Double Junk - 76

The chubby lips that used to murmur about hating to sleep on the wooden floor came to mind.

“It’s so cold with the wind coming through the paper window. In the summer, there are a lot of mosquitoes… And every time people go in and out of the bathroom, they bump into my head, making me feel really bad, you know? One guy doesn’t even wear shoes when he goes to the bathroom. So, my blanket gets all dirty. There’s even a smell of sweat. Ugh, it’s really dirty, isn’t it? Why don’t you ask to change it? Well, it’s because I’m the youngest… There’s nothing I can do. Maybe I can sleep inside when I get older? Around thirty? And now, I’m sleeping in the boss’s room anyway. So, it doesn’t matter.”

He had said this while smiling beautifully.

There wasn’t even a blanket on Ajin’s spot. It was exactly as the servant who answered the phone had mentioned.

Seokju stared at Ajin’s place with a dry expression when he heard the sound of someone running towards them. Seokju turned his head, and one of his subordinates was rushing towards them.

“Have you found Ajin?”

Seokju quickly asked, but contrary to his expectations, the subordinate shook his head nervously. Then, with a serious expression, he spoke.

“No. But… you should come and see something.”

Seokju stepped into the storage room. The peculiar damp odor of the storage room hit him. Amidst it, there was a strong smell of bl00d. The subordinate shone a flashlight in one direction. Seokju’s gaze naturally followed.

There,

“….”

Doeun was dead.

She had collapsed onto an old blanket, her head sprinkled with bl00d. There was a small but deep wound on her neck, as if she had been stabbed with an overly large knife.

Seokju pressed his eyelids with his thumb and forefinger.

He had seen countless corpses. Committing violence and seeing bl00d had made him numb. He had seen bodies cut up in a haphazard way.

But that was limited to male, male corpses. Female corpses felt different. It felt like she had done something she shouldn’t have, something terribly cruel.

Even though I didn’t kill her, even though she was the one who stabbed Myungjin in the chest.

“Get a new clean blanket and cover her.”

Seokju ordered Najeok.

“Yes, sir.”

One of the organization members standing by Seokju’s side quickly ran out of the storage room. Another member took his place. He gestured to another male servant who was standing outside the warehouse.

“Sir, come here. This guy. He found that woman dead. Sir, tell him the same thing you told me earlier.”

The man approached hesitantly. He looked around forty and was quite skinny. With both hands under his tunic, he bowed to Seokju. Then, hesitantly, he opened his mouth.

“I-I’m the one who answered the boss’s call earlier. A-and, because it seemed like you were looking for Ajin, even after hanging up, I searched around the house. Th-then Sanhong over there, um, that short-haired guy. Yes. He asked me if I had seen Ajin while he was going to the bathroom. So, I asked him if he had seen Ajin-”

“….”

“And he said Ajin was carrying stuff and went into this warehouse. So, I thought Ajin must be here. He used to be close with the ladies at the gambling den. He followed them around, calling them sisters, and the ladies took care of Ajin like a little brother. So…”

“….”

“We came here and, uh, we found Doeun here, talking to him and stuff. But Ajin wasn’t here, and Doeun was the only one dead. It was so shocking that we woke up everyone in the house.”

Seokju raised his head to the sky. The moldy ceiling of the warehouse was visible. After looking at it for a moment, Seokju turned around. At the end of his gaze was Sanhong, the man the servant had just pointed out.

The organization member who noticed Seokju’s gaze called him over.

“Come on. You too, come here.”

Sanhong approached with heavy steps. His forehead was wrinkled, and he looked to be around thirty. The organization member gave him a sidelong glance, curious.

“Did you really see Ajin? Are you sure it’s him?”

“Oh, yes. Is there anyone else in this house who walks like him? You can see Ajin walking from miles away.”

“If it’s from a distance, it might not be Ajin-”

“It’s Ajin. I’m sure.”

Sanhong asserted confidently, his voice filled with conviction. The organization member’s lips twisted into a disgruntled expression. He glanced at Seokju, silently asking, “What now?”

Seokju looked back at Doeun. Bandages were wrapped around the spot where I had shot her. As Seokju took a step forward to get a better look, there was a crunching sound. When he lowered his gaze, he saw something small and black on the ground.

It was a chocolate.

The same chocolate Seokju had given Ajin. It was not imported separately, but a chocolate that only Seokju could obtain. This confirmed that Ajin had been here.

Seokju came out of the warehouse without saying a word. His mind was complicated, yet strangely, his head didn’t ache as it used to. Everything was becoming clear. There was no longer any lingering attachment or stubbornness.

Two female servants rushed to Seokju’s side and whispered to him.

“It’s about Ajin. Earlier today, he went into the boss’s room and made a call with someone. He held the phone for a long time.”

“That’s right. I saw it too. Sneakily went into the boss’s room, so I secretly peeked through the bathroom window.”

“I couldn’t hear anything, so I don’t know who he was talking to, but he definitely made a call.”

A phone call. It was a predictable situation. Whether he received news about rescuing the lady or an order to stop coming out of the house.

Seokju thought so, whether he wanted to or not. It was apparent from the circumstances. The murmurs of the organization members reached his ears.

“Ajin is not seeing it properly. Isn’t he crazy? He bandages her wounds, treats her, and she stabs him without hesitation?”

“Don’t you think he wanted to make her feel safe and easily kill her?”

“Regardless of how she died, there’s still a reason for killing her, right? Maybe he thought he might be exposed. Doeun, that woman, seems to have just been used.”

Seokju grimaced. Did Ajin really kill her?

The memory of when he cut the forearm of a pig caught stealing feed flashed through his mind. It wasn’t killing, just cutting off the arm. Ajin couldn’t bear to watch even that. He tightly clenched his clothes and hid his face behind his back.

But would such a person stab a woman in the neck, bandage her, and not hesitate to cut her throat?

Did he?

Seokju didn’t know. Because he couldn’t tell if the Ajin he knew, the Ajin he lived with, was the same Ajin as the one who sold himself to men at the gambling den.

As Seokju took out a cigarette from his pocket, another organization member shouted from a distance.

“Boss!”

“Damn it…”

Seokju mumbled, chewing on the curse. Boss, boss. Why did that son of a b1tch’s boss sound so unbearable today? After that, every word that followed was just as annoying.

Seokju stared at the organization member running towards him. This time, what kind of ridiculous situation had unfolded, it had turned into a pitiful expectation.

Finally, the organization member arrived in front of Seokju. His face looked like it could burst into tears at any moment. Seokju had a gut feeling. Something as big as Myungjin’s injury must have happened.

The organization member pursed his lips like a pouting fish. However, his voice didn’t come out easily. Another person standing nearby urged, “Well, say it, you bastard.” Only then could he spit out the words.

“There’s… a fire at the back house.”

Upon hearing those words, every organization member’s mouth hung open.

“…”

Seokju raised an eyebrow. He covered one eye with his palm, then burst into a soft, chuckling laughter.

On this chilly and barren winter night, Seokju’s low laughter echoed quietly.

The back house was seriously on fire, but not excessively so. Instead of the entire building, only one side was engulfed in flames. Coincidentally, it happened to be the place where they stored materials.

The smell of burning drug ingredients was pungent. It stung the nose, and the eyes teared up. Seokju’s face involuntarily frowned.

Seokju stared at the smoke rising from the back house as he lit a cigarette. Organization members approached with buckets and basins, pouring water onto the remaining embers. The fire was quickly suppressed.

However, the burned ingredients, charred materials, and machines turned upside down were irreparable.

Seokju, gazing at the blackened wall, was approached by a few organization members.

“It doesn’t look like the fire spread too much, so it hasn’t been long since this happened.”

“Since it’s hard to drive in this direction, he might be near the mountains. The mountains are rugged and steep. Ajin can’t go far with his injured leg.”

Ajin had committed quite a few sins overnight. Killing Doeun, setting fire to the back house, and, on top of that, in the chaos of the Jungho Club, he had cunningly thrust a knife into Myungjin’s chest.

Seokju let out a bitter laugh, and one of the organization members asked discreetly, “Boss? What are you thinking?”

“It’s nothing. Should I catch Park Ki-heon and shove a grenade into his throat or something? Just a thought.”

“Do you have grenades ready? But grenades are kind of big, so they might not fit well in the mouth… Well, even if you put in half, the face will probably blow up.”

“No, no, not now. Not yet.”

Seokju laughed while patting the organization member’s shoulder. Then, abruptly, his expression hardened. Scattering cigarette smoke, he spoke.

“Find Ajin. Find him and bring him back. Without killing him.”

“Yes, Boss.”

The organization members dispersed energetically. And after a long five hours, Seokju was able to encounter Ajin.