My Bloody Valentine - 67

“You shouldn’t do multiple jobs at once.”

“If there are many victims, it will attract more attention and increase the risk of getting caught.”

“Okay.”

Taeshin nodded in agreement.

“You need to be careful of CCTV.”

“The safest places are the stalls set up in front of department stores or outlets, you know?”

“Those places often don’t have CCTV and there are many people around, which is good.”

Jina taught Taeshin everything she knew, and Taeshin listened carefully as if not to miss a single word.

“And this is something I’m saying because Toad isn’t here, but don’t target the elderly or pregnant women.”

“Even though we live like this, we’re still human beings and shouldn’t go that far.”

After listening to Jina’s story until the end, Taeshin asked just one question.

“Can I keep all the money I earn that way?”

“Huh?”

“The money, I mean.”

“…No.”

“Why?”

“Toad comes to collect the money in the evening.”

“Then do I have to give him all the money? Why?”

Jina was at a loss for words at the question asked with shining eyes.

She felt the need to tell Taeshin one important fact.

“Toad is scarier than you think.”

“You die if you steal money, and you die if you’re caught trying to run away.”

Even a rotten fish can still be eaten, and Toad, who once worked as an organization member, always caught the children who tried to run away within a few days.

Then, as an example to others, he would punish them in front of the other children.

The children who saw their friends and colleagues who once slept beside them being beaten half to death gradually gave up their will to escape.

After listening to Jina’s intimidating words, Taeshin just shrugged lightly.

“I can’t leave now anyway.”

Taeshin, who always spoke as if he had somewhere to go, constantly planned something from his spot.

What he wrote in crooked handwriting on the clean back of flyers found on the street looked like a code.

Junho, who quickly let his guard down around Taeshin, stuck close to him and looked down at what Taeshin was writing.

“What’s this, hyung? Is it written in English?”

“Train.”

“Busan? Are you trying to go to Busan, hyung?”

“Yeah. It’s the farthest from Seoul, right?”

“Isn’t Jeju Island farther?”

“That’s right. But I found out that you can’t take a plane without a guardian.”

“Really?”

Despite being around the same age, Junho thought Taeshin seemed very much like an adult.

“What’s this? Emergency fund? What does emergency fund mean?”

“In case we suddenly get sick or something. We need to prepare money to buy medicine too.”

“Are we going to a jjimjilbang too? Wow, I’ve never been to one… That’s nice.”

Taeshin’s expression was quite serious.

It seemed like he would need more money than he thought to go get Han.

First, he needed money to buy a train ticket to go far away.

He also needed a clean space where they could stay together, as staying in a dirty place could make them sick even if they weren’t already.

Han often got sick, so he would need to take medicine, and sometimes they might need to go to the hospital.

Taeshin started following Jina from the very next day.

❖ ❖ ❖

The more time they spent together, the stranger Jang Taeshin seemed.

Despite being caught by Toad hiding one or two coins from the money he earned and getting beaten to a pulp more than once, Taeshin didn’t stop saving money.

After Toad finished beating him and left, Jina looked at the bruises and cuts all over Taeshin’s body with pitying eyes and asked.

“What are you trying to do by saving money?”

“…I need to go get him.”

Taeshin opened up after about 6 months of being there.

“Go get who?”

“My brother.”

Only then did Jina understand why Taeshin was so desperately saving money.

Taeshin said he had a brother he left at the orphanage.

While talking about his brother who got sick with a cold every time the seasons changed due to his weak body, Taeshin smiled softly as if forgetting his pain for a moment and having a pleasant daydream.

“I’ll help you.”

Junho, who was squatting next to them listening to the story, shouted loudly.

Junho, who was usually so quiet you could hardly tell he was there, was particularly fond of Taeshin.

“I’ll help you save money. So when you run away, take me with you.”

“It’s very far. We’ll need a lot of money. I calculated roughly that we’ll need about 300,000 won.”

“Got it!”

Jina smiled bitterly as she watched the scene of the young brothers joining forces.

Their conversation planning their operation was quite cute.

But they seemed quite serious, as a few months later, they attempted to run away after saving up the amount of money they had aimed for, only to be caught by Toad, have all their money taken away, and get beaten nearly to death side by side.

“It was a mistake to take the bus at the station up ahead.”

“The man at the supermarket in front of the station called Toad.”

“Next time, we’ll have to take the bus from a station farther away.”

“…”

“Junho, you can give up if you’re scared.”

At Taeshin’s words, Junho, who was stuffing tissue into his nostrils to stop his nosebleed, lowered his head dejectedly.

But Taeshin didn’t give up.

He tried again and again, over and over.

Jina was almost envious of his brother at the orphanage.

She envied Taeshin’s emotion of dreaming so desperately of someone, and she was also envious of being the object of someone’s blind devotion.

In the three years since coming here, Taeshin had attempted to escape five times.

And all of them failed.

Taeshin didn’t notice.

One of the children was telling Toad all of Taeshin’s plans.

In the process, his arm was broken once, his collarbone once, and his ribs twice.

His body gained numerous burn marks and scars.

But it seemed like nothing could stop Taeshin.

❖ ❖ ❖

At fourteen, Taeshin’s skills had improved enough to move alone without Jina’s help.

As Taeshin was entering the subway station and walking on the platform looking for a target, his eyes fell on a middle-aged woman in her 40s climbing the stairs with her hands full of luggage.

“Let me help you with that.”

Taeshin took the shopping basket from her hands.

Then he walked with her for a while, offering to carry it to where she was going after leaving the station.

She said she ran a business near the station and had just gone to the market to buy some ingredients she was short on.

When she asked why he wasn’t in school at this time when he looked like a middle school student, Taeshin vaguely said it was the school foundation day.

The destination was a small soup restaurant about 5 minutes from the station.

The woman inserted the key into the lock under the door, opened it, and led Taeshin inside.

“Do you know how to eat innards? The innards at our place are delicious.”

Taeshin was so hungry he could suck pig’s blood, let alone eat innards, so he nodded instead of answering.

Soon, a black earthenware pot with white steam rising from it and shiny white rice were placed in front of him.

Taeshin’s eyes widened at the smell of proper food he hadn’t experienced in a long time.

“Here, eat a lot. Thank you so much for helping with the luggage.”

As soon as he judged that it was okay to eat, Taeshin dipped his spoon into the soup and started shoveling it into his mouth like crazy.

The woman, who came running with a surprised “Oh my,” pulled Taeshin away from the soup bowl where he had buried his face, like separating a dog from its feed bowl.

“You must have burned your mouth! You should blow on it and eat slowly!”

But Taeshin had already lost his senses.

As soon as the woman’s hand left him, he buried his head in the bowl again and scooped up the soup, stuffing it into his mouth.

The woman looked at Taeshin with pitying eyes.

Another earthenware pot was quietly placed in front of Taeshin, who had almost emptied the bowl.

Having filled his stomach to some extent, Taeshin was able to eat the second pot a bit more leisurely, savoring the taste.

“Eat slowly. I’ll do some dishes.”

The woman, who had placed some well-ripened radish kimchi on Taeshin’s table, went into the kitchen with a smiling face.

There didn’t seem to be any employees working, as she was alone in the store.

By the second bowl, some sense of reality returned.

Taeshin’s eyes, which had seen nothing but the meat and white meat broth in front of him, began to see various things.

For example, his empty money box that had been completely robbed a few days ago, Han who would be waiting for him even at this moment, and the unguarded counter of this store…

Taeshin quietly got up.

His eyes quickly scanned the counter.

The drawer for storing cash was open under something that looked like a computer monitor.

At the scraping sound of the chair moving, Taeshin startled himself and looked towards the kitchen.

But the woman was focusing on washing dishes with her back turned.

Taeshin carefully moved his feet.

He tiptoed towards the counter, trying not to make a sound, grabbed as many 1000 won and 5000 won bills as he could, stuffed them into his pocket, and grabbed a handful of coins.

Then, as if on cue, he started running madly towards the entrance.

But he didn’t get far before colliding with someone who was just entering the store and falling on his bottom.

“Ugh!”

The coins in Taeshin’s hand scattered all over the store with a painfully loud clanging sound.

“Wh-what? Who are you? Mom! Who’s this kid?”

The other person had also fallen backwards like Taeshin and was rubbing around his tailbone.

He was a boy in a school uniform and looked about the same age as Taeshin.

He seemed to be the woman’s son.

At that moment, Taeshin felt an inexplicable sense of deprivation and glared at the boy for a moment before quickly getting up.

When he turned around, the woman had come out to the entrance of the hall and was looking at him with a surprised face.

Taeshin’s face and ears turned bright red in an instant.

His empty hand that had lost the coins clenched into a fist.

He leaped over the boy in the school uniform and ran out.

Once on the street, Taeshin ran, and ran, and ran some more.

He ran away from the kind woman who had given him soup, from the overwhelming harsh reality, and from his own corrupted, meager conscience, so that none of them could catch up to him.

It felt like he was endlessly falling into a realm below human.

But that too was one of the things he had to endure.

To go find Han again.

There was only one thing keeping him going.

“I miss you…”