My Bloody Valentine - 20

“Goodbye. Come again. Seoul.”

Looking at the road signs, Han finally felt the realization that he had left the city. Unlike Seoul, which had been under gloomy weather with continuous rain, the weather became sunny as he descended further south.

Since the taxi departed, Han had not relaxed for even a second, constantly surveying his surroundings.

The driver glanced curiously at the passenger in the back seat through the rearview mirror, as if puzzled, but soon lost interest and focused on driving.

Han had taken buses, taxis, and the subway, mixing them up to make tracking difficult. Approximately two hours after leaving the motel, he found himself in a city in Gyeonggi Province.

As soon as the city center came into view, Han got off the taxi immediately. He went to the nearest bus stop, checked the routes, took a bus to the intercity bus terminal in the central region, and only there did he purchase a bus ticket to his actual destination.

No matter how thorough Tae-sin was, he couldn’t search all the terminals nationwide. However, Han couldn’t shake off his unease. He hid in the restroom until just before departure and then emerged onto the platform.

Even after boarding the bus, he continued to scan the surroundings, constantly looking for men in black suits inside the bus. His restless behavior might have made him seem like someone living with pathological anxiety at a glance.

After 30 minutes of the bus journey, when Han was convinced that there were no potential threats, he finally allowed himself to lean back against the seat.

Unfortunately, it was still raining in Seoul.

“I…”

With a dull sound, the man’s head drooped weakly. However, before the man could recover, Han shook the man’s hair as if to shake out the grip on the back of his neck, then delivered another blow. A stone-like fist slammed into him.

“What did I tell you to protect, huh?”

This time, blood spurted from the man’s mouth.

“S-sorry…”

The one with torn eyebrows, nose, and blood oozing from his mouth was Manager Jo Kyeong-chul.

“Just for a little kid like him.”

After one more relentless hit, Tae-sin released the grip on Jo’s neck, and the director collapsed powerless to the floor.

“Tae-sin…”

Even though Jun-ho called cautiously as he passed by, all that returned was a dark and penetrating gaze. Tae-sin looked like a devil at this moment.

In the past ten years, Tae-sin had never once shown anger toward Jun-ho, regardless of the circumstances. Therefore, Jun-ho could usually afford to be relaxed around Tae-sin. However, this time, Tae-sin seemed unusually cautious.

Observing Tae-sin’s swollen eyes and darker eye bags than usual, Jun-ho spoke carefully.

“There was a reason for letting him go, right? Let’s stop here. Huh? We don’t need to kill him.”

Tae-sin leaned against the desk, pressing the acupoint on his temple as if trying to endure the surging pain. Taking advantage of that, Jun-ho, like a police SWAT member freeing a hostage, lifted Manager Jo Kyeong-chul and ushered him out of the room.

Staying here any longer might lead to a situation where he would really die. The raindrops became even more cruel as the atmosphere darkened.

Jun-ho remembered what Tae-sin had done on a day like this. It was a night stained with blood and screams.

In a tone as cautious as appeasing an angered beast, but with a confident voice, Jun-ho addressed Tae-sin.

“Mr. Lee… No, hyung… I will definitely find him. I can find him.”

“…”

“I will find him without fail.”

The small man who had escaped seemed to trigger some kind of switch in Tae-sin. Regardless of how much time or money it took, it had to be done. Not only for the man but also for their safety.

“Sigh…”

Tae-sin, exhaling deeply, furrowed his brows again. Then, from a pill bottle in his pocket, he took out a white pill and swallowed it without water.

The crunching sound of chewing the pill was like a beast devouring its prey to the bone.

Tae-sin slowly brushed back his disheveled hair. His palm, however, was stained with blood that wasn’t his own.

“Guest! You said you were going to Angol Village, right? Then you need to get off here.”

“Oh, yes!”

The village bus screeched to a halt with a sound, stopping in front of the green bus stop sign. The driver remembered asking, ‘Is this bus going to Angol Village?’ when the guest boarded.

For the first time in his life in this unfamiliar town, Han quickly stood up, gazing blankly at the unfamiliar scenery outside the window.

“The bus doesn’t go all the way to Angol Village. Just go straight down there.”

“Thank you!”

The bus that let Han off soon departed with a noisy engine. Han, who kept watching until the bus became as small as a dot and disappeared from sight, stood facing the direction the bus driver had pointed.

Everything within sight was new. The sea surrounded by mountains seemed like a lake. The name of the village, Angol, was engraved on a large rock at the entrance to the village, encircled by the seaside.

Night had descended over the sea, which was dotted with fishing boats. While admiring the serene scenery, Han soon came across the village community center.

Above the entrance of the community center hung a clock given as a gift from a local agricultural cooperative.

The time was 8:30 PM. It had been over nine hours since he departed around 11 AM.

51-8.

Han checked the address written on the back of the check once again. With only a few houses in the neighborhood, each house had an address plate with a blue number, making it relatively easy to find the house where Grandmother lived.

There was a fence but no gate, and it was a typical rural house mixing the traditional Korean hanok and Western-style architecture. The house was illuminated and looked cozy.

However, despite reaching his destination, Han hesitated. Regret struck him belatedly.

A man, a guest who had come looking for his granddaughter he hadn’t seen in five years… Even to him, it seemed suspicious. Moreover, pledging to bear his debt so abruptly, it was shameless. Perhaps running away from the man was the top priority, and there was nothing visible to be gained.

Satisfied with having come very far from Seoul, Han decided to turn back. There might be a jjimjilbang (Korean sauna) in this town, and if he looked carefully, there might be a goshiwon (cheap accommodation) where he could stay at a much lower price than in Seoul.

Having made that decision, he turned back, but it was at that moment.

“Who’s there?”

As Han turned in response to the voice of an older woman coming from behind, he saw a grandmother in her seventies holding a flashlight beyond the fence. Flustered, Han rolled his eyes.

“I… uh… I’m… a friend of Yujung Jeong.”

“Yujung? Our Yujung? Saying you’re a friend of our Yujung!”

The flashlight held by the grandmother directly illuminated Han’s face. Before he could say anything more, Han’s hand firmly grabbed the grandmother’s wrinkled and dry hand. Before he knew it, he found himself being led into the grandmother’s house.

Soon, in the small living room, a table prepared by the grandmother was laid out in front of Han. It was a homemade meal from someone he had never met.

Having been tense all day and having eaten nothing, Han, watching the grandmother’s expression, sneakily picked up the spoon and began hastily filling his stomach. The grandmother looked at Han with a salty expression.

The hot soup, with beef, round fish cake, radish, tofu, and agar-agar, was a dish Han had never tasted since birth.

The steaming soup had a savory and deep flavor, delicious enough to melt away the exhaustion from head to toe. Without touching any other side dishes, Han rolled the rice in the soup and fervently consumed it.

With Han having emptied the bowl, the grandmother, holding it, led him around the small house, guiding him to the bathroom and kitchen.

In the last room they entered, a blue waterproof sheet covered the floor, and on top of it, red peppers with a glossy sheen were drying. After gathering the four corners of the waterproof sheet and pulling it out, the grandmother said.

“This is the room Yujung used to stay in whenever she came during vacation.”

“Oh…”

“Is our Yujung doing well? She says she’s going abroad, but she doesn’t contact me once. It’s regrettable…”

“Well, she’s busy. Uh… studying abroad requires a lot of tuition, you know… So, she wants to finish quickly and come back… She doesn’t contact her friends much. But she used to talk about her foreign grandmother a lot to me.”

“Is that so?”

Talking about topics as unfamiliar as studying abroad or going to university, Han managed to reassure the elderly woman with various words. Whether it had an effect or not, by the time the conversation ended, the grandmother’s face looked much more relaxed.

After saying that Han could stay for as many days as he needed, the grandmother handed over the room where Yujung used to stay during her elementary school days. She even provided him with some clothes to wear as pajamas, given that Han had none.

Later, a few days passed, and a thick comforter with colorful floral patterns was laid out on the floor, exuding the pleasant scent of dried peppers.

“Good night.”

“Sleep well, Han.”

The grandmother had already gone to bed, as the light in the room across the living room went out. Alone in the silent space, Han celebrated his successful escape once again, except for the sound of crickets.

Unable to sleep for a while, he opened the window. The night in the village, without even streetlights, was pitch dark.

What was the name for the darkest color in the world? Oh, it was called ‘Vantablack.’

I heard that the color, so dark that it absorbs more than 99% of light and appears as nothing but black, is called Vantablack.

Suddenly, the eyes of the person who chased me came to mind.

Those eyes, so dark that nothing could be seen, resembled Vantablack. However, those eyes, when looking at me, were inevitably predatory and glittered.

Such peculiar interest from him would wither over time. Until then, Han planned to hide here and then go back to Seoul to look for Haejun.

It wouldn’t hurt to explore legal options such as personal recovery or bankruptcy and discharge, as seen in advertisements on the streets.

Han smiled to himself, seeing his appearance in the mirror wearing the outfit given by the grandmother. He laughed a little at the realization that he now had the luxury to laugh again, feeling the success of his escape.

Sitting on the bed, he took out his wallet from the eco bag. In the deep recesses of the wallet, there was a precious letter carefully preserved.

Given by someone who was both a brother, a friend, and family, it was like a totem to Han.

Attaching the letter, held in his hand like a charm, to his chest, Han closed his eyes. In a tender voice, he spoke to someone.

“I miss you…”