Chapter 138

Inside the police station, the mechanical clatter of typing filled the air.

“Your name is Mo Yeonhoo, correct?”

At that, all three men who had been looking elsewhere raised their heads.

“And this is Seunghwan Lee... What’s your relationship to them?”

“I’m Yeonhoo’s friend. Park Taekyun.”

The three of them sat side by side on metal chairs, and every one of them looked like a disaster.

Bruises were already rising where Seunghwan had been beaten. He kept rubbing his throbbing scalp and breathing through his nose in fury.

Yeonhoo’s clothes were equally disheveled, but he just stared blankly ahead, apparently lost in thought.

Taekyun looked completely shell-shocked.

“No, you saw what happened!”

Seunghwan suddenly raised his voice as though he had been waiting for his chance.

“That fucking psycho attacked me out of nowhere! He hit me with a glass, beat me with a chair—can’t you see he ripped half my hair out? That’s attempted murder! Attempted murder!”

“Attempted murder, my ass.”

Yeonhoo, who had kept his mouth firmly shut until then, tilted his head and spoke coldly.

“You’re the one who messed with someone else’s precious kid. I was helping you become a decent human being. You should be bowing and thanking me, don’t you think?”

“You fucking—!”

Seunghwan started to rise again.

The officer slammed a hand down on the desk.

“Sit down! This is a police station! Mr. Mo, you need to control yourself too. We’ll hear both sides first. Mr. Park, you start. What happened?”

“Well...”

Taekyun, trapped awkwardly between them, was just about to speak when two men in black suits hurried into the station.

Each placed a business card in front of one of them.

“Good evening. I’m Mr. Lee’s legal representative.”

“I represent Mr. Mo.”

They were their lawyers.

“Huh? Hey!”

Seunghwan brightened when he saw his lawyer.

The man gave him a small nod, then quickly took in Seunghwan’s battered condition.

Seunghwan immediately started complaining.

“You see what he did to me, right? Get that bastard locked up. I seriously almost died!”

His lawyer, however, merely pressed a hand to Seunghwan’s shoulder and guided him back into his seat without even looking toward Yeonhoo.

“I’ve just finished speaking with Mr. Mo’s representative. Both parties wish to resolve the matter amicably. We also finalized the arrangement with you over the phone a short while ago.”

“What? No, when did I—”

“Just a moment.”

Seunghwan’s eyes widened as he tried to protest.

Then his lawyer leaned in and whispered a few words into his ear.

Seunghwan shut his mouth almost immediately.

His lawyer then handed the detective a settlement agreement and a written request declining punishment, both apparently prepared in advance.

“We will also cover all property damage in full.”

“Hmm...”

As Yeonhoo’s lawyer added that, the officer glanced between the two men.

Strictly speaking, Seunghwan was the victim here.

But if his side was willing to let the whole thing go and the damages were being paid, there wasn’t much left to argue about.

The officer skimmed the paperwork, apparently pleased to have one less case to deal with, then nodded.

“Well, if the parties have settled, there isn’t much more to say. We’ll end this with a warning and release you both. Go home and think about what you did. This isn’t a playground.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

And just like that, the matter was over.

Still dazed by how quickly everything had wrapped up, Taekyun walked outside with both Seunghwan and Yeonhoo.

“Hey, why’s he so quiet now? What happened to all that ‘I’m sending you to prison’ crap?”

Taekyun sounded uneasy as he watched the unusually silent Seunghwan.

The guy had been raging like a lunatic a few minutes ago. Now this.

“He’s a junkie. He probably doesn’t want this blowing up into anything bigger.”

Yeonhoo sounded as though he had expected things to end exactly this way.

Maybe he was right.

Seunghwan was glaring at him, face twisted as if rage were still boiling beneath the surface.

“Fuck you, Mo Yeonhoo.”

Of course, that didn’t mean it was over.

“Yeah? Why’d you call me? Want me to rip out some more?”

“Ha. What?”

“Want me to pull out the rest of your hair?”

As the hostility immediately flared back up, Taekyun glanced between them nervously.

“Guys. We are literally standing outside a police station.”

That seemed to take some of the wind out of Seunghwan’s sails.

“Why the hell are you acting like this anyway? You cut me off after promising you’d get me into that event, and now the second we meet again, you go fucking insane on me?”

“......”

“What is it, Mo Yeonhoo? You can’t hear me? You ignoring me?”

“......”

Taekyun blinked, looking from one to the other.

He had never seen the normally easygoing Yeonhoo look so utterly disgusted with someone that he refused even to engage.

And hadn’t these two once been pretty close?

Sure enough, Seunghwan’s lips moved as though he was actually somewhat hurt before he turned his head away sharply.

“Fuck, I should’ve never thrown that party. You, Kwon Mieon—why the hell does everyone only ever lose their shit at me...”

“...Kwon Mieon?”

The instant Yeonhoo heard the name, his head snapped around.

Seunghwan looked at him and seemed to realize something.

“Ah. Yeah. This is about that weird bastard, isn’t it? No wonder he kept contacting me like a fucking psycho.”

“Kwon Mieon contacted you?”

“Yeah, fuck! He asked if I knew Mo Yeonhoo, got the CCTV footage, kept losing his shit telling me to contact you! Hell, the guy was weird even back when he was hitting on Yejin. Crazy bastard spent months chasing me down asking where you were, looking for you— Hey, Mo Yeonhoo!”

“Yeonhoo! Where are you going?”

Yeonhoo ignored Seunghwan’s shouting and Taekyun’s startled voice.

He turned and broke into a run.

Kwon Mieon was looking for me?

To be honest, he still didn’t remember everything perfectly.

He had been in terrible shape that night after drinking far too much of whatever that bizarre mixture had been.

Then he had fallen, cracked his head open, and wound up in the emergency room.

It would have been stranger if he had remembered anything from such an awful night.

Still... it wasn’t completely awful because of Kwon Mieon.

In those belatedly resurfacing fragments, the time he had spent with Kwon had actually been fun.

All night long, literally until dawn, the two of them had sat in that deserted hallway talking endlessly.

So what happened after that?

I just laughed. She said she had a boyfriend. What was I supposed to do?

How could you laugh? She had a boyfriend, but she still went to movies with you and held your hand.

I don’t know. I just laughed....

What a waste.

What?

Your smile. It was wasted on her.

Ahahaha!

What about the next person?

Oh, that one....

From Yeonhoo’s countless stories about his unrequited crushes—

Sniff... so why... why didn’t you cry then?

How was I supposed to? Mom and Dad looked like they were about to die themselves.

But you were... you were little too. If your brother died, it had to hurt....

It was okay if I cried beside the smoking area. Mom and Dad don’t smoke, so they never came over there. Why are you crying about something that happened to me ages ago?

How does someone dying become something that’s “over”...? You just cover it up and keep living, sniff....

......What are you even saying? Forget it. Tell me about you. How did your third stepdad turn everyone against each other?

Hmm... that petty bastard? Okay, so....

—to the unusually messy family histories they both carried.

Do you know whose account this is? Someone Seunghwan really needs to stay on good terms with.... I’m gonna send him everything Seunghwan said about him on his private StarGram.

Seunghwan seems pretty intense. Maybe don’t send it right away—

Already did....

You really are unbelievable. You have absolutely no plan, do you? What are you going to do now?

Whatever he put in that drink was obviously weird. I’m pissed off he was going to make someone else drink it. But damn, there’s so much shit on his private account. Sending all these screenshots is a pain....

Drop the screenshots you were going to send over to me.

Huh? Okay... but why? Wait. What? You’re gonna send them too...?

I’ll send them from my account as well. That makes me your accomplice, so tell me.

Tell you what?

And then—

Your number.

My number...? Why does that suddenly matter?

I want your contact info. Accomplices are supposed to exchange numbers.

But I don’t have a Korean number yet.... I bought this phone here, so... Want my overseas number instead? I might be going back to Korea soon.

...Then just mutual-follow me on StarGram and DM me there. And give me your number as soon as you get a Korean one.

Okay, sure....

Yeonhoo.

......

Yeonhoo?

...Yeah?

We’re meeting again in Korea.

Oh. Obviously... I’m sleepy, though....

Wait here. I’m just getting you some water.

Okay.

Don’t go anywhere.

Okay....

Promise.

They had promised...!

How the hell did I forget all of this?

After returning to Korea, Yeonhoo’s life had hardly been smooth enough to leave him much room to remember that night.

But Kwon had apparently spent that entire time looking for him.

In the end, they had met again.

Except, really—

You... don’t remember me?

—for Kwon, it had been a reunion entirely on his own.