Chapter 9: Young Master, Are You Alright?
by xennovel“Young Master, are you alright?”
The bloodied students were rushed to the hospital.
The flustered vice principal seemed to be making a call somewhere.
“Yes, Prosecutor. Yes, yes, I’ll do that.”
While the other student and Hong Jin-pyo were hospitalized, I was dragged to the police station as soon as my basic treatment was over. And then… I was locked in a holding cell.
Hyeon-seong’s father stopped by the holding cell.
“Mu-hyeok, this time I can’t cover up the incident. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, sir.”
“The opponent is bad news. It looks like they’re trying to bring up old cases to send you away. The station chief has already ordered an investigation.”
“What about Grandmother?”
Detective Park, Hyeon-seong’s father, looked at me with pitying eyes.
“Myeong-su and Hyeon-seong are with Grandma. Don’t worry about her… worry about yourself. This is serious business, I’m telling you.”
“Sir, could I possibly make one phone call?”
“Huh?”
“Please, just let me make one call.”
Surprised by my sudden request, Hyeon-seong’s father thought for a moment before opening the cell door and leading me to the phone.
“I can’t give you much time. Make it quick.”
“Alright.”
I took the phone and dialed Chief Ha.
After a few rings, there was a click followed by Chief Ha’s voice.
“Pyeongchang-dong residence.”
“Chief Ha, it’s Mu-hyeok.”
“The Chairman is currently meeting someone. If it’s not urgent, could you tell me instead?”
“Well… a problem has come up.”
“A problem?”
“You see…”
Given the situation, I explained briefly, but Chief Ha didn’t ask why things had turned out this way.
“Where are you now?”
“At the Jung-gu police station in Busan.”
“I understand. I’ll report to the Chairman and come down right away.”
“Alright, I’m counting on you.”
I hung up the phone.
“Who was that?”
“Someone who works with my maternal grandfather. They say they’re coming down.”
“Right now… I heard Jin-pyo’s father is on his way here. Sigh… of all people, why did you have to mess with a senior prosecutor’s son?”
“It’s okay. I’ll handle it myself. Don’t worry about me. I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me, so just pretend you don’t know anything, alright?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“I know you’ve always been cleaning up after us. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done so far.”
Leaving Hyeon-seong’s father with a gloomy expression behind, I went back into the holding cell.
The musty smell of the blanket and the stench from the small toilet attached to the wall made it hard to breathe.
How much time had passed?
As I was organizing my thoughts in the timeless holding cell, the door opened and people rushed in.
“Attention!”
“Which bastard is it?”
“Over there…”
The conscripted policeman’s finger pointed in my direction. Following his finger, a man approached me, breathing heavily.
He seemed to be Jin-pyo’s father.
“Open the door.”
“But…”
“Hey! Open it. Don’t you know who I am?”
The police chief acted like he was serving his master. Eventually, the conscripted policeman opened the holding cell door.
As he entered the holding cell, he immediately covered his nose.
“Ah, shit. What’s that smell?”
“The holding cell is always like this.”
“Drag this bastard out.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jin-pyo’s father couldn’t even last 10 seconds before going back outside.
Led by the police, I was dragged out of the holding cell and brought before him.
“Is it you? The one who crippled my son’s arm?”
“His arm is crippled? It happened during the fight. I was alone, and Jin-pyo had over ten people. Why am I the only one who’s been arrested?”
“What?”
“Isn’t that right? Anyone can see I was ganged up on, so why am I the only one locked up? And who are you to just walk into a holding cell as you please?”
At that, Jin-pyo’s father let out a disbelieving laugh.
“Ha, this kid’s interesting. Let’s see how long you can keep talking so clearly. Chief Kim, take this bastard to the interrogation room.”
“What? He’s still a minor.”
“Take him if I say so! I’ll handle it. It’s nothing to make a punk like this behave. Send him to the interrogation room.”
“…Understood.”
“Hey, let’s go find out who I am slowly, shall we?”
The chief followed him, gesturing to a few detectives nearby.
“Sigh… taking a kid to the interrogation room. This is fucked up. I’m sorry.”
But having to follow orders, they took me to the interrogation room in the farthest corner of the police station.
Only Jin-pyo’s father and I were left in the interrogation room.
“Name.”
“Kim Mu-hyeok.”
After taking down some basic information, he got straight to the point.
“Why did you do it? I heard you’ve been infamous for a while. Did you really have to send those kids to the hospital?”
I thought he’d yell at me because he was a former public security prosecutor.
Of course, it was still too early to let my guard down.
“I was only defending myself.”
“Haha, interesting. Do you know where this is? This is a place where even sane people crawl out of. Let’s see how long you can keep talking so logically. I’ll ask you again, why did you do it?”
“I heard my friend was taken, so I went to rescue him. Suddenly, Jin-pyo and his friends started beating me with baseball bats. So I had no choice but to fight back. Did I do something wrong?”
“…Let’s get you beaten up a bit.”
Jin-pyo’s father took off his watch and stood up, shouting outside.
“Hey! Come in.”
Two sturdy men entered.
“Hold him.”
The detectives grabbed both my arms.
While I couldn’t move, Jin-pyo’s father struck my cheeks several times. The wounds that had stopped bleeding after basic treatment started bleeding again, and I tasted blood in my mouth.
“Tell me again. Why did you do it?”
“It was self-defense.”
“Hahaha, this young punk’s got guts. Hey! Let’s rough him up a bit before we start.”
At that, the two detectives shoved me into the corner of the interrogation room and started kicking me indiscriminately.
The beating continued for several minutes. I suppressed the screams that wanted to escape and curled up as much as possible.
“Still don’t feel like talking?”
Jin-pyo’s father laughed as he lit a cigarette.
“Beat him until he begs for his life. Don’t knock him out like amateurs.”
“Yes, sir!”
Several more minutes passed. Only when I could barely move did the kicking stop.
“That’s enough. Sit him down.”
I was forcibly dragged back onto the chair.
My face was already covered in blood. Seeing this, Jin-pyo’s father frowned and threw me some tissues.
“Clean yourself up. It’s disgusting.”
I tore open the tissues and wiped the blood off my face.
But once, twice, three times… no matter how many times I wiped, the blood from my head and mouth wouldn’t stop.
“Speak up. Why did you do it?”
“It… it was self-de-defense.”
The injury in my mouth made it hard to speak properly.
“Sigh… this is driving me crazy. You know you’re only hurting yourself by resisting, right? I’ll ask you one last time. You unilaterally attacked the kids with a weapon, right or wrong?”
“I told you the truth.”
At that, Jin-pyo’s father chuckled.
“Damn, you’re making me feel like the old days. Hey, tie this kid to the chair. We need to do this properly.”
“What? Are we really tying him up?”
“Don’t make me repeat myself. Are you disrespecting me too? Do I look weak because I came down to Busan?”
“Ah, no, sir. I understand.”
The detectives tied me to the chair with a rope and then pulled my hands onto the desk.
“From now on, whatever you imagine, it’ll be worse than that. That’s right, you said your name was Kim Mu-hyeok? You brought this o yourself. Don’t blame me.”
He took a needle from a detective and approached me. Two detectives held my wrists and applied pressure.
“Doo doo! Doo doo! Da da da!”
Jin-pyo’s father, humming to himself, brought the needle towards my left middle finger.
“Here we go! Bite down hard. Don’t bite your tongue.”
Just as the needle was about to enter, it happened.
The interrogation room door opened, and the chief rushed in, breathing heavily.
“Stop! Stop it!”
“What’s going on? Why are you barging in?”
“Sir, that’s…”
A man entered behind the chief.
“…Senior?”
Jin-pyo’s father tilted his head.
The man who entered the interrogation room saw my condition and approached Jin-pyo’s father.
“What brings you here, Senior?”
Slap!
The man suddenly slapped Jin-pyo’s father’s cheek.
“You crazy bastard! Do you think this is the 5th Republic? And you did this to a minor?”
“No, Senior, you shouldn’t just slap me out of nowhere. Please explain.”
“You’re finished now. I’m Kim Mu-hyeok’s lawyer. Got it? Im saying you’re fucked!”
“What?”
The man’s face turned red as he ranted furiously.
“Don’t pretend you know me. I don’t want to go down with you. Did you touch him knowing whose grandson he is? No, if you knew, you couldn’t have done this to him.”
Jin-pyo’s father stood dumbfounded, holding his cheek.
Just then, another person entered the interrogation room. It was Yoon Chang-ho, the top dog of the Busan prosecution organization.
He too sighed when he saw me.
“…Hong.”
Perhaps only now realizing something had gone terribly wrong? Jin-pyo’s father’s voice trembled as he answered.
“Ch-Chief Prosecutor Yoon, Chief Prosecutor Yoon, why are you here…”
“You got a problem with me? If you want to die, die alone. Why did you come to Busan to do this? Don’t you know I have to go to Seoul soon?”
“No…”
Meanwhile, the man who said he was my lawyer untied the ropes binding my body.
“Hello, Mr. Mu-hyeok. I’m Lawyer Mun Su-ho. I was sent from Pyongchang-dong.”
“Ah… thank you.”
Lawyer Moon took out a handkerchief and handed it to me, silently standing by my side until I finished wiping off the blood.
On the other hand, Chief Prosecutor Yoon was tearing into Jin-pyo’s father.
“Hey, there’s a limit to cover-ups! How were you planning to handle a case where eleven people with weapons attacked one person? And you even dragged the victim to the interrogation room! A former public security ace moved for a mere student fight?”
“My son’s arm is crippled, Chief Prosecutor.”
Jin-pyo’s father spoke as if wronged, but it only fueled Chief Prosecutor Yoon’s anger.
“I always knew you’d screw up big time one day. You spoiled Jin-pyo rotten, and this is the result! It’s not Jin-pyo’s arm that’s the problem, you’re about to become crippled!”
“But why is this kid causing such an uproar? With Senior Moon and Chief Prosecutor Yoon…”
“You did this without knowing? Well, I guess a knowing person wouldn’t have done this. He’s the grandson of the Chairman from Pyeongchang-dong. Chairman Cheon’s grandson!”
“What?”
Jin-pyo’s father’s face turned ashen.
“That can’t be… There was no such information when I looked into him.”
“Do you think I came all the way here to joke with you? And Senior Moon too? How are you going to take responsibility for this mess!”
Jin-pyo’s father seemed to finally grasp the situation, as he looked at me with anxious eyes.
I smiled brightly at him, despite my battered face.
‘You’re finished now, you bastard.’
I didn’t say it out loud, but his face turned pale.
Not long after, less than 7 hours after I called, Chief Ha arrived. He saw my face and his expression turned grim.
“Young Master, are you alright?”
Chief Ha, who had never once called me ‘Young Master’ before, always addressing me as ‘Mr. Mu-hyeok’, now called me Young Master.
Chief Ha is Chairman Cheon’s right-hand man. His words were as good as Chairman Cheon’s.
“Chief Prosecutor, and Chief, I will never forget this. Our Chairman will repay you soon.”
At Chief Ha’s words, the faces of the police chief and Chief Prosecutor Yoon, who had been standing awkwardly, also turned pale.
“Lawyer Moon, can I take him to the hospital now?”
“Yes, I’ll take care of the aftermath.”
“Thank you. Young Master, let’s go to the hospital for now. You have many injuries.”
I grabbed Chief Ha’s arm as he tried to support me.
“Could you please send everyone out for a moment? Just for one minute. I have something to say to Jin-pyo’s father one last time.”
“…Alright.”
When Chief Ha looked at Lawyer Moon, Lawyer Moon led the others out. Now only Chief Ha, myself, and Jin-pyo’s father remained in the interrogation room.
“Mister.”
“…”
“Don’t forget that there’s always a higher power when you’re trampling on people with your petty authority. Well, you probably won’t have even that petty authority anymore, but thanks to you, I’ve learned something valuable. I’ll repay you for what you’ve taught me. Look forward to it.”
I took in the throbbing wounds, the needle rolling on the desk, and Jin-pyo’s father’s devastated expression one by one.
I felt wronged, in pain, and disgusted.
In my previous life, Myeong-su probably felt like this.
I decided to remember this scene for a long time.