Chapter 14 — The one who has tied a knot must untie it (4)
“…….”
“…….”
A calm heavy silence fell upon them. It was Hyung-woo who narrowed the distance first, but he couldn’t move his body. He couldn’t admit it, but he was overwhelmed. ‘This bastard… since when he became this big?’ No, that’s not it. His muscle became solid as a rock but the height was still the same, 174 cm. More or less, it’s 20 cm apart from Kang Hyung-woo with a height of around 190 cm. On top of that, he likes to exercise so in terms of muscle mass, he has the upper hand. However…
‘The look in his eyes…’
Recalling his third year in elementary school, Hyung-woo clenched his teeth. Yoon-seok was not a bad child. No, if anything, he was rather a warm kid. Unlike himself, who had a gloomy personality, Yoon-seok was liked by all of his classmates since he was cheerful and attractive. Kang Hyung-woo envied Yoon-seok. He didn’t have a problem with blending in class or wasn’t reluctant to reach out to Hyung-woo, he was secretly jealous of that. Such jealousy erupted when a girl confessed feelings to Yoon-seok. It was a girl who was Kang Hyung-woo’s secret crush .
Since that day, Hyung-woo slowly picked on Yoon-seok. However, Yoon-seok smiled kindly, perhaps because he was too young to notice the malice intent. Little by little, Hyung-woo went too far, and their relationship ruined. Eventually, it escalated into a fistfight. Kang Hyung-woo was confident with his craft. Thinking about it now brought him to smile, he has such confidence because he learned Taekwondo and enjoys doing sport.
However, he was no match for his rival. He wondered if it’s because Yoon-seok has raw talent. No matter how much they fight, Yoon-seok always finds a way to dodge. As if he had been born that way, Yoon-seok quickly avoided Hyung-woo’s fist like a professional boxer. And without any mercy, he brutally punched Hyung-woo. When it comes to fighting, Yoon-seok seemed to be a machine with a broken control. Kang Hyung-woo was afraid. He really thought he would be finished by him. So he begged to spare him. It is the most humiliating memory in Kang Hyung-woo’s life and the most memorable memory he wants to forget, but can never do so. Even now, sometimes he woke up from his slumber when he faced the eyes that Yoon-seok had made that day in his dream.
“How… How could I have forgotten that! How dare you look at me like that again?!”
Let fear overcome fear. It is full of contradictions, but this sentence is the only one that can explain his feelings well. It’s the reason Kang Hyung-woo was able to meet his fist to Yoon-seok.
Thump!
A sharp and swift fist flew toward Yoon-seok, it was good enough to be called a semi-pro. However, Yoon-seok has F+ Agility which surpasses ordinary people. Given this is a life-matter fight, a real battle was his area of expertise, even though he only tasted fights four times. Yoon-seok avoided punches so easily. This approved his point, how often he had done this.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! FUUUUUCK!”
Kang Hyung-woo bombarded along with some cuss. He was going insane. He had tried very hard to prevent the day of something like this to happen! And yet, this day had to come. “You fuckin’ bastard! Who do you think you are! Who do you think you are!!” The fight from ten years ago ended with the teacher coming. Parents from both parties were summoned to the school and from that time Hyung-woo learned the relationship between their parents. As for Yoon-seok, from that day he has to grovel which earned brutal harassment from Hyung-woo. Only then his sense of defeat disappeared from his soul. It felt like the gear of his day started to work again.
For someone self-centered like Kang Hyung-woo, his days became perfect. Yoon-seok, who made him abashed, was in his hand and lost popularity amongst his peers since then. On the other hand, uneasiness is still nagging inside. The beast he witnessed couldn’t be tamed.
What if the resistance loosened?
His anxiety grew bigger as their secondary sexual characteristics began to develop during puberty. So when they entered Junior High School, Hyung-woo gave a ridiculous reason to prevent Yoon-seok eating school meals. He forced Yoon-seok to raise the level of game characters in the nighttime, which he didn’t care about, and made him sleep poorly. At first, he wasn’t sure if it would work but Yoon-seok had stopped growing at 174 cm. And at the same time, Kang Hyung-woo got down to boxing. He did it with no break to get off his paranoia, like a maniac. To his surprise, he has talent in boxing and his skills quickly improved as it combined with his efforts.
When he thought he had tamed Yoon-seok and entered their High School life, he rebelled for the first time. He expressed his will firmly and asked Hyung-woo to stay away from him. It’s not like he would take revenge on Hyung-woo. Still, he was really afraid of how their position would become reversed. Even though he knew that wouldn’t happen, the time when he was afraid of Yoon-seok would get back to eat him. So Kang Hyung-woo set fire to Yoon-seok father’s factory.
So he can put a leash on Yoon-seok once again.
So Yoon-seok will be under his feet forever.
“But why are you standing up again, you stubborn asshole?!”
With darkness loomed over him, he clenched his fist hard. Yoon-seok, who kept avoiding with a little movement, snatched the fist.
Bam.
“Let go! You don’t want to let go?”
“Was it you?”
“I said let go!”
Yoon-seok let go of his struggling arm. The next he did was grabbed Hyung-woo by the collar and dragged him closer. A question flooded from his mouth with his sincerity.
“The one who set my father’s factory on fire, is that you?”
“W-w-what will you do, then? You want to k-kill me?”
Hyung-woo wondered if he stuttered because he could feel bloodthirst aura from Yoon-seok. His looks were completely out of the place. Yoon-seok smirked.
“Why would I kill you? You have to give back the money we paid you. Along with a large sum of compensation.”
“I didn’t start the fire! Do you have the proof, bastard?”
He didn’t know if he was in the right mind or not but Kang Hyung-woo who found a light that he can avoid this took a different attitude and flatly denied it. Just like how Yoon-seok predicted, Hyung-woo would say something along this line and prepared the recorder in advance. Although this can’t be accepted as evidence. Even in his ears, this recording could lead to misleading information. He needed to push more.
Bwak.
He didn’t have to go all the way to duck. In one move, he stretched his arm and squeezed Hyung-woo’s neck. “Gah!” Although there is a huge difference in height, Kang Hyung-woo struggled to escape. No, in fact, his head went blank because of Yoon-seok brute force, even though their muscle mass isn’t much different.
“Say it. Did you start the fire?”
“Kh–Ugh–!”
In pain, Hyung-woo whimpered with a sound like phlegm stuck in his throat. Hyung-woo’s arm that was clutching Yoon-seok’s arm begins to slack. Usually, someone can survive when out of breath for about five minutes. But less than 10 seconds later, Kang Hyung-woo’s eyes slowly became white. It happened because Yoon-seok pressed the main artery. When Yoon-seok loosened his grip, Hyung-woo collapsed on the floor.
“Kofff! Huff… Huff… Huff… Haa…”
Yoon-seok extended his arms, now with both hands, one more as if it won’t end so soon. Hyung-woo crawled back in fear. When he sat down and touched the dirt, he paid no heed about how ugly he looks now. Yoon-seok slowly approached him, narrowing the distance rapidly. Kang Hyung-woo screamed on top of his lungs with terrified eyes.
“D-don’t! I said don’t! S-stop it! Because I was wrong… huh?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
Yoon-seok reached out to him in slow-motion, very slowly so that Kang Hyung-woo could see, hear, and feel. That this is not simply a fight. His choke was out of straight violence. Yoon-seok calm and impassive eyes made him shudder. Something flashed in Hyung-woo’s head: he’s really going to die.
“I-I did it! Did you hear that! I set fire to your father’s factory! I’m sorry! Forgive me!”
Yoon-seok halted his move and looked down Kang Hyung-woo for a brief second. Maybe because deep down he already knew, he wasn’t surprised by Hyung-woo’s confession and the truth Yoon-seok had been tried to ignore. Yoon-seok pulled the recorder out of his pocket and pressed the end button in front of Kang Hyung-woo. Then, Yoon-seok admitted his bottled up feeling for the past years.
“I wanted to kill you. I meant it. Not once or twice, but thousands of times…”
“…….”
Kang Hyung-woo couldn’t say anything because he seemed serious with what he said. He just stared while holding his breaths. It really felt like Yoon-seok would try to kill, if he opened his mouth even a little. “However, I won’t do that. I don’t know about you, but for me, you’re not worth it.” It wasn’t his intention, Hyung-woo never has a glimpse of thought to kill Yoon-seok. He was too obsessed with dividing their relationship between winner and loser to the point he committed a crime, which was arson. However, Yoon-seok was never interested in social position, violence, he didn’t give in to those things.
Hyung-woo was completely defeated when it comes to humane feelings.
To Choi Yoon-seok, who wanted to win so much.
“…….”
Yoon-seok turned his back without hesitation. He heard a shout from behind, wondering whether he was glad that he was alive or a lingering desire for victory. “You think this is the end? Do you think the evidence from blackmailing me will work?!” No, it won’t. He didn’t think it would work. Because no judge in the right mind would side with him just based on this alone. However…
Yoon-seok stopped and turned his head slightly, “Your father would be a different case. This should be enough. To let him know your true color.”
Step. Step.
Crossing the light brown ground, which reminds him of the circular stadium, Yoon-seok left the playground. He could tell what Kang Hyung-woo was thinking and what expression he made without looking back.
* * *
Vrrrrrrr.
His smartphone vibrates. The caller ID is Kang Hye-in, Kang’s younger sister.
-Oh! Oppa! How have you been?
“Good. It’s been a long time since we’ve talked. What’s up?”
-It’s just that my jerk old brother–I mean, my old brother talking about you today. Since it’s been a long time, would you like to have dinner together?
After dwelling on it for a brief second, Yoon-seok agreed to meet up. The time and place were set in a flash like a lighting bolt. Walking a long way from the elementary school, he absentmindedly sat down at the bus stop that he didn’t even know the route the bus takes. He suddenly jerked up.
‘Is it because it’s not over? I don’t feel at ease, at all.’ It’s not grand enough to call revenge. He just did what he had to do to straighten out the knot of this twisted tangled relationship. On top of that, Yoon-seok felt this is not over. ‘I’m sure his father is busy… I could tell Hye-in instead.’ Therefore, he did not reject Hye-in’s request to meet despite having to get through complicated judgment.
“Oppa! Over here! Here!”
As he arrived at the appointment restaurant, Kang Hye-in welcomed Yoon-seok. He looked at her; with casual attire but right now she looks a lot more mature, perhaps because she has let go of the High School status. Well, she’s just a 20-year-old who just graduated.
“It’s been half a year since we last met, I presume? You look more beautiful, Hye-in.”
“You should talk to yourself! Did you dress up like that to meet me?”
It was only an hour ago that they made an appointment. It’s highly possible in reality to dress up like this in an hour, but when Yoon-seok said yes, Kang Hye-in’s smile widened.
“Oppa, you’ve changed a lot.”
“Me? Hmm, not quite.”
“No, I’m not talking about your looks, but the other things. Your aura maybe? As well as the way you talk. If you were in the old self, you weren’t able to bring yourself to say such things like I’m pretty, right?”
“Is that so?”
Yoon-seok, who has a tilted head, admitted it secretly. As someone who has a problem with self-esteem, he always has a hard time looking directly at her even though he knew that Kang Hye-in was completely different from her brother.
“Maybe I am. Everything that’s been bothering me had gone away today.”
“Woah, really? Good for you. But how hard must it have been for a person to change like this?”
The food they ordered showed up just in time. It’s a topic that shouldn’t be discussed at dinner, but… “Let’s eat this first before it cools down. I’ll tell you slowly.” Yoon-seok put the food into his mouth and told Hye-in everything that had happened calmly. As the story progressed, Hye-in’s face turned pale, she even can’t lift her spoon properly. Yoon-seok didn’t press the matter further. Judging from her expression, it seemed like she’s going to have an upset stomach. After it felt like a lot of hours had passed, Yoon-seok’s story finally came to an end. Hye-in couldn’t contain her anger longer and hit the table.
“Kang Hyung-woo, what did this fuckin’ a**hole just do?”
This is the first time Yoon-seok knew that Kang Hye-in had such a wild… vocabulary. Still in a shocked state, he tried to calm down Hye-in, but to no avail.
“Excuse me, H-Hye-in?”
“I’ll kill him… Yeah, I’ll tear his limbs apart until he meets his death. I have to kill him…”
Hye-in seemed to not hear Yoon-seok. He thought to himself, ‘Maybe informing Hye-in about this was the best revenge…’