Late in the small hours, the hospital lobby was deserted.
Beyond the frosted glass of the reception window there wasn't a sign of anyone, and only the white glow of the fluorescent lights spread across the floor.
Then the automatic doors slid quietly open, and a man stepped inside along with the cold dawn air.
“Fuck.”
The man cursed the instant he saw me.
There wasn't a trace of welcome in him, but I greeted him anyway.
“It's been a while.”
“That Haram kid, after he begged me like that.”
Kim Jae-uk clicked his tongue and asked me a question.
There was some distance between us, but the space was so quiet that his voice came through clearly.
“How'd you find me?”
“I mobilized the company's affiliated law firm's investigation team, a private investigator who used to be a prosecutor, and even a security consulting firm.”
“...”
“With just that one sighting from Haram, it took less than half a day to pin down your recent movements.”
“...You'd go that far?”
“The only reason I hadn't was because I figured you might have your own reasons you couldn't talk about.”
“And now you don't think that?”
“What happened to you?”
Kim Jae-uk was silent for a while. Only the faint hum of the lobby's fluorescent lights caught at my ears.
“...Felt too pathetic to show this sorry state to my big-shot chaebol friend, so I ran. That what you want to hear?”
He said it, then jammed his hands into his pockets.
“Came all the way down to the sticks just to make money. That's it. The end.”
Then he flapped his palm at me as if shooing away a gnat.
“Now that you've heard it all, do me a favor and pretend you never saw me. Go.”
“Talk. Tell me what happened.”
“I just told you.”
“I'm not leaving until I hear it.”
“Fuck.”
When I kept standing there like a block of wood, Kim Jae-uk cursed again.
“Fine. If you came all the way out here, then you already know everything there is to know. You found out, and that's exactly why you went to all this trouble to come bug me.”
Kim Jae-uk let out a sigh like he was giving up, then dragged a hand down his face. Only then did the plain exhaustion show on it.
“...It was a time when I was short on cash. Got a call from somewhere. Said they were looking for someone.”
He was talking about the LK Group, of course.
“They said one of their suspects was a classmate of mine, so why didn't I keep an observation diary on him. What he said, who he met, where he went. Every little thing.”
He turned his head aside as if avoiding my eyes. Then he went on, pretending it was nothing.
“At first I really thought they were just looking for someone. But the money was strangely huge. And they tacked on a number for a P.I., a lawyer, whoever I needed, told me to call if it came up.”
He smirked.
“At that point, what they really wanted was obvious. Any scrap of Baekil-side intel that slipped out of your mouth. There were probably plenty of others planted here and there besides me.”
The laugh that leaked out of him had no strength in it. It was hard to tell whether it was anger or hollowness.
“But you, you bastard, you really never let out a single piece of inside info. At first I figured your total lack of interest in the group was just modesty, but it was for real, and it floored me.”
“...So that's why you kept telling me to be more ambitious, to grab a seat in the group and all that?”
“I meant it, yeah. Pisses a guy off when one person's drowning for money and another kicks away the chance to rake it in by the bucketload.”
I had nothing to throw back at that, so I just listened quietly.
“Later on, well... I got sick of playing stalker and did it half-assed. Got caught and let go. Money dried up, and now I'm running myself ragged crisscrossing the whole country to scrape together every last won. That's my situation.”
“What about a real job?”
“What real job?”
“I'm asking if you ever thought about working a normal one.”
“How much do you think a third-rate science-and-engineering grad just out of school makes? It's not like I'm doing this because I can't forget the taste of high-paying gigs. And you, you bastard, even when you went for a safety school, why'd it have to be a place like Changgeul University? Made it easy to follow you in, at least.”
Kim Jae-uk shrugged a little too hard, then asked me,
“So now what do I do? Should I get down on my knees right here and apologize? Or are you gonna have your people pour concrete over me in an oil drum?”
“Why are you being so extreme?”
“It's not a stretch. I shamelessly played friend for years, followed you into the same college, even timed my enlistment to yours. Isn't that revolting?”
I looked around, then said to him,
“Kim Jae-uk. This is a hospital.”
“So what? People come to hospitals when they're sick.”
“You said your father was healthy.”
The smile that had been on Jae-uk's face all this time froze over.
“...Skipping everything in between. Why's my dad suddenly coming up?”
The conversation I'd had with Kim Jae-uk six years ago was still vivid in my mind.
Eh, he's getting by well enough.
Loud and all over the place as usual. Somehow business holds up even in a recession.
Why had he told a lie like that?
I had a rough idea, but I wanted to hear the answer come straight from his mouth.
“I told you I came here already knowing everything.”
“If you know everything, what more do you want to hear from my own mouth?”
“The real reason.”
“What I said earlier is all there is.”
“You still have that habit of not meeting my eyes when you lie.”
I spoke to Kim Jae-uk, who had gone completely rigid.
“You think you're the only one who observed me? All that long time you were pretending to be my friend, I was watching you too.”
“...”
“The parts you deliberately left out. Tell me all of them.”
“...”
“I'll decide whether or not to grind your head into the floor after I hear it.”
“Ha.”
The fluorescent light beyond the reception window flickered once.
In that brief instant, Kim Jae-uk's bloodless face looked even paler.
Kim Jae-uk muttered with his head hung low.
“...Some kind of, immune disease was it. My dad.”
“What disease?”
“Dunno. The English was so damn long I don't even remember it.”
Honestly, there was no way he didn't know.
What illness his one and only family member had come down with, he could've at least mentioned the symptoms in passing, but Kim Jae-uk didn't.
“Anyway, he collapsed. The thing eats money like nothing else.”
“Back in high school, was that why you were absent so much?”
“Good memory, too. No wonder you were top of the school.”
I remembered. The stretch when Kim Jae-uk would leave early and skip class with a grim look on his face.
I'd asked the reason back then too, but never got a proper answer.
He went back to his usual self so quickly that I'd figured it was nothing serious, but had it all been an act?
“Like you know, it's just my dad and me at home. Nobody to help. The hof bar he started on borrowed money barely turned a profit, so there were no real savings either. I didn't know where to even begin.”
It was a long while before he opened his mouth again. His voice had dropped a little lower than before.
“So. I sold you out.”
“...”
“Once I found out you were from an orphanage, something soured in me, and after that I did write less on purpose. Whether you believe that or not... is up to you, I guess.”
He let out a shallow sigh. A tired smile came with it.
“What. After I ran off because I couldn't face you, working ships, putting up buildings, grinding my body down, there's nothing I haven't tried, if I told you all that, would you take pity on me?”
Kim Jae-uk curled the corner of his mouth as if mocking himself.
“I was gonna rattle off some half-decent lies and run again. But strangely, looking at your face, it all just spills out. The words.”
“...”
“Why is that. Maybe even adopted, the dignity of a chaebol makes me tremble.”
Kim Jae-uk said it like a joke. It wasn't particularly funny.
“So now what? Beat me to death till you feel better? Or sit back and watch a little more of the bastard who leeched off you go down in flames?”
“...”
“Why aren't you answering? Not gonna do anything? Then let's just cut ties and each live our own lives. I'll never show up in front of you again, so...”
“Yes, ma'am.”
“...The hell are you doing?”
Instead of answering him, I made a call to someone on my phone.
“Sorry to call so late. Yes. Please proceed as I explained.”
“I asked what you're doing. Asshole.”
“Please begin the patient transfer procedure from Jeonbuk University Hospital.”
“Hey!”
Kim Jae-uk grabbed me by the collar.
I gripped his wrist tight and said,
“Kim Jae-uk. No. Mr. Kim Jae-uk.”
“...Mister?”
“You're the one who said we should cut ties first, so what's wrong with me being formal?”
My speech was a mess, formal and casual all tangled together, but it didn't bother me in the least.
After all, the things I wanted to say to the man in front of me were piled up like a mountain.
“I have a proposal. As it happens, there's an opening on my dedicated secretary team.”
“What...?”
“Treatment costs and all hospitalization and outpatient fees will be advanced by WS Media. There'll be support from Baekil Pharmaceutical too. You can work for our side to the same tune as you milked theirs.”
“Ad... vanced?”
“To put it crudely, I'm going to seize your weak spot and wring you dry, work you to the bone like a slave.”
I gave my phone a little shake.
Kim Jae-uk let out a dry laugh.
“You threatening me?”
“That's right.”
“How is that a threat! I...”
The hand gripping my lapel was trembling.
“Can't you, fuck, see me trying to keep my pride here?”
“...”
“Why I'm doing this, a head as good as yours should get it.”
And his voice too.
“...Why?”
“Because I have, too.”
In the end I slipped back into casual speech as well.
“Because I once neglected my father when I had no money.”
As I said it, the past came back to me at the same time.
...Is one word of apology. That hard for you?
...
Is it such a hard thing to say? Say something. Mister.
One day I was summoned to the hospital, and not long after, my father just died.
No chance to receive an apology, no chance to give one, nothing at all.
I'd been furious. Just recalling that memory was enough to make my head burn hot, my pheromones running wild.
“...Is this from before the orphanage?”
“More or less.”
It was from before I opened my eyes in Baek Geon-ho's body at the orphanage, so it wasn't entirely a lie.
The story of my past life was something I'd never once even considered telling another person, no matter what. So it surprised even me.
I had let slip my past-life dating history to Baek Seol-heon once without thinking, but that hadn't been my intention, so shouldn't it count as a no-count?
I said to Kim Jae-uk,
“Half of why I'm doing this for you really is pity. The other half is... living it out by proxy, maybe. Probably.”
“...”
“My dead father would be speechless if he heard it, but I have a pretty good idea what it feels like for your life to go to shit because you've got no money.”
Kim Jae-uk's hand slid slowly down.
“I imagined it so many times, hundreds of times, really. Couldn't some rich, gullible sucker just toss me a little charity?”
I let out a small laugh and went on.
“But now that I've actually become a third-generation chaebol heir, just handing out charity feels a bit galling. So I'm going to put you to work as payback.”
Then I tipped my chin at him and asked,
“So what'll it be? Mr. Kim Jae-uk.”
“...What if I'm still secretly in contact with LK?”
“I'll put surveillance on you that accounts for exactly that possibility. And siphon off some LK intel while we're at it.”
“Why are you really like this?”
“Because you're the first friend I made in this life.”
Even saying it made my face hot, so I tacked on right away,
“...Saying something like that at my age is a bit much, isn't it?”
“You,” Kim Jae-uk said.
“are a genuine idiot of a pushover, you bastard.”
I shot back with a smile.
“That's awfully harsh, Secretary Kim.”
When I left the hospital and walked a little ways, I spotted a familiar car parked at the roadside.
The moment I sank into the seat, a voice came from the driver's side.
“Did the talk go well?”
I said to the guy who'd taken it upon himself to play chauffeur,
“You really didn't need to come all the way out here with me...”
“I was free anyway.”
...The small hours are supposed to be a free time to begin with.
Still, there wasn't a kind little brother anywhere in the world who'd drive all the way to the provinces for his big brother's personal matters.
With a tender heart, I asked Baek Seol-heon,
“You're not tired?”
“Are you, hyung?”
“My nerves loosened up so I'm a bit tired, but I'm fine. I'll drive on the way back. Switch seats.”
“Then let's catch some sleep before we go.”
Baek Seol-heon said it casually as he started the engine.
“I booked a hotel nearby.”
“...A hotel?”
Reflexively, I unbuckled my seatbelt first.
“Switch seats, you little punk!”
