9. Harvest season (3)
Daesan is still a metropolitan area.
It was difficult to pinpoint the whereabouts of the four people in such a large area of land, but after mobilizing all of Shin Young-min’s personal connections, they were able to hear the news within a day. This was possible due to the fact that Park Min-cheol’s gang were high school students and Shin Young-min was well-known in the Daesan area.
Park Min-cheol, Cho Yong-taek, and Kang Chang-seok.
Information about the three people was clearly obtained.
The problem was that the whereabouts of Jung Min-ho, who was in charge of the actual background in Park Min-cheol’s gang, could not be found.
‘Shortly after being expelled from Cheonil, Jeong Min-ho left the bottom of Daesan. From what I heard, it was impossible to re-enter Daesan, so it seems like he washed his identity and moved to another area. f*ck, then there’s no way I can find it. If it’s Daesan, it’s worth trying somehow, but there’s no answer for other areas.’
I was at a loss.
In fact, it was a mission failure.
So, I sent a detailed text with three people’s information attached, and surprisingly, Kim Hyun-seong did not find fault with Jung Min-ho’s problem. However, Shin Young-min was not happy at all despite the reply he received. It wasn’t just that he had learned information about the three people, it was because he was given a new mission to clear his karma.
A dark alley.
In the dark space, Shin Young-min took a deep breath of cigarette smoke.
“Whoa.”
There was a pile of butts at his feet.
The number of butts proved how long he had been here and how deeply he had thought about it.
‘Is it right to accept Kim Hyun-seong’s proposal? If I do as he says, I may be able to escape the spell, but I will experience another problem. In the end, there is no answer. Either the worst or the lesser evil. Neither one is good for me, but I have to choose a future I can afford.’
Tuk.
I threw the butt on the floor.
Seeing the smoke billowing out, I took out another cigarette and put it in my mouth.
I wanted to soak my head in nicotine.
As he began to accept realistic problems one by one, his liver shrunk like never before.
One thing is certain.
He said he did not have the confidence to stand up to Kim Hyun-seong.
In the background, he had already been crushed, and he was not an opponent who could do anything with violence. If they fight again, they won’t be defeated as helplessly as last time, but Kim Hyun-seong showed his strength in defeating him after a series of fights. Fighting such a monster was like digging your own grave.
Outsider.
There was no other way.
The cigarette smoke hadn’t even completely burned out, but Shin Young-min nervously threw away the butt and put on the hood.
“Yeah, f*ck. “It’s a judgment call.”
Across the alley.
I walked briskly towards the convenience store there.
* * *
Park Min-cheol.
How has he been doing so far?
At first, we looked for a school that would allow him to re-enter as much as possible, but since this incident was a serious violent incident, there were no schools in Daesan that would accept Park Min-cheol. It was a moment when I once again felt the injustice of the world. Even if you are expelled, you can be readmitted the following year as long as there is a school that accepts you. The problem was that unlike Jung Min-ho, who had the money to launder his identity, the other three did not have that kind of money.
Life has fallen into abyss.
I shouted at home that I would at least pass the qualification exam, but to be honest, I wasn’t confident at all.
‘What are you studying all of a sudden? Just give up your high school diploma, make some money and start a new life.’
I left home.
It was not easy to find a part-time job without parental consent, but fortunately Daesan was not a region that cared much about labor laws. It was different from Seoul. Although minimum hourly wages and clear standards exist, Daesan’s position was that there was no answer to paying wages like Seoul in a tight local economy.
Thanks to you, I found a part-time job.
Of course, it was a part-time night job at a convenience store that did not pay the minimum hourly wage, but it was a job for which Park Min-cheol was grateful.
“… … “It’s boring.”
I sighed.
Evening work lasts a day or two.
At first, he invited his friends over and laughed and talked, but his friends, who each had their own schools to go to, could not play with Park Min-cheol every day. As time passed, my friends became less frequent. The nights in Daesan were truly eerily quiet, and the longer I was alone, the more I thought about it.
‘How should I live from now on?’
My head hurt.
Middle school graduate.
Expulsion from high school, to be exact.
With a history like this, can you survive in this difficult world without having learned anything?
Even when I was in school, I believed that I would have a normal future.
Just live like this, graduate from school, go to a junior college where you can enter if you pay enough money, and enjoy campus life. Then, wouldn’t I naturally get a job? From the moment I reached the inflection point of being expelled from school, I couldn’t get my head around my 17-year-old life, which I had been living without any plan.
It was then.
Jing-!
The convenience store door opened.
Park Min-cheol looked curtly at the incoming guest.
Since I wasn’t friendly enough to say hello to guests every time they came and went, I watched their behavior with a keen eye.
‘what? Are you a criminal?’
It was an unusual guest.
The hood was pulled down tightly as if to cover his face, and when I took a quick look, his face was wearing a black mask identical to the hood. What’s unusual is that one arm looks unnatural? It looked like he was wearing a cast, as there was something covering his arm inside the sleeve.
Jump and jump.
A customer approached the counter.
Usually, most of the customers smoked like this.
I was planning to quickly send it off and think about the future again, but the customer’s hand suddenly went inside the counter.
Wow.
“… … ?!”
I was grabbed by the collar.
It happened so quickly.
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Park Min-cheol’s body was dragged outside the counter, and a customer’s fist hit his face while he was hanging on the counter.
Bah!
Bwaaak, bwaaak!
A tremendous amount of pain exploded.
Although I couldn’t understand this situation, the customer’s fist was stronger than I thought, so I didn’t have the courage to fight back. He was really crazy. I had heard that crazy customers like this existed during the night, but I never imagined that they would use violence against me, a strong man, without asking.
Bah!
Blood splattered.
My face was crushed and my nose was completely collapsed.
I had to do something.
I couldn’t die like this.
The moment Park Min-cheol gritted his teeth and was about to come out of the counter.
‘… … uh?’
I opened my eyes wide.
An image clearly embedded in the pupil of the eye.
Under the hood.
An all too familiar face was staring at me fiercely.
* * *
Don’t ask about violence.
That wasn’t something that only Park Min-cheol experienced.
Park Min-cheol, Cho Yong-taek, and Kang Chang-seok gathered together for the first time in a long time, and none of the three looked normal.
The repertoire was similar.
Cho Yong-taek was hit by a customer while working part-time, and Kang Chang-seok received a strong blow to the back of his head on his way home. He had no intention of resisting. Like Park Min-cheol, there was no time to check on the other person, and the culprit had already disappeared because he was being beaten so frantically.
Originally, I had planned to report it right away.
I was gritting my teeth that I would definitely be punished, but my heart sank when I received a call from Park Min-cheol.
Yongtaek Cho asked cautiously.
“… … Really? “The person who made us like this is senior Shin Young-min.”
Youngmin Shin.
It was the identity of the culprit.
As Kang Chang-seok also looked at him with frightened eyes, Park Min-cheol spoke in a firm voice.
“Are you sure. There’s no way I wouldn’t recognize senior Shin Young-min. He tried to hide his identity by wearing a hood and a mask, but it was clearly senior Shin Young-min. And I heard that his arm was broken during a fight with Kim Hyun-seong, and the culprit also wore a cast on the same arm.”
“f*ck.”
“why not? “Why did you attack us?”
I didn’t understand.
They did nothing wrong to Shin Young-min.
Although he failed to succeed in his mission, isn’t that the same for Shin Young-min, who lost to Kim Hyun-seong?
There was no reason for anger to affect them.
Mincheol Park said.
“No matter what the reason, you never know what might happen if you report it to the police. You all know it well. Senior Shin Young-min is a person with no backs. “If he provokes someone like that, it’s not like he breaks a limb.”
“Of course.”
“… … But how on earth did Kim Hyun-seong defeat that monster? “It definitely wasn’t that strong.”
Shin Young-min’s defeat.
It was still shocking.
When they first heard the story, Park Min-cheol’s gang looked at him with a straight face and told him not to joke around.
And the moment the truth is revealed.
A great deal of regret came over me.
If I had known that Kim Hyun-seong was this strong, if I had known that he had the background to move a thousand days. He would never have touched it. They weren’t reckless enough to risk their lives.
Shin Young-min and Kim Hyun-seong.
I couldn’t think of a connection between the two.
The fact that Kim Hyun-seong threatened Shin Young-min and that he acted like a puppet was not something you could have predicted if you did not know the truth. What was important to them was the fear imprinted on them by a man named Shin Young-min. His face was disfigured as he was subjected to one-sided violence, but the fear imprinted in his bones made it impossible for him to think of resisting.
Park Min-cheol emphasized again.
“Even if he comes again, just pretend not to notice. If you hit him, get hit, and never let it be known that you recognize senior Shin Young-min. I don’t know what’s going on, but until Shin Young-min’s emotions calm down and the situation passes safely. “We have no choice but to be patient.”
I believed it until then.
What happened now.
It’s like a fleeting wind that will pass someday.
* * *
The three’s resolve could not last long.
After talking for a while, we were about to go home together, when we saw a familiar silhouette under the flickering street lights.
Stand tall.
“… … “f*ck.”
“I think it was X.”
I stopped walking.
No, I couldn’t pass through the alley.
Hooded hood and sturdy physique.
I couldn’t see his face properly because the lights were flickering, but it was clearly Shin Young-min, who was called the devil senior.
Was it because the atmosphere was strange?
Shin Young-min took off his hood and revealed his face.
“long time no see.”
He twitched and laughed.
At that moment, Park Min-cheol’s gang got goosebumps.
The fact that it was revealed so openly was not at all well received.
Park Min-cheol stuttered and asked.
“… … Isn’t this over now? “I just needed to hit him once, so why on earth are you doing this?”
“I guess you knew it was me.”
“You can’t not know.”
Shin Young-min touched his wrist.
One arm was fine, but the arm wearing the cast was still not normal.
Still, this was enough.
As long as it wasn’t a huge pain, I was confident that I could fully carry out the mission assigned to me.
“I don’t want to do this either, but Kim Hyun-seong’s weakness has been clearly identified. Just one month from now. If I show you a hell where it doesn’t feel like living even if you live, I will end it here. Do you know what that means?”
I took a step.
Shin Young-min’s eyes turned grim as he saw his juniors retreating as he got closer.
“I’m sorry, but you should go to hell instead of me.”
Instead of being a victim, you become a perpetrator.
Shin Young-min chose a familiar survival method.
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