60 – Abduction) In a place without you (2)

Inside a cafe not far from the training ground.

Two people are sitting face to face at a table in a corner.

A young man with brown hair and a middle-aged man with black hair.

They were Seo Chang-ho and Kim Han-cheol.

“So, why did you come?”

Chang-ho glared at Han-cheol with cold eyes and asked.

There was something like contempt, disgust, and betrayal in those eyes.

These were the eyes of a young man who faced the ugly side of the hero he admired as a child.

“It’s been a while. Six years?”

Hancheol calmly greeted him, as if he was not at all concerned about the stare at the window.

Chang-ho felt that Han-cheol’s attitude made him feel sick.

“Yes… It’s been a while.”

“The reaction is very poor.”

Han-cheol touches the coffee cup in his hand with an emotionally dry voice.

He tapped the glass with his index finger and opened his mouth.

“Do you know why I came to see you?”

“…….”

Changho closed his mouth.

It wasn’t because I didn’t know why.

It was just to get away.

“Did you think I didn’t know? For the past year, you’ve been close to that child.”

There was one unwritten rule among the training members of the national team to which Changho belonged.

Right away, not getting close to a child named ‘Kim Na-ru’.

—-That boy named Naru… The boy named the president’s son…

ㅡThe seniors who were entangled with her all had a bad end…

—-If you show even the slightest kindness, or even talk to me…

—-Getting caught up in a mysterious violent incident… or suffering a strange injury, semi-forced retirement…

Inwardly, Changho chewed on the stories his seniors had told him.

“You know? I’ve been looking after you all this time.”

“……”

“I tell you straight forward. Get away from him.”

Changho did not answer this time either.

And Hancheol stared at him with empty eyes.

Those empty eyes were black and dead, devoid of any vitality.

“Think carefully about your career. Is that one kid important enough to throw your whole life away?”

This is a warning.

A warning to your life.

“Think carefully.”

Hancheol said that and tilted the coffee cup again.

Those calm words and actions made Chang-ho grind his teeth.

Are those words the words that can come out of the mouth of a person called father?

Chang-ho’s hand, which was holding the coffee cup, naturally gains strength.

ㅡ woogeudeuk

The disposable coffee cup I was holding in my hand is crumpled.

And accordingly, the overflowing contents coolly wet your hands.

Changho took a moment to catch his breath, then opened his mouth.

“What’s the reason…?”

“Why?”

“The reason why you are accusing that poor child so cruelly…!”

“…….”

I thought something was strange.

Naru’s training was missing a screw somewhere.

Have them engage in sparring with masters who use a variety of strange weapons,

Running a marathon course in full once a week,

They beat me all day for training,

It was strange training, far from normal training.

They looked more like ‘torture’ than ‘training’.

A torture full of malice and unmatched cruelty.

They don’t care about training, and seem to focus only on inflicting pain.

“What the hell are you saying that the child did wrong…?”

At Chang-ho’s question, Han-cheol’s eyes sink even more.

The black eyes, deep in darkness, were like a night sky without moonlight.

A pitch-dark night with nothing and emptiness.

“Isn’t that something you’d be involved in?”

Hancheol cuts off Changho’s question with a cold voice.

A cold reaction, as if frosted.

“I’m here to warn you, not to answer your questions.”

Saying that, Hancheol put down the coffee cup he was holding in his hand.

Then he glared at the window with those dead eyes.

“You just have to choose. Do you want to stay close to him or not?”

ㅡFor reference, I recommend the latter.

—- I mean it with all my heart.

.

.

.

What followed was an obvious story.

After a moment of silence, Changho chose to stay by Naru’s side.

—-You will regret it.

Hancheol said that and left.

Chang-ho remained blankly at the table where Han-chul had left.

A few months after the meeting between the two occurred.

Chang-ho was caught up in a mysterious violent incident.

[Shock! Current Kendo National University player Seo Chang-ho, caught up in a violent incident…]

[Seo Chang-ho, released from the National University due to a violent incident that happened the other day…]

[Current Kendo Association President Kim Han-cheol, ‘It’s really unfortunate.’ He expressed his intention […]

Without knowing why, I was sucked into the rapids.

Chang-ho, who was discharged from the kendo world he was in,

In the end, I had to leave as if I were running away with my parents.

.

.

.

“f*ck…”

Chang-ho, who had been lost in thought for a moment, suddenly spat out a curse word.

The empty echo spread through the empty room.

It was a painful memory no matter how many times I think about it.

Without doing anything, without being able to become anything, it was crumbled to nothing.

—-I will… stay by Naru’s side. I won’t let you do what you want…

It was an odd promise.

It was a momentary mistake made by a childhood hero who had disappointed him.

It was the stroke of a young man whose emotions still took precedence over reason.

It was a foolish arrogance that he could handle the situation and save Naru if he was himself.

Changho gritted his teeth and wiped away his tears.

A weak voice comes out.

“Leaving a horn next to me… like an idiot…”

The resolution he made that day brought about a much bigger storm than he expected,

The storm terribly tore through the windows and doors.

Eventually, as a result, Chang-ho lost everything he had accumulated,

It gave Naru an irreparable wound.

“At that time… I shouldn’t have just run away like that…”

If you were going to lose everything and run away like that,

That day, I shouldn’t have left the locker room leaving Naru alone.

I’d rather hold his hand and run away together.

You’ve ruined your life because of your choices.

He had to destroy the fragments and protect what he wanted to protect to the end.

“It’s because of me…if I, if I had made a little better choice that day…”

The accumulated guilt builds up painful memories,

The memory fills a corner of emotion.

In the yard where Naru committed suicide, the only thing Changho could do was

All he could do was look up at the distant Tower of Regret and bitterly lick his wounds.

“Hmm… ugh…”

Chang-ho shed tears while biting his lip.

Summer sunlight squeezes through the windows.

The warm light illuminates his haggard face.

A faint warmth caressed his cheek.

It was a truly unpleasant sensation.

Chang-ho nervously turned his head and avoided it.

That soft sunlight reminded me of the little boy’s hand on her cheek,

The windows couldn’t stand it.

Outside the window, cicadas cry,

The air holds the heat of summer.

All of that reminds us of the season of summer once again.

Come to think of it, it was also summer.

ㅡ Hello! are you naru? I’m your top jockey senior! Call me Changho hyung!

Even the season when I first met you.

ㅡThen, hello. naruya

Even the season when I left you.

—-Naruga… Suicide, you say…?

Even the season when you passed away.

“f*ck… f*ck, f*ck, f*ck…”

Unorganized raw language flows out of your mouth.

The voice that sheds those words is closer to wailing than mumbling.

Suddenly, the sound of crying gets louder and louder, even erasing the swear words that were simply being spit out.

All that remains is an ugly cry.

The sound resembled the cicadas’ cries faintly heard outside the window.

Chang-ho blocks his ears and crouches in the room.

But even so, summer does not pass.

It was just the hot air that slowly melted his collapsed body.

yes summer.

It was an endless summer.

Naru left,

A brutally brutal summer.