My Bloody Valentine - 69

The only ones present there were Jina, Junho, and Taeshin.

Jina quietly took Taeshin, who was covered in blood, to the bathroom and carefully cleaned him. The traces of his first murder, which had been splattered all over his body, were sucked down the drain.

Jina took Junho’s hand, who was crouched in a corner of their accommodation with a frightened and dazed expression, and then took care of Taeshin as they left the place.

That was the last memory of that place.

With the cash they had taken from the toad’s wallet, they found accommodation to stay for a few days, and Jina immediately started looking for a job. Now she had two younger siblings to take care of and couldn’t afford to be picky about hot or cold water.

She received an advance from the shop she was employed at and found a room for the three of them to live in.

Junho took the middle school equivalency exam, and Taeshin was also encouraged to take it, but he refused.

Although Taeshin had lost all his memories, his obsession with money remained the same. He didn’t know why he wanted money; he just wanted it.

‘I’ll take my brother and go far away. I need to save a lot of money for train fare and accommodation.’

Jina almost told him the reason but held back, thinking it would only add to Taeshin’s confusion and make him suffer more.

Taeshin, who had already exceeded 180cm at a young age, worked at the bar where Jina worked, dealing with troublesome customers and throwing them out.

Taeshin was born with a strong physique and had no fear. Sometimes, gangsters from other areas would come to test him, but it always ended at Taeshin’s line.

A kid so young who could smash people’s heads with just a phone without blinking an eye was naturally remarkable.

It was only natural that people started to take notice of Taeshin. He caught the eye of Chairman Bae Jeong-gil, who frequented the bar where Jina worked.

Ten years later, Taeshin, now twenty-seven, held the position of Executive Director at Cheongsong Construction, a seemingly respectable company. In one hand, he had a large lending company that was like a goose that laid golden eggs, and in the other, a business with annual sales reaching hundreds of billions.

However, despite making enormous money, Taeshin couldn’t stop. He still hadn’t found the reason or purpose for his frenzied pursuit of money and just moved by inertia.

All salvation comes with sacrifice.

Taeshin saved himself. But in the process, he lost many things: his memories, his emotions, and something else precious.

❖ ❖ ❖

At Chairman Bae Jeong-gil’s house, there was a rare Geumgang pine in the courtyard. The small maple tree leaves next to the large pine were slowly losing their green color.

As September arrived, the cool breeze flowed in through the open window.

“Are you really impotent?”

At the blunt question, Taeshin, who was looking out the window, turned his head slowly and stared at Chairman Bae. When Taeshin neither confirmed nor denied it, Chairman Bae’s wrinkled eyes widened.

“Are you really impotent? I thought it was just something the lower people said.”

“I don’t know.”

“Huh…”

He wanted to match Taeshin with the daughter of a bank manager. After meeting the bank manager’s youngest daughter, who was not only exceptionally good-looking but also a talented graduate of a prestigious university, he became desirous despite having no son of his own.

“She graduated from Korea University.”

“I don’t want to.”

Chairman Bae, still reluctant, continued to press.

“But… does it really not stand? There must be many pretty girls among the shop staff. Don’t you ever get aroused even when you see those girls?”

“Yes.”

“Oh dear…”

Chairman Bae looked directly at Taeshin’s legs, then, seeming to get irritated, fanned his face with his hand.

He had been disappointed seeing something that had once made him laugh, imagining it would stand up straight and kill many when it got up.

“Won’t you go to the hospital? The district office chief who plays golf with me goes to a hospital in Gangnam for prostate issues. They say they’re very good there.”

“No need.”

“Ah…”

Chairman Bae, seemingly distressed, emptied his drink repeatedly and continued his nagging. It was all out of affection.

“Shall I get you some medicine? Something like Erectalis or Viagra.”

“No need. I don’t have any use for it anyway.”

“No, why wouldn’t you have use for it at your age? If you need to, just make a reason to use it! At twenty-seven, still a virgin? Ugh, I can’t…”

Taeshin couldn’t understand why Chairman Bae was so flushed and angry over such a trivial matter.

After hearing the long and repetitive nagging and finishing the bottle of alcohol, it was past midnight.

“Director, Supervisor So Jin-ung was caught at a fishing spot on an island. They say he was taken to the studio. You should go check it out.”

Supervisor So Jin-ung, a staff member of the Cheongsong faction, was suspected of leaking internal information about land bids and providing financial flow information to the police. He had been on the run.

Taeshin nodded slightly at Junho’s report and got into the back seat of the sedan. He stared blankly out the window. The sense of ennui was growing day by day, but no exit was in sight.

The neon lights brightly illuminated the street, making it hard to distinguish between day and night. Even though it was well past midnight, there were quite a few people in the busy downtown area.

Then, amid the drunk and staggering people, Taeshin saw brown hair swaying rhythmically.

It felt strange. It looked like the hair he had once tenderly stroked in a deep dream.

Taeshin, without a moment to think, abruptly opened the car door. The car, which was about to start after waiting at the traffic signal, screeched to a stop.

“What… what is this… Director!”

Honk. Honk.

Taeshin, stepping onto the sidewalk, quickened his pace.

The fluttering brown hair kept being hidden and revealed by the crowd.

It was as if he had left his place to grasp something but couldn’t remember what, leaving him with a sense of helplessness and frustration that tightened around his throat.

Taeshin loosened his tie and widened his stride. Reaching a distance where he could touch, he extended his hand, almost in a trance, grabbed the man’s shoulder, and turned him towards himself.

“Ah! Who are you?”

It wasn’t only the man who was surprised. Taeshin released the man’s shoulder and took a step back.

“I… I mistook you for someone else.”

The man, who had stared at Taeshin in confusion for a moment, nodded and turned away, disappearing into the crowd. Only Taeshin remained standing there with a disheveled feeling. It was an action even he didn’t understand.

“Director!”

Junho, who had chased after him a step late, approached Taeshin. Taeshin stared blankly into the air, as if mesmerized.

“What’s going on?”

“…”

“Was it someone you knew?”

“Well… when I saw him, he wasn’t similar at all.”

“Who?”

“I… I don’t know.”

Junho tilted his head in puzzlement.

“Let’s go. They’ve contacted us saying the work site is all ready. That perverted old man must be itching to catch another fish.”

The “perverted old man” probably referred to the technician Kim Youngdal at the work site.

Snapping back to reality with Junho’s words, Taeshin walked to the other side. A car parked at the roadside with its hazard lights flashing was waiting for him.

“It seems they brought a few people together since it’s hard for you to come back and forth frequently.”

Without responding to Junho’s words, Taeshin turned his gaze out the window.

The construction site was meant for a shopping mall, but due to the sudden bankruptcy of the client, work had stopped while waiting for a new owner.

Entering through the makeshift iron gate, a bleak scene unfolded before them. Five men were tied to chairs.

Taeshin quickly passed judgment on them, their desperate eyes waiting for the sentence like prisoners awaiting judgment.

“And, that’s the last one, Director.”

Youngdal’s words pointed to the last empty chair. Taeshin’s gaze slid down to a small man sprawled on the floor in front of the empty chair.

The man’s hair, spread out on the floor, was brown.

Taeshin, slowly rising from his seat, approached the man lying flat on the ground.

He pressed the shiny, luxurious Oxford shoe toe against the man’s side and lifted it, flipping the limp body over with a puff of white cement dust.

The pale face, covered in dust and cement powder, was intermittently illuminated by flickering lights from squid-like lamps.

Taeshin looked down at the lifeless, bloodless face for a while. Was there something wrong with the body? A brief ringing in his ears passed.

When Junho’s head tilted in curiosity, Taeshin finally diverted his gaze from the man.

“What’s this about?”

“He didn’t do anything. He just got startled and collapsed by himself. How someone like this could use loan sharks so recklessly, I don’t know. Hehe.”

“Loan sharks?”

Junho, coming up from behind, handed Taeshin a document instead of answering. The document had the leaf-shaped logo of the lending company “Green Money” that Taeshin managed.

The content was simple: principal of one hundred million and interest of seventy million.

“What should we do?”

Taeshin looked away from the document and back down at the man. A stranger named Lee Han. Even though he was clearly an unknown person, there was something strangely captivating about him.

In Taeshin’s eyes, which had become indifferent to the world with nothing left to lose or hope for, a hint of blue intrigue briefly appeared.

“Take him to Tacenda.”