Knowing Brother-Chapter 28

I knew that this guy was dangerous and that it wouldn’t be good to hang out with him. But at 4 p.m., I couldn’t stop him from walking to pick up Seol-woo, dragging his slippers around.

One day, during the day, I could hear the voices of women giggling from the front door. They were holding their cell phones to their ears and constantly calling someone. Unable to bear the wait, they jumped over the fence and threw something into the yard.

“Ah, crazy X! What are you going to do? Pick it up again! Hurry up!”

“How can I pick it up? You want me to climb over the fence?”

When he heard that he was going to climb over the fence, Seol-woo Choi went out into the yard. He thought about running up to the second floor and calling Won Dae-young. What he found on the floor was a red cigarette case and a small blue gum tube.

The moment he picked up the gum tube that said ‘DUREX - Classic and Comfortable Durex Condom Jeans 3-Pack’, he heard footsteps on the stairs.

“Put that down.”

“...Huh?”

I thought he would yell at the women trying to climb over the house wall, but Won Dae-young narrowed his eyebrows and raised his voice at Choi Seol-woo.

“Put it down.”

Won Dae-young took the blue bucket. Won Dae-young, who had left the front door, only then turned his eyes to the women.

“Fuck, are you guys crazy?”

Choi Seol-woo’s shoulders snapped shut at the sound of the iron gate closing loudly.

Choi Seol-woo used her convenience store membership card to get a discount and bought a chocolate-flavored Jjujuba. Since it wouldn’t open at once, she was struggling in front of the trash can, so the part-time worker offered to help. When she turned her back sharply and warned him, the woman returned with a trembling face.

“I guess the classic and comfortable Durex is something I shouldn’t be looking at. But why do Won Dae-young and his friends have them?”

Now that I had stopped playing John Watson and Sherlock Holmes, I continued to play the role of suspecting and deducing inside. I left the convenience store and walked up to the main road where I could see the Arts Center. I continued my deduction as I passed under the trees where cicadas were chirping.

“I think Grandma is right. Won Dae-young is a dangerous person. Is this okay?”

The moment my suspicions grew, someone bumped into Seol-woo’s body hard. Seol-woo fell hard to the floor. Before the pain, I felt doubt. Seol-woo was walking along the wall. Unless he intentionally bumped into someone, he would not collide with someone coming from the opposite direction.

The shock was quite big. My palm was badly scratched. I picked up the squeaky-talking snack that had fallen on the floor and raised my head, and I saw the wrinkled face of an old man. It was the village chief wearing a bowler hat.

“I’m sorry....”

“Oh my, you XX XX X brat. Go away! Go away, go away!”

Choi Seol-woo couldn’t say anything and looked at the face of the man who was swearing at her. For some reason, she couldn’t move her body at all.

Choi Seol-woo didn’t know. That old man was someone who only sweared at children who didn’t have a shield.

At that time, there was no one on the street. The man continued to say a few more words that Seol-woo had never heard before. “Your mother” was repeated several times between the words. Even though his tongue was twisted because he was drunk, all the words were clearly piercing into his ears.

Dirty, something was torn, what did I do to give birth to you, what did the men drink? Those were the words.

Seol-woo shook her dazed head. When she came to, the man wearing the bowler hat had disappeared somewhere. The belated heartbeat pounded as if it was going to tear her heart apart.

Choi Seol-woo crossed the street and went to a public phone. When she called 112, she found out that Jjujjuba had gone somewhere.

Her heart kept pounding as if it was going to burst. Two police officers came to the pay phone. After Choi Seol-woo explained the situation, they took him in a car and drove him around, and found the old man’s movements. The old man, who was sitting on a bench at the entrance of nearby Umyeon Mountain and drinking makgeolli with a close old man, was shameless.

“It must be the curses I heard from following my mom around! Why would I curse at a kid in my neighborhood like that? Hey, you. Where were you just now?”

“You rode the mountain with me here.”

“Look at this! This kid is incredible. Watch him catch the wrong person.”

The police officer also looked very troubled. The police officer made eye contact with Seol-woo and sat down to persuade him.

“Let’s go home and rest. There’s nothing the old men can do for us right now. They’ll tell the old man well.”

“Who is Tyler? Put him in jail. Let him live in jail for a week and then let him out. I didn’t forgive him!”

The police persistently tried to persuade and coax Seol-woo. I felt like I had heard several times that there was no way. I refused the offer to take me home and ran into the convenience store.

I laid down on the seat, trying to calm my breathing. I felt unbearable drowsiness and nausea at the same time. After a while, someone came into the convenience store and sat down across from Seol-woo. Won Dae-young, wearing a black hat, brought his face close.

“...What happened?”

“Isn’t there a newspaper or something? Hyung, report it with your smartphone....” ƒгeewebnovёl.com

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong, come here.”

“Hyung, I... am tired.”

Choi Seol-woo slid down on the convenience store table. Won Dae-young seemed to be moving to the seat next to him. Judging from his hazy memories, it was a malfunction. When he opened his eyes after the malfunction, Won Dae-young was stroking Seol-woo’s hair next to him.

When he told the man wearing the bowler hat the exact words he had heard, Won Dae-young’s face turned into a blank smile. His tightly shut mouth and face became as cold as ice.

Won Dae-young knew where the octagonal pavilion where the old man played baduk was. Dae-young carried Choi Seol-woo, who had lost strength, and went to the flat ground at the entrance of Umyeon Mountain.

Birds were chirping and the setting sun illuminated the mountain path with its sunset. Won Dae-young called the old man to a corner of a bench where there was no one.

“Mister. Apologize.”

The polite voice softly touched Choi Seol-woo’s heart. When the old man tried to back away as before, Won Dae-young asked peacefully.

“Oh, you didn’t? I understand.”

“Then, you didn’t.”

“Mister, but....”

“.......”

“Even if you didn’t, apologize. Just apologize.”

The voice became even lower as he finished speaking. In the stillness that flowed, Choi Seol-woo adjusted the arm that was wrapped around Won Dae-young’s shoulder.

“......I’m sorry, I apologize.”

The old man said after shaking his head a few times. As if that wasn’t enough, Won Dae-young gave more examples. The old man followed along as Won Dae-young told him to.

“I’m so sorry that I couldn’t set an example and hurt you with the unspeakable curses I used.”

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t change my habit of being an idiot, not being worthy of my age, not feeling ashamed in front of my wife and children, and not being able to fix my habit of being an idiot.”

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t change my habit of being an idiot, not feeling ashamed in front of my wife and children.”

“Are you done? Kneel down.”

Choi Seol-woo opened his eyes. The man’s face, half of which was hidden by Won Dae-young’s neck, became gloomy.

“If you just apologize verbally, will the wounds you’ve already inflicted go away? If you get down on your knees and beg, what else would you know? You have to show your sincerity.”

The old man’s pupils shook wildly. Won Dae-young, who had been staring at the man for a moment, laughed.

“You talked to me before, you said you wouldn’t do this. You apologized to my friends, so what if you do this again? If you need to talk more, come to the villa next to the Chinese restaurant in the alley. I told you I’d be welcome anytime, right, Grandpa? Yes...? You have to answer.”

Won Dae-young’s tone seemed gentle, but it was tense. When Seol-woo grabbed his shoulder again, Won Dae-young relieved the dark atmosphere.

“I see you’re really going to kneel, huh....”

With that, Won Dae-young came down Mt. Umyeon. He was scared that he might hit the old man, but fortunately, he was okay.

The next day, Choi Seol-woo witnessed a strange sight. While lying down in Won Dae-young’s room, he discovered something he had never seen before while solving an American textbook problem book.

There was an E-Quil and an unidentified glass bottle [N O V E L I G H T] under the desk.

“What’s that?”

“Errands.”

They said they were errands, but the items were still under Won Dae-young’s desk the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that.

After another week, Choi Seol-woo realized that it wasn’t an errand.

Many people and two police officers came to the house. The people, including the neighbors, formed a large group of about fifteen people and stood outside the house.

“This is a lethal dose! What on earth can they be when they grow up? A murderer, a murderer! Oh my gosh, how much toxic substance did they put in their alcohol to kill these weak old people...!”

The person in the front spoke passionately.

The two-story house lady, wearing a knee-length skirt, high heels, and shiny earrings, looked annoyed. The way she glanced at Won Dae-young as if she was tired was impressive.

If it were Mrs. Choi, she would have fought the people attacking Seol-woo.

The old lady with her arms crossed and an angry face seemed to have given up. Choi Seol-woo’s mood dropped significantly.

Seol-woo was suddenly out of breath at the loud voices and large number of people, but Won Dae-young looked happy. His eyes, looking down pitifully at the crowd that had gathered, were clearly enjoying their commotion.

The policeman asked Won Dae-young.

“Name. School.”

Won Dae-young answered briefly.

“You know that the police can’t conduct an investigation based on circumstantial evidence alone, right?”

“......Oh, okay, then I’ll just ask a simple question. Where were you yesterday afternoon?”

Before Won Dae-young could answer, Choi Seol-woo opened the door and ran out into the yard.

“Yesterday and last week, you and I were at home together. We studied together.”

It was a lie he had learned from the village chief who was evading his words.

At that time, the way Won Dae-young looked at Choi Seol-woo seemed to have contained not only surprise but also a sense of solidarity. After that incident, an invisible, inexplicable, and intangible bond developed between the two. At least that was how it was for Seol-woo. No matter where he was, he always felt connected to him.

There were no witnesses and no evidence. CCTV footage showed Won Dae-young passing by the Arts Center every day, but it was a path he always took, and there was no evidence that he had poisoned the grandpas’ makgeolli glasses. The two grandpas received treatment for a few days and were discharged. For a while, they were told that they would have to live off of only water and rice cake soup. After that incident, for a while, I couldn’t see the old people sitting around drinking at the octagonal pavilion in Umyeon Mountain.