VDN Ch 67

Nam-woon looked at the man after suddenly hearing his name and the man flinched before turning around and starting to run away. But Seo-o, who was right behind him, tripped him, and the man went tumbling to the ground. As he was being grabbed by the shoulder by Seo-o, the man struggled violently.

“Ack, let go of me!”

“Do you know him?”

Seo-oh asked Nam-woon, and the man, who had been struggling, suddenly changed his demeanor and began to hurl insults.

“Seok Nam-woon, you son of a bitch, wasn’t it enough with my grandfather? Now you’ve come all the way here to extort money from me?! You damn bastard! How much my grandfather suffered because of you… he even ended up in the hospital because of you!”

The man, who had been speaking, suddenly hardened his face and continued.

“Don’t tell me… what did you do to my grandfather? What did you do to him?! If anything happened to him, I’ll kill you!”

The man, his face flushed crimson, screamed wildly.

“Kim Haeng-won?”

The man glared at Nam-woon with fierce eyes.

“We used him as the middleman for withdrawing and delivering money. It was Kim Haeng-won who withdrew the money extorted from you. But then he ran off with it! So we caught him. And then what he said was, ‘Seok Nam-woon’s money is my money!’ Anyway, for us, we had to get the money back and also silence him, so we thought, ‘Let’s just keep him for a little while…’ Well, that’s how it went. But he even agreed, you know? And when we said we’d get more money from you, he quickly agreed to join us.”

That was the explanation from the Umpyeong boss. It didn’t take much thinking to figure it out. Kim Haeng-won had joined forces with them not just to reclaim the money that Seok Nam-woon had been extorting from his grandfather, but also to profit from it himself.

“Why didn’t you let him contact his grandfather?”

“Because we were worried. He’s obsessed with money, suspicious, no good, seems like he’d drag others in to raid the office, or run off by himself to save his own skin and report us, so…”

Whack! Nam-woon couldn’t stand it anymore. He held back and hit the boss of Umpyeong hard on the head.

“Ow!”

The boss of Umpyeong rubbed the spot where he was hit and couldn’t say a word. Kim Haeng-won was being held tightly by two Umpyeong employees. And with Seo-oh standing guard beside them, Kim Haeng-won seemed unable to muster the courage to run away. Nam-woon spoke to Kim Haeng-won.

“I’ll take you to your grandfather later.”

“Shut up. Fuck you.”

“You shut up.”

Seo-oh stared intently at Kim Haeng-won after saying those words. The two continued their staring contest for a while. Eventually, Kim Haeng-won lowered his gaze first, ending the contest.

Nam-woon glanced around the office. There were promotional flyers for the errand center on the wall, and they were of much higher quality than Nam-woon’s own office flyers. Nam-woon stared at them and then asked.

“Do you guys find people well?”

“If there’s money, we can find almost anyone, right?”

Kim Haeng-won had been found, so now the people left to find were Chun-gil and one other person.

Then, Seo-oh suddenly asked the boss of Umpyeong.

“How much is it to find someone?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, the boss of Umpyeong replied,

“To find someone?”

Seo-oh tore off one of the flyers on the wall and scanned the details. He had ignored the Good People Center flyer but showed a remarkably different attitude now.

Nam-woon stared at Seo-oh.

Kwon Sang-moon only appears at the very end of the novel, because that’s when Jin Haegun finds him. For Jin Haegun, Kwon Sang-moon’s disappearance was merely a means to exploit Kwon Seo-oh. Seo-oh does report it to the police and even makes requests through errand services like now, but in the end, Seo-oh fails to find Kwon Sang-moon.

Throughout the novel, Kwon Sang-moon doesn’t show even a single strand of his hair until he contacts Seo-oh once to meet. That was his first and last chance. And on that day, Seo-oh returned home without ever finding him.

While Nam-woon is lost in thought, Mr. Umpyeong begins to explain to Seo-oh the amount of money for the missing person’s case. It’s not much different from what Nam-woon told Jin-sang, including the basic cost and various allowances. Seo-oh’s expression darkened when he heard the amount of the request.

Nam-woon watched him silently, then spoke.

“I’ve got a job for you.”

“Really?”

The boss of Umpyeong looked at the 50,000 won bill in Nam-woon’s hand with a bright expression. However, as Nam-woon tilted his head and kept a blank expression, the boss of Umpyeong’s shoulders soon dropped. He muttered listlessly,

“You need to give us basic personal information. You can send it using the ID written on the flyer there, or you can write it down now.”

The boss of Umpyeong handed out a piece of paper along with a pen. Nam-woon said to Seo-oh,

“What are you doing? Write it down quickly.”

Seo-oh looked at Nam-woon with a blank stare.

***

Like escorting a criminal, Seo-oh and I grabbed Haeng-won by both arms and left the Umpyeong Center. By the time we borrowed a car from the boss of Umpyeong and headed to the restaurant, the sun was already down. Haeng-won started whining incessantly beside us,

“I told you we could go tomorrow morning!”

“…Please.” Haeng-won added quietly, glancing at Seo-oh.

“Do you even know how much your grandfather has worried about you?”

At those words, Haeng-won looked at Nam-woon with a shocked expression. Then he shouted loudly,

“Shit, that’s what you’re going to say, don’t fuck with me!”

A delayed whisper of “…please” followed behind, barely audible.

Kim Haeng-won, having caught his breath while looking at the back of Seo-oh’s head as he sat in the driver’s seat and continued,

“My grandfather doesn’t even care about me anyway. Every time I ran away from home before, he just said not to come back at all.”

“You really believe that?”

“Yes! I heard it all the time! But seriously, what? Why are you like this? Are you crazy?”

“What?”

On the way home, Haeng-won kept widening and narrowing his eyes dramatically, staring at Nam-woon as if he were seeing a ghost.

***

Creak.

In the dim dawn, the green gate opened. Come in. Nam-woon spoke as if it were his own house, Kim Haeng-won hesitated and entered the house. While he was looking around the yard, Nam-woon said,

“We’re leaving as soon as it gets bright.”

Kim Haeng-won nodded. Kim Haeng-won, who had been whining about not being ready to meet his grandfather, insisted,

“My grandfather wakes up at dawn anyway, there are only a few hours left, so I’ll go when it’s time for him to wake up.”

Eventually, they agreed to stop by Seo-oh’s house for a moment and then go to Kim Haeng-won’s restaurant when it got brighter. Seo-oh, who had entered the room, turned on the fluorescent light and laid out a blanket in preparation for Se-han’s return in the morning. Kim Haeng-won stood awkwardly by the door. Nam-woon took the small bag from his hand and gestured towards the bathroom

“Come out after you wash.”

Kim Haeng-won stood still and looked at Nam-woon.

***

“Wooni Hyung! I’m here!”

With a loud bang, the door opened, and a small body slammed into Nam-woon’s chest. Uh. Nam-woon let out a faint groan and slightly opened his eyes.

The warmth of a young child was felt, along with the smell of the outside. Suddenly coming to his senses, Nam-woon sat up abruptly and looked beside him. Se-han, who had buried his small body in Nam-woon’s chest, also opened his eyes wide and looked at the stranger lying in the corner. Fortunately, Kim Haeng-won was asleep.

Nam-woon had intended to wait for Kim Haeng-won to come out after washing up, but he accidentally fell asleep. It seemed like Seo-oh had been watching Kim Haeng-won all night. Maybe it was because he overdid it yesterday, but he still couldn’t shake off the fatigue. Se-han, lying next to him, hugged Nam-woon’s neck tightly and raised his voice.

“Wooni Hyung!”

“Hey, you came?”

“Wooni Hyung.”

Se-han called out “Wooni Hyung!” about three times in a row. His cheeks were flushed as if he had run here. Nam-woon wrapped Se-han’s body with the disheveled blanket like a cocoon, and the child screamed,

“Ack!”

“You’re going to wear out my name.”

Se-han, who poked his messy head and bright face through a hole in the blanket, asked,

“Did you miss me last night?”

“I missed you a lot. Did you sleep well?”

“Yes! What about you, Hyung?”

“I slept well too.”

Nam-woon hugged the blanket-wrapped Se-han with his arms and legs and said,

“But Se-han, I wish you wouldn’t sleep at Min-chan’s house anymore.”

“Why? But Min-chan and I are best friends?” Se-han replied in surprise and then made a sad face, saying, I can’t do that. To which Nam-woon immediately changed his words.

“It’s a joke.”

No, actually, I’m serious. Strange things keep happening because you’re not here, Se-han. Nam-woon shed tears inwardly. At that moment, Se-han, who glanced at Kim Haeng-won, sleeping beside him, asked,

“Who is that?”

“Someone I know.”

Startled by the conversation between Se-han and Nam-woon, Haeng-won turned over and sat up, blinking his eyes as he looked around. He blinked when he saw Se-han in Nam-woon’s arms.

“Hello…”

When Se-han greeted him softly, Haeng-won replied with an awkward voice,

“Hello.”

Click. Seo-oh, who had entered the room, glanced at Nam-woon and Kim Haeng-won. In his hand, he held lettuce picked from the garden. Se-han ran to the sink and clung to his brother’s leg.

“Hyung! What are you making?”

“Pickled lettuce.”

“Pickled lettuce? I’ve never eaten pickled lettuce before!”

“I’ll make it tasty for you.”

Gurgle. Just then, a thunderous sound rumbled in Kim Haeng-won’s stomach.

“Are you hungry?”

When Nam-woon asked, Kim Haeng-won looked around cautiously and then nodded carefully. Nam-woon stood up and asked Seo-oh.

“How much rice is left?”

“There’s enough for breakfast.”

“I have to feed Haeng-won, too.”

Hearing that, Haeng-won paused and turned his head to look at Nam-woon.