CH 2

To be honest, Kim Deuk-pal craves life after college, not college.

Normal life is like college, graduating, working for a company, getting married, having children, raising them, and getting old. However, since he was a gangster, he doubted that he could marry, join a company.

Some of his co-workers and subordinates can find reliable women, quit the organization and get married, but Kim Duk-pal is not that lucky. As an uneducated man, he can’t do much if he meets a crazy girl, so staying in the organization makes more sense.

University was only a small part of his regret, and the only part he could accomplish was at forty.

‘I wanted to return to university and live the life I had left, even though it was only a year, even if it was only a month. This was so I didn’t have to die.’

What value is a woman of if he dies?

There is no doubt in Kim Deuk-pal’s mind that he has died. It’s not uncommon for him to be stabbed or seriously injured while fighting for territory. He knows from experience that if you bleed out and are unconscious in a situation where help is uncertain, you are less likely to survive.

So, what happened to the boy who fell off the crossing bridge?

The face that looked down from the glide bridge was young, like a high school student. If she gets married and has children at the right age, she’ll be the same age as that child. If a boy of his age tried to jump off a bridge to death, he would have turned the wheel in the same situation.

What use is all this if you’re dead?

The faint murmur of the crowd was the last breath of the deceased, their strangely light bodies burdened by their souls. Despite his stoic appearance, Kim Deuk-pal is a sentimental hawk and believes in superstition.

Although he never seriously contemplated death, that comfort would not have been an undesirable thing if this was his end.

‘I don’t want to die, but I’m also looking forward to it. In the next life, I’ll return to school and live a normal, decent life.’

He thought he was heading to hell for his gangster life, but he wasn’t. Kim felt like he was lying in a white film. The brightness of what is usually depicted as heaven in dramas seeped into his eyelids.

Now I just have to wait for the stairs to descend. Kim Duk-pal waited for his turn, bathing in a strange sense of relief that his life was over. The high staircase ahead of me.

But life has never been kind.

A faint murmur grew louder, disturbing the peace in heaven.

“…Asshole! You killed a man and you didn’t even blow your nose! Come out, asshole! Come out and beg!”

“Fuck, pull him out! Don’t be pushed! We have to pull him out and drag him in front of your brother!”

He woke up surprised by a familiar voice. It was a gruff tone he’d heard many times before. He could picture the scowling, bear-like faces of the men who would push him around.

Nowadays, gangsters don’t look like gangsters by pretending to be polite. When they’re called out, they’re dressed in suits, swinging baseball bats they bought for their nephews on the way home. When the game is on the line or the police are called, they blend in with the general population and get away with it. By pretending to be elite, they are able to commit intelligent crimes without being caught.

So Kim Deuk-pal repeatedly warned. Don’t make a fuss and take care of things quietly. Organizational work is the most annoying when public power is involved. At best, he said not to draw attention without meaningless efforts disguised as ordinary people, but his easily excited subordinates used to cause disturbance.

Kim Deuk-pal, who lives and dies in loyalty, could not abandon his subordinates caught by the police. Since the captured men could not follow the boss waving his hands to rot, Kim Deuk-pal secretly took them out of the detention center. The second most he bought was tofu.

“I’m sleeping after killing someone! You punk! You’re making me sleepy! Because of you, brother……!”

“Get out of the way! Hey, get your tools out!”

Once conscious, the uproar grew out of control. Nutmeg letters came and came, and the door rattled to see if there was a physical fight. I couldn’t ignore it. Still, Kim Deuk-pal was annoyed by the stone-collar workers who had been adept at not making a big deal for the past few years and forgot to warn them to shut up before the saltiness rises.

He was fed up with taking out his men with dirty tricks and stealing back money. Kim Deuk-pal woke up, pressing his throbbing temples. His foot fell without even feeling the solid cushion.

The body, which had been lying unconscious due to anesthetic energy, painless drugs, and the aftermath of the accident, was dull and unconscious. Kim Deuk-pal didn’t notice what was wrong. He pulled out the intrusive IV needle and moved on without realizing that the feel of stepping on dry tile on the soles of the feet was unfamiliar.

“The patient is out of his mind! It’s no use doing this here!”

“You thought you didn’t know your babies hidden it?! Get out of my way! I can’t leave until I check with my own eyes!”

“Call the police!”

“Did we hold a knife? Did you punch him? He’s the only one I’m dragging!”

“The patient inside is absolutely stable!”

Drool-. After a dragging walk, Kim Deuk-pal opened the sliding door. A person suddenly appeared, stopping the commotion. Hospital officials who blocked the gangsters were surprised if the gangsters hardened.

A hospital official who found Kim Deuk-pal leaning against the door frame looked happy.

“Mind the patient……!”

Kim Deuk-pal scolded his subordinates for touching a powerless ordinary person. In particular, he was disappointed by Kim Dong-soo, who leads the gang. When the guy who should be responsible for his subordinates if he was not confident instigated the disturbance, disappointment caused displeasure.

Kim Deuk-pal lifted his chin after subduing an opponent. He looked down at Kim Dong-soo and tried to scold him, but all he could see was the underside of Kim Dong-soo’s collar. Something was wrong.

Move!”

To make matters worse, Kim Dong-soo grabbed him by the throat. Kim Deuk-pal panicked, wondering if this guy was crazy, and couldn’t shake his hand. He was dragged helplessly. Flailing like a paper doll, his bare feet hit the floor, breaking his thumb nail.

“Patient!”

Hospital officials tried to stop him, but other gang members barricaded him on their shoulders. Soldiers in white uniforms shouted over big men in black suits.

Kim Deuk-pal tried to free himself. He stumbled, unable to walk properly due to the force. However, he held on to Kim Dong-soo’s arm, and finally realized something strange.

His fingers were thin.

They weren’t calloused, scarred fingers with thick knuckles and joints. The hands that gripped and scratched Kim’s forearms at his will were white and thin. On the back of his hand, where the thin skin showed blood, the bones stood out as his fingers moved. With no calluses anywhere, the hand’s shape alone suggested the kind of life its owner led. At least it wasn’t a gangster.

“Fuck.”

An abrupt curse snapped Kim Duk-pal out of his reverie. The hand resting on Kim’s forearm dropped limply.

Kim Dong-soo stopped in front of the elevator, and as he nervously pressed the button, Kim Deuk-pal could see his reflection in the dull stainless steel.

A strange boy was standing there. A boy whose frail, sickly appearance didn’t connect with him, but he knew this boy.

He reached for the elevator. The boy in the stainless steel case reached out to him as well.

“Come here.”

The elevator in the lobby was slow to come up. Kim Dong-soo pulled the boy by the scruff of his neck down the emergency exit next to the elevator.

Kim’s grip on the boy’s arm kept him from falling. The boy was skeletal and thin, with flimsy muscles. He had just recovered from surgery and had no strength in his limbs. As his knees buckled, Kim continued down the stairs.

His bare feet, dressed in patient clothes, were covered in dust as he descended the stairs. His heels slipped on the corners when he didn’t step properly, and his insteps were stained with blood from the stairs corners. The pain, however, was only a sensation that validated Kim’s body.

Vivid aches and pains, gasping breaths, and blurred vision. It was something he had never experienced before, when all he had was a strong body, but this was where he was now.

Why was the boy’s reflection hanging from the railing of the overpass at the elevator door?

Why was he so out of breath?

Could it be that Kim Dong-soo had gotten the better of him because my current form was that of the boy?

‘Then… who is the real me and who is Kim Deuk-pal?’

Kim Deuk-pal knew he shouldn’t follow him, so he grabbed the railing. He clutched the thin railing connecting the handrail to the stairs, stopping himself from being dragged by Kim Dong-soo.

Blood flared in Kim’s eyes as he stared at the boy’s rounded crown. He kicked the boy’s wrists, forcing him to let go of the grate. He grabbed him by the throat and shoved him against the wall.

Kuung-!

Kim Deuk-pal opened his mouth at the pain that shot through his upper body from his back. Kim Dong-soo pressed his forearm against the boy’s collarbone, forcing his head closer. When he got closer, he could see dried tears in the boy’s eyes.

Suddenly, Kim Deuk-pal saw things he hadn’t seen before. Kim Dong-soo’s complexion, with its blackened circles under his eyes, and his dishevelled black tie and black suit. He wondered why Kim Dong-soo had gathered his men and caused a ruckus.

“Kuck……..”

“Bastard.”

Not to be outdone, Kim crushed the boy’s throat without a word.

“You said you jumped, that’s why it was an accident. A man died because of you, and you don’t have any idea what’s going on? Are you a man? Let’s save this fucking asshole, you, you…….”

The hand gripping his fist shook. Bloodshot eyes narrowed, and Kim pulled back his fisted arm. Filled with injustice, bitterness, and anger, Kim Dong-soo threw his fist at the boyish Kim Duk-pal.

But the punch aimed at his cheek grazed the boy’s hair below his ears and slammed him into the wall. Kim’s skinned fist slipped and he collapsed.

“Thwack, thwack, suck…….”

As he knelt on the floor, his back arched, then he began to sob. Looking down at Kim Dong-soo, who sobbed like a child, Kim Duk-pal, who looked like a boy, also slumped against the wall.

“Brother… KKKKKKK…….”

Cries echoed up and down the tall building’s stairwell. Sitting with his skinny legs folded in the narrow gap between the wall and Kim Dong-soo, Kim Duk-pal raised his hand. His skinny wrists trembled slightly, but he forced himself to make a fist.

No matter how many times he repeated it, reality didn’t change. The skinny, weak hand, like a poker hand, was now Kim Deuk-pal’s hand.