94 – EP.5 Swamp-1

***

After sending Hocheol away, I put Mr. Garam in the passenger seat.

Unlike driving down the highway, the car pulled out of the hospital smoothly.

It’s already 2:00 in the morning.

It’s time for even the 24-hour hospitals to start dozing off with a dim light.

“Where is your house?”

Come to think of it, we don’t know each other’s houses.

“…….”

There was no reply, so I looked to the side and stared at me like a cat.

“Mr. Garam?”

“Home… I don’t like it…”

“You should rest anyway.”

“If you go home, you will go.”

I gave a rough idea of how the flow of this conversation would lead, and I let out a small sigh.

Yes, what am I doing?

“I have to go.

“I’m sorry. Because of me…”

Garam wiggled his hands and lowered his head.

I waited for the left turn signal on an empty street.

“Because it was my decision to come.”

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Did you see my eyes? She gave me her home address.

I put the address on the navigation and drove the car according to the guidance.

A signal comes in. I stepped on the accelerator and turned the steering wheel gently.

A motorbike comes running and narrowly brushes the car.

I hurriedly hit the brakes, opened the window, and slammed the motorcycle in the distance.

“By the way, how did you know?”

Let’s start again, Mr. Garam asks.

“You sent a lot of phone calls and KakaoTalk messages. Something felt strange.”

After explaining ‘how did you know and send her to the hospital’ for about 5 minutes, she gave a small nod.

“Actually, I got a DM from that one person.”

“A DM…?”

You approached it first.

“yes.”

“What did you say?”

“that is….”

“You said you were pushing this woman and that woman, and you were just sponsoring me, right?”

“……”

Her silence seems to have a lot of meaning.

The moment has come to reveal one’s shame and tell the story of how this incident happened.

I swallowed a few times.

My personality of not covering the front and back when I think it’s unfair has hurt a lot of people, and I’ve been hurt too.

However, I don’t think this character is wrong.

At least because of this strict personality, I was able to not be cowardly.

The values that are imposed on others are equally enforced on me.

That is how I, Kang In-ho, have lived.

Now, you might be able to quell this elusive dependency by arguing and sending him home.

However, the moment I bring this up, and the moment I explain to her what to do next.

The relationship between me and Mr. Garam will be irreversible.

She will depend more on me, and I will suffer from her obsession.

know. know well. Still, I have no intention of avoiding it.

What is ‘responsibility’? I don’t know what it might be to others, but it’s important to me.

There are no exceptions.

“One was someone I was seriously considering marrying.”

“…….”

“Now that I think about it, I don’t know why. Well, it must have been an external reason like being sexy.”

I started to tell Mr. Garam about my understanding of the previous owner and why I made it.

“I have money, but I’m old enough to eat. I don’t have friends, and I’m lonely. That’s why I started watching internet broadcasts.”

“You must have been lonely.”

“I used to be treated like a noob somewhere, but when I spend a little money on the Internet, pretty girls call me oppa. I liked that.”

“Give me 100,000 won and I’ll say I love you. Give me 200,000 won and dance. Personal messenger for 1 million won, date for 2 million won, one night for 5 million won…”

“After a while, I got confused. ‘Ah, I can live with kids like that.’, ‘Because I have money.’ …that’s what I thought.”

“……”

“Then he must have been attracted to Hana. He gave money like that, bought me a car, and helped me with business. Kick, don’t you look like an idiot?”

“Oh, no…”

“Then, one day, I woke up. Bottles of alcohol, snacks, food delivered in the house… An ugly fat body and the health condition of today and tomorrow.”

The car stopped at the stop sign, and I turned my head slightly to the right.

“That’s why I said I would work out. Coincidentally, there was a gym in one of my buildings.”

“I guess so…”

“I felt the fun of exercise, lost weight little by little, and gained muscle little by little… It felt like playing a game. If it wasn’t for Mr. Garam, I probably would have quit halfway through.”

He smiles softly at her.

“I became very close with Garam while working out. That’s why I wanted to take care of him more. I try hard to live a hard life at a young age. It’s a presumptuous idea, but I wanted to repay him.”

It also became a financial resource to repay.

I added more words.

“So I had no choice but to tell you a method I was familiar with. In the process… one thing I knew that Mr. Garam and I were related to was doing this.”

“I’m sorry Mr. Garam. Because of me…”

The traffic light turned green, and I couldn’t see her straight, so I looked ahead using the excuse of driving.

The cars continued to run, and the landscape of the roads continued to change.

Likewise, the silence in the car continued.

“It’s okay. You didn’t do it on purpose…”

Little by little, she comforted me.

“First of all, I will take full responsibility for this incident. I will also repair the messy center. Mr. Garam, please rest for a week.”

According to Hocheol, the center is completely messed up. The center cannot operate as it is.

At this point, I’m thinking about doing a new remodel.

It seems that broken glass should be replaced with new ones, and old facilities should be replaced.

He had already told Ho-cheol to look for related companies.

“You don’t have to.”

“I said I’m responsible, so I won’t take any counterarguments. Mr. Garam always said that. The facility is outdated.”

“and….”

“And, I’ll tie it up so you don’t have to worry about one. Take a break from broadcasting for a while.”

“…how? You want to date her? Don’t do that.”

When one story came out, Mr. Garam’s words stood sharp.

“I’m not going to meet you. There’s a way to repay you without meeting you.”

“Are you going to pay me back?”

She tilted her head, as if not understanding.

Suddenly, the car came near her house.

A shabby villa village. I put my head forward and looked at the number.

“The more comfortable you become, the more people will let their guard down.”

Slowly passing through the alleyway, I said.

“That’s why, I don’t care about words. I don’t even calculate whether this word is a problem or not.”

Arrived in the east where she lives.

I parked the car against the wall for a while and escorted her home.

Mr. Garam didn’t want to show his shabby house, but I didn’t care.

“Boss. So what are you going to do…?”

After going with her to the front door of the house, Mr. Garam asked me as I was about to return to the stairs.

I took out my phone and waved it at her.

“A lot of people forget that cell phones have a recording function.”