaning took an extra hour longer than scheduled before we finally finished.
The owner, who still hadn’t been paid, swallowed his anger.
“They said they’ll inspect the place when her husband gets home. If everything checks out, they’ll pay us tomorrow.”
At this point, he was practically a saint.
Forget the money. Considering the humiliation she had put us through, anyone would have been justified in giving her a piece of their mind.
But the owner simply smiled.
“You meet all kinds of people doing this job. Just think of it as getting some bad luck out of the way.”
“I’ve been doing this for ten years, and I’ve never met a woman like that. Uncle, are you okay? She was so rude to you.”
“I’m fine.”
I wasn’t fine.
That woman had not even the bare minimum of decency expected of a human being.
Birds of a feather flock together.
She was a perfect match for Jeong Jung-seong.
Anger, vengeance, hostility, and murderous intent writhed somewhere deep in my stomach.
Similar emotions coiled together like snakes, ready to spring up at any moment and unleash their deadly venom.
“Maru, what are you thinking about? You don’t need to let it bother you.”
“I’m really fine.”
“Behavior like that piles up bad karma. Not every flower can bloom red forever.”
“Yes.”
I loaded the cleaning equipment into the vehicle and sat in the passenger seat.
As the owner drove, he spoke.
“Maru, you’re thirty-two, right?”
“Thirty-two by international age.”
“You should start thinking about marriage.”
“I haven’t given it any thought.”
Song Suk-ja, who was sitting in the back, joined the conversation.
“Uncle, there’s a nice young woman in my neighborhood. Should I set you two up?”
“I really appreciate it, but there’s no need.”
“Why not? Where are you going to find someone as hardworking and competent as you? You earn good money, too. And you’re pretty handsome, if I say so myself.”
“I’ll handle it myself.”
“I only brought it up because I don’t think I’d get scolded for introducing you. I’ve watched you work for over a year. If I were a woman, I’d make a move on you.”
“Thank you. I appreciate the thought.”
Song Suk-ja teased me mischievously.
“Don’t tell me there’s something wrong with your equipment.”
“What?”
“You really are innocent, Uncle.”
“Yes.”
“Suk-ja, don’t pressure him. Maru probably has his own reasons.”
“He’ll be forty before he knows it, and then fifty! They say even a Buddhist monk can’t shave his own head, so I’m just trying to help him out.”
A baby abandoned on a pile of rubble.
A child abused throughout his upbringing.
An adult who had lost his entire fortune to fraud.
I didn’t want to pass on genes like mine.
“Maru, when the workload picks up, you’ll have to take charge of things, too.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ve been advertising our building-cleaning services lately, and we’ve been getting a lot of inquiries. When we hire more people, you can manage the team. I’ll even provide you with a vehicle.”
“Oh! Uncle’s going to be a team leader?”
“You’ve watched Maru work for over a year, too.”
“I have no doubts about his skills. Congratulations, Uncle!”
I wasn’t sure whether this was a good thing.
As a team leader, I would have to deal directly with clients and communicate with the other workers.
Could someone like me, whose interpersonal skills were practically nonexistent, handle that?
Still, when I thought about my bank account, accepting the position made sense.
In the past year or so, I had saved forty million won from cleaning jobs.
Taking charge of a team would allow me to earn even more.
“I’ll think about it.”
“Why? You should seize opportunities when they come. With your skills, you could easily handle two or three jobs a day. You need to make as much money as you can while you’re able to.”
“Yes.”
I needed to think it over.
I had to move within two years, so I certainly needed the money. But I wasn’t confident I could do it.
On my way home, I started craving beer, so I stopped by Geundaehwa Supermarket.
“Uncle! Long time no see.”
“Just three cans of beer today. Do you have cigarettes, too?”
I took three cans of beer from the refrigerator and looked for something to eat with them.
I was tired of dried squid, and peanuts weren’t very good.
Should I get beef jerky? Or almonds?
After a moment’s hesitation, I picked up some almonds and snacks and headed to the counter.
A young woman was standing in front of me.
The strong scent of her perfume tickled my nose.
She placed two cans of beer on the counter and kept searching her pockets.
“Young lady, did you forget your money?”
“Just a moment.”
The woman patted the front and back of her pants several times.
“Do you live around here? I’ve never seen you before.”
“I moved into the next alley over the day before yesterday. I guess I’ll have to go back. It’s such a pain living all the way at the top of the hill.”
“I know this neighborhood is a steep climb, but I’ve never seen you before, so I can’t let you buy on credit. Go back and get your money.”
“I’m having my period, and I feel awful. What should I do?”
The woman stared at the beer and swallowed hungrily.
Did she want it that badly?
It wasn’t much money, so I decided to step in.
“Ma’am, I’ll pay for her.”
“Do you know her, Uncle?”
“No. It’s not much money.”
“Fine, then. It’s not like she’s going to run off with ten thousand won, right?”
The shopkeeper put the two cans of beer into a plastic bag and handed it to the woman.
“That’ll be ten thousand won. Come back tomorrow and pay me. I’ll pass the money on to this young man.”
“Yes.”
The woman left without even thanking me.
I hadn’t expected her to thank me, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.
I placed my beer and snacks on the counter.
“How can someone just walk out like that without even saying thank you?”
“Please ring me up.”
“Just think of it as doing a good deed. You’ll be rewarded for it.”
I paid and walked outside.
Whoa!
The woman was waiting for me.
“Oppa! I’ll pay you back tomorrow.”
Oppa? Since when were we close enough for her to call me that?
Besides, we looked about the same age. Why was she calling me oppa, a term usually used by a woman to address an older man?
She looked me up and down before walking toward the alley on the left.
There was something unusual about the way she looked at me.
Her gaze was moist and slippery, somehow sensual.
The shopkeeper came over to me.
“She looks like a girl who works in a bar, doesn’t she?”
“Really?”
“Just look at her. She practically oozes sensuality. I didn’t get into this business yesterday. I know these things when I see them.”
“I’ll be going, then.”
“By the way, she looks like you.”
I stopped walking.
“You have a high nose bridge, and the corners of your eyes tilt up a little. You two have a similar vibe. You both look a little sad, too.”
Did I look sad?
“I’m heading up.”
It wasn’t something worth worrying about.
I wasn’t so idle that I had time to dwell on comments like that.
I had climbed about halfway up the hill when two men came down toward me.
They looked familiar.
Where had I seen them before?
Their faces gradually came into focus.
Thick eyebrows and prominent jaws.
They were the detectives I’d briefly encountered while cleaning the home of someone who had died alone.
I’d been wearing a mask by then, so they didn’t know what I looked like.
Focus. Focus.
I repeated those words to myself several times.
The team leader approached me.
“Good evening. I’m Detective Jo Tae-su from Magang Police Station. Do you live around here?”
“Huh? Yes.”
I tried not to look startled, but I had committed a crime, so I couldn’t help feeling nervous.
“Where do you live?”
“At the top of that hill.”
“Did you happen to hear any screaming or fighting last night?”
“No.”
“Do you know the blue gate?”
Jo Tae-su pointed toward a blue gate diagonally across from us.
“Not really. There aren’t any people living farther up, so I assumed it was an empty house.”
“Have you ever seen someone who looks like this?”
Jo Tae-su showed me a composite sketch.
It depicted a middle-aged man with well-defined facial features.
Fortunately, he didn’t look anything like the man beneath my mask.
“I only moved here recently, so I don’t think I’ve seen him.”
“Were you home after nine last night?”
“Yes. I exercised and watched TV.”
Jo Tae-su studied my eyes intently before speaking.
“You must have heard something, surely?”
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“If you remember anything, give me a call.”
He handed me his business card and continued down the hill.
The detectives’ voices drifted up toward me.
“Who on earth could it have been? Taking down four big guys alone means he’s no ordinary man.”
“Maybe they got what they deserved.”
It seemed the female student who had been victimized hadn’t reported the incident.
They were men who deserved to be punished, so I felt no guilt.
I took the business card out of my pocket and checked it.
[Jo Tae-su
Criminal Investigation Division / Violent Crimes Team Leader
Mobile: 010-2323-XXXX
Magang Police Station: 02-858-XXXX]
Could he really catch me?
There were no CCTV cameras in that area, so the chances were slim.
Even so, I needed to be careful.
I went inside and began exercising.
Since I did physically demanding work, exercise had become part of my routine.
I needed to make my body stronger if I was going to make proper use of the mask, so I increased the intensity of my workouts.
“Whew.”
Ramen tasted heavenly after I’d worked up a good sweat.
I even mixed in some rice, and by the time I’d finished, I felt happy.
I loved these small pleasures.
I was flipping through TV channels when I stopped at a broadcast showing a police cordon.
“A female student has died by suicide after jumping from an apartment building in Sanseong City. Police have secured a suicide note but have decided not to release it to protect the deceased’s privacy.”
The footage that followed left me stunned.
It showed the girl who had taken her own life kneeling and sobbing inside an elevator.
I knew exactly how she must have felt.
How desperately she must have wanted to live as she made her way up to the rooftop.
Hyung! What am I supposed to do if you die?
If Hyeok-su hadn’t stopped me back then, I would have made the same choice as that girl.
Everything felt suffocating and painful.
I didn’t fall asleep until I’d finished all the beer I’d bought at the supermarket and the soju I had in the refrigerator.
After finishing our morning cleaning job, we were about to head to the next location when the owner approached me.
“Maru, you remember the apartment in Gangnam we cleaned yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“She says the water stains in the bathroom haven’t come off, so she refuses to pay us. You’ll have to go back and take care of it. You can head straight home afterward.”
“Understood.”
Song Suk-ja was furious.
“Boss, that woman inspected everything so carefully after we finished cleaning. She even found a speck of dust on the window. Are you telling me she somehow missed water stains in the bathroom? She’s doing this on purpose. She wants us to clean the place for free!”
“Just go there, remove the water stains, and come back.”
“I’ll go.”
If I sent Song Suk-ja, she would probably get into an argument with the woman.
The owner had chosen me because he judged that the other employees wouldn’t be able to handle the situation smoothly.
“Uncle, are you really okay with this? She seems to think you’re about the same age as her, so she treats you even more harshly.”
“It’s fine. I’ll be back.”
I slung the bag of cleaning supplies over my shoulder and headed to Gangnam.
I needed to confirm whether she really was Jeong Jung-seong’s wife.
The young woman opened the front door and immediately launched into a tirade.
“How the hell do you clean a place? I paid good money for this, and you did a lousy job!”
“I’m sorry. I’ll clean it again.”
I slipped shoe covers over my socks and headed into the bathroom.
“Where are the water stains?”
“Look behind the bathtub. I have to go to the department store, so finish within thirty minutes!”
“Understood.”
It took me five minutes to find them.
There was a tiny mark on the edge of the bathtub.
I applied some cleaning solution to a cloth, and it came off almost immediately.
Since she might try to find another fault with my work, I checked the other areas as well, including the faucet.
Everything else was spotless.
“Ma’am, I’m finished.”
The woman entered the bathroom, inspected it, and put on an arrogant expression.
“If you’re going to do a job, do it properly! Stop making things so exhausting for me.”
“Yes. When will you be paying us?”
“Stop rushing me! I’ll transfer the money by the end of today.”
“Thank you.”
As I walked out of the bathroom, I noticed a photograph hanging on the wall and asked her about it.
“That must have been taken on your honeymoon.”
“Why do you need to know that?”
“No particular reason. You two look good together.”
“Just do your job! You’re getting on my nerves.”
“I’m sorry.”
I bowed politely and walked outside.
Just then, a smartphone began ringing.
I strained to listen.
“Jung-seong, I’ll be there soon. A new collection arrived today, so I made a reservation. … The wedding photos are ready? All right, I’ll get ready and come right over.”
She was definitely Jeong Jung-seong’s wife.
There were two reasons you deserved to suffer.
First, for looking down on people who worked as cleaners.
And second, for becoming Jeong Jung-seong’s wife.
I hurried down the emergency staircase, putting on my mask as I went.
I can also translate the next chapter into English while keeping the same tone, character voices, and terminology.
