.
While I flickered my eyes in surprise, Jooin, who was just coming from that side of the alley, also found Ruda holding a person over his shoulder.
He asked severely, “Hyeong, now you killed a person, huh?”
“Hey, it wasn’t me! And he isn’t even dead yet! Anyway, this guy dashed crazily without looking at the front and banged himself on the wall,” replied Ruda as if he felt victimized.
“…”
Growing more solemn, I looked at Ban Hwee Hyul’s face hanging on Ruda’s back. As the dried-out tears on his cheek came into view, I became more difficult to compose myself. Catching the hunting dog plan came to end in vain that way.
Ruda, who finally saw the guy’s face, blurted out in bewilderment, “Eh? Isn’t he Ban Hwee Hyul?”
‘Why is he here?’ he added, but none of us could respond back.
* * *
“This place is…”
When a faint voice reached my ears, I looked in the direction. Praying that the following words wouldn’t be something like, ‘Where is this place? Who am I…?’ I offered my greetings.
“Hello, Ban Hwee Hyul.”
“Ham Donnie.”
Since he’s saying my name correctly, thankfully, he didn’t seem to have amnesia. Scratching my cheeks embarrassedly, I pointed to the side. Ban Hwee Hyul turned his head to look in the direction then frowned.
“Yi Rina…” said Ban Hwee Hyul.
“Would you please not change my nationality to Russia?”
It was none other than Ruda who responded that way, crossing his arms, as if he felt tired. However, he didn’t look that unpleasant since he was already aware of Ban Hwee Hyul’s habitual behavior, calling someone the wrong name.
Shortly after, Ban Hwee Hyul found Jooin, Ban Yeo Ryung, and Eun Hyung sitting beside me. Diverting his gaze back onto me, he asked, “Where… where am I…?”
I responded, “My house. My parents are usually getting home late, and we didn’t seem to have an appropriate place to talk, so…”
“I see…” Ban Hwee Hyul nodded calmly. As if had no idea that he was caught inside this house, he didn’t seem to have any interest at all in the scarf tying his wrist.
Before I got to open my mouth again, Jooin took a step forward. Lifting up Ban Hwee Hyul’s chin, Jooin put his face close to his and dropped a question.
“Why did you do that to San hyeong?”
Suddenly, the room seemed to have changed into a cave. Jooin’s voice sounded that much dark and low. And it was the moment I realized how mad Jooin have been since last week.
Jooin roared again, “Depending on your response, I can hand you over to the cops as someone caught red-handed. I already have the record from the security camera that captured you committing a crime.”
“Do what you want.”
I swallowed my breath at the response escaping from Ban Hwee Hyul’s mouth with no hesitation.
‘Geez, why is he so composed? Looking at how serious Jooin is right now, he may know that Jooin isn’t playing around with him…’
Ban Hwee Hyul’s confident or somewhat shameless attitude should definitely drive me nuts; however, I felt sorry, instead. If he wasn’t afraid of getting a criminal record at the age of eighteen at all, how tough his life was that he had nothing to lose?
Being enraged, Jooin seized Ban Hwee Hyul by his collar again. He urged, “Do you think I have no idea if you keep your mouth shut? It’s obvious that Jung Yohan is behind you. I’m asking you to tell us what Jung Yohan’s aiming for and what you are expecting.”
Still, Ban Hwee Hyul sealed his lips tightly.
Scowling at him fiercely, Jooin uttered, “You know that Eun Hyung can’t even become a candidate for the Number one position since the preliminary round is all over. He’s disqualified to join the actual fight. Then why did you attack Eun Hyung? That’s what I want to know. Can’t we just go smoothly as friends in school?”
Ruda, who stayed quiet until that moment, suddenly intervened, “Based on the way you talk right now, it sounds like you’re taking him to hell, not going with ease.”
Jooin switched his piercing gaze to Ruda; however, Ruda waved his hand while managing to act leisurely.
“I’m telling you to become more chilled out. Your behavior will rather make words left unspoken,” said Ruda.
“That bastard…”
That was when a small voice came out from Ban Hwee Hyul. I quickly turned my head toward him. Jooin and Ruda, quarreling with each other, also looked in the direction.
Ban Hwee Hyul was scowling at Eun Hyung with sunken eyes.
“That bastard beat the hell out of my brother first.”
After a moment of silence, we all directed our eyes immediately to Eun Hyung. Looking slightly perplexed, Eun Hyung quickly waved both his hands to decline that he was the offender of Ban Hwee Hyul’s little brother.
“It isn’t me,” denied Eun Hyung.
“You don’t have to make an excuse in bewilderment since we all know that you aren’t…”
Replying that way, I turned my head back to Ban Hwee Hyul. Eun Hyung was a person who could live without law. How could that Eun Hyung beat Ban Hwee Hyul’s little brother, not even Ban Hwee Hyul himself? Thus, what the heck was Ban Hwee Hyul talking about? What deep grudge did he have to lie about Eun Hyung?
While I rambled those thoughts in mind, Ban Hwee Hyul spoke to me, “There’s evidence. Do you still want to make an excuse?”
“Evidence?” I asked back.
Ban Hwee Hyul gestured to untie the ropes for a moment. I hesitated for a second.
Ruda pointed at Ban Hwee Hyul with his chin, saying, “Release him. I can always win another fight.”
Scowling at Ruda with glaring eyes, Ban Hwee Hyul soon searched inside his clothes with freed hands. He then took out something and stuck it out to us in which we all tilted our heads in wonder.
“What is this?”
There was a photo on his phone screen. The quality of it wasn’t that good as if it was zoomed after cutting out a clip from a video recorded by a security camera; however, the face was noticeable.
Looking at the photo that captured four or five boys beating another boy, I squinted my eyes. Perhaps the one that was getting attacked would it be Ban Hwee Ahn.
Among the boys using violence, a familiar face came into view. I slowed down breathing. It was Eun Hyung, but…
“Why is Eun Hyung wearing the school uniform of Ilsang High School?”
There was a moment of silence after my question.
Ruda simply replied, “It’s fake.”
After his words that put an end to the controversy, there was another round of silence.
Soon, Ban Hwee Hyul came down from my bed and kneeled down on the floor. Watching the sight, my face turned pale.
‘Hey, what the heck have you been doing around…?’ I asked in my thoughts.
Ban Hwee Hyul then broke the ice. Since he couldn’t look at us in the eyes, Ban Hwee Hyul threw a glance at the corner of my room then continued to speak.
“Since a few days ago, I’ve been receiving text messages from an unknown number. The person told me that he or she knew who the culprit was and would help me catch that bastard.”
Ban Hwee Hyul was still kneeling in the middle of my room like a person charged with high treason. The trembling look in his eyes then subsided down.
“I believed that I could keep giving up hope and live like that, just the way I had been living my life. But as soon as I saw the picture…”
Fastening our gazes to the photo on his phone screen, we continued listening to his story.
When Ban Hwee Hyul finally accepted the anonymous’ request, the so-called client handed him a cellphone and demanded him to only keep in touch using the device. That was why only the phone kept ringing in the empty house when Yoon Jung In and I visited his place. Probably Ban Hwee Hyul wasn’t at home that time.
I rolled the phone on my palm that he handed out to me. Though we figure out the actual owner of this phone, it was still surprising that a teenager could even mobilize a cloned phone. The scale of this incident was huge than I thought.
When I accessed the inbox, the messages sent back and forth between Ban Hwee Hyul and the client were still there.
[Sent by: 010-xxxx-xxxx
Every time you get rid of each person, I’ll show you the next one’s face.]
In the first photo that the client sent, everyone’s face except Suh Doh Gyum’s was covered. The next one had Gang Han’s face revealed, followed by Woo San’s. Lastly, there was Eun Hyung on the screen. The thing that happened a few days ago then flashed through my head.
