When pushed to the brink, people react one of two ways.
Resignation, or avoidance.
In Raon's case, it was the latter.
After his fiery reunion with Ga Gijo, he'd thought about just going home, then changed his mind.
He had a trustworthy friend right there beside him, after all. Let's pour as much down the hatch as I can take and get wasted, he decided.
Which was how he managed to commit the catastrophe of dumping two whole bottles of liquor into a garbage body that could only handle three shots of soju.
"Haa."
This was all Ga Gijo's fault.
Showing up out of nowhere and stirring a person's heart all up like that — so of course he'd lost his marbles and drunk himself stupid, hadn't he.
Having spent the deep hours from early dawn making out with the toilet, Raon pressed at his throbbing head.
This was only the second time in his life he'd drunk this recklessly. The first had been back in college, with that mad dog.
Raon chewed at his lip.
Because of one Ga Gijo, his whole day had been thrown into chaos. Thank god hard-drinking Minhee had been there. Otherwise he might've woken up dumped in the middle of some street.
"Ugh…"
Unable to leave the restroom for the longest while, Raon only managed to crawl out on all fours well after noon.
He'd thrown up so much he wanted at least some water, but it was obvious that putting anything in now would be more than he could handle.
Having barely made it to the bed on all fours, he searched for his phone on instinct.
"…Oh, right."
The phone fell in the toilet.
Damn it. And I don't even have money to buy a new one.
Raon raked his fingers through his disheveled hair. Just then, a check lying on the floor caught his eye.
The check Ga Gijo had tucked into his pants and left behind yesterday.
[Ten Million Won Only]
Ten million won.
The check he'd handed over was enough to buy a phone, sure, and any home appliance with money to spare. But Raon ignored it.
A man's got his pride. As if he'd do anything with money Ga Gijo gave him. Deciding to look for a decent secondhand phone instead, Raon let out a heavy sigh.
That was when it happened.
Ding-dong-.
"…?"
Turning toward the door, Raon tilted his head.
Isn't it the weekend today?
There's no one who'd come by, in particular…
Ding-dong-.
No sooner had he thought it than it rang again. Raon reluctantly hauled himself up.
But when he actually opened the door,
"Good afternoon, Lee Raon."
"…"
"I'm Kim Seunghwan, from OL."
a harsh reality he could no longer dodge stood right before his eyes.
If you asked which mattered more, the hangover or settling the compensation, Raon could answer with confidence.
Obviously…
"It's been a while, Lee Raon."
money.
"…"
Having first soothed his stomach with cold water instead of honey water, Raon scrunched his brow. The body he'd assumed would be steeped in hangover all day was, unexpectedly, strong in its survival instinct.
How the man had found his place didn't matter. Of course they'd have figured it out. With Kim Mincheol having blabbed his name, finding one address would be nothing.
But he hadn't expected them to show up on a weekend, of all times.
Having only managed to change out of his liquor-reeking clothes, Raon moved them to a nearby café.
"You're aware, I trust, that Kim Mincheol totaled Young Master Gijo's car."
"I, that's-."
"Of all cars, it was his most prized one, so the Young Master's disappointment is no small thing."
Disappointment?
That mad dog feels disappointment too? He claimed to love things only in word. He never clung to anything. No — he never gave his heart to anything in the first place.
Whether a man like that would actually be disappointed over losing one car, well, Raon really couldn't say.
But in this relationship, Raon was the absolute subordinate.
Calmly tamping down the rebuttal that had risen to the tip of his throat, he parted his dry lips.
"I'm sorry. But this was my cousin who-…"
In that moment, just as Raon was about to say the settlement should be demanded from the one who caused the accident, he faltered.
"And while you were gone, I went digging through the storage in the house, and there's like your family album and some piano thing?"
"Pay off the settlement and I'll tell you where it is."
…Damn it.
Raon clenched the hand hidden beneath the table into a hard fist.
Why, of all things, did he have to say that.
At first he'd wondered if it might be a lie. It was the guy's specialty, after all. But it wasn't just anything — it was traces of his parents.
The fact that he'd named the exact types of items, too. If… among ninety-nine lies, this one happened to be the single truth, if there was even a chance of recovering memories he'd thought lost forever…
"Lee Raon?"
"…The settlement you have in mind, how much is it."
Raon was willing to pay a fortune, gladly, to recover the last traces of his family.
So this wasn't him "cleaning up" the mess his cousin had made on his behalf.
"The car repairs, the replacement, please tell me the total."
It was buying back the memories of his parents…
"One hundred million won."
"…?"
Raon was momentarily thrown.
"How, how much?"
"One hundred million won."
Could a car repair bill really come out that high?
For the benefit of his now-spinning head, Team Leader Kim Seunghwan kindly explained.
"You hit it harder than you'd think. When we ran the estimate, the front bumper, of course, but also the hood and headlights were damaged at minimum… and the parts the Young Master had custom-tuned were smashed too, so those have to be freshly imported from abroad."
"…"
"Adding in the cost of various smaller parts and compensation for emotional damages, the grand total comes to one hundred million won."
The instant he finished, Raon exhaled the breath he'd been holding. He'd heard an expensive imported car had been wrecked, but the figure was overwhelming, beyond anything he'd imagined.
"Your car insurance was a cheap short-term plan, as well. Well, since it was a drunk-driving accident, it's naturally 100% Kim Mincheol's fault."
"…"
"But don't worry too much."
Kim Seunghwan pushed his glasses up once.
"Young Master Gijo said a hundred million seems too steep for an old classmate, and offered to cut it down to sixty."
He held out a document he'd readied in advance.
"This is the vehicle estimate. At this point it's nearly at the level where you'd have to consider scrapping the car, so I'm afraid no settlement beyond this is possible."
With a sinking heart, Raon took the estimate.
The document, with its faithfully itemized breakdown down to the smallest detail, grabbed him by the ankle in an instant.
"If the settlement goes unpaid, legal action will follow. Provisional seizure of your accounts, of course, and if necessary, we intend to proceed all the way to litigation. Please bear that in mind."
"By when do I have to pay…"
"That."
Kim Seunghwan drew a torn scrap of paper from his card wallet.
"You can call this number."
"This is-."
"Young Master Gijo's phone number. Written by his own hand."
"…!"
Taking the scrap, Raon flinched.
"The Young Master bought a phone with the check he gave you, so he insisted you absolutely must get in touch."
And then.
"He also told me to relay this message."
Ahem.
Kim Seunghwan cleared his throat.
"If you don't freaking call hyung."
No need to wait,
"I'll show you what truly getting screwed means, you little dipsh-t."
"…"
"You understand what this means, I trust."
…Oh, he understood, all right.
Simply put.
If you don't want to get screwed, call on your own, chop-chop.
Taking up the estimate and the scrap together, Raon sighed.
There was no option to choose from, either.
Guess I'd better look into a weekend phone activation right away.
Ga Gijo had been born a vicious bastard. His cousin Kim Mincheol was honestly a cute little thing by comparison. The real devil was Ga Gijo.
A simple menace would've been one thing. But once the guy set a target, he chased it obsessively until he was satisfied.
Raon had been one of his targets.
Piqued by the words "top of the Western Painting department," he'd suddenly poked at Raon with that nude painting. And as if intrigued by a kid who dressed like an engineering-major loser, he'd kept tailing him.
At first, Raon had even thought about resisting.
But in the cramped little world of a university campus, the influence the guy wielded was monstrous, and Raon just wanted to attend school quietly.
Meaning, butting heads would do no good.
So he'd accommodated him in every way he could.
His pushover personality played a part, but it was also because of the rumor that if you behaved submissively, Ga Gijo lost interest fast.
That he got a bigger kick out of people who fought back and cursed him out. Twisted tastes, fitting for a lunatic.
And yet somehow, the more Raon accommodated him, the more the guy clung.
The drink-runs, of course, and then tagging along constantly under the excuse of grabbing a meal.
And then later…
"Ha, fuck. You're seriously getting wrecked. You clench tighter than the other guys. Why're you so damn good, huh?"
"Hngh, ngh-."
"Kinda wanna tell the other guys too. That Raon's hole is a freaking delicacy."
I'm losing my mind.
Staring down at the scrap, Raon snapped his head from side to side.
He didn't even have time to be dredging up stuff like that right now.
Pushing the stray thoughts aside, Raon clutched the newly bought secondhand phone. Ga Gijo had told him to use the money he'd given to buy one, but how on earth was he supposed to buy a phone with a ten-million-won check?
Not wanting to be any further in the man's debt, Raon folded the check neatly and tucked it into the deepest part of a drawer in his home.
So he could take it out and give it back later.
Thank god the SIM card's fine.
By sheer luck only the device had broken, so he hadn't needed to buy a new SIM too.
All that was left now was contacting Ga Gijo.
Rrrrr-
When his phone rang right on cue, Raon reflexively pressed answer.
"You up?"
It was Minhee.
For a second he'd thought it was Ga Gijo, and his stomach dropped.
"You went home a total wreck yesterday."
"…Yeah, what about you?"
"Me, I drank in moderation so I'm good. Good thing I grabbed your address before we started drinking."
That, Raon agreed with too. He'd nearly ended up sleeping on the street.
"Thanks for getting me home. I drank a bit much yesterday… I didn't pull any drunk antics, did I?"
"Ah, you clung a little, but it's fine. Nothing too bad."
…Doesn't that still mean he did some?
Feeling several times sorrier, Raon hurried to apologize. At his readiness to practically prostrate himself in atonement, Minhee waved it off with a that's enough already.
"Ah, right. Raon."
"Hm?"
"…You wouldn't happen to, like. Need money right now?"
"What?"
Hit right where it hurt, Raon asked back. Don't tell me he'd drunkenly blabbed about the car accident…
Just as the unease began to creep up.
"I mean, you're back in Korea now, you've got tons to prep, exhibitions and stuff, right?"
Mercifully, it seemed he hadn't spilled everything after all — a different answer came out.
But the relief was short-lived.
Minhee suddenly made an offer.
"You wanna try a part-time gig? The pay is freaking insane."
"…"
"Not a snake-oil scam, not loan-shark stuff, not organ trafficking or any of that. For real, totally, completely legit money."
"What, is it?"
"A TV appearance."
…TV?
Raon narrowed his brow.
A dying-whale groan came through the receiver right about then.
"Raon, Raon. Lee Raon. I'm so so sorry but, couldn't this pretty noona ask you just one little favor…?"
