“Manager. Please take all the tours off the schedule for that day.”
- Pardon? You want us to cancel all the tours?
“Yes. Please don’t accept any reservations for that day.”
- But the losses will be pretty substantial.
“Even so, there’s something I need to do.”
- Yes. Understood.
After finishing my call with Manager Jang Yunmi in Seoul,
I turned to Sandro beside me and spoke.
“Sandro, you heard that, right? Don’t accept any tour reservations for that day.”
“What is it? Things are going so well right now, and you’re taking an entire day off?”
“There’s someone I want to invite.”
.
.
.
Late that night.
Bohol–Panglao International Airport
Five luxury vans from Candy Tour came to a stop at the entrance.
I waited in front of the arrivals hall, holding up a sign.
Before long, I spotted a familiar face and waved enthusiastically.
“Sister-in-law, over here.”
Though it had been quite some time since we’d last met, my sister-in-law welcomed me with a smile.
“Mr. Inbae. It’s been a long time.”
“Thank you for coming all this way, Sister-in-law. Hojin, you’re here too. And Mother, Father, thank you for making the long trip. You must be tired.”
“Tired? You sent us business-class tickets, so we came comfortably. This is the most comfortable trip I’ve ever taken. Hahaha.”
“Even so, it must have been exhausting. Shall we head out? I’ve reserved a hotel.”
We headed by van to the Amalaya Resort, known as the finest resort in Bohol.
It took about fifteen minutes to get from the airport to the resort.
As I felt the unique heat of Bohol, Philippines, we arrived in no time.
“Here are your room keys. I’ll come pick you up tomorrow morning. Get plenty of rest until then.”
.
.
.
I invited my family.
The families of Second Company, our Okapi Sting.
Sergeant Major Lee Wonjun’s sister-in-law and son, Hojin.
Captain Seong Gyutae’s sister-in-law.
Sergeant Oh Jaebeom’s father and mother.
Sergeant Kang Dongcheol’s father and mother.
Sergeant Gwon Jongo’s mother, father, and older sister.
.
.
.
Even Sergeant Im Deoksu’s wife and child.
Everyone attended.
Just seeing them all together made my heart swell.
In truth, they were the first people I’d wanted to bring over.
So I had told them.
I was working here.
And that I hoped they would come visit sometime.
I asked them again and again, but they refused.
I told them not to worry about the cost, that I would prepare everything.
I said they only needed to bring themselves, but they refused all the same.
So eventually,
I told them that I had started a business in the Philippines,
and asked if they really wouldn’t even come to congratulate me.
I said that if they truly thought of me as a son, then everything they’d said was a lie.
Only after I threatened them did they finally agree to come.
After coordinating for a long time, we finally managed to find a time that worked for everyone.
I would make this the best trip of their lives.
I prepared the best of everything—the food, the sights, and the activities.
.
.
.
We spent our time to the fullest.
We went out to sea on a luxury yacht, where we snorkeled and went free diving.
We shopped at Alona Beach and ate Filipino food.
We took walks through the gardens of the six-star Amalaya Resort and enjoyed the beach.
And then.
Emerald Canyon.
“Wow~~ A place like this actually exists in the real world?”
“Honey, this place is absolutely amazing.”
“Inbae, how did you even find a place like this?”
“You said this land belongs to you? How much did you pay for it?”
After passing through Emerald Canyon, we arrived at Lake Lumina.
“This place is truly mysterious. It feels like we’ve entered a world of fantasy.”
“Exactly. It feels like some kind of fairy might come out at any moment.”
“That’s right. That’s right.”
After eating a meal of grilled meat and seafood,
we were having a beer when—
the sky was filled with stars, and everyone’s hearts had begun to loosen.
“Inbae. Thank you for inviting us like this.”
“Not at all. It was the least I could do. If you ever want to come again, I’ll prepare everything. Please feel free to visit.”
“Ho ho ho ho. In that case, shall I just live here?”
“I’d love that. Shall I prepare a condo for you?”
“Oh my? Really?”
“Inbae seems to be getting more and more glib. When I first met him, I thought he was a stick.”
“That’s right. I remember when he first came to our house. Back then, he really did seem like a private.”
Perhaps that had reminded them of the leave when I had visited their home.
And of the people who had been there with me then.
Someone who wasn’t beside us now, someone I hadn’t been able to bring myself to let go of.
Perhaps thinking of him, their eyes reddened.
That was when—
“Inbae. You were the one who left that money behind back then, weren’t you?”
“Pardon? Money? What money?”
“I know everything. I’m asking because I know.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I wanted to thank you. I don’t know what that money was for, but I wanted to say thank you. I couldn’t back then because everything was so chaotic, but I’m glad I can say it now. Inbae, thank you.”
“It was the team’s expenses. I just divided it up, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
“Didn’t you just say you didn’t know what money I was talking about?”
“Pardon? …Ah… Yes, I suppose I did.”
Just as the mood was beginning to warm, Father Kang Dongcheol, slightly drunk, spoke up.
“Inbae. I’m sorry to bring this up, but honestly, I hated you. Our son had died, and seeing you doing so well made me so, so angry. I kept thinking that if our son were still alive, he might have turned out like that, and it drove me mad with anger. My wife told me not to be like that, asking how difficult it must have been for you too, but my heart wouldn’t listen.”
“I never said it, but I felt the same way. I wanted to be angry at someone. Even though I knew it wasn’t your fault, I suppose I wanted someone to take my anger out on. It was all because I was inadequate and lacking. I’d wanted to apologize to you for a long time, but I couldn’t. I’m sorry it took me this long. I’m apologizing now. I’m sorry, Inbae.”
“I’d be lying if I said I never resented you either. I knew you hadn’t been at the scene. I knew you’d been away on a business trip. But I still found myself looking for someone to resent. And that person was you. I’m sorry, as an adult.”
“I’m sorry. That’s simply how we felt. We understood it with our heads, but our hearts wouldn’t accept it. It’s embarrassing, but I’m glad we can apologize.”
“What are you people doing right now? We brought you all the way to the Philippines, fed you, gave you drinks, showed you all these wonderful sights—and you hated him? Is that something a decent human being says? Don’t you have any shame?”
“We’re apologizing.”
“Then apologize properly while you’re sober. What meaning does an apology have if you just slur it out while drunk? You’re only saying it to make yourselves feel better. If you hated Inbae despite the fact that he did nothing wrong, and now you’re apologizing because you’re ashamed of yourselves, then don’t apologize at all. Yet you had no trouble taking and spending his money.”
“Ugh…”
“I think Jaebeom’s mother is right. We all lost one member of our family, but from Inbae’s perspective, he lost eleven family members. Inbae lived as if his men were his family. The truth is, we were too hard on him.”
“We lost our children too.”
“I lost my husband. My entire world disappeared. But I never blamed Inbae. What did Inbae do wrong?”
The adults exchanged raised voices.
Their shouts carried across the quiet, mysterious waters of Lake Lumina.
There were angry cries, and there was weeping.
The heartrending grief of people who had lost their families passed from one person to the next.
I couldn’t tell whose sobbing it was.
Mine, or theirs.
How much time passed like that?
How long did we cry?
Had we finally poured out everything we had been holding inside?
Silence returned to Lake Lumina.
We no longer shouted. Instead, we began to speak quietly.
Not about me, but about my brothers.
Stories from when they were growing up, attending school, and serving in the military—
trivial, small, ordinary stories.
Stories about the trouble they had gotten into.
Stories about being scolded after playing video games throughout an entire vacation.
Stories about crying for several days after being dumped by a girlfriend.
Stories about getting beaten after saying they wanted to ride a motorcycle.
We spoke carefully, as though taking an album down from a shelf and turning through its pages.
They told me stories about my brothers that I had never known.
And so, we spent the night remembering and missing those who had left us, greeting the dawn together.
Though dawn came 365 times a year, this morning felt different.
.
.
.
The trip came to an end.
After seeing them safely to the airport,
and embracing each of them one by one, our long farewell finally ended.
Then I returned home.
“I packed these in case the food didn’t suit you, but we never got a chance to give them to you. They’ll be hard to throw away, so you eat them.”
The side dishes they had left me filled the house.
They claimed they had packed them for themselves.
But it was obvious to anyone that they had prepared them for me.
They had arranged everything neatly in side-dish containers. There was no doubt they had brought them for me.
Even while hating me, they had prepared side dishes for my sake.
Worried that I might not be eating properly in a foreign country far from home,
they had brought all this food with them.
That thought made my chest tighten.
I heated up a packet of instant rice and ate it with the side dishes.
I wasn’t hungry, but I felt like I had to eat, so I did.
Tears kept falling, and I couldn’t tell what anything tasted like, but I kept eating.
I felt as though I had to finish every last one of those side dishes.
So I put them in my inventory.
To keep them from spoiling.
To keep them from changing.
I didn’t know whether it was my heart I was trying to preserve, or the side dishes.
I simply forced down the food.
As I ate, I felt a warmth spreading through me.
Somehow, it felt comforting.
*******
“Boss, one jajangmyeon, a small sweet-and-sour pork, and a bottle of soju, please.”
“Yes. Please wait a moment.”
Daehoon pulled his cap low, casually took out his phone, placed it on the table, started a YouTube video, and put Bluetooth earbuds in his ears.
But what came through the Bluetooth earbuds was something entirely different from the YouTube video.
It was a conversation.
A short-range listening device he had purchased recently.
It had been cheap, but in exchange, it couldn’t transmit over long distances.
There was no helping it.
He had disguised himself as a restaurant customer
and was eavesdropping on the conversation of the people eating in the private room.
“Why is the atmosphere so bad these days?”
“Why do you think? Money. The amount coming down is way too small.”
“That’s true. It’s getting hard even to give the kids pocket money these days.”
“I heard the youngest ones have even been shaking down high school kids lately.”
“Really? I told them not to do that… Those bastards never listen.”
“Hahaha. Did you listen? Weren’t you famous for not listening when you were that age?”
“Don’t start with the ‘back in my day’ stuff. Just let it go. Anyway, they need to be careful. If they get caught, they’ll have a criminal record right away.”
“We tell them not to do it. But what else can they do? The kids have no other way to get money, so they’re trying to scrape together even a little change.”
“But why isn’t much money coming down these days? I’m having a hell of a time too.”
“Sounds like they’re working on some new business. It seems all the money is being sucked into that.”
“What are they doing?”
“I don’t know exactly. They’re being incredibly secretive about whatever they’re preparing. But since they keep traveling to places like Japan, China, and Hong Kong, it seems like they’re either trying to import something or export something. I really have no idea.”
“Why not tell us what they’re doing before going ahead with it? This is driving me crazy.”
Daehoon concentrated on the men’s conversation.
If he sat there doing nothing, he would arouse suspicion.
So while listening to the conversation with his ears,
he ate as though he were watching YouTube with his eyes.
Naturally.
He ate the jajangmyeon, ate the sweet-and-sour pork, and drank a glass of soju.
To anyone watching, he looked like a weary laborer who had stopped by for dinner on his way home after finishing work.
.
.
.
“You crazy bastard. What the hell are you talking about?”
Those were the words I’d heard from Inbae when I asked him to help me take revenge.
I had clearly been cursed out,
but instead of feeling hurt, I had felt relieved.
Had I wanted to hear him say something like that?
What had I wanted from Inbae?
My father had died.
In a suspicious accident.
No, really—what were the odds of a twenty-five-ton dump truck crushing a passenger car on a country road?
But the police concluded that the driver had been drowsy and at fault, then closed the case.
It made no sense.
I petitioned them to investigate again,
to reopen the case from the beginning,
but my pleas were ignored, and I was sent to an orphanage.
They said I needed a guardian even to request an inspection or file a complaint or accusation.
My guardian had died. That was precisely why I was seeking an investigation.
I continued raising the issue at the orphanage, but the result was the same.
If anything, I was bullied afterward.
“You’re the new brat who just got here, right? We need to hold an initiation ceremony.”
“Damn, you look like a beggar. Look at that face. Fuck.”
“What are these shoes? They look pretty nice. I think I’ll borrow them.”
“Me too, me too. I’ll borrow your bag.”
“No. Fuck. What the hell are you doing? Get lost!”
I fought back, cursing at the top of my lungs, but to them—high school students—I was only an easy target, a middle schooler.
“Hahahaha, look at this bastard. You even know how to whine. From now on, we’re going to give you an educational session on the laws of our orphanage. So participate diligently. Hey, rough him up.”
Their fists and kicks came flying.
No matter how much I tried to dodge and block, there was no way I could stop several people from hitting me at once.
Give up flesh to take bone.
I charged at them, thinking that no matter how many hits I took, I would at least land some blows of my own, but that plan failed.
After being beaten indiscriminately, I eventually fell over,
and the only thing I could do was curl up and cover my head with my hands.
Unable to do anything.
All I could do
was lower my head and curl my body up like a shrimp
to minimize the impact.
One fierce round of assault passed.
After being beaten so horribly, I began to cry.
They weren’t tears shed because of the pain.
They were tears for how quickly my situation had changed.
If Dad had been alive,
those bastards wouldn’t even have been able to meet my eyes.
If anything, I would have beaten the hell out of them.
To keep myself from crying,
I had to reclaim everything I had lost.
I vowed that no matter what happened, I would avenge Dad
and take back everything that belonged to him.
I made that vow every night as I cried.
But every night, before I could even finish making my vow, I had to go out and get beaten again.
I didn’t know why,
but the people at this orphanage never let me pass by in peace.
They beat me as if it were part of their daily routine,
and even when they merely walked past me, they would smack the back of my head.
Even when I went to the director and told him I’d been beaten,
he pretended not to hear me.
He spouted some bullshit about how I needed to learn to solve such problems myself if I wanted to become a fine adult.
I decided I couldn’t go on like this and tried to build up my body.
But whenever those bastards saw me alone, they would come over and assault me.
There was nowhere I could go.
When I went to the orphanage, there were those bastards.
When I went to school, the school bullies tormented me.
So I stopped going into the orphanage, or went back late.
Then the director warned me, saying my attitude was unacceptable.
I was caught between a rock and a hard place.
I couldn’t do anything about it.
I endured being beaten every day and waited only for the day I graduated high school.
Dreaming of revenge, I waited for the day I could leave the orphanage.
And as soon as I graduated from high school, I submitted an application to enlist in the special forces.
There, I was able to sleep peacefully,
and eat enough food to satisfy my hunger.
Now I had to prepare for revenge.
I built up my body and learned fighting techniques.
That was exactly what I needed.
There were plenty of martial arts academies outside as well,
but those were sports, nothing more.
They didn’t teach techniques for killing people.
The military was different.
It taught you the surest and fastest way to kill a person.
That was why I enlisted.
And not just anywhere—the special forces.
“Today, we’ll practice shooting.”
“Today is airborne training.”
“Tactical movement is important.”
“You need to assess the situation. You can’t move independently on your own.”
I had misunderstood.
Apparently, they didn’t do that much hand-to-hand combat training these days.
They did far more tactical and shooting training than one-on-one combat training.
They told us not to rush in with our bodies, but to use guns.
Hand-to-hand combat came after that, they said.
I had no choice but to practice on my own.
I built up my body while eating chicken breasts and continued training alone.
Whether I was at the Special Warfare School or had been assigned to a unit, my routine never changed.
I thought about revenge and kept training.
But while serving in the unit, I gradually began to see more of the world.
Looking at Dad’s case from one step removed, I realized it wasn’t a simple incident.
I began to think it might involve the police and gangsters, perhaps even politicians and powerful local vested interests.
My belief that I could catch the driver, beat the truth out of him,
and solve everything by following the information I obtained,
my belief that everything would return to normal if I simply killed those bastards,
turned out to be wrong.
Even so, I couldn’t give up on revenge.
Revenge was everything to me.
But I couldn’t just charge in blindly with a single knife at my side.
That would be nothing more than a pointless death.
While I was agonizing over it, Inbae said,
“Gather information. Investigate every little thing those bastards are doing. Then make a plan. That’s the only way you can succeed.”
For a year, I went around doing nothing but gathering information.
After a while, it seemed that the outline of something was beginning to take shape.
I learned how those bastards’ organization was structured.
I came to understand where the money came from and how it flowed.
As I lived that way, I came to know more people.
We spent time together and did this and that.
We helped people who asked for our assistance,
and did whatever needed to be done.
People called us the Daehun Faction.