53 - Chapter 51: An Unlucky Day
Time passed, and soon it was time to check out of the hotel.
Once we checked out, Natalia drove me home in the car her secretary had dropped off at the hotel.
As I got out in front of my apartment building, Natalia asked casually,
"Are you going to keep living here? Why don't you just move in with me?"
Living together.
That didn't sound half bad.
If I were the only one living here, that is.
"I'll think about it."
"Alright. Think about it. Get home safe."
"You too."
Giving a noncommittal shrug to her offer, I turned and headed inside the apartment building.
"Huh?"
As I walked up the stairs and into the hallway, I noticed something lying in front of my door.
'Is that a giant trash bag? Did some asshole dump their garbage right in front of my door?'
What kind of piece of shit does that in front of someone else's place?
A spark of irritation flared up at the thought of someone dumping their garbage on my doorstep.
But as I got closer and saw what it actually was, my anger vanished instantly.
'Wait, is that a person?'
What I thought was an overstuffed trash bag was actually a woman, curled up on the floor.
She was huddled so tightly I couldn't see her face, but her hair and clothes looked familiar.
"Seo-yun?"
"Ah...."
At the sound of my voice, Seo-yun looked up, and our eyes met.
"What are you doing here? You didn't even call."
"I just... suddenly wanted to see you. And I did try to call..."
"Oh, really?"
I pulled out my phone to check. Sure enough, there was a missed call.
I guess that buzzing I thought I'd imagined earlier had been real.
"Ah, sorry about that. I missed it."
"No, it's fine."
"But you should've just gone inside. If you'd called my sister, she would've let you in."
"...."
Seo-yun stared up at me blankly for a moment, then let out a bitter smile.
"Right... I should have done that..."
Her smile was different from usual—fragile, almost breakable.
"Uh... well, do you want to come inside first?"
At my suggestion, she shook her head.
"No, it's fine. I came to see you."
"Then..."
"Instead... um..."
Seo-yun hesitated, uncharacteristically stumbling over her words.
"...Do you want to grab a drink?"
I cracked a joke to lighten the heavy atmosphere.
"Oh, you drink?"
"I'm an adult, you know."
"I figured you wouldn't touch alcohol or cigarettes with a ten-foot pole."
"Why? Are you disappointed?"
"Not really. It'd be weirder to care about another adult drinking or smoking."
"Let's go, then."
Seo-yun stood up from her crouch.
"Ugh..."
She must have been sitting there for a while, because she winced and stretched her stiff joints.
We headed to the most expensive bar in the neighborhood.
Since we both made decent money, we didn't have to worry about the bill.
Once we sat down, Seo-yun started ordering sweet but incredibly strong cocktails, throwing them back one after another.
I sipped my own drink and snacked on the complimentary bar mix.
'Just how high is her tolerance? Is she trying to pass out? Should I stop her?'
Before I could intervene, her pace slowed down on its own.
Right around then, all the liquids I'd been drinking caught up to me.
"...I'm going to use the restroom."
"Sure..."
I felt a lingering sense of unease, but I headed to the restroom anyway.
While Han Su-hyeon was in the restroom, Jin Seo-yun set her glass down.
"Mmm..."
The alcohol had hit her hard. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes slightly out of focus as she stared blankly at the ice melting in her glass.
"Oh? Look who it is."
Just then, a grating voice she had spent the last hour trying to drown in alcohol shattered her peace.
She looked up reflexively. It was him—her old baseball coach.
He was accompanied by a woman in heavy makeup and revealing clothes who was definitely not his wife.
'Did he hire a hostess? Must be nice to be a teacher...'
He smirked, scanning Jin Seo-yun's table.
"Hunters must make a killing, huh? Coming to a place like this."
"...."
"You only became a hunter because of me, you know. I'm starting to think you owe me a thank-you."
"...."
He smirked, clearly trying to get a rise out of her. When she didn't react, his expression quickly soured with boredom.
"Well, don't drink too much."
Giving her one last condescending lecture as if he were still her coach, he led the woman away to find a table.
"Ah, much better."
Why did alcohol always make you need to pee so much more than any other drink?
Shaking off the thought, I washed my hands and wiped them on my pants.
"...Ah, so that girl's name is Jin Seo-yun?"
"Yeah, basically."
Hearing a familiar name from an unfamiliar voice, I froze.
"It was fucking hilarious when that bitch quit the team. Anyone could tell she'd just been bawling her eyes out, but she tried to act all cool, going, 'E-everyone worked so hard... I'll leave the rest to you guys...' and shit like that."
The man—presumably the coach—mockingly mimicked her tearful voice.
Hmm.
I stood a short distance away, listening to him brag about his trashy behavior like it was some badge of honor.
So that's what happened.
I hadn't known the details of her baseball days.
Now that my curiosity had been satisfied, I felt a sudden urge to return the favor.
Wanting to repay someone in a situation like this... I really was a polite, upstanding citizen.
To deliver my thanks, I slipped back into the restroom and stepped inside an empty stall.
I waited, watching the door through the gap in the stall...
"Man, I'm about to piss my pants."
Finally, the target of my gratitude walked in.
As the man stood in front of the urinal, I quietly pushed the stall door open and stepped out.
He was just undoing his belt when I approached from behind to express my deepest gratitude, grabbing him by the back of his head.
"Huh?"
Before he could even react, I slammed his face straight into the metal flush button of the urinal.
His forehead depressed the button, and water began to rush down with a loud hiss.
I didn't think a single hit would fully convey my appreciation, so I kept a firm grip on his hair and slammed his head into it again. And again.
"The grace of our teacher is like the sky..."
The blood dripping down the metal valve looked strangely poetic. Without realizing it, I started humming the tune.
"The more we look up to it, the higher it becomes..."
The dull thuds of impact, the rushing water, and my singing voice blended into a chaotic harmony.
"Ah, how grateful we are, the grace of our teacher..."
"Uh... ah..."
The man must have been deeply moved, because he joined in with a weak, trembling groan.
"Ah, we shall repay, the grace of our teacher..."
Was he so touched by my surprise event that he literally pissed himself?
By the time I reached the end of the song, he was wetting his pants.
I gave the unconscious man's shoulder a clean snap before finally letting go.
*
The man was, as expected, the coach from Seo-yun's baseball days.
He ended up with four broken teeth and a ruptured eyeball that left him permanently blind on one side.
The severe head trauma left him with slurred speech, and the shoulder I snapped would never function properly again.
The slurred speech was a death sentence for a coach who needed to shout orders on the field, so the school strongly "recommended" his resignation.
I learned all of this while sitting in a holding cell at the local police station.
"So... what did you say the motive for the assault was again?"
I was currently sitting in an interrogation room.
"I told you, the bastard threw the first punch. Talk about bad luck."
Since there were no cameras or witnesses in the restroom, I just made up whatever bullshit sounded good.
The detective interrogating me let out a heavy sigh.
"You don't seem to understand how serious this is. Even if he did swing first, you beat him half to death. There's no way this qualifies as self-defense."
"Not my problem. You told me to tell the truth, so I did."
"Sigh... fine."
Since I kept repeating the same story like a broken record, the detective finally gave up and wrapped up the interrogation.
Shortly after I was sent back to the holding cell, I was called out again.
"You have a visitor."
I couldn't believe someone was actually visiting me over a simple holding cell stint.
They were making way too big of a deal out of this.
I looked up.
Standing on the other side of the iron bars was Seo-yun, her expression dead serious.
Looking like she was on the verge of tears, she barely managed to speak.
"Why... why did you do that?"
"Because he picked a fight."
It wasn't a lie, technically.
"...Did I even ask you to?"
"No."
Her voice trembled even more.
"Do you think... I'd be happy... if you ruined your life like this?"
Waves of regret, guilt, confusion, and anxiety washed over me from her.
Even if things go completely south, I'll just end up in the Penal Unit at worst. She's overreacting.
I gave a light shrug.
"But it felt satisfying, didn't it?"
I'd already made sure the holding cell's cameras didn't record audio.
"Ha..."
She let out a hollow, dumbfounded laugh.
Then, she reached her arms through the iron bars and pulled me close.
Holding me tight despite the cold metal bars separating us, she whispered.
"It's incredibly selfish of me to say this, but... thank you. For getting angry for me."
"Come on. I told you, he just happened to pick a fight with me."