PEN Vol 2 Ch. 1

Shadow 3 (Part 2)

After about three minutes of silence, Cheon Sejoo finally spoke again. He stubbed out his cigarette and, still at a loss for words, opened and closed his mouth as if struggling to find the right thing to say. Eventually, he asked Sejin.

“You’re joking, right?”

“……”

However, Sejin’s expression made it clear that what he said was absolutely not a joke. Truly in disbelief, Cheon Sejoo ran both hands down his face, then looked up at Sejin. Staring at his small head, a thought crossed his mind.

Is his brain small because his head is small?

No, that couldn’t be it.

For a brief moment, he had an absurd thought but quickly dismissed it. After all, people always said Cheon Sejoo had a small face too but he wasn’t stupid.

It’s just that…

“Did you not study, or are you just bad at it?”

“Why exactly do you even care so much about my grades?”

Sejin, clearly annoyed by Cheon Sejoo’s excessive meddling, sat with his arms crossed. His expression suggested that this level of interference was overstepping boundaries.

Cheon Sejoo hesitated, sensing Sejin drawing a line.

He had decided to take responsibility for Sejin. In his mind, that responsibility extended beyond just sheltering him, it included overseeing Sejin’s entire life and supporting his future. Since he had already brought Sejin into his home, he had no intention of neglecting him. If anything, he was ready to intervene even more than he had with Hye-in.

When the time came for Kwon Sejin to leave his house as an adult, Cheon Sejoo wanted him to leave with a sense of certainty and security. He didn’t want Sejin to leave his side consumed by fear and anxiety like Hye-in had carried.

For that very reason, since he was already taking care of Sejin, Cheon Sejoo wanted to give him everything he hadn’t been able to give Hye-in. It was, in a way, a form of vicarious fulfillment.

However, all of that was Cheon Sejoo’s own reasoning. He had no intention of explaining everything to Sejin, with whom he would likely spend only a little more than a year.

So, the only words he could say was rather blunt and borderline threatening ones. In fact, Kwon Sejin’s stubbornness often responded better to this approach.

With a serious tone, Cheon Sejoo told Sejin.

“In my house, anyone below a top-tier GPA isn’t allowed in.”

“…That’s ridiculous.”

“So, start studying. I’ll teach you.”

Sending him to a cram school wasn’t an option either, there was no way any tutor or academy would accept someone like Sejin, especially someone as clueless as him. Even elementary school students would likely outperform him, and no academy for young children would be willing to take in someone his age into a beginner class.

So there was no other choice. Until his grades improved enough to be on track, Cheon Sejoo would have to teach him himself.

He had done plenty of tutoring during his school days and teaching idiots in human form wasn’t exactly difficult. However, Sejin only sneered at Cheon Sejoo’s suggestion.

“You? Teach me?”

Hah.

Sejin let out a short, incredulous laugh, and Cheon Sejoo’s eyebrows twitched.

Unfazed, Sejin furrowed his brow and continued.

“What could you possibly teach me? How to scam other people? How to forge loan documents? What do you even know that you think you can teach me? I’m not interested in learning how to be a gangster loan shark.”

“……”

Cheon Sejoo had never tampered with anyone’s documents while working at Shinsa Capital. He didn’t care what Sejin thought of him, so being misunderstood as a loan shark didn’t bother him at all. Still, it was deeply offensive to be lumped together on the same level with the idiots at Shinsa Capital.

The guys who worked there were so brainless that if you knocked on their heads, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear a hollow sound right after. Yet here was Sejin, someone who was practically ranked dead last in his class, looking at him as if he were more ignorant than him. That quietly irked Cheon Sejoo.

At that moment, a childish thought crossed his mind. He wondered what kind of expression Sejin would make if he found out that he had actually graduated from Korea University’s medical school.

“You know, I…”

However, as soon as he began to speak, Cheon Sejoo realized it was pointless.

Do I really need to prove myself?

It was all in the past, anyway.

The path he had once walked no longer mattered. He had long since strayed from it.

Gradually, his expression became unreadable as he looked at Sejin. His eyes, now cold and devoid of warmth, settled on the smug expression on the young man in front of him.

“On second thought, showing my student ID to an idiot like you would be a waste.”

“Who are you calling an idiot?!”

Sejin snapped, clenching his fists at the casually thrown offhanded remark. Cheon Sejoo smirked and gestured toward him with his chin.

“Do you even know how to spell ‘University’?”

“Why should I tell you? Do you even know?”

“Just answer the question. Do you know it or not?”

“Of course I do!”

At Sejin’s confident outburst, Cheon Sejoo raised an eyebrow and stared at him directly, silently challenging him to prove it. Sejin opened his mouth as if ready to spell it out at any moment but quickly narrowed his eyes instead.

Then, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he quickly shot back at him.

“Don’t you think you’re overdoing it? You know this isn’t going to last long anyway. You didn’t even adopt me. You’re just helping me out of pity because you felt sorry for me. So let’s just stop here. I’m already receiving a lot of help from you. There’s no need to pretend you care about my future.”

As he said those, Sejin ran his hands through his hair, clearly frustrated. Though he barely managed to keep his words civil, deep down, he actually wanted to mockingly ask him.

You almost tried to sell me off—now you’re acting like some kind of saint?

However, looking at the serious expression on the man’s face, Sejin couldn’t bring himself to voice out those accusations. With frustration boiling in his chest, Sejin glared at him and continued to ask him.

“Isn’t it ridiculous that I even have to talk to you about my future? It’s not like we’re anything to each other.”

“What’s ridiculous is your grades.”

“……”

Realizing that the conversation was going in circles and would only lead to a pointless argument, Cheon Sejoo decided to firmly set things straight.

“You’re mistaken. Like I said before, I didn’t take you in out of pity. Does my interference bother you? Instead of wasting time telling me to back off, you’d better get used to it. Because until you leave, I’m taking full responsibility for you.”

Sejin felt a sense of rejection wavering deep inside his heart at those words.

The man who was truly responsible for him, his father, had abandoned him. Then, his uncle who had promised to take care of him, and his mother also left them in the end.

So what gave him the right to claim responsibility for him?

The man’s words didn’t even sound insincere. They just felt like meaningless nonsense.

Sejin sat there with his fists clenched tightly as Cheon Sejoo spoke again, this time as if he were laying things out clearly.

“I’ll say it one more time. As long as you’re in my house, you’ll have to follow every word I say, from start to finish. If you don’t like it, you can leave. But let’s be honest, I’m not going to kick you out, and I’ll do what I want, no matter what you say.”

“……”

Sejin’s expression said it all, his face contorted, clearly questioning his words.

What kind of bastard says things like this?

Cheon Sejoo soon explained in a calm and gentle voice.

“But think about it carefully, Sejin. If you just listen to me, you’ve got nothing to lose. I know it must probably feel crappy getting help from someone you see as a human trash like me, but how you feel is up to you to control. I’m giving you a place to sleep, food to eat, I’ll even drive you to school when I can, and I’m offering to help you study. What exactly is so bad about all of this?”

“That’s obviously because…!”

A mountain of rebuttals was on the tip of Sejin’s tongue, but when Cheon Sejoo continued to speak again, he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.

“No, actually, whatever your reason is, it doesn’t matter. But just know this. If you keep refusing, you won’t be seeing your mother anymore.”

“……”

Sejin clenched his teeth. It was a rather petty threat, but Cheon Sejoo saw no other way. After all, if he had to argue every time he tried to get something done, how could they go on living like that?

Cheon Sejoo realized he had to tighten his grip on Sejin. And the only way to keep him in check was to hold his mother over his head like a leash. There was nothing more effective than bringing up Kim Hyunkyung when dealing with this stubborn kid.

Watching Sejin press his lips together in silence, Cheon Sejoo allowed himself a rare, gentle smile. In that calm state, he then asked again.

“You’ll listen to what I say, right?”

“……”

Sejin had no choice. The only person who could arrange for him to see his mother was this dirty, manipulative, low-life loan shark standing in front of him. Thus, even though Sejin knew he could just agree and get it over with, the fact that Cheon Sejoo was using his mother to shamelessly manipulate him made it impossible to give in so easily.

“Answer me.”

However, under the pressure of Cheon Sejoo’s insistence, Sejin gritted his teeth and eventually spat out.

“Fine. I get it.”

Only then did Cheon Sejoo nod his head in satisfaction.

“Good. Tomorrow, on your way back from school, bring all your textbooks. Do you even have a bag?”

“…It’s in my locker.”

At Sejin’s short reply, Cheon Sejoo gave him a look that clearly said,

How can you be this pathetic?

With a brief sigh, he responded.

“Alright, we’ll head out together tomorrow. What time do your classes end? And I’m asking about the official school hours, not when you sneak out.”

“……”

“You don’t seriously not know, do you?”

Sejin averted his gaze, his eyes darting around the room silently. He had been leaving school after lunch every day, so he honestly didn’t know when the classes ends.

Seeing this, Cheon Sejoo’s expression twisted in disbelief, as if he were truly looking at some creature that barely resembled a human. He shook his head in disapproval, sending a dissatisfied look in Sejin’s direction, then stood up from his seat and pointed toward Sejin’s room.

“Now, just go in and rest. Tomorrow, after you get to school, take a picture of your class schedule and send it to me. I’ll pick you up when your classes end, so don’t even think about running off. Even if you don’t understand anything, at least pretend to pay attention to what the teacher says in class. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Don’t just lie down and space out. At least act like you’re trying to understand. Kids like you need to be taught by drilling things into your head.”

“I said I got it!”

“Don’t raise your voice. A kid who comes last in the class has no right to yell inside my house.”

“……”

Sejin’s expression showed just how sick he was of Cheon Sejoo’s endless nagging. Listening with one ear and letting it go out the other, he was relieved when Cheon Sejoo finally told him to go to his room. He quickly slipped away from the spot. Once Cheon Sejoo was out of sight, Sejin’s previously frowning face shifted to one of disbelief.

Although Sejin had never said it out loud, he was genuinely grateful to the man. Just the fact that he had a place to stay, which meant his mother wouldn’t have to worry, was reason enough for him to feel indebted to him.

But every time he felt like saying “thank you for helping me,” his rebellious side flared up as soon as Cheon Sejoo meddled too deeply in his life. The more Sejin thought about it, the more absurd Cheon Sejoo seemed.

It was ridiculous how the man acted like he was some big deal just because he gave him a place to stay. Even Sejin’s own mother didn’t nag him as much as this guy. Sejin couldn’t help but feel a sense of resistance toward this man, who was acting more like a parent than his actual parents.

So what if you’re good-looking?

What does he think he can teach me, anyway?

To Sejin, Cheon Sejoo was nothing more than a scammer, and he dismissed him as such. He headed to his room and slammed the door behind him with a huff.