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Chapter 8.1: You’ve Never Been Beaten To A Pulp, Have You? (2)
Kang Chan suddenly grew curious about something.
“Did I die?”
“You were shot in the neck and bled to death.”
“Fuck! What about you?”
Seok Kang-Ho smiled bitterly. “I think I was shot once in the forehead, but I’m not too sure. I just felt a burning sensation on my forehead. Then I woke up to my wife comforting me and asking if I had a nightmare.”
“That must’ve been nice.”
“We had a round to commemorate my survival.”
Kang Chan smirked and shifted his gaze to the front once again. The car passed through blocks of fairly old-looking apartment complexes.
“What about the others?”
“Right after you got shot, I was next.”
Seok Kang-Ho pulled up in front of the innermost apartment complex.
“You live here?”
“I can’t afford anything better on a teacher’s salary. This is Gangnam, so even this is rather expensive.”
That was none of Kang Chan’s concern. He smacked his lips as he got out of the car. Seok Kang-Ho’s apartment was on the third floor. After walking down the shabby hallway and up a flight of uneven steps, his apartment was the unit on the right––unit 302.
“Wonder if my wife is home.”
Rattle rattle.
The door was locked. Seok Kang-Ho inserted one of the keys attached to his keychain into the lock and turned the doorknob. Even though it was noon, it was very dark inside his apartment.
There was a room close to the entrance on the right, and the kitchen was located by the wall on the right. At the end of the living room, where the sofa and TV were, there were three doors.
Seok Kang-Ho opened the door to the room furthest from the entrance and entered it. He came back out right away with a set of shabby sweatpants and a T-shirt.
“This is the bathroom. Please wash up and change your clothes.”
Kang Chan removed his school uniform and tossed it aside before making his way to the bathroom in his underwear.
The sink, bathtub, and toilet had all turned yellow. After turning on the faucet, Kang Chan washed his hands first before carefully wiping off the dried blood from his waist. Fortunately, the wound wasn’t too deep, and some of its parts had more or less closed up due to coagulation.
“I can just leave these parts alone.”
Kang Chan then placed his bloodstained right hand under the running water, and undid the handkerchief tied around his left hand. He carefully washed his left hand.
“Tsk!”
Thinking about the guy with a knife in front of the school swiftly filled him with annoyance.
“Motherfucker!”
I should’ve just killed him. Why did I let him live?
“What’s wrong?” Seok Kang-Ho asked loudly, perhaps having heard him cursing.
“Not you!”
Creak.
“What did you say?”
Seok Kang-Ho, who had been leaning on the doorway, popped his head into the bathroom.
“I just lost my temper while looking at the wound on my hand.”
“I thought you were picking a fight with the sink this time around.”
Kang Chan instantly frowned. He hadn’t fought those guys because he had wanted to, nor had he been the one to call the gangsters out. He hadn’t wanted to fight in his previous life, and he still didn’t want to fight in his current life.
Does he think I only know how to fight with others?
Uncontrollable rage abruptly overwhelmed Kang Chan.
Seok Kang-Ho gulped. His eyes looked tense.
“Daye.”
“Yes.”
“Watch your tongue.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kang Chan’s eyes still looked angry even after chastising Seok Kang-Ho, so the latter lowered his gaze.
“Close the door.”
Creeeaaak.
He closed the door slowly and cautiously, the creaking sound of the door dragging on longer than it previously had.
“Hooo.”
Kang Chan lifted his head and looked in the mirror.
It’s not my fault I had a father who always hit me whenever he drank alcohol and a mother who was fine with her husband beating her every day.
“I didn’t ask to be born into this world.”
Kang Chan looked in the mirror and clenched his teeth. He was now the perfect copy of his old self in terms of both his appearance and the intensity in his eyes. Even though he had reincarnated, he was still the same.
He was a guy who had jumped off the roof—after being reincarnated into his body, what else could he have done? Was he supposed to just die after buying those bullies food, giving them money, and getting cigarettes for them?
“Fuck! What am I supposed to do!”
Kang Chan’s reflection in the mirror was staring back at him. His eyes gleamed as he pursed his lips.
“Hooo!”
Whatever.
Kang Chan was always hungry. He wanted to eat pork cutlet so badly, but he would rather die than ask someone to buy it for him or freeload off someone else. He had absolutely never stolen anything from anyone before. On the other hand, he had also never let anybody that looked down on him get away with it, because being born to fucking shitty parents and being disregarded by his father was already enough.
“Tsk.”
Kang Chan took a deep breath and got these feelings off his chest. He had the habit of doing this whenever something unpleasant happened, since it made him feel a little better.
By the time he got out of the bathroom, Seok Kang-Ho had made some coffee while waiting for him. After changing into a new set of clothes, Kang Chan sat down at the table with four chairs around it. He took a sip of coffee from a tacky-looking mug.
It was sweet––the instant coffee was really sweet.
“You’re not bleeding?”
“Stop looking around and sit down. Let’s go after drinking the coffee. Right! Soak the uniform in water.”
“Understood.”
“Cold water.”
“Oh, come on! It’s not my first rodeo––I’ve bled out a lot before.”
Soaking bloodstained clothes in hot water would cause the blood to harden, preventing the stains from coming off. In short, the clothes would have to be thrown away.
Kang Chan looked at his left hand, which was pale and stiff.
“Do you have thread and needle here?”
“Don’t do anything stupid. Let’s go to the hospital.”
“You don’t have any?”
“We’re going to the hospital!”
Seok Kang-Ho took a deep breath, then gulped the hot coffee in one go. He instantly writhed in pain—the coffee was so hot that he probably felt his esophagus and stomach burning. .
Kang Chan laughed. Maybe things like that remained unchanged from their time in Africa. He only finished half the coffee, and then they left Seok Kang-Ho’s apartment.
***
After Seok Kang-Ho, who was admiring Kang Chan’s place of residence, had left, the latter sat on a bench next to his apartment complex. His left hand was so thoroughly bandaged that it felt uncomfortable. There was also a long strip of gauze covering the wound on his waist, even though it wasn’t visible.
Kang Chan had been charged a regular patient’s fee, but he was insured. Seok Kang-Ho had organized the bills properly and planned to bring Kang-Chan’s medical insurance card to the hospital the next day in order to get a refund. This reflected how meticulous and frugal he was.
Dayeru looked happy. He was a lonely man, just like Kang Chan, so the latter had developed more of an attachment to him than to his other men. Perhaps he looked happy because he was happy with his wife?
Kang Chan casually glanced at the bandage on his left hand.
“Chan, is that you?” Kim Mi-Young was standing there with her bag on her shoulders.
“Oh my goodness! What should we do!”
“About?”
“Your hand. Oh my goodness. Did the doctor say it was serious? They didn’t say you needed surgery?”
Kim Min-Young said everything in one breath. She walked on eggshells around him as she lowered her gaze and looked at the bandage that was wrapped around his hand. She was annoying.
“Go inside.”
Kang Chan felt as though he was talking to a child… until the outline of Kim Mi-Young’s chest caught his eye. He sat up straight with an annoyed look on his face, acknowledging that she wasn’t a child––at least in the chest department.
“I have some time left before my tutoring class.”
Kim Mi-Young sat down a slight distance away from him. It seemed like she had a tutoring class right after coming back from hagwon. For her to need all this extra help with her academics, was she rather stupid?
“I’m sorry. I knew you didn’t take the photo, but I didn’t have the courage to speak up. The more I talk about it, the more it shifts their attention to my chest, and I didn’t want that. I’m sorry.”
Kang Chan almost looked down, but he forced himself to look straight.
“I don’t know who it is either. There was clearly nobody there when I changed into my gym clothes. After you fell from the roof and went to the hospital, I couldn’t do anything for quite some time,” Kim Mi-Young added.
“Forget about it.”
Kim Mi-Young placed her hands between her thighs and sat perfectly still.
“It was very terrifying to watch you hit Eun-Sil,” she continued with her head lowered.
Kang Chan wished she would stop leaning her body forward.
“If hitting me will make you feel less angry, do it.”
Kim Mi-Young quickly turned her body to face Kang Chan. With her hands between her thighs and head lowered, she closed her eyes. Kang Chan clenched his teeth, and his eyes trembled. His gaze kept…
“Tsk. I’m not mad anymore so stop talking about this and just go.”
“Really? So you’ve forgiven me?”
“Yes.”
“Chan, in that case, do you want to go to school with me tomorrow onwards?”
‘Did they use to go to school together?’
“Okay.”
“Alright, see you here tomorrow then.”
As soon as Kang Chan nodded, Kim Mi-Young quickly got up and scampered off. She would look a lot better if her hairstyle was less tacky.
Kang Chan sat there for a little longer. Not wanting to continue pondering about those thoughts he had earlier, he got to his feet.